No doubt the music of that time was one of the saving graces of our involvement. That music, more than anything else, tended to keep my heart turned toward God, especially when it seemed people did things to turn my focus away. I'm thankful for all of those creative men and women, who's hearts and minds seemed to be pure. Here's part of what I remember came out of that time around '76:
"I am proud of my country's hertitage,
Living on freedom's soil.
Brave men have gone before me here,
Unafraid to pray and toil.
And I intend to keep on building up,
What others seek to spoil.
And God's still bares His mighty arm,
When men to him are loyal.
Sorry I can't remember the rest of words, by Brian Bliss if I am correct. Songs like that just seemed to be the aura of our being during that time: I got more out of the music than from "None dare Call it Conspiracy-and don't forget the sequel, None Dare Call it Treason: and for the brave at heart?-"I Was a Slave in Russia". I swear, there were times that we thought it would all be over within a year or two. It kept us motivated, though, didn't it?
Oh yeah! It was Good Seed who did that "Born Again" number! Thanks, Socks. I got in twi in '73 and Carolyn (Hew*tt) Cr*innion (who first invited me to twig) used to play that song and make the walls shake! lol I hated it! I was into R&B sounds and that music made my head hurt! lol
Ted, that is so cool you and the Chatty One recorded that and the Pres responded so nicely. Yes, we'd love to hear it. Y'all will have to come entertain us at the next Weenie Roast.
Socks, I've chatted with Katie a number of times (she's very good friends with our very own Donner here at the cafe). It was nice to catch up with her again after so many years. She's well and just as funny as ever. Still in OH.
I was thinking that "Freedom Soil" was by someone other than Brian Bliss ... wasn't it by Dean Ellenwood? It's one of my favorite songs, too...TF
I think Dean was the one who sang that, TF, but not sure about the authorship of it. Now that I think about it, I think it did have something to do with Dean's heritage. Could be wrong about that though.
(ps -- Dean and Laura were my twig leaders in 1977 back in Indiana, and he sang that song regularly at coffehouses around town.)
I don't remember if either of these songs were on the "America Awakes" album, but "It's Gotta Be God" and "My Life's Dream" are the two that touched me the most from my way days. LOVE those songs...
I remember the posters announcing the tour at Indy that year took the opportunity to promote John Lynn and Good Seed as "presenting" the America Awakes tour by Joyful Noise.
Billy Clyde, John's organization was called Total Fitness Institute, which preceeded Lead , and both were extreme versions of Outward Bound(non religious experience). it was Agape that wrote Fireside Song.
I think it was in 76 that VP came to Knoxville to the UT campus. I'm not real sure about the date, so forgive me if I'm off. Berry Hill had gotten kidnapped for deprogramming and he brought her to Knoxville for a meeting. It was right after she came back. My boyfriend at the time had parents who were friends of Barry's parents.
It got real ugly, real fast. VP did a meeting and my boyfriends dad was there.
He challenged what VP was saying, and VP actually threw some punches.
Howard Allen was there,
and actually had to hold VP back from getting in a fight with my boyfriends father.
It got real ugly real fast.
Afterwards, Howard smoothed it over and apologized for VP,
and my boyfriends father had the grace to back off and aplogize
and agree to meet with VP late to discuss differences of opinion.
VP never showed up, and the meeting and the whole ordeal was forgotten, sorta.
But not really. Long story, but the whole thing never really got resolved. And, dumb me and boyfriend, stayed with the way. And actually went into the way corps. sheesh.........
On July 4, 1976, there was a Calfiornia limb meeting at some hotel in Fresno.
I was on a summer outreach thing with about 10 others, traveling from town to town,
staying for a couple of weeks, camping out, witnessing, trying to get classes together.
I remember going to Visalia, Monterey, Yuba City, San luis Obispo, Santa Barbara,
and some other places. It was a miserable failure but we had a good time,
right up to the point when the limb leader took off with one of the girls in our group,
leaving his wife and child behind.
But that's another story. Back to the Bicentennial stuff in Fresno.
The featured speaker was LCM.
This was the occasion when I started questioning his sanity.
He went on and on about all the conspiracy stuff from "None Dare Call it Conspiracy",
including the fact that
the CFR,
Bilderbergers,
Commies,
Trilateral Commission,
Rockefellers,
Warburgs,
Colonel House,
Woodrow Wilson,
the Federal Reserve with their paper money, etc.,
had fiendishly plotted to complete the overthrow of the United States on that very day, our 200th anniversary, by replacing the U.S constitution with...I don't remember what. Perhaps the Protocols of the Elders of Zion?
And if it wasn't for the Way Ministry blah blah blah.
Anyway, I remember being very thankful that none of our outreach group had actually talked anyone into coming to this meeting. It was the first time I had seen Craig in 'classic' form. It was highly entertainig of course, but he was completely off his rocker.
Silly me. I had gone expecting a Bible teaching.
Earlier that year I had gone on one of John Sommerville's wilderness survival things
(I don't know if it was called LEAD yet) a three day cross-country skiing trek somewhere in Yosemite.
This was just plain miserable with no redeeming qualities.
Three days freezing our asses off, eating lousy food,
listening to a bunch of crazies talking about how the commies were going to kill us all.
I think I actually gave them some money for this.
Anyway, those are some of my memories of that patriotic year. Hadn't thought about those things in a long time.
Socks:
Yeah, God in America. I was trying to remember the year and a distinction from when America Awakes came out and you put it together for me, tyvm.
We were WOWs in 1974-75 (yes, Wordwolf; I realize this goes in the other section) in Bethleham, PA (I was with K*tie F*owle's group - - one of your 4th Corps gals) and one of our rarely allowed drives out of the confines of said city limits was to drive to White Plains, NY for the God in America concert. We were all tingly with excitement to see Joyful Noise live and in person. That was the year they had sent branches of WOWs out to select city and a number of us who post here at GSC have figured out we were all in PA that year - - Scranton, Bethleham, Allantown, College Town - - I think there were 7-8 cities; can't remember them all.
The Joyful Noise 1, 2 and 3 had come out just before we went WOW (if I remember correctly, or maybe that year), but I remember that was our "twig music" - - and played them to death. I personally loved them. Not being much of an acid head prior to joining twi, the blaring of "Born again - - - of in-cor-rupt-ible- - - - - - seeeeeeeeeeeeeeed - - I'm born again" by Pressed Down (????) wasn't my kinda music - - so Joyful Noise was a nice healing change of music for me personally.
The concert was great.
VP and HA were doing their "here Howard - - take my jacket" thing on stage
(don't know why that sticks in my mind).
I think Vince F. was the emcee - - one of the first times I heard him speak. We sat in the first row and I musta caught Br*an Bl*ss' eye, cuz he asked me out for coffee after the concert, but we had to drive in snow all the way back to PA. Another missed opportunity (sigh).
I remember Socks and all the gang so vividly. And you're right about Ted's "The White House Across the Street" was definitely Ted at his best. I remember his performance as though it was yesterday. Gives me goosebumps still thinking about it.
Boy, seems like so very, very long ago (yeah, I know, it was!) and at the time we were full of life, "moving" God's Word and eating this stuff up like crazy. But, it truly was one of the highlights of our year.
All this talk about America Awakes and the gov’t takeover conspiracy dredged up a 1976 memory:
There was a guy named Hayes Gahagan who was a state senator in Maine who was doing this class on the government, the name of which I can’t recall at all. Well for whatever reason a bunch of us in CT decided to drive all the way out to HQ to attend this class.
I don’t recall a lot of details about what was covered, I seem to remember that it was pretty much a standard Libertarian view how our government and the constitution were supposed to work.
The one thing I do remember clearly was that it was the one and only time during my TWI tangent that I had ever been to HQ when there wasn’t a ROA going on. When the class had ended they put a barbeque grill out in front of the BRC and grilled up burgers for us who have traveled in. I think it was old Vic himself who was flipping them up.
I wish I could remember more details about it than I do, but it was 30 years ago now and a lot of time wasted I wish I would have back now!
Slight derail here: I had Googled Hayes Gahagan to make sure I was remembering his name correctly. I had recalled that he tried to make a run for US Senator as an independent in 1978….. and apparently some folks in the state of Maine remember his campaign too:
I was just skimming thru this tread and BAM!!! (or SHAZZAM, if you like Gomer).
It's like being back in a real twig!!! Exie and Socks and Ted and JardinHero and Toadie and Lifted and OrthoTonto and the rest, man, there sure were some great days of excitement and love that I will never forget. What made The Way great were people like you, not the "celebrities".
I can only thank each of you for your pure and simple hearts. You are what makes this dull world tolerable, even a joy at times.
Nineteen and seventy-six -- 8 months after I took the *class*.
K*is S*edgell and R*ck P*nyard were in charge of our area, in Bloomington, In. I heard a lot about the Illuminti, council on foreign relations, etc, -- but you hear that all the time in southern Indiana.
Twigs then were geared up to do the *patriotic thing*, which If I recollect correct now meant witness, and sign up folks for pfal.
Conspiricy talk was always (and still is) a popular subject in southern Indiana, so it was no great feat to get the *flock* to utilize that in witnessing, although the main emphasis had to be on the Word, and it's delivering qualities via pfal.
We got a lot of folks into the class via the religion/politics aspect (hey -- this was Indiana University, where there were a lot of inquiring minds wanting to know), and though some stayed, and stuck around -- most walked away after taking pfal.
P*nyard was a good teacher, but for the life of me --- I could never understand his wish for a drink of drambuie at the end of the day (He referenced that more than a few times in his *teachings*), until years later when I heard of docvic's love of the stuff, and put two and two together.
I first got a computer in 2002, and one of the first things I looked up on the *net* was twi. Guess who I found, on NO WAY OUT?? R*ck P*nyard -- found guilty of embezzling in Colorado.
So much for what he and others were teaching, back in 1976 about patriotic stuff, and the Word.
A little off-topic here ... I just found the foldout from the Nov/Dec 1976 Way Magazine that described Rock of Ages '76 in this way: "For four delightful days in the August sunshine nearly 12,000 of God's people from every state and 19 countries gathered together for the sweetest fellowship under heaven. This was the Rock of Ages '76." Pictures of Walter Cummins are prominent; LCM is nowhere to be found in the foldout. His time had not yet come ...
Nineteen and seventy-six -- 8 months after I took the *class*.
K*is S*edgell and R*ck P*nyard were in charge of our area, in Bloomington, In.
Maybe you knew a guy named D**e St**son who came up to Indy with us after ROA that year. I borrowed his red IU raincoat for a makeshift cape in my locally performed Super Conqueror act.
David that whole Rock Band /Rock records was a sad end for Rick but more so for the band and the investers. It's too bad really for them they made some great music which is now forever tarnished by his thoughtless actions.
White Dove -- yea -- it was a sad end. He did some righteous teachings back in Indiana.
Too bad he didn't listen to himself (as it were).
The story I read about him is HERE, and it saddened me to see someone who was pretty dynamic (at one time), fall so low.
But then again we all make choices, eh?
Excie --- most of us rednecks from southern Indiana have always been suspicious of government, and their designs upon the *general populace*. Life can be good there, and we don't need federal rules to show us how to live.
Makes me wonder (time and again), why I stick around Minney-soda, where most take the governmental crap handed to them on a stick so willingly.
Well -- guess I just said we all make choices, eh?
I finally "took the class" (PFAL) in October of 76. Looking back on that time now, I'd have to say it was the music, the majority of it by Joyful Noise; but it was the overall quality; musical, compositional, lyrical content and how it was so solidly based on God's Word that caused me to want to commit my spiritual life to TWI.
In fact I have, stored in my basement, copies of the albums, still in their cellophane wrappers:
"There's a Place" by Paul Vergilio
"America Awakes" by JN
"All Aboard! With Victor Paul Wierwille" (VP reading some favorite poetry and other readings set to music.) Also produced and released in 1976.
"Heartbeat" by JN and Pressed Down Shaken Together and Running Over. Released in 77. Of the matching blue polyester suits! Lapels so wide you could use them as wing and fly if you ran fast enough! :P :blink:
I also have an autographed copy of Joyful Noise's "We're On God's Team" and TAKIT's self titled album.
It was the music, that to me set the tone and made TWI different, and unique from other ministries of the day.
I remember the much ad about the US takeover too. I also have, somewhere in a box, a copy of the constitution of "The New States of America" (or something like that). I never read the whole constitution thing, but I distinctly remember, like someone else said, feeling like we, as Christians, were doing our part to save our country.
I felt America Awakes was SO thoughtful, respectful and dignified. BUT. It had a sharp point to it .
Wake UP America! With God above we've goutta love our country!
Wake UP, America WAKE UP!
I felt that was so cool and was honored to be a part of it.
Thanks for bringing back the remembrance of that song Dean Ellenwood used to sing. (Brian Bliss used to sing "The Captain of Salvation") I don't remember the name of it either, but it started out something to the effect of:
"I'm proud of my country's heritage,
(something, something) because we're free,
I won't forget the men who died who gave their life for me...."
I wish I remembered all of the words to that song too. Ultra patriotic, it had the same effect on couds as Lee Greenwood's proud to be an American song has. The way it ended, "when men to Him are loyal..." really tugged at the heart.
Yeah, songs don't get any better than Ted's, "The Whitehouse Across the Street." Lot's of chills & thrills. Our little twig from the Pittsburgh Pa area went to three Joyful Noise concerts on the AM Awakes tour. We were high school kids and really stoked by the whole idea, "let's go save the country!" We didn't really care from whom we were saving it, we didn't really if the rumors were even true or not, we just knew God was gonna come through. No matter what, takeover or not America needed to WAKE UP! ... so we were there, man, there.
It felt SO good to be commited to something bigger than ourselves.... Felt like we were a part of "something."
I've said before that I felt that VPW's ministry saw glimpses of true Godliness and that it had a chance to actually be "God's ministry" (whatever that actually means). It was this time frame that I'm referring to.
That God In America, seguay into America Awakes tours, IMO was hardly the stuff cults were made of.
It seemed like were were actually trying to do something good and right for the whole country. Even if the takeover thing was a little far fetched and overly paranoid, to me it seemed like our heart was in the right place. There were a lot of conspiracy theories floating around then; lots of anti war talk, nobody liket the government, the establishment was BAAADD, man (throw in a Cheech & Chong accent :huh: ).
We saw real signs miracles and wonders in our area. Our little twig mad a positive difference in the lives of the people in it. One of our guys got off drugs, another came out of satanist activity and I, a 17 yr. old recent PFAL grad was able to argue a PHD, Presbetarian Minister to an open Bible stalemate on the Trinity topic.
There was a lot of deprogramming going on then, our people around the ministry were being snatched like flies by Ted Patrick and others. In fact, the reason I was talking to the minister was that he was trying to get one of the girls (Joanie) in our twig away from us to be deprogrammed. They actually did get the girl whisked away out the back door while I was in debating withthe minister in his office. They were calling us a cult out of one side of their mouth and kidnapping people out of the other - - was how I saw it then. Las I heard of her, she was pregnant with the baby of the guy who was overseeing their "after you get out of the cult" program.
I remember hearing lots of good things about the WOW branches in Allentown, State College, and other PA areas too. This time frame was the first time I saw LCM do his presentation on The Way Corps. He was amiable, and a very dynamic speaker. Appreciated it that he taught without coming across as a "turn the other cheek" wimpy kinda guy, which was prevalent then.
We also did a lot of Heartbeat Festivals then. It was cool how there seemed to be a constant and consistant contact from HQ to people on the field. To me, a lot of people were teaching the Bible, it was the other stuff that TWI did that I though made us unique.
My first ROA was in 76 at the fair grounds in Sidney. Gerald Wren's teaching on the last days of Jesus' life had a profound effect on me. They did a play at night in one of the tents where they did a scene depicting Jesus torture, and beatings. It was highly stylized with slow motion and strobe lights. They put a bag over Jesus" head and the guards beat him and beat him and beat him. When they finall finished and presented him to Pilate, a guard RIPPED the bag off his head and the actor's face was a so swollen, bloody mass that you couldn't recognize his features as being a human.
The croud gasped at that sight. It seemed like they were really trying to make God's word live for people. Seeing men built like athletes talking about God really made an impression on me. I felt like this was a really effective way to reach people with God's Word, by making it come to life for them via music and other visual production methods.
That year (76) was when I decided that I wanted to add my God given talents to the mix. I came on staff officially in 1979 with the intent of TWI never having to hire an outside agency again to produce professional quality artwork for its publications.
The OSC shell was finished and Way Publications was among the first departments to move our operations there in late 79. We produced VPW's "Love Letters" album that year. There is a cut on that album where VPW said that we could achieve Word Over The World by, (memory is foggy) it think it was 1990. I distinctly remember how that comment went largly unnoticed. So much so that I don't remember the date he mentioned. I DO remember him mentioning a date for that possibility, IF we remained faithful.
Yup. Still have that album too. Two copies, I think. One was an autographed gift from VPW that he personally presented to everyone who had a part in the production.
We also did mini tours with The Way Dance Company that year, winter of 79 and into 1980. I did lighting and helped drive the van. We'd do weekend trips (within half a day's drive) set up and do a show Saturday evening, leave for HQ Sunday to be back home to HQ get some rest and be at work Monday AM.
1979/80 was one of the last years, if not the last, of "family life" at HQ. Like it said in "The Way Living in Love" (Elena Whiteside's book) we could go down to the kitchen in the BRC basement and pig out on midnite snacks. There was a group of the ususal suspects who'd be down there often sitting aound eating and laughing about this, that or the other thing. Ralph D. was one of the regular regulars wo'd be there a lot. It was mostly guys, & it seemed like we were on the same biological clock. Jon Mahoney was always there working, getting stuff ready for breakfast, putting stuff away, whatever. He'd serve stuff or we'd just go into the fridge & grab stuff. Jon would heat it up or we'd grub on it cold. Basicall nothing was off limits. It was really like home and we were like a big family in a lot of ways.
VP always said then that HQ was the property of the believers and that any believer should have access to any piece of equipment that was sitting around, not being used for the work of the ministry. For example: If your twig needed photocopies of a flyer about some twig activity, in theory you could come to HQ and get you copies made - - at no, or at a very reduced, cost. We were allowed to use any vehicle in TWI's fleet that was available, even for personal reasons. To rent a car from transportation all we paid was for the gas for our trip plus, like 10 or 15 cents per mile, whatever transportation had determined was what it cost the ministry per mile to operate the vehicle you used.
A friend of mine & I went in together and rented a limo for a double date. It was a nice way to impress the ladies and go to the local drive in in style and comfort. Even the ariplanes and the Way Productions motorcoach was available when not in use for ministry business. People did rent them. You had to convince one of the pilots or coach drivers to drive you, pay the fuel cost and give him an honorarium, like you give a minister for marrying you.
The fleet rental went away, it was said that the IRS shut that thing down.
Those were good ol' days. Right before TWI went really corporate.
Thanks, HCW, for the reminder of the feeling it was to be in the Way. And the effect that the music had cannot be overstated-hearing the Word in music like that along with the teaching sure didn't feel "cult like" to me either-nobody else back then had Christian music like this, and it was frowned upon then (you can't be godly and play and electric guiter, too!). Now it is everywhere: ironic that the most popular is WOW music. Ummmm....
I am proud of my country's hertitage
Living on freedom's soil,
Brave men have gone before me here,
Unafraid to pray and toil.
And I intend to keep on building up
What others seek to spoil,
And God still bares His mighty arm
When men to him are loyal.
Captain of Salvation-I had those word written in my Bible-unfortunately I've never been able to retreive my Bible or any of my personal items from Emporia. I would love to see those words again, if anybody knows them.
That song, Freedom Soil, had always been a favorite of mine, but I was thinking in particular of the time it was perhaps most meaningful to me during my Way days. It was a Saturday during my interim year in the 13th Corps, on Staff at HQ. It had snowed rather heavily the day before, but we were scheduled for the historical tour on the Way's tour bus, and though we started out an hour later, we still went ... as we went to Van Wert and all the surrounding areas, parked outside the little church where Dr. Wierwille had been researching the Bible for 12 years in Van Wert and listened to a sermon of his from that time, driving through the Ohio countryside covered in snow with few vehicles out, I could just imagine myself traveling back through time (like with Mr. Peabody in the Wayback Machine for all you Bullwinkle fans) ... our tour was ending as we drove back down State Route 29 with that song going, "...and I intend on building up what others seek to spoil ... but God still bares His mighty hand when men to Him are loyal." I felt a great commitment to God that day, and to the Way Ministry ... which in my thinking were inseparable at the time. It's a very powerful song ...
Fast forward to the year 1996 ... I left The Way after 23.5 years on January 11, 1996. It took a while of healing before I got to the place where I STILL think I am "building up what others seek to spoil" and understanding that God is so much bigger than The Way Ministry ... I am thankful for the things I learned in the Way and most of all, thankful for God working however He had to work to bring me to the joys I have today. We do have a lot to be thankful for in this country ... and God STILL bares His mighty arm when men to him are loyal.
Recommended Posts
Top Posters In This Topic
6
15
6
8
Popular Days
Dec 4
19
Dec 1
9
Dec 18
7
Jul 31
6
Top Posters In This Topic
excathedra 6 posts
Lifted Up 15 posts
socks 6 posts
WordWolf 8 posts
Popular Days
Dec 4 2005
19 posts
Dec 1 2005
9 posts
Dec 18 2005
7 posts
Jul 31 2006
6 posts
TED Ferrell
Socks My Man;
Give me a shout once in awhile .I miss you cause dad burn it you are still the best guitar picker in the land
Tell Janet I miss her too and love her much as you.
Love You My Brother
Ted
Link to comment
Share on other sites
socks
Ted. that's sweet!!!!! Congratulations, Kathy and Ted. I'd love to see the two things you both put together to send. Post that puppy!
I know it seems to a lot of people like VP had an I.V. to our brains and that's how all the songs were written.
That piece - I remember all the time you spent on it, crafting the words, the rhythm, the delivery. Craft and art, all in one polyster suit!
(y'know I can't let that die. Every rose garden's gotta have it's thorn, and we had two counting me!)
Link to comment
Share on other sites
TED Ferrell
Hey JR
Thorn In The Flesh now there;'s a good title for a song We could write that one in a heartbeat eh!
Link to comment
Share on other sites
topoftheworld
No doubt the music of that time was one of the saving graces of our involvement. That music, more than anything else, tended to keep my heart turned toward God, especially when it seemed people did things to turn my focus away. I'm thankful for all of those creative men and women, who's hearts and minds seemed to be pure. Here's part of what I remember came out of that time around '76:
"I am proud of my country's hertitage,
Living on freedom's soil.
Brave men have gone before me here,
Unafraid to pray and toil.
And I intend to keep on building up,
What others seek to spoil.
And God's still bares His mighty arm,
When men to him are loyal.
Sorry I can't remember the rest of words, by Brian Bliss if I am correct. Songs like that just seemed to be the aura of our being during that time: I got more out of the music than from "None dare Call it Conspiracy-and don't forget the sequel, None Dare Call it Treason: and for the brave at heart?-"I Was a Slave in Russia". I swear, there were times that we thought it would all be over within a year or two. It kept us motivated, though, didn't it?
Link to comment
Share on other sites
coolchef1248 @adelphia.net
the mother of my children and i used to sing
the fire side song at more twigs than i can remember
it was a good one i don't remember who did it??anyone??
Link to comment
Share on other sites
jardinero
Oh yeah! It was Good Seed who did that "Born Again" number! Thanks, Socks. I got in twi in '73 and Carolyn (Hew*tt) Cr*innion (who first invited me to twig) used to play that song and make the walls shake! lol I hated it! I was into R&B sounds and that music made my head hurt! lol
Ted, that is so cool you and the Chatty One recorded that and the Pres responded so nicely. Yes, we'd love to hear it. Y'all will have to come entertain us at the next Weenie Roast.
Socks, I've chatted with Katie a number of times (she's very good friends with our very own Donner here at the cafe). It was nice to catch up with her again after so many years. She's well and just as funny as ever. Still in OH.
J.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
ToadFriend
I was thinking that "Freedom Soil" was by someone other than Brian Bliss ... wasn't it by Dean Ellenwood? It's one of my favorite songs, too...TF
Link to comment
Share on other sites
dmiller
If I recollect correct, it was done by way prod of England.
Used to have a tape of that here, and now looking for it, I can't find it.
Grrrrrrr.
I think that one came out in the early 1980's.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
dmiller
I think Dean was the one who sang that, TF, but not sure about the authorship of it. Now that I think about it, I think it did have something to do with Dean's heritage. Could be wrong about that though.
(ps -- Dean and Laura were my twig leaders in 1977 back in Indiana, and he sang that song regularly at coffehouses around town.)
Link to comment
Share on other sites
tonto
I don't remember if either of these songs were on the "America Awakes" album, but "It's Gotta Be God" and "My Life's Dream" are the two that touched me the most from my way days. LOVE those songs...
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Lifted Up
I remember the posters announcing the tour at Indy that year took the opportunity to promote John Lynn and Good Seed as "presenting" the America Awakes tour by Joyful Noise.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Thomas Loy Bumgarner
Billy Clyde, John's organization was called Total Fitness Institute, which preceeded Lead , and both were extreme versions of Outward Bound(non religious experience). it was Agape that wrote Fireside Song.
Edited by Thomas Loy BumgarnerLink to comment
Share on other sites
WordWolf
Out of curiousity,
what was the "here Howard-take my jacket" thing?
I've never heard of it.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Bogey76
All this talk about America Awakes and the gov’t takeover conspiracy dredged up a 1976 memory:
There was a guy named Hayes Gahagan who was a state senator in Maine who was doing this class on the government, the name of which I can’t recall at all. Well for whatever reason a bunch of us in CT decided to drive all the way out to HQ to attend this class.
I don’t recall a lot of details about what was covered, I seem to remember that it was pretty much a standard Libertarian view how our government and the constitution were supposed to work.
The one thing I do remember clearly was that it was the one and only time during my TWI tangent that I had ever been to HQ when there wasn’t a ROA going on. When the class had ended they put a barbeque grill out in front of the BRC and grilled up burgers for us who have traveled in. I think it was old Vic himself who was flipping them up.
I wish I could remember more details about it than I do, but it was 30 years ago now and a lot of time wasted I wish I would have back now!
Slight derail here: I had Googled Hayes Gahagan to make sure I was remembering his name correctly. I had recalled that he tried to make a run for US Senator as an independent in 1978….. and apparently some folks in the state of Maine remember his campaign too:
http://www.portlandphoenix.com/features/po...ts/04242150.asp
Too funny!
Link to comment
Share on other sites
tomtuttle1
I was just skimming thru this tread and BAM!!! (or SHAZZAM, if you like Gomer).
It's like being back in a real twig!!! Exie and Socks and Ted and JardinHero and Toadie and Lifted and OrthoTonto and the rest, man, there sure were some great days of excitement and love that I will never forget. What made The Way great were people like you, not the "celebrities".
I can only thank each of you for your pure and simple hearts. You are what makes this dull world tolerable, even a joy at times.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
dmiller
Nineteen and seventy-six -- 8 months after I took the *class*.
K*is S*edgell and R*ck P*nyard were in charge of our area, in Bloomington, In. I heard a lot about the Illuminti, council on foreign relations, etc, -- but you hear that all the time in southern Indiana.
Twigs then were geared up to do the *patriotic thing*, which If I recollect correct now meant witness, and sign up folks for pfal.
Conspiricy talk was always (and still is) a popular subject in southern Indiana, so it was no great feat to get the *flock* to utilize that in witnessing, although the main emphasis had to be on the Word, and it's delivering qualities via pfal.
We got a lot of folks into the class via the religion/politics aspect (hey -- this was Indiana University, where there were a lot of inquiring minds wanting to know), and though some stayed, and stuck around -- most walked away after taking pfal.
P*nyard was a good teacher, but for the life of me --- I could never understand his wish for a drink of drambuie at the end of the day (He referenced that more than a few times in his *teachings*), until years later when I heard of docvic's love of the stuff, and put two and two together.
I first got a computer in 2002, and one of the first things I looked up on the *net* was twi. Guess who I found, on NO WAY OUT?? R*ck P*nyard -- found guilty of embezzling in Colorado.
So much for what he and others were teaching, back in 1976 about patriotic stuff, and the Word.
Kinda went out the window (don't ya know).
Link to comment
Share on other sites
excathedra
why is that i wonder ?
and do you think there's a connection regarding drambuie and embezzling ? ;)
Link to comment
Share on other sites
ToadFriend
A little off-topic here ... I just found the foldout from the Nov/Dec 1976 Way Magazine that described Rock of Ages '76 in this way: "For four delightful days in the August sunshine nearly 12,000 of God's people from every state and 19 countries gathered together for the sweetest fellowship under heaven. This was the Rock of Ages '76." Pictures of Walter Cummins are prominent; LCM is nowhere to be found in the foldout. His time had not yet come ...
TF
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Lifted Up
Maybe you knew a guy named D**e St**son who came up to Indy with us after ROA that year. I borrowed his red IU raincoat for a makeshift cape in my locally performed Super Conqueror act.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
WhiteDove
David that whole Rock Band /Rock records was a sad end for Rick but more so for the band and the investers. It's too bad really for them they made some great music which is now forever tarnished by his thoughtless actions.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
dmiller
White Dove -- yea -- it was a sad end. He did some righteous teachings back in Indiana.
Too bad he didn't listen to himself (as it were).
The story I read about him is HERE, and it saddened me to see someone who was pretty dynamic (at one time), fall so low.
But then again we all make choices, eh?
Excie --- most of us rednecks from southern Indiana have always been suspicious of government, and their designs upon the *general populace*. Life can be good there, and we don't need federal rules to show us how to live.
Makes me wonder (time and again), why I stick around Minney-soda, where most take the governmental crap handed to them on a stick so willingly.
Well -- guess I just said we all make choices, eh?
Link to comment
Share on other sites
HCW
I finally "took the class" (PFAL) in October of 76. Looking back on that time now, I'd have to say it was the music, the majority of it by Joyful Noise; but it was the overall quality; musical, compositional, lyrical content and how it was so solidly based on God's Word that caused me to want to commit my spiritual life to TWI.
In fact I have, stored in my basement, copies of the albums, still in their cellophane wrappers:
"There's a Place" by Paul Vergilio
"America Awakes" by JN
"All Aboard! With Victor Paul Wierwille" (VP reading some favorite poetry and other readings set to music.) Also produced and released in 1976.
"Heartbeat" by JN and Pressed Down Shaken Together and Running Over. Released in 77. Of the matching blue polyester suits! Lapels so wide you could use them as wing and fly if you ran fast enough! :P :blink:
I also have an autographed copy of Joyful Noise's "We're On God's Team" and TAKIT's self titled album.
It was the music, that to me set the tone and made TWI different, and unique from other ministries of the day.
I remember the much ad about the US takeover too. I also have, somewhere in a box, a copy of the constitution of "The New States of America" (or something like that). I never read the whole constitution thing, but I distinctly remember, like someone else said, feeling like we, as Christians, were doing our part to save our country.
I felt America Awakes was SO thoughtful, respectful and dignified. BUT. It had a sharp point to it .
Wake UP America! With God above we've goutta love our country!
Wake UP, America WAKE UP!
I felt that was so cool and was honored to be a part of it.
....................................................
Thanks for bringing back the remembrance of that song Dean Ellenwood used to sing. (Brian Bliss used to sing "The Captain of Salvation") I don't remember the name of it either, but it started out something to the effect of:
"I'm proud of my country's heritage,
(something, something) because we're free,
I won't forget the men who died who gave their life for me...."
I wish I remembered all of the words to that song too. Ultra patriotic, it had the same effect on couds as Lee Greenwood's proud to be an American song has. The way it ended, "when men to Him are loyal..." really tugged at the heart.
Yeah, songs don't get any better than Ted's, "The Whitehouse Across the Street." Lot's of chills & thrills. Our little twig from the Pittsburgh Pa area went to three Joyful Noise concerts on the AM Awakes tour. We were high school kids and really stoked by the whole idea, "let's go save the country!" We didn't really care from whom we were saving it, we didn't really if the rumors were even true or not, we just knew God was gonna come through. No matter what, takeover or not America needed to WAKE UP! ... so we were there, man, there.
It felt SO good to be commited to something bigger than ourselves.... Felt like we were a part of "something."
I've said before that I felt that VPW's ministry saw glimpses of true Godliness and that it had a chance to actually be "God's ministry" (whatever that actually means). It was this time frame that I'm referring to.
That God In America, seguay into America Awakes tours, IMO was hardly the stuff cults were made of.
It seemed like were were actually trying to do something good and right for the whole country. Even if the takeover thing was a little far fetched and overly paranoid, to me it seemed like our heart was in the right place. There were a lot of conspiracy theories floating around then; lots of anti war talk, nobody liket the government, the establishment was BAAADD, man (throw in a Cheech & Chong accent :huh: ).
We saw real signs miracles and wonders in our area. Our little twig mad a positive difference in the lives of the people in it. One of our guys got off drugs, another came out of satanist activity and I, a 17 yr. old recent PFAL grad was able to argue a PHD, Presbetarian Minister to an open Bible stalemate on the Trinity topic.
There was a lot of deprogramming going on then, our people around the ministry were being snatched like flies by Ted Patrick and others. In fact, the reason I was talking to the minister was that he was trying to get one of the girls (Joanie) in our twig away from us to be deprogrammed. They actually did get the girl whisked away out the back door while I was in debating withthe minister in his office. They were calling us a cult out of one side of their mouth and kidnapping people out of the other - - was how I saw it then. Las I heard of her, she was pregnant with the baby of the guy who was overseeing their "after you get out of the cult" program.
I remember hearing lots of good things about the WOW branches in Allentown, State College, and other PA areas too. This time frame was the first time I saw LCM do his presentation on The Way Corps. He was amiable, and a very dynamic speaker. Appreciated it that he taught without coming across as a "turn the other cheek" wimpy kinda guy, which was prevalent then.
We also did a lot of Heartbeat Festivals then. It was cool how there seemed to be a constant and consistant contact from HQ to people on the field. To me, a lot of people were teaching the Bible, it was the other stuff that TWI did that I though made us unique.
My first ROA was in 76 at the fair grounds in Sidney. Gerald Wren's teaching on the last days of Jesus' life had a profound effect on me. They did a play at night in one of the tents where they did a scene depicting Jesus torture, and beatings. It was highly stylized with slow motion and strobe lights. They put a bag over Jesus" head and the guards beat him and beat him and beat him. When they finall finished and presented him to Pilate, a guard RIPPED the bag off his head and the actor's face was a so swollen, bloody mass that you couldn't recognize his features as being a human.
The croud gasped at that sight. It seemed like they were really trying to make God's word live for people. Seeing men built like athletes talking about God really made an impression on me. I felt like this was a really effective way to reach people with God's Word, by making it come to life for them via music and other visual production methods.
That year (76) was when I decided that I wanted to add my God given talents to the mix. I came on staff officially in 1979 with the intent of TWI never having to hire an outside agency again to produce professional quality artwork for its publications.
The OSC shell was finished and Way Publications was among the first departments to move our operations there in late 79. We produced VPW's "Love Letters" album that year. There is a cut on that album where VPW said that we could achieve Word Over The World by, (memory is foggy) it think it was 1990. I distinctly remember how that comment went largly unnoticed. So much so that I don't remember the date he mentioned. I DO remember him mentioning a date for that possibility, IF we remained faithful.
Yup. Still have that album too. Two copies, I think. One was an autographed gift from VPW that he personally presented to everyone who had a part in the production.
We also did mini tours with The Way Dance Company that year, winter of 79 and into 1980. I did lighting and helped drive the van. We'd do weekend trips (within half a day's drive) set up and do a show Saturday evening, leave for HQ Sunday to be back home to HQ get some rest and be at work Monday AM.
1979/80 was one of the last years, if not the last, of "family life" at HQ. Like it said in "The Way Living in Love" (Elena Whiteside's book) we could go down to the kitchen in the BRC basement and pig out on midnite snacks. There was a group of the ususal suspects who'd be down there often sitting aound eating and laughing about this, that or the other thing. Ralph D. was one of the regular regulars wo'd be there a lot. It was mostly guys, & it seemed like we were on the same biological clock. Jon Mahoney was always there working, getting stuff ready for breakfast, putting stuff away, whatever. He'd serve stuff or we'd just go into the fridge & grab stuff. Jon would heat it up or we'd grub on it cold. Basicall nothing was off limits. It was really like home and we were like a big family in a lot of ways.
VP always said then that HQ was the property of the believers and that any believer should have access to any piece of equipment that was sitting around, not being used for the work of the ministry. For example: If your twig needed photocopies of a flyer about some twig activity, in theory you could come to HQ and get you copies made - - at no, or at a very reduced, cost. We were allowed to use any vehicle in TWI's fleet that was available, even for personal reasons. To rent a car from transportation all we paid was for the gas for our trip plus, like 10 or 15 cents per mile, whatever transportation had determined was what it cost the ministry per mile to operate the vehicle you used.
A friend of mine & I went in together and rented a limo for a double date. It was a nice way to impress the ladies and go to the local drive in in style and comfort. Even the ariplanes and the Way Productions motorcoach was available when not in use for ministry business. People did rent them. You had to convince one of the pilots or coach drivers to drive you, pay the fuel cost and give him an honorarium, like you give a minister for marrying you.
The fleet rental went away, it was said that the IRS shut that thing down.
Those were good ol' days. Right before TWI went really corporate.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
topoftheworld
Thanks, HCW, for the reminder of the feeling it was to be in the Way. And the effect that the music had cannot be overstated-hearing the Word in music like that along with the teaching sure didn't feel "cult like" to me either-nobody else back then had Christian music like this, and it was frowned upon then (you can't be godly and play and electric guiter, too!). Now it is everywhere: ironic that the most popular is WOW music. Ummmm....
I am proud of my country's hertitage
Living on freedom's soil,
Brave men have gone before me here,
Unafraid to pray and toil.
And I intend to keep on building up
What others seek to spoil,
And God still bares His mighty arm
When men to him are loyal.
Captain of Salvation-I had those word written in my Bible-unfortunately I've never been able to retreive my Bible or any of my personal items from Emporia. I would love to see those words again, if anybody knows them.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
ToadFriend
That song, Freedom Soil, had always been a favorite of mine, but I was thinking in particular of the time it was perhaps most meaningful to me during my Way days. It was a Saturday during my interim year in the 13th Corps, on Staff at HQ. It had snowed rather heavily the day before, but we were scheduled for the historical tour on the Way's tour bus, and though we started out an hour later, we still went ... as we went to Van Wert and all the surrounding areas, parked outside the little church where Dr. Wierwille had been researching the Bible for 12 years in Van Wert and listened to a sermon of his from that time, driving through the Ohio countryside covered in snow with few vehicles out, I could just imagine myself traveling back through time (like with Mr. Peabody in the Wayback Machine for all you Bullwinkle fans) ... our tour was ending as we drove back down State Route 29 with that song going, "...and I intend on building up what others seek to spoil ... but God still bares His mighty hand when men to Him are loyal." I felt a great commitment to God that day, and to the Way Ministry ... which in my thinking were inseparable at the time. It's a very powerful song ...
Fast forward to the year 1996 ... I left The Way after 23.5 years on January 11, 1996. It took a while of healing before I got to the place where I STILL think I am "building up what others seek to spoil" and understanding that God is so much bigger than The Way Ministry ... I am thankful for the things I learned in the Way and most of all, thankful for God working however He had to work to bring me to the joys I have today. We do have a lot to be thankful for in this country ... and God STILL bares His mighty arm when men to him are loyal.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.