Georgio Jessio

"putting forth focused believing action"

"There was never anything about TWI, the organization or corporation which sanctioned child abuse" Well of course there wasn't! Can you name any group of any kind that would openly have a "pro abuse" policy? But the fact is, adults, including non parents, had spoons and used them at their discretion. Kids were paranoid about making stakes in the presence of certain adults because they were ABUSERS. Greg B was an ABUSER. Many people were but they could cover their own arses by quoting scripture and policy. There may not have been a policy to abuse, but what do you call a thousand armed adults (including non parents) with permission to wack people's kids with a spoon? It's un sanctioned abuse , disguised as biblical discipline.

Greg B, not qualified to work with kids. His wife was , so why didn't she get the job? hmmmmm He was a bully, closed fist punching teens and having absolute violent meltdowns. He was definetly part of the problem but then they armed all the adults and gave them the green light to hit us. It was more than just one man who abused us. It became part of the culture.

MiniCorpsConscript I cannot believe that I didn't write the words you just posted. To a letter, I feel everything you said. I MUST know you. I was there when you were. I went thru identical crap. Every word really hit how I feel. I also have distanced myself from my parents. They put me through hell whether they want to admit it or not. Folks, we were beaten, humiliated, used as borderline slave labor and we were abused (some sexually, some emotionally, some physically, some all combinations of same) and our parents endorsed it. "outreach" policies meant that we would stick out as freaks in school. We had to sacrifice friendships and relationships with peers who wouldn't take the class. I had to take a Way girl to my prom and watch my (non way) girlfriend dance with another guy all night. I know schoolboy love is fleeting but she left me for him that night and it killed me. I didn't blame her, I forced her to make that choice. I basically told her she wasn't good enough for me but hey, leadership made me do it. Hallelujah! Every adult in Rome City had a wooden spoon, so we were always a moment from being hit by any adult at any time for any infraction, perceived or real. Different adults had different standards so there was no consistency to it. I could get hit for swearing or for "being negative" or for being late. I could swear like a sailor, disrupt twig and talk back to my twig leader and be OK until I smiled during manifestations, then I'd get PUNCHED by Greg. Schoolwork, extra curricular activities and homework were 2nd to twig and farm work. We had a lot of bright Way kids in Rome City who brought home D's and F's. Students often resented us for not contributing to bake sales, school events and such. We went to a new school every year , which means starting your life over every year, in a new town, in a new school with a new curriculum. That does a number on a lot of kids. Thanks for your post MiniCorpsConscript!

It's hard to forgive when you have PTSD. Not talking about anyone but me. I still have nightmares, I still get mad when I think aboiut it. I don't have flashbacks anymore, but I did throughout my 20's. It's really not about forgiveness until you deal with yourself first. It can take a long time to reach the forgiveness stage. I was in age 4 to age 17. I was in rome city. The abuses that occured are staggering. It's not something you simply forgive.

I spoke to him once a couple of years ago when he was leaving Mass. He doesn't want to talk about TWI or to anyone. He wants to move on and pretend like it never happened. He came out of it all very bitter.

My beef with Donna has more to do with her own actions than those of her husband's. Mrs. W , who I knew, was a sweet woman and IMO a victim. Mrs W never used a micraphone to publicly bash people, lie and be hurtful. Donna was involved, Mrs. W was meekly in the wings. Apples and oranges.

Oak, we started in TWI in the Bronx in '75 and left for our wow year in 80.

80-81 Wow Dorchester, ma , 2nd wave which meant I started a school year in NY, went wow in October, went to a 2nd school. LC didn't like my teacher, 3rd school. 4th grade, 3 schools. 81-82 Wow Fall River, MA (we went Wow three times , all in Mass.) Started at one school, had to move because of dispute with Landlord (we didn't pay the rent, if you call that a dispute). When we moved, I had to go to another school. 5th grade two schools. This was our apprentice year. 82-83 In residence in Rome City. Started at How Military School because I lacked discipline, as my grades were slipping (gee wonder why). Moneyhands didn't like that my non way family members were paying for me to go to private school and said it was not fair to the other kids. Moneyhands made me drop out even tho it was paid for. Moneyhands kid went there but I could not. I guess that IS fair??? Started going to Rome City School. 6th grade 2 schools. My aunt and uncle out 1 years tuition. 83-84 supposed to go to NY for our interum year. My father, who at this point hadn't seen me in 4 years, was happy I was coming back to NY and enrolled and paid for me to go to an elite performing arts jr. high school. TWI changes family corps policy, no interum year because kids were going to too many schools and bouncing around too much (ya think?) No performing arts school for me, back to Rome City. Only one school that year but a huge lost opportunity. I end up not seeing my dad (he was possessed anyway) for two more years as we end up going wow again for our practicum year. 7th grade 1 school, 1 lost chance. That's 7.5 schools in 4 years. I was an A student before this mess, D student after. That's what i remember from those years ha ha

We shall serve the Lord. Anyone here ever have one of those T Shirts? If so, we go way back! I bring it up because my mom was moving and I found hers. Almost gave me a flashback!

Poor guys gave his kids Way names. I know they're from the Bible but a lot of people I know only named their kids Zacheria and Titus because they were in TWI. I might change my name to Zacheus. I know a couple with an 18 year old names, yup Victor Paul. oops. At least Loy is too weird for anyone to consider.

No wonder these allergies aren't clearing up, my wife isn't loving me enough. How freaking absurd. My mom fell off a mountain on LEAD, broke her back and was told it was her fault because she didn't listen to God. She should have sued.

The unofficial 4th Aid policy 1st aid pray 2nd have someone pray for you 3rd seek help from TWI's nurses 4th, your believeing sucks so you have to go to a real doctor. Anytime I had to go to the hospital, I was made to feel like crap about it. It was my own fault. Accidents don't happen, you should have known there was going to be a hole for you to step in that was going to break your ankle, you weren't "walking"

My captions, from left: If Craig ever has to go to Iraq, he doesn't need new clothes. Maybe God told him there was a sandstorm coming. I still have my beta max. Hey, Rosalie. Please gravitate towards the deep end. She puts the "marco" in "polo". Rosie gives new meaning to the term "rainbow head". The wife of the President as Mellisa Ethridge. The Fountain of Living Water's , now appearing phallic, thanks to Disney. If that tour bus could talk people would be in jail.

For the record, alot of the teens thought the teen stage was lame. Especially junior corps. Most kids didn't love the cheesy music or spending their summer vacation doing what we did 24 hours a day: studying the bible, in the heat, outside. Since it was for all teens the teachings were super simple and almost condescending. Did I really need to sit thru more teachings about The Law of Believing and abundant sharing? To Junior Corps that was like being taught the alphabet again and again. We hated it. We did notice that non corps teens seemed to like it more than we did. Teen Summer School was a different story (except there was tons of sex and booze there too). We understood it was to study the word, we were supervised (most of the time) and our time was structured. I enjoyed Teen Summer School for a whole different set of reasons that I enjoyed ROA.

Wait a minute...Ocean Pacific shorts? I remember you! Sorry, I was just trying to impress Loy.

We had fun. TOO MUCH fun. I would definetly do somethings over, some not. Orgies, while I've heard that said of us before, is a little too strong a word. And there were plenty of adults doing the same things. It's amazing this went on and we could look in the mirror and call ourselves Christians who understood of the word of God better than anyone. If there's one thing I miss about TWI it's ROA. Great memories. I sometimes have dreams that it still happens and I decide to go back just for ROA and to see old friends. Thank God I wake up! Funny how I never dream about WOW Burgers.

The drinking and pot smoking hasn't really been talked about very much here (except for VPW's boozing, not a lot of pot talk) But when TWI was hopping in the 70's (at least in my experience in The Bronx) there was a lot of pot smoking, some of it went on after twig! There was, as has been discussed, a big Jesus element to the hippie movement in the 70's. Seems weird to today's "hippies". Even Bob Dylan went thru a Jesus phase. It was something to try along with Buddha, pot, yoga and anything else that promised to bring "enlightenment". A lot of that pot smoking made it to TWI in the 80's and not just with "the kids". Since it's a crime (???) I won't name names but there were plenty of "leaders" smoking weed. And the booze was not unique to VPW. The two drink limit is one of the biggest TWI hoaxes of them all. And I agree with Igotout: "My theory is the more legalism and incorrect doctrine you are placed under the more self medication is needed to "escape" the bonds of religiosity." There's a reason "the preacher's daughter" stereotype exists. Kids rebel, that's a fact. The more taboo you place on them, the more they NEED to find out for themselves. We Junior Corps compensated for the abuse and lies and pain with sex, drugs and rock n roll. We were BAD, worse than your average teen. ROA was a party to us. And we earned it! Try being made to go to school where the kids make fun of you all day for being in a cult, witness to a group of uninterested KIDS, participate in extra curricular activities (sports), come home and work on a farm, do your home work, go to twig EVERY NIGHT, be ridiculed (reproved) all day long for every little thing, be beaten by whoever had the closest wooden spoon for any minor offense, take classes (PFAL, Intermediate and CF&X with a perverted teacher, dealing with the adversary and other HEAVY TOPICS), wake up at five to pray and read the bible, work out and repeat schedule. It was way too much for any kid to have to go through. It's no wonder we drank, smoked and had sex. ROA was our Mardi Gras. Unsupervised madness. Pure rebellion. These days, when I tell my friends this stuff they think I'm making it up. Also at ROA and Score Week there was some mixing of young "adults" with older teens: sex and booze. It's just amazing.

Well it was 25 years ago and I was 10 so who remembers? haha. The year of the 2nd wave WOWs was 80-81. We went out in Octboer. My mom went WOW three times so i get those years confused. I do remember there were not 4,00 wows for the 40th and that there were a lot of drop outs among the 3200. TWI were selling the goal so hard that people who went to ROA with no intention of going WOW signed up on the spot. Craziness. Anyway, I was hoping to find some 2nd wave wows from 80-81. My first wow year.

I looked forward to ROA and Score Week every year. As a teen I knew I'd be unsupervised and surrounded by my friends and girls in our own tent area. I knew I'd be drinking a lot and skipping every meeting and work assignment that i could. We were out of control. No parenting and all. But the one thing I remember being really bad was Bless Patrol. Bless Patrol just got more and more like police. Not a whole lot of blessing happening there. One year at the end of corps week, a lot of corps teens were drunk. We were worse than non corps, go figure. In fact the worst kids were the kids of top leadership. Howard's kids used to scare me Bless patrols big idea to stop it was to go into all of our tents. When i got word this was going on, all of our clothes and luggage, we're talking about at least 50 kids, was in one big pile and they were looking thru it- underwear and all. They found nothing. We then had to sort through that mess and hope to find most of our stuff. Why did they find nothing? Because we were drinking TWI's beer and wine. At the end of corps week TWI would have a big pizza and beer party and everyone (well not EVERYONE) would get smashed. There was no supervision, there was just tables full of beer and we would just walk up and help ourselves. 15 year olds walking away with kegs. it was rediculous. These Bless Patrol were litterally shining flashlights in our eyes asking where the booze was. I was a smart a$$ so when they got to me I said "Craig Martindale's Basement." HAHA After that, we were subject to random tent checks. They'd wake us up at 6 AM, go thru our stuff and interrogate us. Other things I wasnt crazy about was the stinky hard water, showering in groups and working 12 hour shifts in the heat.

In 1980, the wow program promised "4,000 for the 40th". Catchy slogan, not fulfilled. In an effort to make good on the slogan, TWI sent out a "2nd wave" of WOWs who went out from October to August (instead of August to August) Anyone here a member of that unique group? Especially "The North East Region"? I was in Mass with Lourdes Cordero, Joyce Guimareas, Koreen Watrous, Greg Follete, Bob Delude and many others.

Preaching the gospel is one thing, harrasing people is another. Most of the people I introduced to TWI and who became invovled (Oh man I owe them all an apology) were attracted to the general positive atmosphere of the way home/wow home or they were curious about the Bible and I offered some answers or their life was a mess and I was there to help. We also did well with Coffee houses, where we had music and skits in a public place and the people who werte interested CAME TO US! Go figure. Going doort to door and stopping people at the mall almost never worked. Let your life be a witness, no need to harass people.

If I took that advice in 1979, I'd be knocking on stranger's doors, waking them up on a Sunday morning to ask them about their kids and what their dreams are. Still wouldn't have worked. HAHA If there's one thing I don't miss, other than abuse, giving my money away and not thinking for myself...it's WITNESSING. "you ough ta try it yeah yeah God's not gonna deny it I know he won't you ough ta try it yeah yeah let your spirit sing door to door witnessing door to DOOOOOOOOOOR witnessing" New Horizons PS marketing reps ARE human beings. In fact they are humans being.

You gotta understand , it was a different time. Sexual abuse was often not reported. Especially when it's subtle and confusing. Only recently have people who were abused by a parent or relative felt comfortable about coming forward. Think of the catholic church. Is there any proof that alter boys were abused in 1970? If Vic were still around today, you could bet there's be lawsuits.

ugh, you guys sound like a crappy lawyer's convention. How do you define "is"? "It depends on what the meaning of the word "is" is. If the--if he--if "is" means is and never has been, that is not — that is one thing. If it means there is none, that was a completely true statement." Grand jury testimony, August 17, 1998 It's all a diversion from a simple fact. Vic was an adulterer. good day PS did I mention he exposed himself to my mother? That's not adultry, that's sexual assault. But, hey, it came from my mom and I didn't see it so it's hear say.