Twinky

All I can say is - the real Body of Christ is significantly bigger than a poxy little outfit in the middle of rural USA. There are believers, real believers, in very many countries, who live and breathe God's love in truly difficult circumstances. There are those who really risk their lives. There are those who put their lives truly out there to be available to others on mission fields of various types - medical, teaching, volunteer work, caring for kids... In every town in "western" civilization, Christianity is easy. Churches are there and some of them are very good. In many towns denominationalism has broken down and different churches are cooperating in projects working together to present a large and loving face to (let's say) the unsaved. When someone leaves a church to start attending a different once, they often go with the blessing of the "old" church which recognizes the need to move on. And while you're going to one of these churches, there are others to speak to if there are problems with the minister or other church leaders. That's a lot better than the united front of The Way where the leader's word was law for everyone. Never mind God's word. Step aside, God, we know your job better than you do. I love the diversity of the lives of the Christians I know now. And I love seeing the way God works in their lives. And I love being a part of God's real outreaching to the poor, dispossessed, homeless, needy. Thank God for His never-failing love and compassion.

I’m back in another country for a little while. My Corps notes and notes from all the classes I ever took are here. And also are letters from people I sponsored, who sponsored me, bless notes, etc etc etc. I’ve reread some of those letters. The pain in letters from SPs in the 1993-95 period is amazing. It’s class after class, after confrontation and reproof session…all about being better “in the word”, and so on. You know the story. There are letters from people I loved very deeply and many letters from someone I hoped for a future with. It didn’t happen. As so much didn’t. The pain came back as fresh and hurtfully as then. Oh, what we went through!!! I read some of the letters from these friends. I wept. I wept for the pain in their lives then, and in my life then, and for the missed opportunities and the broken hearts and the lives destroyed by leadership that didn’t or couldn’t care. By leadership that was misguided. By manipulation, sometimes. I wept for myself. For what I had wanted, and lost. For the plans I had, that were thwarted. I wept for the loving hearts of those who had cared and been deceived. I was reminded of the care and love we did once have for one another. For help that was genuinely given and received. What, one wonders, became of those people? May God bless them. And heal any remaining hurts or lingering pain. Without doubt I will have been a cause of pain to some. I am so sorry for that. There is a whole boxful of Corps notes and other such stuff. I am not even going to look at that. I don’t want to be reminded any more of it. This evening I am going to “burn the chaff.” The Corps notes and class notes will go. The letters from friends – letters of love and tenderness and genuine appreciation, as well as the reproof “you could do better” / “be more meek” type of letters, will all go. It'll be a good time. Maybe even with a glass or 3 of Merlot to help :). I hope to retain in my heart (and there alone) memories of good times, of genuine help and love given and received. I am thankful for the new song in my mouth, in my heart. Ps 40:3. God’s love never fails and keeps us even through the darkest places.

Missed out on all of those. Nearest I came was when we were clearing out Emporia prior to sale and J@que H rounded us worker bees all up one evening and took us to the camp fire area. It just seemed like a nice relaxing time. She seemed to enjoy it too. Nobody else around, no Ed H or LCM or anybody. Of course it would be a relaxing time.

From a well-known leadership epistle...on how to be a great leader of God's people: Nuff said. (By the by, remember: "strife" is one of the works of the flesh: Gal 5)

I've been in church meetings (real church!) when there have been little glitches - equipment doesn't work as it should, something starts when it shouldn't, the wrong words on the PowerPoint screen... and such things have always been handled most graciously - either no comment, or a good-humoured comment that so smooths the difficulty that you'd almost think it enhances the occasion. So very different from the nit-picky screamfests about not being sharp enough, not paying attention to detail, neh neh neh neh and making such an issue out of it that everyone freaks out and all they remember is how [name] got reamed out. Any positive impact or teaching is immediately overridden. Was it merely uncontrolled anger? Or was it in reality very carefully controlled anger, to elicit maximum stress and fear in the hearts of watchers - in case they themselves did something wrong. Perhaps it was a bit of both. Can't speak for VPW, was dead before I heard of TWI. But I endured enough screamfests from LCM. I'd handle those differently now (especially the personal face to face conftontations). Would get me slung out even quicker!!! LCM was manipulative too. I had a very quiet confrontation with him once. He looked at me so pained and I was told I was giving him sleepless nights with my conduct. He really didn't know why God kept putting up with me, but he (LCM) wasn't going to throw me out yet. I can't remember all the details now. It was (because he was so quiet and "patient" and "reasonable") all the more devastating. I think my crime was speaking to a male member of staff on more than a few occasions.

Anger management... now that's a big topic. You can see that those who shout and yell with "outbursts of anger" ... well, let's just say, "patience" is a fruit of the spirit and "outbursts of anger" are not. And "spiritual anger" is certainly not listed as a fruit of the spirit. Nuff said.

Yeah, Krys, I remember that...I was on Bev Crew. But he'd already recorded the AC itself. Then decided to teach it live to everyone. He'd already practised on the inrez WC, recorded some stuff... We got a nice presentation photo ... which I may still have ... D'ya know what? I just don't care. It's all a load of .... [supply your own description]. The spirit that they really couldn't discern was the spirit of God!!!! And if they can't discern that...why bother with anything else.

@ WordWolf - would you care to take the discussion whether God is good off onto another thread. It could be quite an interesting topic - but not here, please. @ Waysider - Yes, you walked outside the hedge of protection. So it's all your fault that you allowed access. Blame the victim. But that's not quite the idiom of permission in the grammatical sense. Just a giving of permission.

Back to the topic... How much time did LCM spend at Gunnison, then? When? Don't know that he ever went when I was in rez, nor in the years before. Did he become a frequent visitor when JH was there? Which inrez Corps years are you talking about him attacking ("seduction" isn't at all the right word!)? WC24, WC26, WC30, when, which? (And I bet when he went there, he didn't spend two days driving, to a strict timetable, either.)

I think it's still demisING not completely demisED yet. h the link on p.1 didn't work for me. Try this one: My link

That's exactly what I am trying to ascertain. Waydom put a lot on this figure. Actually Bullinger says very little about it. Very little. But VPW said very much. I am not saying that either is right or wrong. It comes down to a question of balance, I suppose. VPW was no expert on a good many things, grammar being one of them. In fact, his grammar and understanding of the most basic of parts of speech was appalling. I learned more than he spouted off in primary school at age - what? 8?? And much more when at secondary school (age 11) where study of English language (parsing, structure of sentences, parts of speech) was a requirement. So whenever he spouted off on some supposed explanation of English my brain would go "uh-uh." I think VPW calls this FoS "permissio." Sounds good...Bullinger never calls it that! God is good always. I don't think He brings about disasters, to anyone - after all His desire is for all to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. Everything that goes wrong, an earthquake say, is not "God's will." Though by Him all things cohere, including presumably the very rocks that suffered an earthquake. A grammatician's take on this would be interesting. There are two universities in the city I live in, but neither of them is strong on the study of languages. Otherwise I would enquire there.

The AC that LCM taught in 1992 was supposed to be new, not just rehash of VPW's. I suppose we were given some reason. I could look in my journals for the relevant time and see what pearls of wisdom were dispensed. But would any such reasons given be true anyway? Wouldn't be the first time the "truth" has changed well after the event. I didn't know he'd done another in 1998.

"unrelated business taxable income" would probably cover things like book and magazine sales, ticket sales for events (eg, the now defunct RoA), class fees. It's unrelated because it's making a profit - more than just covering the costs of producing the materials. Of course there is lots of fudge room. Printing costs, for example. (Sometimes the printing part of an entity will be hived off under a separate name.) Anyway - who cares what they call themselves? None of the names is the truth ... I don't see "den of thieves" or "nest of vipers" in their organization description.

Geisha, not only do I have TWO Companion Bibles, I also have Bullinger's Figures of Speech used in the Bible. What I want to know is: does anybody else recognize this figure of speech - idiom of permission? Or was it Bullinger's invention, and glorified by VPW? Maybe it is a figure of speech in Hebrew or Aramaic or Latin or some other language - but not in English? @ Naten: it's when the Bible says God did something, brought on some catastrophe. As God is good always, he clearly doesn't bring on catastrophes. Therefore, it is a figure of speech to say that God allowed (gave permission) for that catastrophe. EG: Gen 7:4 - "every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth." The "will I destroy" is this FoS - God allowed it to happen. (By the by - but this is NOT the idiom of permission - God, of course, intervened so that Noah, his family, various animals, etc survived. And the earth was not destroyed). Bullinger says (under section Idioma (i)(4), on page 823: "Active verbs were used by the Hebrews to express, not the doing of the thing, but the permission of the thing which the agent is said to do." This link might work: Companion Bible pages (Bet you wish you'd never asked, huh?) Waydom made such a big deal of this FoS. Looking at it again in Bullinger's books, it's such a small section you'd wonder how VPW found it -- the Companion Bible doesn't mention it.

Yes, Waysider, I tried a Google search. Wayferdom rules the roost. And googling any combination with "grammar" and "idiom" brings up kiddie stuff for learners of English. Penworks? Anybody else?

Outside of Waydom and mini-me Waydom (splinter groups), has anybody ever heard of the "idiom of permission"? If yes - in the sense promoted by VPW? Bullinger has an article on it which VPW has picked up on (plagiarized from someone else's work), of course, but apart from that? Anybody out there who has a degree in English Lit or is a grammar teacher who can shed any light? I got into a discussion with my church's "vicar theologian" (a highly educated man, with real research papers to his name) - suggested something could be this "idiom of permission" - he gave me that pained, patient "what planet are you from?" look that Wayfers become all too familiar with when speaking with "church" people. So just wondering...

Oh lunchtimes...I remember some of LCM's rants. One of 'em went on for...a couple of hours, I think. Must have been something really important. Some staff discreetly left. Most didn't. 400 or so people captive... taken away from their valuable jobs. No wonder a number of members of staff just didn't bother coming to the midday meal. And hey, it wasn't just lunchtime. We could get that for breakfast (though that was more usually the Corps Coordinator) and once in a while for the evening meal. Indigestion, anyone?

I think that just about sums it up. We got those "16 keys to walking in the spirit" and it all became paint-by-numbers, gotta do it this way, and rather than walking by the spirit, we ended up straight-jacketing the spirit. Which puts the AC in direct contravention of what God says.

It's such a badly written article, and so opinionated, that whatever it purports to say is no more relevant than the author's opinion. All it exposes is the author's lack of literacy. It no more "proves" that LCM said what he said, than it proves the moon is made of green cheese. Now if the information were from the Baptist church records...that would be different. But it isn't.

When I first knew Ed, he seemed like a nice guy, diligent, hardworking, honest - strict, but wanted to get the best out of people. Over the time, however, as he settled more into being Corps Coord, he got harder and less fun to be around. No telling what pressures had been exerted on him by LCM. Maybe even at that stage he was disgusted by him but like so many, didn't know what to do, or thought he could change things from the inside. Or maybe in an effort to fix things he was just wading deeper and deeper into the mire. Now back to the AC...

Actually, OldSkool, the AC was recorded way before all the rest of it. The AC was recorded about 1992 or 1993. Then (I think) the Intermediate. Finally the Foundational one, WAP (which happily I never endured). And now Rosie has re-done them....

I was in rez when LCM recorded his Advanced Class. He had a trial run first. It seemed pretty good to me at the time. But by then I was much more of a Wayferhead. Even so, it didn't stop me being aware of some basic "wordly" errors (like grammatical stuff). Some of the sessions were where we seated in the auditorium in front of him. Then we were banished to the side room and watched him on a video link. He said that he found himself teaching to the needs of the people sitting in front of him, rather than to the needs of the people who would watch the class on video. Or was that Defeating the Adversary??? Then there were various Advanced Class Specials and such like. In common with other inrez Corps, we saw nothing of these as we were busy "serving" and doing support roles. At one such, I was working 20 hr days on Beverage Crew. (Try doing that for two weeks and keeping a smile on your face. When I burst into tears and had a hissy fit after about 10 days, I got reamed out for letting DSs infiltrate my thinking and trying to wreck the class. However, one of my Corps sisters with a lighter role did offer to help me by doing my laundry.) So you could say, my expectations for the AC were - work, work, work, and more work. :unsure:

OldSkool, are you saying that Jacqui H is another of LCM's women? If so, when, what sort of time period? (Mind you, doesn't surprise me...have ceased to be surprised by such revelations. I thought the H0rn3ys were basically all right. J was quite fun to be around and quite laid back. E had a sterner side. He liked getting stuck into work though, hard worker, led from the front as far as I could ascertain. (They were my Corps Coords). He gave us some serious tickings-off though and once threatened to kick us all out because some weren't wearing hats on a calm day when the air temp was subzero, and a few other things like that. I got the impression that it wasn't really "him" but something he'd learned as an add-on, or been told to do or was trying to measure up to doing. Anyway back to the AC - too long ago to remember, but from high expectations, I wondered if I'd missed something. I did find some time afterwards though to study (alone) various words relating to healing, cure, etc, an interest from the AC. Also studied some stuff about what are signs, what are miracles, and what are wonders, and who each is aimed at. That was interesting.

Ah, the true meaning of Humpty Dumpty. Which is that man cannot analyse life, can pull the component parts apart but cannot reassemble them to make something capable of growing...life. (A bit like, a cake is flour, butter, sugar, eggs and such else as one might include...but the "entire" thing, the cake, is much more than just its component parts) In light of advances in IVF and removal of parts of eggs and bits of DNA, to be substituted by parts of other eggs and DNA...I wonder if TWI would still hold to the same exegesis? Anyway, Wikipedia makes no mention of this "true meaning" - Humpty Dumpty

Couldn't say as I never met the man. I don't think I can agree with you that he was a lazy farmer. He appears to me to be a very good farmer. He farmed mugs and was very successful. He's built up a huge fortune from growing mugs; the bulk of the fortune still exists. He kept back some of the mug seed, planted again, refined the strain and got better and better and again got good yields. In fact, the seed from the mugs continues to be fairly successful and has been planted in other fertile ground and has brought forth many other crops and strains of mugs. :P