Been there, done that more times than I want to remember. Very strange coincidence with this. It would always come up during some of the worst weather of the winter. The Way class had just been released and was running on the field. In the middle of the class, we had a bad storm and everyone was advised by our BC "you will be at tonight's session or be dropped from the class." Against my better judgment, my spouse & I made the drive to class. a 35 minute drive was over an hour each way and we got chewed out for not being there 15 minutes before start. I bluntly told them they should consider it fortunate we were there at all, icy roads, heavy fog and at least 4 cars in ditches. When they said we weren't trusting God enough, I had enough. I reminded them rather bluntly that God will protect us when we did our best but not when we are being stupid and driving when we shouldn't. They shut up but, next chance they had, we got chewed some more. I said hey! What's more important " the class or our lives, we don't do God any good in the morgue." Dumb, stupid leadership sometimes.....
I recall an incident...I was living in Colorado at the time. There was a scheduled limb meeting high up in the rockies at some resort...there was a terrible blizzard...half the people that were supposed to be there didn't show up...I had to put chains on my tires and drive through some of the worst winter conditions I have ever seen...at one point, I lost it on the ice and spun out into a ditch...some truck came along and pulled me out...I made the meeting on time but it was stupid of me to even try...
Yeah...there were some really crazy decisions made with no regard to common sense in those days. The damn meeting shouild have been cancelled...but Noooooooo, it was your chance to "believe God"...
I remember reading horror tales of driving Gunnison Pass when nobody in their right mind should have been on that dangerous road.
A week after we returned from our honeymoon and were in the process of getting settled into our new apartment was a long week-end limb meeting. Folks from all over the state were coming into the town 1-2 hours south of us to hear the right reverend moneyhands and, as usual, it was "the single most spiritually significant" event of the year (till the next meeting was announced anyway).
We were tired, we were busy unpacking, we were broke, we were newlyweds! I fought and fought for us to skip that week-end of meetings. We were harrassed to no end about making sure we didn't miss the meetings. My ex caved in - and to make it worse - we were even put on some kind of crew, so we had to be there early or later than everyone else - everyone else who was staying in the area -
This was the beginning of me wondering what the he11 I had gotten myself into and what kind of man my ex really was if he couldn't stand up for what he knew was best for both of us.
We were due in another city for a big meeting. Weatherman said a blizzard is coming. Everyone was running to the store to stock up on supplies. What were we doing? Packing up the infant child and the bibles for a road trip.
We were so conditioned after four years of being yelled at for even thinking about missing a meeting (by just about every corps coordinator on every campus) it never even occurred to us to call and ask about a weather-exception. We just headed out. The weather came. We got stuck.
We also got our butts chewed off because "we should have known" that the meeting was cancelled!!!!!!!!
I am not kidding. He literally said to us: "You should have known that the meeting was cancelled."
Excuse me? Have you never heard of a @#$!@#$!@#$ telephone? I thought revelation was for things you COULDN'T know by your five senses... You knew it would take us hours to drive from our city to yours and you didn't bother to let us know you had cancelled the meeting?
And the worst part? We hung our heads in shame and agreed with him... we should have known. How stupid of us.
every time I see the thread topic and who started it I get a danged picture of the coca cola polar bears jumping through big hula hoops... and then skipping rope... and then
I was a single mom twig coordinator. Once a week, after work, and after dinner, I had to pack up my 5 year old and drive 30 miles each way to the coordinator's meeting. I was usually not on time. Imagine the response I got for that.
Well, one evening I decided I really really wanted to try to make it on time. Really wanted to surprise the branch coordinator. It was a cool, rainy night, but I drove the 30 miles and arrived about 15 minutes early. I got my daughter out of the car and up to the front door where the branch coordinator's wife promptly told me that I was too early and that they were still busy and I WOULD NEED TO RETURN IN 15 MINUTES. So here I am, me and daughter, sitting out in my car with the heater running in the rain waiting the prescribed 15 minutes.
Back up to the door I go, and it opens to a smiling branch coordinator with a beaming "welcome, come in, come in. wow you made it on time in this nasty weather. see, you should be able to do this every time...."
Yep.. after a while, this meant nothing to "them"..
Greetings from far away!
Back in 'the good ol' days', probably '75 this east coast boarding school guy went out to university on the west coast. There at my door one evening two lovely Way girls invited themselves into my apartment and soon enough I was watching VP teach the class. That summer found me at the Rock where I met another "lovely" from southern California who was scheduled to hit Emporia. Well, love and Nantucket took care of that for a year. It was a really nice memory of one year together before she heard the call, and back to Emporia she went. I don't know which corps but she ended up marrying the cook. Oh well, I wonder if any of you x-corps people ever stayed married? Do you know of anyone?
I went to visit her once, passing by Emporia from east to west, and had lunch in that big dining area. I remember a lot of people looking at me, and when I asked for salt they said VP doesn't use it why do you?? It was sad saying goodbye to her, but the memory is pretty funny.
I appreciate the idealism I read in your posts, but never found a need to subordinate my life to a religious adventure no matter how cool the leadership played themselves out. And many of them left me shaking my head.
Everytime I read accounts like this, (and yes I did it myself on occasion) I think about the temptations of Jesus and his response to being told to jump from a high place and that God would protect him. "It is written, thou shalt not tempt the Lord your God."
We did that often, and called it believing. And were told to do it often and were told we were not believing if we didn't.
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railroader II
Been there, done that more times than I want to remember. Very strange coincidence with this. It would always come up during some of the worst weather of the winter. The Way class had just been released and was running on the field. In the middle of the class, we had a bad storm and everyone was advised by our BC "you will be at tonight's session or be dropped from the class." Against my better judgment, my spouse & I made the drive to class. a 35 minute drive was over an hour each way and we got chewed out for not being there 15 minutes before start. I bluntly told them they should consider it fortunate we were there at all, icy roads, heavy fog and at least 4 cars in ditches. When they said we weren't trusting God enough, I had enough. I reminded them rather bluntly that God will protect us when we did our best but not when we are being stupid and driving when we shouldn't. They shut up but, next chance they had, we got chewed some more. I said hey! What's more important " the class or our lives, we don't do God any good in the morgue." Dumb, stupid leadership sometimes.....
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GrouchoMarxJr
I recall an incident...I was living in Colorado at the time. There was a scheduled limb meeting high up in the rockies at some resort...there was a terrible blizzard...half the people that were supposed to be there didn't show up...I had to put chains on my tires and drive through some of the worst winter conditions I have ever seen...at one point, I lost it on the ice and spun out into a ditch...some truck came along and pulled me out...I made the meeting on time but it was stupid of me to even try...
Yeah...there were some really crazy decisions made with no regard to common sense in those days. The damn meeting shouild have been cancelled...but Noooooooo, it was your chance to "believe God"...
...today I would say "bite my crank matey".
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doojable
:blink:
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Belle
I remember reading horror tales of driving Gunnison Pass when nobody in their right mind should have been on that dangerous road.
A week after we returned from our honeymoon and were in the process of getting settled into our new apartment was a long week-end limb meeting. Folks from all over the state were coming into the town 1-2 hours south of us to hear the right reverend moneyhands and, as usual, it was "the single most spiritually significant" event of the year (till the next meeting was announced anyway).
We were tired, we were busy unpacking, we were broke, we were newlyweds! I fought and fought for us to skip that week-end of meetings. We were harrassed to no end about making sure we didn't miss the meetings. My ex caved in - and to make it worse - we were even put on some kind of crew, so we had to be there early or later than everyone else - everyone else who was staying in the area -
This was the beginning of me wondering what the he11 I had gotten myself into and what kind of man my ex really was if he couldn't stand up for what he knew was best for both of us.
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TheHighWay
Oh yeah... I remember those days...
We were due in another city for a big meeting. Weatherman said a blizzard is coming. Everyone was running to the store to stock up on supplies. What were we doing? Packing up the infant child and the bibles for a road trip.
We were so conditioned after four years of being yelled at for even thinking about missing a meeting (by just about every corps coordinator on every campus) it never even occurred to us to call and ask about a weather-exception. We just headed out. The weather came. We got stuck.
We also got our butts chewed off because "we should have known" that the meeting was cancelled!!!!!!!!
I am not kidding. He literally said to us: "You should have known that the meeting was cancelled."
Excuse me? Have you never heard of a @#$!@#$!@#$ telephone? I thought revelation was for things you COULDN'T know by your five senses... You knew it would take us hours to drive from our city to yours and you didn't bother to let us know you had cancelled the meeting?
And the worst part? We hung our heads in shame and agreed with him... we should have known. How stupid of us.
((THANK GOD FOR FREEDOM))
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Tom Strange
every time I see the thread topic and who started it I get a danged picture of the coca cola polar bears jumping through big hula hoops... and then skipping rope... and then
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Belle
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Ham
Yep..
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nolongerlurking
I was a single mom twig coordinator. Once a week, after work, and after dinner, I had to pack up my 5 year old and drive 30 miles each way to the coordinator's meeting. I was usually not on time. Imagine the response I got for that.
Well, one evening I decided I really really wanted to try to make it on time. Really wanted to surprise the branch coordinator. It was a cool, rainy night, but I drove the 30 miles and arrived about 15 minutes early. I got my daughter out of the car and up to the front door where the branch coordinator's wife promptly told me that I was too early and that they were still busy and I WOULD NEED TO RETURN IN 15 MINUTES. So here I am, me and daughter, sitting out in my car with the heater running in the rain waiting the prescribed 15 minutes.
Back up to the door I go, and it opens to a smiling branch coordinator with a beaming "welcome, come in, come in. wow you made it on time in this nasty weather. see, you should be able to do this every time...."
Geesh.
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Ham
Yep.. after a while, this meant nothing to "them"..
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Bumpy
Greetings from far away!
Back in 'the good ol' days', probably '75 this east coast boarding school guy went out to university on the west coast. There at my door one evening two lovely Way girls invited themselves into my apartment and soon enough I was watching VP teach the class. That summer found me at the Rock where I met another "lovely" from southern California who was scheduled to hit Emporia. Well, love and Nantucket took care of that for a year. It was a really nice memory of one year together before she heard the call, and back to Emporia she went. I don't know which corps but she ended up marrying the cook. Oh well, I wonder if any of you x-corps people ever stayed married? Do you know of anyone?
I went to visit her once, passing by Emporia from east to west, and had lunch in that big dining area. I remember a lot of people looking at me, and when I asked for salt they said VP doesn't use it why do you?? It was sad saying goodbye to her, but the memory is pretty funny.
I appreciate the idealism I read in your posts, but never found a need to subordinate my life to a religious adventure no matter how cool the leadership played themselves out. And many of them left me shaking my head.
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Keith
Everytime I read accounts like this, (and yes I did it myself on occasion) I think about the temptations of Jesus and his response to being told to jump from a high place and that God would protect him. "It is written, thou shalt not tempt the Lord your God."
We did that often, and called it believing. And were told to do it often and were told we were not believing if we didn't.
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excathedra
what a nutjob i was
please please dear employer let me off without pay
i need to get to a weekend blessful frikkin event early where i get to do setup
and i then i get the even greater privilege of tearing down
and in between i work my fool azz off and then have to sit and listen to the most boring crapola of my entire life
oh man
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