I agree, I was getting ready to graduate from high school, had no prospects for the future. The wow offered me an exciting chance to make a difference in todays world, to be a warrior in the spiritual battle.
I didn`t have any guidance at home. My mom was overwhelmed trying to raise the kids that had been dumped off on her when my Dad left...To be part of a new spiritual family, where people were loved, where there was guidance, where people cared for one another...a great wonderfull spiritual family that couldn`t be broken and abandoned like my physical one.
It was an irresistable lure to a lonely teenager.
The transition was from high school to the adult world.
I transferred my need for direction and guidance and love to twi....
Great annalysis Sky. It helps me understand why I was so vulnerable.
I agree, I was getting ready to graduate from high school, had no prospects for the future. The wow offered me an exciting chance to make a difference in todays world, to be a warrior in the spiritual battle.
I didn`t have any guidance at home. My mom was overwhelmed trying to raise the kids that had been dumped off on her when my Dad left...To be part of a new spiritual family, where people were loved, where there was guidance, where people cared for one another...a great wonderfull spiritual family that couldn`t be broken and abandoned like my physical one.
It was an irresistable lure to a lonely teenager.
The transition was from high school to the adult world.
I transferred my need for direction and guidance and love to twi....
Great annalysis Sky. It helps me understand why I was so vulnerable.
Thanks rascal.
Not easy being a lonely teenager entering an adult world, is it?
Seems like there is MORE instruction and guidance from parents these days than back then. Maybe not.....but just with the internet alone, there is SO MUCH MORE information that one can easily attain on groups, cults.
And, even though there were red flag warnings.....I continued to *transfer* what I saw with the wows and disregard the corporate structure and machinery. Just wasn't able to connect the dots, I guess.
Bumpy! Hubert & Lloyd & Adam & Eva have all pointed out to me the numerous times you are adding a word and changing a word! Are you doing Satan's work? That's what veepee taught us in PLAF wasn't it?... that the devil added a word, changed a word!!!
Bumpy! Hubert & Lloyd & Adam & Eva have all pointed out to me the numerous times you are a grumpy bumpy! Are you doing Satan's work? That's what veepee taught us in PLAF wasn't it?... that the devil added a word, changed a word!!!
...ahh, but Satan had already been "SEDUCED" by Eva's rather deeeep Cleavage! He was willing to "play around" with a few little words to get what he wanted!
I think the same might be said about old veepee when "on the road"? Once the drinks were poured, it was pretty much o p e n season!
I thinks it's somewhat normal that we trusted those who shared the word with us. But alas at second thought I should have dug deeper at what was going on at top levels. They were very guarded though weren't they.
I thinks it's somewhat normal that we trusted those who shared the word with us. But alas at second thought I should have dug deeper at what was going on at top levels. They were very guarded though weren't they.
Thanks to those here who have enlightened us.
I'd say "welcome to the club..." but it's not such an exclusive club. Those two adjectives are nearly synonymous (sp?). But we didn't know it when we were 19 (that was my age when I was first introduced to twi).
And... WAYSIDER... I agree, excellent observations (as TomStrange said).
Indeed, the churches I've seen since leaving twi (still, very few, but there nevertheless), had focused teen AND young adult ministries. We all go through those transitions... all of us.
I got in the ministry in the early 70's when I was in my early 20's. That time period was in the midst of the sexual and drug revolution. When I got witnessed to I picked up the bible for the first time in my life and learned that God loved me. That very same night I turned away from my previous lifestyle and have never looked back. I can't imagine what would have happened to me if I hadn't gotten involved in the ministry at that time in my life. The ministry in Kansas, in the beginning, was really wonderful.
I received a new family, acceptance, understanding, love, encouragement, discipline, friendship, a home to live in (The Way Home of Kansas), among other things. I gained a lot in the ministry. Back then it was a pretty unique time. It didn't get much better than what I had in the beginning and it was better than what I had with my biological family and worldly friends.
I don't regret getting in the ministry, going into the Way Corps or leaving the ministry when I did. Those 7 years in my life was a season, served a purpose and was a stepping stone in my life.
Edi, I wish I'd had the sense to spend a season with twi and get out when I knew it was no longer beneficial...
I got involved in twi when I was attending college. At first, it was the knowledge of God and the Bible I was after... being a bit too involved in school and a bit too remote from a regular fellowship to get too attached to the people or entangled in twi. But after I graduated and realized I held a degree that was a "wrong fit" for me I was really looking for some kind of counsel and direction in my life, and twi filled that role for me.
I think if I had stayed single, I would have left twi in less than five years. Unfortunately I got married and transferred my willingness to be led to my spouse (who did anything and everything twi told him to do). By the time I realized I no longer had any input into my own life and was profoundly unhappy with the direction it had taken, I had no idea how to extricate myself and was afraid of the consequences of trying.
I had to get to the point of not caring about the consequences before I could make the break. That was 20 years after joining twi.
I got in the ministry in the early 70's when I was in my early 20's. That time period was in the midst of the sexual and drug revolution. When I got witnessed to I picked up the bible for the first time in my life and learned that God loved me. That very same night I turned away from my previous lifestyle and have never looked back. I can't imagine what would have happened to me if I hadn't gotten involved in the ministry at that time in my life. The ministry in Kansas, in the beginning, was really wonderful.
I received a new family, acceptance, understanding, love, encouragement, discipline, friendship, a home to live in (The Way Home of Kansas), among other things. I gained a lot in the ministry. Back then it was a pretty unique time. It didn't get much better than what I had in the beginning and it was better than what I had with my biological family and worldly friends.
I don't regret getting in the ministry, going into the Way Corps or leaving the ministry when I did. Those 7 years in my life was a season, served a purpose and was a stepping stone in my life.
I too met TWI in the early 70s, as you can tell from my name. Less than one year prior to my exposure via WOWs in my hometown I had been brutally gang-raped after escaping from a State Correctional Facility for juvenile girls, traveled to British Columbia, was arrested and deported from Canada, returned to the correctional facility from which I was finally released just a month before meeting the WOWs. I was awaiting the beginning of the winter term in January when I was scheduled to begin classes at a state university when I decided to go home to Belding from Ann Arbor where I was staying with friends. The night I met the WOWs I was on acid and really was only interested in the fact that they were from NY and KS. Nobody from anywhere came to my hometown, so I was intrigued. And my grandmother warned me that the Way Kids, as she called them, were not to be trusted, which, of course, tweaked my curiosity even more. As you can imagine, I was looking for a home and people to love and shelter me. My life up to that point had been less than lovely and TWI looked like heaven. And in lots of ways it was...for a while. Having been institutionalized off and on since I was 12 years old, I was open to the rules and regs and being positive that I was on the right path finally. I even met my first husband and father of my children at that first fellowship. I took PFAL in Minneapolis in March of 1972 (I wonder if Dave Bedard or John Clay remember me). My participation in the ministry and my marriage lasted 10 years. I left before the big row about which I have read so much. I took the Advanced Class in Kansas in 1980, was a WOW that same year (although I was not a good one) and left the ministry and my husband the next year. I thought that I was crazy. Maybe I was. I do remember sitting in a meeting at HQ in 1972 when Dr. Weirwille called a girl to the podium who had left the ministry for a while and ended up in a mental ward. He said that was what happens when we leave...
Anyway, here I am in my mid-fifties now, no longer the wandering child looking for a home for I have found happiness with my present husband and life. I am working with another woman who left The Way (we found each other by "accident" - I was her landlady and saw some mail from TWI in her mailbox. After I vomited I asked her if she was with the ministry and learned that she had left after a WOW year from Hell) in an holistic health and wellness center. There are people I wonder about. Some I really miss. And sometimes I still get nauseated when I hear something that reminds me of my time in the ministry. I am not a believer. But every time I fill up my oatmill cannister the voice in my head recites: Pressed down, shaken together and running over...
thank you for your first post belding! ...glad you shared that with us, someone will be by here in a few with something to eat and drink... I'm glad you made it here!
welcome belding. I was afraid of leaving, too. I've only been out a little over a year. sounds like they didn't change their imprisonment tactics! the fear of my kids dying if I left God's protection "in the household of zion" is what kept me in far too many years.
You always have the most thought-provoking posts. :)
Belding71, WELCOME!!!
As Tom promised... first order is on the house!
What can I getcha?
Excellent first post! Bless your heart! ((((((Belding71))))) there is much healing and help to be found here. Many, many folks have been through what you've been through.
TheHighway, you coulda been plagiarizing me if I had already posted about my experience. Our stories are so similar it's not really all that funny.
Welcome belding1971! You are amoung friends here! Feel free to post. There are many ex-wayers here who can help you in privite messageing and a lot a reading materials as well.
Welcome to the Spot Belding71! Do try the bisquits and gravy, they are awesome!
My story does not reflect any of those posted here. I took my first class to see what mom had gotten herself into. It took a great deal of convincing for me to even consider goin out WOW as I would have to drop out of College to do so. Subsequent decisions to live in a WOW Vet home in Little Rock for two years and to go into the Corps were based on a desire to learn what the leadership were always calling the "meat" of the word.
So much of what we were taught from HQ and on down was simply regurgitated PFAL or collaterals. So many made comments like "When you get into the real meat of the Word..." Being the competative, curious little shark that I am I wanted to get to this meat! So I followed the yellow brick road and ended up in Kansas.
Ultimately I came home without having completed the Corps and without having heard any real meat. But I did come home with quite the chip on my shoulder and disappointment in my heart.
I guess my transition and transference occured a little later in life. One thing is certain...I found out what mom had gotten herself into.
First time posting here, although I've been a lurker going back to Waydale.
Anyway, these experiences parallel my own. I had reached the end of my rope in college (I was a junior at the time), and I followed the same pattern of transition/transference. My sister had been very active in twi for a few years in the mid '70's, and I thought we could go the distance as God-centered brother and sister, following a very dysfunctional family upbringing. She left in '76 (favorite quote from her after my WOW placement in 1977: "Hey, maybe the Way Tree made a mistake". The horror! The horror!) But I hung around until '88, and I agree that I might have jumped ship much earlier if I'd been single.
I'm not so hard on myself now. I was a kid with a lot of needs who couldn't make a sound decision even with twi's version of the renewed mind. :)
I'm not so hard on myself now. I was a kid with a lot of needs who couldn't make a sound decision even with twi's version of the renewed mind. :)
hi drummer boy!
I can relate! I found that twi's version of the renewed mind just made learning how to make decisions pretty much impossible. I got in at a critical time, as a confused young adult, and all the promises of being able to learn how to do the things I knew that I didn't know how to do were incredibly enticing... like learning how to make sound decision, know right from wrong, how to become prosperous, and have a personal relationship with God. none of those promises came true, although I think I somehow managed to partially accomplish the latter IN SPITE of twi's doctrines. the rest of it I'm finally learning.
Thank you for the warm welcome. Eyes, I think it was just a matter of being busy with life in general. I've also been working on my Ph.D. while teaching full-time, so with all of that, I guess I just never started to post in the forums. I posted once in the Ohio friends search section some time back.
I read this thread and I could identify with what others posted. Eyes, I think your thread on LEAD 1986 was also something that inspired me to begin posting. I have a few things to share in the Cafe, I'll admit as much for my benefit as for others.
I loved the picture of the snow-covered flamingos. If you've lived in northeast Ohio, you know that that's pretty much how they look from December to April.
Eyes, you can find my lurking shoes for sale on eBay. Maybe I should sell my WOW pin too. My spouse had the nerve to ask me yesterday if that pin was real gold and if we might get a few bucks for it somewhere. I went through too much to get rid of that now. I think it might be fool's gold. :) She has a pin of her own, so perhaps she should take it to a pawn shop, much like we took one of my drumsets to pay for Corps sponsorship. Oh the pain...that's another story...
Waysider, did you know that I lived in Parma OH for several years? The city bird is the plastic pink flamingo, which when I was in high school adorned many a lawn as a serious fashion statement, not as a practical joke for turning a certain age.
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rascal
Nice post Skyrider.
I agree, I was getting ready to graduate from high school, had no prospects for the future. The wow offered me an exciting chance to make a difference in todays world, to be a warrior in the spiritual battle.
I didn`t have any guidance at home. My mom was overwhelmed trying to raise the kids that had been dumped off on her when my Dad left...To be part of a new spiritual family, where people were loved, where there was guidance, where people cared for one another...a great wonderfull spiritual family that couldn`t be broken and abandoned like my physical one.
It was an irresistable lure to a lonely teenager.
The transition was from high school to the adult world.
I transferred my need for direction and guidance and love to twi....
Great annalysis Sky. It helps me understand why I was so vulnerable.
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skyrider
Thanks rascal.
Not easy being a lonely teenager entering an adult world, is it?
Seems like there is MORE instruction and guidance from parents these days than back then. Maybe not.....but just with the internet alone, there is SO MUCH MORE information that one can easily attain on groups, cults.
And, even though there were red flag warnings.....I continued to *transfer* what I saw with the wows and disregard the corporate structure and machinery. Just wasn't able to connect the dots, I guess.
Oh, well.
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Tom Strange
Those are excellent observations sky... excellent!
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Bumpy
Indeed! And "strangely" seems to apply to our good friends from Eden... Adam & Eva! I wonder if they would have "considered" going WC / WOW?
Or would they have just Transferred Out having tasted a little of the home cooked "fruit"!
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skyrider
Well......I transferred OUT after having tasted a little of the hq-homecooked food.
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Tom Strange
Bumpy! Hubert & Lloyd & Adam & Eva have all pointed out to me the numerous times you are adding a word and changing a word! Are you doing Satan's work? That's what veepee taught us in PLAF wasn't it?... that the devil added a word, changed a word!!!
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Bumpy
...ahh, but Satan had already been "SEDUCED" by Eva's rather deeeep Cleavage! He was willing to "play around" with a few little words to get what he wanted!
I think the same might be said about old veepee when "on the road"? Once the drinks were poured, it was pretty much o p e n season!
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polar bear
Nice thread Sky-
I was young and stupid.
I thinks it's somewhat normal that we trusted those who shared the word with us. But alas at second thought I should have dug deeper at what was going on at top levels. They were very guarded though weren't they.
Thanks to those here who have enlightened us.
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Rocky
I'd say "welcome to the club..." but it's not such an exclusive club. Those two adjectives are nearly synonymous (sp?). But we didn't know it when we were 19 (that was my age when I was first introduced to twi).
And... WAYSIDER... I agree, excellent observations (as TomStrange said).
Indeed, the churches I've seen since leaving twi (still, very few, but there nevertheless), had focused teen AND young adult ministries. We all go through those transitions... all of us.
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Edi
I got in the ministry in the early 70's when I was in my early 20's. That time period was in the midst of the sexual and drug revolution. When I got witnessed to I picked up the bible for the first time in my life and learned that God loved me. That very same night I turned away from my previous lifestyle and have never looked back. I can't imagine what would have happened to me if I hadn't gotten involved in the ministry at that time in my life. The ministry in Kansas, in the beginning, was really wonderful.
I received a new family, acceptance, understanding, love, encouragement, discipline, friendship, a home to live in (The Way Home of Kansas), among other things. I gained a lot in the ministry. Back then it was a pretty unique time. It didn't get much better than what I had in the beginning and it was better than what I had with my biological family and worldly friends.
I don't regret getting in the ministry, going into the Way Corps or leaving the ministry when I did. Those 7 years in my life was a season, served a purpose and was a stepping stone in my life.
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TheHighWay
Great post Skyrider!!
Edi, I wish I'd had the sense to spend a season with twi and get out when I knew it was no longer beneficial...
I got involved in twi when I was attending college. At first, it was the knowledge of God and the Bible I was after... being a bit too involved in school and a bit too remote from a regular fellowship to get too attached to the people or entangled in twi. But after I graduated and realized I held a degree that was a "wrong fit" for me I was really looking for some kind of counsel and direction in my life, and twi filled that role for me.
I think if I had stayed single, I would have left twi in less than five years. Unfortunately I got married and transferred my willingness to be led to my spouse (who did anything and everything twi told him to do). By the time I realized I no longer had any input into my own life and was profoundly unhappy with the direction it had taken, I had no idea how to extricate myself and was afraid of the consequences of trying.
I had to get to the point of not caring about the consequences before I could make the break. That was 20 years after joining twi.
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belding71
Anyway, here I am in my mid-fifties now, no longer the wandering child looking for a home for I have found happiness with my present husband and life. I am working with another woman who left The Way (we found each other by "accident" - I was her landlady and saw some mail from TWI in her mailbox. After I vomited I asked her if she was with the ministry and learned that she had left after a WOW year from Hell) in an holistic health and wellness center. There are people I wonder about. Some I really miss. And sometimes I still get nauseated when I hear something that reminds me of my time in the ministry. I am not a believer. But every time I fill up my oatmill cannister the voice in my head recites: Pressed down, shaken together and running over...
Anybody with a comment, please be gentle...
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Tom Strange
thank you for your first post belding! ...glad you shared that with us, someone will be by here in a few with something to eat and drink... I'm glad you made it here!
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potato
welcome belding. I was afraid of leaving, too. I've only been out a little over a year. sounds like they didn't change their imprisonment tactics! the fear of my kids dying if I left God's protection "in the household of zion" is what kept me in far too many years.
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Belle
(((((Sky)))))
You always have the most thought-provoking posts. :)
Belding71, WELCOME!!!
As Tom promised... first order is on the house!
What can I getcha?
Excellent first post! Bless your heart! ((((((Belding71))))) there is much healing and help to be found here. Many, many folks have been through what you've been through.
TheHighway, you coulda been plagiarizing me if I had already posted about my experience. Our stories are so similar it's not really all that funny.
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nyunknown
Anybody with a comment, please be gentle...
Welcome belding1971! You are amoung friends here! Feel free to post. There are many ex-wayers here who can help you in privite messageing and a lot a reading materials as well.
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Eyesopen
Welcome to the Spot Belding71! Do try the bisquits and gravy, they are awesome!
My story does not reflect any of those posted here. I took my first class to see what mom had gotten herself into. It took a great deal of convincing for me to even consider goin out WOW as I would have to drop out of College to do so. Subsequent decisions to live in a WOW Vet home in Little Rock for two years and to go into the Corps were based on a desire to learn what the leadership were always calling the "meat" of the word.
So much of what we were taught from HQ and on down was simply regurgitated PFAL or collaterals. So many made comments like "When you get into the real meat of the Word..." Being the competative, curious little shark that I am I wanted to get to this meat! So I followed the yellow brick road and ended up in Kansas.
Ultimately I came home without having completed the Corps and without having heard any real meat. But I did come home with quite the chip on my shoulder and disappointment in my heart.
I guess my transition and transference occured a little later in life. One thing is certain...I found out what mom had gotten herself into.
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waysider
Hello and Welcome, Belding71.
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drummerboy
Hello all:
First time posting here, although I've been a lurker going back to Waydale.
Anyway, these experiences parallel my own. I had reached the end of my rope in college (I was a junior at the time), and I followed the same pattern of transition/transference. My sister had been very active in twi for a few years in the mid '70's, and I thought we could go the distance as God-centered brother and sister, following a very dysfunctional family upbringing. She left in '76 (favorite quote from her after my WOW placement in 1977: "Hey, maybe the Way Tree made a mistake". The horror! The horror!) But I hung around until '88, and I agree that I might have jumped ship much earlier if I'd been single.
I'm not so hard on myself now. I was a kid with a lot of needs who couldn't make a sound decision even with twi's version of the renewed mind. :)
Love,
drummer boy
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Eyesopen
Glad you decided to post Drummer Boy. What made you decide to post now? Just curious.
So have you put up your lurking shoes?
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waysider
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/128/3474323...2e8ed2812_m.jpg
Welcome, drummerboy
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potato
hi drummer boy!
I can relate! I found that twi's version of the renewed mind just made learning how to make decisions pretty much impossible. I got in at a critical time, as a confused young adult, and all the promises of being able to learn how to do the things I knew that I didn't know how to do were incredibly enticing... like learning how to make sound decision, know right from wrong, how to become prosperous, and have a personal relationship with God. none of those promises came true, although I think I somehow managed to partially accomplish the latter IN SPITE of twi's doctrines. the rest of it I'm finally learning.
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drummerboy
Hello all:
Thank you for the warm welcome. Eyes, I think it was just a matter of being busy with life in general. I've also been working on my Ph.D. while teaching full-time, so with all of that, I guess I just never started to post in the forums. I posted once in the Ohio friends search section some time back.
I read this thread and I could identify with what others posted. Eyes, I think your thread on LEAD 1986 was also something that inspired me to begin posting. I have a few things to share in the Cafe, I'll admit as much for my benefit as for others.
I loved the picture of the snow-covered flamingos. If you've lived in northeast Ohio, you know that that's pretty much how they look from December to April.
Looking forward to the virtual sharing.
Love,
drummerboy
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drummerboy
Oh yes, I neglected to mention...
Eyes, you can find my lurking shoes for sale on eBay. Maybe I should sell my WOW pin too. My spouse had the nerve to ask me yesterday if that pin was real gold and if we might get a few bucks for it somewhere. I went through too much to get rid of that now. I think it might be fool's gold. :) She has a pin of her own, so perhaps she should take it to a pawn shop, much like we took one of my drumsets to pay for Corps sponsorship. Oh the pain...that's another story...
Waysider, did you know that I lived in Parma OH for several years? The city bird is the plastic pink flamingo, which when I was in high school adorned many a lawn as a serious fashion statement, not as a practical joke for turning a certain age.
Love to all,
drummerboy
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