hampshire73

I checked "Other" for why I left, but I thought about checking "Voluntarily - bored." I ended up with "Other" because "bored" didn't really express how I felt. I was depressed and exhausted. My then-husband and I were going through some marital and financial problems, and we were expecting our second child. One night we just decided to skip twig, just once. The next thing we knew, it had been a long time. This was shortly after we had returned from ROA 86 and I seem to remember something about PoP, but I wasn't paying a whole lot of attention because my own immediate issues were so overwhelming. Anyway, when we realized we had missed a lot of meetings, we tried to go back and our twig wasn't meeting any more. Just about everybody in our area had left TWI. We still saw some of them, but we just didn't talk about TWI. I think the others assumed we knew what was going on, but we didn't. It wasn't until just a few years ago that I found GSC and discovered the rest of the puzzle pieces. For what I did after leaving TWI, I checked "Didn't do anything for a long time." Eventually, I did most of the things listed. Briefly tried to rejoin, moved out of the area (concurrent with going through a divorce), was seriously depressed, got counseling, tried a different Christian religious organization, raised a couple of wonderful children, went back to school, got a decent job, and life is pretty good now.

I remember being sent (I think our whole branch went) to Maine to go door to door campaigning for Gahagan. It was just for one day. We were told not to let people know we were from out of state. I thought that was pretty ridiculous. It was the first time many of us (myself included) had even been to Maine. What were we supposed to say when people asked where we were from? All I remember about that awfully long day was that I didn't feel well. My stomach was upset. I handed out the literature and tried to avoid answering questions because I didn't want to lie to anyone. I still don't like politics.

LOL, Ham! What really caught my eye was your mention of Bluefield and Princeton. I was in both just a couple of weeks ago, for the funeral of the last relative I had in that area. Small world!

Hi, Socks! I haven't been here for a while, but I'm so glad the Cafe is still open! I don't mind admitting that I am a Christian. I was Lutheran before TWI, and eventually became Episcopalian after TWI. Mstar, I'm sorry to hear about your experience of being thrown out of a church for having been in TWI. I was working as office manager for a non-denominational church several years ago, and I got into a discussion with the pastor one day about cults. I was kind of surprised to find out that he knew of TWI and felt that it was a dangerous cult. This was before I knew what I know now about the bad things that had happened. (I had simply drifted away around 1986 and had no idea until I found GSC that there had been a mass exodus, M & A's, sexual abuse, plagiarism, etc.) My personal experience had mostly been good, and I shared that with him. He was as surprised by my positive attitude about it as I was about his negative attitude. We had a good discussion that day, never brought up the subject again, and I was not asked to leave or made to feel unwelcome in any way. After reading about your experience, I realize that mine is probably not typical. Anyway, I accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, and I believe that makes me Christian.

Although I haven't spent a lot of time on here after my first few weeks of involvement, I will be sad to see the Greasespot Cafe close. I stumbled across it by chance years after leaving TWI and not knowing a lot about what happened. Being able to visit the forums has been both eye-opening and healing for me, and I'll always be grateful for that. A couple of people have mentioned a Facebook GSC page. I'll have to look into that. Pawtucket, thanks for everything! I hope we'll be able to keep in touch.

Wow! I don't remember "revelation witnessing" -- I wonder if that was after my time. I haven't read this whole thread yet, and in fact, I started at the end and have been reading the posts in reverse order, but when I saw this, T-Bone, I just had to jump in and say something... I remember "going witnessing" with the twig, and later with my WOW family, and I was always uncomfortable with the way we did it -- it was so contrived. A friend of mine from college used to call it "witlessing." So many times when I was in a mall or going door-to-door, I couldn't think of anything to say except to invite people to twig and try to explain what that was. I felt like a fraud even though I was trying to do what I thought was right. The only positive experiences I had with witnessing were when I just went about my life, trying to serve God, caring about people, and just generally trying to be a good person. Sometimes, there would be a natural opening in the conversation, that is, the other person would say or ask something that related to God, the Bible, or some aspect of life that I understood to be connected with spirituality. When that happened, I would say a quick silent prayer for the right thing to say, and then say what I thought or felt. It didn't always involve a direct mention of TWI or PFAL, but it always glorified God. And of course, this was not "forced 'witnessing'" but the real thing, IMO. It doesn't happen just because leadership schedules it!

Yes!! :D I chose chocolate because that's my basic favorite, but I discovered moose tracks about a year ago, and now when I get ice cream, that's what I get. Kroger has one called "extreme moose tracks," which is extra rich chocolate ice cream with the moose tracks -- heavenly! Food Lion has chocolate moose tracks, which I get sometimes, but the chocolate ice cream in it is not as good as the "extreme." I feel like running out now to get some! But I probably won't because I'm trying to lose weight. :(

Me, too! I was looking at the shape of the frequency distributions. Looks like most of the people who have answered this poll so far have the same answers that I have.

I'm on Facebook and I like it. I went back to graduate school when my youngest child went off to college. In my second year at Virginia Tech, I was in a class on campus when a young man shot a lot of people and then himself. My children urged me to get on Facebook so they could keep tabs on me better. Of course, I get to keep tabs on them better too! Since then, I have added as friends several relatives (most of my college-age nieces and cousins), and lately, some folks I went to high school with (35+ years ago) and even a few former wayfers. I have a pretty busy life and don't spend a lot of time on it, and I either decline or ignore invitations to add applications that appear to me to threaten my privacy. But overall, I have found it a good way to keep in touch with people who are geographically far away. I can see how it would be a problem if you posted too personal information or accepted as friends people you don't really know.

Thanks, Dot! I'll look there.

I'd like to find a friend, Fran Luby, that I haven't seen or talked to since around 1980, I think. We went to the same college back in the 70s and I've made several attempts to find her through the alumni directory over the years. She was originally from Connecticut, we met in college in Massachusetts, and I think she went into the Way Corps at some point. I have no idea what her last name might be now, or whether she is in or out.

I want to echo thanks to Kristen and Pawtucket for speaking about this. It takes bravery to deal with experiences like this, and even more to go public. penworks, I find it ironic that VPW used to proudly point out Rhoda's qualifications because she went to Moody Bible Institute.

The binder's red now? :o Back when I took the Foundational Class, it was white with green print.

I don't know. I don't have cable or satellite or any of that because I only watch one show (Numb3rs) and I don't even catch that every week. But I do remember years ago when cable first became an option, they were calling it "pay TV" and the point of it was that commercials would not dominate the programming. The viewers are already paying directly for the privilege of watching, so there would be no need to get companies to sponsor programs. The closest thing I've seen to this actually working this way is in public television, where once or twice a year they have a telethon and you send in a donation to help pay for the programs you enjoy watching. I guess it comes down to the lure of money. Cable companies probably don't want to turn down money offered to them by these entities, who must now be directly purchasing airtime instead of "sponsoring" actual programming. Maybe the cable company puts these paid things on at times when they think most people aren't watching, and they keep the actual programming on what they consider "prime time." That cuts down on the number of people who might complain about it.