DogLover

Thanks for all the information ... that's great about his daughter. Sounds like a delightful, intelligent, and motivated young lady. I hope for the family's sake that they get out of TWI, but it would be a hard step for them.

He was in college at Duke University when I was in college at UNC-Chapel Hill. We rode to the 1973 Advanced Class together ... one of the other guys riding with us, a friend of Tom's from DU, decided to let Tom have his first "chew" of tobacco, but did not bother to tell him to spit ... need I say more?

When I last talked to him in the late 1990s, I had left the Way and he was still in ... he was not very nice to me, giving me the "mark and avoid" party line. He was a nice guy, though, and I was hoping he and Marilyn were out. He did a lot to make the Word live in Africa with his knowledge of French and his putting the original PFAL class into French ... just wondered if anyone knew if he was in or out and where he might be living by now.

From the Homophone Dog ... I think that's "on the heels of the devil." That's the way I've always heard it.

sprawled out,

Yeah, I'm with you ... lots of fond memories (and yes, some not so fond) of that place. I remember my first block there doing "ornithological excrement removal" to the sidewalk underneath some trees in front of the campus center between the hours of 3 a.m. and 6 a.m....hiding in unused rooms to get a nap during lunch ... once even hiding in a closet to avoid a workday and being discovered by visiting on-the-field Corps who didn't even seem surprised to see me ... neat times of fellowship by the pond ... yes, even fun times with good friends on Bless Patrol ... how pretty it was decorated for the holidays ... I guess over time, it is like lots of things ... one remembers the good times and tries to forget the bad ... It is a shame it could not have survived as a regular secular college ... I think it was a really neat small campus in the middle of a town.

I graduated from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill and it, too, is a beautiful campus, but there is nothing small about it ... Emporia had the feel of a small town campus, and I liked that a lot. It was my favorite root locale while in TWI.

This is not said to condone any of the sins of the folks in TWI, past or present ... it's just my personal nostalgic view of about 42 acres in Kansas.

I think it's a buckeye ... but I like the punchline better!!

I remember Pat Lynn telling us when we were in-residence that she was part of the Zero Corps. That's the only one that I have ever heard for sure.

Good post, Bagpipes! There was a person in my past ... a previous principal ... that also fit that description very well ... the contempt, the mockery .. all a part of her plan ... to me as well as to others. It's nice to be able to read something and relate it to something that has been bothering you, whether it was TWI (which, as you know, it was for me, too) or outside of TWI. One thing, though ... I stood up to the B---h outside of TWI with a courage I lacked while in TWI ... but perhaps developed after going THROUGH that in TWI ... in any case, I'm glad to be out of TWI, glad to be teaching for a different principal ... but rather horrified that the principal I mention now oversees student teachers ...EEK!

Just musing ... DogLover

If I remember correctly, Craig is still on the Board of Directors of Camp Gunnison. We were always led to believe that the Way owned Camp Gunnison and thereby the Board would be the same, but I believe someone posted on GreaseSpot a few years ago that Camp Gunnison still had Craig on its Board of Directors. I would be very ready to believe that he still has some "hush money" coming in from TWI ... some sort of "severance package"....or some money he squirreled away offshore while President.

Here in the South he would be described as "crookeder than a dog's hind leg"...as well as other son-of-a-female-dog-type names.

But I digress ... yes, I think he has some TWI money (past and/or present) coming his way to supplement his income ... since his (snicker) past promises that he could head any Fortune 500 Company just didn't materialize for SOME reason.

I read those posts of long ago when they were new (I was a different poster/different name then) .. his RalphD1 address is no longer valid ...

I had never heard of the Great Lakes Fellowship ... I did a search and found greatlakesfellowship.org, but it doesn't sound like a Way spinoff.... who started the Great Lakes Fellowship? Sorry for being off-topic.

Dog Lover

Just wondered where Ralph is ... last I heard I think he was somewhere in Oklahoma or Texas .. had married Sally R**d? He was a great fellow ... does anyone know how I can contact him?

I think the only entire card number/verse/verse reference I remember is 1-1 blue ... Isaiah 26:3 ... about God keeping us in perfect peace when our minds are stayed on Him ... that's the one verse I remember Craig, Dave Bedard, and Pat Powell ranting the most about on Corps Nights at Emporia ... interesting contrast between God's heart for His people (perfect peace) and what we got from some well-meaning, but misguided "leaders" instead, isn't it?

In 1981-82 I was a WOW Vet in Chicago (lived at 2845 North Halsted with about six others) ... had a good year working in an advertising agency full time that year (had been my part time job during my WOW year) ... made good bucks. It was my apprentice year in the 13th Corps.

Went in residence in the 13th Corps at Emporia in the fall of 1982, a couple of weeks after my father died unexpectedly. We were not close. I felt strong nausea and actually threw up my first afternoon in residence ... was a portent of things to come, I guess. Continued in residence at Emporia until May, when I was sent to HQ for the last block ... we had fun, got to help with the Rock of Ages. I enjoyed it because I had an indoor, air-conditioned job!

Interim year awful in many ways ... spent at HQ ... but got lots of support from Michael Fort, who was quite loving and caring in those days to all of us interim Corps. Went back into residence at Emporia in the fall of 1984 and had a great first block (until Ho-Ho Relo/aka Christmas). In looking back, I realize God tried several times to tell me not to go back into the Corps after I came home to North Carolina during Christmas ... but I went back anyway ... to the hell-hole of Gunnison with TJ the Czar in charge. It was so awful that the things he said to me have taken me YEARS to get over. God was right ... I never should have gone back ....

God will always look out after us if we just let him ... it took me getting out of TWI to learn that.

DogLover

A la Prochaine,

Okay, now I'm offended! When JAL called me to his office in late May 1985 (after he returned from HQ after VPW's death), he told me MY LEAD appraisal was the worst he had seen in hundreds, no thousands ... my LEAD appraiser Ge***ne McH**ry had accused me of having lying spirits and had said, "I feel sorry for anyone who's ever in YOUR Twig." which haunted me for many years. My sin? Using matches and not speaking up soon enough when given credit for something I had not done ... I wasn't trying to lie, just didn't quite get what she was talking about.

I was in the 13th Corps with Bill and Renita ... they look happy and seem to be enjoying serving God in their own way. Admittedly, I think the Way is abusing them and one day they will be sorry they gave their youth to further that organization ... but on the other hand, unless they have changed dramatically (and they may have) from our Corps days, they have pure hearts and a desire to serve God and His people. From the looks of things, they are managing to be a shining light in the midst of a very crooked organization. May God bless them and help them out to a brighter day ...

My first year in the 13th Corps it was $3600, and the second year it was $4,200. You got $100 a month tuition credit if you had ever been on staff (so those of us that spent our interim year at HQ got that for our final year), and I think it was $20 or $30 for each year you had been WOW ... can't remember exactly). It was really not a lot of money when you think about it (tuition, room and board-wise) ... but then again, they were getting free labor ... we used to laugh about it, saying, "I pay good money to work here!"

A GOOD use of 3X5 cards was in place during 1982-83 and 1984-85 when I was in the 13th Corps ... Twig coordinators of the in-residence Corps gave us a 3X5 card to write a NICE thing about each of the folks in our Twig, what we had learned from them, how they had blessed us, etc. at the end of the block ... I still have some of the best ones.

I don't remember whether it was on a 3X5 card, but I do remember being TAKEN without explanation to JAL's office at Emporia during the first month or so I was there in the 13th Corps by my 11th Corps a**hole twig coordinator with information he had received from my "room steward," L*nda Ev*ns of the 11th Corps. He would give me no explanation. I was terrified. Once in JAL's office, he read the "accusations" in a fatherly way ... they consisted of two great "sins" of mine: that my mother had given my address at Emporia to the church I belonged to and had not attended since age 13 (I was 27 at the time) and I received a church bulletin from them so that I could know who was sick, getting married, etc. from my small NC town; and that I talked in my sleep ... JAL read them, then looked at the a**shole and asked, "Is this all?" Proud of himself, he responded yes. JAL looked at me kindly and said, "If this is the worst problem you have while you are in-residence in the Corps, you can consider yourself very fortunate." Then, turning with disgust to the guy who had dragged me in, he told us to get out of his office ... not in a mean way, just in a "what in the hell were you thinking, subjecting her to this?" way. I scarce hid my smirk.

Thanks, JAL.

I'm sorta surprised no one has said the obvious ... that Donna has several free Corps and Staff "slaves" to do her washing, ironing, dusting, cooking, etc. I bet she hasn't had to do any of those things for herself since she was in residence in the Way Corps. So where does she get off telling other people what to do? I'm sure we could ALL be well-rested and have nutritious, unhurried breakfasts if we had the kind of FREE help SHE does.

However, good housekeeping and nutritious eating doesn't make up for the awful way she has used God's people and, if accounts of those that know are correct, how she uses her "free time" is in a way not approved by the Heavenly Father, according to the latter verses of Romans 1. Very convenient how no OTHER separated or divorced woman wrote for the Way Rag ... nope, they were all sent packing, usually marked and avoided because of their spouse's wrongdoing ... just goes to show Donna has an "in" with La Presidente that the other folks didn't have.

I'm curious ... why did Joe Coulter not want someone to eat a hamburger in his office? Was it specifically the hamburger (like, is he a vegetarian?) or was there just a caveat against eating in his office, period?

It is simple to be born again ... it is synonymous with the word "saved" as used in the Bible. See Romans 10:9 ... "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved."

Nope .. ROA 1975 was in LIMA ... rained the whole week of WOW/College WOW training and of course, Rock of Ages also ... muddiest, muckiest experience I ever went through ... 1972, 73, 74, 76 were at the Sidney Fairgrounds....

Yeah, he's right ... I went out WOW to Chicago in 1980-81, and it was the year of the Outreach Cities, with Takit coming around.

The 40th Anniversary was on October 3, 1982, and so "4,000 for the Fortieth" was the theme. In May-August of 1983, I was assigned as my in-residence Corps job to work with the WOW Coordinator ... as I recall, there were actually about 3,200 WOWs that went that year of 1982-83....

DogLover

Nowgrown,

Welcome to GreaseSpot! :)

I was chuckling as I remember the many WOW-mobiles seen in the 1970s and early 1980s Rock of Ages parking lot ... they barely made it to the Rock ... perhaps all this over-planning is an outgrowth of the reaction to not enough planning years ago ... or perhaps a reflection of the times ... but it STILL takes all the fun out of it to have every little detail planned ... where's the spontaneity? Where's the FUN? I would say fun is seriously lacking in the current Corps ... I was in the Corps from 1982-85 and we had FUN ... and my very first "road trip" with the elder Corps in my Twig ... whew! Nobody ever taught THAT crew how to prepare ... car broke down twice, no money to fix it, people in the car majorly out of whack ... and we did end up getting major reproof (yet it was really loving) from Way Corps Area Coordination Br**e N*yl*r ... but ya know, he was right ... but I digress....

Where is the FUN? Where is the real life application? Don't they have anything more to coordinate than a trip, for goodness sake? I guess not ...

I agree .. they treated her horribly. I ordered this book on ebay from the Belizean BRC after reading about it on this thread ... and although it is edited to leave out some things she would have otherwise said (and the dedication is awash with promised land of the prevailing Word cr*p), I have found it a delightful read ... you get a sense of what life was like in the early days of the Way ... and yes, I agree there is much that is left out, as Linda Z said, but I found it a book well worth the money ... she was a neat lady, and even through the editing, you get a great sense of her love for Ermal and for God. The pictures are neat, too! You get a sense that the reason she could have stayed around for so long is that she remembered daily what it had cost her to have the Word ... and sadly, because she had nowhere else to go. TWI may not have remembered her and done its duty toward her, but I suspect she will have rewards aplenty for her faithfulness at the time rewards are handed out ...

DogLover