Twinky

TWI has nothing special there. It's just a "cult trademark" generally to be critical of those not associated with their group - especially if that's some sort of religious group.

Completely but good to see that Weinstein has been convicted of rape. He's now saying he's too ill to go to prison and needs to go to a hospital. He plans an appeal. Harvey Weinstein, the fallen titan of Hollywood whose sexual abuse of aspiring young female actors sparked the #MeToo movement, has finally been brought to justice after a New York jury found him guilty of two of the five charges he faced. The jury of seven men and five women at the New York supreme court took five days to reach their verdict. They found the defendant guilty of a criminal sex act in the first degree for forcing oral sex on the former Project Runway production assistant Miriam Haley in 2006. Harvey Weinstein taken into custody after guilty verdict in landmark #MeToo trial – live Read more The count carries a minimum prison sentence of five years and a maximum of up to 25 years. The jury also convicted Weinstein of rape in the third degree. This relates to him raping a woman [the newspaper] is not naming, as her wishes for identification are not clear, in a New York hotel in 2013. This count carries a maximum sentence of four years in prison and no minimum, though it requires Weinstein to register as a sex offender. Weinstein was acquitted of three further charges, including the two most serious counts of predatory sexual assault which carried a possible life sentence and an alternative count of rape in the first degree. After the verdict Weinstein was handcuffed and remanded into custody ahead of sentencing on 11 March. His lawyers requested that he be kept in a jail infirmary while awaiting sentencing... ...Weinstein’s new role as a convicted sex criminal is not the end of the story. He will now face sentencing at the hands of Burke, a judge who throughout the trial has shown himself to be immune to the complaints of Weinstein’s lawyers about the way the trial was conducted... …Before he gets to lodge any appeal, Weinstein could face further legal jeopardy. Los Angeles authorities have charged him with raping and sexually assaulting two women over a two-day period in February 2013...

Confidence in the Lord A Davidic Miktam. 1Protect me, God, for I take refuge in You. 2Ic said to •Yahweh, “You are my Lord; I have nothing good besides You.” 3As for the holy people who are in the land, they are the noble ones. All my delight is in them. 4The sorrows of those who take another god for themselves will multiply; I will not pour out their •drink offerings of blood, and I will not speak their names with my lips. 5LORD, You are my portion and my cup of blessing; You hold my future. 6The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance. 7I will praise the LORD who counsels me — even at night my conscience instructs me. 8I keep the LORD in mind always. Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. 9Therefore my heart is glad and my spirit rejoices; my body also rests securely. 10For You will not abandon me to Sheol; You will not allow Your Faithful One to see decay. 11You reveal the path of life to me; in Your presence is abundant joy; in Your right hand are eternal pleasures.

Was reading in Psalms today. I found this, which gave my heart a real lift:

That's a big NO, then. It's just that the rabbit hole got a bit deeper. Maybe it's even harder for those still there to find their way out. Rosalie's going to pop her clogs one day - what, is she in her 80s now? Maybe it'll all fall apart then. Unless Rupp or Greene make a power-grab. Not sure Donna would.

Don MacMillan, still in Scotland and doing well. Was my twig leader long loooong ago.

Above from the original post. We're now four years on. What's happened? What changes at TWI? Is anything substantively different?

I'm working through one of these Bible in a Year online scripture readings. On the subject of leadership, lately this item was the study for the day. (Compare and contrast with pseudo leadership.)

Good post, Annio. Hang in there - God is True and does deliver us from all manner of abuse. You loved that chapter because it was probably written by some odly man whose work was ripped off by VPW. Shame on those who victimise and re-victimise and re-re-victimise, and erode all the Godly strength with which we are endowed. All the pseudo teaching at first appears to bring strength or comfort, but it's then used to undermine and sap. Jesus Christ is the way, The Truth, and the life. And if you don't teach Jesus Christ, you aren't teaching The Truth.

This is the Way tree:

While we're thinking about the strength of family, perhaps some wannabes might take into account Eli and his sons. Eli wasn't particularly a wicked priest/leader. He was lazy in his Godly responsibilities, didn't serve the congregation well and - among other things - he didn't adequately bring up his sons and allowed them to go astray - all the while during a time they purported to be priests themselves. Read 1 Sam 2, where it started with theft of offerings and donations, and went on to become forced sex with the women. Eli lived to see his sons receive God's justice, then died himself. And the famous priest/leader Samuel, no relation whatsoever, took Eli's place. Families are good. They can maintain good standards and values. And they can harbour very bad standards and values. I don't know enough about the wider Wierwille family to know if they're good or bad - I don't care to know, they're irrelevant to me. Some, many, are involved in CFFM; I think some are still involved in TWI. God will assess them on their own individual hearts and lives - not on whether or not they came from a "good" family. That's all I care to know about them: do they, to the best of their ability, live their lives honestly before God? I wonder about JY and M's family. When I knew the couple, I really liked them both. But that was several decades ago. No doubt they have kids now, and maybe even grandkids. Things have changed for both them and for me, now. Have they brought up kids they way TWI taught - or with genuine parental love, care and compassion? Do their family members "stand with them"? Well. Peace.

I thought my parents were important too. Wonderful examples, both, of Christian love and support and selfless service to others, including respect and care for their own elders, taught to me and still carried on by me. I never understood why the "Wierwille family" was so important - and why TWI attempted to teach me that my own family was less to be respected and honoured. It didn't seem right at the time, and it never became "right" in my eyes. I'm jolly sure it wasn't right in God's eyes. If nothing else, they should have been honoured as brothers and sisters in the faith. Instead, my mother was significantly dishonoured by my then "twig leader" (who I think has now repented of his thuggishness under TWI). Praise the Lord, I'm now a part of the wider Christian community, where others, especially older folk, are embraced, honoured, respected, and treated with courtesy.

Good post, T-Bone.

Are Rosie and Donna still an "item"?

!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Think the best way to do this is to examine your own boundaries. Why do you say to yourself, "This is okay but this other is not"? What are you comfortable with? Why? Where did you learn that it was (or was not) okay? And, most important, if you still adhere to Christian principles, "How does this line up with [mainstream] Biblical teaching?" I add "mainstream" as a starting point - you can't believe everything that is supposedly Christian doctrine, but there is a general consensus and it will stop you picking up some other out-there cultic idea of right and wrong. A consideration of Proverbs early chapters might help with clarity. You're learning from your mistakes and the tricks that have been played on you. Forgive yourself for being fooled. Use your experiences to be watchful for others, and to teach them how to be watchful - revenge!

I posted the below on the Old Way Tapes thread but this is better where it belongs: I have a distinct recollection of some early "grooming" material ie PFAL, that talks about moving boundaries Maybe it was in "renewed mind" class. Cursed are those who remove their neighbours' boundaries. According to VPW, this is not just the field boundaries (the obvious as referred to in Deut 27 and Prov 22 and Prov 23 (among other places) but the boundaries of other people's minds. And yet - that's exactly what VPW was doing with us - moving the boundaries of our minds. For some, who had poor boundaries, that could possibly have been a good thing (note: could. But the actuality was that boundaries were probably pushed further out in an unhealthy way; vulnerable people were very easy prey). For most of us, that would be moving the boundaries of good commonsense rules instilled by our parents or society. But actually, for all of us, what he was doing with his teaching was precisely removing boundaries: he was replacing those societally decent sexual and other behavioural boundaries by his own perverted boundaries of what was decent behaviour and then instilling a new boundary of "lockbox." Deut 27: 'The one who moves his neighbor's boundary marker is cursed.' And all the people will say, 'Amen!' Job 24: Some remove the landmarks; they violently take away flocks, and feed thereof. Prov 23: Remove not the old landmark; and enter not into the fields of the fatherless:

I have a distinct recollection of some early "grooming" material ie PFAL, that talks about moving boundaries Maybe it was in "renewed mind" class. Cursed are those who remove their neighbours' boundaries. According to VPW, this is not just the field boundaries (the obvious as referred to in Deut 27 and Prov 22 and Prov 23 (among other places) but the boundaries of other people's minds. And yet - that's exactly what VPW was doing with us - moving the boundaries of our minds. For some, who had poor boundaries, that could possibly have been a good thing (note: could. But the actuality was that boundaries were probably pushed further out in an unhealthy way; vulnerable people were very easy prey). For most of us, that would be moving the boundaries of good commonsense rules instilled by our parents or society. But actually, for all of us, what he was doing with his teaching was precisely removing boundaries: he was replacing those societally decent sexual and other behavioural boundaries by his own perverted boundaries of what was decent behaviour and then instilling a new boundary of "lockbox." Deut 27: 'The one who moves his neighbor's boundary marker is cursed.' And all the people will say, 'Amen!' Job 24: Some remove the landmarks; they violently take away flocks, and feed thereof. Prov 23: Remove not the old landmark; and enter not into the fields of the fatherless:

They're waaaaatttchiiiiiinng you!!

You've got to agree - beating the feet on the street is significantly better than parking the bum on a seat, listening to yet another boring TWI-style "teaching."

Our main concern was three girls, who all separately were very drunk outside a club. We gave them water, which will either make them sick, or will help reduce the hangover next day. One girl had a friend with her, but two were alone. Eventually two got friends to pick them up, but we were left with one who had no phone and her only friends were still in the club. Her coat was in the club, too, and the ticket could not be found. She was near comatose, became shivery, and couldn't be left. Amazingly, one of the security staff was taking an interest and offered to get (and did) a coat from their Lost Property section; he found a nice cosy hooded jacket for her. A belligerent drunk male was among the many people hanging about and several times approached the girl, not with evil intent, I think, more "what's this?" Some of us stood between the girl and the male; others tried to get him to move away. After an hour or so, the male wandered off and by then the oblivious girl had had a bit of a sleep, and was warm, conscious and speaking reasonably clearly. (Perhaps this was your prayers taking effect!) At that point, we felt it safe to leave her. The BID security/ambulance team checked on her a time or two after we left. Of course, whether she found her friends and went with them in the booked taxi to their nearby home town is another matter. While we were tending her, another female, a rough sleeper, clearly with problems, rocked up. She had been refused admission to Julian House hostel because she was too late. She had a partner, who was off collecting cardboard boxes on which to sleep. We gave them a good wool blanket and Christmas presents: hats, socks and gloves, and toothbrushes. We'd made up parcels of hats, gloves, socks etc and toothbrushes and paste to distribute to rough sleepers. We were disappointed that we didn't give out too many of our gifts to homeless people, because there weren't many of them around. Perhaps tonight's team will distribute more. We gave out one blanket, hot drinks, gathered about 80 bottles and glasses, swept up about 8 broken glasses, chatted with many doorstaff and other passers-by (one was a SP in another city, who came to thank us for what we do). A street pastor from another city came up to us and thanked us for what we do, explained she was a SP elsewhere, loved the mission. Many other people came up to us and thanked us for looking out for the city; we explain to those who still don't know that it's an expression of our Christianity, church on the street, getting out there and helping; people always express amazement and pleasure that it's a volunteer organisation, and high-five us or hug us. In such ways, the name and the work of the Lord is magnified. All in all, a normal sort of night - quiet, even, for late December.

Is that more like the way it should read?

Doing the word... well, I'll be out DOING THE WORD leading my team of four Street Pastors this evening, 10pm-3am. We will be handing out warm clothing if needed, and hot drinks to rough sleepers; picking up glassware (whole and broken) to keep damaging stuff away from causing injury or becoming weapons; helping drunk people to sober up sufficiently to get a taxi home; giving out flipflops to girls whose shoes are painful by the end of the night; helping people locate friends and their hotels/bed for the night; and offering kind words to any who are in need - the lost, the lonely, the bereaved, those with big home problems; and suchlike. As a special thing this year, I've made up Christmas parcels with hats and gloves etc, and some things to eat; and some "crackers" with a toothbrush and some toothpaste samples; and some cards, to give to the street sleepers. Hope these are well received; we hope for opportunities to share the gospel more with recipients. Sometimes, we even speak the gospel instead of demonstrating it.

Don't remember him ever saying this when I was in rez and he was Prez. "Mass" simply means "meal." Same root word as the services' "mess hall." Not celebrate Christmas? No, just have a large decorated tree, a day or two off, and give gifts. Naomi W always used to give us a slimline "pocket planner," very simple. I still have mine. And a big dress-up best-clothes party, with escorts, corsages for women, buttonholes for the men. People were allowed a few days off to visit friends and family, but had to be back for NY Eve, ostensibly to pray in the New Year, but actually a party/Way Prods splash to celebrate the birthday of VPW (who was long dead before I went in rez).