notinKansasanymore

Godspeed, Garden. love, niKa

Hey, Lifted Up! Sorry that I got the name wrong in the last post. Rocky had to PM me and clue me in that I'd replied to the wrong person. Ooooops. Happy day, niKa

Rocky: no, I'm just "Mrs." And "Mom," which is enough. Thanks for asking; it used to be important to me, but it isn't anymore.

Happy Birthday, Rascal! You are a delight to share the planet with. I hope that your day was wonderful, and that your year absoutely rocks. Love, niKa

Thanks, Words!! Happy Spring / early Summer to you!!!

I turned in grades last Tuesday. Wooo-HOOOOOO! Now, I'm . . . folding laundry for the entire summer. Or making curtains, or cleaning out the attic, or taking kids to camp, or . . . getting ready for my NEW JOB which will begin in the Fall. I've switched to another university, for a tenure-track job. Even though I dropped out of college for twelve years to go and save the world, and therefore, by the time I FINALLY met my husband, did not have the years of life left to do BOTH a Ph.D and children (I had our youngest children at 40 and 42, respectively!), God has provided a tenure-track job. Master's degree tenure positions are probably more rare than hen's teeth. Near as I can tell, there was only one in my whole greater metro area this year, and competition was fierce. I'm dancing in the kitchen, and in the dining room, and out in the street. This is a big deal for me, and for my family. It's also a job where I will be able to make a genuine difference in people's lives. I'm really very, very excited about it. I just had to share it with you guys, because you are also my family. I love you, niKa

Love you back, Excie. Happy Mothers Day to all of you Mammas out there!

Where have all the Flowers Gone? Oh, wait - I mean the 9th Corps. How busy ARE we, anyway? I'm smack in the middle of the end-of-semester crazies. Piles of work, all due yesterday. One of my students just e-mailed that she has a doctor's note for missing class last week. She reports that she has a horrible case of the flu. I really, really hope that it's not that flu. We don't have any confirmed cases in Oklahoma yet, and I surely don't want this kid to end up being the first. I hope that you are all well and happy. Love, niKa

Happy Anniversary, Pawtucket!! You have been a very important help in the healing of many people. Thank you, thank you. Vickie

Paw, I am so, so happy for you! It took a lot of courage to make those decisions and follow through with them, and a lot of big-heartedness to share your story here. You are helping a lot of people by your example. Thank you very, very much. Love, niKa

I love it that these kids have done so well. Sam Bradford is coming back to play for the Sooners for another year; we expect Blake Griffin to go pro. After Griffin won the Naismith on Sunday night, our coach, Jeff Capel, said of him: "He is a better person than he is a basketball player." Now, THAT'S what I like to hear.

Congratulations to the Tarheels!

Thank you very much! I've been in contact with Kelly now. Your help is appreciated.

I have to agree about Moms and sports. Two days ago, when our star basktball player got flipped by an unscrupulous Morgan State player, our guy just shook it off. The Morgan State player was ejected from the game. Our guy's older brother, also on the team, got back by scoring more points. But it was their MOM, in the stands, who really had to be calmed down. She was steamed. By the way, here's the flip:

I don't think we can speak for all religions. I do think that we can speak for this one cult in Ohio. I certainly would not presume to know much about the true nature of God based on anything that ever came out of Wierwille's mouth.

I think that VPW knew that he was a socially awkward looser, who didn't like taking orders from the hierarchy of his denomination, and that he also wanted to figure out a way to cash in personally on the sexual revolution of the sixties. I DO think that he sat down to plan how to scam people. He simultaneously escaped from the oversight of his denomination and gained lots and lots of power among naiive, trusting teenagers with nubile bodies. I think that he was a very mean, very bad man. I think that he is rotting in his rotten grave, because he took advantage of people in the name of God. He was not a victim. He was the kind of devil for whom, if there is a special darkest corner of Hell, such a corner is reserved. And that's the sugarcoated version of how I feel about that. I feel for his family, because of the shameful way that he treated his precious wife, and because his family not only were scammed, but they are burdened with his name, and the lack of trust which is now associated with it. For instance, does anybody really care whether Grandson Victor's program out in the woods survives? People seem to generally assume that he's crooked right out of the gate, even though he may or may not be; this is his grandfather's legacy. So. Yes, VPW set out to scam people. No, he wasn't a victim, any more than Hitler was a victim of the Holocaust. Yes, he'll burn in Hell.

Every March 4th, I can still hear Walter say that line. He was so sweet and excited about it, too. I always thought that he was one of the nicest folks there. There was a core group of folks, and I include Walter in it, along with people like Rhoda, who were just sweethearts. I sometimes think that if everybody there had been as mean as Dr., we'd have seen through it long before we did, but if he fooled Walter and Rhoda, with their close associations to him, and their obvious devotion to trying to always do the right thing, I sometimes don't feel so unutterably stupid.

One of the hardest things about leaving TWI was letting go of the tremedous spiritual arrogance. Rascal has mentioned this, and I agree with her. But it wasn't just spiritual. There was also a racial arrogance, and a straight arrogance, and a pecking-order-among-the-members arrogance. We spent a lot of time patting ourselves on the back for being God's Chosen, while saying "but look how screwed up THOSE people OVER THERE are." During my time with TWI, I could not even step into a regular church without thinking that it was full of devil spirits. That's pretty much the opposite of building the body of Christ. It seems like the crazier it got, the more we bought into it. Perhaps that is the greatest warning lesson, as we look back. It's a study in group psychology. The people who perpetrated the Holocaust thought that they were doing the world a favor. If Wierwille could have lived forever, how deeply into the cesspool might some of us be right now?

I was also there that night, in New Bremen. Joe Fair did an amazing job. The "gallon of apple wine" remarks from Weirwille were nuts. Looking back, Wierwille's outbursts begin to remind me of an overtired toddler, screaming at whatever happens to be in front of him. The fact that we didn't notice this similarity at the time was a clear symptom that we had our heads wedged where the apple wine don't shine.

Oops, sorry, Spray. Try this. http://www.lmci.org/about.cfm

To me, Greasespot is more of a "Truth about TWI" website. If the truth is damning, that's TWI's problem. Remember when they used to tell us, when we were trying to get people to take PFAL, simply to tell the people what PFAL had done for us? This is an extention of that. We are simply telling the truth about what TWI did for us. And to us.

Groucho, you may not get any answers from the men themselves, because their answering would amount to a public "outing" of their wives as victims of these abusers. But men, those of you who see this, it wasn't your fault. We all drank the Kool-aid. Some paid a much higher price than others, and I am praying as I type for you and your precious wives. Victims and victims-by-proxy (the husbands) may still carry a heavy burden of shame, and I encourage you to speak to a professional counsellor, if need be. They are trained to get you to ask yourself the right questions for some healing. These crimes were perpetrated by convincing the victims that to have sex with the "man of God" was serving God; the criminals may have escaped worldly justice, in most cases, but they cannot escape the Bema. God says, "Vengeance is mine; I will repay." (((((all of you, wives and husbands))))))

Does anyone know where they ended up, or how they are doing?

Hi, Tom! Hey, everybody: Happy Valentine's Day!! (((((you)))))

Seaspray, I just sent you a PM.