Jump to content
GreaseSpot Cafe

Memories of the ROA...


GrouchoMarxJr
 Share

Recommended Posts

quote:
"Get yer Justification Combination! You don't gain weight cuz it's "Justified never ate!" And we all had to wear these goofy straw hats.

And to this day, when I order up a pepperoni pizza from Dominoes, I still mutter "prayperoni" under my breath...

Prayperoni....ROFLMAO!! icon_biggrin.gif:D--> We could all use a few menu items that would result in justified never ate.....Eating for sheer satisfaction without the consequences or having to exercise. I wonder if it will be that way in heaven??

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 150
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Rock Of Ages 1973 - No tent - outdoors - I posted a picture under "Every Picture Tells A Story" thread because I couldn't post in the Open Forum as an "attachment". That was my first "rock" - having been to Woodstock only 4 years earlier - I think we were still all in a sort of "hippie daze" w/out the drugs....well maybe not everyone was without the drugs.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I recall my first roa in 75...the folks that I went with kept sneaking into their tents to "burn a few"... wink2.gif;)-->

We also brought our own beer but had to drink it on the sly...

Yeah...those early rocks had a lot of long haired Woodstock types floating around...very little structure...really cold showers in the morning...5am...ice cold water...quite the eye opener as I recall.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ya know, I never went to a ROA. I did listen to the nightly teachings on a phone hook-up the year that craig taught the living sanctified crap about not being unequally yoked with unbelievers or anyone else who isn't involved with TWI.

Then it was over.....no more ROA's. I wasn't too upset about it since I had never been and a hotel room without a coffee maker is about as "roughing it" as I like to get.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

No More ROA? I never thought of that...when did they end? IMO that was the best part of the twi experience. The first one was 1971 I believe - when was the last one? I suppose it ended when the WOW Program ended as it was "The WOW Fetival" I spent my Honeymoon (no comments please) at ROA '77...how many of you spent EVERY Anniversary at "the rock"?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I spent every birthday from '75-86' at the rock. It usually passed unnoticed, which was fine with me. It was also Don Wierwille's birthday, and I did sometimes pretend the main tent was singing happy birthday to me.

The Sidney fairground rock's were the best.The old wooden buildings, outhouses, and conevience store right outside the gate where protestors gathered, gave the place a distinctive 'non-way' atmosphere, that could only help it.

The roa at hq was sterile, and controlled, to say the least.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You're exactly right hiway29...The Sideney fairgrounds was a good time...twi had less control because they were only renting this facility...it was right smack in the middle of town and yeah, I remember the protesters outside the fence...hdqrts was a totally controlled environment...I seem to recall that the roa at hdqrts in 1977 or 78 (right after Sidney)...was pretty loose...very unstructured and a lot of sponteneity...people still felt relaxed and just spent their time wandering around smiling. It took several years before they took the fun out of it...the structured twig times, the mandatory job assignments, etc., etc....why couldn't they just let people do want they wanted? What a bunch of self absorded, legalistic, control freaks. It was all about THEM...how THEY would decide what's best for "gawds people"...forget all that crap about the body of Christ, we're going for a ride back to the old testament...when Moses hisself was the MAN OF GOD for the whole world...Wierwille's entire structure was based on the "Moses model"...and then the "mantle" was passed down to king okie...the hammer came down! No more roa!...gotta get rid of all those homo spirits, by gawd! (Was he including his wife and Rosie in that hunt?)...or perhaps it was his own repressed homosexual tendencies?...he kinda decided that all that fun people were having at the rock, was damn evil...

...Ah yes, memories of the rock.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

quote:
Originally posted by GrouchoMarxJr:

You're exactly right hiway29...The Sideney fairgrounds was a good time...twi had less control because they were only renting this facility...it was right smack in the middle of town and yeah, I remember the protesters outside the fence...hdqrts was a totally controlled environment...I seem to recall that the roa at hdqrts in 1977 or 78 (right after Sidney)...was pretty loose...very unstructured and a lot of sponteneity...people still felt relaxed and just spent their time wandering around smiling. It took several years before they took the fun out of it...the structured twig times, the mandatory job assignments, etc., etc....why couldn't they just let people do want they wanted? What a bunch of self absorded, legalistic, control freaks. It was all about THEM...how THEY would decide what's best for "gawds people"...forget all that crap about the body of Christ, we're going for a ride back to the old testament...when Moses hisself was the MAN OF GOD for the whole world...Wierwille's entire structure was based on the "Moses model"...and then the "mantle" was passed down to king okie...the hammer came down! No more roa!...gotta get rid of all those homo spirits, by gawd! (Was he including his wife and Rosie in that hunt?)...or perhaps it was his own repressed homosexual tendencies?...he kinda decided that all that fun people were having at the rock, was damn evil...

...Ah yes, memories of the rock.

Bummer, man.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My first ROA was the first one that was back at "the farm" after being at Sidney or Lima for a while. I totally loved it.

First, I loved road trips. My buddies from high school and I would head out to The Hamptons every summer for a "fishing trip" (translation = beer drinking excursion), and occassionally would head up into the mountains for a few days. In 1978 I had been a PFAL grad for less than six months, and was asked to share driving duties with a woman whose husband was at HQ taking the advanced class and staying for ROA setup. Me and her and three little kids. We caravanned with two or three other cars.

We pulled into the big parking lot in the wee, dark, hours of the morning, and I promptly fell asleep in the front seat. I was amazed at how many people were there in the morning. My twig leader made arrangements for me to stay in his hotel room in Celina, but neglected to tell me that twelve others would be in the room as well.

I was on my own getting to and from the ROA grounds, since the folks in our room who had cars would often have to be there early for one reason or another, and I was more into sleeping in, then drinking coffee in tent city past midnight, so I did a lot of hitch hiking back & forth.

There were lots of people to talk to, plenty to see, and the teachings in the "Big Top" were fun for me. Whatever else can be said about Wierwille, he knew how to work a crowd.

I left there after the six days tired, but happy, and looking forward to ROA '79

ROA '79 was fun as well. I took a plane to Fort Wayne (my dad was an airline employee and I got a discount) and hitch hiked to New Knoxville. I was to meet two buddies, one who was going out WOW, in Sidney the night before the ROA was to open. They had my clothes and my tent, but they did not show up on time. I called my sister in NY and asked her to ask around (one of the guys was a family friend and my sister knew his sister). She found out that the lads had not left yet, due to car troubles.

Since I had no change of clothes, and no toiletries, I was beginning to get a little aromatic. I was able to shower at the hotel (looking back I am amazed that I was able to get a room at all) but had to put the same smelly, dirty clothes back on. I ended up buying a "Way Int'l" golk shirt and a pair of gym shorts so I could have some clean clothes. I finally hooked up with my buddies sometime on Monday.

1979 was also the year that we almost got thrown out of the Rock. The two guys with the poorly running car, myself, and a few miscellaneous smartasses, were drinking coffee near tent city late one night and were starting to get loud. A Bless Patrol guy, with a blue hat perched atop his cowboy hat, asked us to shut it down. We politely (or politely for New Yorkers angelkit.gif) declined. The next thing you know, a posse of blue and white hats and a forest of green & white nametags descended upon us, and "persuaded" us that we really didn't want to cut our stay at the ROA short icon_razz.gif:P-->

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I remember as a teen asking my parents if I could go to the rock.

They asked you want to go to a rock and see this doctor weirwolf? No way!!!!!

So, I had to wait until I was 18 to go. Now looking back I can understand why they were so adamant of me not being so involved with twi. It does sound weird now that I'm out.....lol

Link to comment
Share on other sites

quote:
"Zakamuka! Ngiku zololay! Ozala kamoto!" Which means; "God bless you! I love you! You are the best!"

Learning things like that from people you'd never ever have had the opportunity to meet and get to know. To me, and I repeat, I'm speaking personally, to me made my time in TWI "worth it."

I worked long & hard every year on ROA. It warms my soul to hear so many fond memories. Johnny, I didn't know of Andre Zakompani having passed away... How? When?

He & Roger Lutambi were good friends. I got to know them the year they came to HQ to learn enough English to go through the WC the next year. Seeing them get their WC diplomas was a highlight of life for me. They are really impressive guys.

This may be a little bit of a derail, it may loosly qualify for this thread as it is a memory though.

Roger & Andre told this hilarious story about how they had to sell a huge 1,000lb pig at the market in town to pay for their plane tickets to come to the US. They told how they had to first get the pig, "annd deece peeg was BEEG!" onto the bus, which was always packed with people anyways. It was really hot, over 100 degrees. They finally got the pig on the bus. The pig didn't smell very good, people were complaining....Then the bus had some mechanical trouble. Then they had to get the pig off the bus onto another one.

They finally got that done with the help of all these people pushing the pig off & then onto the next bus. Then when they FINALLY got the pig to the market, off the bus, they were heading for the place to sell the pig and "de peeg fell over and DIED!"

There they were in the hot sun, all the way into town at the market with a huge, dead pig that nobody could lift. If memory serves you either couldn't sell the pig dead, or you wouldn't get much money for it, either way, they couldn't get the pig to the place anyways, because it was DEAD.... as in NOT breathing, eyes glazed over ... dead!

They freaked out a little then decided they had come tooo far to be stopped now. They prayed for the pig and RAISED it from the dead! Then they walked the pig over to the shop and sold it.

They had us rolling in the isles dying with laughter telling us that... a fond memory of good friends. I'm happy to be able to take things like that from my time in TWI. icon_smile.gif:)-->

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ok. I think my fondest memories from ROA were during ROA setup at the end of our first year in residence with the 11th WC.

We were the biggest and arguably the rowdiest WC group to date. Really hard to control, always getting in trouble, breaking the rules & stuff like that. They made the mistake of telling us that if we actually finished ROA setup on time, we'd get to have some free time before the Rock - we'd even get to leave ground & go wherever we wanted. They probable figured we'd get done & get to go to town for a movie, or something.

We hit setup like a swarm of wasps and did it in record time, like two days early! We had SOO much fun! Like... They put us jocks on main tent set-up. We worked with the guys from the tent company who handled all of those bigh bull ropes with no gloves. We had a blast almost dropping those big poles & stuff. They kept slipping and were hard tograp with gloves.

A funny thing was when some body asked the tent guys, "Hey, how can you handle those ropes without getting your hands all torn up?" Tent guy said,

"You pee on dem. Gooo ahead you should try eet. It weeel make you hands vedddy veddy tough."

Our eyes bugged out and some voice comes out from the back of the group. "I guess we'll just be wearin' gloves then....and drop the poles."

We cracked up!

Back to work. icon_smile.gif:)-->

Link to comment
Share on other sites

One day Robby came up to me in-res and showed me this ivory giraffe and elephant very excitedly and said to me "I got these off those guys (Andre and Roger) for $200 and they are worth thousands, THOUSANDS! and I only paid $200 bucks for them"

I went to Andre and Roger and told them Robert took them on that deal. Andre said to me "Frank, we bought them at Pier one imports for twenty dollars!"

Man, I loved those guys

Link to comment
Share on other sites

quote:
I didn't know of Andre Zakompani having passed away... How? When?

It was some time before 2000 that Andre was in a car accident which took his life. We were told he was traveling to visit his sick father. At that time, he was the county coordinator of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly known as Zaire).

I believe Roger is now the country coord.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

HCW,

I remember Andre' telling that story to us at our Tenth Corps bachelor party, and it was too funny! We were down in the "Firkin Lounge", drinking our two beers apiece, and we were all supposed to be telling "fishing stories" which was supposed to be "what guys do" at bachelor parties (yeah right! I think this was R*ss Tr*cy's idea), but it really was way fun. Anyway, Andre' gets up and we were all excited because we thought that he was going to tell some fishing story about catching some weird and huge fish from the Congo River or something.

But then, with his huge smile, he launches in to the story about "dis great beeg peeg!" And we all laughed to tears as he told it with such glee. And we were all blown away by how they believed God to raise it from the dead. I swear, those guys taught me more about God by their simplicity in their believing. As I learned of their daily lives in Kinshasa, it was like a "reproof" because they were so not into material things. I remember that one of them told me that their greatest joy was not the things that they received from God when they prayed, but that "God Himself would actually love us enough to even listen to us!"

Yeah, I relly loved those guys too. I was bummed when I learned of Andre's falling asleep. But, we'll see him again by golly! And thanks HC, for reminding me of the "Great Beeg Peeg story!"

Zakamuka!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I remember in 1976, my twig coordinator and his wife were entering the 7th corp...he'd forgotten his hunting bow back in PA...so I bring it to the ROA and come walking (proudly I might add) into the Shelby County Fairgrounds carrying a hunting bow WITH ARROWS

....it gets better!

Behind me are approx 1 gazillion security personnel talking on their radios, all were wondering I am sure, who in the hell this idiot is with a hunting bow?

Anyway, I see my twig leader and start waving the bow in the air and saying,

"Here are your bow and arrows"!

LOL...now some of you may be thinking, so you're the guy OFM!

Listen...my intentions were honest and pure, ok?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

quote:
One day Robby came up to me in-res and showed me this ivory giraffe and elephant very excitedly and said to me "I got these off those guys (Andre and Roger) for $200 and they are worth thousands, THOUSANDS! and I only paid $200 bucks for them"

I went to Andre and Roger and told them Robert took them on that deal. Andre said to me "Frank, we bought them at Pier one imports for twenty dollars!"

Classic Christian behavoir. Defrauding a brother in Christ...Way Corps no less.

Makes the "Great Beeg Peeg" story so much more credible.

Wewerla Scammedala!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

quote:
the hammer came down! No more roa!...gotta get rid of all those homo spirits, by gawd!

ya right icon_rolleyes.gif:rolleyes:-->

I am one who firmly believes that loyboy was lying thru his teeth that night AND...... the reason the rock of ages was cancelled was because of loy's false revelation to put all corps on the payroll.

When the corps were put on fulltime payroll status in August 1995......this meant that all future ministry events would have to budget the payroll to include travel/hotel/gas/food/etc. expenditures that 1200 (??) corps would incur to attend ministry events.

IMO ole loyboy had no concept of the things he set in motion when he blurted out his FALSE REVELATION FROM "GOD"......and had to have others show him how to connect the financial dots.

By September of 1995, in our first or second corps meeting.....lcm declared that ONLY SELECTED CORPS would be invited to work at the Dallas WIB. Again.......$$$$$$$$$$$$$

It was SO OBVIOUS!

The homo spirit crap was a cover.......to cover martinfail's foot on this false revelation....."revelation" that NEVER produced the boastful fruit that lcm SAID would happen!!

Twi vehemently HATES to spend money once it enters their greedy little coffers!!!!

Whenever looking for motive on twi......ALWAYS look at the money trail.

Twi is pathetic.

Edited by skyrider
Link to comment
Share on other sites

And one more thing.....

The "slave" labor of corps during corps weeke and throughout the rock AND sign-up volunteers from each state made the roa the event that it was.

With all corps (in 1995) now on payroll status, the roa would have NO LONGER been a money-making venture (horrors! horrors!) and would chaff the trustees for doing something that would actually encourage fellowship.

Without the corps numbers.....the roa was gasping for survival. It was only a matter of time.

Micromanaged to death.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Skyrider, good to see you! I've missed your posts. icon_biggrin.gif:D-->

It does seem to always come down to money with TWI, doesn't it? Funny, too, how craig would teach that if a MOG said something was revelation that didn't come to pass he was not a MOG, but when HIS "revelation" didn't come to pass it was because "revelation had changed". icon_rolleyes.gif:rolleyes:-->

And we sooo believed it. Gawd, how embarrassing... redface.gif:o-->

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My fondest memory of the ROA was the incredible feeling of relief when the WOWs weren't sent out in 1994. I was in that group and I have never been more thankful for anything in my life.

My second favorite memory is the day the darn thing was cancelled for good. I went because I had to but hated every minute!

It's wonderful being able to plan my own time off without having to use every single vacation day for a ROA or some other class where my attendance was required.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

Announcements


×
×
  • Create New...