Twinky

Long time since I posted on this thread. An update. My cats are now, what, 15 years old, and coming up to their Halloween birthday. In that time, the black and white one, Tuxedo, has become a real cuddle bunny. She loves to be picked up and petted, sits happily unrestrained on my lap, and enjoys lying with me on the sofa. She purrs loudly and happily at this. But, the silly creature, she knows what she wants, so comes up to me and miaows. However, when I stoop to pick her up - she turns around and runs away! Sometimes I can catch her by the tail, sometimes I have to chase her round the house, but once caught, she loves to snuggle. She won't ever get herself onto my lap, but she will jump up onto the couch beside me, sometimes. On a frequent basis, I threaten her with swimming lessons in the water butt with a rock tied round her neck. She is sick almost every day, sometimes just the kibble, sometimes it's more digested. It's an endless round of: I clean the carpet, go to bed or out for the day, get up or come home, find the sick, clean the carpet... I have had her to the vet several times as this problem has got worse in the last couple of years, she's had various blood tests, everything is in order. The vet says a scan or X-rays might show a problem, but if there is something, operating on an older cat has its own risks. Even though she is a very healthy-looking cat, she's still at increased risk under anaesthesia. Vet thinks it might be IBS. Tuxedo is a notoriously anxious cat and perhaps she makes herself sick with worry when she's not with me, but I can't take her up to bed with me or give her the run of the house, I'd be finding piles of sick everywhere. Crypto, her littermate, is in some ways a more social cat. She is "Miss Wary" to the other's "Miss Anxious." Crypto will now come to me and want a stroking session. This is achieved by me sitting on a chair and she passes herself under my dangling hand. She likes a scratch on the neck and along her body to the tail - but don't touch her flanks!! I can comb her like this, and she appears to enjoy it, if she's allowed to inspect the comb or brush beforehand. I have picked her up maybe half a dozen times, and only with great caution. It's a good job she's a healthy cat. I suppose I will know to take her to the vet when I can catch her without difficulty or danger. At present, it's been raining lightly. Despite having fresh water (tap or rain) in the house, and another bowl of rainwater outside, and there being rainwater on certain other easily accessed surfaces, she prefers to jump onto my wooden patio table and lick the rainwater from that. This has been - what - 14? 15? years careful effort. And I still don't have the cuddlesome critters I wanted or am used to with every other cat I've known. I don't suppose there's going to be more improvement but live hopefully that one day they'll realise that I just want to be nice to them.

@ T-Bone in particular: At present, the churches (HTCD and StACC) are providing holiday support for kids in half-term holiday. Obviously Holiday Club will be a little different this year but there'll be plenty of activities for kids. Also, they're preparing for "Glitz'n'Glow" for younger children, as an alternative to dressing up as ghosts and ghoulies and going out trick or treating (the latter isn't really a very Brit thing or tradition, it's something that's crept in in recent years). So the little kids have a party with glow sticks and wearing their sparkly dresses (girls, presumably) or what-have-you, and they sing and dance and eat a few cakes or sweets. Since the spring, our church partners with others in the locality, and with some supermarkets and the local Foodbank, to produce a Food Club. Impoverished people can join for a nominal amount and can then choose various fresh and tinned foods, which they can then buy at significantly reduced cost. I think toys etc are also available. (This is in addition to what is available from the local Foodbank, which has restricted access.) A lot is being done to support those who are isolated for whatever reason: they're old and shielding; they're single-parent families with kids who have been sent home; families that are in self-isolation (so need meals or food sending in for them) (the city council also has schemes to help such people). Right now, the council is proposing to refurbish two blocks of flats less than a mile from the church. They will do this by moving the tenants into another block of flats that's already been refurbished. This is going to be very disruptive for some of the tenants, who may not have very stable networks, or have other things in their lives that make them particularly vulnerable. So my church is reaching out to those who'll be moved (perhaps against their wishes) and saying, "We're here for you, how can we help/support you? What do you need?" Few if any of these go to any church and probably don't have much time for what (they think) we do. They may be surprised when they find out what a warm, friendly, welcoming and helpful bunch we are. There are also plans afoot for another "StAction" day (St Andrews Community Church : StACC + Action = get it?), when my church hires a huge skip or two, and people from the local housing estate can bring their junk and toss in. Some of the estate inhabitants don't have cars or can't take their junk to the tip. Idea is to keep the estate clean and tidy, no junk in yards, abandoned mattresses in alleyways, etc, and thus raise the "wellbeing" feeling on the estate. Members of our church will also go to people's homes to collect junk if the occupants are unable to deliver. Originally, the skips were paid for entirely from our own church funds; however, the local social housing provider has realised what a good thing this is, and how much it helps the community, so now they give us some money towards the skip hire. The hiring of the skips is often done in conjunction with a jumble sale in the church, and tea, coffee and cakes are also on offer to make a nice social occasion. That's not going to happen this year because of the requirement for social distancing.

Church yesterday was really nice. I was astonished at how much I'd missed all these awesome people that make up our small congregation. It was harvest festival and people had brought generous amounts of fresh, tinned and dried food, for the more needy people in our parish. There were also bunches of flowers, one of which was given to me. I have a big orange pumpkin which I am supposed to carve with some Christian symbol - a cross, a heart, something else - to put outside the church next weekend as our alternative to the "spooky" halloween type of carvings. And I have a butternut squash, which I can turn into something delicious to roast or to make into soup. Yum.

You're right, not cheerful. Loneliness among the elderly is very common but in no small measure self-imposed - some older people lose confidence at going out. On the other hand, some older people are so interested in everything that you lose sight of the fact that they're housebound! I wasn't feeling lonely, just bored. Today I think I will actually go to church, in person - not to the very good online service that I've attended since lockdown in March. We have to be masked up and we are not allowed to sing, and we have to keep 2m apart, but (if I go) it'll be nice to see real people. And then I will come home and play in my garden, as despite the rainy forecast, it looks as though a sunny day is going to happen. Strange, ennit. I earn my living by tending other people's gardens. And then, to relax, I come home and tend my own.

T-Bone, you have a wacky sense of humor!

I'm just saying hello cos I'm bored witless. It's raining outside so there's nothing to do but my much-needed housework. Ugh. Somebody say Hi and tell me something to cheer this gloomy day. Please?

Did y'all have fun?

Get real, does anyone really think that a TWI person would want to join? They wouldn't last long, defending their TWI dogma. And all of us old-timers here have been out long enough not to care what TWI say, or whether they knew our identities. For myself, I don't know many people here in the flesh. It would be interesting to see those I know again - perhaps. I quite like the anonymity of not knowing who I'm talking to, in this forum. I can hear your "voices" clearly but I don't know that I want the distraction of seeing your faces. I don't want to see how fat/ thin/ clean/ tidy/ slobby you are, or that you chainsmoke or drink constantly, even though you might be able to write articulately.

Here's another one, Gloriavale, in New Zealand. All males wear the same style of clothes, all females wear long blue dresses, all living done in common - communal meals, very little private life. It's run by a small elite group of "shepherds." The rank and file are allowed "holidays" - a week spent on the property. The usual allegations of sexual abuse from some people; definitely the same coercive control. They've been investigated several times by various govt agencies, who've come up with nothing (= closed ranks of the insiders). But escapees tell a different story. https://gloriavale.org.nz/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloriavale_Christian_Community I feel very sorry for those trapped in this small cult. I suppose every nation, every country, has a few charismatic but abusive wannabees, who can attract the lost or searching.

All of the above, T-Bone. Thanks for posting.

Not my favourite movie (I don't like Jack Nicholson), but the next clip analyses Nurse Ratched and how she keeps control of her patients. Now that indeed appears to be an allusion to a cultic experience. (Some here might feel there are allusions to Nurse Rosalie.)

I was sent to Gunnison for the summer camps. It's a lovely place. Camps are run two back-to-back, then a week off, then more camps. Between the two back-to-back, there's a really swift clean (people must leave by about 10 or 11am, and new arrivals come after, what, 4pm?) and then the middle week is a more thorough clean and other work that may be required at the camp is also carried out. It's quite intense. It was specially intense for me, because I was finishing my - wojja call it, paper, dissertation, project - during the early part of the time. The two camp weeks are full-on, with in rez Corps working from very early in the morning to quite late at night, with serving food (breakfast) at one end, and taking care of younger children at the other end. So you'd think that after the thorough cleaning, there'd be a little downtime, wouldn't you? Then you'd think wrongly. I recall one day off, or maybe afternoon off, when some of us (one must have had a car) went into the mountains somewhere or other and took a hike on a ridge. Lush and lovely scenery; I so wanted to be out in it!! Come to think of it - that might have been in the short period before the family camps started. Another time, but working, I had to drive a vehicle to pick up or take some campers to a glorious river someplace where (low-level whitewater) rafting or some boating was taking place. Gorgeous place, sparkling river, set in a delightful wooded area. I must have been there for all of five minutes before I had to return to a job that could have been done much better with an automatic watering system. How I wanted to be in the river (like the Corps Coordinator) helping people have a fun time! I relished getting up in the mornings (especially in my first couple of days, when most in-rez Corps hadn't yet arrived) - standing on the steps of the log cabin I lived in, looking out at the mountains, breathing in the fresh air; I looked forward to exploring just a small part of those mountains. I'm continuing to look forward to that... never going to happen. Being at Gunnison is a bit like being in a beautiful cage. You can look out, but you can't get out. You can see what's available out there, but you can't access it. Look, but don't touch. Maybe the forthcoming "intense" course in May (run, people, run. Far and fast! Get away!!) will build in a little downtime - river rafting might not be possible, but a hike in the hills could easily be made available.

Glad you made that clear, Mark. I did think your original comment was a very strange thing for anyone to say!!

Not entirely sure what you have said that is either loving or constructive; but critical, yes! And yes, there is a relationship between GSC's arrival, and LCM's departure. Have you read the court documents detailing his depravity with a certain person's wife? No? Okay, look about and you'll find out why these events coincide. Even now, there are people who have been "out" of TWI for many years (decades, some), who are so traumatized that they are only now addressing some issues. And the people who post (or at least look in) regularly are the ones who hear and understand - in a way that many outsiders or still-Waybrained, appear unable to recognise. If you don't find it helpful to be here, you've no obligation to stay.

I don't know whether to hope you're right, Skyrider, and that some decent folk get purged; or to hope that you're wrong and that decent folk get to stay, and stay decent (if unenlightened) folk and sort-of respected for who they are. Maybe somebody local could paint up a GSC billboard and position it nicely on an approach road to Camp Gunnison .

That's an awfully big assumption to make. How can you possibly know who is or has been active in another (another?) church? How do you know about other peoples' involvement with other Christians? Look harder, read more carefully: I think you might be surprised. Especially as you say this of yourself: Just don't think that because you gave up, others also did.

Yes, Rocky, I thought that's probably what you meant, really. A good historical novel can in fact convey so much, and much more easily than a textbook. The principal character(s) can be set in various situations, and present different views of what's going on and how it affects the general populace. In particular right now, I'm thinking of Ken Follett's Pillars of the Earth and others in that series - it discusses cathedral building, different styles, what works and what doesn't, all from the mediaeval perspective of a journeyman builder who goes on to become a master builder; his relationships, powerplays of the rich and famous, the wars of the times, and such like. So yes. If your author fleshes out what was going on in Jesus's times, with the international and national conflicts, different expectations, etc, it should be a really good read.

Hard to have "meticulous research" when we don't know anything...!

Love the way they're making the first a special class from 1-9 May, so that participants don't have to take two weeks off work. So thoughtful!

And he says all that with a great big smile on his face, and something of a chuckle in his voice. Love the way he says, TWI wants to help people become debt-free. I bet they have no idea of preparing a proper budget (a genuine budget to help a needy family that can hardly feed and clothe the kids), making arrangements with creditors for full or partial repayment on terms, what state or other benefits the people might be entitled to; and getting effective help from charities, power companies and other like organisations. I have helped hundreds of people become debt-free and I love doing it. I just don't need to shout about it. I've seen folks come into my office, crying and weighed down with worry, and clutching bags of unopened letters from creditors and maybe courts, fearful of the knock on the door and of answering the phone; quite literally sick with worry. No food in the cupboard, and with what little money there is left, making the choice between "heat" and "eat" (and exactly who eats) - a difficult choice, in midwinter. And I've seen those same people walk out a couple of hours later, still crying, but this time from joy - because someone listened, cared enough, and helped them make a real plan to get out of their debts, calmed their creditors, and gave them a fresh start. Oh, and also some food vouchers or a Foodbank pass, and perhaps also a little money on their utility bill so that there could be a little warmth in the home. I don't see where TWI has suddenly got the expertise to do that. TWI's idea is: give us your money because if you don't pay your dues to God, ie, TWI, God won't even spit in your direction (as if God ever spat on anyone!). Pay us and somehow your debts will magically go away. Yeah, right.

Such a frikkin ego trip, to say that. Though I don't remember it as "the ministry would fail" but more along the lines that "the word of God would be lost" or some such nonsense. Too long ago to be sure. When I heard whatever it was, it was a "Whaaaattttt?" moment - a red flag, really, but one of many I ignored. Immediately forgot about. But then, I had decent, giving, Christian parents as role models. My parents weren't denominational - dad went to the Anglican church, mum to the Methodist (when she could manage to). I couldn't see either of them losing their faith or their love for God. And dad didn't, to the end of his life; and Mum now 91 just gets stronger in her faith. r

The "1942 promise" didn't fail. No, not at all. Because there was no 1942 promise to fail.

That wouldn't take up much space, then.

You are entirely right that God works in small settings. Early commandments and instructions to the fledgling people of Israel include this: Deut 7:7 7The LORD did not set His affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than the other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples and if you read the early chapters of Deuteronomy (it's well worth the re-read), it's all about staying pure and close to the heart of God, rejecting falsehoods, and taking care of those who can't look after themselves. This tiny nation was to be an example to the rest of the world and to draw people by that example into knowing God, the God of love and not the god of hate, or of human sacrifice, or of nature or animal worship (or whatever else, you name it). We are all part of at least one community; we can impact that community. We don't have to make a big name for ourselves, but people will notice that "there's something different" about us. Many will have read Betsie ten Boom's works; whilst in a Nazi prison camp, she led people into Christian love and worship and even, at one point, thanked God for the fleas that infested their hut - because it kept the guards from harassing them (the guards were terrified of the fleas and the typhus they spread). That attitude of gratitude, and of service, makes for stand-out behaviour that can demonstrate God's love to others. It was the kindness and gentleness of my church, and its outward face to serve the local community, that drew me to it. It's helped and healed me from my TWI wounds. It helps and heals so many from debt, addiction, poverty - just by being there and offering help and solace. Right now, there's a lot of emphasis on giving out food parcels to needy people injured by CoVid restrictions on work or ability to go out. In school time, there's homework clubs - a quiet place where schoolkids can study, not in noisy households or on the end of the bed in a room shared with another child. We have action days when we organise skips to take away bulky refuse within the area around my church - a poorer community, with more than its share of single parent families and cheap social housing. we have social events that are free: Needles and Natter; a lunch club (donations welcome) that anyone can attend; Mums & Toddlers, where (often single) mums can go for a coffee and cake after dropping older kids off at school. We do lots to help. And we sing and offer services, easy "classes" and the like, where people can come and learn more about God, Jesus, and living in love. We have a big impact, for a little congregation!

Most of us here know about that weird and confusing thing and especially the bit about relating to others in a religious way. But you can use that to challenge those who are more conformist. Do enjoy some - interesting! - discussions. (In fact, some of those discussions might even be here in the Cafe!) Anyway, sit down for a while and have something to eat and drink.