Twinky

Washn'wear, welcome to the Cafe. Glad you are interested in our new regional speciality dish. You can have it with Brussels sprouts, broccoli or cabbage, but not with mushy peas.

I'm still looking for a Twinky

The roux is just fat of some (any) sort and flour, which are blended together and cooked. That's a base for thinning with some sort of liquid, milk or water or broth. In gravy, it is the fat (dripping) from the meat mixed with flour to thicken, and then thinned out with water, usually the water in which veges have been cooked, to retain any water-soluble vitamins that have leached into the water. Sausages don't usually make a lot of fat so to make gravy traditionally extra fat will need to be added. For roast meats, the fat will also include some of the other juices from the meat. It's really flavorsome. Gravy is often nowadays made more quickly with gravy browning which is a mixture of seasonings, sometimes with thickeners, and with caramel to color the resulting liquid brown. Penguin, you can make it with margarine but the flavor might not be very good. Soy milk would work - again, check the flavor. You could experiment using olive or other vege oil instead of margarine.

Which part don't you like, CoolChef? BTW the sausages are in links and they are generally about 1" in diameter and about 5" long. They come in many different flavors.

Man...it's time you guys got some real sausages (links), fried 'em up with some onions, and made a nice thick gravy (brown, and made with water) to pour over the whole sausages. Accompany this with some boiled and mashed some potatoes and pour the gravy over the sausages and the mashed potato. Yum yum. Serve with Brussels sprouts or some kind of green vegetable. Lovely evening meal. :) If you must use the milk sauce, grate cheese into it and dump it on top of some cauliflower. The "biscuits" are quite nice as scones for afternoon tea. Put some sultanas into the mix before baking and serve with butter and perhaps jam (jelly).

Not exactly a friend (I hardly knew him) but someone who did know him well has asked me if I know what has become of him because he was very helpful and supportive to her a few years ago in a very difficult situation. Is he still with TWI or has he departed to a splinter group or just departed completely from TWI and look-alikes? I believe he was married to Marcia; are they still married?

When I was getting my "medical" done, there's the one about smear tests. The doctor read this and clearly thought it was a weird request and he didn't bother to do the test, just asked me generally if I had cause for concern about this and the other questions and then signed off. This sort of information is usually disclosed on a doctor to doctor basis and not made available to non-doctors and I was concerned about who might see it, not that I had or have now any health issues of any kind. For myself, I thought the questions/tests were far too personal and intrusive. But as an international, I thought these were perhaps standard sort of questions for US applicants to colleges (after all, aren't blood tests necessary before a couple gets married?). I didn't particularly review what tests they were or notice they were for STDs. I guess now they might demand to know your HIV status. To see if you are a homo/homo sympathizer, not so they could pray for healing for you. This is not quite a "twisted scripture." But can somebody please tell me the scripture ref where it says that JC demanded health records of his disciples when he called them? Or did he know they were okay by some special revelation?

Toad in the hole is sausages (English sausages, that is) in batter and baked in the oven. Delicious!

No, Potato, this was in the UK - in the mid-80s...

I do think there was a statement in one of the classes, CF&S probably but it might have been PFAL (?), that a husband and wife are two people with two heads and two tongues and they should discuss things together. I think he also said that a husband should listen to a wife's opinion. Of course, the practise was quite different. But I remember the WOW who witnessed to me (male) and I were walking in the town one day and he said to me that God would be able to tell a husband if a wife's purse was undone so that he could tell her and she could close the purse and not lose things or have things stolen. My question then was, "Why couldn't God just tell the woman herself?" and I got some such answer as "The man is responsible for the woman." I think he might have made some reference to Adam and Eve. He was an AC grad, and at most at that stage I would have taken PFAL but perhaps not even that. So the seeds of this bullying behavior were already there from early indoctrination. It just got far worse in the Corps.

My Corps got to sit at the Master's feet. It was at those Sunday morning fellowships in the BRC. People came in off staff and from out of town and filled the little place. There were chairs along the walls but the in rez Corps were expected to sit on the carpet and it was forbidden to sit on the chairs. So lots of people acquired a sort of little legless chair. just a backrest really, which made sitting at the master's feet a little easier. But we were still on the floor in the middle. Well anyway where else should a doormat be, except on the floor?

Wives (and females generally) were expected to obey (submit to) their husbands (or other male leadership). Some might remember DM's "The Joy of Followship" extolling what a pleasure it is to serve one's husband (fat lot of good that did her). We were taught this: Eph 5:22 Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. 24 Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing. (And wives were not just subject to their own husbands, but to the "coordinators" and leadership who told the husband what to do and interfered with so many marriages and condoned so much violence and abuse.) (Hang on a minute while they give the scriptures another "twist".) But this bit was never taught, not in any real practical sense: Eph 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; 26 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, 27 That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. 28 So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. 29 For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church: Nourish and cherish? By beating up your wife? How many of these abusers beat themselves up? Twisted scriptures? Wrung to death, more like. Colossians 3:18-19 18 Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord. 19 Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them. But then, a husband could hardly model himself on the sacrifice made by JC since we were basically taught to ignore JC and not read the gospels and consider the magnificent sacrifice that he did make for the Church. Was JC bitter against the church in spite of all the disobedience and rejection? Come on guys, you know the answer!

Or even the second weekend in November. So don't turn up too early...or the Halloween critter under the bed will get you.

Thanks, Paw, for pointing me at the Podcasts. When I emerged into the "real world" I found and sometimes still find it quite difficult to keep up in my mind with what someone's saying. I have now resumed my professional career but instead of analyzing what clients are telling me and looking for what they are NOT telling me, I just let it all in and take every word as truth - instead of asking the "further question" to get that bit of information they DIDN'T tell you, that puts a different complexion on what they've just told you. I can only put that down to never getting proper answers to questions in TWI. If you get bawled out enough for asking questions or an environment is encouraged where you are told what to do and "you wlll see the benefits/blessings/get the understanding later," you just learn to shut off that part that still wants and needs answers NOW. But worse than shutting off one's professional and personal critical abilities, we were trained to shut off God's voice as much as they could train us to do that. Huh (snort)

Hey y'all. It was so good to meet up with you! As Eyes says, a convention of exTWI. Well it wasn't, it was the Grease Spot Cafe live and in persons (and some of you just thought the Cafe was virtual on the internet only, huh?). Many thanks, ex10 and hubby for being wonderful generous hosts and making such a great time "available" to everyone. Winking belts and all.

My best girlfriend of many years (pre TWI) has recently completed training to become a minister in the Methodist church. She has studied quite a lot of topics, they discuss different interpretations of scripture, they considered different ways various situations might be handled, they visited places of worship of other religions (boy, did she have something to say about the mosque they visited), they had to write essays and give considered opinions, they learned how to do funerals and visited funeral parlors (and behind the scenes there) (which was very good because the day before she officially started as a minister, a parishoner died so her first task was his funeral!), they had lengthy but helpful counselling sessions to be sure that they knew what they wanted to do and where they felt their calling lay. They had no training in Greek, Hebrew or whatever else. No "hands-on practical application of The Word" by working four hours a day. She trained through a training college with a good reputation which was used by Methodist and Anglican trainees and I believe there were a couple of people from other denominations as well. Sounds to me like they were all carefully and thoroughly introduced to topics, aspects of life as a minister, the ways they could help their congregations... At the time she started that my head was still - in TWI-land. I am ashamed to say that I thought her training was inappropriate and poor and not practical. It was nothing like the WC and sounded too wishy-washy to be true. What, no face meltings? No interminable meetings? No confrontation at all, just these gentle heart to heart talks (which she dreaded!)? No, just time to think about God and his word, to study carefully and to be lovingly guided, to be exposed to different ways of thinking, and to be allowed to choose a path that fitted with their own desires and family commitments. She was so helpful to me in "just being there" and being non-confrontational. She is naturally kind and compassionate. I didn't have any contact for years in TWI daze but afterwards it was as if there had never been a break. She is so compassionate as to say that she is really sorry that it didn't work out for me with TWI, even though she didn't like the organization, but because she knew it had been significant for me. (This is one wise woman who went to a PFAL presentation and never went back.) Twisted scriptures? Twisted training? Indoctrination, or teaching to think Godly? I look at what she underwent and what I underwent. We both learned. One of us however has a considerable amount to unlearn. Now, I can be helpful to her in dealing with some things she has encountered because I've been there. And also I really did study to learn whilst in rez (actually what I learned and practiced got me kicked out not too long after). I am very thankful for her life. I wish her well in her (Trinitarian) ministry. God bless her and her family. She has a true calling and is a real pastor to God's kids.

Hey, leave Twinky out of the microwave!!! That goes for Twinkle too. She don't want to be in the microwave either. And Tom Strange, you especially stay away from twinkies and microwaves (graaowww!)

miss chrispy... can't stay away from GSC! niKa & ex10 these folks look like they're up to no good! (but probably not twinky or eyes open) THE man... THE legend the smiling faces of 'our host' and Tonto looking good, even in B&W niKa & DWBH

Interesting... Would that be with a bow tie on the handlebars, or a conventionally tied tie lying across the fuel tank? Never let yourself get amputated from the Body of Christ, folks. (Even you, George.) WW: When I was these young people's ages, I was getting sucked into TWI by an impressively open young man who seemed to have a lot of answers and always seemed to get his prayers answered. He was a good guy - M&A'd now, of course, long since. They dropped him as soon as he confronted some leadership who weren't doing what was right.

Okay, who's been reading Tim LaHaye's "Left Behind"? :)

Believe it or not I've been on weekend hiking trips with a shared evening meal and dessert has been fruit dipped in chocolate fondue. For saying people like to hike light that's some going because fruit is so heavy. But it's always popular and quite a good way to laze around on a summer evening when you've done a long day's walk. You'd think it would be messy to clean the pan out but strangely enough there is never a shortage of volunteers to clean that pan.

One white whisker one side, 2 the other side, a few white hairs in the throat. When you see her in the light, she's really an extremely dark chocolatey brown colour which you can just make out on one of the photos. She's not exactly "fluffy" but her hair (fur) sticks out sideways rather than lying sleekly against her body, so she looks plumper than she really is. She has a lovely loud rolling purr.........

Anybody who's interested, this little girl has an album coming out on (I think) November 17. The proceeds are to go to charity.

Just an update: Twinkle is now in excellent health, shiny coat, put on a little weight that she had lost and isn't in the least deterred from exploring in the place she was last apparently located in the little wood next to the house. She is a determined scavenger and insists on eating bits of bread put out for birds. As well as scraps donated by the neighbors, other cats' food, and raiding her own food dish. Here's some photos (if I did this right).

They couldn't see the room (from reports I've read, some of which tend to fiction) but it wasn't far away and the complex was very close to where they were dining, just a couple of minutes' walk. It was a holiday location and clearly the parents felt relaxed in that environment. The parents said they checked back every 20-30 mins that the kids were okay and the kids were always asleep. Until one of them was missing... Many parents go out and leave their sleeping toddlers (if the kids normally sleep through the night and have no particular problems) while the parents take a brief break, so although it wasn't ideal, it wasn't heinous. I feel deep compassion for these people. Can't imagine how much time they must have spent in "If only" land. Think I read somewhere that they now accept that Madeleine might in fact be dead.