I always counted that my investment was in that person/those people and in the love of Christ they had.
I was taught and continue to believe that people are the greatest investment anyone can make -- better than stock market or real estate -- people are a better investment than anything else.
Now I know that anyone is better off without that place, but then I felt sorry for them leaving. Now I know people are so much better off, and I always hope they remember me with a kind kind of affection, where ever they are, whatever they are doing.
Perhaps one of the saddest things IMO, Twinky. I don't think it was just me.
It seems like after a while there were so many people that I knew that were kicked out for whatever reason, that it almost didn't faze me, outside of a shake of the head and a "that is too bad."
It may have been different if it were a really close friend, but I had ran out of most of those over the years as their families left or were kicked out.
When my parents were put on M&A or whatever it was, that hit home, but I still knew they would do whatever they had to do to come back. And they did. I can't say I ever thought about them differently as people, can't say I thought about the situation too deeply at the time. Just upset and a little fearful.
Perhaps that is what it did to some people, like spiritual partners, over time. "If it happened to them, it could happen to me," must have been on some level in people's minds. I think without realising it that was somewhere in my head.
Glad I got over that.
I know when I left TWI one of the most emotional parts about it was the feeling that I was disappointing so many good people that I knew cared for me and that I was letting them down in some way, including my family. Reality is that if they felt that way, they were wrong. Leaving TWI has been one of the best things I have done. Getting kicked out, is possibly one of the best things that could have happened to you.
If anyone felt ripped off, it wasn't by you. It was by an organization that was just plain rediculous at times.
When we were dismissed, we had just received a check from one of our sponsors for something like $3000, most of a quarter's tuition. We asked, very respectfully, if we could transfer that to someone we knew was having difficulty getting their second quarter's tuition together. Got a face melting over that one. The money belongs not to you but to the Way Corps Finance Office. They will decide how it is used if not for your tuition. How dare a loathsome worm like you even so much as ask?
And then there was the lovely man in Kansas, married to the girl who was my maid of honor, who sent $500 or so relocation money on top of our tuition. God bless him!
When we were dismissed, we had just received a check from one of our sponsors for something like $3000, most of a quarter's tuition. We asked, very respectfully, if we could transfer that to someone we knew was having difficulty getting their second quarter's tuition together. Got a face melting over that one. The money belongs not to you but to the Way Corps Finance Office. They will decide how it is used if not for your tuition. How dare a loathsome worm like you even so much as ask?
You don't say whether or not you had turned the check in before this happened. I'd have torn it up in their faces and thanked my sponsors for caring so much.
Over the years, I sponsored about 20 folks. A couple of them left during their training, usually because the finances weren't in. I felt sad for them, but certainly no hard feelings. Most are out of TWI now. Good for them! A few are still "in" but none are active Corps. I don't feel disappointed by any of them.
But I always considered those monies as tithe monies I would have given anyways though TWI expressly said we shouldn't do that. TWI wanted their tithe money "off the top" from their members and any help going for corps sponsorship was 'above and beyond'. I had only so much I was going to give to "the ministry" and divided it up as I saw fit.
I was allowed to finish my time in residence because a person who left while in-rez and was totally paid up wrote a letter requesting his funds be used to my account. That was 1983.
One person I sponsored(a very small amount) is still in and holds a "leadership" position.
Another is in a splinter group and holds a "leadership" position there.
Thinking about that is probably worse than the other way around. lol!
In Fellow Laborers, we were "self-sponsored".
We had to ABS, sponsor a corps member, and work for them for free on top of that.
But there was always a lurking feeling that if you left the program you would be letting down the believers in your hometown who were counting on you to come back with spiritual enlightenment when you graduated.
I guess you could think of them as the FLO counterpart of a "spiritual partner".
In my case, that feeling was compounded because my family was "in the Word" also.
I can't remember any who quit the program,though I'm sure there must have been some.
People left FLO because they got "tossed" out, usually in the middle of the night.
We were never, ever given a reason.
I myself came close one time for something completely asinine.(on their part, not mine)
We were instructed to never discuss them and carry on as if they never existed.
In other words, "Just get over it!."
Maybe that's part of why this "Get over it!" stuff rubs me the wrong way.
It didn't help anyone one iota to ignore the contributions these people who were excused made to the program.
I think leadership knew we had these feelings about our commitments and used that knowledge to make us feel guilty. (and thus controlled us.)
Unfortunately we had turned the check in. Otherwise, we could have sent it back to the spiritual partner, along with the others. I think they made sure we all had our money in that they wanted to kick out before they lowered the boom.
This was an interesting topic to me. I finished the Corps program but left the ministry within a year of graduation. While in the program I was pretty faithful in writing my sponsors every month. I also tried to share with them something God had taught me scripturally or spiritually during that month.
Now, I would want to tell them that their money wasn't wasted. That some of the best growing up and foundational years of my life were my years in the Corps. The leadership there may have had their own agenda but God had His plans. Where their failure was, God's was not!!
I learned some of the greatest things while in the Corps that I wouldn't have learned if I hadn't been there. So, I will be forever greatful for the time I was able to be there and greatful for my sponsors who made that possible.
I was barely 20 when I went into the Corps and my time there nurtured my desire to help other people, to try to be honest, just and to keep trying to be holy as He is holy. My life ever since then has been centered around God, Jesus Christ and the power of the holy spirit. Through what I learned in the Corps and the confidence I gained there I have gone on to do many good things in the Father's name that has helped numerous people throughout the years.
For years I've told people that when God looks down on us He doesn't see denominational or nondenominational organizations - all He sees are His children, wherever we are and whoever we are or aren't with. Who cares how, when, where, with or who we learned to walk with God in serving Him and one another. As long as any of us stay(ed) faithful to God then no one's money, time, effort, emotion or energy was ever wasted.
I am blessed to be related to all my brothers and sisters in this great big wonderful family. Sure we have spats and get along better with some than others. Some are lovely and some are brats. Some are to be commended and some to be corrected. But the point is - we are family!!!! While I was in the Corps, living off of my sponsors money, I learned more about God's love - His for me and mine for Him and others - than I had ever learned anywhere else up to that point. It was God's plan to deviate and start from! And He has. It was a beginning for the long journey of healing, wholeness and growing up in Him in love in all things - to do His will for His purposes.
Some blew the gifts that allowed them to be in the Way Corps and some didn't. Some repented for the hurts they caused and some didn't. And not all Way Corps hurt people, some just stayed faithful to God and protected people as best they could. Overall, I think most of us grew away from TWI and and up into becoming exactly what God planned for us all along. I thank God for the sponsors who just followed God's prompting of their heart to sponsor us, without really knowing what would happen later. I still pray for my sponsors - I don't know who most of them are anymore but I figure God's got their name & number and knows exactly where to place the blessings!
Never was corps, but for almost every year of 22 year involvement did sponsor people. One guy took a check I sent and used it for relocation money, LCM had fits and my LC of the time said I had been robbed. I wrote the check with the guys name on it and if that is what he needed it for fine by me. I wasn't sending my money to just any one.
Every year long lost (cough) “friends” (cough) contacted and some even caught up with some small chit chat, then always these absent (cough) “friends” (cough) would ask to be sponsored. Just as they disappeared in the first place; they always disappeared; soon with a no and after time when the money wasn’t needed. Now that bothers me and makes me think I wasted time and money…….
This was an interesting topic to me. I finished the Corps program but left the ministry within a year of graduation. While in the program I was pretty faithful in writing my sponsors every month. I also tried to share with them something God had taught me scripturally or spiritually during that month.
Now, I would want to tell them that their money wasn't wasted. That some of the best growing up and foundational years of my life were my years in the Corps. The leadership there may have had their own agenda but God had His plans. Where their failure was, God's was not!!
I learned some of the greatest things while in the Corps that I wouldn't have learned if I hadn't been there. So, I will be forever greatful for the time I was able to be there and greatful for my sponsors who made that possible.
I was barely 20 when I went into the Corps and my time there nurtured my desire to help other people, to try to be honest, just and to keep trying to be holy as He is holy. My life ever since then has been centered around God, Jesus Christ and the power of the holy spirit. Through what I learned in the Corps and the confidence I gained there I have gone on to do many good things in the Father's name that has helped numerous people throughout the years.
For years I've told people that when God looks down on us He doesn't see denominational or nondenominational organizations - all He sees are His children, wherever we are and whoever we are or aren't with. Who cares how, when, where, with or who we learned to walk with God in serving Him and one another. As long as any of us stay(ed) faithful to God then no one's money, time, effort, emotion or energy was ever wasted.
I am blessed to be related to all my brothers and sisters in this great big wonderful family. Sure we have spats and get along better with some than others. Some are lovely and some are brats. Some are to be commended and some to be corrected. But the point is - we are family!!!! While I was in the Corps, living off of my sponsors money, I learned more about God's love - His for me and mine for Him and others - than I had ever learned anywhere else up to that point. It was God's plan to deviate and start from! And He has. It was a beginning for the long journey of healing, wholeness and growing up in Him in love in all things - to do His will for His purposes.
Some blew the gifts that allowed them to be in the Way Corps and some didn't. Some repented for the hurts they caused and some didn't. And not all Way Corps hurt people, some just stayed faithful to God and protected people as best they could. Overall, I think most of us grew away from TWI and and up into becoming exactly what God planned for us all along. I thank God for the sponsors who just followed God's prompting of their heart to sponsor us, without really knowing what would happen later. I still pray for my sponsors - I don't know who most of them are anymore but I figure God's got their name & number and knows exactly where to place the blessings!
Love to all of you and in His name, Edi
Good post Edi- you cannot direct the future like it was imposed on us..if it were Corp, Fellow Laborers, if money was involved or not..we stayed to love and to learn period,even tho in the long run did anyone know that the Way would end up the way it did!...Truly God looks on the heart..Men will never be there for us like God will be..I know several that want me back me to come back in but they have alot of learning (or relearning as I do when it comes to his love)..
I sponsored folks a bit when I could, but mostly I received sponsorship as corps. I didn't mind asking folks I felt "involved" with, but I hated being pressured to make the kind of (cough) 'friendly calls' (cough) that Ductape describes, and pressured we were. (Like witnessing... any contact was a contact worth checking. We were told: maybe they are just looking for an opportunity to give...)
I was always very thankful and humbled by those who felt that I was worth their investment and definately felt terrible when I left some of them hanging at the end. Of course, we weren't allowed to write and apologize or anything.
So, my thanks to those of you saying that you considered sponsoring folks money given from the heart and not something "owed back" so-to-speak. It does relieve some of the guilt, because like Twinky, most of the folks who sponsored me are gone or lost to me.
I would be interested in hearing if most Corps knew or had ever met the majority of their sponsors. There were many people in TWI who either contacted HDQ and asked for someone to sponsor or just sent money in and asked for it to be applied to someone who needed sponsorship.
The majority of our sponsors weren't known to us. We had never met them, seen them or had previous communication with them. And most of them didn't communicate with us. For the sponsors that weren't known to us, and with very brief communication, it was very hard to establish closeness with.
Hence, when their and our obligation was fulfilled neither stayed in contact with the other. I think the sponsors donated money because it's what God worked in their hearts to do. Even if none of us knew what the future held, God did. He had the big picture, for the ones who needed the donation and those who gave it.
Thank you all very much for your replies. They are heartwarming and I feel comforted at your generosity in supporting the in-rez WC and kindness in letting people grow and be where it was right for them.
Edi - I echo your long post.
I knew all of my SPs personally and some of them sent quite a lot of money. Few of them had much to give but I deeply respected all the financial assistance they were able to provide.
Two at least of my SPs later went into the WC (one left of his own volitiion - "afraid of leadership"); the other may have graduated. One is dead; several went into rez in the year or two after me - current status unknown; at least 3 others are WC still with TWI. One couple is now divorced. One man ran a CFFM fellowship for a while. The rest I don't have a clue about. It would be lovely to catch up with so many of them - perhaps some even post here.
I think it was right for me to go into the Corps and it's definitely right to not be there any more. I'm (now) glad I was kicked out because I probably wouldn't have left under my own volition (or left so soon, at any rate!). The only thing I regret now is that it took me so very long to get my head back in order afterwards and to start to live life (I'm talking a decade). My Dad has been so very good to me now that I humbly seek his love and kindness and am willing to receive it!
A couple of times in rez I had my sponsorship for the block and with the agreement of sponsors, donated some of their funds to other in rez Corps who hadn't made their funding by the required dates. (We didn't tell the Finance Office of this arrangement.)
I too had been told sponsorship was over and above ABS, which didn't seem right at the time and seems distinctly contrary now. Tithing was to support and provide for the needs of the priests and their families - which would include "trainee priests" as these could only come from certain families/tribes.
What else was the in rez Corps except "trainee priests" and such as should have been supported from ABS?
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Kit Sober
I always counted that my investment was in that person/those people and in the love of Christ they had.
I was taught and continue to believe that people are the greatest investment anyone can make -- better than stock market or real estate -- people are a better investment than anything else.
Now I know that anyone is better off without that place, but then I felt sorry for them leaving. Now I know people are so much better off, and I always hope they remember me with a kind kind of affection, where ever they are, whatever they are doing.
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lindyhopper
Water of a ducks back.
Perhaps one of the saddest things IMO, Twinky. I don't think it was just me.
It seems like after a while there were so many people that I knew that were kicked out for whatever reason, that it almost didn't faze me, outside of a shake of the head and a "that is too bad."
It may have been different if it were a really close friend, but I had ran out of most of those over the years as their families left or were kicked out.
When my parents were put on M&A or whatever it was, that hit home, but I still knew they would do whatever they had to do to come back. And they did. I can't say I ever thought about them differently as people, can't say I thought about the situation too deeply at the time. Just upset and a little fearful.
Perhaps that is what it did to some people, like spiritual partners, over time. "If it happened to them, it could happen to me," must have been on some level in people's minds. I think without realising it that was somewhere in my head.
Glad I got over that.
I know when I left TWI one of the most emotional parts about it was the feeling that I was disappointing so many good people that I knew cared for me and that I was letting them down in some way, including my family. Reality is that if they felt that way, they were wrong. Leaving TWI has been one of the best things I have done. Getting kicked out, is possibly one of the best things that could have happened to you.
If anyone felt ripped off, it wasn't by you. It was by an organization that was just plain rediculous at times.
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Watered Garden
When we were dismissed, we had just received a check from one of our sponsors for something like $3000, most of a quarter's tuition. We asked, very respectfully, if we could transfer that to someone we knew was having difficulty getting their second quarter's tuition together. Got a face melting over that one. The money belongs not to you but to the Way Corps Finance Office. They will decide how it is used if not for your tuition. How dare a loathsome worm like you even so much as ask?
And then there was the lovely man in Kansas, married to the girl who was my maid of honor, who sent $500 or so relocation money on top of our tuition. God bless him!
WG
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Ca_dreaming
I supported people because I wanted to.
Never thought once about what became of them down the line, til now.
No regrets or grudges, just glad I was able to give.
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GeorgeStGeorge
You don't say whether or not you had turned the check in before this happened. I'd have torn it up in their faces and thanked my sponsors for caring so much.
Over the years, I sponsored about 20 folks. A couple of them left during their training, usually because the finances weren't in. I felt sad for them, but certainly no hard feelings. Most are out of TWI now. Good for them! A few are still "in" but none are active Corps. I don't feel disappointed by any of them.
George
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Sudo
I supported only two people..
But I always considered those monies as tithe monies I would have given anyways though TWI expressly said we shouldn't do that. TWI wanted their tithe money "off the top" from their members and any help going for corps sponsorship was 'above and beyond'. I had only so much I was going to give to "the ministry" and divided it up as I saw fit.
sudo
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doojable
I was allowed to finish my time in residence because a person who left while in-rez and was totally paid up wrote a letter requesting his funds be used to my account. That was 1983.
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waysider
I never really thought of it like that, Twinky.
Dunno why. Just didn't.
One person I sponsored(a very small amount) is still in and holds a "leadership" position.
Another is in a splinter group and holds a "leadership" position there.
Thinking about that is probably worse than the other way around. lol!
In Fellow Laborers, we were "self-sponsored".
We had to ABS, sponsor a corps member, and work for them for free on top of that.
But there was always a lurking feeling that if you left the program you would be letting down the believers in your hometown who were counting on you to come back with spiritual enlightenment when you graduated.
I guess you could think of them as the FLO counterpart of a "spiritual partner".
In my case, that feeling was compounded because my family was "in the Word" also.
I can't remember any who quit the program,though I'm sure there must have been some.
People left FLO because they got "tossed" out, usually in the middle of the night.
We were never, ever given a reason.
I myself came close one time for something completely asinine.(on their part, not mine)
We were instructed to never discuss them and carry on as if they never existed.
In other words, "Just get over it!."
Maybe that's part of why this "Get over it!" stuff rubs me the wrong way.
It didn't help anyone one iota to ignore the contributions these people who were excused made to the program.
I think leadership knew we had these feelings about our commitments and used that knowledge to make us feel guilty. (and thus controlled us.)
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Watered Garden
GSG,
Unfortunately we had turned the check in. Otherwise, we could have sent it back to the spiritual partner, along with the others. I think they made sure we all had our money in that they wanted to kick out before they lowered the boom.
Too bad.
WG
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Edi
This was an interesting topic to me. I finished the Corps program but left the ministry within a year of graduation. While in the program I was pretty faithful in writing my sponsors every month. I also tried to share with them something God had taught me scripturally or spiritually during that month.
Now, I would want to tell them that their money wasn't wasted. That some of the best growing up and foundational years of my life were my years in the Corps. The leadership there may have had their own agenda but God had His plans. Where their failure was, God's was not!!
I learned some of the greatest things while in the Corps that I wouldn't have learned if I hadn't been there. So, I will be forever greatful for the time I was able to be there and greatful for my sponsors who made that possible.
I was barely 20 when I went into the Corps and my time there nurtured my desire to help other people, to try to be honest, just and to keep trying to be holy as He is holy. My life ever since then has been centered around God, Jesus Christ and the power of the holy spirit. Through what I learned in the Corps and the confidence I gained there I have gone on to do many good things in the Father's name that has helped numerous people throughout the years.
For years I've told people that when God looks down on us He doesn't see denominational or nondenominational organizations - all He sees are His children, wherever we are and whoever we are or aren't with. Who cares how, when, where, with or who we learned to walk with God in serving Him and one another. As long as any of us stay(ed) faithful to God then no one's money, time, effort, emotion or energy was ever wasted.
I am blessed to be related to all my brothers and sisters in this great big wonderful family. Sure we have spats and get along better with some than others. Some are lovely and some are brats. Some are to be commended and some to be corrected. But the point is - we are family!!!! While I was in the Corps, living off of my sponsors money, I learned more about God's love - His for me and mine for Him and others - than I had ever learned anywhere else up to that point. It was God's plan to deviate and start from! And He has. It was a beginning for the long journey of healing, wholeness and growing up in Him in love in all things - to do His will for His purposes.
Some blew the gifts that allowed them to be in the Way Corps and some didn't. Some repented for the hurts they caused and some didn't. And not all Way Corps hurt people, some just stayed faithful to God and protected people as best they could. Overall, I think most of us grew away from TWI and and up into becoming exactly what God planned for us all along. I thank God for the sponsors who just followed God's prompting of their heart to sponsor us, without really knowing what would happen later. I still pray for my sponsors - I don't know who most of them are anymore but I figure God's got their name & number and knows exactly where to place the blessings!
Love to all of you and in His name, Edi
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Ductape
Never was corps, but for almost every year of 22 year involvement did sponsor people. One guy took a check I sent and used it for relocation money, LCM had fits and my LC of the time said I had been robbed. I wrote the check with the guys name on it and if that is what he needed it for fine by me. I wasn't sending my money to just any one.
Every year long lost (cough) “friends” (cough) contacted and some even caught up with some small chit chat, then always these absent (cough) “friends” (cough) would ask to be sponsored. Just as they disappeared in the first place; they always disappeared; soon with a no and after time when the money wasn’t needed. Now that bothers me and makes me think I wasted time and money…….
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likeaneagle
Good post Edi- you cannot direct the future like it was imposed on us..if it were Corp, Fellow Laborers, if money was involved or not..we stayed to love and to learn period,even tho in the long run did anyone know that the Way would end up the way it did!...Truly God looks on the heart..Men will never be there for us like God will be..I know several that want me back me to come back in but they have alot of learning (or relearning as I do when it comes to his love)..
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TheHighWay
I sponsored folks a bit when I could, but mostly I received sponsorship as corps. I didn't mind asking folks I felt "involved" with, but I hated being pressured to make the kind of (cough) 'friendly calls' (cough) that Ductape describes, and pressured we were. (Like witnessing... any contact was a contact worth checking. We were told: maybe they are just looking for an opportunity to give...)
I was always very thankful and humbled by those who felt that I was worth their investment and definately felt terrible when I left some of them hanging at the end. Of course, we weren't allowed to write and apologize or anything.
So, my thanks to those of you saying that you considered sponsoring folks money given from the heart and not something "owed back" so-to-speak. It does relieve some of the guilt, because like Twinky, most of the folks who sponsored me are gone or lost to me.
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Edi
I would be interested in hearing if most Corps knew or had ever met the majority of their sponsors. There were many people in TWI who either contacted HDQ and asked for someone to sponsor or just sent money in and asked for it to be applied to someone who needed sponsorship.
The majority of our sponsors weren't known to us. We had never met them, seen them or had previous communication with them. And most of them didn't communicate with us. For the sponsors that weren't known to us, and with very brief communication, it was very hard to establish closeness with.
Hence, when their and our obligation was fulfilled neither stayed in contact with the other. I think the sponsors donated money because it's what God worked in their hearts to do. Even if none of us knew what the future held, God did. He had the big picture, for the ones who needed the donation and those who gave it.
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Twinky
Thank you all very much for your replies. They are heartwarming and I feel comforted at your generosity in supporting the in-rez WC and kindness in letting people grow and be where it was right for them.
Edi - I echo your long post.
I knew all of my SPs personally and some of them sent quite a lot of money. Few of them had much to give but I deeply respected all the financial assistance they were able to provide.
Two at least of my SPs later went into the WC (one left of his own volitiion - "afraid of leadership"); the other may have graduated. One is dead; several went into rez in the year or two after me - current status unknown; at least 3 others are WC still with TWI. One couple is now divorced. One man ran a CFFM fellowship for a while. The rest I don't have a clue about. It would be lovely to catch up with so many of them - perhaps some even post here.
I think it was right for me to go into the Corps and it's definitely right to not be there any more. I'm (now) glad I was kicked out because I probably wouldn't have left under my own volition (or left so soon, at any rate!). The only thing I regret now is that it took me so very long to get my head back in order afterwards and to start to live life (I'm talking a decade). My Dad has been so very good to me now that I humbly seek his love and kindness and am willing to receive it!
A couple of times in rez I had my sponsorship for the block and with the agreement of sponsors, donated some of their funds to other in rez Corps who hadn't made their funding by the required dates. (We didn't tell the Finance Office of this arrangement.)
I too had been told sponsorship was over and above ABS, which didn't seem right at the time and seems distinctly contrary now. Tithing was to support and provide for the needs of the priests and their families - which would include "trainee priests" as these could only come from certain families/tribes.
What else was the in rez Corps except "trainee priests" and such as should have been supported from ABS?
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Edi
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