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Way Corps--the good ones that I knew


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Topoftheworld: Richard Thomas is fine and dandy right here in STL. I see him quite regularly and he's great. He tells stories occasionally. Some of you guys may have gotten chewed out by him, but he says he ate plenty of s*** himself. He told of a time when a bunch of live chickens somehow were loose in the snack shop when VPW was at Emporia and LCM says, "Thomas! Get these F***ing chickens out of here!" or something. But him and Karen (sp) are fine. They have 4 kids, all HS age or older and in the 10 mo that I've been going to that fellowship he and all the others have been really cool to me and my family.

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This is the only website that I post on, so I dont have alot of experience doing it.

It just hit me this morning that I have also posted on Living Epistles website. Sorry, Raf, my mind just doesnt work all the time!!!! Plus I havent posted there for quite a while.

I do appreciate all the posts and the good memories, and am sorry for the bad memories that many have had.

Jonny, yeah, J@y Wilson was always a funny guy. He kept us laughing in twig and away from twig. His 2 kiddos look like younger versions of J@y and M@rge!!! They are gorgeous!!!

Carry on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Johnny Lingo - thank's for the kind words.

Yeah, I never was a mean corps person, I liked talking with and helping people.

When I was on staff at Emporia, that meant, taking the poor corps in residence off grounds to just give them a break, hanging with them in the staff tv lounge (one night, there must have been 25 staff and guests in that little room all watching tv. We all fell asleep and woke up in time for breakfast - it was strange seeing 25 sleeping bodies on the floor, couches and chairs), special trips to the snack shop - (I guess I'm not the only one who knew how to break in!), or just hanging out.

I was always of the school who's philosophy was, it is easier to get forgiveness than to get permission. It served me well.

I remember DM asking me once why I didn't stay within the 9-dots. I humbly told her I'd try, but inside, was glad I wasn't fitting into the mold. Of course, that's probably why I always remained a lowly twig coordinator - which was just fine by me. I would rather be friends with people than an overlord.

HCW, I was on staff with you 11th corps. You guys were probably my favorite corps ever, and I knew most people in all the corps. You guys were awesome, I really missed you when you all left for your interim year.

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Another food story from Emporia ... we had stewed dried fruit one morning my first year in-residence in the 13th Corps (11th's final year) and one of my twig buddies had been asked to sit at the head table ... he told me later that JAL (who didn't usually eat breakfast with us, but had come up from his apt. to yell at us about something probably) made sure the microphone was turned off, then turned to Bob Gassman (the head chef) and said, "Don't ever serve this &$*# again!" We never had it again ...

TF

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Thanks Sunesis. You guys on the Emporia staff were among the good ones too. Most times it seemed like you were there to pick up the pieces when the rigors of the Corps Program cracked people. That reminds me, the College Division folks at Emporia were, IMO, as a group some of the finest people in TWI. They had a really great catbird seat perspective of the Corps program without being "trapped" in it like us WC were.

Speaking of getting away.... Again at a mealtime, supper this time... we actually, for the most part, appreciated the food but all those creative, culinary creations left us loooonging and desparate for "normal" stuff. Here we are at the table, again staring at some food nobody really wanted to eat. Garland Harris, a great friend of mine at the time leaned forward and said to a general chorus of "amen brother's" and the like,

"Gee. What I would give for a hamburger."

I leaned forward looked over at him and said something like, " Ummm, a HAMburger, I remember hamburgers. Ohhh, my kingdom for a hamburger - REAL burger, one with actual beef, ground up cow - - meat, buns; the evil white bread, I don't care if it kills me - - I'd do pretty much ANYthing for a burger, right NOW.

We had the whole table going, describing in great detail, the delights of a simple hamburger. There was a college division student sitting between Garland and I. We kept talking about how there was an actual McDonalds restaurant - - just minutes away - - they had BURGERS there - - they were SO close - - if the wind was right - - MAYBE we could smell one.

Garland said, "If only we could get there..."

I said "YES!, we could get a burger there."

We bantered this way back & forth right through the college division guy, "Alas! We COULD get there"

Yes to a BURGER!

If only we had a car, a VEHICLE!

BUT. We are not allowed to go.

Yes. I have a car, I said, but I"m not allowed to help YOU!

So close!

Yet so far away....

"Sigh." The whole table sorta slumped our heads to one side, Awww.....

Garland says, "IF we only knew someone."

I said, "Yes, Someone who could go for us."

Someone who might say, were HE allowed to go.

Here am I send ME.

HE could go - -

If only, a friend -

a GREAT friend, in fact,

A great friend would go for us,

in his car,

he'd go,

He's ALLOWED to go,

and get for us - -

A burger.

TWO all beef patties,

special sauce,

lettuce,

cheese,

pickles,

onions,

on a ....

Then College Division guy broke.

OK, YES! STOP IT! I'LL go! I'll go already! Just Stop!!! PLEASE!

We all cracked up.

We put together a plan. The CD guy got his van and after supper left from behind the campus center, Garland & I rushed back to our rooms to get some $$$. I literally zoomed my bike up to the moving van, jumped off of it and lept into the side door of the van Dukes of Hazard style.

We went to McDonalds bought some burgers and ate them in the basement of Wierwille while people were filing in to be on time for class. We bought some extra fries and fed them to our desparate corps brothers & sisters whom God led to be a little early. We sat at a table like the Godfather. "For this chicken McNugget, you must pledge your next peanut butter sesame seed bar from this sunday's sack supper. Stuff like that.

It was hilarious, selling people a chance to smell the bag, etc.

John Lynn walked by... We froze for a second, then pointed to college division guy, "He did it. He went FOR us."

"Wanna bite?"

John did that familiar snarl thing he did all the time & said, "Carry on..."

Edited by HCW
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ROFLMAO, HCW!!!

Sounds like y'all really did have a blast! I can see, with super times like that, how it must be very hard to reconcile the ugliness. Thank you for sharing your memories with us here. I do so love to read them and you're an incredible writer. I feel like I'm there with you when I'm reading your tales. :)

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Why, HCW, that was excellent! But, didn't you all have hamburgers in Ye Olde Snacke Shoppe down in the Firkin Lounge? We did, every Sunday night, and they were real burgers. That was a Sunday Night Service tradition that came on down from HQ. You know, how old "Tick" would steal kids' hamburgers and that? Granted they weren't MacDonalds burgers, but they were good. I remember making sure all week long that I would have enough dough to be able to buy two hamburgers and a bag of popcorn that coming Sunday night. I always loved a mouthful of burger and a mouthful of popcorn at the same time. Many wimmin thought I was a heathen pig, but little did I care during one of those glorious moments! For, as you said; "A burger!"

And, oh yes, I truly lived for them. There was even mayonaise, mustard, ketchup, and onions to put on them. And being in the Tenth Corps like Garland, which was a year before your time, I would have thought that there were burgers on sunday night for you guys too? In fact I know there were burgers on Sunday night during my last year in rez with the 12th Corps. Maybe I was just so hungry I thought they were real burgers?

Ahh, but that musta been really nice sneaking off to Mickey Dee's like that. Funny too that JAL stumbled upon you and you were "taken in the midst of the act of eating real food. The very act!!" And yet forgiven...Didn't he say "go and sin no more"?

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Having met John Lynn at Mrs. Wierwille's funeral, he seems to have mellowed and was nice to me . I

occasionally email him at CES/S&TIF.

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I think we did have actual beef burgers in the Snack Shop Johhny L. Maybe it was just on Sundays??? One of the specialties quite a few people ate was popcorn & ice cream.

I brought an electric popcorn popper in residence and had popcorn most every night. The popper was the kind that cooks with oil and can actually be used to cook other stuff. I remember stories of how the 6th Corps invented a whole line of snack foods cooked in popcorn poppers, most notably donuts.

Yes. They made DONUTS in their dorm rooms!

You know Belle, we actually had more fun than "ugliness." We actually WERE fun. There wasn't a whole lot of reconciling the fun w/the ugly, especially our first in residence year. It did seem to get "worser & worser" during 82-83.

Yeah TLBumgartner... I always liked John Lynn. I first heard of him/ met him when he was Limb Leader of NY and I was in PA. He was intense, driven, but VERY funny and a likeable guy. Fair, honest all that good stuff. I can remember being really HAPPY that he was WC Cordinator when I went in. He did a great job w/ us at Emporia. He'd yell at us, but ihe wasn't degrading that I remember, his reproof seemed to fit the training. We were training to lead God's people, BIG responsibility, he expected a LOT from us.

I think the way he is now is more like the way he was back then, maybe even before his Corps Cordinator days. Did you know he wasn't a Corps grad? He got the WCCordinator job w/o being a Corps grad. I think that accounted for how much fun we had.

BUT it seems like everthing changed after VP died. the whole thing went south. People changed, went hard acted more & more like the TWI II, gestapo types. The vas majority of WC who stayed w/TWI were wannabes. The ones who WANTED to be considered aamong the best in their corps groups but weren't. One who wanted the big position but didn't get it while others who left had them..

That's really stuff for another thread though.

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in their rooms?? HA!! There were people cookin' s-hi* in the damn dining room for a couple of weeks until some electrician guy said the place was gonna burn down and lcm banned 'em in the dining room...

Yeah, I was there at em-poor-i-am during the first full year of corpse Training, Sir! in da ssixkkthppthh kork so I do know what the flock I am talking about.... mostly.... :beer::drink: :blink: :wacko: B) :lol:

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i love ya alf, so happy to see you here

one day at lunch it was prayer request time - please bow your heads

russell coleman stood up and solemnly said "i would like to lift cyndi edwards"

and with that he picked her up (she was sitting next to him in dining hall) and lifted her way over his head

**

will russell coleman and cyndi edwards please report to the sonlight room after the meal

Edited by excathedra
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hmm I thought that was the legendary Russell S*n*or, not Coleman. Leastways that's the way I heard it.

One of the momentous moments of my early way life was dodging cars outside of Russel S's house with Bob C*rd*n, and lurking in the bushes. Russel had been nabbed by the deprogrammers, and somehow I wound up doing spy duty. I hadn't even had the class as yet, but since all the leaders were in a state meeting they gave me the opportunity to play spy.

I don't mean to make light of it. It was freaky to me that such things were going on, and I did take it seriously. I also dug diving into the bushes when we saw headlights.

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Yea it was Russ Coleman--He witnessed to me shortly after that on his interim year and told me that tale- I liked Russ but he certainly had a different way of going about things most of the time-----when I had no money for the class, Russ went from big business to big business found the CEO and told them that their company would prosper if they would give me $200.00 to take the class----strangely there were no takers.

I was also with him when was nearly arrested for witnessing whereon he composed the legendary song "Pagan with a helmet on". Russ was one of the goodnatured lunatics that made my TWI experience worthwhile

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Mstar: He's still that way (good natured lunatic). I see him all the time. He's gonna be a grandad any day. He's a really great teacher. He recently put together a seminar on 1st and 2nd Corinthians. And he's FUNNY! God is he funny. I really like going to his fellowship.

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if you insist, king tut

we were new little corps peoples all seated in those long tables in the campus center

we had just finished our meal and l. craig martindale, at the head table, got a microphone in his hand and started to talk about i forget

then our own dear marth leisurely lit up to enjoy her after-meal smoke

martinale smelled something spiritually out of place

he BOOMED on that mike

"DO YOU SEE AN ASHTRAY ON THE TABLE?????!!!!!!!!

she replied:

"oh no, don't worry about it, i'll just use my plate."

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Moments like these, with Martha, Russ, the Eddie & Lenny show, these were the times that I will always remember.

The slack shop was indeed open, but only after the evening's activities. And them there were REAL burgers. One time we had tons of donuts for some occassion. I remember as I was taking them out of the boxes to put on large serving platters, I read the ingredients paragraph. Not one monosyllabic word. Every word (ingredient) was at least 20 letters long. And it WAS a PARAGRAPH of ingredients, syaing to me, "Look!! Guaranteed!!! NOTHING NATURAL!!!!". It was a miracle the top dogs allowed us to defile our bodies those few times. But they sure beat the eff outta frozen fruit or bolger wheat cereal & fig pep...

And, our last year in res, as I was the King of the Snack Shop, and also the in-res twig ldr with sexie, I-smoked-pot-with-the-bea-uls, and the rest. we were fine-dining downstairs on some scrumptous morsels of unidentifiable "food". Afterwards, ole Davie says, "I'm starving!!!". Well, God shewed me, as I had the keys to the snack shop, which was directly in front of us, that I must needs unlock those doors with mah faithful twig'ees and sample the manna that was so graciously placed there for our blessing. We were GOOD peoples, GOOD corps, and as we had been taught, thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out of the corn. If membership to twigs was really voluntary, ours would have been "pressed over, shaken down and running together...

Edited by tomtuttle1
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tom :biglaugh:

The food (or lack thereof) and hitchhiking horror stories are TWO of the reasons that I never felt 'God' calling me to enter the the way corps for a lifetime of service to them!!!

I have never eaten alot, but I do like food. And I LOVE chocolate.

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Many (most) of the Way Corps were good, well-meaning people. Fanatics, yes. Thank God, it took that to move the ministry. People who are either totally committed or should be. But as they say, one bad apple spoils the bunch and that's what started the stain - one bad apple rotting what it touched, slowly, slowly, slowly. Like Elderly people - Old people (who have little wrong with them) don't die overnight; they lose their will to live first. That's how the Good Way Corps became the Baaaaadddd Way Corps, they lost their will to love because the legalism was stealing it from them.

Many of my Way Corps were so great, they'd need a building on every street corner to commemorate their love and sacrifice. Sad to say, most of them walked away with hurt and disappointment and their name wiped off everything that spoke of their achievement. Its a good thing God REMEMBERS, huh?

Anyway, this thread is HYSTERICAL and it's this heart in ministry that I remember, which is why it was so vibrant for so long - the love of God calling. Alas, the ministry is on the slow road to recovery now and so many people, pressed down, beaten together and bruising over will never return but we still have Paris (or was that Rome - ha,ha). Perhaps, in time, TWI will be able to acquire more people with the heart and depth that so many of you had and when those people come and bring their abilities and talents so willingly to the ministry to lay them down at the altar of God's will, they will be cherished rather than vanquished. The ministry cannot die because you gave your life's blood for it and that has great worth. But hey, it's good that you got out before the old regime drained your last pint.

Edited by Thin Lizzy
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