Looking down at my "Livestrong" bracelet, I think back to those ROA armbands. Did you ever see anyone get kicked out for not having one, or anyone ever even check for them?
I did do bless patrol a number of years. I was usually the unlucky person out on Werwille Road somewhere helping people cross the road.
My favorite quote from the bless patrol was from when I was around 18 or so and we were out late at the gazebo. A few BP guys came up and told everyone that they had to leave. Then he said, "Love ya. Bless ya. Go home!" LOL What a blessing that guy was. Just thinking about it "blesses my socks off". haha
I was "Bless Patrol" a couple of times. One year I was stationed near Wierwille's home, late at night. We were given very specific instructions about what color passes got who where and when. One night, this big black limo pulls up. No pass. So I stop the car, as I was instructed to do, and deny entry. The chaffeur, a German, tells me that the Way has only one limosine, and this is it. I still refuse to move aside, until the back window rolls down, and there's Howard Allen grinning at me. I let him in.
I liked BP though, even though I was a lowly "yellow hat", and had to stay in one place, manning my very important post.
Maintained the fire in the woods one year. Not too tough, but I smelled like smoke all week.
Rode the trash wagon another year. Easy work, but kind of stinky.
How did we get talked into paying for an event and then having to work there...for free?
"Looking down at my "Livestrong" bracelet, I think back to those ROA armbands. Did you ever see anyone get kicked out for not having one, or anyone ever even check for them?"
Yes, a couple of times. One time in the 70's there was this amazingly drunk guy walking around. Bless Patrol asked him for a bracelet , he didn't have one so they took him away.
Another time, when I was Junior Corps, we had some friends (with fake IDs) come stay with us. On the 3rd day Ch3t St0k1 (F10) found a bottle of Jim Beam in out Teen tEnt area and started checking for wrist bands. Kicked our friends back to Rome City.
The ROA was my woodstock. I loved it. But it became more and more structured to the point that it stopped being fun. '86 was the end for me also.
Wow, I haven't thought about ROA in a long time. What a blast ! Yes, it ended up getting a little rigid, but I still had a great time. I guess the most fun for me was seeing people from all over the world that I knew and getting to party.
Definitely the most fun part of being in the Way as a kid. To me it just seemed like a big fun festival. I loved the camping out part and music and the craft demos - that was cool. I still have a little glass turtle I got there from a glass artist...
Wish I would have been old enough to make it to the teen orgies (ha!)
but overall, it was much better than the guys who manned the "honey wagon"
I dunno. I saw some guys riding that thing down W. Road like it was some kind of amusement ride or something.
Yep.. once things became "mandatory" it lost a lot of appeal.
Overall, I have some good memories, but it really was over-priced camping.
I remember one year, I think 93, there was a complete lunar eclipse. Only myself and another couple other guys that I could see stood around watching it- yet it was more interesting than the prior evening teaching.
I remember making hamburgers and fries at the "Lone Star Stand" one ROA. I took a couple of the potato bags, punched holes through them, and used them as insulated "sleeves" to keep from being burned by the spattering grease. Where was OSHA when I needed them?
I also did BP a couple of years (yellow hat). I didn't mind so much staying up all night in a cold drizzle until my relief didn't show up. THAT made me mad!!
When I was living in ME, we had the responsibility of manning the shower tents. I thought that was going to be the worst job - boy, was I wrong. I loved it! My take on it was this: You'd eventually see anyone you might be looking for and then some there at the shower tents and if they didn't show up then you probably didn't WANT to see them (i.e. they'd by stinky from not showering!)!
Later when I was in AL we worked camping - usually manned the West Woods - pretty boring, really. I remember letting a couple of yeah-hoos drive through the West Woods who weren't actually going to the ROA - I think it was WC week and they were "cop-outs"... Oh, well. No harm done. They were thankful and I was too nieve to ask for a bracelet.... I worked with Terry Di!!ard - he was actually pretty cool to work with - no one is blunter than him! Also worked with a guy (black hat) named Bud - he's let me drive the cushman - WHAT FUN! I loved driving in cushmans!
When I was in TN we worked Bless Patrol - it wasn't that much fun... we had to watch the Fountian of Living Waters so peopel didn't litter or soak their feet. I hated telling the kids not to play in the water - I felt like "the bad guy" all the time... Not much fun but then that should have been the clue that things were coming to an end, shouldn't it?
The best memories of ROA for me were seeing people that I knew and meeting new people from around the world. I did BP twice and it was no fun....3rd shift both times.
Yeah...walking around and suddenly there was another person from my past...and then another and another...hugging, crying...that festival, in a lot of ways, helped to keep a cohesive bond between people.
I suppose it's no surprise that Martindale pulled the plug...just like he did with the WOW program and the original pfal class...kinda funny when you think about it...the 3 main outreach programs, that was the cause for twi's growth...ROA, WOW and the class...and LCM pulls the plug on all of them! If somebody wanted to sabotage twi...that was the way to do it...and the funny part was that he wasn't trying to sabotage twi...he thought ending all these programs was a good idea! ROFLMAO... :D--> :D--> :D-->...what a moron.
1. all those burger vs. pizza wars. we would try to outcook and outsell each other every day and night. it got pretty intense, we all had our special battle crys to get fired up
2. the house of his healing presents
3. the shower tent with no hot water in the mornings, and all those blue bathrooms with the strange metal urinals, talk about splash back
4. farmers market
5. basketball and volleyball
6. "Beautiful Ohio"
7. staying up all night doing bless patrol and talking about devil spirits with fellow bless patrol people, and how they were so possessed before the way
8. taking over the gazeebo and holding it hostage for a week
9. hearing "the devil's ....ing on us" by LCM when it rained
The only ROA that I attended were in Sidney & Lima. I stopped after that. Was there ever one where it didn't rain? I don't remember any. On one of those occassions, I don't think I had a tent and everything got wet. We did have fun back then (then of course, I was still young). I loved hanging out with friends that I knew (or met) from all around the country. That was the magic of ROA (including of course WOW burgers).
The ROA seemed like a magical time, especially before kids and before the era of the mandatory twigs. At any time you might run into someone you knew so well that you hadn't seen in years. Usually it was a quick hi and bye because at least one of us was on our way to work or some meeting.
At the '95 ROA, the last one, but we didn't know it at the time, I ran into my '76-'77 WOW brother who I had no idea was still around.
If I remember right, it got longer and longer until it ran from Sunday through Friday, six days which got to be a bit much, especially with little ones.
I always thought it was odd that the news of its cancellation was never announced on a SNS tape or in the way mag, as far as I know. I never understood why they ended it after all those years of urging us not to miss it.
A friend dubbed it "Yikes and away". That is from an old Daffy Duck cartoon where he is playing a clutsy Robin Hood caracter. When trying to swing from a vine to steel the rich man's money, he keeps hitting the tree in front of him and repeating "Yikes and away....Yikes and away....yoiks and away....yoith and avay...". It was hard to get anywhere you needed to go after going to a decade of ministry functions. You just had to keep walking as if you were in a hurry to get to the a very important meeting. lol
Yeah, I loved going to The Rock also. Good Food, Good Fellowship, and to me, Good Word of God. Seeing all of the old friends as many have said, from all over the country and the World was just so fine.
One year, I had an experience that I relayed to my 20 year old daughter just the other day: I had become good friends with Andre Zakompani (God rest his soul), and Roger Lutambi, from Zaire, Africa, and they had taught me some greetings in their African language which is called "Tikongo". Andre's tribal name was "Ntsimba", and Roge's tribal name is "Kinkala". I know the national language is French, but their tribal language is "Tikongo". The spelling there may be way off. At any rate, they taught me to say this greeting that went like this:
"Zakamuka! Ngiku zololay! Ozala kamoto!" Which means; "God bless you! I love you! You are the best!"
Well, one day during the Rock of probably '85 (the last one before the big bomb dropped I think), my wife and I were sitting under the awning of our motor home in the RV section. And as we were drinking our morning coffee, we heard the babble of happy voices speaking French and getting louder coming in our direction. And as we looked out to the "street", we saw three or four young African believers brightly dressed (probably in their twenties), laughing and talking and looking at the RV's as if they were in wonderland. There was at least one woman in the bunch, but mostly they were guys, and none of them were Andre, Roger or Bayunga Niokasimbe. So right then I knew it was my chance to say my greeting in Tikongo.
So, with a loud voice I yelled with a smile; "Zakamuka!" And they stopped and stared at us and then with huge animated smiles on their faces yelled back in unison; "Zakamuka!!" And then I yelled; "Ngiku zololay!" And they smiled even huge-er and yelled back in unison; "Ngiku zololay!!" And jumping up and down they slapped their legs in glee, held their hands to either side of their cheeks and smiled radiantly like the sun. And then, I yelled even louder; "Ozala kamoto!" And at a crescendo pitch they yelled; "Aww! Ozala-ka-moto!!!" And we all laughed and slapped our legs and smiled and reveled in the love of God which knows no bounds! It was truly joyous I tell ya!
And then they came over to our rv where we got them some coffee, and we all failed miserably in trying to understand their French, and they our English, as we laughed about it. We did communicate some through hand signs and such, but it didn't matter in that we were having so much fun. We enjoyed such a moment of love and understanding between spiritual brothers and sisters regardless of our nationality, color or whatever, that it was truly lovely. And they were so overjoyed to hear their own native tongue in such a Faraway Land, that it brings tears to my eyes now as I think of it. We taught them to say; "God bless you, I love you, you are the best"! in English, and when we departed company, we went through the whole thing all over again, joyous smiles and all, and it was beautiful man, really. That was perhaps one of my finest times at the Rock Of Ages. I remember it like it was yesterday...
Maybe it's me, but anyone notice that when posters have had warm memories about the ROA, it wasn't the teaching or anything "leadership" did, but the interactions we had with "joe believer"....???
There are some posters here that scream that anytime there's anything Pro-TWI posted, those posters are beaten down and silenced and flamed, the flamers being extremely vitriolic.
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lindyhopper
Looking down at my "Livestrong" bracelet, I think back to those ROA armbands. Did you ever see anyone get kicked out for not having one, or anyone ever even check for them?
I did do bless patrol a number of years. I was usually the unlucky person out on Werwille Road somewhere helping people cross the road.
My favorite quote from the bless patrol was from when I was around 18 or so and we were out late at the gazebo. A few BP guys came up and told everyone that they had to leave. Then he said, "Love ya. Bless ya. Go home!" LOL What a blessing that guy was. Just thinking about it "blesses my socks off". haha
...then there were those teenaged orgies....
lol, ok, never did that.
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Sunny1
Groucho --
You made me laugh out loud -- you didn't like it much when it was your fault that it rained.
OH MY GOSH IS THAT NOT HYSTERICAL?????????
And that is how it was, too! How can someone be responsible for the weather. I mean COME ON!!!
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Oakspear
Hmmm...jobs at the ROA
I was "Bless Patrol" a couple of times. One year I was stationed near Wierwille's home, late at night. We were given very specific instructions about what color passes got who where and when. One night, this big black limo pulls up. No pass. So I stop the car, as I was instructed to do, and deny entry. The chaffeur, a German, tells me that the Way has only one limosine, and this is it. I still refuse to move aside, until the back window rolls down, and there's Howard Allen grinning at me. I let him in.
I liked BP though, even though I was a lowly "yellow hat", and had to stay in one place, manning my very important post.
Maintained the fire in the woods one year. Not too tough, but I smelled like smoke all week.
Rode the trash wagon another year. Easy work, but kind of stinky.
How did we get talked into paying for an event and then having to work there...for free?
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Georgio Jessio
"Looking down at my "Livestrong" bracelet, I think back to those ROA armbands. Did you ever see anyone get kicked out for not having one, or anyone ever even check for them?"
Yes, a couple of times. One time in the 70's there was this amazingly drunk guy walking around. Bless Patrol asked him for a bracelet , he didn't have one so they took him away.
Another time, when I was Junior Corps, we had some friends (with fake IDs) come stay with us. On the 3rd day Ch3t St0k1 (F10) found a bottle of Jim Beam in out Teen tEnt area and started checking for wrist bands. Kicked our friends back to Rome City.
The ROA was my woodstock. I loved it. But it became more and more structured to the point that it stopped being fun. '86 was the end for me also.
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johniam
ROA ticket: $25.00.
$40.00 worth of meal tickets: $35.00.
WOW burgers at 3AM: priceless!
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gladtobeout
Wow, I haven't thought about ROA in a long time. What a blast ! Yes, it ended up getting a little rigid, but I still had a great time. I guess the most fun for me was seeing people from all over the world that I knew and getting to party.
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BluzieQ
Definitely the most fun part of being in the Way as a kid. To me it just seemed like a big fun festival. I loved the camping out part and music and the craft demos - that was cool. I still have a little glass turtle I got there from a glass artist...
Wish I would have been old enough to make it to the teen orgies (ha!)
BluzieQ
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Ham
I dunno. I saw some guys riding that thing down W. Road like it was some kind of amusement ride or something.
Yep.. once things became "mandatory" it lost a lot of appeal.
Overall, I have some good memories, but it really was over-priced camping.
I remember one year, I think 93, there was a complete lunar eclipse. Only myself and another couple other guys that I could see stood around watching it- yet it was more interesting than the prior evening teaching.
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def59
I remember meeting some great folks at 3 a.m.
The man of 1,000 screen names became my closest ROA buddy one of those night.
I learned of the Mountain Dew Party, frisbee football and I met a German girl who was going corps. Here name was Gabriela.
I also met a Dorothy P. from Jersey at 3 a.m.
Good times, too bad there was all that crap teaching to ruin it.
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GeorgeStGeorge
I remember making hamburgers and fries at the "Lone Star Stand" one ROA. I took a couple of the potato bags, punched holes through them, and used them as insulated "sleeves" to keep from being burned by the spattering grease. Where was OSHA when I needed them?
I also did BP a couple of years (yellow hat). I didn't mind so much staying up all night in a cold drizzle until my relief didn't show up. THAT made me mad!!
George
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ChasUFarley
When I was living in ME, we had the responsibility of manning the shower tents. I thought that was going to be the worst job - boy, was I wrong. I loved it! My take on it was this: You'd eventually see anyone you might be looking for and then some there at the shower tents and if they didn't show up then you probably didn't WANT to see them (i.e. they'd by stinky from not showering!)!
Later when I was in AL we worked camping - usually manned the West Woods - pretty boring, really. I remember letting a couple of yeah-hoos drive through the West Woods who weren't actually going to the ROA - I think it was WC week and they were "cop-outs"... Oh, well. No harm done. They were thankful and I was too nieve to ask for a bracelet.... I worked with Terry Di!!ard - he was actually pretty cool to work with - no one is blunter than him! Also worked with a guy (black hat) named Bud - he's let me drive the cushman - WHAT FUN! I loved driving in cushmans!
When I was in TN we worked Bless Patrol - it wasn't that much fun... we had to watch the Fountian of Living Waters so peopel didn't litter or soak their feet. I hated telling the kids not to play in the water - I felt like "the bad guy" all the time... Not much fun but then that should have been the clue that things were coming to an end, shouldn't it?
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act2
Hey, ChasUFarley, Terry D. was my TC in early 1980's. He even helped me finish the interior of my log cabin.
Any news of him, Donna, Jenny, or Angela?
Last I heard, they were still in AL.
Sorry to derail.
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act2
The best memories of ROA for me were seeing people that I knew and meeting new people from around the world. I did BP twice and it was no fun....3rd shift both times.
I think I still have one of those yellow hats.
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GrouchoMarxJr
Yeah...walking around and suddenly there was another person from my past...and then another and another...hugging, crying...that festival, in a lot of ways, helped to keep a cohesive bond between people.
I suppose it's no surprise that Martindale pulled the plug...just like he did with the WOW program and the original pfal class...kinda funny when you think about it...the 3 main outreach programs, that was the cause for twi's growth...ROA, WOW and the class...and LCM pulls the plug on all of them! If somebody wanted to sabotage twi...that was the way to do it...and the funny part was that he wasn't trying to sabotage twi...he thought ending all these programs was a good idea! ROFLMAO...
:D--> 
:D--> 
:D-->...what a moron.
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Thelema
1. all those burger vs. pizza wars. we would try to outcook and outsell each other every day and night. it got pretty intense, we all had our special battle crys to get fired up
2. the house of his healing presents
3. the shower tent with no hot water in the mornings, and all those blue bathrooms with the strange metal urinals, talk about splash back
4. farmers market
5. basketball and volleyball
6. "Beautiful Ohio"
7. staying up all night doing bless patrol and talking about devil spirits with fellow bless patrol people, and how they were so possessed before the way
8. taking over the gazeebo and holding it hostage for a week
9. hearing "the devil's ....ing on us" by LCM when it rained
10.wearing the RED wristband!!
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OnionEater
I remember all the flies when the Rock was in St.Marys.
Opps, maybe it was Sidney.
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Oakspear
I didn't think that the ROA was ever in St. Mary's
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Oakspear
1971 - HQ
1972-1974: Sidney
1975: Lima
1976-1977: Sidney
1978-1995: HQ
If memory serves
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moony3424
The only ROA that I attended were in Sidney & Lima. I stopped after that. Was there ever one where it didn't rain? I don't remember any. On one of those occassions, I don't think I had a tent and everything got wet. We did have fun back then (then of course, I was still young). I loved hanging out with friends that I knew (or met) from all around the country. That was the magic of ROA (including of course WOW burgers).
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outintexas
The ROA seemed like a magical time, especially before kids and before the era of the mandatory twigs. At any time you might run into someone you knew so well that you hadn't seen in years. Usually it was a quick hi and bye because at least one of us was on our way to work or some meeting.
At the '95 ROA, the last one, but we didn't know it at the time, I ran into my '76-'77 WOW brother who I had no idea was still around.
If I remember right, it got longer and longer until it ran from Sunday through Friday, six days which got to be a bit much, especially with little ones.
I always thought it was odd that the news of its cancellation was never announced on a SNS tape or in the way mag, as far as I know. I never understood why they ended it after all those years of urging us not to miss it.
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lindyhopper
Yeah, the never ending run-in with people.
A friend dubbed it "Yikes and away". That is from an old Daffy Duck cartoon where he is playing a clutsy Robin Hood caracter. When trying to swing from a vine to steel the rich man's money, he keeps hitting the tree in front of him and repeating "Yikes and away....Yikes and away....yoiks and away....yoith and avay...". It was hard to get anywhere you needed to go after going to a decade of ministry functions. You just had to keep walking as if you were in a hurry to get to the a very important meeting. lol
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J0nny Ling0
Yeah, I loved going to The Rock also. Good Food, Good Fellowship, and to me, Good Word of God. Seeing all of the old friends as many have said, from all over the country and the World was just so fine.
One year, I had an experience that I relayed to my 20 year old daughter just the other day: I had become good friends with Andre Zakompani (God rest his soul), and Roger Lutambi, from Zaire, Africa, and they had taught me some greetings in their African language which is called "Tikongo". Andre's tribal name was "Ntsimba", and Roge's tribal name is "Kinkala". I know the national language is French, but their tribal language is "Tikongo". The spelling there may be way off. At any rate, they taught me to say this greeting that went like this:
"Zakamuka! Ngiku zololay! Ozala kamoto!" Which means; "God bless you! I love you! You are the best!"
Well, one day during the Rock of probably '85 (the last one before the big bomb dropped I think), my wife and I were sitting under the awning of our motor home in the RV section. And as we were drinking our morning coffee, we heard the babble of happy voices speaking French and getting louder coming in our direction. And as we looked out to the "street", we saw three or four young African believers brightly dressed (probably in their twenties), laughing and talking and looking at the RV's as if they were in wonderland. There was at least one woman in the bunch, but mostly they were guys, and none of them were Andre, Roger or Bayunga Niokasimbe. So right then I knew it was my chance to say my greeting in Tikongo.
So, with a loud voice I yelled with a smile; "Zakamuka!" And they stopped and stared at us and then with huge animated smiles on their faces yelled back in unison; "Zakamuka!!" And then I yelled; "Ngiku zololay!" And they smiled even huge-er and yelled back in unison; "Ngiku zololay!!" And jumping up and down they slapped their legs in glee, held their hands to either side of their cheeks and smiled radiantly like the sun. And then, I yelled even louder; "Ozala kamoto!" And at a crescendo pitch they yelled; "Aww! Ozala-ka-moto!!!" And we all laughed and slapped our legs and smiled and reveled in the love of God which knows no bounds! It was truly joyous I tell ya!
And then they came over to our rv where we got them some coffee, and we all failed miserably in trying to understand their French, and they our English, as we laughed about it. We did communicate some through hand signs and such, but it didn't matter in that we were having so much fun. We enjoyed such a moment of love and understanding between spiritual brothers and sisters regardless of our nationality, color or whatever, that it was truly lovely. And they were so overjoyed to hear their own native tongue in such a Faraway Land, that it brings tears to my eyes now as I think of it. We taught them to say; "God bless you, I love you, you are the best"! in English, and when we departed company, we went through the whole thing all over again, joyous smiles and all, and it was beautiful man, really. That was perhaps one of my finest times at the Rock Of Ages. I remember it like it was yesterday...
And so;
"Zakamuka! Ngiku zololay! Ozala kamoto!!"
:)-->
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ChasUFarley
Johnny --
What a great memory to have of the ROA!
-------------------
Maybe it's me, but anyone notice that when posters have had warm memories about the ROA, it wasn't the teaching or anything "leadership" did, but the interactions we had with "joe believer"....???
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Steve!
Hmmmm.
There are some posters here that scream that anytime there's anything Pro-TWI posted, those posters are beaten down and silenced and flamed, the flamers being extremely vitriolic.
So, I'm waiting. Where are the flamers?
(sounds of crickets chirping)
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