Broken Arrow

Say what you will, but that just looks like a helluva lotta fun!

Reading this, I'm reminded of how jealous King Saul was when David began to gain success in spite of him. These young men were already ministering and God was increasing their work. Maybe Wierwille just couldn't bear to think that men 30 years younger were walking more powerfully spiritually than he was. So he pulled them into the Corps and cloned them, or at least tried to. In some cases, regrettably, he was successful.

You know it's weird and I don't fully understand it. But I feel a sense of relief for some reason. I mean all those condemning things I heard from pulpits and stuff were just contrived and these guys were a bunch of idiots. I used to feel so unworthy around those guys, how ridiculous now that all seems. So I feel a sense of freedom to be who I am.

Oh, I dunno, John's just comparing this elder mentality stuff with TWI. Good for you! Great way to celebrate the 4th with a son! Thank you, Skyrider! Hope you have a happy 4th as well, and everyone else reading this thread!

O.K. I never knew THAT was happening. The guy didn't even read his frigging mail? Jeesh! Why am I surprised? I'm trying to figure out, he was supposed to be so busy. What did he actually do apart from, you know. I mean even that shouldn't take up an entire day. Especially at his age.

My dad came to visit me once at Emporia. LCM went off on one of his rants and my dad thought it was funny. He had met Craig prior so he liked him. My dad and I went grab a bite and he mentioned that he thought Martindale was a good speaker. I commented that he sure was upset to which my dad chuckled and said,"No, he knew exactly what he was doing. He was working the crowd." I pitied my father then, because he, "just couldn't see it." He would have been 52 then and I was at the ripe old age of 19. Frankly, I still find it hard to believe there was intentional staging. I just don't think those guys were that smart. A few years later, when I was in-residence corps, we all took a trip to Wichita for a "Day in the Word" and VPW was the featured speaker. Way productions had just finished performing and having done so, broke down their mics while someone announced, "Ladies and gentlemen, the President and Founder of the Way International, Dr. VICTOR PAUL WIERWILLE"!!WOO-HOO!! The crowd cheers and out comes Wierwille from stage right and he has his arms spread at hip height, as if to say, "Bless you my children." He took about 3 steps and ran into one of the mics and this big, loud, "KA-THUNK!" sound resonated throughout the auditorium. So it was, "Ladies and gentlemen...etc." (pause) KA-THUNK! I thought it was hysterical but I had to stifle my laugh because I was wearing a green name tag and all. I thought, "That's on you man. You weren't watching." But you know someone got chewed out for that. The thing is, that's the only thing I remember from the event.

But they have nothing else.

I really looked stupid when I tried to yell and be a bad a**. A lot of people did. I think those who yelled a lot were covering up for their own sense of inadequacy. Martindale's bark was worse than his bite. From what I heard, if it was just you and him, he tended to whimper out. He was real brave behind a mike and if he had his cronies. That's what I heard, anyway.

This is where I would press the "like" button if we had one.

Never mind. It was a derailment.

Dorkiness is not necessarily a function of looking at the past. Our parents thought we all looked dorky with our fashion statements in the 60's and 70's and they were absolutely right. Moreover, they did not look at their past fashion styles and think they themselves were dorky at all. People dressed up in their day whenever they went outside their home to do anything except maybe work outside. Blue jeans were for working men when they, well, worked. They thought the very idea of "designer jeans" an oxymoron, and sneakers were just, sneakers. Then we come along with our tie-dyed jeans and bell bottom pants, preferably with holes, and you know the rest. 10 years later we look back at ourselves and laugh at how dorky we looked. 10 years after that, we laugh at ourselves at the way we looked when we were laughing at how dorky we looked 10 years before that. 10 years after that we looked at ourselves, started to laugh again, and then began to realize we are completely oblivious to our own dorkiness in the present moment. The reason things in the past seem dorky is because we are, in fact, a bunch of dorks but are blind to it. We become aware of it later when we look at the past objectively. Yet we remain unaware that deep inside we continually perpetuate dorkdom. Instead of hiding from it, we should embrace it. Facing reality is the first step toward freedom.

I think it was boring. But you have a point, if it was so boring, why are there so many of us, including me? I guess I really shouldn't have said PFAL was boring. Clearly a lot of people didn't think so. I should just say that, to me, it was unimpressive and a yawner. It certainly doesn't stand, in my opinion, as one of the great expositions of the Bible. I'm a little curious. Would you please explain to me what you mean when you say, "Sincere religious people who were full of devil spirits"?, "Baptized it and called it Christianity"? Baptized what, PFAL? "The integrity of the Word to tell on all of them"? To tell what on all of who? I'm not trying to be a smart foot, I really don't understand what you're saying.

You know, the dirty little secret is that PFAL was, well, boring! I mean, it really was. Sometimes that's all the "help" some of these folks needed to drop out.

Yes! How thankful we are that modern contemporary music has evolved past that stage!

Yeah, then there's those of us who said, "Sign me up for that job!!!

A dear friend of mine and a pastor exemplifies Christ in many ways. He leads our ministry called "Church Without Walls". That's an urban ministry that reaches out in tangible ways to the poor and needy in our city. That would include overseeing our 2 food pantries. But that really doesn't describe him. When he was being considered for he job he was asked what he thought of as the perfect ministry situation for him. His answer was spending hours praying for a sick child in a hospital. He doesn't go for the "glitz" or the recognition. In fact, he's not really an up-front type of person at all. Another activity of the ministry he leads goes down to the river one day each week to pray, feed, and minister to the homeless. That ministry will lend assistance to those who want to break free of that lifestyle and some of the things that come with it, like drug addiction. They've had more than a few people be able to break free, secure jobs, and support themselves. He also leads a mission team once a year to Zambia. He does all this even though he himself has been diagnosed with cancer and suffers from diabetes. He is always there for people and greets them with smile. Not many know about his health issues. My wife just happens to be good friends with his wife so we know stuff. When you're talking with him, you feel like one of the most important people in the world. So, he's quite a giver and he's been a great friend not just to my wife and I, but to many. There are others who I think exemplify Christ. I think of William Wilberforce, Martin Luther King, Mother Theresa, and those very brave Polish women who during the Nazi occupation smuggled Jewish children out of the Warsaw Ghetto. They did this at great peril. I'm sure there are others whose names we've never heard of. People who know my story may glorify Christ when they hear it. But I do not provide that great of a living example to be honest. I'm just a rescued stray whose glad to be on the right side of the fence.

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When I read this post, I didn't want to give some tripe, cliche-sounding answer, so I thought about it awhile. Then I forgot I was thinking about it and thought about it some more. Jesus Christ, at the peril of giving a cliche answer, is my all in all. He is Lord, He is my Lord. My agenda, my petty complaints (though I may not think them petty at the time) find their end in Him. He is my inspiration when I am discouraged. He is my peace when I am being pushed in from all sides. He is the one stable rock in a world that is, to me, becoming more and more complex and evil. He is my peace also as I face a life that will end in certain death...someday. He is my faithful friend and He is the only one who has stood with me throughout it all. He is not my sympathizer. He is not my self-righteousness when I choose to be an idiot. In such cases, He is my correcter and teacher. Who is like Him? Well, no one really. But there are some I've known who have exemplified some of His traits.

I don't know if the "one in 10" number is accurate, but I heard a Christian musician on Christian radio a few years ago say people would be shocked at some of the so-called Christian artists that aren't Christian at all. Some of them are fairly popular, he said. I can't remember who the guy was, but I figured he must be a Christian if he was saying this. So what's this? People actually profiteering off of the name of Christianity? Who ever heard of such a thing?

Yes! Browns shirts with nametags!!

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Agreed!

No, John! Of course your attitude was right. Nice acrobatics it sounds like. You say you weren't thinking about God but I ask you, where do you think your ethic to help people in trouble came from?

One of the jokes we talked about in residence was that no matter what was ailing you, you were told to fast. Whatever it was, fasting seemed to be the order of the day. At Emporia we had Third Aid. Another joke was that no matter what the problem, Third Aid would always give you golden seal and cayenne. The would tell you to fast and to not take the herbs on an empty stomach. This confused many of us but we just went with it. One of my friends called Third Aid,"Third Degree". Personally I got so tired of the hassle that I just decided to never go my final year in residence. Fortunately I never got sick enough to need them. Honestly, some of the folks in Third Aid were nice people, others seemed to think there was something wrong with your character if you allowed yourself to be sick. Of course, they would say the problem was your believing. If you were really really sick? Well, you were encouraged to "suck it up", but if it was too much you could get excused. If it went on for too long they would "allow" you to go to a doctor. You had to get approval to go to a doctor. You couldn't just go on your own and you could never ever leave campus without permission. I knew a guy who had a cyst removed without getting approval and he got reamed out for it. ("I run the Way Corps...NOT YOU!!!" That was at Gunnison) If you went to a doctor it was required that you adhere to the prescription to the letter. We were told there were only a few doctors in Emporia who would even see Way College students because Way people were in the habit of flushing prescriptions down the toilet. That made TWI look bad so they made everyone stop it. Still, if you were so sick and injured that you couldn't do the program for a very long period of time, your status was changed to LOA. That stands for "Leave of Absence". This was of course unless you were one of the privileged few. While I was in residence there was someone there who was injured while he was working during his in-residence year. He was engaged to someone who was very well thought of by TWI so he pretty much stayed in his room and his meals were brought to him by his fiance. He didn't do the work program or go to any of the meetings. I think maybe he came to Corp nights. Skyrider and Excie probably know who I'm talking about. As far as funerals, I can personally vouch that I was allowed to attend my father's funeral while in-residence and I was also allowed to stay as long as I thought was necessary within reason. I think I was gone for like 4 days. I do remember a few meetings, though, where the Corps would get yelled for the number of people that were seeing Third Aid. One night I remember JAL reading the names of the people on the list. One guy had been on a long time and he was publicly rebuffed. The poor guy's throat was so clogged up he couldn't talk. I was also told the Mrs. Bob Moneyhands at Rome City completely disbanded Third Aid. However, there was a dentist at Rome City who was a believer. However, a bunch of Corps from Emporia got permission to go see him and the night before they left they were publicly rebuffed for not having their dental issues addressed before coming in the Corps. Well, there you have it, that's what I remember, it might even be accurate.

That and he was boring as Hell.