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In Reply to: news from italy posted by marina on May 05, 2002 at 11:49:41:
My Shake up 2000 Experiences:
When S2K came we were in a war-torn Balkan province with our 16 yr old son, a live-out girl from a nearby country who spoke the local language, and a YA girl.
At first it was: All right! Let's change! We'll be shepherds to the home. Things will change now! Everyone will be inspired to keep the CM standard and rules! Let's get on board!!! You know, it's a lot of hype that charges you up.
So the live out girl decided to join fulltime and started her babes status training. But no sooner had that happened, she met a young foreigner who started coming for classes. He worked with an international NGO and they fell in love. They started going out, and there was no way we felt right about saying there's the Charter rule you need to go 2 X 2 so you have to stay home. Well of course she decided not to complete her babes training. And the happy ending? They married a year later, last I heard they now have 2 beautiful kids.
The YA girl, with whom we had lots of exciting experiences together in our work, did so well. She learned the language, and had a circle of very good friends from the local community. Of course she was invited out. We did not think it was right to insist that she always had to go 2 X 2 when it would have been unnatural and/or impossible for one of us to go along. It just did not seem wrong when we did not keep the CM rules. And we never not got a visit from the CROs or VSs that might have meant warnings or even getting re-classified to FM, according the the S2K GNs.
Another part of S2K was about teens who decided not to be in the Family, but who had no place to go. They could stay in the home with their parents under certain conditions, such as their obedience to certain rules, and whether or not they were a bad influence on other young people or children in the home. Our son became one of these, he decided he wanted no part of the Family any more. Initially we were given 3 months permission for him to stay with us in the home, so we could have time to find a place for him. Well, we didn't find a place for him, and we wanted to stay together, not for one of the parents to leave to go somewhere with our son to help him until he was set up in work or school... for one parent to leave like this was one of Maria's S2K suggestions, because that way at least one of the parents could stay on the mission field, and the whole family would not have to leave because of a teen that did not want to be in the Family.
So 1 1/2 years after S2k came, we left the field where we were, returned to our home field, and within 3 months we had decided to completely leave the family. At first we tried being FM, but being FM does not give you any Family fellowship, only mailings. If you have an accident and need emergency money then you aren't entitled to Family Aid Fund money which CM homes can use in emergency situations. In fact you are totally on your own, regardless of inheritances you may have forsaken to the Family, and years of service in the Family. Being FM means that you still give 10% of your income and you only get monthly mailings in return. So we said forget FM status, it's worth nothing. And the sky did not fall on our heads when we became ex members. In fact, the quality of our lives has improved 1000% compared to what we were living just a little more than 1 year ago in a CM Family home. Things are so much better nnow.
The S2K moves failed which is why Maria needed the "Conviction and Compromise" series and fast at the end of last year. Is the CM family now pure and liberated from all those compromises, worldliness, selfishness, doubts-about-Maria's-new-wine, disobediences, and etc.?
I don't think so. Read Daniel's letter to Maria. He's a family young person who expressed very well the difficulties and frustrations young people in the Family still face.
