Belle

Shaz, I LOVE putting up the Christmas Tree (and that's what I call it....now)! It was always a big deal growing up and bonding time with Mama. She saved every Christmas ornament we ever made and every Christmas my little brother and I would have fun pulling them out and talking about them while we helped her decorate. We always had a real live tree that the whole family would go pick out together, but the decorating was left to Mama and the kids. :) I remember that when my little brother was about four years old he made a construction paper chain, but, being so young it was only about five or six links long. We always hung that in a prominent spot on the tree, even till I moved to FL in my early 20's. :D After I moved to FL, I was so poor I couldn't afford anything so the office where I worked gave me the live Christmas tree we had decorated the office with when we closed for a week at Christmas. I couldn't afford any ornaments for the treee, nor did I have a tree stand, so it leaned gingerly in the corner of my apartment. I had a 2nd job at night working for Church Street Station and we got substantial discounts on everything, including food. Some friends and I went to Crackers for their all you can eat scallop dinner and I saved all the scallop shells from everyone's dinners and I made ornaments out of them with a borrowed glue gun and scrap ribbons from work. I strung popcorn and had a very simple, very Florida tree that year. I saved some of those ornaments and still hang them on my tree every year. I've always had live trees and, after getting married and heavy into TWI, my ex couldn't care less about Christmas, so I got a live tree all by myself every year (he DID go with me one year) and I decorated it every year by myself. It was simple with gold balls, gold garland and red bows or red & white bows along with my few Florida ornaments from that first Christmas alone. The top was a huge red bow with streamers gently coming down from it. I was afraid to put anything else on there for fear that it would be contraband and get us into trouble. This year I couldn't afford a live tree - they've gotten to be so expensive. :( I got up at 5:00am :blink: on Black Friday, bought a $30 fake tree and have it up and decorated with some inexpensive decorations I got that morning also (and my Florida ornaments from that first year). I looked for an angel to put at the top of the tree, but couldn't find one I really liked, so I have the ostentatious bright light star at the top. :D Okay, Shaz! I've told you mine. Can't wait to hear yours. :)

Paw, I know beyond the shadow of a doubt that if it weren't for GSpot and being able to share, learn, cry and laugh with people who had been in the same shoes I would be a basket case...okay, MORE of a basket case than I am today. There are no words and surely not enough money in the world to truly express the appreciation for you and all the hard work you did and continue to do for us and to keep the doors open. :)

Tom Tuttle, I imagine your dad must be pretty darn cool to spend time with. You must have learned his lessons well! Thanks for sharing his words of wisdom with us and, Excathedra, thanks for asking him to! :D LOL! MaryPoppins, that's funny! BTW, Welcome to our little corner of cyberspace!

You must be on the REALLY NAUGHTY list, Wacky. Do you maybe need a certain plug in to see it? BTW, I'm on the naughty list, too! That means we get NAUGHTY presents, right?? He plays the air guitar, football, basketball, soccer, baseball and does WWE Fights! He'll kiss the elf and he'll make out with the elf - I think he's naughty himself! What a cool Santa!

Time for me to "walk the dog" and I wish I meant it in the way we did in college, but I'm literally going to "walk the dog". In college it meant "get stoned" B)

Feels good, don't it, Skyrider? :D It's times like that when I quit being upset about my involvement with TWI. I'm so happy that people feel safe contacting me and that I'm able to help them. Kinda makes all the He11 we went through a lot bearable. Ya know, if I had known you and if I hadn't had the support group I already had in place when I was going through my personal HE11, I would have contacted you. :) I'm glad to know you now! Excie, you curse away!!! I love you just the way you are and wouldn't change a thing about who you are and how you are!!

What Jim said! :blink: I got into BIG trouble for telling this girl that I had been studying some of the things in craigger's class and had found inconsistencies and things that were wrong. I then mentioned www.blueletterbible.com and some other things on the web I had been using. She told our HFC that I was going on the internet. I got called into a confrontational meeting with our HFC and my ex and was totally reamed for it. I not once metioned anti-way websites. The thing that peeved this girl off was that I was telling her things were wrong that we were being taught. Instead of considering or looking up what I told her, she just turned me in for being insubordinate. :blink:

Galen, I'm really glad that so many of you had great times. I had really great times in my Youth Group in the church growing up. My parents were some of the favorite Sunday School Teachers and chaperones, but I know the church there is not the same (nor is it demographically convenient). I also don't have any of those times with TWI, but I didn't get involved in TWI till 1993. Because there really were no "good times" like that and it was really only ego and intellectual Bible-knowledge based for me by that time, it's really hard to consider that it WASN'T a waste of time. The only value I can find, personally, is that I was there - I lived through it - and now I can help others avoid so many wasted years. Thank you for your input, though. :) I really appreciate it!

I'd LOVE to Moony!! Then we can skip down to get some conch fritters!! They may not go with the coffee but they'd sure be GOOD!!!

Glad I'm not in the office or everyone would be prairie dogging to see what was causing all the laughter!!

They ARE Great! Here are some of the other ones I've chosen. Daddy is a Banker and taught me to love Broadway musicals. He also loves trivia. There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar. Thousands of years ago, cats were worshipped as gods. Cats have never forgotten this. Two lesser known, previous members of The Beatles: Pete Best and Stu Sutcliffe. Very funny, Scotty, now beam down my clothes. We yell for the Government to balance the budget, then take the last dime we have to make the down payment on a car that will take 5 years to pay off. Remember the year "The Heart of Rock & Roll" by Huey Lewis was released? That's when we had our trip to DC and every state or so we changed the words to the chorus because none of us could figure out what he was saying. It wasn't till we got home and looked at the lyrics in the album that we figured it out. When someone asks you, 'A penny for your thoughts' and you put your two cents in, what happens to the other penny? WN! Mama used to say, "You're old enough for your "wants" not to hurt you" --- usually when we weren't going to get what we wanted.

I've only had two glasses of wine and ten hot wings, but I distinctly remember reading something about the north and south poles moving and shifting because of the earth's rotational pull. Something about the North Pole ending up in Kansas, I think? I've been looking for it again, but all I can find is articles how the earth's thawing in some areas which is good for one species of penguins but worse for others. (Global Warming) this article also mentions that it's freezing more in some areas, but warmer in others.... Another thing I've thought of and that could be totally irrelevant is how here in FL they build houses based on fifty year flood plain plans, but Disney and the other attractions have built on 100 year plans. It seems as though that's only as far back as any records really go, so how do we know for sure this is global warming and not really just a shifting in the climates and locations? Just pondering as I'm no scientist and know really nothing about any of this.But, I also remember being taught in TWI that "the Earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof" as meaning that God protects the Eearth and us and that we don't have to be worried about the Earth ever being destroyed by any means.... But then again, I consider the source on this....

POV = Point Of View Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, so they want the facts and just the facts. BUT it looks like they are looking for some facts! AND anyone can edit and submit information there, so if you're so inclined, looks like they would appreciate your input. Someone in Hot Lanta (BG?) has already been supplying information, shouldn't we do the same?

So craiggers has his own entry in wikipedia? Interesting.... I was looking at their site again <_< Subtle way of saying that your life will no longer be your own and we will be requiring you to perform those supporting responsibilities? This shows how out of touch they are with what goes on in the modern churches. They have no idea what's being taught, nor that much of it's being taught better, more accurately and with a heck of a lot more love than in TWI. Does this sound misleading to anyone else? What they don't mention here is that if one decides NOT to believe or "use" it according to how TWI teaches and requires that they are anathema and accursed. It doesn't mention that they will be spiritually blackmailed and that their reputations will be maligned. Just listen to what we say and don't look at how we live. Shortly before I left they were making a big deal about how many years TWI has been around. What's funny to me now is that they are pathetically young in the whole scheme of things and that emphasizing just how "young" they are lends absolutely no credibility or stability or integrity to their organization like they seem to think it does. It's laughable to me now how proud I was of those sixty years.

Had a discussions, e-mails and PMs with a few different people over the week-end and it stirred up some thoughts in me. Mind if I think and ponder out loud? (Some of these are quotes from some of those conversations….) Did think we ALL lose sleep and become infinitely less productive when we first found Gspot and/or WayDale? I didn't sleep for months and I could only access it from work because of my husband, but I would sure lay in bed at night crying or fuming or thinking about all the stuff I'd read. I also worried about getting possessed, about the devil taking over my life and about TWIt leadership finding out I’d been disobedient. There’s a whole lot of information provided and it's a halogen light put on so many issues and answers so many questions about things we saw, witnessed or questioned in our own brains. It gets easier to digest and to pick & choose as you get to know the different posters, their styles and the different issues. A lot of things get repeated over and over again, too. It happens because there is so much in the archives and you can't find everything you want or need all the time – besides that, it can be daunting and intimidating to try to read everything. A new person will post a question or have trouble with a situation, so we go through the whole topic again. It's all good! it's also different perspectives that come out, too – particularly as new people contribute or those who have moved along just a wee bit more in recovering and/or dealing with leaving. I'm so glad to be in therapy! :P Not to make light of it, by any means.... It's very hard to learn and realize that what we thought was a little piece of heaven on earth was one big whited sepulchre of greed, hate and destruction. We can't blame ourselves for what happened with TWI or our own lives - we were snookered - we were taken advantage of. We loved God and we wanted to learn more about Him - how to best live for Him and how to help others have the same. TWI exploited that in us and we were harmless as lambs, but not wise as serpents.... We got that way though, and when we did; we did something about it. ;) We were taught in TWI that leadership knew best and to obey them even if they were wrong - that was teaching us to ignore that still small voice of God. They systematically replaced God working within us to running every little thing by them. We suppressed, ignored or doubted when God was working in us - making us feel uneasy - making us question teachings, actions, activities, legalistic religious rules of TWI..... It's when we started hearing God again that we realized what we were missing and took action to do something about it - unfortunately we couldn't change TWI so we had to leave for our own health, safety, sanity and that of our families. We should be PROUD of what we've done!! PROUD of what we've survived!! And GLAD that we have had this experience to be able to help others. :) I didn't get to that point overnight and it's so much easier to type than to believe sometimes, but I really and truly do believe that. I can't tell you how many times I've felt like I'm just wasting ink typing here at GSpot and then I get a PM from someon and I remember how nice it was to have people that I could contact when I was going through what they’re going through. Those people were invaluable to me and they are now very dear friends - even though I've never met most of them in person. I also help people who've never even heard of TWI. In fact, yesterday, I was at a Christmas Cookie Swap and we were all sitting around chatting. I was telling them about getting to meet some people here for the first time in six years of them helping me and being my friend on the Internet. I wasn't going to mention "the cult thing" but just that I finally got to meet some cyber-friends in person after six years. They asked how we met on the Internet and what kind of group it was, so I told them (I'm no longer ashamed of it). Turns out one girl's parents were in the Church of the Nazarene - pretty high up the ladder and her mom had abused her sexually her whole life. She was very conflicted about the whole thing. How could people who were supposedly so “Godly” and so devoted to helping people through mission work be so evil and cruel? She asked me lots of questions and advice. She couldn't believe she was sharing such intimate details of her life with someone she had just met. It was unreal! BUT if I hadn't had the experience I did or if I had been ashamed of it, I wouldn't have been able to help this woman like I was. I floated home on cloud 9 - I had made a new friend, used my experience to help someone and she left feeling so much better and thanking me profusely for sharing all that with her. We swapped phone numbers and plan to do some things together after Christmas. I guess I realized this week-end that it's not a waste - I believe we're each one here for a reason and, perhaps, this is part of the reason we're here. Am I mad that I'm not married and that my husband turned out to be a fraud? You betcha! Am I sad that I may never get to have the kids and family that I always dreamed about? You bet your sweet foot I am! Can't dwell on that, though. I just keep plugging along, going to therapy and helping people when I can - we have a wealth of experience and knowledge and we can truly help people - which is why we got involved with TWI in the first place for, right? ;) I hope that makes sense!! It does in my brain, but doesn't always come across the same in cyber space. For those who are contemplating getting out or have recently gotten free from TWI, it DOES get better! I promise!! It gets more peaceful and you do get more joy in your life now that you can make your own decisions and God is able to work within you like he couldn’t in TWI. He loves you and is so proud of you, I'm sure! Recovering and getting comfortable with this takes a long time, so be gentle, easy and patient with yourself.

ROFLMAO! Tom Tuttle, that last one's going in my uncle's jar! Daddy'll really like that first one, and I suspect, like your Daddy, he's glad I'm out of that outfit before I'm old and poor. :D

Ahahhhhhhhhhhhhh, Jim! I thought this was soooo funny that I passed it on to my team here. One guy has gotten stuck on that site and keeps sending me links to more funny ones. The one with the cats had me laughing so hard half the office came over to see what was causing the commotion. I, and my entire office, thank you.

I'm not insulted. I'm ashamed that I was ever part of that outfit and ashamed that I recruited people and encouraged others to get involved and to get abused, but insulted? Nah. But then again I didn't commit some of the more awful atrocities or ruin lives by my actions. I suppose if I had, or if my family members did, I would be desperate to justify myself.

WordWolf: Then you ARE insulting OM and his family. ;)

Maybe he didn't think it was a joke and really wanted lessons about getting those polar bears. :P :blink: :huh:

Cathy, with all due respect, GreasyTech is considered an expert and pretty much knows what he's talking about. ;) I doubt if Paw would say anything any different from GT's post.

Ahhhhh, yes, George. Thank you! That IS what I meant - that some believe PFAL was wrong in many places, but that the Bible is still inerrant. I'll fix it in the original post so as to not cause confusion, but leave my "thank you" here for clarifying and helping me communicate better. :) I appreciate it!

No one wants to believe that they were used or taken advantage of. It's no fun realizing that and it's certainly no fun remember how bad it feels. AND it's hard to come to grips with being a deciever for so many years, too. Willing or not - intentional or not.

Is this the same woman who did the other articles, Greasy? What's the purpose of the story, I wonder. Are they doing stories like this on ALL the kids in the school? Is Pam Dunno a TWIt? Was this a sought out story or was it a "submitted" article? And WHY didn't this show up in my "inbox"? :P So many questions..............

Thanks, WordWolf. Sufficient evidence and comments from people here have been provided. I think this discussion has reached the level of PFAL/Smikeol discussion and WD and OM can now be considered to be in his camp. ;)