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Gifts for TWI I leaders


JustThinking
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TWI II saw a ban for a while on gifts to WC. (Cutting into ABS, perhaps?) Were gifts in TWI I for leaders ever OTT? (Over the top) By that I mean more than you personally would normally have purchased for someone out of love.

Not having been there I don't know if comments I've heard are true or not.

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Usually a visiting leader at an event was given the proceeds of a special offering (after they had soaked us for the regular ABS). It was assumed that the leader received all the proceeds of that offering but who knows?

I once remember at AC '79 VP was given a brand new car that was presented to him as being from all the students at the AC. I never remember being asked to make an offering for that purpose when I registered for the class. I thought it to be unethical that I was forced to contribute to the gift of the car without my consent or knowledge especially since I was counting my pennies to make ends meet on the WOW field.

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My first year in residence is when the first soaking began for giftgiving that I can remember. Corps were given a monthly $30 allowance for personal items such as toothpaste, shampoo, stamps, etc. and gifts. When Christmas rolled around, my branch coordinator came up and soaked me for money for gifts to be given to:

VP Wierwille

Dotsie Wierwille

Craig Martindale

(and don't forget your branch leader)

I remember telling him that if I gave to all those people, I would have NOTHING to buy gifts for my parents.

He told me that's why in Anderson Library basement there were decoupage materials.

Yeah. For Christmas, my folks got an old piece of paneling with a scripture plastered to the backside.

VP, Dotsie, and Craig got really pricey gifts "from The Way Corps."

I should have given the money to my parents, and gone down to Anderson Basement and decoupaged a piece of paneling for Craig and VP that said "KI$$ MY @$$"

But, oh, no, my "Father in the Word" and beloved "Corps Coordinator" came first!

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Other stupid gift-giving:

Every year at Corps Week the Corps were required to donate towards some pricey gift for the Wierwilles. One year I remember some very expensive Chinese Cloisonne.

The Corps were also expected to give when a member of the Wierwille family married. One year at Corps week I remember a lengthy speech Dotsie gave regarding the search for sterling silver candelabra The Way Corps "gave" to one of the kids when they got married. Silver plate candelabra, which is pretty much standard anywhere you go, were not "good enough." They had to be sterling silver through and through.

And speaking of weddings, the graduating Corps were expected to donate for gifts for The Way Corps couples in their corps who were getting married-- whether you knew any of them personally or not. They were also forced to give wedding showers as well.

I felt really strange about that one. I was one of the people getting married, and a group of 4-5 women I really didn't know very well were expected to give me a "wedding shower" and fork over gifts they had to buy out of their already paltry allowance. I think I got a set of cheap towels from the Dollar Store or something like that. I'd rather they had kept their money. Because our Corps was already being forced to fork over for other things, like:

*Wedding gifts for the couples getting married-- we ended up receiving as a gift from the Corps, a glass ashtray with our initial in it-- we don't even smoke.

*Gifts for Dr. and Mrs. Wierwille

*Gifts for the Corps Coordinator (Martindale)

*Gift for the Way College-- I think our Corps bought the gates that were put up... at least that is what we were told. I never went back there ever again to see them.

The gift giving was obscene for a long, long, time. We had to give for anniversaries, birthdays, holidays, and any other excuse that could be thought of.

AND-- you could not use your abundant sharing for it... the gift money was "over and above," as usual.

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Think about it - even if they collected $2 or $3 dollars from every TWI follower in the state to give to the visiting dignitary - that's well over $1000 dollars in unreportable cash!

I was never asked for more than that - and I don't recall gifts being given to visitors as much as "love offerings" were. (Except for a beautiful stained-glass window made by Mstar once - and an incredible wooden podium. Wonder where the heck those ended up?). Most of the time it was money. Of course, we never knew how much they received - but the envelopes were pretty stuffed most of the time.

Didn't LCM get one of those stolen once? In AZ? I heard that story years ago - don't remember it well.

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a good laugh.

I was asked to 'contribute' once to a visiting LC and told them, you must be crazy. lol

that went over really well on the WOW field, so I did pitch in. I gave him a old pair of underware from the thrift store all wrapped in nice purty paper, left over from christmas.

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I remember when Martindale came to Alaska--the Offering was put in a brown paper bag and just handed to him. I saw the same thing with Otherleadership--No counting or accounting just hand over the cash.

Presents --didn't have a choice--the present was selected and purchased and then your TC collected funds. I got to the point where I went to Twig sans wallet-figuring no cash in hand = cashI could keep it--a few well placed blows from my husbands fist when we got home "cured" me of that notion.

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Catcup

"there were decoupage materials...Yeah. For Christmas, my folks got an old piece of paneling with a scripture plastered to the backside."

So did my folks, the Christmas of 1979. Now they are both asleep in Christ. My Dad died a few years ago; when we emptied his home to sell it, I found that piece of decoupage. Dad kept it for about 20 years, now I have it.

Another example of God turning a lemon into lemonade.

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When I was in gifts were usually over the ABS. In other words, we were not allowed to take it from ABS. And gifts were not mandatory but very expected anyway, so you could say that behind the "not mandatory", they really meant "mandatory". Gifts usually in our area came from non-Corps as for some reason Corps would suggest the gift to a traveling leader but then the non-Corps did a collection and got the gift. The gift had to be quality. A plaque, whatever. LCM used to complain about the "kinds" of gifts given to others. For example, once Rev. Shroyer got a gift of a plaque that said "Word Over Ohio" because he was specifically in charge of Ohio and the people that gave it to him were living in and assigned to Ohio. Ohio was his job and their job. That was their focus. LCM got childish and complained that it should have said "Word Over The World" as "our scope was limited". It wasn't that, it just that Shroyer's job assigned to him was Ohio. If LCM wanted to have him get Word Over The World then he should have put Shroyer on a world tour. Such menial things LCM found fault with, I tell you.

Later, the one to abandon Word Over The World was LCM, as he said it was already over the world and had prevailed.

No wonder Shroyer left. How much did he have to put up with on LCM I will never know. He's doing much better than TWI is right now. Not trying to promote CFF, but Shroyer looks at Word Over The World now because he runs it. So if he got the plaque today, it would say "Word Over The World".

As for the gift issue, it promoted the MOG idea, so no more gifts is what I suggest. Donations of gifts to a certain ministry are okay, but to certain men not okay.

I don't believe the ten percent tithe any more either. I give as I see fit or as I am blessed to give. I feel much better that way and end up not feeling bitter about it.

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Dot,

I was never corps and never got a gift of any kind. However, I run many classes with wc in attendance as part of the crew. They were "in charge" but I coordinated it. Translation: I did all of the work and they "prayed" and "oversaw things spiritually.")

There was a time when I was allowed to just be the coordinator but LCM dictated corps-only. So... I became the "coordinator" but didn't run it. ???? Not sure what that meant.

Oh yeah, guess who got a gift at the end of class? >:-

I also made sure everyone was there including arranging rides, helping to coordinate babysitting, couseling students with problems, finances, family, etc. I was curious when it stops being "helping" and starts being spiritual oversight.

Oh well, if I knew that, you might have to give ME a gift. LOL!

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In the early 90's a rev from Minnesota was coming down to teach Rise & Expansion. We called his wife for sugesstions for a gift (we didn't know him very well, so we wanted to know what would "bless" him)

She faxed us a list that had been made up ahead of time. Very detailed as to what his likes and dislikes were (e.g. sweatshirts and jackets are fine, but no local sports team logos)

Not like they expected gifts or anything icon_biggrin.gif:D-->

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I recall when we gave veepee this "cowboy statue"...it was supposed to be some Remington original sculpture (very expensive) and they made a big deal out of the presentation, making it sound sooooooooooooo prestigious.

This whole idea of "blessing" so-called leaders with gifts was just another example of how the rank and file were to bow down to these great spiritual giants and pay homage. A far cry from the idea of the greatest leader being the greatest servant.

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A certain limb coordinator, who was a long time elligible bachelor in high demand decided to marry in the mid 1990s. All the twigs had to give them wedding gifts...even though none were invited to the wedding or reception.

Our twig decided that each member would get their own gift, instead going in together on one gift. I was so inspired to get them a $250 sterling silver pair of candlesticks...ENGRAVED with their names and wedding date. The last time I was at the limb home, those silver candlesticks were displayed in a corner hutch.

So when they gave me the boot, soon thereafter, it must have killed them to have to get rid of my contaminated bribe gift. I gave it with no strings attached...i don't care what they did with it, but i bet it bugged them.

By the way...they gave many people the boot after they accepted wedding presents from them.

TWI has proven itself to be unworthy of the gifts, love and honor given to it.

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Golfie,

Uhhhhh..... don't be surprised if they still have them. Having survived many of the purges in the mid-90s, I can tell you that there was a LOT of selective cleaning. I think the more a LC didn't like a person, the more pressure there was to ditch items with an attachment. Now if they lived in your house, did you move, sell the bed they slept in, etc.? No way.

For example, t's been a few years since I was in the auditorium but there were MANY items donated by people no longer in TWI. Why are they still there? Hate to say it's inconsistent but...

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J.T.

You are right. I forgot about their love of money...they use people and love things. Those whose conscience has been seared with a hot iron would have no problem rationalizing keeping things they got from sincere believers who they shafted.

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You know, this is another GREAT example of the wonderful public service provided by GS. Seriously.

When I was in, we WANTED to present tokens of appreciation to people, particularly those who were in some leadership capacity that did us a service. We THOUGHT that it was the appropriate thing to do. I never got a pre-printed list of appropriate items, but had I done so, I would have been glad to have gotten one -- I would have considered it in the same category as a bridal registry thing. Why get somebody something that they didn't want and wouldn't use?

I didn't realize the abuses that were so widespread among each and every member of leadership, from the lowliest branch coordinator all the way down to the root. After reading these accounts, I regret each and every present I was ever involved in getting any member of TWI. I didn't realize how badly I was being duped. Figures. icon_redface.gif:o-->

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Ah, geeze, I wasn't gonna respond here. But, I changed my mind.

I don't remember much about the gift thing being "required," and all that. Maybe it's cause I was usually broke during my corps years, and didn't pay attention. I don't know.

Plus, I like to give gifts, and always get a thrill out of it. icon_wink.gif;)-->

But, this I do know. As a branch coord. in the early 80's, I did receive a couple of gifts that are really priceless to me. We never expected anything, so when our friends and fellow twiggies gave us something, we, (hubby and I) were so touched.

In fact, a gift we received from our twig, just recently broke, and I feel like I lost a family member. It was a stained glass panel with a dove on a blue background with Phil 4:13 on it. The person who made this gift for us passed away a number of years ago, and it was my reminder of her and her life. It fell recently when we had a thunderstorm that shook our house. It hit our tile floor and shattered. So sad.

Also, when we quit being branch coord.'s, the ladies in our branch gave us a quilt that they had made for us, and each member of our branch signed it. It still hangs over the bannister in our family room. It reminds me of the utter kindness and generosity of the people we knew then.

When I turned 25, the branch gave me a birthday gift. I was surprised and absolutely humbled by it. It was so sweet of them to think of it. It was a crystal cake plate with a dome over it, and it sits proudly on the buffet in my dining room. I love to use it and have even baked fancy cakes for social events at our home, just so's I can show off my fancy cake plate that reminds me of Sunday morning fellowships when I would pile donuts on it for our twiggies. icon_smile.gif:)-->

Not all gifts were in vain. I cherish the ones I received, and always think of the thoughtfulness behind them.

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Then, Oak, it became a problem because we were forbidden to give. We are required to give minimum 15% of our income, but NOT ALLOWED to give anything to any wc. No baby shower gifts, no bridal shower gifts, nothing.

Then they changed that rule again, but didn't tell anyone about it. We found out months after some dear friends of ours had had a child and felt like .... because we didn't give anything - we'd gotten yelled at for offering a piece of gum to a wc person there was no way we were going to buy somethign for one of them. It might get us m&a. Sheesh - the merry go round of rules with the twi(t)s never ceases to amaze me. icon_rolleyes.gif:rolleyes:-->

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About two months after my divorce was final I moved to another state to make a "fresh start". I wasn't there a week when I was TOLD I had to go to someone's shower and wedding. I wasn't asked if I could do it. IT WAS THUS SAITH THE MOG... My presence was requied, along with my presents, so that they'd have a nice turn out and also have lots of people to help serve.

I had never met the bride or groom before - it was really uncomfortable and I stayed as busy as possible.

As long as leadership's needs were met, who cared? Right?

p.s.

Golfie - the leadership in MA was the same leadership you wrote about in WI. Last I knew they still had those candlesticks!

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"Golfie - the leadership in MA was the same leadership you wrote about in WI. Last I knew they still had those candlesticks!" - ChasuFarley

Chas, GB was the leader$h1t in WI, he was @ HQ before that...now Mr and Mrs Perfect are @ Gunnysin coord the WC. I did not know about MA. Are we talking about the same 1?

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