A few of the Emails received in 1998 will be placed here. VOT ALWAYS obtains permission for Emails placed here. If you wish, you may state in your Email to VOT that you WANT your Email published here.

December 25, 1998

Dear Sir and/or Madam:

I ran across your web site "Veterans of Truth" on the internet.  This (and 
other sites dealing with the "Worker Sect") is very helpful to me in 
understanding some of my relatives.  My uncle, George Brunick, was a 
missionary of the Two-By-Twos to Uraguay in the 1940s.  He married a woman 
of that country.  My uncle is now deceased, but I think my aunt is still 
alive.  Their home was always the site of a house church.  My uncle refused 
to discuss his religion with any of his relatives.  When I was a student in 
Bible college and then in seminary I wrote to him at least twice asking him 
for information about it.  He did not answer.  At family reunions my Uncle 
George would get up and leave the table when prayer was offered over the 
meal.  He stood with his back turned until the prayer was finished and then 
rejoined the family for food.  If anyone asked him to his face about his 
religion he would just say he was a "Christian" and refuse to discuss it 
further.  For years my relatives and I wondered what was this group?  We 
knew it as "Two-By-Twos" and I heard people speak of "Cooneyites" and 
"Black Stockings."  But I knew my Uncle George and my cousins would reject 
those labels.  All of my uncle's children--my four cousins--were rebellious 
in their teen years.  Anyway, I now know much, much more about the group 
from your home page and others.

I have often wondered how "high up" my uncle was in the Two-By-Two 
hierarchy.  He traveled for the group, but he was not a Worker after 
marriage, of course.  My guess is that he was some kind of regional 
coordinator for Eastern South Dakota.  He lived in Volga, S.D. and then 
Sioux Falls, S.D. before retiring to Texas in about 1980 where he died 
around 1985 or so.

Roger E. Olson, Ph.D.
Professor of Theology

November 5, 1998

You may publish my Email.

Hi,

What a Revelation.

We are from Perth in western Australia. We were both born into the truth.My husband’s mother was from Ireland and had attended the very first meetings in Ireland and had known the truth about the Origins of the "Truth" or "Way", but always replied to our queries that it was not good to "lift the lid off the pot".

We remained in the "Way" for thirty years of our lives. All our friends and most of our families were in the truth. I began to question things like why we used the "King James" version of the Bible as it was clearly intended to be used by the Church of England and I reasoned that according to the"workers" anyone who believed in the Church of England, or any other church for that matter, were of the "devil". So it stood to reason that the people who interpreted this bible from the original would have been commissionedby King James and were from those Evil other religions. How come we haven't got our own bible especially as we are the remnants from the days of Jesus? In fact they were even claiming that Mary and Joseph, Jesus' Mum and Dad, were in the "Truth".

It was in the early seventies and I was also beginning to resent the treatment of women. I resented having to wear long hair and I loved wearing slacks and I did wear them. I didn't like sneaking around hoping no one would see me in my slack suit which was a most appropriate dress for my work. Television was also a problem as my children loved to watch it and would go to their friend's houses and watch the cartoons. I did not agree with this.The current problem for me was People knew I didn't have TV, because of my religion, but my children could watch it in other people's homes.

I really don't think I could stand the lying and sneaking around (which is the rule in that religion ) and be true to myself any longer.

I was lucky that my husband had similar misgivings and with a lot of soul searching and knowing the consequences we decided to leave. We lost our family and all our very dear friends from childhood. We see them today on odd occasions and still love those people and feel sorry that they are so deceived and that they cannot have real contact with us. Probably the saddest is the isolation from our families. The ones who are still friendly with us and still profess are on the outer but cannot bring themselves to leave as it is all they know.

I thank God everyday that he has liberated me. I feel I have had the chains removed and I am free. I could never belong to another religion. I do not need it as they are all man made.

Your information on your web site is so spot on and most comforting as we have felt very alone for the last 25 years since we left the "mushroom club" (keep them in the dark and feed them you know what).

We have workers list that show that Eddie Cooney attended convention in Western Australia in 1922 along with W Gill.

Yours sincerely,

Laura

9 Oct 1998

Dear Readers:

Words can't express my feelings as I read some of the e-mail messages on this web site. I thought no one else had the same emotions I had. All I could do was exclaim "Oh my God!!" As I read those messages. They echoed absolutely everything I had felt as a member of the church.

I, like so many of others, professed for many years. From the age of 12 until I was 25 I went to meeting and searched for the joy I was told I should feel if I was "right with God". It never happened. I remember telling Everett Swanson I felt like I was professing just to please someone else. As I remember, his unsatisfactory answer was that I needed to continue praying about it. My sister is a worker, laboring in Japan, and many of my relatives are professing and have either Sunday morning or Wednesday night meetings in their home. I have been to all the conventions in Washington and some in Oregon, Idaho, and Canada and heard all the "old" workers preach. I must admit I even thought about going into the work. So I'm not someone who took professing lightly. I looked forward to an open home workers and friends would come to but at the age of 25 I realized it wasn't going to happen and left the church.

I am not a bitter ex-member. I won't call the members 2X2's. I feel that's a name meant not to describe but to demean. There were good times in the church although as a teenager the times were few and far between. I must admit that without the Truth I would have grown up a much different person. I believe it saved me from some of the pitfalls someone growing up in the 1960's might have fallen into. I won't criticize for that.

I'm looking for someone who can refute the negative things I'm reading about the Truth. I don't mean refute with platitudes like "you must pray about it" but scripturally prove and really explain the questions of the church's origin and some of the beliefs.

I don't want to only communicate with dissatisfied ex-members who feed on each others complaints. I want to communicate with those who are interested in truly finding happiness in a church: something I haven't been able to do for almost 40 years. Hopefully this desire rings a bell with some as so many of your comments struck a cord with me.

I send this with trepidation because I am "going public" with my thoughts. And, I am going to sign my name because there are people I would like to re-establish ties with who left the Truth before I did and who might recognize my name even as I scanned the e-mail's for names I would recognize.

My e-mail address is lleone@tmsn.com. If that doesn't work try lleone@exo.com.

Linda Hankins Leone

August 16, 1998

Hi,

I've just recently found your site, and as everyone else has commented - it's been extremely enlightening to say the least. In fact, I was dumbfounded - I never had any idea about William Irvine etc. I've been "out" for 10 years now - and only just had my mind put at rest. I left the country not long after I went "out", so don’t really have much contact with the "friends" any more - only when I go home (NZ) on holiday. Also, all the ex's I know are back in NZ, so it is great to find that at last, here is a group of people who understand my background.

I have a wonderful husband, but he doesn’t have any sort of religious background at all, so has no real comprehension of what it was like being brought up like this.

I'm pretty new to the Internet, and would love to be added to the List. Please let me know what I need to do.

By the way...congratulations on setting the site up - it's obviously helping a lot of people - just hope I can put some of the info to use with regards to my family (all still "in") - when I can figure out how to broach the subject without offending them !

Thanks and regards,

________ _________

August 1998

	I grew up going to meetings with my parents.  My parents were 
strict, but never forced us (me or my brothers) to profess.  As long as we 
lived under their roof, we did have to go to meeting with them.  They let us 
make our own decision about whether we wanted to join "The Truth". 
Although they allowed us to decide for ourselves, (not one of us profess) it 
was easy to see they were disappointed by our not professing.
I found this website by myself when I was just surfing the net one night. 
It was a very late night to say the least.  I read everything!  These web
pages confirm what I always believed.  It is great to hear others from the
same type of upbringing believe similar things.'
The main problem I always had was that people in "The Truth" (or whatever
you want to call this group) think that they are the only ones going to
heaven.  I believed this not to be true from an early age.  I used to mow
lawns for old ladies. I am talking 11-15 years of age here.  I never
believed some of these "religious old ladies" were going to hell because
they didn't go to meetings like my folks and cousins did.
	This site has definitely helped me and my personal beliefs.  I can 
relate to so many of the letters and e-mails.  I only wish people I really love
will someday see this "truth" for what it really is.  Sometimes I get so
mad when I think about how so many people are being duped.  I feel as if I
want to make copies of everything and send them to people anonymously. 
However, I don't know if that is a good approach.
Thanks for the site and keep the information flowing.

You can print this on the site, but I will not reveal my name----

July 21, 1998

Hi, my name is Joe Giles, and a son of a two by two family of at least 
two generations. I myself am an agnostic as a result of my upbringing. 
My father was a worker in the cult and as you can imagine this is a 
great disappointment to him!

My aunt, from Hamilton, New Zealand, herself escaped
from the group told me it was on the web.

Although I was born to professing and very staunch parents, my 
father was a preacher, I never joined. I had an unhappy childhood as a 
result of not being able to join in school activities or sports or 
Scouts--know what I mean? One of my earliest memories and it seems funny 
now was when my primary school had religious training which involved 
the local Anglican minister giving a lecture every Wednesday morning for 
two hours. The Catholics were not allowed to attend and had the priest 
train them in a separate room. So when my father wrote the school and 
said I was not to attend the headmaster did not know what to do with me, 
so I was made to pick up rubbish in the school grounds for two hours every 
Wednesday. Sounds hilarious now, but for a seven year boy it was 
purgatory. To make children have to be different from their peers is the 
foulest of child abuse. Strong language I know but my childhood was 
hell. 

I did not know why my father was against education, I thought it was 
the Irish blood in him. He was born in County Cork and he was keen that I 
leave school at NZ minimum age of 15 years, but I was determined to at 
least get School Certificate the first outside exam in New Zealand¹s 
secondary education. There was no joy when I passed with excellent 
marks, and I was astounded to find out later that prayer had been used 
to ensure I fail! Maybe now you understand my cynicism with religion! All 
religions, and I have made a study of them, getting interested when I 
spent a year in a kibbutz in Israel, only one hour bus ride from Jerusalem.

The book I read first was ³The Church Without A Name³ by David Stone. Very 
illuminating, especially the Irish origins.

Some people had said to me my parents were Cooneyites, but when I asked 
my father who was Cooney he fudged the answer, same as when I asked if 
he knew the difference in doctrine between Catholics and Protestants. 
I did¹nt know at that time the 2x2¹s and the holy church of Rome were 
similar in some respects! I have since read 'Reflections', courtesy 
of my Aunt, who was also responsible for telling me about the web site.

I will now tell you about how I first got to read the ³The Church Without A 
Name². Well it is a long story, but I am happy to tell it. Take a deep 
breath. If I was not such a cynic you could say it was God’s will that this 
book come into my hands. Have you taken a deep, very deep breath? OK.

I had a very good friend who was fascinated with the Cook Islands. He had 
visited 12 times and got me interested in going too. As a result of this 
I wrote to the Cook Island Tourists Board and got pamphlets.  I showed 
them to a good friend of mine who was about to get married and Tim 
decided it would be a good place for a honeymoon. Tim and Barbara had a 
great time in the main island of the Cooks, and in one of the tourist 
ventures met a Canadian guy called Rene.  

The result was Rene came to New Zealand, and as Tim and Barbara were 
just married Rene stayed with me. Rene was from Ontario, Canada and was 
doing a world trip, before going back to complete a PhD in Physics. He 
was interested in religions so I got him to chat with my father as he is always 
willing to talk about his beliefs.

Later Rene was hitchhiking back to my place and was picked up by another
Canadian who was married to a girl from Te Puke. This guy is very religious
and had had many a debate with my father.  He had a copy of  ‘The Church 
Without A Name’ which he loaned to me!!  I was fascinated and read the whole
book in one long night! This book was the first confirmation of my own thoughts
and experiences in the cult. There was an address in the book where to get more 
copies, so I sent away for five more copies and distributed them to friends 
and family. When my sister presented some arguments from the book to my 
parents  and told them I had given her the book I was not very popular.

Did¹nt take as long to tell as I thought!

It has been good to write this article, at the risk of another pun, is 
the computer a modern form of confession? 

I had better finish this letter now, I write as I talk, a lot. Feel free 
to publish on the website and please put me on the mailing list or 
what ever. I am still new to the internet!

Joe

July 23, 1998

Dear Friend, 
I have spent so much time today reading about the "2x2"s, "Church with no
Name" etc. on the www  that my eyes are burning!  Nonetheless, I continue to
read, because I am fascinated at finally finding other people like myself!
I was "raised in the truth" (how is it possible for one's parents to raise one
in Jesus?) and "professed" off and on throughout my life.  I am now 34, and 
after being "excommunicated" for marrying a divorced man, I was "let back in" 
(lucky me huh?) but not able to take part.  This whole experience made me 
question what the truth really is about "the Truth". I read in the Bible that Jesus 
is the truth. Not a group of people.  When I bring this up to my parents, or 
workers, I am told, "yes that is true, but Jesus showed us this way to live".  No
place in the Bible did I see Jesus refusing to allow someone to be in a "meeting"
because of their non-belief etc.   He had love for all men, even to the point
of dying for EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!  

Unfortunately, my first marriage ended in divorce, and I have remarried
"outside the faith".  Yes, I am a sinner yet again.  And this time, there is
apparently no forgiveness for me (but I know BETTER). For many years now
I have believed that this "truth" I was raised in was started by George Walker,
and apparently I was not far wrong.  I appreciate the information confirming 
my belief that it is a tradition of men, not God's Truth, which I know to be
Jesus, not a group of women with buns and men in white shirts (did you know 
on the East Coast brother workers must wear white shirts on the platform?)

At any rate, I am happy and relieved to find other people like myself, and
would very much like to be added to the List, so that I can communicate with
others.

Thank you so much.
______
P.S. you have my permission to publish my letter, but not my name, which I
imagine is understandable, considering that most of my family is still
"professing" and I do not wish any further strife with them.

20 Mar 1998 

I would like to subscribe to the list.
I am the one that my cousin Ramona talks about in the new story told 
in January 98 about the Thanks Giving situation. Ramona my dear sweet 
cousin told me about the web site at her brothers house during a 
Thanks Giving get together and I was just stammerd by it! I couldn’t 
wait to get home and look. Well My mom at that time was visiting me 
from California and I told her what Ramona had told me so we both 
took a deep breath and we logged on to Prodigy and went  to the web 
area that the material was located that I was told about. And yes it 
is true I cried and so did mom for about a week. I just couldn’t 
believe it. Now I am and have been for about 1 1/2 years before I 
learned about the web site an Independent Baptist Christian,.. I want 
to tell you friend that I had prayed to the Lord diligently to lead 
me to the way  that if there was a better way, I so much wanted to be 
a part of it and Dear friend when he gave me my Christian husband and 
showed me this loving Church he truly answered my Prayers. I had been 
raised in the 2x2s all of my life and I want you to know,.. I have 
never ever EVER learned more about the Precious Lord and about 
religion than I have being a Baptist,.. He has been with me all 
through the way,.. and has truly answered my prayers. My mother is 
doing great and she is Looking for a new church and I pray for her 
every day,.. My friends MY TRUE FRIENDS,.. Our God is an awesome God! 
and He does point the way,.. I want to be a part of this awesome list 
that I may also help those who are in the same heart breaking 
situation that I and my mother and sweet cousin have gone through,.. 
I ask for your prayers and want to say from my heart God Bless you!   
Sincerely, Love, Sonya M Pratt

March 20, 1998

I am a 60 year old lady, who was raised in the 2x2 cult.  I had one
uncle and two aunts in the work.  My Uncle Niels Jorgensen has passed
away, and my Aunt Alice Jorgensen is "resting" as she has been for many
years.  My other aunt, Bonnie Robinson is still in the work.  I remember
so many things that others have told about, and I wish that I had got
out long years ago.  However, I had bought in hook, line, and sinker,
and just felt that there must be something terrible about me because I
was mostly snubbed by the workers and so called "friends".

One year at the Olympia, Washington convention, there was an older
worker (I don't recall which one) that was speaking.  I don't believe
that anyone else heard him say that our church had died out, and then
God raised up a man to start it up again! At least, that is what God
said to me via that speaker.

What a shocker, since I, too, had been taught that it could be traced
directly to Jesus.  I was very upset, but did not know exactly what to
do.  I had never heard of any support groups, or books on the subject 
of leaving this cult.

I told my mother that Fall that she should not be surprised if I left
the church. Her reply was that if it wasn't for her husband, my
step-dad, that she would leave too.  Well, it took me all of the next
summer, praying, reading, crying, searching, fearing, etc. etc.  I
remember asking God to show me, beyond a shadow of a doubt, what 
He wanted me to do.  I will always clearly remember where I was standing
when He answered that prayer.  In His still, small, voice, He said, "I
keep telling you, but you're not listening!"

Well, needless to say, I hit the floor, on my knees, and gave my heart
to the Lord, to lead me and guide me through His love.  I have never
been sorry for a minute!!!

One day I had been told that the workers were going to stop and visit 
me on their way to another home which they were going to make their
headquarters for a while.  I showed them  a letter that I planned to
give to my parents, to tell them that I was going to leave the church,
and they said, "You've been mixed up for a long time, haven't you?"

Then they said that they had only planned to stay for a half hour, but,
in view of my decision, they would stay a little longer.  They gave me a
whole hour!, and then left, TAKING MY LETTER WITH THEM
WITHOUT MY PERMISSION!!!  I saw her slip it into her purse, but, 
was afraid to ask for it back...!!!!

I called my sister to ask if she had ever wished that she had stayed in
the "truth", and she said never.  I then called some good friends, who
happened to pastor the Assembly of God Church in Hoquiam, and they
invited me to come over and talk.  Even though it was very late, they
talked with me for 5 hours (as opposed to the whole hour the workers
gave me).  The next day I went to see my parents and tell them.  My
step-dad said, "We are sorry to see you turn your back on God".  My reply
was that I was not turning away, but rather, I was turning toward God.

It has not been especially easy, but, I have never been sorry!!!  I now 
know Jesus as my own personal savior.

His Servant because of the Cross,
Pat Hockett

January 24, 1998

I had no idea that there were so many of us who had left the "Truth". Oh, yes, I knew of some. I am one, my husband is too. But while I have continued to look for and sometimes find a church (we move a lot with the military) that really does preach the real truth, he has remained an agnostic for almost twelve years. I am finally finding a place of peace with my choice but it has taken a long time.

We were both raised in it and it took a long time to move past the guilt that had been instilled in us. We choose not to raise our two children with the same repression. I do not believe that God wants us to live in misery and am quite pleased that there are many of us. I did not know of others who chose to continue to look for God and the joy that true salvation brings. I only knew of some who threw out the whole idea of religion.

We both have many family members that are a part of the 2X2 Way and some have asked me questions on how I have dealt with the guilt of leaving. However, they have not been able to tear themselves away from it. Others will never leave it and feel secure in it.

I had no idea that all this was only about 100 years old. But I am not surprised. Too many times I asked questions that were specific but did not receive the courtesy of specific answers. It took me years to realize that there were no answers. How sad to be living in a fog of gray with no black and white specifics. I am so glad for the liberation I feel now that I am free to make up my own mind about these things and am able to find true answers.

Please tell me how I can contact other ex2X2's. Thank you.

Leah