red

I found GSC by doing a search on yahoo for The Way. I had already left. Before I left, I'd heard that we were to stay away from the net. It was warned that there was a site that if you went to it you would find out lies about the way, and be posessed and tricked into leaving. Aparently people had gone there and left. Not having a computer I didn't pay it any mind till I left. After leaving I went to the library and found GSC and 8 other websites calling the way a cult. I was mesmerized by the number of stories similar and worse than my own. I was amazed by the hurt people I'd respected had caused people I used to know. I used the GSC as group therapy to ease the pain and frustration left over from my vey experience. I needed someone to relate to who KNEW what only someone who's been there can really know.

I'm looking for a list of all the no-no words. We all know of words and phrases that we could not use the way that everyone outside the way could. create hope faith-if used improper charity-who said they had the right to redefine that? mystic deja vu Christmas My mother has returned to the way. She says it is better and nicer and all that. Personally I haven't seen much change. I think she's wearing rose colored glasses that will be exposed after she has been around long enough, after all she hasn't taken the new advanced class so they have to keep being nice or she might not keep buying their silly classes. She knows that way trigger words still bother me a lot. They bring up really bad memories. I've asked her to try not to use them around me. However, she thinks that using them is somehow winessing to me, and a good thing. She says they are comforting to her and she loves sounding like the other people at fellowship. To help her understand that there are things I don't like to hear-I want a list of as many words and phrases that she wouldn't dare get caught saying. Then when she bends and manipulates conversations to add trigger words. I can counter with words like Christmas, creative engery, jinxed, ect.

Since I stopped giving them my money; I've been "abundantly blessed" financially as well as in every other aspect of life.

I gave 10-15% from my net. It varied with the pressure they put on me. They were strict about geting it too. In 2000 my FC strongly confronted me, because I didn't hand him a check with at least 10% of my paycheck BEFORE I DEPOSITED IT IN THE BANK! He argued that to deposit my paycheck in the bank before writing the way the check was puting other things before God. He figured once I have access to my money any of it I spent before the next Fellowship meeting (when I'd have my next chance to abs) say I bought gas to get to twig- that would be putting gas before God. We argued a lot. I never would give him a check from an empty account. He even wanted to know exactly how much money I made. He said it was his responsibility to to report to his superiors and would be in trouble because I wouldn't prepay my tithe. Same FC tried to sue me for telling him that I would not be coming back to his fellowship!

I don't know about any current bumper stickers. They do however have magnets. My mother has two on her front door. They really bug me. She is very proud of them though.

I'm sorry to hear about your sister. It takes a lot of guts to be honest with people when you know that there's a good chance that they may change how they feel about you. I agree that you did not choose to be gay you just are. I'm bisexual, always have been always will be. I was first attracted to at the same point in life that I waws attracted to boys. When other girls played doctor with boys I played doctor with either. This was long before anyone ever told me anything about sexual orientation. At some point I was told that it was wrong. So I tryed to change, I tried so hard that I managed to get into denial. Was I changed? No, I just felt guilt and denial. I missed out on soo much because of fear of what my family would think. About 3 years ago I finally came to terms with myself. I quit being in denial. It was quite a transition,in the end my whole life made more sence. I first came out to my fiance, he was thrilled. It actually brings us closer. We love checking out the same wemon. Then I came out to a few close female friends. I was shocked to find out that two of the three of them were bi also. And the third one is only into being with guys but looking at wemon. Last year I came out to my parents and older bro. They took it much better than I expected. My mother is still an innie. I'm pretty sure she hasn't bragged about that to her fc. Thank you for coming out! Reading your post finally gave me the courage to come out here as well. I think I saved the hardest places for last. I know the joy of being myself from where I have come out. I only wish I had the courage to stop hiding from my coworkers. I've learned to love who I am. I wouldn't change it for the world. Not that I haven't tried. But I wouldn't try again. I'm glad that you've begun to accept yourself and hopefully realize that (all religious views aside) you are who you are and there's a reason for that, wether we understand it or not.

I was always confused by all that too.

Anyone Know Jack and Marilyn Jones. Kids Jon, Heather,David,Adam and Jacob? "free at last"

I'm looking for Tracy Witwer from Arizona. Anyone know if the Whitwers are still in? "free at last"

Joel if you see let me know. You know me and I was wondering if you ever check this place out. "free at last"

I miss Sierra. I don't know wher she is though. I thought mabey if I brought this to the top someone who know her might see it. "free at last"

I got married! I'm so happy. Life is really going good for me.

Thank you all for the responses. Gladtobeout, I sent you an e-mail with my address. You may e-mail me if you would like. I didn't list an e-mail address publicaly. That was because if I don't recognize the senders adress I assume it is spam. I don't want to deleat messages from greasespotters without glancing at them. So if anyone else wishes to e-mail me let me, please just let me know. "free at last"

Even better, My innie relatives are still fine with me. I was worried that they wouldn't accept me anymore. I'm a little concerned because now I've been out two years and my parents have divorced and my mother still is considering returning to fellowship. "free at last"

Since signing off the lease and moving out of her life completely, I've had no harrassement from her or my old FC. Next July I'll be marrying a wonderful guy that I love. I don't feel the need to attend a church "free at last"

Still it was a stressful time for me. Roomate and I kept contact through letters. Eventually she threatened to sue me if I didn't come back to the apartment more often. So we tryed to discuss the situation a couple times when I was up there. One time I had to call the police on herjust to get into our place after she knew I was coming. So many stories there, but nows not the time. Eventually, she sent me a notice that if I didn't sign off the lease within 10 days of that letter being typed, she was going to sue me for keeping my lease perfectly. By the time I moved the things I'd brought back out there out again, she'd told me she would only speak to me through her lawyer. SO I show up to move everything out she gets mad at me for not wanting to talk to her. "free at last"

Then my roomate threatened to sue me for moving all my things out of the apartment and said if I didn't have things there she could sue me for abandonment even though I was still paying half of all the bills and on the lease. So I brought some things back up there. I obviously wasn't welcome there. So until she calmed down I went to visit a friend and stayed on her couch for some time. I was offered my old job back that I had had before moving away from Indy. Now I was making double the money I was making a few days earlier while in the Way. Now where's the real abundance? Where's the real power? In having control of your own life. "free at last"

to give her instructions for her life. "free at last"

I wanted the support of my brother who'd been out several years when I talked to this FC. I didn't expect my last conversation with him to be an easy one. I was right. He threatened to sue me for leaving. In response I threatened to sue him for harrassement if he ever called me again. I informed him that I had Two witness on the phone hear me tell him not to call again. I also informed him that anyone at my old work would back me if it came to court, because they'd noticed the harrassement and were concerned about me. I never heard from FC again. I'm sure he was in the background manipulating old roomates interactions wtih me. She couldn't give me any answers without having to call me back. She was the type of wafer who truely believed that her life would be ruinned if she didn't check with FC before doing anything. She loved the spiritual advisor thing. It made her feal safe to know God was inspiring someone to give her in "free at last"

I tried to accept everything. I couldn't accept them any more. I was worried about my safety when I told my FC and worried about my things when I told my roomate. I knew that she would be upset. Both of them were cruel enough when they weren't upset or angry at me over anything in particular. When my roomate went out of town I moved my things and myself to someplace safe and out of town. Then I called my roomate and told her that I was leaving the Way. I tryed to discuss our living arangement and make plans. I wanted to know if she still wanted to live with me, or make other arangements. I meantioned all of our options. She wouldn't even talk to me about it. She just said that living together now was out of the options, no way. I called my boyfriend ot explaine everything to him. He cuoldn't understand where I was coming from or my reasons. So we broke up. "free at last"

Back when our family was ousted I was hurt that everyone except one friend seemed to turn their back on me. I felt like I'd instanly lost half my family. I was afraid to lose them now that I had some of them back in my life. I didn't want them to dislike me or think I was possessed or anything. I didn't want to hurt them either, especially my boyfriend. He was amazing. I rarely got to see him now that FC was rampaging. I didn't want to let a few bad things like being misrable all the time, get in the way of putting God first by being in fellowship with him by staying faithful to The household of God. "free at last"

The FC began to micro manage my life. I got constanly cursed at by my FC. He began to verbally abuse me, threaten me with death, and harrass me at work and home. And he had all the control. My roomate was a good little wafer who would invite him in to harass me. Her and I got into a lot of arguments. But that's another story. The only way to make my life less misreable was to obey the FC and pretend to agree with him at every confrontation to save time. He'd never give up until he thought I agreed with him. "free at last"

I was shocked that FC took the liberty of placing himself in charge of organizing our move. I had invited my strong boyfriend to helf move. I was confronted by FC that it was against protacal to ask someone from another fellowship to help me without gowing through the proper channels. First submitting the request to my FC and if he okayed it he would submitt it to my boyfriends FC and if it was okay with his FC then my boyfriend would be allowed to be part of the project. To me that seemed unreasonable! After lengthy confrontaions about why I wasn't spiritualy mature enough to already know these biblical truths; I still didn't understand the FC's logic. I was stunned to realize that because I was unmarried, the household was spiritually responsible for my life, I was to respect and obey them as my spiritual guardians. At this point I've been out on my own considered an adult by everyone I'd known for the past two years. I was making preparations for the advanced class special long before I'd moved to this town. I was to share a hotel room with relatives. They were from Georia and since I was in Iniana, I was excited to spend that time with them. I was told by my FC that I had to cancel and they would just have to find someone else to take my place. I was to be under someone from our branch area's supervision at the special because I was only 20 and FC was responsible for me. God would work through him and not a relative who was also a limb coordinator. lol. I asked questions and never got answers to where they got this logic. Once again I was confronted about not being spiritually mature enough. How could I have missed all this in the advanced class. I needed to just put my head into the sylabus and study more. I had settled into a nice rutine and was starting to make friends in the comunnity and at work. I think that scared my FC. Soon after Fc began scrutinizing my finances. He decided that he needed to sit down with me and come up with abudget plan. To do this he needed to know what I spend just about every penny on. I had to eplaine my paychecks, have their okay to work where I did ext... A few times I was strickly confronted and lectured on having my abs check at fellowship. It was my FC's responsibility to exlaine to the BC if I didn't bring it when he expected it. You see sometimes since I'd go straight from work to my other job or fellowship depending on the day. I didn't always have time to go to the bank to deposit my check, and you couldn't pay cash abs. So FC wanted me to write a check even if there was no money in the bank. "Writing the check is putting God first. Waiting till next time would be putting anything that I bought before the next fellowship meeting before God" It doesn't matter if it bounces." It's the act and timing that matters to God. Oh, I argued that one. I asked for chapers and verses. I was told that I was wrong to question them. I think this provoked my FC to really pick on me. "free at last"

He found a woman who was a disciplined desciple who needed a roomate. I agree to check her out FC knows best, he's my spiritual advisor right. So I move an hour and a half away from home. I was excited to be welcomed by the household in my new town. It was a nice bonus that the guy I'd been dating lived in town now. But the spiritual enlightenment and growth were my main concern. My guy and I had our own issues and fought a lot. This new town had it's own set of wayrules. For instance anytime you met with someone it was a date. My female roomate and I go to breakfast together. "it's a date", if I ran into a friend that was a guy, at the store and stopped to talk to him without other people around say I bump into him in an isle that nobody else is in. That would be considered cheating on my boyfriend. I wasn't used to these unnessasary crazy rules that meant I couldn't walk down the street without cheating. I can't totally blame the way for his strang thinking. However, it is where these teachings came from. I found a way believer who hadn't heard that teaching and our relationship was great for a while. Life seemed good. Then I signed the lease and roomate and I moved to a bigger apartment. "free at last"

Things had changed. Not only was it no longer called twig, it's fellowship. But now it doesn't just let anyone attend. Now I had to pass tests to prove that I want to be a "likeminded believer" and "disciplined desciple of the Way". My first task was odd to me. I wouldl've understood them saying that they wanted to meet me and chat before inviting me. Instead it was explained to me that I was to have 3 meals at their house first, and another list of silly things I don't remember. It was odd. What happened to the outreach, inviting people. Now it was all about keeping the household spiritually pure. Then I had to faithfully attend EVERY meeting for so long and never miss by putting anything in front of that obligation to prove God first in his life by going to hear some guy talk Bible at his house. This was more important than things like little brother's birthday, leaving my birthday party ect...such is probtion. It didn't seem right to me but I was told I was just to spiritualy immature to understand yet, I wasn't a ADV class grad. I'd been raised to believe they were always right. Boy did I want to get to that class and understand things. After the class I still didn't understand. That's when they said I just needed to study the material more. I started dating a great guy I'd met at a DTA special. He was from out of town. Shortly after I was looking to make a move. I'd heard all my life that whenever possible I am to live with a way believer. Now it was a disciplined desciple. I found a nice apartment for rent by myself since I hadn't found a way believer to live with. I'd been living with non wafer friends. One had an astrology book they didn't aprove of so they would't come over because she wouldn't get rid of it. FC had told me that living with non wafers stumped my spiritual growth. FC decided that the beautiful apartment that I'd found was too close to my parents home. I was told to limit my exposure to them. (They were not wafers.) FC suggests that he put the word out that I need a rommate to find a likeminded desciplined desciple to live with any where in Indy. The farther away from my ousted family, the better. "free at last"