wrdsandwrks

Yes PB, I think some are more blind than others, and the leaders who were supposed to be servants were expecting to be served and so weren't leaders at all.

More about my amazing friend... Liz, despite her blindness, was determined to finish her Way Corps training. She is an amazing person and once she puts her mind to something she does not quit. The obstacles for her to overcome were incredible, but she was determined. I saw her at Emporia when I went there to teach. It was heart-breaking what she was going through. Really, thinking back on it, I can’t believe the cruelty of the leadership. When I saw her at Emporia, she was almost starving to death, I mean that literally. You see, apparently the wonderful compassionate people of the Way Corps were determined to not help her in any way. So she would sit at the meal table and not be able to eat because she couldn’t see the food. No one offered to help her. I couldn’t believe it. I remember sitting with her and helping her by telling her what was on her plate and where it was and she was finally able to eat. She had no training in coping skills that a person who loses their sight normally gets by going to life-skill training classes, so she was completely on her own. The worst thing I observed when I was there with her was at a Corps night. The poor dear was still wearing her glasses even though she couldn’t see. She still took her Bible to Corps night and tried to follow along. But since she couldn’t see she was not looking at her Bible when LCM was teaching. She was looking up. He noticed her and starting ranting at her about why wasn’t she looking at her Bible. He tore her apart and she was a mess when he made her answer his question. She said she couldn’t see and he tore into her about her lack of believing and how she was weak and she should be looking at the book, yada, yada, yada. It was one of the cruelest things I’ve ever observed. I remember trying to comfort her after the night, and her biggest fear was being kicked out of the Corps. She is amazing! It wasn’t the first or the last time that she was berated for what happened to her and for her lack of believing for healing. We got together after we were both out of TWI and had some really sweet visits. She went to school for life-skills and actually made her living as an instructor, teaching blind people how to live life in a sighted world. There are lots of skills that someone like her needed, from how to arrange food on a plate to be able to eat, to handling money, to cooking etc. She was being a blessing to others who recently became blind by teaching them the skills that she found were essential and were denied to her.

Thanks for the clarification, Don. I do think he should be held accountable. I wonder if he even gave it a second thought.

Liz’s Story I have a friend named Liz C., whom I’ve sadly lost contact with over the years. I’ve hesitated about posting her story because I haven’t been able to find her in quite a few years. But it’s one of those things that keeps coming up in my heart and mind as a hurt that needs to be exposed, one more of the awful charges to be laid at the feet of TWI in the hopes that one day it will be made right before God. It’s not my story, and I’m not the one who was harmed by the insidious lack of love and care for one of God’s own, except as a friend who saw the hurt and felt a measure of responsibility for encouraging her to enter the Way Corps training where this hurt occurred. I’m also hampered somewhat in the telling of this story by my rather fuzzy memory of the dates and timing of her ordeal. Anyone who was in residence at HQ and Emporia with Liz, (or Liz, if you’re out there please let me know if this is okay.) who remembers more, please fill in and/or correct. Okay, here goes. How I met Liz My husband and I, new 9th Way Corps graduates and newlyweds married in the WC weddings were assigned as branch coordinators to the San Fernando Valley, northern Los Angeles. Liz was one of the believers in the branch and she and I and her friend Irma became friends. I remember taking a dance class with the two of them at a local community college. She was a gem of a girl, just the kind of person that I loved spending time with, fun but serious about living a godly life. Liz Goes into the Corps I think that she went into the 12th Corps, a year after we graduated, but it could have been the 13th. I remember we were proud to have her go in the Corps from our branch, and I was happy that she was my Corps sister. Everything seemed to be going fine with her until her interim year. She was assigned to staff at Headquarters for her interim year. I’m not sure when the headaches started, but at some point in time either while in residence at Emporia or her interim year at Headquarters she began having excruciating headaches. Liz Goes Blind while Babysitting EB’s Kids Liz’s job on her interim year involved babysitting and housekeeping for EB, who I believe was Trunk leader or some kind of mucky-muck high up in the food chain. Liz's headaches kept getting worse. I remember Liz telling me that her head was killing her all day, and she was standing in the kitchen washing dishes when everything went dark. She was completely blind. She called EB and told him that she couldn’t see. He came home and so thoughtfully gave her a ride to the BRC and dropped her off there for dinner. This young girl who was basically a slave in his house loses her sight and he drops her off? She has to feel her way to find someone to help her. Finally she finds someone to help her and she is taken to a hospital. A catscan or MRI revealed the cause of the headaches and the blindness was a brain tumor. She had brain surgery to remove the tumor, but unfortunately the blindness was permanent. The doctors told her that if she had come in just hours before, they could have removed the tumor before it caused permanent damage to her optic nerve. There is more to this story, but I’m going to stop here for now. I’ll post the rest of what I remember later. I am livid at remembering this kind of mistreatment for a precious sister in Christ. I remember talking with Liz about what happened. I think she had been to see a Dr. about the headaches but they didn’t want to spend the money on a proper diagnosis so she was treated with herbal teas or some such garbage and probably told to just “believe” to get rid of the headaches because after all it was her lack of believing which was causing them.

Happy Birthday! Best wishes for a great year!

Happy Birthday to you! Hope it's a great one!

Mr. Hamm, You are funny! I don't think squirrels are evil, I think they're cute. I did have a kind of scary experience once with one. I was eating my lunch outside at UCLA one day, and a squirrel came right up and jumped on my lap looking for some of my sandwich. I was so startled that I threw the whole sandwich on the ground just to get the squirrel off my lap. BTW Are you single? The reason I ask is because I just read an article in the uk telegraph online (it was on the property market in the UK) and on the side of the page was this singles ad from Telegraph dating. She sounds perfect for you. Of course if you're married maybe you have a relative who would like her: Here's the link: http://dating.telegraph.co.uk/s/view/23857...-dating05070704

White Dove, Best Wishes for a great day and a great year!

Have a great one Cowgirl!

Happy Birthday Lifted! Here's to a great year!

It's kinda like a 30 yr. online reunion. Thanks for starting this Act2. How about those 70s clothes, huh? Bell bottoms and lots of hair. Karen Livedal**n I don't even know how to spell her last name, but she was from Co. and her brother Gary was in my WOW branch in 75 and I believe in the same WOW fam w Fellowshipper who posts here sometimes. He had the same cool curly red hair.

Act2 I found my Advanced Class 77 branch picture and it's now posted in my gallery. I'm on the bottom row, 2nd from the left.

Great pic. I was in a different branch, but I know (or knew) at least 3 or 4 of the girls in your picture. Which one is you? I'm thinking about where mine is. I know I saw it recently, I'll take a look for it and scan and post it when I find it.

I have one of those pics of my branch (don't remember what # it was) from AC 77, taken over the pond at Emporia. I'll have to dig it out.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! HAVE A GREAT ONE GARTH!

Be a good time to retire...

Too Gray, This is FANTASTIC news. Praise God!

55th what? She's got to be older than 55, no?

Great insight, this thread has me thinking, praying, and going to the Bible for answers. I agree with you Dot, "forgiveness doctrine" should never be used as a weapon against victims who can and should be encouraged to speak up, tell their stories, warn others and realize that we/they are not the only ones who have been through what they have been through. Speaking up and exposing evil is so important. The doctrine that TWI promolgated about the "lockbox" has kept so many bound up with garbage on the inside and no way to release it. It just stays and festers and promotes continued bondage. You don't heal a bullet wound by just sewing up the wound and leaving the bullet inside, it has to be removed before the wound can heal. It is good and healthy, kathartic, to expose wrongs and to warn others of the dangers. GS has helped many who may have been "recruited" to join TWI realize that it is not a healthy organization and so avoid joining it, and others who are "in" can see that there is "life" after TWI and that what they are being told or probably more so "not told" by leadership is not the whole story. This is a healthy service that GS provides. Everyone who has been through TWI in whatever version should be encouraged to tell their story. It is healthy and important. It benefits the one telling and the one hearing. The other side of this, or maybe not so much the other side but a completely different side, I believe, is that forgiveness(not silence, not keeping it all in) is healthy, not only is it healthy but necessary. Please, understand my heart, I'm not trying to use this as a "weapon to bludgeon", but as a step of faith, to receiving healing and having a powerful prayer life. Forgiveness does not equal silence. Mark 11:25 And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses. It seems clear to me that "anything against anyone" means that forgiveness is required. Forgive in this verse is present imperative active. It says, while you're praying, forgive. I stand here today, on the other side of a twenty year process. The more grievous the wrong, the more grace needed. But I trust that Jesus would never command us to do something that he wouldn't provide the ability to do. I've stood over and over again at various altars and during church sevices mouthing the words, "I forgive xxxxx" begging God for the "feeling" of forgiveness to overtake the feelings of hurt that I had. Praise God that He is faithful. It's a supernatural miracle of God to receive the grace to forgive. It's a miracle of healing, who does the miracle? I provided the desire and He provided the power. It wasn't a one-time thing either. I thank God for healthy spirit-filled churches and healthy teachers and preachers of the Word of God who have led me in service after service to give all the hurt, betrayal, shame, anger, despair and everything else and allow the power of God to forgive to overcome. This is not just a TWI issue. So many Christians have been hurt and wounded and betrayed by leaders they once trusted. So many Christians still have "the bullets" of past hurts inside and never step in to the supernatural power of God to heal, physically, mentally and spiritually.

T-Bone, LOL. If Indulgences R Us doesn't do it for you, you can always go to e-confession and receive virtual absolution: http://www.absolution-online.com/confessional/

Agape99 Thanks for the reminder. Yes, there is life afer The Way, and it gets better and better the further away you get. Dooj, As usual, great insight. It relates also I think, to T-Bone's great insight about the difference between forgiveness and reconciliation I wonder how many of those observing the crucifixion that day became followers of Jesus after the resurrection.

That's cool. I hope she does great with her business! Thanks for posting that URL.

Thanks for that clarification Cynic. I am trying to understand the nuances of Calvinism vs Arminianism and I'm sure I don't have a handle on it. But in the interest of disclosure, I would have to identify myself at this point with the Arminians. To document that Cynic is correct, here is part of the wikipedia entry on TULIP: Edited to add the following to clarify (not really possible) what Calvinism vs Arminianism is about: (Dan, apologies if this is off topic, but somehow I think it relates to the N.T. Wright controversy, but I could be wrong)

Great article. Is there something controversial about it? Here are some of my notes and favorite quotes from the article: There are two common responses to paganism: dualism or assimilation: The third is to confront it in love by giving up rights for others Avoiding pagan life styles by avoiding the raw material in which they deal is dualism; assimilating to those life styles is to abandon allegiance to the one God. The genuine alternative to both ways is to embrace the gospel as the reality of which paganism is the distorted copy. Paul puts Jesus in the center of the great Jewish monotheistic texts: I Cor. 8:5,6 Phil. 2:5-11 Col. 15-20 (This is something I would like to study further, he says that Paul is redefining monotheism by inserting Jesus Christ in the middle of Deut 6:4, the Shema) "I punish my body and enslave it;" writes Paul, "so that after proclaiming to others I myself should not be disqualified" 1 Corinthians 9:27. A spirituality that does not contain at least the possibility of such an attitude stands under the warning that, though professing Christianity, it may in fact have embraced some form of paganism. (This verse obviously contradicts Calvinist eternal security) It's interesting to me that I Cor 10:1 claims as "our ancestors" the children of Israel in the wilderness: I Corinthians 8 gods many lords many contrasted with One God and One LordThis celebration resembles pagan feasts simply in the way that the sun is like a lightbulb: the former is the reality of which the latter is a copy invented by humans.