During my time in Word of Faith Fellowship (WOFF), I worked for a property management company owned by a family in the church. This position started after being called into Jane’s office. Jane introduced me to the owners and said they wanted to ask me about a taking a job. She had apparently given her approval. All things considered, I thought it would be a way to keep from traveling so much since at that time I was going back and forth to Greenville, SC, working part time. I was wrong about the travel.
Soon after that meeting, I started my first tour of duty in late November or early December of 2002. At that time, I began by doing some painting in some properties located in Rutherford County. During the mornings, I worked part-time for a while until a full-time position came open. I was given the position which included renting out houses and apartments in the county as well as collecting the rent and processing the evictions. I had no previous experience in this kind of work. My cell phone had at least four lines forwarded to it at times. The phone rang ALL the time. 50 or 60 calls a day or more came into that phone. I was required to answer it because many were leads to rent out the next apartment or duplex. The phone traffic was a big shock to me. It was very stressful to say the least. At times, I wanted to crawl up in a corner and cry. When I told this to the wife of the pastor who came from Greenville, she said, “Sounds like you are being trained for the ministry.” That answer did not stop the calls or make it easier to answer them. Soon, I learned how to screen some calls and lessen the traffic, a little. But, the stress and pace was quite different from my experience in consumer finance.
As that job was given to someone else in the church, I was moved. January 1, 2003, I was handed the keys to an apartment complex in Gaffney, SC. (Church members did not celebrate New Year’s Day so; working that day was no big deal.) The owners of the company had just purchased the property from a man in Greenville, SC. He was older and from my perspective now, much wiser. Regardless, I began showing, and renting apartments. I was also in charge of collecting rent, scheduling maintenance as well as managing a group of storage units on the property. As I was handed the keys, I was told, “Call us if you have questions.” The problem was that couple was headed to law school and were busy with lives of their own. My education was really just beginning when it came to managing apartments.
There were times when there was no regular maintenance man on the property. Many of the requests were simple and I was expected to answer them. I learned a lot with OTJ- on the job training. When the appliance repairs were needed, I was on my own to find some help. In looking back, I cannot remember exactly when I met the man we will call “Mannford Barely”. He may have been referred by a manager of another complex in Gaffney. Anyhow, when we met, I could tell he was knowledgeable and could be a real help in sorting out the appliance repair issues at hand. We began to talk and learn more about each other. He was an independent repairman from Rutherford County. He specialized in appliance repair for individuals and apartment complexes. His specialty was being able to make a decision as to the wisdom in repairing an appliance or junking it because the repair was too expensive.
Our friendship and business relationship would span several years. When I was moved in January of 2004 to an apartment complex in Spartanburg, he would find me there and offer his services. I was with the property management company for that tour until about October of 2005. My second tour was from October 15 2007 until April 9, 2008. During the second tour, I was the regional manager for the seven apartment complexes. I did not make the decisions who fixed all of the appliances, in fact, the company tried to do most of that in house, during that time. But, on occasion, I would request Mannford to look at some appliances and make the repairs needed. The details of my time working for this property management company are for another post.
Mannford and I would get in some lively discussions. Many times, he would take the liberty to comment on the practices of WOFF- at least the ones he knew about. He would admit he had never been to the church, but he had heard things. He would ask pointed questions and give his straight observations in reply to my answers or non-answers. I never got loud with him, but I must admit he would put his questions in such a way to let me know he did not approve of certain things that he saw going on with the church or the company. His comments about the company did not aggravate me as he was entitled to his opinion about business. His perspective was his prerogative. However, he would make comments about the church that were very strong and pointed. He admitted he did not know what went on behind closed doors, but he could see things happening outside that raised questions for him.
Mannford would question the living together in households. His question was “Why?” What good did it do? It did not look natural to him for more than one family to live together. He also asked about the members always talking to Jane Whaley for approval of things. He asked, “Why, is she God?” He asked about some other things that were obvious like not celebrating holidays or watching TV or whatever issue he had heard that day. Many of his questions would roll off my back, but they must have landed in a heap. For sure, Mannford did not have the technical terms that I have used to explain why WOFF is a cult. He just used plain common sense questions to state his observations. If he saw that I was not willing to answer a question, he may hold it for a while and bring it back up at another time. Not every time would he bring up church questions, but it was a frequent theme of his conversations. He would crow the loudest when someone would leave the company. “Are they still in the church?” “What did they do wrong?” “I liked them but I noticed this…” “He was a good repairman but, he thought he knew so much, he would not listen…” “Can they still be in the church and not work for the company?” His questions would go on and on and on.
Why do I bring this up? Because, Mannford would ask his questions in the simplest ways that sometimes I had no answer. Why? Because the answers for his questions would come out in terms used inside of WOFF or WOFF-speak. I knew he would scoff at WOFF-speak. He could see right through the WOFF code language. That should have been a clue to me that I was in a controlling religious group. I could not explain church practices and beliefs without using the code terms and defined inside the culture by Jane Whaley. Does that make sense? If members can only explain the practices of the group with terms defined by the group, does that seem odd? The given assumption is that a member would only explain their practices in a positive, inviting light. But, does that all seem like a contrived circle of illogic meant to deflect from the true effects of a practice or doctrine?
Within the last few months, I called Mannford and told him about my status as a former WOFFer. I admitted to him that while I was in WOFF, I knew that he was right on some of his observations. Much of WOFF-life did not make sense. It still does not. I thanked him for asking the questions even when I appeared to not want to answer them. He did not take any credit for helping me. He just thought/thinks there is something awry at WOFF. I told him about this blog. He was not interested in reading it since he does not bother with the Internet. He keeps his life simple- like his questions. There is something to be said for keeping things simple.
Thank you, for taking time to visit and read this blog. Please, consume the information on this site responsibly. The author is not a licensed mental health professional and encourages those that need professional help to seek it. The intent of the material is to inform and be a resource. Be sure to tell every member that you know at WOFF about this blog. There are readers at WOFF. Comments are invited from all readers, including present or former members. Polls are not scientific and no private information is gathered.
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(Please, take time to read the Terms of Use for this personal blog. As mentioned, the information about WOFF is from my memories and recollections as perfect as that may be or not be. ) Scripture references are Amplified Version unless otherwise noted. (Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation ) This is post number 233.