Twinky

Echoed. I met some of the most wonderful people and I met some of the most vile people in TWI. "When they were good, they were very very good And when they were bad they were horrid" To plagiarize a nursery rhyme.

That was me. I was a fool. I was completely desolate when they kicked me out. I had no-one and no thing. "Burn your bridges," my CC said. So I did. Homeless, friendless, very little money, no career prospects (had given up a professional career), vilely besmeared by certain people - WTF? I was told to come back in six months, so I went back, grovelling, only to face a barrage of more of the same, in fact, including further false allegations. If I felt gruesome to start with, this magnified it. Caring? Compassion?? (SCREAM!!!!!) It was GSC that opened my eyes to the assault on me as a pattern most often against women. And began to restore some of my crushed self-esteem. The haranguing here frightens me a bit (too reminiscent of old times, still dealing with some aspects of that) but it's great to be able to shrug it off. At least I can take off and not read such threads any more. Please bicker politely!

We all had something that attracted us to TWI. Somebody relayed to me what another Greasespotter had said to her long ago: "TWI was like Miraclegro on our personality faults" or something like that. That just about sums it up. If something is overgrown, it needs pruning. Lovingly. We can learn to prune out our more unpleasant behavior. We can start by pruning some of our posts before we hit the Add Reply button. Would be interesting to consider why it wasn't also Miraclegro on our good bits (well, perhaps it was for some of us, at least in some areas) but everything "negative" was shoved under the carpet. I recall when asking for some help/need - some emotional wrangle I was in, can't remember the details, too long ago - that it was the squeaky wheel that got the attention and we should aim not to be squeaky wheels. Real helpful, that was. Not that the squeak could be oiled, but that we shouldn't be "squeaking" or needy in any way. It does appear under pressure, doesn't it?! Still, enough pressure and all that thinking should eventually be squeezed out. Can't agree with you, Eyes, that you can't get the sponge clean again, just needs lots of washing (with the Word perhaps, but not with Da Verd).

(but only slightly) Extracted from the above article. This has an awfully familiar ring to it. Who else do you know who had/has to answer to no-one; and produced their own version of what the Bible says (by way of "literals according to usage"). Who else do you know who suffered from "open rage"? Now back to the regularly scheduled topic: the peasants probably couldn't read or right very well or even at all, and reading books would be an activity for the better-educated middle and upper classes, scholars and people connected with the church. But of course they would be the very people you wouldn't want to read "subversive" material.

This is hyperbole, right? They didn't really ask for paycheck stubs?

Not closing on the parents - recently charged "official suspect" is the girlfriend of the very first suspect, Robert Murat, who I believe is alleged to be a pedophile. After all this time it would be amazing if the child is still alive but stranger things have happened.

I just went to the link in the first post and clicked on Dockets under The Way International: Plaintiff: The Way International Search Dockets [ Dockets ] Litigious lot, aren't they? I really would never have thought it. To think that they also considered suing The Way in GB for passing off/use of copyright material. None of this litigation is about "moving the word." It's all about protecting the income base.

This may go on an old thread, "Your abundant sharing at work". Lifted straight from the website linked above. Search for: "the way international" Results 1 - 20 of 20 Subscribe ... August 24, 2007 Way International v. Turner et al DE Unassigned Judge Trademark Trademark Infringement Plaintiff: Way International; Defendant: Carl A. Turner, Sr., Way Ministries Inc. August 8, 2007 The Way International et al v. Executive Risk Indemnity Inc. et al OH Southern Rice Insurance Diversity-Insurance Contract Plaintiff: The Way International, The Way International, Inc.; Defendant: Executive Risk Indemnity Inc., Executive Risk Inc., Chubb & Son, Inc., Baldwin & Whitney Insurance Agency Inc, Acordia Of Ohio LLC and others... July 13, 2007 The Way International v. The Way Ministries, Inc. et al KY Western Simpson Trademark Trademark Infringement Plaintiff: The Way International, Inc.; Defendant: The Way Ministries, Inc., Charles Darnell May 12, 2006 The Way International v. Rose MD Chasanow Copyrights Copyright Infringement August 16, 2005 The Way International v. Gilmore et al TN Western McCalla Copyrights Copyright Infringement

Uh, sorry folks, what's a Troll? What's a Poser? If people look, they will see this site is not just About The Way and there are lots of other interests that people share, generally via threads in Open, where people have enjoyed various things outside TWI mindset. Could the problem be in part that we were so used to "controlling our thinking" (or having it controlled) that once free of that control we splurge all over anything and anyone else, especially in ATW forum?

Well, Dooj, I moved overseas and obviously couldn't take very much with me. There was a real sweet twig there and everybody in it gave me something - spare sweaters, footwear, other things; also I stayed with the TC / CC who generously supported me until I started to get some money in (=got paid). They really lived the sharing lifestyle, and often believers would pop round with something surplus or they'd seen a bargain in the shops and bought an extra wotsit because it might help someone in the twig. I saw others' physical needs being met too, with things or with cash. That lifestyle encouraged me to go into the WC. Meanwhile control was being tightened up and a few years later when I came out, it was all "gimme gimme gimme" from HQ. The CC had got hard and "demanded" respect and "stand up when I enter the room" instead of accepting the huge respect that had been offered lovingly. HappyHeart: Welcome to the Cafe. There's a trash can for TWI junk by the door whenever you feel like using it.

Danny I would be interested in more details of what you said but it doesn't belong on this thread. Could you either PM me or start a new thread concerning what happened?

Bread pudding is a bit different from Spotted Dog. The latter is a sort of sponge pudding with sultanas in it and properly is a steamed pudding though perhaps it could be baked. Bread pudding is a way of stretching out virtually nothing and making something - using up stale bread - you trim off the crusts, butter it usually on both sides, put it in a bowl with some nutmeg, sultanas, and maybe a little sugar, perhaps if you have any, and then soak it in an egg beaten in milk and bake it for 30-40 mins. It was a wartime (perhaps pre-wartime) recipe for using up odds and ends, if there were any such. Butter, sugar and sultanas were heavily rationed in wartime so there would be little spare and margarine would probably have been used. Nowadays it's a fashionable pudding but has become rather luxurious with the addition of white or brown chocolate, other fruits, lemon, cream, etc.

What a lot about handling people there is to be learned from handling animals. You can beat them into doing what you want, or you can be a "Horse Whisperer" and gentle them into doing what you want. In fact, I learned something of that at Gunny for Family Camps! There is much to be learned from other cultures, such as care of elderly relatives, distribution of responsibilities within the family, sharing of common moneys. A lot of poorer countries or people living in remote areas in wealthier countries, can only get by with this sort of culture. It seriously concerned me in rez that some tremendously skilled people were on staff doing quite menial tasks when surely their abilities could have been used in more worthwhile manner. Gosh, can you imagine instead of the bicycle story, the riding of a horse had been chosen? Then we would be into riding astride or, for women, sidesaddle. And as to the horse having a mind of its own ... actually that would have been a better analogy altogether. Because if it's supposed to be a spiritual analogy, we would have the rider (holy spirit) directing the horse (the five senses) to be obedient to what was really required. Because it would be the goodness of God cajoling the animal to repentance, to a more worthy endeavor, to bring its body into subjection, to ... whatever you like. But then you might have to be kind to people or have some real "people skills". You might need compassion and to see people as individual parts of the Body of Christ with individual needs, and not interchangeable parts of a (money-making) machine.

Welcome back, Dooj.

Paw and the mods: There really are some good threads but some of those get so soon derailed and then everyone loses interest. Can the irrelevant bits be dragged off to the Soap Opera or to some place called "Boxing Ring" so that just the relevant stuff or at least the not so argumentative stuff remains? It helps sometimes to draft a post, leave it for a few minutes, come back and re-read it. Perhaps if posters used the Smileys and other kinds of punctuation a bit more, it would help replace the non-verbal signals that would accompany a spoken comment. (At work I use a dictaphone and of course give emphasis when I dictate. When the typed-up letter comes back for signature, because there is no emphasis it can read quite oddly or give a wrong impression. And I know what I said! I don't add Smileys, but I do change the wording.) (Okay, sometimes I can't type properly either)

Hello birthday boy. Many happy returns. Have a purrfectly delightful day! Twinx

Sleep deprived - yeah. Too exhausted to dream. This always seemed suspect and I truly don't believe it now. There are dreams, and there are visions, and God can work within both to communicate. Also I don't believe that God can't communicate directly with unbelievers, what a load of nonsense. He most certainly can, just that perhaps he has another way that he can with believers. There are several records in the OT about unbelievers having dreams/visions. (Uh, Pharaoh's dreams as interpreted by Joseph, most famously?) Why do we pray for certain objectives or outcomes if we don't think God can work in a situation? Can he not work with the unbelievers involved in work/school/health situations? Why pray for governments (secular) (and the Bible explicitly tells us to do that) where possibly there are few believers, if we don't expect God to be able to do something? Has God changed that he cannot communicate with unbelievers in our time? Has God changed that he cannot if he wishes communicate with believers in our time by dreams or whatever method He chooses?

Amen sister. I find the church I go to is gentle but really practical about what is taught. Exhortation to rise up is simply that - loving encouragement. I didn't know "fear" till I got in TWI. I suffered a little from low self-esteem, but boy, did they tip that into major self-condemnation, which I wrestled with all the time in rez.

Great posts, all. Hey, I remember running into a car when I was about 10 - it was right outside somebody's house and the owner came rushing out of his house to inspect his car - and then inspect me - fortunately no damage to either. Never mind handlebars, I must have had my head on the wrong way to run into something stationary. I forgot about the story-cyclist running into the telegraph pole - seems like he must have had his head on the wrong way also. THW - yes, I used to job share, covered as a floater within a firm if someone was off sick or if someone had too much work - I was forever getting roasted just because I put something back *slightly* out of position. How picky can people get? Belle - exactly. Not like we're all built the same externally or internally. Yes, we are all going to the same place but we don't all start off from the same place. The poverty stricken and the rich don't have exactly the same journey, and the physically disabled and the wellbodied have different issues to deal with. The African, the Indian, the Chinaman, the Australian Aborigine, the Columbian peasant, the Frenchman, the Brit and the Yank all have their different cultural biases, good things and bad, and instead of saying "YOU WILL DO IT THIS WAY" (as TWI tended to do, regardless of cultural differences), how much better would it have been to consider the good points in other cultures and what Biblical principles they illustrated. Waysider - too much at this hour in the day! (edited cos I could only see the last 10 posts and not others I wanted to reply to)

As I was riding my bicycle home today I was struck by the PFAL example of the man with the crooked handlebars – and them being straightened out – and then he couldn’t ride his bike. You know, maybe he had crooked handlebars for a reason. Maybe one arm was a little longer than another. Maybe he had a withered hand that made gripping the handlebars more difficult one side. Maybe the man had made some expeditious arrangement to suit his personal needs, instead of getting some extension or special feature welded to the handlebars. It struck me as I cycled along that this example was just another example from TWI’s “one size fits all” without regard to anyone’s special needs, physical, mental, emotional, or otherwise. What matters is not whether the handlebars were crooked but whether the front wheel is going in the desired direction. In other words, the result – not the minutiae of how it was done.

That has to be defined a bit better. TWI was into hugs and kisses. What about Howard's alleged French kisses, is that nothing (because not intercourse) or something (because unwelcome)? What about a hug that goes on just a little too long... or almost in the "wrong place" as a sort of try-on, but not quite enough to slap someone's face? What if you were a "willing victim" at the time and only now come to see it as abuse ... because barriers had been broken down. What level is "leadership" - ordained? Not yet ordained but became so later? WC? A non-WC TC? (=for an answer to the poll) (Sorry, folks, I have some hang-ups in this area.) Be assured: it wasn't just in the USA. The famous "international outreach" reached out in the sexual area also. Excuse me now while I go and scream. (okay I screamed and then came back to edit a typo. Now I'm going to get a shower, I feel filthy)

I heard Dooj has suffered some identity theft and is keeping a low profile till things are sorted out. It has caused her significant embarrassment. If anyone has suffered from personal information being released by the imposter, please don't hold it against the real Dooj.

"New Year's resolutions are a recipe for failure!" Thus quoth the great LCM. Well, perhaps if he had made a few NY resolutions, he and the remains of TWI would not have fallen into such disaster. And taken many good people with them. Thanks for starting this topic. When the new year dawned, I found myself thinking this stupid phrase and avoiding action; and this topic has helped me address and clear out another aspect of Waybrain. It's always a good time to take time to review and consider what can be done better in the future. The few days holiday many people get at around this time of year gives perhaps a little more time with spouses and other loved ones to talk things over together and set new goals, desires, for the forthcoming period. But if you've made up your mind - why wait? Today is the first day of the rest of your life, may as well get the benefits for the longest period! Why not - "new month resolutions" or "new week resolutions"? Or even, "new day resolutions"? Life consists of lots of failures, some big, some small, of goals that were not achieved. God did not call us to be perfect. He expects us to "fail" in various ways (isn't that why he sent JC?). He expects us to be faithful and to pick ourselves up when we fail (that's why forgiveness is readily available). And ideally not to fail so badly next time. Failure in a way means achievement. If we did not fail, we would never be seeking to achieve. Go ahead. Set some goals/NY resolutions, fall over a few times, but keep moving. New Year resolutions are a recipe for progress. Lamentations 3:21-36 21 Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: 22 Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. 23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

Try this, expand your vocabulary, and donate some rice to the needy: http://www.freerice.com/index.php It goes on for a long time so have fun. Hint: You wouldn't believe how many words there are for "lying" or "slander".

Suda, with that outstanding menu, I hope you are not just readying your appetite but have readied your clothes as well and got in a few pairs of pants a size or two larger. Sounds absolutely wonderful . Right, now I'm off to find some decent veges.