Watered Garden

Miz Hounddog, if you get nostalgic, our front yard is about an acre, so our drive way to the side-load garage is that long, now featuring an especially lovely, though deceptive, snowdrift at the bottom of it, which nearly enveloped Mr. Garden's Ford Ranger last night! You are welcome to come shovel to your heart's content! We had the garage made extra wide to store our stuff, featuring ladders, garbage cans, our wonderful new TroyBilt rototiller, a couple kiddy things and a box or two of either junk or yard sale material, depending on what our daughter in law wants to do with it. The Truck and the CR-V fit nicely therein! First and last custom built home we'll ever have. Men love the garage. I just try to park straight in it! WG

I remember LCM telling the FWC once (loudly as usual): "There's not a one of you who is worthy of the privilege of carrying my jock strap!" That would definitely be abuse! Yuck-o!

Allan, I remember you guys! We were in FWC 20 too, for about 3 months! so thankful to God for your lives! You can PT me if you want to as you probably wouldn't remember us from Adam's house cat. Love to all of ya's, WG

Go ahead and drink it - you can always bronze the bottle! WG

OOOHHH! What a beauty!!! Nothing like a new car, Linda. You go, girl!

You are my hero! Thank God for you and your daughter! WG

But then, Belle, after you had packed up and left campus, you had nowhere to go. No one really wanted you in their branch or limb, your family was suspicious of you, you couldn't go limping back to wherever you came from. And you were closely watched when you found some place to land. Every word you spoke, act you performed was examined in minute detail. Even if you were sincerely desirous of correcting whatever shortcoming had caused you to be booted from the WC, you were foreordained to fall short of the mark, having already proved yourself unworthy of inhaling oxygen on the same planet with the Red Thread, the Sacred Remnant, the Precious Few who had their lips pursed just right to kiss the MOG's bum to his liking. I still remember this little spouse corp grad raging that my wonderful, kind, loving husband was weak and had no character because we had been instructed to "get rid of" our 12 year old son. This was "get rid of" in terms of an unwanted dog, and once it was actually halfway suggested we end his life. In order to be pure, perfect, pious and worthy of the Present Truth - we were NOT putting God first in our lives. (Of course we realize that it was TWI we were not putting first, no one by then knew there was a difference).

Maternal: Grandmama and Granddaddy Paternal: Grandmother and Grandfather. Grandson calls us: Yah-Yah and Papou (phonetic spelling) WG

Also, in the early 1990s and on, we were taught that the leader is THE man or woman of God for this day and time and hour for the area where s/he has been assigned. His/her word is to be obeyed. "It is impossible to obey God without first obeying your leadership." LCM

It always seemed to me that people were placed in positions of authority who were stunningly inept when it came to ministering to and counselling God's people. The very useful phrase "I have no idea" never entered their minds, much less came out of their mouths. How can an individual who has been taught to regard psychology as a devil spirit filled voodoo form determine that his lamb would be better served by seeing a shrink than by being told "renew your mind"? Unfortunately, some of these souls fit the description of those whom Jesus said would be better off having a millstone tied around their necks and being cast into the sea. Myself, I don't believe there should be criteria for prayer. If someone asks me to pray, I'll pray. I don't ask them if they are believing. I don't ask if they are Christians, Muslims, Buddists, whatever. There is no application form to fill out to get on my prayer list. But then, I am just a humble peon. WG

While several people I know do "theme" trees, color coordinated and hung with ornaments that are all one color or maybe just a couple of colors, ours is a hodge-podge of things made, inherited and picked up over the years. There are a couple of faded glass bells, the first ornaments I remember on our tree when I was a child. When My mother went to all red balls or whatever, I rescued them. There is a Rudolph face that my son made in 2nd grade. There is a cookie monster someone gave him that his own son discovered Christmas morning - "cookie" "cooookkkiiiee!" There are ornaments my mother gave me that are hand painted, and some I picked up at an antique shop that are just, well, different! The ones on the lower 2 1/2 feet of the tree are all soft or wood or something unbreakable. I got two this year that are big bells with wings and beaks attached, painted to look like a chicadee and a blue jay. Grandson thinks they are toys. Maybe someday I'll have a theme tree. All pale golden ornaments with tiny white sparkle lights. But the one the baby will remember has a wooden "tree" ornament decorated with paint pens, glitter and buttons by his grandfather, a cookie monster that used to be his dad's, and a string of felt cut out toys from me. That's all that matters. WG

I highly doubt if the majority of cases of sexual abuse of a child get reported at all, just like the majority of adult rapes don't get reported. WG

HALLELUJAH! WG

We got living wills right after my aunt died, when we made out our wills. My darling aunt had a huge, massive stroke and could have been kept alive by artifical feedings in an unresponsive state indefinitely. I was the executor of her living will. I also am a medical secretary with a kazillion years' experience and I looked at the CT scan and knew. I talked to her doctor, a neurologist who saw her, and the doctor I work for. There was not going to be any improvement, and I invoked the living will with tenderness and the knowledge that she would soon be with her Lord. My husband knows what jewelry and antiques go to my cousin. Another thing you can do if one of your heirs is a tad bit immature, you can have a trust set up with a trustee who will not give that individual a dime until they meet certain criteria or reach the age where you hope by then they will have grown up. Talk to a good lawyer with a lot of common sense. WG

Galen, I trust you and Bonnie know that it is the system and not yourselves that is at fault. While our adopted son has not manifested all of the behavior problems you describe, as he grows older more and more "stuff" crops up. He is not attached to us at all. Sunday was his birthday and he didn't even call. He told his wife, from whom he is separated, that since we weren't giving him a present he saw no reason to come by. (We had spent in November $600 on a deposit and first month's rent for an apartment for him, money we put on a credit card because we didn't have cash to give him). He has not paid his rent for December, left the utilities in the landlord's name, and now the landlord wants his belongings out by 12/31. He is living, we think, with a sweet young girl he met, whose car he drives and whose cell phone he carries. He has lost another job, at a Meier's store, saying that they were doing cut-backs. He was in 22 placements between the ages of 16 months and 3 1/2 years. He was in a foster home from 3 1/2 years until 8, when we got him, that specialized in taking in sexually abused pre-teen and teenage girls. We can just imagine some of what went on. When a child who has had problems is available for adoption, they often try to send them far away, and boy do they gloss over the problems. I agree with the orphanage idea. Maybe it could be one of those faith-based things they are talking about. Maybe they could use George Mueller's example. Galen you and Bonnie are in my prayers bigtimes. Love ya's WG

It was just a mess. Not good for anybody but particularly hard on the kids. I can just imagine how much worse it got in the mid to late 90's. The older kids kind of did their own thing. The little ones got beat on all the time. So wrong.

It would be nice if someone picked this up on the news channels and did an investigation. Tom is loafing in retirement but I like Dan Rather's beady-eyed indignation when he is reporting something that he doesn't like. This is an abomination. Anyone who performed these acts or condoned it should be stoned. If LCM was going on a rampage, these should have been his target, not gays and such. Then, he would have had something to rant about. He just had to know at least some of these jerks were perverts. WG

It continually amazes me when I hear this stuff. We adopted a kid from "the system" and while it may or may not have a happy ending, there is not one darn thing in the Bible yay or nay. How these scoundrels could represent themselves to be THE men or women of God and then spew forth doctrine that has NOTHING to do with God, Jesus, the Bible or anything else other than their jaundiced personal opinions is beyond me. The public or semi-public reamings were just inexcusable. Nothing but hatred and ineffectualness when it came to dealing with real men and women and real lives and the real things that happen in real life. I tremble before the Almighty when I think of ever having been involved with TWI. And I was never in a leadership position like that. I wonder if LCM & Co. ever think about what they did to people and tremble? WG

My son described the FWC as "It was like they were the Nazis and we were the Jews." Touch a wall. Get your bottom or leg cracked with a spoon. And yes it was required that we all carry spoons. The staff kids were strictly off limits when I was there. One staff person's two sub-teen boys actually carried .22 rifles right through a playground full of small children. I immediately said without much due respect to these two brats: "HEY!!! GET THE H OUT OF HERE WITH THOSE GUNS!" They promptly reproved me pointing out that their father was Rev. J...N.... and they could do whatever they wanted to. I did, however, after a while, refuse to carry the damn spoon. The only kid I ever walloped with a spoon while there was my own. It was an evil operation, in my book, letting those little kids be cared for by someone other than their parents. In fact, we had NO say over ANYTHING regarding our children. I remember us going to a WOG who had the overall dominion of the kids and asking that our son, who was a year older than those in his class at school, be allowed to stay up one hour later, that it was hard for him. (going to bed at 8:00). Nope, no way, he was a 5th grader and as such he would yea verily and of an absolute certainty be in his bed asleep at 8:00 on the dot! No compassion, no interest. This is the rule that thou shalt yea verily obey without question. No concern for the individual child (or adult for that matter). It always seemed to me that for the most part, and there was one couple I remember that were different at least she was, people in charge of children seemed to not much like children. I so regret so much that happened those three months. Including the noses I left unpunched! WG

A cooler six feet under would be appropriate for sexual child abusers. They never get "cured". This guy doesn't even sound sorry.

Belle, I went through many of the stages that people go through when told they have a terminal disease. Denial, anger, shock, fear, and finally resolution/acceptance. We left in 1996, but I didn't start to deal with it until 2000, when my beloved aunt died, my son was getting weirder and weirder, belligerent, defiant, hateful and somewhat violent toward me. I went to therapy for six months. During part of this time, we went to a little church that kind of left us alone, welcoming us when we were there and not being too intrusive when we weren't. It will take a while to work through this and don't worry about "getting over" it. I don't think I will ever "get over" being suspicious and cautious. We attend a different church now, one that teaches the Bible, and I can handle it just fine. However, in our small group when they got to the Purpose Driven Life chapter about reproof, I just went off. This one woman thought it so wonderful, and hoped we could get to the place where we lived like that, issuing reproof all the time to each other. I told her I had lived like that, and usually what happens is one or two people issue all of the reproof and correction according to their own whims and fancies, likes and dislikes, and their word, not God's becomes doctrine. I have since quit going to this small group and avoid this woman (who of course pops up all over the place and wants to be my friend). It was an ugly moment indeed when I realized that TWI, God's own special group of people, the red thread, the sacred remnant, were nothing but a mind controlling, money grubbing, immoral cult. It was a beautiful moment when I realized that didn't make me a mind controlling, money grubbing, immoral person. I was a victim of TWI. I am no longer a victim. I am free, I can and do speak my mind, and I can smell a load of horses**T five miles this side of the state legislature!!!! :D--> Love ya, WG

I'm certainly not nor have ever been in the inner circle. But I definitely remember someone telling me it was Loy, I think it was someone at a wedding he did and had to sign his full name and made some remark about it.

I gotta second the "No meds". My husband teaches middle and high school. He says very few kids who are diagnosed with ADHD or ADD or whatever actually have it. A lot of times it starts in kiddy garden to make them into little robots! Beware! Also how does he like to learn best? Music, reading, watching, listening? There are many different styles of learning and maybe the teacher hasn't figured this out yet. You go girl! Let her know like you said! Her primary interest should be what's best for the child, not how much paperwork he does. WG

Force of habit, maybe? We had friends who stayed and friends who left. There were meetings to listen to tapes by JAL describing the goings on at HQ, and we went to a meeting and it sounded like sour grapes to us. I think for us it also depended who you listened/talked to. A friend of mine talked to Ralph D. for 3 hours or so on the phone and that helped them decide to leave. We stayed because we had NO idea that what either of these people (Ralph or JAL)could be true. Either way, it was a troubled time for many. May God bless us every one.

I wish he'd stay out of my state!