From this point on it's going to be difficult, because I have to go largely by memory and what scattered pieces of written information I have. This first part isn't so crucial, but eventually details will be pretty important, so I'll do my best to recreate what happene
***
So we left off that I had decided to apply to go with European Christin Mission. I was accepted to their orientation, which was just the first step in the process and was not a guarantee that I would be accepted (or, I suppose, I could also have at that point not to proceed). I think I also mentioned that that week-long orientation took place June 1985.
I mentioned here that one political/economic jab at Communist countries, but other than that (which I may not have thought much of at the time, anyway, actually) I really liked what I saw and I liked the people and the spirit of the organization.
I guess it was pretty much what you'd expect in that kind of a situation. There were 12 of us applicants, including some couples, all interested in different parts of the mission's operation. Our formal classroom-type sessions included such topics as: Bible study, European studies, cultural adjustments, church planting, strategy, religions, mission structure, and finances, for example, all of which we were tested on. We also had social events and individual meetings with the leadership, where we could get to know each other better and discuss relevant topics of interest.
It was actually a very busy time and went by quickly. There were a couple other things about this time that might bear noting here.
The first one is a little ironic and only indirectly actually relates to the mission, something that happened on my way to the orientation. To get to the orientation I had to cross the Canadian border. Now you understand, this isn't supposed to be like going through Check Point Charlie or leaving the USSR escorted by gun-toting border patrol in the middle of the night. But here I was trying to get into Canada with a passport and whatever other ID they might request... and, oh no! Christian literature! Yes, I had difficulties entering Canada when my stacks of Christian literature was discovered in my trunk. Believe you me, I never expected this kind of thing, but there I was having to argue with a border guard because I had too much Christian literature. Maybe Canada is in need of missionaries more than Europe.
The issue was that when this literature was discovered I was asked what it was for, so I told him I was going to an orientation. So he locked onto that and asked if it was a school or if it was for work, and I really got the nth degree on that one. At least in Germany (West) I could be a student there for 89 days or less and not have to have a visa, but 7 days in Canada is enough to warrant a lot of suspicion. I eventually got through the border, though, literature intact.
The other thing was that during my turn having a private meeting with the leadership one thing I do remember mentioning is how I had so arduously looked around to select them and I'm afraid I did mention a few things about SGA, although I can't remember what exactly I said. Generally speaking, in job interviews (which this was sort of, if you think about it) you shouldn't knock previous employers. I think the point in me bringing that up, though, was not so much to knock SGA (and what about all those horrid responses - or non-responders - to my questionnaire!) but to express my desire to make sure I find a mission that shares my values and approach to missions.
***
I'm going to quote from my human rights report again (a lot of what I wrote was mainly background information as a lead up to the main "human rights" issues):
***
During Candidates' Course we had "lessons" introducing us to the mission and European missions (ECM works in many countries in West Europe... as well as in Eastern Europe). We also had opportunities to use the skills we might need in working with ECM... Generally a decision would be made as to acceptance for work with the mission and specific assignment by the end of the week.
During a couple of meetings with board members (formal & informal meetings) I was honest when asked about why I wasn't pursuing work with SGA. I think this reputation followed me to Vienna. It's one thing to avoid spilling genuine 'professional' secrets, it's another to be required to be quiet in the face of unethical dealings. Many evangelizal ministries, especially non-denominational or interdenominational ones are really under no ecclesiastical authority - are not accountable to anyone. Therefore it is not difficult to see ow such organizations could easily go awry and be undetected as such for some time...
These issues that I discussed with the Board members I had long since discussed with people at SGA, including one talk I had (I requested it) with Peter Deyneka, Jr. I got no indication that there was any intention on their part to change, but they wanted to (evidently) keep these matters secret.
At the end of Candidates' Course I was told that since I had gotten my application in late they couldn't give me an answer right away. Later, I learned that the BEE Board, Ester European Council (of ECM) and ECM's International Board of Directors all had to meet at their appointed times to make a decision regarding my application.
I didn't learn until 5 months later that I was accepted to work with [the composite mission in Vienna] as the assistant director's secretary for a 2-year term. During those 5 months I lived with my parents and worked as a bookkeeper.
***
I'll leave off there for now. I'll take you through my deputation time (right up to before I leave for Vienna) and then we'll look at another file before starting in on my time in Vienna.
Good night!
~ Meg
Showing posts with label SGA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SGA. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Sunday, August 15, 2010
57. 1984
I returned to the States Dec. 4, 1983 from the 6 months in Europe. On the 8th I met with Rom at the SGA home office, and left on the 14th for Seattle to spend Christmas with my family. That one appointment is the only thing I have marked in my calendar for this time.
My time in Seattle, though, was very busy and I have mostly social appointments in my calendar, although there was one speaking engagement also.
From here I will quote directly from the human rights report I wrote 15 years ago (text in brackets were written today):
***
When I returned [to the city where I was studying] I shared a floor of a house with a girl from church. I worked part-time at Pizza Hut and pat-time at SGA in their library.
[omitting section describing my work and a couple classes I audited.]
I had already decided that I wasn't going to work long-term with SGA, so in the spring of '84 I sent out a questionnaire and a letter introducing myself to 40 missions [the list I'd gathered in England, perhaps supplemented by addresses collected working in the SGA library]. I got responses from maybe 2/3 of the missions. Several responses were downright rude and some insinuated that maybe I was a spy. I had tried to work the questionnaire sensitively so that they would understand that I was just trying to make a wise decision as to which mission to work with. Topics included theology, philosophy of management, and what they thought the biggest needs were in E.. Europe. They certainly and enough information about myself to verify my identity if they wanted to, felt they needed to. Unfortunately, I had to leave these letters in Seattle with I left Jan. 1992 [for Russia].
I did get two responses that interested me: one from Child Evangelism Fellowship and the other from European Christian Mission. They both seemed to have godly responses to my questions and their work interested me. It took some time, though, to make up my mind.
In the meantime, I had decided to return to [Bible school] for another year of schooling in Bible and theology. So in August 1984 I moves into the dorm. I also left SGA, including their emigrant work, and Pizza Hut. I left Pizza Hut because they were too far from campus where I was living, especially for late night commutes. I worked instead at [a Bible society office] two days a week.
Some time during that year I decided I wanted to pursue women's ministry in Eastern Europe, so I decided to apply to ECM. I already had a little taste of such work from the emigre work... I managed to get my application in in time to be accepted for the week long candidate's course [on the West Coast in June of 1985]"
***
I'll leave off here, because before we go into the next segment of my life I want to review some more articles.
Today we covered a lot of time, though, from Dec. 1983 to June 1985. Not a lot happened, relatively speaking, but I'll just pinpoint the relevant highlights here.
I had two contracts for the library work at SGA and the second one involved more types of work, including using my language skills to compile a monthly packet of articles, mostly from other missions' newsletters, which was sent to each of the locations where SGA had work, so that the workers could be kept abreast of things going on relevant to their work, but not necessarily involving SGA per se. I translated articles not in English for this packet.
I didn't realize this until it came time to do my taxes, but as a contract worker for them no taxes were taken out, so I was responsible for all the taxes. This put me in a bit of a bind because I was a student and didn't have a lot of money.
While I was a Bible school student again I led the European Prayer Focus group with another co-leader; I led the East European parts and the other person led the West European topics. Since I wasn't doing the Russian emigrant work any more, I needed a different ministry, because we all had to have ministries each semester. So one semester I worked the crisis hotline, where people could call in with various crises. We had lists of resources we could recommend for people who needed it, and we did a lot of just listening too. The other semester I was on a street evangelism team. We were given a section of the city to cover and every week we went out going door to door witnessing. I enjoyed both of those ministries, and also leading the focus group.
The responses to that letter I sent out really floored me. It was like there was an industry-wide paranoia or something. In my introductory letter I told them about my background and they could very easily have called SGA or others to validate that I was who I said I was. It was wild. Maybe that should have been a wake-up call regarding things to come. I still believed that there must be organizations working in that part of the world that had a different mindset than SGA.
Maybe this is a good place to explain how and why SGA was so powerful amongst missions to the East Bloc. SGA's roots were mostly from the USSR. They had a lot of native speakers / nationals in the mission and their research, education, publishing and radio work put them sort of at the heart of work in that part of the world, so other missions often looked to them for expertise. At least that was my impression of them; they were also one of the 5 founding missions for the organization I was with in Vienna. A lot (but certainly not all) of mission at that time focused more on smuggling in literature and material help to strapped believers.
I think that's about it for now. If I think of something else I can add it later.
~ Meg
My time in Seattle, though, was very busy and I have mostly social appointments in my calendar, although there was one speaking engagement also.
From here I will quote directly from the human rights report I wrote 15 years ago (text in brackets were written today):
***
When I returned [to the city where I was studying] I shared a floor of a house with a girl from church. I worked part-time at Pizza Hut and pat-time at SGA in their library.
[omitting section describing my work and a couple classes I audited.]
I had already decided that I wasn't going to work long-term with SGA, so in the spring of '84 I sent out a questionnaire and a letter introducing myself to 40 missions [the list I'd gathered in England, perhaps supplemented by addresses collected working in the SGA library]. I got responses from maybe 2/3 of the missions. Several responses were downright rude and some insinuated that maybe I was a spy. I had tried to work the questionnaire sensitively so that they would understand that I was just trying to make a wise decision as to which mission to work with. Topics included theology, philosophy of management, and what they thought the biggest needs were in E.. Europe. They certainly and enough information about myself to verify my identity if they wanted to, felt they needed to. Unfortunately, I had to leave these letters in Seattle with I left Jan. 1992 [for Russia].
I did get two responses that interested me: one from Child Evangelism Fellowship and the other from European Christian Mission. They both seemed to have godly responses to my questions and their work interested me. It took some time, though, to make up my mind.
In the meantime, I had decided to return to [Bible school] for another year of schooling in Bible and theology. So in August 1984 I moves into the dorm. I also left SGA, including their emigrant work, and Pizza Hut. I left Pizza Hut because they were too far from campus where I was living, especially for late night commutes. I worked instead at [a Bible society office] two days a week.
Some time during that year I decided I wanted to pursue women's ministry in Eastern Europe, so I decided to apply to ECM. I already had a little taste of such work from the emigre work... I managed to get my application in in time to be accepted for the week long candidate's course [on the West Coast in June of 1985]"
***
I'll leave off here, because before we go into the next segment of my life I want to review some more articles.
Today we covered a lot of time, though, from Dec. 1983 to June 1985. Not a lot happened, relatively speaking, but I'll just pinpoint the relevant highlights here.
I had two contracts for the library work at SGA and the second one involved more types of work, including using my language skills to compile a monthly packet of articles, mostly from other missions' newsletters, which was sent to each of the locations where SGA had work, so that the workers could be kept abreast of things going on relevant to their work, but not necessarily involving SGA per se. I translated articles not in English for this packet.
I didn't realize this until it came time to do my taxes, but as a contract worker for them no taxes were taken out, so I was responsible for all the taxes. This put me in a bit of a bind because I was a student and didn't have a lot of money.
While I was a Bible school student again I led the European Prayer Focus group with another co-leader; I led the East European parts and the other person led the West European topics. Since I wasn't doing the Russian emigrant work any more, I needed a different ministry, because we all had to have ministries each semester. So one semester I worked the crisis hotline, where people could call in with various crises. We had lists of resources we could recommend for people who needed it, and we did a lot of just listening too. The other semester I was on a street evangelism team. We were given a section of the city to cover and every week we went out going door to door witnessing. I enjoyed both of those ministries, and also leading the focus group.
The responses to that letter I sent out really floored me. It was like there was an industry-wide paranoia or something. In my introductory letter I told them about my background and they could very easily have called SGA or others to validate that I was who I said I was. It was wild. Maybe that should have been a wake-up call regarding things to come. I still believed that there must be organizations working in that part of the world that had a different mindset than SGA.
Maybe this is a good place to explain how and why SGA was so powerful amongst missions to the East Bloc. SGA's roots were mostly from the USSR. They had a lot of native speakers / nationals in the mission and their research, education, publishing and radio work put them sort of at the heart of work in that part of the world, so other missions often looked to them for expertise. At least that was my impression of them; they were also one of the 5 founding missions for the organization I was with in Vienna. A lot (but certainly not all) of mission at that time focused more on smuggling in literature and material help to strapped believers.
I think that's about it for now. If I think of something else I can add it later.
~ Meg
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
50. 1983
For this next installment of my autobiography I've decided to quote directly from the human rights report I wrote up while living in Chicago... contrary to my father's belief, I did write it in English (not Russian). Since I wrote it about 15 years ago, it was much closer to the time these events occurred, so my memory would have been better. Besides, so much has happened since then that also would have contributed to blurring of the memory.
***
When I returned to [the city where I was studying], I began my living out of a suitcase experience. I remained strapped financially until the last 3 months when I was able to save a little because I was waitressing [rather than cooking at Pizza Hut] and had to pay minimal rent for a bedroom. I also began to feel estranged from my parents, lacking their moral support and understanding, even after they visited me and saw my difficult situation. ... [T]he then pastor of [our Seattle church] and his wife visited me also while in the area and for years commented even publicly or to my parents about the difficulty of my situation. This annoyed my dad. I got the impression it made him look like he should have done something to help out. (Later they said they hadn't known I was in such difficult straits). Well, they did help out - mom offered to send me $25 a month to have my hair cut. As a budgetary decision, I let my hair grow that year. I was pretty mad at this offer - which she carried out. I was living off $10 a week for food a good part of that year - which isn't much.
... In addition, I was also doubting more and more whether I wanted to work with [Slavic Gospel Association] or not. My doubts centered mostly around the management of the organization. Several times their personnel director, Jay Ter Louw, asked me when I was going to begin working full-time for them. I always hedged in answering him.
What bothered me was that the mission seemed to be run more like a business than a mission. For people (readers) who aren't Christians this might be difficult to understand. There was a kind of spiritual vacuum in the decision-making and management policies & practices.
One significant example of this was when "all of a sudden" 1/3 of the (all salaried) home office staff were let go. Since the mission was a non-profit organization none of these people were eligible to receive unemployment insurance and most were only given 2-3 days notice of dismissal.
I was appalled from the standpoint of financial irresponsibility (why did they just "suddenly" realize they were bad off financially?) They had not long before that acquired a new warehouse and computer system. I was also disturbed that a mission could treat its workers so. It seemed pretty unethical to me.
Not only that, but the mission began to call in workers from their European & South American mission fields who were all on faith support - not salary - from individuals and churches to cover the now vacant office positions. These people had gone into their work believing God had called them to that ministry. How could a mission take so many lives away from that? Several of the missionaries from South America (working with Russians and in short wave radio from HCJB in Quito, Ecuador) and spent many years (10-20) in their work.
Later, as I was forced into studying how secret services work as a matter of my own defense in the face of actions taken against me personally by E. Eur. missions, I realized that it is a common tactic to periodically re-shuffle staff so that the opponent can't make sense of who does what and knows what I what. I saw this also in Vienna.
Unfortunately, it wasn't until several years later that I realized the significance of a statement by SGA's Asst. Dir. in charge of accounting. In passing (alone) in the basement corridor at the head office between his office and the library, where I was working, he told me that SGA received money from the CIA for its radio work. It was kind of a strange thing to tell me and I guess it was a kind of a test. They were pretty sure they had me nabbed for work in the Soviet Union, either with them or with another organization. It probably didn't matter too much to them with whom since most of the big name E. Eur. missions practically have to have contact w/SGA.
This was a difficult year for me ('82-'83), and many would have given up trying to go to school, prepare for East European mission work, but I felt God's call for me and that I had to continue. I struggled with what God was trying to tell me or teach me through the difficulties, but even so I knew I couldn't give up.
In the spring of '83 I began getting more waitressing shifts at Pizza Hut and my living expenses were minimal, so I was able to save some money. That summer I went back to Europe - kind of as a last try to see if I would work with [SGA] long-term. I raised money from churches and individuals for this, which included my flight to and from Europe. With the money I saved I was able to eek out enough to study German two months in Berlin and work five weeks at [a research center specializing in religion in Eastern Europe]. Throughout this time I continued to live on a shoe string.
***
That's all I'm going to quote for now, but I do want to add a few comments.
You'll remember that my dad offered to pay off my school loans? My Bible school wasn't registered such that I could get a deferment while studying there, so I was paying on it during this time. I'll see if I still have (or can run down) when it was finally paid off, but it definitely was off my shoulders before I went to Vienna. I know my Grandmother's annual gifting helped me pay for my first Master's studies; it's even possible that that's how I paid off the undergraduate ones too, but I know I was still paying them while in Bible School, but I believe I got a deferment for while I was in Europe in 1983.
The incident where I was told that SGA got CIA money was out of sequence chronologically, and didn't occur until 1984 after my return from Europe, but the thought sequence fit where it is in the text.
Also, I should explain more the laying off of staff in Vienna. The staff that were laid off were all salaried from the organizational budget, but the people they brought in from the field were not paid out of the main budget. Instead their income came from supporters, although the organization took a percentage of that for support services and the like. So you can see how the mission was wrangling this financially for their favor. I got to know some of the people brought in from the field and they were some of the most wonderful people, really. Some of them took the move pretty badly too, being hurt by it, I mean, having to leave their mission like that.
One other thing about SGA. When I very first developed contact with the mission, in 1980 I heard Mr. Deneyka, Sr. speak, the one who founded the mission, and he was a very godly man. He was famous for the saying "much prayer, much power," and he lived it and believed it too. Later on in my contact with the mission he was failing and in a nursing home. I suppose he's passed on by now. My understanding is that the mission changed after he stepped down from the leadership, and I believe he had already stepped down by the time I came along. I didn't know the organization before, so I didn't know exactly how the change came about to where it was when I experienced it.
Regarding SGA's shuffling around of its workers, I'm not positive that that was purposely a ploy/tactic to confound detractors, but if they wanted to do that (confound detractors) what they did would have been one possible approach. What' harder to believe: that they were that financially inept? or that they did this intentionally? Personally, I'm torn between these two options and find either and/or both plausible.
Missions that had contact with me may well be angry that I put these things in my report that was given to the Russian government, who evidently translated it. My answer to them is that this kind of thing (their activities I report here) doesn't belong in Christian missions in the first place. Quit hiding behind the fabricated wall of secrecy and make yourself accountable for your actions. No one else seems to have the guts to say anything. And you're welcome to explain your actions to the world using the comment box at the bottom of the page.
I trust you understand that I wasn't literally "forced" (like at gunpoint, for example) to study these things, like the brainwashing which I've already written about, but I was driven to it to try to make sense of what was happening to me. I mean, if one can't make sense of the world around one it would be very easy to go crazy.
To give you a better idea of how I was living out of a suitcase, I'd like to briefly elaborate on that aspect of my life during the first half of 1983. I lived for one month on the sofa of a gal (I think it was someone else who worked with the Russian emigrants knew her and brought us together). So I slept in her living room, and it made it cramped for her, for sure, but also not the most conducive conditions for studying.
Then I spent about a month apartment sitting for a couple who were trying to adopt in South America and went down there to pick up their adoptee. Since I at least had the apartment to myself it was a little easier to spread out study, but I was still living out of a suitcase, or maybe 2 suitcases. I remember their cat Mozart wanting to sit on my book that was trying to study. He was a very nice cat, but a bit too persistent.
Then the last 3 months I rented a room from an older lady who needed the income. She was a very nice lady, and there were 3 of us together, and we really made a motley crew - I was the youngest coming in at 24, then next was a very strong Roman Catholic Polish lady probably in her 50s or 60s who hardly new any English (she was sort of a live-in nurse aide for the lady I rented from), and the owner who might have been in her 80s and was a very strict orthodox Jew, I think originally from Ukraine. She could communicate with the Polish lady through their Slavic languages, which were similar enough, but she also spoke fluent Yiddish. Sometimes I could make out a bit it when she used it visiting with a guest. One time I got chided (granted in a very gentle way) for listening to music on the Sabbath. I hadn't known about that rule, I guess. She taught me how to make Farfel Pudding... oh, and guess what? Here it is! What do you know... Surprise, surprise...
***
Mrs. Apple's Farfel Pudding
3 c. Manischewitz Matzo farfel
1 qt. boiling water
1 1/2 lemons, grated rind & juice
2 eggs
1/2 c. sugar
1 t. salt
3 T. chicken fat or butter (peanut oil)
Pour boiling water over farfel; let soak for 10 min., then drain off excess water. Add lemon juice & grated rind, beaten eggs, sugar, salt and fat. Mix well, put into greased baking dish & bake for 2 hours in moderate oven (325 degrees F). Serve with raisin sauce.
(apples, bananas & prunes are good in it) <- That's how I have it written on my 3x5 card. Mix these in before putting the pudding in the oven.
***
If you can't find Matzo farfel, you might have to wait till Passover time next year for it to appear on grocery store shelves. Sorry that my timing is off on that score, but I'm not waiting that long to write my autobiography.
~ Meg
***
When I returned to [the city where I was studying], I began my living out of a suitcase experience. I remained strapped financially until the last 3 months when I was able to save a little because I was waitressing [rather than cooking at Pizza Hut] and had to pay minimal rent for a bedroom. I also began to feel estranged from my parents, lacking their moral support and understanding, even after they visited me and saw my difficult situation. ... [T]he then pastor of [our Seattle church] and his wife visited me also while in the area and for years commented even publicly or to my parents about the difficulty of my situation. This annoyed my dad. I got the impression it made him look like he should have done something to help out. (Later they said they hadn't known I was in such difficult straits). Well, they did help out - mom offered to send me $25 a month to have my hair cut. As a budgetary decision, I let my hair grow that year. I was pretty mad at this offer - which she carried out. I was living off $10 a week for food a good part of that year - which isn't much.
... In addition, I was also doubting more and more whether I wanted to work with [Slavic Gospel Association] or not. My doubts centered mostly around the management of the organization. Several times their personnel director, Jay Ter Louw, asked me when I was going to begin working full-time for them. I always hedged in answering him.
What bothered me was that the mission seemed to be run more like a business than a mission. For people (readers) who aren't Christians this might be difficult to understand. There was a kind of spiritual vacuum in the decision-making and management policies & practices.
One significant example of this was when "all of a sudden" 1/3 of the (all salaried) home office staff were let go. Since the mission was a non-profit organization none of these people were eligible to receive unemployment insurance and most were only given 2-3 days notice of dismissal.
I was appalled from the standpoint of financial irresponsibility (why did they just "suddenly" realize they were bad off financially?) They had not long before that acquired a new warehouse and computer system. I was also disturbed that a mission could treat its workers so. It seemed pretty unethical to me.
Not only that, but the mission began to call in workers from their European & South American mission fields who were all on faith support - not salary - from individuals and churches to cover the now vacant office positions. These people had gone into their work believing God had called them to that ministry. How could a mission take so many lives away from that? Several of the missionaries from South America (working with Russians and in short wave radio from HCJB in Quito, Ecuador) and spent many years (10-20) in their work.
Later, as I was forced into studying how secret services work as a matter of my own defense in the face of actions taken against me personally by E. Eur. missions, I realized that it is a common tactic to periodically re-shuffle staff so that the opponent can't make sense of who does what and knows what I what. I saw this also in Vienna.
Unfortunately, it wasn't until several years later that I realized the significance of a statement by SGA's Asst. Dir. in charge of accounting. In passing (alone) in the basement corridor at the head office between his office and the library, where I was working, he told me that SGA received money from the CIA for its radio work. It was kind of a strange thing to tell me and I guess it was a kind of a test. They were pretty sure they had me nabbed for work in the Soviet Union, either with them or with another organization. It probably didn't matter too much to them with whom since most of the big name E. Eur. missions practically have to have contact w/SGA.
This was a difficult year for me ('82-'83), and many would have given up trying to go to school, prepare for East European mission work, but I felt God's call for me and that I had to continue. I struggled with what God was trying to tell me or teach me through the difficulties, but even so I knew I couldn't give up.
In the spring of '83 I began getting more waitressing shifts at Pizza Hut and my living expenses were minimal, so I was able to save some money. That summer I went back to Europe - kind of as a last try to see if I would work with [SGA] long-term. I raised money from churches and individuals for this, which included my flight to and from Europe. With the money I saved I was able to eek out enough to study German two months in Berlin and work five weeks at [a research center specializing in religion in Eastern Europe]. Throughout this time I continued to live on a shoe string.
***
That's all I'm going to quote for now, but I do want to add a few comments.
You'll remember that my dad offered to pay off my school loans? My Bible school wasn't registered such that I could get a deferment while studying there, so I was paying on it during this time. I'll see if I still have (or can run down) when it was finally paid off, but it definitely was off my shoulders before I went to Vienna. I know my Grandmother's annual gifting helped me pay for my first Master's studies; it's even possible that that's how I paid off the undergraduate ones too, but I know I was still paying them while in Bible School, but I believe I got a deferment for while I was in Europe in 1983.
The incident where I was told that SGA got CIA money was out of sequence chronologically, and didn't occur until 1984 after my return from Europe, but the thought sequence fit where it is in the text.
Also, I should explain more the laying off of staff in Vienna. The staff that were laid off were all salaried from the organizational budget, but the people they brought in from the field were not paid out of the main budget. Instead their income came from supporters, although the organization took a percentage of that for support services and the like. So you can see how the mission was wrangling this financially for their favor. I got to know some of the people brought in from the field and they were some of the most wonderful people, really. Some of them took the move pretty badly too, being hurt by it, I mean, having to leave their mission like that.
One other thing about SGA. When I very first developed contact with the mission, in 1980 I heard Mr. Deneyka, Sr. speak, the one who founded the mission, and he was a very godly man. He was famous for the saying "much prayer, much power," and he lived it and believed it too. Later on in my contact with the mission he was failing and in a nursing home. I suppose he's passed on by now. My understanding is that the mission changed after he stepped down from the leadership, and I believe he had already stepped down by the time I came along. I didn't know the organization before, so I didn't know exactly how the change came about to where it was when I experienced it.
Regarding SGA's shuffling around of its workers, I'm not positive that that was purposely a ploy/tactic to confound detractors, but if they wanted to do that (confound detractors) what they did would have been one possible approach. What' harder to believe: that they were that financially inept? or that they did this intentionally? Personally, I'm torn between these two options and find either and/or both plausible.
Missions that had contact with me may well be angry that I put these things in my report that was given to the Russian government, who evidently translated it. My answer to them is that this kind of thing (their activities I report here) doesn't belong in Christian missions in the first place. Quit hiding behind the fabricated wall of secrecy and make yourself accountable for your actions. No one else seems to have the guts to say anything. And you're welcome to explain your actions to the world using the comment box at the bottom of the page.
I trust you understand that I wasn't literally "forced" (like at gunpoint, for example) to study these things, like the brainwashing which I've already written about, but I was driven to it to try to make sense of what was happening to me. I mean, if one can't make sense of the world around one it would be very easy to go crazy.
To give you a better idea of how I was living out of a suitcase, I'd like to briefly elaborate on that aspect of my life during the first half of 1983. I lived for one month on the sofa of a gal (I think it was someone else who worked with the Russian emigrants knew her and brought us together). So I slept in her living room, and it made it cramped for her, for sure, but also not the most conducive conditions for studying.
Then I spent about a month apartment sitting for a couple who were trying to adopt in South America and went down there to pick up their adoptee. Since I at least had the apartment to myself it was a little easier to spread out study, but I was still living out of a suitcase, or maybe 2 suitcases. I remember their cat Mozart wanting to sit on my book that was trying to study. He was a very nice cat, but a bit too persistent.
Then the last 3 months I rented a room from an older lady who needed the income. She was a very nice lady, and there were 3 of us together, and we really made a motley crew - I was the youngest coming in at 24, then next was a very strong Roman Catholic Polish lady probably in her 50s or 60s who hardly new any English (she was sort of a live-in nurse aide for the lady I rented from), and the owner who might have been in her 80s and was a very strict orthodox Jew, I think originally from Ukraine. She could communicate with the Polish lady through their Slavic languages, which were similar enough, but she also spoke fluent Yiddish. Sometimes I could make out a bit it when she used it visiting with a guest. One time I got chided (granted in a very gentle way) for listening to music on the Sabbath. I hadn't known about that rule, I guess. She taught me how to make Farfel Pudding... oh, and guess what? Here it is! What do you know... Surprise, surprise...
***
Mrs. Apple's Farfel Pudding
3 c. Manischewitz Matzo farfel
1 qt. boiling water
1 1/2 lemons, grated rind & juice
2 eggs
1/2 c. sugar
1 t. salt
3 T. chicken fat or butter (peanut oil)
Pour boiling water over farfel; let soak for 10 min., then drain off excess water. Add lemon juice & grated rind, beaten eggs, sugar, salt and fat. Mix well, put into greased baking dish & bake for 2 hours in moderate oven (325 degrees F). Serve with raisin sauce.
(apples, bananas & prunes are good in it) <- That's how I have it written on my 3x5 card. Mix these in before putting the pudding in the oven.
***
If you can't find Matzo farfel, you might have to wait till Passover time next year for it to appear on grocery store shelves. Sorry that my timing is off on that score, but I'm not waiting that long to write my autobiography.
~ Meg
Friday, July 23, 2010
6. CIA Freedom of Information Act Request
Recently I was at a July 4 birthday party and the celebrant was all decked out in an Uncle Sam hat and necklace with U.S. flags on it. I asked her if she considered herself patriotic, and she almost offendedly answered very assertively that she was and said she had an uncle who died in World War II so she had to be.
I didn't say anything else, but my response to that question would be quite different. Of course there are very many conceptions about what it means to be patriotic, but I don't generally think of myself as very patriotic. I mean, I vote when I can and have also been known to write to officials about my views on this or that position, even lobby in person, sign petitions or on occasion participate in demonstrations. But what I mean is that I don't particularly feel an obligation to the USA as a nation. I rather consider myself a member of the human race and other political divisions don't really mean much to me.In the same vein, I consider myself an "equal opportunity" critiquer... for example, both Russia/the USSR and the USA end out being the brunt of my criticism for one thing or another. And today I'm going to focus on criticizing something about the U.S.
But before I do that, I also want to mention, without going into a whole lot of detail at this point, that I believe in the separation of church and state (here's one place where a lot of people will undoubtedly get mad at me). Just briefly, though, I believe that the Church's mission is not political (here I'm speaking about Christian churches in particular), but spiritual. The Church is supposed to be changing the world by bringing people into a relationship with Jesus Christ, not by fixing Washington (the other Washington... D.C.). So the Church meddling in politics is detrimental to the soul of the Church.
From the other side of things, I also believe that as the USA is supposed to be a democracy, and as such it should involve all peoples, and not favor one religion (or no religion) over another. In the Old Testament (the Hebrew Scriptures) God - Yahweh - was supposed to be the head of the nation and that should happen when the Messiah returns (as a Christian, I believe Jesus Christ is their once-rejected Messiah who will return and set up His earthly kingdom). But the USA (or any other country for that matter) is NOT the new Israel, and at this time God is not even dealing with Israel that way.That said, since we do live in a democracy, I don't see anything wrong with individual Christians (or other types of believers or unbelievers) getting politically involved. I do think the Church needs to be very careful about any type of collective political activity though.
In other words having anything other than the separation of church and state leads to corruption of both the church and the state, so it's a lose-lose proposition.
That was all to lead up to my real topic today, although the above was an important discussion in its own right.The path to my above convictions didn't happen overnight, but through many experiences and things that I learned along the way, trying to make sense of my life.
For some years I had involvement with several Protestant missions to Eastern Europe/USSR and at one point the V.P. for Finance of the Slavic Gospel Association told me that they took money from the CIA for their short-wave radio work into Communist countries. At the time I didn't really think about the significance of this too much, although it was enough of a revelation to me that it stuck with me. It didn't really sink in, though, until years later after I'd experienced more with some of these missions. At that time in my life I was really trying to put things together and I decided to do a bunch of Freedom of Information Act requests, one of these being to the CIA regarding whether they gave money to SGA. You can read their response below. [Click on the images to get a larger, more legible view.]
I won't say anything else about this right now except to say that about the same time I was told that SGA got money from the CIA a lady I knew from church single-handedly ran a Christian day-care center and she told me she wouldn't take any government money because that would limit her Christian focus at her school. So just imagine, then, what possible impact CIA money might have on a major mission organization to Communist countries...
And maybe you can also begin to imagine how my fatal flaw (see my first posting) could lead to an unhappy end.
Until next time...
Meg
I didn't say anything else, but my response to that question would be quite different. Of course there are very many conceptions about what it means to be patriotic, but I don't generally think of myself as very patriotic. I mean, I vote when I can and have also been known to write to officials about my views on this or that position, even lobby in person, sign petitions or on occasion participate in demonstrations. But what I mean is that I don't particularly feel an obligation to the USA as a nation. I rather consider myself a member of the human race and other political divisions don't really mean much to me.In the same vein, I consider myself an "equal opportunity" critiquer... for example, both Russia/the USSR and the USA end out being the brunt of my criticism for one thing or another. And today I'm going to focus on criticizing something about the U.S.
But before I do that, I also want to mention, without going into a whole lot of detail at this point, that I believe in the separation of church and state (here's one place where a lot of people will undoubtedly get mad at me). Just briefly, though, I believe that the Church's mission is not political (here I'm speaking about Christian churches in particular), but spiritual. The Church is supposed to be changing the world by bringing people into a relationship with Jesus Christ, not by fixing Washington (the other Washington... D.C.). So the Church meddling in politics is detrimental to the soul of the Church.
From the other side of things, I also believe that as the USA is supposed to be a democracy, and as such it should involve all peoples, and not favor one religion (or no religion) over another. In the Old Testament (the Hebrew Scriptures) God - Yahweh - was supposed to be the head of the nation and that should happen when the Messiah returns (as a Christian, I believe Jesus Christ is their once-rejected Messiah who will return and set up His earthly kingdom). But the USA (or any other country for that matter) is NOT the new Israel, and at this time God is not even dealing with Israel that way.That said, since we do live in a democracy, I don't see anything wrong with individual Christians (or other types of believers or unbelievers) getting politically involved. I do think the Church needs to be very careful about any type of collective political activity though.
In other words having anything other than the separation of church and state leads to corruption of both the church and the state, so it's a lose-lose proposition.
That was all to lead up to my real topic today, although the above was an important discussion in its own right.The path to my above convictions didn't happen overnight, but through many experiences and things that I learned along the way, trying to make sense of my life.
For some years I had involvement with several Protestant missions to Eastern Europe/USSR and at one point the V.P. for Finance of the Slavic Gospel Association told me that they took money from the CIA for their short-wave radio work into Communist countries. At the time I didn't really think about the significance of this too much, although it was enough of a revelation to me that it stuck with me. It didn't really sink in, though, until years later after I'd experienced more with some of these missions. At that time in my life I was really trying to put things together and I decided to do a bunch of Freedom of Information Act requests, one of these being to the CIA regarding whether they gave money to SGA. You can read their response below. [Click on the images to get a larger, more legible view.]
I won't say anything else about this right now except to say that about the same time I was told that SGA got money from the CIA a lady I knew from church single-handedly ran a Christian day-care center and she told me she wouldn't take any government money because that would limit her Christian focus at her school. So just imagine, then, what possible impact CIA money might have on a major mission organization to Communist countries...And maybe you can also begin to imagine how my fatal flaw (see my first posting) could lead to an unhappy end.
Until next time...
Meg
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