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My life in The Family part II
From: JP
Date: 30 Apr 2001
Time: 20:10:19
Comments
My life growing up in The Family.
Part II
Continuing from part I, we were all back home and
things were quite nice actually, we were with our
parents again and the children that had gone on to
Junior JeTT school before me (I didn't get to go when
I turned 9 because I was still on silence restriction
and a problem) were there as well which was nice. We
lived there at the SC for a couple of months when we
were called in again and told that we would be
returning to school. I was also informed that I would
not be going back to Belwether school, but would be
going to Junior JeTT school which I was very excited
about. I must say at this point that the Junior JeTT
school was run very professionally and well. Our
teachers would go out of their way to do things for us
and looking back, although it was strict with silence
restrictions and corporal punishment, it was
nevertheless fair and we were treated well. The
teachers there, Paul of Filipino Rachel, Stephen of
Filipino Faith and Charity of James were all very
nice. I hope that I'm not forgetting anyone. I really
don't know what to say about the time that I spent at
the Junior JeTT school other than it was a time that I
remember when I was not treated as the problem child,
and when I had a lot of fun and enjoyed myself. For
example, we moved from Sukumvit Soi 14 to this new
house that they had basically built from nothing.
(later to be known as JeTT II) They rented an old mini
supermarket which had no rooms inside and built
everything which was inside the house and we really
felt a part of the whole operation with helping out
and getting everything set up. Well, as everything
good must come to an end, we were told that we were to
be sent home again, and I remember that all of us
children really found this to be terrible news, but it
was explained to us that we had finished our training
as Junior JeTTs and were being sent home as good
examples of our training which made us feel quite
important and that we had to show people what we'd
learned and how much we'd matured and changed. A few
weeks later we were back at the SC, but this time I
can't really say anything good about my time there, I
can't recall whether the SC had become JeTT I by this
time or not but that is very probable. When we arrived
back to our dismay, David (from Belwether school) was
to be our supervisor / teacher. David at this time was
to say the least horrible. I remember that one time
we wanted to surprise him so we told him to expect a
surprise when he woke up. We woke up early and hid
under his bed and were going to spring out and say "We
love you" or something of the sort, but when we sprung
out from under his bed he got very angry and spanked
us very extensively for this. This made me and the
other boy (David of HappyHeart / Tina) feel very
betrayed and bad and I remember that I contemplated
killing David (the tearcher) on many occasions. I
remember how I used to think about pulling out a
kitchen knife when we were doing the dishes and plunge
it into his back. I remember thinking what would
happen to me afterwards and whether I would get away
with it because I was still underage legally or
whether they would just cover the whole thing up, but
thankfully things never got beyond the point of
thinking. I was although still the problem child and
would be until I left The Family, but things were only
to get worse.
Thinking back I think that a big problem with me was
that I found "Word Time" to be horribly boring and
would never listen and would just sit through it all
the time and pretend to be interested. It was also a
requirement to get at least 2 hours of solid group
word time because of the School Vision and all and we
were made to write detailed OHR's explaining our
feelings and what we had learned from the word read
and this was always a problem for me because I never
learned anything. I used to rack my brain trying to
come up with some stuff which would make the shepherds
think that I was learning a lot and all and I think I
actually got quite good at it towards the end.
Anyway, time passed and I was 11 years old which meant
that it was time for me to join the JeTT school. This
was very frightening for me as the JeTT shepherds at
the time were ones that everybody was scared of,
especially one called "Steven Vessel" who was known
throughout the JeTT realm to be extremely strict and
to be feared, and fear him we did. I was told that I
would be joining the JeTT group and did so. I remember
that there was one boy there who had been on silence
restriction for as long as I could remember and I was
afraid of getting the same punishment as him, because
I had never ceased to be a problem child and was
extremely scared of being sent to a Victor programme.
When I had been in the JeTT group for about 2 weeks, I
was called in for a talk with some of the JeTT
shepherds and this is when my worst nightmare became
reality.We had all heard terrible stories about the
Victor Programmes and how JeTT school was like heaven
compared to them so we had good reason to be scared of
these programmes. I was then informed that I was to be
sent, along with another girl to the Victor Programme
at the Thai Training Centre in a weeks time.
I was very frightened at this time, and looking back,
the fear of being sent to a Victor Programme was
similar to the fear of ever being sent to prison
today. Also all of the publications at this time
revolved somehow around Victor Programmes and the DTR
(Discipleship Training Revolution) which I'm sure that
you all remember vividly and really painted the
picture black. Also, some of my friends which I grew
up with at the SC and before had been or were in the
Victor Programme and I was so happy that I had
"escaped" this horrible thing for so long, but sure
enough I arrived at the Training Centre in Bangkok
shortly afterwards and was put into the "New Models"
Victor Programme.
This programme basically was like this. We were not
allowed to communicate with anyone who was not in the
programme as well, even though we were not on silence
restriction, which was imposed on us frequently. We
watched the videos from the Japan victor programmes
constantly and they tried to model this programme
after the Japan one in every way possible. We did the
breakfast and dinner dishes and cleaning up every day
for around 350 people and were not allowed any
priviledges such as weekly movies or anything of the
sort.
Basically, anything that normal JeTTs might have
gotten away with, which wasn't much, we were not
allowed to do. We were the "rotten apples" of the
whole centre, and we really knew it. Corporal
punishment was administered very frequently for the
tiniest things, such as "communicating with your eyes
or hands" or anything which they deemed not to be in
line. I was very musical as a child but we were not
allowed to play guitar as that was also a priviledge
which we did not have. I do think that they had to
find things to make our lives miserable and to make us
really feel that we were in a Victor Programme,
otherwise there would have been no difference between
us and the JeTTS which wouldn't have been fair on
them. They had to see us as something to be afraid of
and that they had better toe the line otherwise they
would be sent there as well. We also had to memorise I
think 8 Bible verses a day otherwise we would not be
allowed to eat, which was quite difficult for us, well
at least for me because I had no interest in learning
these verses and found it so horribly boring.
When I had been there for about 6 months I guess, I
don't recall why this was, but we were to be sent home
for a little while because of something. The year was
1992 so I don't know whether it was persecution or
what it was but we were all sent home again, although
the JeTT I group was quite different at this time. We
all thought that they wouldn't bother with creating a
special little Victor Programme for us at JeTT I as
there were only 4 of us I think, but sure enough, as
soon as we got there, we were informed that we were to
be Victors there as well, and that Steven Vessel was
to be our Victor shepherd. Thank God that we were not
there for long as Steven was not used to being a
Victor shepherd and really took things to the extreme.
He used to use all sorts of tactics on us to keep us
scared of him. For example, we had to write these
extra detailed OHR's which were quite difficult and it
started to be tricky to not repeat the same things on
them day after day. Steven Vessel was also extremely
pro Silence Restriction which he meted out
relentlessly for the smallest of things. Anyway, in
regards to the OHR's, he had 3 different types of
OHR's, .. if you were good then you only had to fill
in the "normal" one, if you were on silence
restriction then you had to fill out the "special"
one, which was about 2 pages I think, but then if he
was not satisfied with your OHR, then you got the long
one. The long one was about 4 pages of small print and
was impossible to fill out without lying extensively.
I remember how I used to sit over it for hours trying
to figure out something to write which he would like
that I hadn't written before. Also, one problem that
Steven had was that he was very partial. He didn't
treat everyone the same which made you feel even
worse. I was then the worst one in the victor
programme which made me feel absolutely terrible, but
I was actually quite used to it by this time.
I think that we were only there at JeTT I for about a
month or two when we were told that were were to be
moving back to the Training Centre to continue our
training. This was actually a relief believe it or not
because the "New Models" programme was heaven compared
to being in this specialised 4 man victor programme
with a victor shepherd who tried to make everything as
victorised as possible.
We moved back to the TC and continued in the Victor
Programme. I remember that they performed an exorcism
on me a few times to try to rid me of demons. I
remember how I always found this to be so stupid, they
used to anoint me with oil and cast the demons out and
I would pretend that I really felt a difference
afterwards. Everything revolved around trying to make
the shepherds think that you were really getting the
victory, even though you really never had any idea of
what you were "getting the victory" over.
Although my memories of the victor programme are not
good ones, I must say that we did feel that we had
some goal to work towards, and that was getting out of
the Victor Programme and into the normal JeTT group or
graduating as they called it. Everything that we did
was aimed towards getting out of the programme and
that sort of gave us something to look forward to, or
an incentive to be good and to try to get the victory
and concentrate on our N.W.O's I must not forget to
say that one of the Victor shephers there, Gabe (he
has a Filipino wife, I honestly cannot remember her
name, I think they live in Japan now, working with the
video ministry, or did last I knew), did actually try
to sincerely help us and I did always feel that he was
more of my friend than an enemy. My memories of him
will always be good ones, even though he had to be
strict on us and punish us, I think that his motives
were good ones and he retains my respect for that.
A few months later, we were then told that we would
all be graduating from the victor programme, but that
our training was not over. A big Training school was
to be created with all of the JeTTs from the other
homes (there were 3 JeTT homes at this time) coming
and they were to merge the Junior Teen and JeTT groups
together and have one big one.
End of part II
Last changed: jun 10,
2001