Thank you WW. The marriage thing sounds a bit less weird now. When I hear of mass weddings, I automatically think of the Moonies and the stunt they pulled. I think it was the moonies. I'm too lazy to google right now. As far as the window washing too, the cheap start up costs makes a lot of sense, and how it might be an ideal job for people going to ministry, it makes a lot of sense. But yeah, this was going strong back in 79/80. It was like, the thing to DO. Everybody gloated about how much money they were making, and I think that perhaps some people it worked out well, for many others it was just a big fish story.
But it must have been somebodies brainchild somewhere. I don't know. Like I said. I just recently found out what "meme" meant. I still don't know how to pronounce it. But it was like in the Way, once somebody got ahold of a book, or movie they saw, it was like THE THING to read or do. And it was that way with the window washing back in 79/80. It's was like "quit your job and become a window washer!" I kid you not. And it just didn't work well for everybody. I didn't know they were like that with house painting too. Good grief, I'm glad I didn't try that. I have no eye for painting at all!
The Corps weddings were started at a time when there were a lot of Corps, big intakes. Of course, they were all friends with each other, and naturally some chose spouses from their Corps brothers and sisters. And of course everybody wanted to go to everybody else's wedding. If you weren't getting married, you wanted to attend A&B's wedding, and C&D's, and E&F's and so on. It made sense to have lots of separate weddings at different locations around HQ and one big wedding meal.
Bearing in mind a lot of these people would have been in rez or on staff and wouldn't have a lot of money, but would have been involved in set-up for RoA, they would have been contributing to the general workload of preparing for events including wedding(s) in any case. Everything was all there, waiting to be used.
Later, LCM mandated that any couples marrying should be doing so in their home areas "to bless the believers there" - did he also say, The Way shouldn't be expected to pay for any of it? I can't remember, but there'd be an element of not spending more than HQ absolutely had to. Engaged couples got assigned to a new area and were expected to marry there - their home area wouldn't necessarily be a place where either of their families were from.
Window washing? Gotta support your new spouse somehow!
Okay Twinky that certainly makes sense. And what a great link for the moonie mass wedding. HOLY COWABUNGA!!! :wacko: And that was just recent too! I can't believe the moonies have so many followers still!
Thanks for the input on group weddings. Like I said I can see how the window washing thing worked for some people, but for a time there it seemed like EVERY body was doing it. I mean, I have to laugh when I think of myself actually doing it for a summer. Good grief. I am not the physical outdoor type. I was hanging with some ex wayfers in the early 2000's for a bit, and they were in their oh, late 40s/50s at the time, and still had the window washing business, and I'm telling you, I thought it was kind of sad. This was hard physical labor in all kinds of nasty weather. Thank goodness they are both out of it now, letting their daughter and others run the business.
Anyway,appreciate the input all. :) (still love that moonie link!)
This is somewhat tangential to the mass wedding thing.
Wiewille taught (I think in CF&S) that it didn't matter who you married because "any two believers can make a marriage work." The long and short of it is that this arrangement of "any two" was intended to produce a sort of tag team for promoting PFAL and The Way. I can tell you, first hand, that this point was specifically addressed in the premarital counselling I was required to take in order to be married by an ordained clergy. It's sad, really, getting married in order to become a sales team for The Way. Mine lasted about 4 years.
Now the window washing thing. Sky hit it on the head. It was about flexibility. At the same time window washing was becoming popular, there were others who tried the same route doing late-night janitorial work and some who tried doing independent sales rep.jobs.
The "any two" marriages and the self employment push shared a common characteristic. They were both designed to facilitate a life style that was focused on promoting PFAL and The Way.
How many remember the "Real Clean Window Company"? I can't remember who it was, but some guy, I think in Texas, came up with the concept of starting this company and he wanted to market it to believers to get them involved. Basically, what it was was an attempt at franchising. Anyway, people would go get "trained", then they would start their own company. They had to give 30% of their take to "Real Clean" and lots and lots of people did it. I may have this wrong, but I think I may have heard about it when I was College Division in '76. Anyway, that's the genesis of the window washing thing, I think.
Pretty soon, even us Wayfers got wise to the fact that we didn't really need "Real Clean" after all because they didn't do squat. We gained the clients ourselves, so why not split from "Real Clean" and keep the 30%? Which is what ending up happening and "Real Clean" was washed away. I washed windows when I was W.O.W and it was a good way of making spending cash. But I was single then and very young. The guys that stayed with it got older eventually and it became a pain for a lot of them. What's great money when you're 22 stinks when you're 45 with a few kids.
I remember both those things. I was introduced to Steed Engine Oil Additive at the ECU Way Home in Greenville, NC in 1972 at a Leaders' Meeting. It was my first meeting there, and I could not quite see the relationship between Steed and the Bible.
Two of my WOW brothers washed windows in Chicago in 1980-81, one for part of the year and one, the Corps fellow, all year long. You can imagine how very cold it was to wash windows in the winter in Chicago ... he had to use straight antifreeze with no water ... the window-washing stuff you put in your car's windshield washing thing is what he used. He got his first account from a Corps grad from the area who owned a window-washing business, and for those accounts, he had to pay JN a percentage, but any accounts he got on his own, he kept the full amount. It was hard work, but it was an ideal situation for him ... he could always get off for WOW or Corps stuff and he really had no other marketable skills. My WOW sister and I worked in offices. I think back on a lot of the folks that I knew that washed windows, and often it was done for those very same reasons ... flexibility and no other good way to make enough money.
This is somewhat tangential to the mass wedding thing.
Wiewille taught (I think in CF&S) that it didn't matter who you married because "any two believers can make a marriage work." The long and short of it is that this arrangement of "any two" was intended to produce a sort of tag team for promoting PFAL and The Way. I can tell you, first hand, that this point was specifically addressed in the premarital counselling I was required to take in order to be married by an ordained clergy. It's sad, really, getting married in order to become a sales team for The Way. Mine lasted about 4 years.
Now the window washing thing. Sky hit it on the head. It was about flexibility. At the same time window washing was becoming popular, there were others who tried the same route doing late-night janitorial work and some who tried doing independent sales rep.jobs.
The "any two" marriages and the self employment push shared a common characteristic. They were both designed to facilitate a life style that was focused on promoting PFAL and The Way.
EXACTLY!
All of the dots connect back to wierwille and his agenda.....recruiting brown shirts followers who'd go forth to run pfal classes and teach twi doctrine. With each passing year of involvement, one either found employment that facilitated this lifestyle.....OR..... tossed their corps diploma in the trash and headed for higher education/greener pastures.
See, wierwille was just a cult-organizer. He never had to jump thru all the hoops he was propping up for others to jump. Wierwille had NO CONCEPT of what it took to obey all his mandates, year after year, while paying the bills, raising kids, attending countless twigs and meetings and classes, events, corps week and roa. The guy was a narcissistic blowhard that couldn't comprehend while people were bailing and his "vision" was crumbling before him.
Same goes for martindale / geer / lynn / rivenbark.
They demand that the troops jump and obey forever and a day......YET, life goes on, people grow older and wiser. Except for a small number of jobs at hq, being a staffer is bottom-rung employment. Might as well be standing at a drive-thru window and handing out happy-meals at McD's. Same deal. Unless one really looks for some form of upward mobility, its a dead end job that leads to dependency.
Sure, one could laugh at ALL the painters, landscapers, window washers, janitors, etc in twi.......but THE REASON for this was wierwille demanded commitment above the individuals' better judgment. MANY QUIT COLLEGE or good jobs to go fellow-laborers or corps. And, 20 years later.....some wonder why so many floundered away 'opportunities?'
Except for the likes of Brian Moneyhands, how many OTHER corps' kids went thru corps training?
VERY FEW.......and that tells you everything you need to know about twi's hypocrisy!!
Corps staff sit at their desks.....but make sure THEIR kids don't get ensnared.
Oh yeah, the any two believers can make a marriage work if you renew your mind, I believe that was a thread by itself, somewhere in the dustbins of greasespot, lol. Most people find it hard enough to "renew their mind" to be around some people for more than 2 minutes, much less marry somebody they are not compatible with. Almost seems like Weirwille wanted to bring people back to the cultures of the first century church. Crazy.
Real Clean Windows.! Yes! That was it. Didn't it have the holy spirit dove on the business cards? I never heard of Steed Oil, when I googled it, it seems like it was some pyramid group like Amway.
DogLover, I was still dabbling in the way during 80-81, (and I'm in the Chicago area) I'm wondering if I might have known your corps brothers, I probably must have run into them. I'm wondering who JN is. You are bringing back memories. I remember when I got sick of the Way, and just quit that stupid window washing job, I got some certified letter from some guy saying that I could not go back and "bid" on their precious windows. LOL! Wow. What memories you are bringing back. I remember my mother and me having a good laugh over that. Like I was after this guy's goldmine of a business. My mom thought these people were crackpots, but I was too young to appreciate that at the time. :P
Skyrider, I remember one lady in particular dropping out of college to wash windows. In fact, that made the local news when the Suntimes reporter did their news story. Her mom was furious. I recently looked her up online and was happy to see she is a teacher now, so she did go back to school.
Hey, I'm still of the belief that God will double your trouble for whatever you lost in life. I know it sounds corny, but, really nothing is in vain with the Lord. Okay, sorry for the religious tangent, lol.
There is a believer in STL who was in the 11th corps. Early in his first year in rez he said he went to John Lynn and told him he was lonely. JL said he'd get back with him and a few days later gave him the names of 4 women, one of whom he is still married to. I was a little surprised. That sounded like something you could get kicked out of the WC for. Seen as a sign of weakness or lack of commitment. I remember one year 1979 I think) when they married 46 couples not long after corps graduation. That would have been 7th corps wouldn't it? Well, it worked out for some people. I bet a leading cause of divorce among those couples is people wanting to distance themselves from twi as much as possible. Their spouse is "guilty by association".
As for window cleaning, hey, I still do it, but the background leading to it may be different. I had bad experiences working for other believers. After one in 1985 I vowed never to work for a believer again. In 2001 I found myself needing to work first shift. I had a so so job and I called a believer who owns a window cleaning business and told him I would like an opportunity as soon as he had a full time route. A week later he called me. Still there. I like that I'm not under the same roof 8 plus hours per day and I like that I can schedule work around my kids' school meetings if I need to. I also like that I make considerably more $$$ than I did at the previous job.
johniam: That is so cool. It seems like the hand of God was at work in your particular situation. As for the marriage thing, I remember one Greasespotter saying something to the effect of, all some people had in common was "The Way" and when that crumbled they realized they had nothing in common. So I get what you are saying. But hey, sounds like you're doing really well in your chosen field.
Coming back to add: I ALSO remember the straight anti-freeze thing! I actually helped a guy during the bitter cold winter, even though I was no longer in the Window washing business. I helped him for 2 days because he was freaking overloaded with windows to wash. And I remember coming home feeling like an icicle.
And yeah, in fact, this guy eventually went into his own janitorial business, and made decent money. I remember he got grief for that because he was missing "classes." He told me the only way he was going to make any money was by WORKING, and screw the classes. I think that was the beginning of the end of the Way for him as well.
Just to be clear, I'm not criticizing any particular type of work, be it washing windows, cleaning toilets or whatever. What I'm criticizing is the idea that you should make your choice in a way that focuses on promoting The Way. Work is work. We all have to do it.
There are still many cultures in the world where people marry by prearrangement. Sometimes they work out, sometimes they don't. I won't lump them in the same category as the "any two" marriages because the motivation that drives this practice is not the same. They're not designed to promote some goombah's pyramid scheme.
waysider those are wonderful points, and I agree completely. Everything in the way, was done for the agenda of the way, and NOT the Word, not for a personal walk with the Lord, not for how the Lord wanted to direct your life for your own benefit,(and His glory) it was ALL for the way.
Which is why it was so frustrating to go back years later to the offshoot, and people were in complete denial about the very things that made the Way fall apart. They were trying to redo the exact same things and covering up all the wrong things that made them fall in the first place.
I swear, I think that some of these offshoots are just cursed. I know the Way was/is. But, that's my own opinion and perhaps another thread sometime....:)/>
waysider those are wonderful points, and I agree completely. Everything in the way, was done for the agenda of the way, and NOT the Word, not for a personal walk with the Lord, not for how the Lord wanted to direct your life for your own benefit,(and His glory) it was ALL for the way.
Which is why it was so frustrating to go back years later to the offshoot, and people were in complete denial about the very things that made the Way fall apart. They were trying to redo the exact same things and covering up all the wrong things that made them fall in the first place.
I swear, I think that some of these offshoots are just cursed. I know the Way was/is. But, that's my own opinion and perhaps another thread sometime....:)/>/>
Just to be clear, I'm not criticizing any particular type of work, be it washing windows, cleaning toilets or whatever. What I'm criticizing is the idea that you should make your choice in a way that focuses on promoting The Way. Work is work. We all have to do it.
Waysider......to be clear, I wasn't directing those side comments toward you.
Having been corps and run the gauntlet.....I know several window cleaners who ran successful
businesses and pulled in $75,000 - $120,000 per year after payroll expenses. One guy has
about 10 employees, a private plane and is venturing into being a flight instructor.
A couple of painters had expertise in several of the new interior painting fads....and making
some serious money. Landscapers.....same deal.
Yeah.....guess not everyone wants to sit at a desk.
I thought there was 2 or 3 couples who got married at Rock of Ages in the late 70's and everyone was invited. Or am I suffering from Spiritual Alzeimhers/hallucination?
I thought there was 2 or 3 couples who got married at Rock of Ages in the late 70's and everyone was invited. Or am I suffering from Spiritual Alzeimhers/hallucination?
Now that you mention it, I think they did some sort of mass wedding at Rock of Ages '74. I wasn't around in'70 so I don't know about that.
i was in a group wedding but i didn't marry the group. we all wanted the man of god barf barf to officiate at our wedding but he couldn't do them all so we were married around the pond with our own special aisle etc. it was kind of nice. my mother and father came to give me away (to the way lol) and our best friends were our best man and maid of honor. getting ready with all these brides was weird even though we had our own "station" with makeup and hair, etc. most brides would not think of sharing their day
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WordWolf
AFAIK,
when people say "mass marriages",
they usually mean the group told them who to marry and assembled them all.
twi DID have groups who all got married at the same time, at least once that I know of.
(lcm was complaining about how outsiders spoke derisively about it,
at the event, and he was recorded.)
AFAIK,
all the people actually chose to get married, who to get married to,
and to get married at the group time.
(Yes, I'm sure there was some bandwagon-ing, but there wasn't a directive to
get married, and at that day or to whom.
As for house-painting and window-washing,
I know that it got very popular right at the split in 1988-1989,
as all the paid staff suddenly became unemployed.
So, they wanted jobs that required little or no startup capital,
and no special training. Naturally, those were popular choices,
and we later heard some splinter leaders start mandating people
got their windows cleaned often because the transparency of your
windows indicated your spiritual well-being.
I kid you not. Naturally, the people being hired to clean the
windows just happened to be the ones who TECHNICALLY didn't make
it MANDATORY, but acted as if it was and brought social sanctions
to bear if they weren't obeyed.
I don't know the history of the thing before the 88-89 split.
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RottieGrrrl
Thank you WW. The marriage thing sounds a bit less weird now. When I hear of mass weddings, I automatically think of the Moonies and the stunt they pulled. I think it was the moonies. I'm too lazy to google right now. As far as the window washing too, the cheap start up costs makes a lot of sense, and how it might be an ideal job for people going to ministry, it makes a lot of sense. But yeah, this was going strong back in 79/80. It was like, the thing to DO. Everybody gloated about how much money they were making, and I think that perhaps some people it worked out well, for many others it was just a big fish story.
But it must have been somebodies brainchild somewhere. I don't know. Like I said. I just recently found out what "meme" meant. I still don't know how to pronounce it. But it was like in the Way, once somebody got ahold of a book, or movie they saw, it was like THE THING to read or do. And it was that way with the window washing back in 79/80. It's was like "quit your job and become a window washer!" I kid you not. And it just didn't work well for everybody. I didn't know they were like that with house painting too. Good grief, I'm glad I didn't try that. I have no eye for painting at all!
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Twinky
The Corps weddings were started at a time when there were a lot of Corps, big intakes. Of course, they were all friends with each other, and naturally some chose spouses from their Corps brothers and sisters. And of course everybody wanted to go to everybody else's wedding. If you weren't getting married, you wanted to attend A&B's wedding, and C&D's, and E&F's and so on. It made sense to have lots of separate weddings at different locations around HQ and one big wedding meal.
Bearing in mind a lot of these people would have been in rez or on staff and wouldn't have a lot of money, but would have been involved in set-up for RoA, they would have been contributing to the general workload of preparing for events including wedding(s) in any case. Everything was all there, waiting to be used.
It was nothing like this: Moonie weddings
Later, LCM mandated that any couples marrying should be doing so in their home areas "to bless the believers there" - did he also say, The Way shouldn't be expected to pay for any of it? I can't remember, but there'd be an element of not spending more than HQ absolutely had to. Engaged couples got assigned to a new area and were expected to marry there - their home area wouldn't necessarily be a place where either of their families were from.
Window washing? Gotta support your new spouse somehow!
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RottieGrrrl
Okay Twinky that certainly makes sense. And what a great link for the moonie mass wedding. HOLY COWABUNGA!!! :wacko: And that was just recent too! I can't believe the moonies have so many followers still!
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skyrider
Group Weddings: One of the points I remember hearing from wierwille,
leading up to the 7th corps group wedding, was that it maximized the
use of the clergy's time. I kid you not. Spiritual protocol for the
clergy was TOP PRIORITY.....as was the time factor.
The wedding couple? Oh, they took a distant second.
Window washing: Or.....house painting, lawn care services, etc.
SELF-EMPLOYMENT.....why? This stuff was being promoted as early as
the 6th corps [ie 1976,77].......BECAUSE how else are you to get
three weeks off EVERY YEAR to attend corps week/roa?
The service industry was growing rapidly as the middle class in America
had expendable income.....AND with both husband and wife working. Thus,
neither had time to do the home maintenance stuff. The middle class
gladly shelled out the money for services.....and stayed working at
their regular jobs.
Many corps did these jobs for the FLEXIBLE HOURS and the "benefit" of being
self-employed. Very few good, stable jobs give new employees THREE WEEKS
VACATION [corps wk/roa]........its as simple as that!
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RottieGrrrl
Thanks for the input on group weddings. Like I said I can see how the window washing thing worked for some people, but for a time there it seemed like EVERY body was doing it. I mean, I have to laugh when I think of myself actually doing it for a summer. Good grief. I am not the physical outdoor type. I was hanging with some ex wayfers in the early 2000's for a bit, and they were in their oh, late 40s/50s at the time, and still had the window washing business, and I'm telling you, I thought it was kind of sad. This was hard physical labor in all kinds of nasty weather. Thank goodness they are both out of it now, letting their daughter and others run the business.
Anyway,appreciate the input all. :) (still love that moonie link!)
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waysider
This is somewhat tangential to the mass wedding thing.
Wiewille taught (I think in CF&S) that it didn't matter who you married because "any two believers can make a marriage work." The long and short of it is that this arrangement of "any two" was intended to produce a sort of tag team for promoting PFAL and The Way. I can tell you, first hand, that this point was specifically addressed in the premarital counselling I was required to take in order to be married by an ordained clergy. It's sad, really, getting married in order to become a sales team for The Way. Mine lasted about 4 years.
Now the window washing thing. Sky hit it on the head. It was about flexibility. At the same time window washing was becoming popular, there were others who tried the same route doing late-night janitorial work and some who tried doing independent sales rep.jobs.
The "any two" marriages and the self employment push shared a common characteristic. They were both designed to facilitate a life style that was focused on promoting PFAL and The Way.
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Broken Arrow
How many remember the "Real Clean Window Company"? I can't remember who it was, but some guy, I think in Texas, came up with the concept of starting this company and he wanted to market it to believers to get them involved. Basically, what it was was an attempt at franchising. Anyway, people would go get "trained", then they would start their own company. They had to give 30% of their take to "Real Clean" and lots and lots of people did it. I may have this wrong, but I think I may have heard about it when I was College Division in '76. Anyway, that's the genesis of the window washing thing, I think.
Pretty soon, even us Wayfers got wise to the fact that we didn't really need "Real Clean" after all because they didn't do squat. We gained the clients ourselves, so why not split from "Real Clean" and keep the 30%? Which is what ending up happening and "Real Clean" was washed away. I washed windows when I was W.O.W and it was a good way of making spending cash. But I was single then and very young. The guys that stayed with it got older eventually and it became a pain for a lot of them. What's great money when you're 22 stinks when you're 45 with a few kids.
Remember Steed Oil? That was a craze for awhile.
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waysider
I remember Real Clean and Steed. I knew people involved in both of them. Another venture some tried was small scale landscaping operations.
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DogLover
I remember both those things. I was introduced to Steed Engine Oil Additive at the ECU Way Home in Greenville, NC in 1972 at a Leaders' Meeting. It was my first meeting there, and I could not quite see the relationship between Steed and the Bible.
Two of my WOW brothers washed windows in Chicago in 1980-81, one for part of the year and one, the Corps fellow, all year long. You can imagine how very cold it was to wash windows in the winter in Chicago ... he had to use straight antifreeze with no water ... the window-washing stuff you put in your car's windshield washing thing is what he used. He got his first account from a Corps grad from the area who owned a window-washing business, and for those accounts, he had to pay JN a percentage, but any accounts he got on his own, he kept the full amount. It was hard work, but it was an ideal situation for him ... he could always get off for WOW or Corps stuff and he really had no other marketable skills. My WOW sister and I worked in offices. I think back on a lot of the folks that I knew that washed windows, and often it was done for those very same reasons ... flexibility and no other good way to make enough money.
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skyrider
EXACTLY!
All of the dots connect back to wierwille and his agenda.....recruiting brown shirts followers who'd go forth to run pfal classes and teach twi doctrine. With each passing year of involvement, one either found employment that facilitated this lifestyle.....OR..... tossed their corps diploma in the trash and headed for higher education/greener pastures.
See, wierwille was just a cult-organizer. He never had to jump thru all the hoops he was propping up for others to jump. Wierwille had NO CONCEPT of what it took to obey all his mandates, year after year, while paying the bills, raising kids, attending countless twigs and meetings and classes, events, corps week and roa. The guy was a narcissistic blowhard that couldn't comprehend while people were bailing and his "vision" was crumbling before him.
Same goes for martindale / geer / lynn / rivenbark.
They demand that the troops jump and obey forever and a day......YET, life goes on, people grow older and wiser. Except for a small number of jobs at hq, being a staffer is bottom-rung employment. Might as well be standing at a drive-thru window and handing out happy-meals at McD's. Same deal. Unless one really looks for some form of upward mobility, its a dead end job that leads to dependency.
Sure, one could laugh at ALL the painters, landscapers, window washers, janitors, etc in twi.......but THE REASON for this was wierwille demanded commitment above the individuals' better judgment. MANY QUIT COLLEGE or good jobs to go fellow-laborers or corps. And, 20 years later.....some wonder why so many floundered away 'opportunities?'
Except for the likes of Brian Moneyhands, how many OTHER corps' kids went thru corps training?
VERY FEW.......and that tells you everything you need to know about twi's hypocrisy!!
Corps staff sit at their desks.....but make sure THEIR kids don't get ensnared.
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RottieGrrrl
Oh yeah, the any two believers can make a marriage work if you renew your mind, I believe that was a thread by itself, somewhere in the dustbins of greasespot, lol. Most people find it hard enough to "renew their mind" to be around some people for more than 2 minutes, much less marry somebody they are not compatible with. Almost seems like Weirwille wanted to bring people back to the cultures of the first century church. Crazy.
Real Clean Windows.! Yes! That was it. Didn't it have the holy spirit dove on the business cards? I never heard of Steed Oil, when I googled it, it seems like it was some pyramid group like Amway.
DogLover, I was still dabbling in the way during 80-81, (and I'm in the Chicago area) I'm wondering if I might have known your corps brothers, I probably must have run into them. I'm wondering who JN is. You are bringing back memories. I remember when I got sick of the Way, and just quit that stupid window washing job, I got some certified letter from some guy saying that I could not go back and "bid" on their precious windows. LOL! Wow. What memories you are bringing back. I remember my mother and me having a good laugh over that. Like I was after this guy's goldmine of a business. My mom thought these people were crackpots, but I was too young to appreciate that at the time. :P
Skyrider, I remember one lady in particular dropping out of college to wash windows. In fact, that made the local news when the Suntimes reporter did their news story. Her mom was furious. I recently looked her up online and was happy to see she is a teacher now, so she did go back to school.
Hey, I'm still of the belief that God will double your trouble for whatever you lost in life. I know it sounds corny, but, really nothing is in vain with the Lord. Okay, sorry for the religious tangent, lol.
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johniam
There is a believer in STL who was in the 11th corps. Early in his first year in rez he said he went to John Lynn and told him he was lonely. JL said he'd get back with him and a few days later gave him the names of 4 women, one of whom he is still married to. I was a little surprised. That sounded like something you could get kicked out of the WC for. Seen as a sign of weakness or lack of commitment. I remember one year 1979 I think) when they married 46 couples not long after corps graduation. That would have been 7th corps wouldn't it? Well, it worked out for some people. I bet a leading cause of divorce among those couples is people wanting to distance themselves from twi as much as possible. Their spouse is "guilty by association".
As for window cleaning, hey, I still do it, but the background leading to it may be different. I had bad experiences working for other believers. After one in 1985 I vowed never to work for a believer again. In 2001 I found myself needing to work first shift. I had a so so job and I called a believer who owns a window cleaning business and told him I would like an opportunity as soon as he had a full time route. A week later he called me. Still there. I like that I'm not under the same roof 8 plus hours per day and I like that I can schedule work around my kids' school meetings if I need to. I also like that I make considerably more $$$ than I did at the previous job.
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RottieGrrrl
johniam: That is so cool. It seems like the hand of God was at work in your particular situation. As for the marriage thing, I remember one Greasespotter saying something to the effect of, all some people had in common was "The Way" and when that crumbled they realized they had nothing in common. So I get what you are saying. But hey, sounds like you're doing really well in your chosen field.
Coming back to add: I ALSO remember the straight anti-freeze thing! I actually helped a guy during the bitter cold winter, even though I was no longer in the Window washing business. I helped him for 2 days because he was freaking overloaded with windows to wash. And I remember coming home feeling like an icicle.
And yeah, in fact, this guy eventually went into his own janitorial business, and made decent money. I remember he got grief for that because he was missing "classes." He told me the only way he was going to make any money was by WORKING, and screw the classes. I think that was the beginning of the end of the Way for him as well.
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waysider
Just to be clear, I'm not criticizing any particular type of work, be it washing windows, cleaning toilets or whatever. What I'm criticizing is the idea that you should make your choice in a way that focuses on promoting The Way. Work is work. We all have to do it.
There are still many cultures in the world where people marry by prearrangement. Sometimes they work out, sometimes they don't. I won't lump them in the same category as the "any two" marriages because the motivation that drives this practice is not the same. They're not designed to promote some goombah's pyramid scheme.
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RottieGrrrl
waysider those are wonderful points, and I agree completely. Everything in the way, was done for the agenda of the way, and NOT the Word, not for a personal walk with the Lord, not for how the Lord wanted to direct your life for your own benefit,(and His glory) it was ALL for the way.
Which is why it was so frustrating to go back years later to the offshoot, and people were in complete denial about the very things that made the Way fall apart. They were trying to redo the exact same things and covering up all the wrong things that made them fall in the first place.
I swear, I think that some of these offshoots are just cursed. I know the Way was/is. But, that's my own opinion and perhaps another thread sometime....:)/>
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Steve Lortz
Jeremiah 17:5, RottieGrrrl, Jeremiah 17:5!
Love,
Steve
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skyrider
Waysider......to be clear, I wasn't directing those side comments toward you.
Having been corps and run the gauntlet.....I know several window cleaners who ran successful
businesses and pulled in $75,000 - $120,000 per year after payroll expenses. One guy has
about 10 employees, a private plane and is venturing into being a flight instructor.
A couple of painters had expertise in several of the new interior painting fads....and making
some serious money. Landscapers.....same deal.
Yeah.....guess not everyone wants to sit at a desk.
.
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RottieGrrrl
"Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who draws strength from mere flesh and whose heart turns away from the LORD."
Great Scripture Steve, thanks for that. :)
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DogLover
Rottie Grrrl ... Check your private messages for the answers to what you were wondering.
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RottieGrrrl
Got it DogLover! Thanks! :)
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Thomas Loy Bumgarner
I thought there was 2 or 3 couples who got married at Rock of Ages in the late 70's and everyone was invited. Or am I suffering from Spiritual Alzeimhers/hallucination?
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Broken Arrow
Now that you mention it, I think they did some sort of mass wedding at Rock of Ages '74. I wasn't around in'70 so I don't know about that.
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excathedra
i was in a group wedding but i didn't marry the group. we all wanted the man of god barf barf to officiate at our wedding but he couldn't do them all so we were married around the pond with our own special aisle etc. it was kind of nice. my mother and father came to give me away (to the way lol) and our best friends were our best man and maid of honor. getting ready with all these brides was weird even though we had our own "station" with makeup and hair, etc. most brides would not think of sharing their day
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