...and I recall those "advances"...the ones where they would charge you about $269 for one night in a hotel and a couple of skimpy meals...(along with a cheap syllabus)...and they would STILL pass the horn before it was over.
they had multiple ways in which to make money off of you and it seemed like nothing ever came back except cheap junk.
Maybe that's why they could afford to build their empire...Hdqrts, Emporia, Rome city, Gunison, Scotland, New Mexico location...private planes, buses, motorcycles, etc., etc., etc...
even today they still have what?...40 million in assets?...all collected from the glory years of VP...
I remember the 1st time I took the class (1975)...I was hanging around after the session ended and I overheard someone being chewed out for not donating to the refreshment fund...I remember thinking...7 people are paying $85 bucks apiece for cassette tapes that will be returned for further use...what? they can't afford to buy refreshments?
...the next session, I brought them a can a coffee and a box of cookies...I should have known better.
All those Sunday Night Teaching tapes I bought were the cheapest cassette tapes available on the market. They would eventually start squeeking and screeching. The recordings on one side would start bleeding over when playing the other side of the cassette, or the magnetic tape would break or get all twisted and unusable. I used to enjoy listening to them over and over, but before long they were unusable unless you wanted to ignore all the annoying, extraneous noise.
My WOW nametag lasted about two months. It got rained on one day, and my name in magic marker ran and got all blurry. Couldn't get a replacement though. Good heavens, I was told, aren't you a faithful steward of the things of God? We can't give you another one, just deal with it. (I still have it, sometimes wear it to Halloween parties.)
To this day, I can't drive by a Goodwill store without thinking of The Way and all the clothes and furniture that we had to buy there. Each time I see ketchup packets in a restaurant, I still remember how my WOW family would take home all we could fit in our pockets so we could make ketchup soup.
And, did you have permission to steal toilet paper from restaurants and other public bathrooms when it was "available", since they had more than enough to "meet their needs" and, anyway, God would somehow bless them for sharing it with you?
Gawd, I had no idea used grounds were used with salt! I just thought people had no idea how to make coffee. I started bringing and making coffee so it wouldn't be so bad.
I also remember Styrofoam cups. I don't drink out of them if I can avoid it. I brought my own cup and my own sweetener because I didn't expect people to cater to my tastes. Most times I brought the half 'n half because I don't do creamer, either.
The one class I helped on I bought and made all the coffee after the first pot of really bad stuff was served to the guests. All the team was expected to chip in for refreshments.
Most of us were young and just starting out with not a lot of money to burn on non-essentials. I was pretty frugal myself in those days, so I didn't notice it so much.
In 1977,It was an old reel to reel,squaeky,Cbs were big at that time,somehow that bled through,and
sounded real bad.Never had exposure to twi until that roa 77,Charging 50 cents for like 8oz of watered down juice.Next were the wows in my home town,One here could eloborate.
Classes at 30 bucks a pop,Oh,We need a gift for the leader,Natch they drove brand new cars,Then complained when some minor problem happened to said car.Refreshment,if proved by self,were never thanked for.
I drank some pretty powerful koolaid,as it took almost 25 years to wake up and finally smell the coffee.
I had forgotten all about the junky, old, run-down equipment we were expected to maintain out of our own pockets. Tape broke on the reel-to-reel? Go buy a splice kit. Bulb burned out on the projector? Go buy a replacement. Don't bother asking HQ to reimburse you, though. You'll be reminded that you should be "believing" God to supply you with the abundance to pay for it all yourself. Yep, they ran a pretty tight ship. Probably just some sort of fluke that they wound up with 55 million dollars worth of assets to show for it.
Gawd, I had no idea used grounds were used with salt!
now you know..
they didn't use 100 % old grounds. about fifty to seventy percent. Sprinkle a few fresh grounds, and a pinch of salt on top..
The instructor didn't see a single dime.. nor the refreshment makers.. nor those who came early to clean the sidewalks and parking lot.. meticulously clean the room.. string chairs..
I think the coffee came out of some kind of branch fund. If I remember correctly, it did NOT come from headquarters..
even the tapes.. I don't think they shipped them ups.. people picked them up from the limb.
When vhs was rather archaic, I remember the limb had a machine.. old half inch, commercial tapes and machines.. but after that, you were on your own..
the local area supplied the machines, the televisions, the av equipment..
even at a hundred dollars "donation".. let's say seven new students.. that's just $700.00. If one wanted to run a class in a professional manner.. the money would be gone even before it started..
The only way to make money off of a CHEAP BIBLE class.. turn it into an exercise of cheapness.. with donated labor, stretched coffee, used styrofoam cups..
the quality of the "materials" I got with my first class- paperbacks with glue for bindings.. and a fifteen page binder.. cost? Probably no more than ten bucks..
pretty good "profit" for a "non profit" organization.. they were worse than wallymart cheapness.. at least the poor employess get a (rather small) paycheck..
The next exercise in cheapness- branch meetings. I'm certain not all, but the vast majority.
Well.. it's time to invite the public, put on the dog.. show people what the ministry has to offer..
at a "bargain" of course. A location would be nice. Well, a free location. If not free.. a community building at a trailer park might suffice for a meeting for forty or so people..
besides, it's CHEAP- if someone in the branch lives in the park. They can get it for maybe twenty or twenty five bucks a night..
same routine, unpaid cigarette butt picker uppers, window cleaners, vacuumers, and chair stringers.
A floral display might be appropriate.. show the richness, the pageantry of the event..
the kind of flowers we are talking about.. maybe would cost around $100.00 or so.. let's do it on the CHEAP.
Why BUY, when one can make a few phone calls, and work over funeral homes which have no further need for them? They are "kinda' new..
I was "volunteered" to make some of these calls.. the last one.. "ummmm, are you JOKING?"
HAmmy when and where were you at ... If you don't mind my asking and I am feeling like we had some luxury... well we didn't have recycled coffee... ever and no styrofoam and we met at peoples homes... and the one big even I helped organize was a Thanksgiving afair and it was at a grainge hall nad we had a blast,,
II do know though that all refreshments ansd set up was done by everyone in the twigs,
I, too, was always the guy who had to find free meeting rooms, floral arrangements, extra chairs from funeral homes and so forth. I think people must have felt sorry for me because I had a fairly high level of success.
HAmmy when and where were you at ... If you don't mind my asking and I am feeling like we had some luxury... well we didn't have recycled coffee... ever and no styrofoam and we met at peoples homes... and the one big even I helped organize was a Thanksgiving afair and it was at a grainge hall nad we had a blast,,
II do know though that all refreshments ansd set up was done by everyone in the twigs,
I am feeling like a lucky Dog right now!
later, in the eighties and early nineties we took coffee matters into our own hands..
I took my first plaf class in west virginia in 1974.
it was pretty austere..
I was signed up for this thing for almost a year.. paid and all..
the "leadership".. suggested that I and another signee somehow find another five people so that we could run the class..
no kidding..
when I finally got to where a class could run.. it was forty stinking miles away from where I lived.. we commuted.. four nights a week..
to Beckley, WV.. not exactly a "paradise" of sorts..
they ran an audio class, on open reel audio tape.
Rich*rd C*nningam was the class coordinator..
and the coffee.. was horrid..
We must be kindred spirits, Ham.
I, too, was always the guy who had to find free meeting rooms, floral arrangements, extra chairs from funeral homes and so forth. I think people must have felt sorry for me because I had a fairly high level of success.
I forgot that part.. the extra chairs from the funeral homes.. yeah, we did that..
they were painted on the bottom with the funeral home's name.. I wonder if any of the students ever looked.. or what they thought..
sheesh..
how cheap can one get..
how many borrowed chairs do seven to ten new students need?
Cheap labor--or free labor. For some reason I was always around a limb home. . . I got to babysit for free. . . to be blessed. . . I got to help with the yard work for free. . . . to be blessed. . . .I got to run the bookstore for free. . . . to be blessed. . . I have a feeling I missed the blessing as it was bestowed on those higher up on the food chain.
So many people worked these limb homes. . . cleaning---driving--landscaping---events--none of it was paid, but I sure remember alot of effort for "perfection" going into these "jobs".
A smart branch leader could pull off much of the same magic--if they were savvy enough or a big enough bully.
Events for the rank and file believers were cheap--but let VP or LCM come to town and the red carpet was rolled out. . . I think that might be literal. There was always money for good coffee then.
I really really didn't mind paying for the initial class, but after that it was a bloodsucking operation.
What I remember is always having people in my home who needed a place to stay. We were volunteered so many times to "House" people who were passing through or basically homeless. Usually Way Corps. Always at our own expense. Like we had this endless fountain of cash to dole out. We were poor. This was on top of the free labor and ABS and sponsorship. They usually would tell me how to run my household. . . the best way to clean a shower and save time. . . how to fold my laundry. . . what to feed my kid.
It wasn't until my second child that we finally lived on our own. I always shared expenses with other believers or lived in a Way Home.
What I remember is the endless commitments. . . and working jobs with other believers. That was so we could keep our endless commitments---and we were usually paid next to nothing.
Some of these guys really took advantage of the cheap labor pool. REV. JH comes to mind. He paid his guys next to nothing, but they were to be commited 150%. He cut their pay when he felt they needed a lesson or if he just felt like it.
We had one branch leader who actually was a pretty nice guy, but we worked for him and business was another matter. Hubby was driving a work truck--got pulled over for the registration--it had lapsed--hubby got hauled in and fined . . . it was a big deal--he sat in a cell for a few hours. We paid the fine, but the branch leader would NOT reimburse us! He laughed. Not meanly, but somehow it was funny to him. We never got the money back. It was the branch leaders truck--he was responsible for the registration--he knew--he told hubby to take the truck!! We worked for him as an employee.
It was all cheap--for us. . . the higher up you were the more advantage you could take.. . . . all the way to the top.
The level of cheapness also depended on where you were. . . some places were more affluent than others. Better coffee.
The cheap/free labor was only part of the equation. The other part was that it was never good enough. No matter how much of it you did or how well you did it, it was never enough, never up to their standards. Giving them 15 or 20% of your income wasn't good enough; you had to pay your own postage to send it. Yeah, don't just stab me, use my knife. Fellow Laborers was like that. Commit yourself to their service from 5am til midnight. It's still not good enough. They wake you up at 3am to ream you out for not being committed enough, for dropping the ball. No specifics are given, just vague generalities. You feel so dejected. You've given so much. How could you have known that what you were giving wasn't enough, wasn't up to their standards? Is it possible that people who don't understand why the "freebies" were such a big deal only saw part of the equation? Maybe they never had to experience that sense of futility that comes with the other part. That would explain a lot.
And it wasn't just the fact that it was free labor, and scavenging used and borrowed crap (yeah, I was on the funeral home chair duty too) but it was the assumption that your time was not your own.
During my last couple of years in TWI I worked out of my home (didn't own my own business, but worked out of my car & basement) and my kids were home schooled by my first wife. Leadership knew this and were always bugging us to go witnessing with them, have meetings at our house, or call and interrupt our day with hour-long phone calls.
Does anybody remember being encouraged to hit up the local car dealers for used car donations? We were supposed to tell them it was tax deductible because it was for a "missionary effort". I never worked up the nerve to try it myself.
Good Grief the more I read here the more happy I am that we left..when we did.. We missed so much of this stuff
it is funny though now that you are talking about the chairs it reminded me that our chairs for the PFAL class I took were from the local funeral home. HMMMMM.. THey hadn't started teh car thing yet when I was WOW but I remember when we were doing a Christmas event(Not as a WOW) some one was supposed to get flowers and got repremanded and their suggestions were funerla homes and tree lots for chopped off greens,
One of the things i remember Most about TWI was the push for uter and complete perfection... ANd the free labor.. Especially since I was the free labor a lot of the time
Don't get me wrong I freely volunteered myself not for a blessing but because I felt it was my duty to God,,, I know a sucker is born every minute but hey those suckers have to come from some where Right??
The cheap/free labor was only part of the equation. The other part was that it was never good enough. No matter how much of it you did or how well you did it, it was never enough, never up to their standards. Giving them 15 or 20% of your income wasn't good enough; you had to pay your own postage to send it. Yeah, don't just stab me, use my knife. Fellow Laborers was like that. Commit yourself to their service from 5am til midnight. It's still not good enough. They wake you up at 3am to ream you out for not being committed enough, for dropping the ball. No specifics are given, just vague generalities. You feel so dejected. You've given so much. How could you have known that what you were giving wasn't enough, wasn't up to their standards? Is it possible that people who don't understand why the "freebies" were such a big deal only saw part of the equation? Maybe they never had to experience that sense of futility that comes with the other part. That would explain a lot.
That, BTW, was common for both vpw AND lcm.
Corps Week was when the Corps got together,
and was when the Corps did the set-up and assembly of all the physical details
needed for the ROA.
(Setting up Registration, the tents, Family Tables, food stands...)
So, these Corps did setup and met together, then went home.
They worked for free for the week preceding ROA.
Some people went back home as soon as it was over, and didn't stay a SECOND
week to work for free again.
"Dr heard about it and reproved everyone in the corps household for the problem, for not helping to put it on."
Setting up all that stuff doesn't count as "helping to put it on"?
That was a week's free labour!
"Reproved" them?
He should have THANKED them for the free labour!
After all,
there WAS an admission, we DID PAY for setup,
so things COULD have been done with local workers,
providing work for labourers locally.
Of course, that would mean vpw would have to accept
seeing money exit.
What was his lame excuse?
"He reminded everyone of the commitments that they had made regarding a lifetime of Christian service."
They served a week of hard labour. What about that?
Further, when did "a lifetime of Christian service"
become synonymous with
"involuntary servitude for life at the whims of twi"?
I don't remember MANDATORY ROA attendance
being required in the corps signups-did anyone sign such a document?
"Every corps person needs to plan ahead one year or more so that they can be a part of
these events. They need to be able to be a part of ROA and corps fellowship."
It occasionally came as a surprise to those people who never actually
WORKED for a living
(vpw went straight from school into pastoring,
lcm went straight from school into the way corps),
but REAL jobs have REQUIREMENTS and RESPONSIBILITIES.
All these people made arrangements for a VACATION WEEK from work
(for some of them, this was their ONLY vacation, or was unpaid leave),
paid to travel to hq on their own from all over the country,
and WORKED for a week, unpaid.
Now you have the nerve to say
"Not good enough-work MORE for free!"
NO!
These people have families to support, jobs to perform, and lives to maintain.
If they leave, it's because they HAVE to, not because they WANT to, simp!
The whole attitude about work was that it was something you did when you weren't busy with "the ministry".
I've seen more than a few people who could have advanced in their jobs, but went nowhere because their availablity was severely restricted due to twig schedules, advances, classes, witnessing, etc.
...No matter what you did it was never enough. They had people pushing themselves to exhaustion and sacrificing a great deal in order to keep their green name tags...Very seldom does arrogance show gratitude...twi was no exception to that.
and was when the Corps did the set-up and assembly of all the physical details
needed for the ROA.
(Setting up Registration, the tents, Family Tables, food stands...)
So, these Corps did setup and met together, then went home.
They worked for free for the week preceding ROA.
Some people went back home as soon as it was over, and didn't stay a SECOND
week to work for free again.
"Dr heard about it and reproved everyone in the corps household for the problem, for not helping to put it on."
LIKE ALL THINGS IN TWI.........what started out as simple, grew obtusely insane DURING wierwille's era and worse during martindale's legalism. Those first two roa were rudimentally simple......sitting on the grass and listening to some musicians while wierwille sprinkled in a few short "teachings."
Not only was it TWO WEEKS OF FREE LABOR FOR TWI........it was two weeks AWAY FROM WORK, two weeks of TRAVEL EXPENSES, two weeks of ONE'S ANNUAL PILGRIMAGE TO TWI, two weeks of "VACATION TAKEN" and no time to visit family and relatives, two weeks of SHUFFLING KIDS AROUND WITH LITTLE SUPERVISION, two weeks of work, exploitation, butt-numbing meetings, crazy work shifts that were MANDATORY, two weeks of "SPIRITUAL-GROUND-HOG-DAY."
The top-tier in twi, and staff......were the supervisors, while the field corps were the grunts. The hq people slept in their own air-conditioned bedrooms......many corps slept on cots, in corps tents. The hq staff were able to slip away to their units and rest.......and after two weeks, field corps were tired, irritable, sick. All thanks and adulation went to wierwille and co........the corps-slaves were there to row the boat.
AND WHEN DID ALL THIS COME TO A GRINDING HALT..???...........IMMEDIATELY AFTER MARTINDALE ASSIGNED ALL CORPS TO FULL-TIME STATUS IN 1995. Yes, the last roa was in 1995.......because after that, twi was responsible to pay all expenses of all corps that twi incurred......all traveling expenses, motel expenses, working at corps week was NOW "twi-time" since corps were full-time, kids' happy meals, all of it. Therefore, with each passing corps meeting after September 1995......TWI scaled back every major activity and function and even mandated which corps would be "invited" to attend upcoming WIB conferences.
The whole attitude about work was that it was something you did when you weren't busy with "the ministry".
I've seen more than a few people who could have advanced in their jobs, but went nowhere because their availablity was severely restricted due to twig schedules, advances, classes, witnessing, etc.
Except, did you ever notice what deference was given to those professionals that were established already? I moved around alot(Of course) and in some areas there were doctors-lawyers and people with real jobs. I noticed these people were usually given a pass on the labor and hit up for their homes being used or more money.
We had friends whose father was a semi-famous TV personality but he was not in the ministry or a PFAL grad. LCM would laud these "Great believers and their family as being examples. Now, they WERE VERY nice people, but it was always odd how they were singled out. We used to help them out with "Labor" all the time.
I think that whole work and college thing--where the ministry was more important--really did have an impact. When I left I was older than your AVERAGE college co-ed and had to spend a bunch of time playing catch up. Married with kids and no education or real job experience at that age was difficult to say the least.
I just gave up and started sub-contracting work. It really was a joke. . . the whole thing--someone want to explain exactly HOW--cleaning a limb home was serving God?
Better stop reading this thread--it is starting to bring up memories of lost youth and is ticking me off. What a total WASTE of time it all was.
How did it "Profit" any of us? We learned how to work?. . . . Well heck, I already knew that . . .
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GrouchoMarxJr
...and I recall those "advances"...the ones where they would charge you about $269 for one night in a hotel and a couple of skimpy meals...(along with a cheap syllabus)...and they would STILL pass the horn before it was over.
they had multiple ways in which to make money off of you and it seemed like nothing ever came back except cheap junk.
Maybe that's why they could afford to build their empire...Hdqrts, Emporia, Rome city, Gunison, Scotland, New Mexico location...private planes, buses, motorcycles, etc., etc., etc...
even today they still have what?...40 million in assets?...all collected from the glory years of VP...
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waysider
Ahhhhhh!
The styro cups with teethmarks and lipstick stains.
Half fresh grounds mixed with half of yesterday's grounds and a "peench" of salt to cut the bitterness.
Such fond memories.
*Sigh*
Of course, it was really all our fault.
We could have just as easily chosen to use fine English chinaware and serve pate instead of cookies.
Yes, I'm afraid it's entirely our fault the refreshments were so atrocious.
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GrouchoMarxJr
I remember the 1st time I took the class (1975)...I was hanging around after the session ended and I overheard someone being chewed out for not donating to the refreshment fund...I remember thinking...7 people are paying $85 bucks apiece for cassette tapes that will be returned for further use...what? they can't afford to buy refreshments?
...the next session, I brought them a can a coffee and a box of cookies...I should have known better.
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OperaBuff
Where to begin?!
All those Sunday Night Teaching tapes I bought were the cheapest cassette tapes available on the market. They would eventually start squeeking and screeching. The recordings on one side would start bleeding over when playing the other side of the cassette, or the magnetic tape would break or get all twisted and unusable. I used to enjoy listening to them over and over, but before long they were unusable unless you wanted to ignore all the annoying, extraneous noise.
My WOW nametag lasted about two months. It got rained on one day, and my name in magic marker ran and got all blurry. Couldn't get a replacement though. Good heavens, I was told, aren't you a faithful steward of the things of God? We can't give you another one, just deal with it. (I still have it, sometimes wear it to Halloween parties.)
To this day, I can't drive by a Goodwill store without thinking of The Way and all the clothes and furniture that we had to buy there. Each time I see ketchup packets in a restaurant, I still remember how my WOW family would take home all we could fit in our pockets so we could make ketchup soup.
And, did you have permission to steal toilet paper from restaurants and other public bathrooms when it was "available", since they had more than enough to "meet their needs" and, anyway, God would somehow bless them for sharing it with you?
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Tzaia
Gawd, I had no idea used grounds were used with salt! I just thought people had no idea how to make coffee. I started bringing and making coffee so it wouldn't be so bad.
I also remember Styrofoam cups. I don't drink out of them if I can avoid it. I brought my own cup and my own sweetener because I didn't expect people to cater to my tastes. Most times I brought the half 'n half because I don't do creamer, either.
The one class I helped on I bought and made all the coffee after the first pot of really bad stuff was served to the guests. All the team was expected to chip in for refreshments.
Most of us were young and just starting out with not a lot of money to burn on non-essentials. I was pretty frugal myself in those days, so I didn't notice it so much.
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frank123lol
In 1977,It was an old reel to reel,squaeky,Cbs were big at that time,somehow that bled through,and
sounded real bad.Never had exposure to twi until that roa 77,Charging 50 cents for like 8oz of watered down juice.Next were the wows in my home town,One here could eloborate.
Classes at 30 bucks a pop,Oh,We need a gift for the leader,Natch they drove brand new cars,Then complained when some minor problem happened to said car.Refreshment,if proved by self,were never thanked for.
I drank some pretty powerful koolaid,as it took almost 25 years to wake up and finally smell the coffee.
NO ONE WILL EVER DO IT AGAIN!
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waysider
I had forgotten all about the junky, old, run-down equipment we were expected to maintain out of our own pockets. Tape broke on the reel-to-reel? Go buy a splice kit. Bulb burned out on the projector? Go buy a replacement. Don't bother asking HQ to reimburse you, though. You'll be reminded that you should be "believing" God to supply you with the abundance to pay for it all yourself. Yep, they ran a pretty tight ship. Probably just some sort of fluke that they wound up with 55 million dollars worth of assets to show for it.
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Ham
now you know..
they didn't use 100 % old grounds. about fifty to seventy percent. Sprinkle a few fresh grounds, and a pinch of salt on top..
The instructor didn't see a single dime.. nor the refreshment makers.. nor those who came early to clean the sidewalks and parking lot.. meticulously clean the room.. string chairs..
I think the coffee came out of some kind of branch fund. If I remember correctly, it did NOT come from headquarters..
even the tapes.. I don't think they shipped them ups.. people picked them up from the limb.
When vhs was rather archaic, I remember the limb had a machine.. old half inch, commercial tapes and machines.. but after that, you were on your own..
the local area supplied the machines, the televisions, the av equipment..
even at a hundred dollars "donation".. let's say seven new students.. that's just $700.00. If one wanted to run a class in a professional manner.. the money would be gone even before it started..
The only way to make money off of a CHEAP BIBLE class.. turn it into an exercise of cheapness.. with donated labor, stretched coffee, used styrofoam cups..
the quality of the "materials" I got with my first class- paperbacks with glue for bindings.. and a fifteen page binder.. cost? Probably no more than ten bucks..
pretty good "profit" for a "non profit" organization.. they were worse than wallymart cheapness.. at least the poor employess get a (rather small) paycheck..
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Ham
The next exercise in cheapness- branch meetings. I'm certain not all, but the vast majority.
Well.. it's time to invite the public, put on the dog.. show people what the ministry has to offer..
at a "bargain" of course. A location would be nice. Well, a free location. If not free.. a community building at a trailer park might suffice for a meeting for forty or so people..
besides, it's CHEAP- if someone in the branch lives in the park. They can get it for maybe twenty or twenty five bucks a night..
same routine, unpaid cigarette butt picker uppers, window cleaners, vacuumers, and chair stringers.
A floral display might be appropriate.. show the richness, the pageantry of the event..
the kind of flowers we are talking about.. maybe would cost around $100.00 or so.. let's do it on the CHEAP.
Why BUY, when one can make a few phone calls, and work over funeral homes which have no further need for them? They are "kinda' new..
I was "volunteered" to make some of these calls.. the last one.. "ummmm, are you JOKING?"
never, never, again..
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leafytwiglet
HAmmy when and where were you at ... If you don't mind my asking and I am feeling like we had some luxury... well we didn't have recycled coffee... ever and no styrofoam and we met at peoples homes... and the one big even I helped organize was a Thanksgiving afair and it was at a grainge hall nad we had a blast,,
II do know though that all refreshments ansd set up was done by everyone in the twigs,
I am feeling like a lucky Dog right now!
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waysider
We must be kindred spirits, Ham.
I, too, was always the guy who had to find free meeting rooms, floral arrangements, extra chairs from funeral homes and so forth. I think people must have felt sorry for me because I had a fairly high level of success.
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Ham
later, in the eighties and early nineties we took coffee matters into our own hands..
I took my first plaf class in west virginia in 1974.
it was pretty austere..
I was signed up for this thing for almost a year.. paid and all..
the "leadership".. suggested that I and another signee somehow find another five people so that we could run the class..
no kidding..
when I finally got to where a class could run.. it was forty stinking miles away from where I lived.. we commuted.. four nights a week..
to Beckley, WV.. not exactly a "paradise" of sorts..
they ran an audio class, on open reel audio tape.
Rich*rd C*nningam was the class coordinator..
and the coffee.. was horrid..
I forgot that part.. the extra chairs from the funeral homes.. yeah, we did that..
they were painted on the bottom with the funeral home's name.. I wonder if any of the students ever looked.. or what they thought..
sheesh..
how cheap can one get..
how many borrowed chairs do seven to ten new students need?
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geisha779
Cheap labor--or free labor. For some reason I was always around a limb home. . . I got to babysit for free. . . to be blessed. . . I got to help with the yard work for free. . . . to be blessed. . . .I got to run the bookstore for free. . . . to be blessed. . . I have a feeling I missed the blessing as it was bestowed on those higher up on the food chain.
So many people worked these limb homes. . . cleaning---driving--landscaping---events--none of it was paid, but I sure remember alot of effort for "perfection" going into these "jobs".
A smart branch leader could pull off much of the same magic--if they were savvy enough or a big enough bully.
Events for the rank and file believers were cheap--but let VP or LCM come to town and the red carpet was rolled out. . . I think that might be literal. There was always money for good coffee then.
I really really didn't mind paying for the initial class, but after that it was a bloodsucking operation.
What I remember is always having people in my home who needed a place to stay. We were volunteered so many times to "House" people who were passing through or basically homeless. Usually Way Corps. Always at our own expense. Like we had this endless fountain of cash to dole out. We were poor. This was on top of the free labor and ABS and sponsorship. They usually would tell me how to run my household. . . the best way to clean a shower and save time. . . how to fold my laundry. . . what to feed my kid.
It wasn't until my second child that we finally lived on our own. I always shared expenses with other believers or lived in a Way Home.
What I remember is the endless commitments. . . and working jobs with other believers. That was so we could keep our endless commitments---and we were usually paid next to nothing.
Some of these guys really took advantage of the cheap labor pool. REV. JH comes to mind. He paid his guys next to nothing, but they were to be commited 150%. He cut their pay when he felt they needed a lesson or if he just felt like it.
We had one branch leader who actually was a pretty nice guy, but we worked for him and business was another matter. Hubby was driving a work truck--got pulled over for the registration--it had lapsed--hubby got hauled in and fined . . . it was a big deal--he sat in a cell for a few hours. We paid the fine, but the branch leader would NOT reimburse us! He laughed. Not meanly, but somehow it was funny to him. We never got the money back. It was the branch leaders truck--he was responsible for the registration--he knew--he told hubby to take the truck!! We worked for him as an employee.
It was all cheap--for us. . . the higher up you were the more advantage you could take.. . . . all the way to the top.
The level of cheapness also depended on where you were. . . some places were more affluent than others. Better coffee.
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waysider
The cheap/free labor was only part of the equation. The other part was that it was never good enough. No matter how much of it you did or how well you did it, it was never enough, never up to their standards. Giving them 15 or 20% of your income wasn't good enough; you had to pay your own postage to send it. Yeah, don't just stab me, use my knife. Fellow Laborers was like that. Commit yourself to their service from 5am til midnight. It's still not good enough. They wake you up at 3am to ream you out for not being committed enough, for dropping the ball. No specifics are given, just vague generalities. You feel so dejected. You've given so much. How could you have known that what you were giving wasn't enough, wasn't up to their standards? Is it possible that people who don't understand why the "freebies" were such a big deal only saw part of the equation? Maybe they never had to experience that sense of futility that comes with the other part. That would explain a lot.
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Oakspear
And it wasn't just the fact that it was free labor, and scavenging used and borrowed crap (yeah, I was on the funeral home chair duty too) but it was the assumption that your time was not your own.
During my last couple of years in TWI I worked out of my home (didn't own my own business, but worked out of my car & basement) and my kids were home schooled by my first wife. Leadership knew this and were always bugging us to go witnessing with them, have meetings at our house, or call and interrupt our day with hour-long phone calls.
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waysider
Does anybody remember being encouraged to hit up the local car dealers for used car donations? We were supposed to tell them it was tax deductible because it was for a "missionary effort". I never worked up the nerve to try it myself.
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outintexas
I remember as a WOW it was suggested that we go to motels for used mattresses and box springs.
Eww.
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leafytwiglet
Good Grief the more I read here the more happy I am that we left..when we did.. We missed so much of this stuff
it is funny though now that you are talking about the chairs it reminded me that our chairs for the PFAL class I took were from the local funeral home. HMMMMM.. THey hadn't started teh car thing yet when I was WOW but I remember when we were doing a Christmas event(Not as a WOW) some one was supposed to get flowers and got repremanded and their suggestions were funerla homes and tree lots for chopped off greens,
One of the things i remember Most about TWI was the push for uter and complete perfection... ANd the free labor.. Especially since I was the free labor a lot of the time
Don't get me wrong I freely volunteered myself not for a blessing but because I felt it was my duty to God,,, I know a sucker is born every minute but hey those suckers have to come from some where Right??
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WordWolf
That, BTW, was common for both vpw AND lcm.
Corps Week was when the Corps got together,
and was when the Corps did the set-up and assembly of all the physical details
needed for the ROA.
(Setting up Registration, the tents, Family Tables, food stands...)
So, these Corps did setup and met together, then went home.
They worked for free for the week preceding ROA.
Some people went back home as soon as it was over, and didn't stay a SECOND
week to work for free again.
"Dr heard about it and reproved everyone in the corps household for the problem, for not helping to put it on."
Setting up all that stuff doesn't count as "helping to put it on"?
That was a week's free labour!
"Reproved" them?
He should have THANKED them for the free labour!
After all,
there WAS an admission, we DID PAY for setup,
so things COULD have been done with local workers,
providing work for labourers locally.
Of course, that would mean vpw would have to accept
seeing money exit.
What was his lame excuse?
"He reminded everyone of the commitments that they had made regarding a lifetime of Christian service."
They served a week of hard labour. What about that?
Further, when did "a lifetime of Christian service"
become synonymous with
"involuntary servitude for life at the whims of twi"?
I don't remember MANDATORY ROA attendance
being required in the corps signups-did anyone sign such a document?
"Every corps person needs to plan ahead one year or more so that they can be a part of
these events. They need to be able to be a part of ROA and corps fellowship."
It occasionally came as a surprise to those people who never actually
WORKED for a living
(vpw went straight from school into pastoring,
lcm went straight from school into the way corps),
but REAL jobs have REQUIREMENTS and RESPONSIBILITIES.
All these people made arrangements for a VACATION WEEK from work
(for some of them, this was their ONLY vacation, or was unpaid leave),
paid to travel to hq on their own from all over the country,
and WORKED for a week, unpaid.
Now you have the nerve to say
"Not good enough-work MORE for free!"
NO!
These people have families to support, jobs to perform, and lives to maintain.
If they leave, it's because they HAVE to, not because they WANT to, simp!
At the very least, you owed them profound thanks.
To insult them after they worked for free
is lacking in character, lacking in integrity,
and lacking in Christian values.
So, to you who said this, I say
"F* you, AND the motorcycle you rode in on!!!!"
Or,
as Andy Kaufman once said,
" You, sir,
are a f*ing @$$h*,
a F*ing @$$h*,
a F*ING @$$H*!!!! "
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Oakspear
The whole attitude about work was that it was something you did when you weren't busy with "the ministry".
I've seen more than a few people who could have advanced in their jobs, but went nowhere because their availablity was severely restricted due to twig schedules, advances, classes, witnessing, etc.
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GrouchoMarxJr
...No matter what you did it was never enough. They had people pushing themselves to exhaustion and sacrificing a great deal in order to keep their green name tags...Very seldom does arrogance show gratitude...twi was no exception to that.
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skyrider
LIKE ALL THINGS IN TWI.........what started out as simple, grew obtusely insane DURING wierwille's era and worse during martindale's legalism. Those first two roa were rudimentally simple......sitting on the grass and listening to some musicians while wierwille sprinkled in a few short "teachings."
Not only was it TWO WEEKS OF FREE LABOR FOR TWI........it was two weeks AWAY FROM WORK, two weeks of TRAVEL EXPENSES, two weeks of ONE'S ANNUAL PILGRIMAGE TO TWI, two weeks of "VACATION TAKEN" and no time to visit family and relatives, two weeks of SHUFFLING KIDS AROUND WITH LITTLE SUPERVISION, two weeks of work, exploitation, butt-numbing meetings, crazy work shifts that were MANDATORY, two weeks of "SPIRITUAL-GROUND-HOG-DAY."
The top-tier in twi, and staff......were the supervisors, while the field corps were the grunts. The hq people slept in their own air-conditioned bedrooms......many corps slept on cots, in corps tents. The hq staff were able to slip away to their units and rest.......and after two weeks, field corps were tired, irritable, sick. All thanks and adulation went to wierwille and co........the corps-slaves were there to row the boat.
AND WHEN DID ALL THIS COME TO A GRINDING HALT..???...........IMMEDIATELY AFTER MARTINDALE ASSIGNED ALL CORPS TO FULL-TIME STATUS IN 1995. Yes, the last roa was in 1995.......because after that, twi was responsible to pay all expenses of all corps that twi incurred......all traveling expenses, motel expenses, working at corps week was NOW "twi-time" since corps were full-time, kids' happy meals, all of it. Therefore, with each passing corps meeting after September 1995......TWI scaled back every major activity and function and even mandated which corps would be "invited" to attend upcoming WIB conferences.
Follow the money........always the money.
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doojable
Here is the ad from the bottom of the page after all the talk about working for free:
Puppets for sale... seems oddly appropriate in a creepy way given the present discussion.
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geisha779
Except, did you ever notice what deference was given to those professionals that were established already? I moved around alot(Of course) and in some areas there were doctors-lawyers and people with real jobs. I noticed these people were usually given a pass on the labor and hit up for their homes being used or more money.
We had friends whose father was a semi-famous TV personality but he was not in the ministry or a PFAL grad. LCM would laud these "Great believers and their family as being examples. Now, they WERE VERY nice people, but it was always odd how they were singled out. We used to help them out with "Labor" all the time.
I think that whole work and college thing--where the ministry was more important--really did have an impact. When I left I was older than your AVERAGE college co-ed and had to spend a bunch of time playing catch up. Married with kids and no education or real job experience at that age was difficult to say the least.
I just gave up and started sub-contracting work. It really was a joke. . . the whole thing--someone want to explain exactly HOW--cleaning a limb home was serving God?
Better stop reading this thread--it is starting to bring up memories of lost youth and is ticking me off. What a total WASTE of time it all was.
How did it "Profit" any of us? We learned how to work?. . . . Well heck, I already knew that . . .
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