Linda Z

I haven't found an obituary yet. I'm sorry for his passing. Although he chose a path I didn't choose, I have fond and grateful memories of times before our paths diverged.

i am truly devastated

i don't belong to facebook

could i have some memories here

Here's a link to a lovely tribute to Felix:

http://www.1031brews.com/2013/01/22/a-galaxy-pale-ale-by-any-other-name-would-smell-as-sweet/

Praying for Brian, his loved ones, and the medical team.

Any updates?

OldSkool said: "That was my first exposure to GSC. Reading a thread that she had left on her desk... Yep."

That is far and away the funniest thing I've read on GSC in years. Thank you for the laugh!!!

Besides the children, parents, grandparents, siblings, teachers, etc., also praying for the police and firefighters who had to handle this horrific tragedy.

I don't think so. We would have heard.

I hope his family manages his obligations and lifestyle closely. He has had well deserved success. I'd hate to see him fail performing onstage in front of an audience.

I've seen him on a talk show with his kids. They're extremely supportive, and he's very realistic and open about his disease. He knows he's not always cognitively "with it," and it appears that his kids are very much looking out for him. He said he just wants to perform as long as he can. God bless him and his family. It's a difficult disease to be sure.

Hooray! Been praying for you and yours. Did the rest of your family come out of it okay?

I was thinking the same thing, Raf, but we'll have to make contact to find out.

After posting yesterday I did find a newspaper article that said her town was, in fact, very hard hit. A friend was able to talk briefly with her son, but she was at work. No more details than that, but at least it sounds like they're okay. I still can't reach her on her cell phone, but it's quite possible the cell tower isn't functional. I know she'd be on here if she had reliable Internet access, so I'm guessing that's iffy, too.

Still no word here. A mutual friend let me know her town, and I tried googling it to see how the town fared, but I didn't find anything. If anyone hears from her, please let us know. Praying she and her loved ones are all okay.

Not a peep. I called her and left a message shortly after the storm, asking her to let me know if they were okay. God only knows if her cell phone was charged or whether she got the message or whether she could respond.

If anyone's heard from her, please let us know.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve-step_program

Under the "Twelve Steps" subhead. (Not hard to find quotations. All you have to do is enclose them in quotation marks in Google, and if they've been quoted accurately, voila.)

Back to the topic, I guess LCM ragged on AA after my time. Ironically, I never heard VPW say anything bad about it. The legend around NK was that he had helped get a chapter of AA started in the area. I have no idea if that was true, but I heard it more than once from HQ old-timers.

I have some of John's books and received their teaching CD's for a while, likewise materials from S&TF, and CFFM plus music CD's from all 3 groups. Just plagarized Wierwille with new kinks in them, and the music isn't up to Way Productions of the 70's standards, much les CCM from the 1990's onward or classical hymnody

Thanks for answering my nosy question. :)

I've never heard of this group except on GS, but I've avoided all offshoots like the plague so I'm way out of that loop.

Rochelle their daughter seems nice but clueless as President of CF & R

Thomas, have you attended a fellowship she spoke at, or read something she wrote? I'm just curious how you know she's clueless and seems nice. You seem to know about many offshoots. Did you check them out personally? That would be an interesting thread for you to start if you have.

If I were in their shoes (thank God I'm not!), I might do the same thing. I wouldn't want to be confused with the hate-mongering group that put out that video.

Of course we all know they've slandered plenty of individuals, but that aside, I was surprised they were aware enough of what's going on outside WayLaLaLand to even know about this issue.

Happiest of birthdays, dear Socksness!

<snip>

But as you probably remember we idealized certan people, made them to be "pillars of the church", the core of the core of the corps of the whatever.

Some of those "pillars of the church" were wonderful people. Others, not so much once you had a close encounter with them. 'Nuff said.

Like George Jess - I really liked George Jess, "Mr. Jess", thought he was a very interesting and insightful person. But he was, technically and formally, the "Corps Coordinator" for years - and I don't think he ever said more than a 100 words at any one time and that was only when there was a formal event that called for him to address the Way at some level.

I really liked him, too. One of my fondest memories was pruning the apple trees at Rome City with him and a couple other people in the dead of winter. We'd prune for a while, then go warm ourselves by a pot-belly stove in a little shed.

Sage presence - sure. Deep thinker, I thought so. Yes, I'm sure he prayed long and hard for all of us and I appreciate that.

I think he probably did.

But leader? Hmmmm....dunno. Not so sure that he really did much of that. It was more like a gesture to a very nice man to put him in that position, I thought.

Oh, I don't know, socksness. There's such a thing as leading by example, which I think he did. He was never my Corps coordinator, but when I was around him he exuded peace and grace and kindness and wisdom. Not bad traits to imitate. It sure beat the heck out of learning how to scream so loud that your spittle hit the 10th row.

mrs. owens had special oldie privileges which i was got to be a part of -- she was able to watch all the boring meetings on her TV in her trailer -- so i delightfully sat there (and could always say later that i had attended the damn meeting -- be it corps or staff). it was hard to hear anyting on the tv though because she was always talking through it -- gossip about everyone who was on the tv. it was entertaining.

I really liked Mrs. Owens, and I think she was one of the oldies who deserved special privileges after all her years of serving in twi for peanuts and putting up with every new batch of kids who came along. She was a hoot.

Mwaaaah, Exsie!

<snip>

Socks said:

I'd assume that anyone who's gone there and been there for any length of time is someone who wants that lifestyle of total immersion. It's not for everyone, under the best of circumstances let alone those of the Way's.

I thought I wanted that, until I found out just what I was getting immersed in.

I didn't mind serving beyond the hours of my regular job. I expected that when I asked to be on staff.

It wasn't all the mandatory meetings, per se, that turned me off. Had they been meetings filled with evidence of God's inspiration and love and power, those meetings would have been uplifting and exciting. But 99 out of 100 were just plain mind-numbingly boring.

It wasn't the low pay, either. As I said before, the cost of living in NK was extremely low.

What I hadn't foreseen was that I was getting immersed in a truckload of bull$dang. Sorry for the vulgarity, but it's an apt description for the hypocrisy, micromanagement, and legalism that were going on at twi HQ at that time.

Much to my surprise and disappointment, VPW was neither oblivious to nor simply passively allowing all that crap to happen. He was, in fact, promoting to top positions of responsibility and authority the people who were masters of hypocrisy, micromanagement, and legalism.

Socks, I think you nailed it. VPW kept the old timers happy by extending much, much more grace toward them than he did to the rest of us.

Johniam mentioned feeling appreciated. For the first couple years I felt appreciated. I had a good dept. coordinator, and he shielded us from much of the BS. Then Rosalie took over our dept. and it was quick slide downhill into the steamy, smelly stuff from there!

Even when Rosalie was smiling that smile and speaking in that Southern-lady drawl and saying nice words, I never felt appreciated under her reign. Not for a minute. I felt used, criticized, looked down upon, and unhappy. So I walked. Others apparently weren't as unhappy as I was. God bless 'em.

I'm so sad to hear this. Prayers for her loved ones.

Stockholm Syndrome

IMO, that's too pat an answer.

I think it's all of the above possible reasons you gave, Patriot. Different people have different reasons. A few of them might have even bought into the "we're the faithful remnant" crap that RFR has peddled.

Since you referred to the low pay a couple times, I assume you're talking about people at HQ. (As for the person sitting in someone's living room studying the Bible and singing songs, I still run into people who are "out" but in a splinter group who don't [or won't] believe bad things about twi or VPW because they don't want to "think evil.")

I left HQ staff in early spring of 1986. I resigned, and I was never so happy to leave a place in my life. I hated the mandatory meetings, Rosalie's micromanaging, the rampant hypocrisy, etc. I never regretted getting out of there.

In contrast, a couple years later, when I had severed my ties with twi completely, I had a long talk with someone who was still "in," a friend who was a member of the president's cabinet and had held very high positions. He was fully aware at how flocked up things were and what Rosalie was like. But he, who was younger than I was and better educated and better equipped to change careers, said, "If I left, how would I support my wife and child?" I was astounded. It was the fear in the heart of that man!

Re: the low pay: If you're debt-free and living in that neck of the woods, you don't need much money to live comfortably. My rent in NK was very reasonable for a nice apartment, and my utilities were next to nothing. Lunch in the OSC was mandatory (gag, gag), so I only had to buy food for 2 meals a day.

For people approaching retirement age, as the older staffers must be, if they've stuck it out this long they probably think it's an okay gig. But they'd better not get sick, or they'll become someone else's "burden," and off they'll be sent with no retirement fund, no social security check, nada.

For those who have the type of personality that allows them to tolerate mandatory meetings and syrupy-sweet smiles from a "president" whose grins hide daggers, and all the other BS, twi is just the place. God bless 'em. All those things gave me a headache and a heartache.

Bernita was a kind, humble woman. I look forward to seeing her again someday, and George, too. Both were wonderful people.

Great comparison, Twinky!

Can you imagine how crowded the planet would be if people could really believe to live forever? Yikes!

Having seen how frail my dad became before his death, one month short of his 92nd birthday, I have no desire to shoot for 100 years like George Burns. And forever? With the state my body is in already, I sure as heck wouldn't want to live in it forever. No thanks. I'd prefer to go quietly in my sleep and wait for the NEW body.

Thanks for all the interesting comments and insights.

I like to keep FB for fun and for catching up, too, but every now and then, I feel strongly enough about something political to put in my 2 cents.