So_Cal1

Hai, wakarimasu George-san. Kore o kudasai... the italian delicacy, seafood pasta stained black from the octopus ink. Very tasty. Domo arigato gozaimasu

I have been using Nature's Miracle for years and am a satisfied customer. The key to using the product is to blot out most of the urine, remove all soilds and wetting the spot letting it dried at room temperature. If you need a faster drying time, place a fan to blow over the area. After it is dried, the spot and smell will be gone. After our our Shih Tzu died after a long illness, I used an Oreck carpet cleaner applying cleaner and rinsing with water containing about a cup of Nature's Miracle. It neutralized all the doggy odor. Now we have two Shih Tzus and NM was helpful when house training the puppy. For some reason, the puppy vomits once in a while and the product for cleaning floor, too. I used to get it at a local pet supply but recently bought 1.5 gal container at PetSmart with a coupon for $29 and change. I figure it will last me for a while.

Regardless of the the format, the focal point should have been God and the Lord Jesus Christ, building our relationship with God and living what was learned from instructional manual of life, the Bible.

I was involved with a similar program in CA during 1971-1973. It was not a in-rez format but we met daily and performed ministry tasks between school and jobs.

I attended a number of events at North Fork in 1972-75 when John was starting Total Fitness Institute. As I remember, John was the first national coordinator of the College Outreach program which later became the College WOW Ambassador program. We had a few 'weekends in the Word' when after he purchased the property and moved in with his family. We camped out around the home in the beginning weekends and hiked out to other locations as John became familiar with the area. We also helped cleanup the land, chop firewood and other outdoor tasks. There were a few occasions where John would call believers a few days prior and invite them for a weekend fellowship. We would drive to North Fork after school on Friday and be their Friday night for dinner where John, Mary and the family would greet us. One memorable session was in the Winter during a long weekend. We backpacked on nordic skis into Sequoia National Park and camped in the redwood glens for two nights on about 10 feet of snow pack. It was a quite a humbling experience to be among the giant Sequoias on a clear winter night and sharing around a campfire. We woke up one morning with fresh powder covering our tents from a brief snow storm. John would teach from the Bible, explain the constellations under the bright stars, teach Old Testament history, or share some of his Vietnam experiences. Overall, TFI sessions were enjoyable, adventuresome, challenging and invigorating learning experiences. I recall there were separate TFI sessions for the 1st thru 5th Corps during those years. They hitchhiked or took bus transportation from OH to CA for their sessions. I recalled receiving a phone call from a fellow Californian at HDQ to pickup two 5th Corps sisters who just arrived at a Berkeley IHOP at 6am on their way to North Fork. The had never been to the area so a friend and I gave them an 18-hour accelerated tour of the SF Bay Area from the Berkeley, to the City, to Mt Tam-Muir Woods, Mill Valley and Sausalito before placing them on a bus to Fresno. Another College WOW was a MBA student and his thesis was developing a marketing program for TFI addressed to business corporations and churches as a leadership motivational vehicle based on the Bible. I think that was John's concept for TFI. At the time, he was still in the reserves and traveled to D.C. He rarely talked about this current military service but it seemed to involve consulting or strategic planning regarding the Middle East which was getting a lot of attention during the 70s. Regarding the LEAD vs. TFI angle. I remember Dr mentioned acquiring a location in CA, but I think the property in Tinnie, NM was a gift from a believer to the ministry and the location became ideal because it was nearer to CO, KS, IN and OH than CA. I think including John's military obligations made the establishment of LEAD in NM a feasible choice. That is my 2 cents.

Your guess is as good as mine.

WS. I guess I have to add place. Am not familiar with FLO in your area. The time is in the vicinity. Do not understand what 'tour' refers to.

See. Thanks for reading and detailing my post. It is only my opinion based on my recall of events over 20 years ago. Control? In this venue? You must be jesting. Appreciate the input but respectfully disagree. Good day.

I apologize for misreading your post and understand your explanation. I only know for certain of Christ's return. Regarding the exhortation, probably not.

This was the time and place I was referring to. Total agreement with you.

Again. We were present at the same location at a different time and era.

I disagree since helping people was the reason most of us became involved with God. Granted, some were better than others. It took a certain honesty to recognize that not everyone was suited for WOW, Corps, Staff, etc, and it was difficult to help someone who was beginning to realize it. Again, these were just programs and positions to help people better themselves to learn and teach God's Word or help others achieve it and not an end to themselves. There was no 'dark' or 'light' side. The ministry was comprised of people with all their faults and failures endeavoring to better themselves through Christ. I think the original focus was to teach others how to walk with God on their own and not be solely dependent on others. Regarding the 'protection' comment. There was a concerted effort to protect people from the leadership problems that were revealed in '86 but others disagreed since they were also part of the problem and chose to introduce their perceived grievances in a more public arena. One thing lead to another and here we are today.

12th otherwise known as the Dirty Dozen, a nickname Mrs. Wierwille was not fond of because they were criminals. As I mentioned in another post, we were taught that our Corps training was what you made of it. You chose the curriculm since the program did not occupy your time 24-7. That was part of the training. What did you do with your time when it was not scheduled for you? Isn't that we are teaching our own children? From what I am reading that format changed in later years. Concerning the lunchtime speeches, did you listen to everything your heard? Did you believe lock, stock and barrel everything you heard? We were taught to use our minds and evaluate everything against what we knew from God's Word, even our own experiences. During my time there, meals were a social event and the lectures were few and far between since at HDQ there were children present and you could not extend the meals too much w/o major meltdowns and revolts by the little ones.

As they say in real estate, it is 'location, location, locaton...'. In this case, it is time, place and attitude. All of my experiences at HDQ occurred at HDQ to ROA 87 when I voluntarily left to further pursue my professional career and teach God's Word at the local level. During my formative years in learning God's Word, we were taught to give put God first, not man. It was a walk to love, care, respect, listen to and work with others but it did not mean you allow yourself to be abused, ridiculed or used. If you went 'against the rules' be prepared to support your actions if inquired. Sometimes it took stand to back up your position or you simply ignored the criticisms and moved on. Someone once said it was easier to ask for forgiveness than ask for permission. I recall my first-year in-residence at Emporia and I worked in A/V. After a night's session I remained in the control room watching the Atlanta Braves on TBS. They were on a streak of winning the most consecutive games at the start of the season and JAL was commenting about it at all the meals. Joe Torres' Braves had won, I think, eleven in a row and were down by about nine runs in the later innings when I tuned in at 1130am. As it turned out the Braves tied the game in the bottom of the ninth. The game went about 14 innings and they won at 2am. I went to my dorm and simply told the Bless Patrol I met that I was working late doing research. At breakfast a few hours later, JAL mentioned that he tried to watch the game but went to bed before the ninth inning when the Braves were down six runs and reported that the streak ended. I raised my hand and stood up telling everyone the streak was still alive and how the Braves tied the game and won in extra innings. JAL was surprised and thrilled while my sleepy Corps mates tried to calculate time and events. After the meal, JAL saw me on the walkway and casually asked when the game ended as the Corps in the vicinity were thinking the same thing. I told him 2am and commented how exciting the game was. He smiled and told me to have a good morning while others stood there dumbfounded or chuckled. I was prepared to offer an explanation but it was not requested. We were taught the TWI was our ministry and we detemined its direction. However, there are events that are outside your sphere of influence and you have to determine what to do with what God made available to you. Does that ring a bell? Eventually, I chose to ignore a response when my allegiance to men was requested by letter in 89. I will always remember the phrase, "men come and go but the Word of God liveth and abideth forever". Amen to that.

If it was hidden, you would not have known about it. Too many people were involved to attempt such an effort. And you will never hear a official rebuttal. Too much time has past and it is not an issue to them, now. Most of the complaints regard actions of specific indivduals who doubtfully concern themselves with this site.