leafytwiglet

I was locked out until monday morning ..okay maybe sunday night but I quit trying to log in for a while .. I figured it was the change over with the move. any way glad you are back.

When you go to the first page. there will be an arrow for if you want to know more click on that arrow then up at the top of that page on the right hand side will be a place that says register click there and follow the instructions. Dotmatrix had a problem with her Avast saying she encountered a malicious url but I have avast too and it didn't note any problems.

Hi Gerry Welcome We probably bumped into each other at some point as i was WOW in montana in 79/80 and went to the gathering thing whatever it was in Washington. LOL So long ago. Glad you are here.

So I regestered already at the exwayvision.com site. Am wiating with baited breath fro my password. I like the title... and am looking forward to the new site it looks good so far. I am sure it will morphe a lot along the way. I held off on the face book site still and may regester under Leafytwiglet there too just because but maybe will go with my real name... I haven't m,ade up my mind on that one yet. I will miss it here. For me this place really was important... I needed to see the arguments aas well as all the old articles I think I have finally read all of them but not all the forum threads LOL I see the new site has links to every thing here that is a good thing.

It's a conspiracy I tell you... you know those illuminati guys running the world from their ivory tower.

Happy New year to all of you.

Sending hugs your way Catcup... as everyone said... this decision hinged so much on your feelings about the couple the family and what happened to you .... I think in light of what you wrote you made teh best decision for you... and in the end that is really what matters. And more hugs because teh whole thing has reopened old wounds that you should not have had to endure in the first place.

I just found this and well it really explains why the law of believing doesn't work. I hope you enjoy it as much as me

OMG I totally missed this... I have been slowly catching up on threads. Congradulations to you both. This is wonderful news.. I love a good love story! Yay

Exactly.... that's what I was trying to say and bring some one to talk to... so you can enjoy yourself and not have to talk to anyone you don't want to.

Well for me and My Spouse... we left in the middle of the night ... no good-byes... We left before all the hullabaloo, but then you all know that.. anyway for us we had been becoming increasingly more unhappy with the way.. but we also felt that it was us that was out of fellowship... that we needed to leave because we were not up to snuff. We had trouble getting work it was the recession of the early 80's and we lived in the middle of the north west .. one of the hardest hit sections of the country.. but obviously our believing was not up to snuff or so we thought. I was really struggling with a lot of issues... I was becoming more and more disturbed about how the ministry ran things... there was more and more out and out attacks against people... I had now seen some of the begginigs of mark and avoid although they didn't call it that yet.. it was a pervading group think of avoiding anyone who walked away from the way.. and in corps meetings you were told flat out to not have contact with anyone who left (this was in 81/82). I was also struggling with the whole weight of being held responsible for the walk of members of our twig... and the lack of privacy we had, not just from leadership, but from the people in our twig... We could not just be ourselves, we had to be so very careful of everything we did and said, we had to be perfect. I was very dismayed about how Headquarters/leadership impossed this level of dedication to all believers not just Corps... you were somehow not worthy if your whole life was not wrapped up in TWI. This is my impressions of it as I became more and more educated in what Corps was taught and what they were told to expect from the people in their twigs. When I first spent time with Hubby just out of Corps i thought it was just his way of thinking but as I spent more time in Corps meetings i found it was what he was taught. Unbeknownst to me he was having his own struggles about much of the same things. What to me is sad is that we were afraid to discuss this with each other.It took an off hand remark from me about how unhappy I was and how I wished we were just plain regular people to really bring everything to a head. We decided we needed to leave. We planned it for two days. Thank God for that moment of truthfulness with each other... I still remember the anguish he had asking if I would go with him. Spouses even then were looked down on if they left with a spouse rather than stand with the Miinistry. I DID NOT MARRY THE DAMN MINISTRY. I married my wonderful kind loving intelligent husband. HE is who I wanted to be with, no matter where he went. When we left we thought we were out of fellowship. That first few days, as we were hitchhiking to a new state, we worried that God would strike us down for leaving the ministry... How can it be okay to teach your people to fear leaving... that just can not be right. Anyway not only did God not kill us, but time and time again.. ride after ride, we had wonderful people helping us. one of our rides let us sleep on a couch for the night at his house and fed us. We spent another night with one of Hubby's old high school friends who also Fed us and took me for my first time ever to a casino. Hubby was worried about how his parenets would receive us .. they didn't know we were coming... OMG they could not have been more wonderful. we always felt that somehow it was our lack of faith and ability that put us out of the ministry. We knew we could not contact anyone as it would be nothing but condimnation for us. We had already heard people talk about what to do when other believers had left. The comments about how could this spouse or that one leave the ministry ... what were they thinking...We knew we would be facing all that if we tried to come back. We walked away from everything, all our friends, our lives, literally everything, We only took what we could carry on our backs... but when we did this we walked back into the arms of our families... We made new friends and new lives and it really was better... right from the begginig... We had a job within 3 days of getting to my husbands parents house and we have both had employment from that day forward... our family grew, our lives have been enriched, and for me I gained the most wonderful in laws a person could ever want. The interesting thing about all this is, how arrogantly and tenaciously I clung to those TWI teachings. When I ran into some Way believers some time after VP died in 86.. I had the opportunity to go back to TWIG... Hubby said I could go if I wanted to, he was fine with it, but he could not go himself .. but even before he said that, I just knew.. I had the claw of fear in my stomach... that I should not go back. After that I nevefr ran into anymore beelievers.. I always wondered why.. of course now I know why... TWI imploded. Hubby and i got off with a few scraps and bruises compared to many others.

I suppose it all rests on who they are to you and how much you like them. Also of lesser importance if it is a very close family relative... will your not going upset the family dynamic. BUT otherwise if you are close to them and enjoy them, then go and enjoy yourself. As has been noted don't go alone and maybe have a planned exit strategy and a time frame in mind for when you plan on exiting knowing that you can be flexable also of note were the betrothed mean to you if so I would boycott the wedding You See ... CLEAR as mudd

The good thing about allowing posters to bring up the old teaching stuff and try to defend it was or is that for people like me who just stumbled in here in the last two years or so... we got to pull out our own thoughts about the teachings and examine them... One of Mikes discussions did that for me. so much of PFAL I just believed.. it seemed so logical when i was 19-23 and then I would just parrot it with out really stopping to consider if it was true or not.. reading posts by supporters of PFAL gave me a chance as an adult to really consider the teachings from all angles... rather than just dismissing things out of hand. Also it allowed me to see the flawed logic of what I followed while in TWI. I know lots of you old timers did this on transchat and early days GSC but for newbies it really is important to be able to sort things out on your own... and because the moderators are not heavy handed you get the opportunity to do just that.

Well I was never a moderator, but I sure do appreciate all the hard work you all have done and are doing, no matter who you are. I had a couple of occasions to click on the report linky, and you guys have always been quick to help out and then let me know what was done. I think you all deserve a round of applause. Sometimes on a blog/forum people misunderstand the intent of posters replies, but you guys seem to go the extra mile to handle touchy situations, and handle them so the poster isn't necesarily spanked in public. knowing when to take something down and when to let comments stand sometimes, is a very delicate situation... I believe from what I have seen while here that it has been done with style and consideration. A big Thanks to you all from me. It is comforting to know that when some one gets ugly, there is some one watching over things to step in and referee.

Oh my... and I have no words... how ever can i thank you Paw for having this site. you would think after all that time out of TWi I would have found my way to healthier thinking .. but no it really took coming here and reading I don't even know how many threads and articles... and crying and rethinking my positions. For me, I have come to not only understand myself better but my Dear hubby. I have come to recognize TWi for what it really was ... to make peace with my self for getting entangled in it.. and all of you here have given me back a part of me I lost to TWI. Thank you all for your patience with me when I first got here and was trying to understand what TWI really was. For all the information you gave me, For pointing me to other threads that would answer my questions and for sharing your stories so all my puzzle pieces woud fit together and make sense.

Hi Brainfixed,,, as always a thoughtful and thought provoking post. things I don't do anymore I no longer worry about celebrating Christmas... I no longer worry about if the songs I am hearing on the radio are corrupting my brian. I no longer worry taht I might not understand every nuance of a word that is in a bible verse or if I understand the verse. I don't stress that the devil is out there waiting to get me. I no longer judge people with a superiority born of missinformation I Do take time to listen to other peoples beliefs and try to understand them I do take time to enjoy myself every day and find the beauty in everything around me and everyone around me. I no longer worry that I might be displeasing God, or thinking things the wrong way and thus causing bad fortune to befall me.

Foods I remember... Nothing to do with corps but on my WOW year these are two dishes we had and I have to say they were delicious though I was not expecting them to be.. 1 peanut butter and baloney sandwhiches... Thanks Mr. W. 2 a potato salad with tomatoes and cheese cubes in it.and pretty much anything else my wow brpther found in the fridge. Thanks Mr H. From Rock of Ages Dannon Cherry Yogurt. that granola trail miix they sold in the snack shack store 79-82 From my Wow Family switching to Whole wheat bread... best thing that happened to me that year. My hubby still subscribes to not allowing the tank to go below 1/2 full... which is probably a good plan as we do live on the San Andreas Fault line Litterally only 1.5 miles from it.

Dooj and Groucho.. my deepest condolences.... And Hugs to you both and your families. I only know Rummy from on here and I too know from a couple of crossed paths.. that he only had the deepest respect for other posters on here.

LOL you know it was some sadistic jerks Idea to play that every morning. Heheheheheeeh! THanks Waysider... for the memories... I can still hear it come crackling over the loudspeaker in my memory! Roflmao.

The difference between VP and Jim FDoop is oobviously that Doop really chose to live with God's word VP just told stroies about other peoples experiences and told them like they were his own experiences. I would rather walk witha Jim Doop Than a VP.. excellent story Socks!

OMG bronze VEE PEE heads.. SHeesh all the fun stuff happened after I left.! ROFLMAO

Thanks Paw... I enjoyed looking at those... IT reminded me of all the fun I did have, only now it is remembered with an understanding of the real intent of the ministry. Seeing those pictures reminded me of why I got involved and that sometimes what you see on the surface is not what some thing is inside. IT helps me to understand why I got involved and why so many others got invovlved.

When people ask how my husband and I met I just say we were involved with a ministry and we met through it. I explain we were both on a one year mission in the same state and that we kept crossing paths. When we became unhappy with the way things were changing and our lives in the ministry we decided to leave. When i am asked about my WOW year I call it a mission where I took one year of my life to serve God and learn more about him and focus on his word for one year. That is what I was doing... I was pretty much oblivious to the whole Cult Aspect of it. Now Of course I am completly clued in. But it is what I was doing never mind that TWI was all about me bringiong in Money for their Coffers. I realize it now but at that time I was a naive kid.

I still speak in tongues but not like I did in TWI .. and when I first left TWI I stopped praying and SITing for a while.. Now when I am stressed or am praying for some one and don't know what to say or I just want to Praise GOD I speak or Sing in Tongues.. I don't know what it is... and I only do it in private now.. never in front of other people... it is private between me and God. IT is not every day or even every week sometimes I will go a long time without doing it. For me I don't always have the words to say what I feel to God... My thankfulness for the life I have sometimes is overwhelming and that is when I SIT. OR when I am trying to sort through a situation and I can't find the answer I need I will SIT to remove my spinning mind from the equation... to give me a moment of Peace.

LOL at the Prince tale. Back in my day it wa Barry Manilow that took the class etc.