"Aquila & Priscilla"

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Click here to read an introduction to memoir: Journey through Memoir: Introduction

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As I shared with John some of what I read online about The Way, his interest peaked and he would read a small bit now and then. I told him about the three lawsuits; The Way had told us followers there had been only one lawsuit. I read on GreaseSpot that one of the other lawsuits had been filed by our old ex-Way friend Ron. Ron had called us, back in 2001, when he and his second wife decided to leave the Way. That phone call came while we were living at the Westbrook Plaza House, before I'd ever searched The Way online, before I'd discovered GreaseSpot Cafe.

June, 2005. The phone rang. But it wasn't the kitchen phone in the old house on Westbrook Plaza. We now lived on Commonwealth, in the mortgaged house.

I answered, "Hello. This is Carol." A response came through the earpiece,"Hi Carol. This is Harve Platig. How are you?"

Harve Platig? He was one of the vice-presidents of The Way. What was he doing calling our house? Neither John nor I personally knew Harve. What was this about?

Harve and I exchanged cordialities and then he asked to speak to John.

I walked from the kitchen up the stairs to the bedroom. Puzzled and almost whispering I informed John, "John, Harve Platig is on the phone for you."

John's eyes widened. He looked as bewildered as I.

John wasn't on the phone with Harve for very long. I'm guessing maybe ten minutes or so.

"What was that about?" I asked after he hung up the phone.

"It was about Ron and the lawsuit he filed against The Way. David told Harve that we used to know Ron. Harve and the lawyers are looking for insight into Ron's personality, wondering how easily Ron can be manipulated against his will."

John and I just looked at each other, puzzled.

John shrugged, "Harve thought we knew about the suit. A lawyer for The Way is going to call me later in the week."

We were both baffled. Neither John nor I had ever been informed by The Way about the Peeler suit. The only reason we knew about the suit was because we had read about it on GreaseSpot. John didn't reveal that to Harve, that the only reason he knew about the Peeler suit was because of GreaseSpot.

Why did Harve think we knew? Perhaps David, who was on The Way Trustee Cabinet and the one who had given our name to Harve, got his memory wires crossed again?

When David and his wife oversaw the state of North Carolina, he'd sometimes get mixed up and think that John and I were Way Corps grads and at some of the state Corps meetings would ask, "Where are the Welches?" He would then be reminded that the Welches weren't Corps. I saw how he could get that confused in his mental wires. John and I had been Fellowship Coordinators or Assistants for a long time and volunteered at almost every state function. Another factor was that, though I never graduated, I had been in-residence in The Way Corps with David and his wife back in the early 80s. I still carry the image of them getting back from LEAD, backpacks on, walking down the second-floor hall in Uncle Harry Dorm at The Way College in Emporia, Kansas.

I loved David and his wife and family. They were good people, down-to-earth with heart. David was so funny, and at the same time could drive the truth of the Word home to a person's soul. David used to fondly and somewhat comically refer to John and I as "Aquila and Priscilla," a take-off of the biblical husband and wife lay leaders in the book of Acts in the Bible. David had ministered to my heart on many an occasion. He loved God and the Word more than anything, something I endeavored to strive for in my own life but fell short so very often.

After David and his family got new Corps assignments and moved out of state sometime around 2000, Joe and Paula became the state coordinators. Our family and their family had gotten to know each other when we lived in Greensboro in the late 90s, our homes only a mile from one another. Our kids were the same ages and played together often. Paula and I were walking buddies at the time. I loved Paula and her family. She and Joe were tender with people's hearts. Paula helped me ease up on some of my strict scheduling. Loyal Way followers and lay leaders had been taught to "schedule the adversary out of our lives;" I had diligently obeyed.

Paula and I were staying together in a hotel room at a Way function sometime after 2002. She shared with me the difficulty of putting together the live teaching series of The Way's Way of Abundance and Power Foundational Class, the heart-wrenching that had gone through her soul listening to Craig on the tapes, thinking of those times in The Ministry, how Craig had fallen, how people's lives were so hurt. Apparently the Corps had to listen to those tapes in order to get their live teachings on the field accurate; The Way hadn't yet changed any of the doctrine from Rev. Martindale's Foundational Class even though Craig was on asylum somewhere. Apparently, The Way wanted to get Craig out of the picture. At the time, standing in that plush hotel room, I asked Paula where Craig was and if he and Donna were divorced or not. Her response was, "I don't know."

Her sharing about her emotional stress brought up the subject of Craig's lawsuit. I then mentioned the Peeler suit. She became silent and looked at me. Her tone of voice changed, much more matter of fact, "How do you know about that?" I answered with a half-truth, "Word gets around."

I felt dirty for lying, like a hypocrite; but I didn't know how else to handle her question. I was uneasy with her inquiry.  Why was that?  Why did I feel I couldn't I fully trust the leadership?  Should I tell her I was reading stuff online?  I remember when David, as the previous state coordinator, had hollered explicitly about "those sites on the web," to stay away from them, and how lying spirits had voice there. I'd also read on GreaseSpot about "The WayGB,"  Way leaders that lurked on GreaseSpot like spies.  Paula's husband spent a lot of time online. I wondered if he was part of The WayGB?

I brushed it all aside. It was better to just keep my mouth shut.

Initially, when I read on GreaseSpot about the various lawsuits, the one we as believers had been informed about which was the Allen suit, and then the two others that we hadn't been informed about - the Peeler suit and the Parker suit - I figured that we as followers hadn't been informed about the other two because it wasn't the loving thing to do. It wasn't any of our business as followers, these other lawsuits.

What was the profit in bringing them up and causing strife? Hadn't there been enough strife already? Didn't the Word state that "the love of God covers a multitude of sins?" It was a Ministry matter, really none of our business as followers. Us followers weren't told because it wasn't best for the Ministry or for our hearts; it wasn't best that believers have more doubt in their minds after all the stuff that had happened with Craig. Besides, leadership would tell us about it once it was all settled; they'd tell us if telling us was the loving and right thing to do. There was no reason to give place to the devil. The devil was always out to steal, kill, and destroy. Hadn't he done enough havoc already?

But as time went on, I'd question in my heart. Was it right to keep this information from us as loyal followers who financially, emotionally, and with our life's energies supported the Ministry? But I dare not ask. I was afraid to ask. Perhaps I was afraid of the truth.

When I first read about the Peeler suit, I thought Ron was just money hungry and that the suit wouldn't stand a chance in court; no one had physically forced him to give money to The Way. Sometime later when I read the court records online, I could hear the voices in my head. I knew or had had interactions with almost every Way or ex-Way person on that stand in the court room. I could see their facial expressions and hear their inflections and accents.

Later that week, The Way's lawyer called John and that was the end of John's input in the Peeler case. John had no new information to add to what the lawyers had already collected about Ron's profile.

We never mentioned to anyone, not even to Way leadership, about the phone calls. We put the phone calls in our "lock boxes."

My lock box was starting to bulge.

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