C H A N G E D


Considering Paleface's predictions were 5+ years before the Shalom expose, and did not even include something so explosive, the overall trend was correct.


The rate of decline will now accelerate due to the exodus of all the younger generations and to the plethora of legal troubles which will now pursue them to the end of their days.


How the mighty have fallen, regardless of whether they stashed away 'thirty pieces of silver'.

Just because I have been highly critical of TLWF leadership the past 15 years or so, does not mean I have stopped tithing to the church--even after it dissolved. I hope people here haven't made that assumption. Anyway, have a great weekend!
If possible, do something in the public interest.
/s

C H A N G E D


Speaking of $$$ down a rat-hole, it will be interesting to find out (unless there were a separate set of books) what any forensic accounting investigation can uncover about how much, and where all the $$$ has gone for decades.

Misappropriation of funds ended up being the status-quo in TLW as we sacrificed in order to feed that nefarious upward-flow.

Caveat emptor.

From October of 2006--a young adult describing his/her YASP experience at Shiloh:

The Living Word Fellowship, The Walk, John Robert Stevens
Posted by: recoveredfinally
Date: October 07, 2006 10:46AM

Shiloh really was a slave camp. I was forced to work all day long in the blazing heat cutting rose bushes one summer. I fainted from exhaustian. Most summers were spent like this: wake up at 6am, take a 5 minute shower that is timed, go to breakfast, go "wait on the Lord" for an hour, go discuss waiting on the Lord, get your personal list of chores, do your chores from about 10am - 6pm. Eat dinner, go to church, sleep, wake up again. Some of the chores included:
1) weeding outdoors on the side of a pebble road that lead into the entrance of the church - and it was at least 90 + degrees -- or the humidity made it feel that way
2) weeding in the man-made lagoon where one year I was attacked by leeches when I sat in the sand
3) serving on the kitchen staff - the dish washing room was horrible because the dining room was already hot, but combined with the steam of the dish machine - it was 10 x worse!
4) scrubbing toilets and showers with a toothbrush
AND so forth....


It was misery. I can vouche for that! :(

C H A N G E D

I guess if RECOVEREDfinally managed to avoid being sexually abused in the process, they should have considered themselves lucky. Others performing the same duties were not as fortunate.

Since much of this bootcamp-regimen can be traced back to the early '90s and was in full-swing when RECOVEREDfinally documented his/her experience, the only 'fruit' that TLW could ever claim from this program was the cumulative PTSD foisted up it's youth.

A very sad legacy indeed.

The ongoing hindsight in all of this is so eye opening and painful in so many ways. It brings so many different emotions, some satisfying in seeing things come to an end and some sad over the pain of it all. I was close to so much of it as so many people have been. Being a kid growing up with John and with him when he died and everything that followed that to all that is happening now is an overwhelming amount of crazy thoughts and feelings. I like to think I’m free from it all but I realize I’m not. All of my friends and just about everyone in my life were or still are part of this. I say this because my heart goes out to those feeling the same. I’m working away at it. When you’re part of something so huge from such a young age and with it mixed with a great deal of good and bad it’s extremely difficult to sort it out. The evil I’ve seen with Rick, his mother and Gary goes without saying. Not to mention others like Scott, Steve and others. I just hope I can get past the hurt and pray others will be able to do the same.

I M a P U R P L E


It is easy to understand how difficult your situation must be. Stockholm Syndrome comes to mind because of your close proximity to the 'backroom' for so long. Sifting, sorting and evaluating will be one of your biggest challenges on your road to recovery.

I personally stand on the other side of the fence as one who never had a glimpse behind-the-scenes, and never even had a substantive conversation with either JRS or G&M, even though I put in 35 good years in the fellowship. So for me, they are really cartoon figures who danced around on service stages, while leading a life off camera that most of us would have never considered.

With all these unseemly revelations that have come to light, many of which you probably witnessed firsthand, we can easily see the challenge before you. It is our hope that a perspective with more distance between cause and effect may assist your healing simply because being too close makes it difficult to separate the forest from the trees.

PLEASE feel free to continue the discussion, as painful as it may be. There were only a few with the vantage point to assist in bringing it all to down.

Imapurple Wrote:
> I like to think I’m free from it all but
> I realize I’m not. All of my friends and just
> about everyone in my life were or still are part
> of this. I say this because my heart goes out to
> those feeling the same. I’m working away at it.
> When you’re part of something so huge from such a
> young age and with it mixed with a great deal of
> good and bad it’s extremely difficult to sort it
> out. The evil I’ve seen with Rick, his mother and
> Gary goes without saying. Not to mention others
> like Scott, Steve and others. I just hope I can
> get past the hurt and pray others will be able to
> do the same.

Thanks for posting this, Imapurple. In varying degrees, we're all going through this.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/02/2020 11:25PM by changedagain.

'Bad Spirit' responses continued:

John: Minister to me, and I will tell you what is wrong with you.
Member: How about you don't minister to me, and I will tell you what is wrong with you?

Pastor: I don't want your sh*t on my calendar.
Member: Where do you want it?

Marilyn: Sit down, shut up and listen.
Member: Is it O.K. if I take a nap?

Gary: It's a new day.
Member: You mean I can now use you?

John: If you are obedient, God will work out everything for good.
Member: Are you saying I'll get my money back from the silver mine investment?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/03/2020 01:45AM by changedagain.

C H A N G E D

Someone unfamiliar with TLW culture might think you are pulling these out of your arse, but to those of us familiar with these 'shibboleths', they were commonplace WALKspeak.

We who had drunk just enough Kool-Aid were able to accept these violations as totally 'normal', while any other sane person would have run the other direction.