Twinky

1942. Let's see. What else was going on at that time? The rest of the world was engaged in violent conflict. The USA was slow to this party, not joining until December 1941. In the USA, young men were being rounded up and sent overseas to fight. The draft was approved September 1940. By December 1941 America's military had grown to nearly 2.2 million soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines. By late 1942 all men aged 18 to 64 were required to register for the draft, though in practice the system concentrated on men under 38. The draft boards considered factors like the importance of a man's occupation to the war effort, his health, and his family situation. Many men volunteered rather than wait to be drafted. That way, they could choose their branch of service. I cannot recall how old VPW would be at that time. I can foresee that setting up his own church might be seen as a way to escape being drafted. I don't know if clergymen were drafted, or might volunteer because they could provide succour to fighting men; both happened in other countries. I can also foresee that, with men being drafted and sent overseas, that would provide a fair number of temporarily unaccompanied nubile females. Perhaps New Knoxville, being a farming area, might have a number of exemptions, since food production might be an essential industry (though in other countries, women did the farming, because the men were away fighting - or dead). Nonetheless, there were likely to be more "single" females who might welcome a hug (or more) from a "kindly" (?) minister. Against this backdrop, finding an excuse not to get drafted might become of prime importance to a lazy, cowardly man. He might be able glibly to claim that he could provide home succour and comfort, keep up morale, etc.

Right, so J and LCM had a long-standing thing. WHY would Ed put up with that? Repeatedly - over a long period, by the sound of it. Why would any husband put up with that? Why?? Yet I know that G@ry B@rnes knew his wife J@nuary was seeing LCM. He'd watch her get ready: she told me this, years later. She told me he felt powerless to stop her. And she had changed, to feel that he was contemptible and weak. How can that wicked man LCM make a man feel so? How can an organisation make men and women feel so? (I think I'll just go upstairs and scream quietly into my pillow. So angry!) Thank God P@ul Allen wasn't powerless to stop what was happening to his wife, despite both inducements and threats.

I don't like to ask. Don't like to imagine. Tell me this is imagination, and didn't happen.

Thank you, Chocky.

I never knew any of it either. Don't look for it, couldn't possibly expect it in a Christian place of work and study, just - naive and innocent. Thank God for his protection over me at that time. It makes me feel ill to think of it now. Jacque... my corps coordinator. A groomer. Ugh.

1. I am not using "tactics." I merely say what I think. I speak plainly, not in riddles or with hidden or special meanings - unlike you, Mike. 2. You could try paying attention. My handle is TWINKY with a Y. How many times have you seen the name? You managed to spell it correctly the second time. Attention to detail is something TWI drums into its followers. How could you miss that? 3. When the blindly obvious is ignored or overlooked, it makes one wonder what other less obvious things are overlooked or ignored. Wonder how trustworthy the person overlooking things really is.

Absolutely right, and it had never occurred to me until now. It's always described itself as a "Biblical research, teaching and fellowship ministry." Never a "Christian research, teaching and fellowship ministry." Mind you: it's no good at research, Biblical, Christian, or otherwise; no good at teaching, though it is good at indoctrination and bullying; not good at fellowship, being so exclusive and manipulative.

The Book of Longings is a very readable, very intriguing book. Time I had a re-read.

Interesting little video, Rocky.

We have an architect in our congregation. I don't know if he will be doing the design (quite likely) but he will be overseeing and helping smooth out any planning objections when planning permission is applied for. I have seen some draft sketches, but they're only sketches at this stage. I'm guessing it'll be next year at least before we're breaking ground on this new venture. We'll have to raise the money (or most of it) for the building works first. But the ££ will be there when it's needed. Meantime, the Youth minister is already hatching plans and can't wait to get in there. We will also be housing a Foodbank, much needed in this area. It would be good if we can re-start Homework Club, much better for kids than trying to do homework on the end of the ironing board or in the room they share with two noisy siblings. The Debt Advice centre [Christians Against Poverty - CAP] or the Credit Union might come back. I am going to suggest Repair Cafe does a session once a month, too (that'd be new). We have big plans :) !!!!!!!!!

Gross, OS. Guess that's why she was happy to be at Emporia, away from his sweaty clutches.

Thanks, Bolshevik.

I'm sorry this happened, Bolshevik. Marital boundaries were nothing to TWI. I was engaged. My fiance and I got on fine. Then my assignment was changed and I became subject to my own Corps bro, who, though he'd been an awful and unsuccessful WoW family coordinator, had been assigned to take over my WoW family and the area I and my team had built up. My fiance was not really assigned any role but we were both subject to my Corps bro, the now area coordinator. Fiance listened to Corps bro and did what he said, never anything fiance and I had agreed. Corps bro listened to country coordinator, who also was happy to interfere (and tried to bed me to boot). Country coordinator deferred to LCM. So there were at least four if not five people in my engagement, of which I was by far and away the least important. Unsurprisingly, it didn't last. And I was the "disobedient" one who refused to "be subject to my fiance" (and all the rest of them). They kicked me out, and received him with open arms and loved him up because I'd given him such a difficult time. Yes, I'm still angry and resentful about it. They all seem to have gone on and lived carefree lives, got married, and had (more) kids.

Rivenbark was more canny than the rest of them. At some point LCM had a screamfest at me, and he told me that my Corps assignments that semester had been to work in the Green Room, but Rivenbark kyboshed that with LCM. I wasn't "spiritually mature" enough. Many years later, I met J@nuary B@rnes. She had been badly abused for months by LCM - in the green room. She told me what went on there, and said I'd had a narrow escape, because I was the type of female that LCM liked. While I (sort of) am thankful to Rivenbark about that, I'm sure it wasn't lack of "spiritual maturity" but the knowledge that as a lawyer I might make a big fuss if LCM assaulted me. And I'd be a credible, reliable, witness. She was protecting the ministry, not me.

I have heard (here) that Jacqu1 H was an abusee - seems later she turned into an abuser or at least a facilitator. She was in charge of a group of us sent to Emporia to clean it up, and gather & sort various items prior to being auctioned off. While she seemed intense at HQ, she was really different at Emporia, more relaxed, more fun to be around. Now, I wonder what pressure she was temporarily released from, what spying she didn't have to put up with, in the escape to Emporia. For myself, I'd not been in rez long and already I was feeling pressure, and that Emporia was somewhat of an escape.

Well. There's Jesus. And Jesus Christ. And Christ Jesus. Not to mention Christ, Christ the Lord, and whatever other names and titles they could find, all with conjured-up meanings. Woe betide anyone who used the wrong name or title! You were worshipping devil spirits! But methinks - the Lord - whoever - knows our hearts and understands when genuine praise, thanksgiving or cries for help are presented.

Doesn't TWI have this idea, well, taken from older-style Bibles, that where it says LORD it means God but where it says Lord it means Jesus? I understand that in Hebrew, they'd never write the name of God or even "God" but rather "G-d" (too sacred). The same may have carried on to some extent into Greek texts, depending on the basis for the Greek etc. To make sense of the part Charity quoted, you'd have to look at the Hebrew or Greek word behind that in the English version. https://www.ancient-hebrew.org/god-yhwh/difference-between-lord-Lord-and-LORD.htm In any event, TWI's explanation isn't to be trusted. Better to get your concordance and other study materials out and have a look at what word(s) has/have actually been translated.

It has been used for various purposes. Some years, there were permanent in-residence Way Corps ("leadership") trainees throughout the year, at least during the spring to autumn months, not sure about winter. Summer camps, a week at a time, July-August. Various teachings on a pre-announced theme in the morning, family free time afternoons with activities laid on, meetings of various types in the evenings. Some of the afternoon guest activities may include rafting, walking in forests, hiking up mountains, fishing, cart rides, rodeo, bucking bronco machine, clown show, etc. In later years, it's just been some kind of summer camp or retreat. I don't know what activities are provided for people holidaying there. There are also classes, or short courses, run from time to time. You have to have taken the "foundational class" to be able to visit this camp. It's not open to the general public. It's a gorgeous peaceful location, set on the flat valley floor and gently sloping banks of a lovely clear little river. Breathtakingly great views across to nearby snow-capped mountains. Purpose built log cabins of various sizes for use as residences for family or individual guests and students, and for teachings, gatherings, a library, and associated facilities. https://www.theway.org/connect-and-grow/camp-gunnison/

The top photo: My church. Opened 2010, newbuild, the previous old-fashioned traditional-design church on the same site having burned down, suspected arson (kids broke in to play, played with matches - wastebin - curtains - poof!). So the church claimed some insurance moneys and requested donations from the congregation, and our new modern church building, very flexible, was built. The tall part is the meeting room, next to it is front entrance with big lobby, offices to the left, and at back, another smaller (but still very big) meeting room used for children's activities. There's a fenced outdoor play area with grass and soft resin at the very back. The second photo: the community centre, immediately adjacent to the church. This scruffy "temporary" building has been there decades. My church met in it about once a month while the old church was demolished and then the new one built - the main congregation meeting weekly with the usual congregation at a different, sister, church half a mile away. (You can see a sliver of the new church in the background.) The community centre is on a large piece of land, with car parking, but has been neglected for over 6 maybe 8 years. Dilapidated, horribly overgrown, shrubs and small trees everywhere, building looking awful, rubbish abandoned underneath the building and out the back. Car park under 4" of compressed leaves. We bought it! In one month, we raised £240,000 in donations and sealed the deal last week. Painters are already restoring the interior. A working bee which about 40 adult members of the congregation attended cleared the carpark of all the fallen leaves over the deserted years, all the three and shrub overgrowth, all the rubbish.... hard work, but lots of fun. Some parents brought their little kiddies, who helped with their tiny spades, or carried twigs to the skip (dumpster). There's another working bee this coming Saturday; that'll be outside too, but there may be some inside stuff as well, like cleaning the kitchen and sanitary facilities. There's an 8 foot fence between the two parcels of land. Concrete posts, wire, and topped by several strands of barbed wire. Think that may be down in part this weekend, too. Eventually, the community centre will be demolished and the church, with its graceful lines, will be fully extended into the site, providing a larger church meeting hall, and more offices/smaller space, particularly for the youth activities. It's been wonderful over the last decade+ to see this community transformed. The feral youths have grown up, and are better young men for it, having learned discipline and decent manners at the church. Lonely single parents can meet others at Mums & Toddlers. Other single people can come to a free lunch on Wednesdays, with activities before and after the lunch. There's a youth club on Friday nights, where, among other things, table tennis is a popular activity (and one that teaches kids discipline and rules). There's at least one event at the church every day. All sorts of people on the surrounding housing estate see us as a place to get help and comfort. So - it's going to be exciting seeing the difference over the next decade, when the permanent building is erected and we can continue to glorify God in our service and expand our offering to the community. Please pray, if you're the praying sort, for the ongoing work and then the outreach.

By contrast, however:

Is that the new Way Prods? If so, it might even be worth a sneak into a SNS!

Flinging Orange books at each other.

I'm not sure how eating butter and honey helps one know to refuse evil and choose good, but hey-ho. Maybe there was significance in the OT. Sounds like words spoken by the false comforter Zophar, from Job 20:17. The description actually seems more like the way of life for John the Baptist, whose diet was locusts and wild honey (ugh).

I was badly broken after being kicked out and was a desperate, near suicidal, wreck for a good ten years afterwards. I was deeply ashamed then, and am ashamed of that person who I'd been turned into. It wasn't really "me" - I'd been brought up by my parents to be much better than I became. I hurt people that I cannot apologise to (how I wish I could!). I don't really talk about it, either. But I do use the post-TWI experience and growth to try to help others who have been in equally desperate circumstances. Lemons into lemonade, as it were. I have much more to share now, and a bigger base for helping others. Life is sooooooooooooo much better now. Thank God. Thank the Lord Jesus, who rescued me from all that stuff.