- San Luis Obispo

I was in SLO in the eighties.

Does anyone remember any of this?

Girls having to wear dresses to the Wednesday nite bible study?

Being told by David G. that speeding was not breaking the law, because you had a choice, you could speed and pay a fine, which was OK, or you could go under the speed limit if you could not afford the fine.

Having every Bro's/Sis' house (were there 3 or 4?) pour out the oil from the Bernstein's salad dressing and replace it with rice vinegar because they saw Judy do it.

does anyone remember this?

I wasn't there too long, but I remember thinking it was a little strange that everyone used the same exact salad dressing.

;D Greetings Lurker and everyone else:
Picture in your mind a typical midwestern assembly Sunday morning worship meeting. An LB from a larger assembly is visiting-he is sharp and he knows it- 8)and according to protocol is about to be introduced/welcomed to the Lord's Supper. The doorkeeper, also what was then called a "responsible brother," stood up in all pomp and seriousness in his Kmart suit in all readiness and cried out:
We wd. like to welcome our bro. ___ from the assembly in ____ . WE WORSHIP YOU IN THE NAME OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST!!! Uh, we welcome you.... :-[ I suddenly went from a dispensationalist to a holy roller and almost had to run out of the room! ;D ;D ;D A Freudian slip, perhaps? Anyway, it was one of those lighter moments.
Terry Huffman

Hi Everyone,

I remember the salad dressing phase! :P It was imported all the way into the valley assembly. One of the brother's house I moved into was adamant about removing the oil from the Bernstein salad dressing. This was in the mid-eighties. I was told this is the way "we eat salad". I remember getting a consequence for buying a salad dressing with no oil added because it wasn't Bernstein's. ::) It was after this, we found out how to use coffee the proper way. ;D

Lord Bless

Eric

I think the dressing is a great example of the influence of Betty on the littlest detail of saints lives. The reason for the dressing was as follows:

Betty's son David was a diabetic (juvenile diabetic) from the age of 7. Betty had been trying all kinds of diets over the years for both herself and her son. In the early 80's, David went to the Pritikin (Spelling) diet center. He did a short stay there and said he felt so much better. He went on a strict Pritikin diet. Betty then adopted parts of Pritikin into her ecletic, ever evolving diet regimine. Pritikin is a very low fat, high carb. diet design mainly for people with heart problems. In typical Geftakys style, the diet was taken to an extreme. The oil was removed from the Bernstien dressing to get rid of the fat. It had to be "Italian" style Bernstien since that had no other fat but the oil. The other kinds had other fats besides the oil.

This diet became an assembly fad. It shows how much influence Betty and David had in the everyday life of the members of the assembly.

The update of course is that eventually David's doctor told him it was unhealthy for a diabetic to be eating such a high carb diet that would require so much insulin. He then began to follow a high protien, low carb diet like Atkins, or The Zone (but not the actual Atikins or The Zone). That became part of Betty's diet and then an assembly fad. I am to out of the loop to know the latest fad but I am sure the members are still allowing small details of their lives to be dictated by the "suggestions" of Betty.

Hi Everyone,

<<I am sure the members are still allowing small details of their lives to be dictated by the "suggestions" of Betty.>>

The suggestions of Betty? That is putting it lightly. In the valley, the Atkins diet is the current craze. Of course, the valley is about 1-2 years behind that assembly in SLO that's moving and shaking things up lately.

It's funny how the homes are so rigidly controlled including diet regimens. Then, when the brethren are at work or out doing errands, candy bars seem to jump them in the stores. This reminds me of a brother in the valley on the Atkins diet. He eats a nutritionally imbalanced meal and then would eat a whole bag of pork rinds because it's allowed. Betty's direction for living is making the assemblyites to have compulsive disorders. Then people swing in and out of manic depression as a result of the ministry. Hmmm...this makes for some interesting character building.

Lord Bless,

Eric

For years SLO tended to lead in the diet fad department, simply for the fact that David G. and his family were always trying some new diet, diet supplement or other "heath" promoting activity. Of course, since Judy is not there to do the work required to try all this new stuff, I doubt that SLO will be leading any diet or other fad. I seriously doubt many assemblyites would be willing to inject themselves with hormones such as testosterone, regardless of how committed. Oh, thats right, Betty is now advocating that the older sister who are having miscarriages, after years of having one baby after another and whose doctors have warned against further pregnancies, ask their doctors to give them progesterone. What is scary in the assembly is one member will find a doctor willing to try these things and then everyone goes to that doctor. Does anyone in Fullerton remeber the Vietamese herbal doctor that was the latest thing in the early 80's? As kids we called him doctor Wong because we couldn't remember his name.

Ha!

Some of you may know about my very strange memory. I remember all sorts of things, highschool locker combo's, my mom's work phone number from when I was 5 years old, the liscence plates of all of our cars, going back to the late 60's, etc. It is a gift.

I remember everyone going to Doc Vong, the oriental doctor of choice in Fullerton in the mid 1980's.

My wife and I went out to dinner with one couple, who were under his care, and the man ordered hot water to drink. Yep, hot water. This was supposed to cure him. (ole Doc Vong didn't know the man's problem was the Assembly)

To me, as a Chiropractor (one who doesn't do whacky stuff, BTW) this is the ultimate! Charge you patient a modest fee, say 85.00 and mutter a bunch of stuff in a foreign language and then tell them to drink hot water! No way you can get sued. No way you can hurt your patient, and best of all, there is a very strong possiblity that they will need to come back again! ;D

For the record, I don't do anything like this in my practice.

Brent

Dat Vuong,
I went to see this herbalist once on the recommendation of another assembly member. I was embarrassed by the wallpaper in his reception room...acupuncture charts showing a completly naked man from various angles. :o
He took my pulse from both wrists, explaining that he needed to find the Yin Yang balance so he could prescribe things to restore the balance. Roots, powdered goat horn, etc.
I later experienced a miracle cure for my depression and energy lows....I left!
I think that most of the illness in the Assembly, which is the
sickest bunch of people I have ever seen, is due to supressed anger. You believe you should submit to abusive treatment, but deep inside you know you are being abused even if you won't call it that.
Assembly lurker...If you are depressed, have no energy, a non-specific illness with no discernable cause...try a long vacation from the Assembly. You might be surprised.
:)

Thanks for correcting my spelling of Dat Vuong's name! I never did visit him...

Another interesting note, while in The Assembly, I had some very bad allergies. I wasn't faking them, although I did exagerate the severity on some Friday nights, once in a while on a Sunday PM ;)

Since leaving, I haven't had one allergy. My health has never been better. So, what Oscar is saying is right on as far as my experience is concerned.

Amazing how The Enemy will curse you with good health in order to get you out of the "Schoolroom of the Believer."

Brent

Hello All,
I remember that Doc. as Mark Miller was seeing him and was telling me all about his philosophy. The "DR." was treating Mark re. the proper balance of his Ying and Yang, as Oscar previously mentioned. Having been saved out of Eastern Religious philosophy I cautioned him that he was involved in practices that were possibly demonic. He defended his position on the basis that all philosphies had some truth in them and it was up to the Christian to keep the good and throw out the bad. I argued with him that the whole concept of "Ying and Yang" were rooted in non-Christian ideas and that to accept the Dr.'s treatment was to buy into the whole system. Funny how Assembly folks can rationalize almost anything the Leadership hands down to them without the ability to critically examine the latest fad.
I'm surprised that the Atkins diet was okay as it was about as far away from the vegetable juice diet as you can get. I lost 40 pounds on the Atkins diet and have kept it off for 2 years; of course it has messed up my ying and yang balance from time to time, but in such situations I usually drink a gallon of hot prune juice and feel fine ;D.
God Bless, Mark

Hi Mark, Brent, Greg, and everyone else,

In the assembly, news travels very slowly, if one finds out anything. Yes, SLO is still shaking things up. It's sort of like the Big Bang Theory. It happened years ago and remnants are still being found. The valley assembly is now dealing with DG's abuse of his own household. Of course, the slant of leadership is this is something that happened years ago and is no longer applicable. I guess time forgives? :'(

Not only has he "repented", the leadership here has been saying that he will be invited to preach again. "The leadership in Fullerton are satisfied with DG's repentance." and "All the assemblies are autonomous." ???

The Lord bless you,

Eric

To EVeryone

David G has already "preached," he was the esteemed "third brother," and his message was about unconditional love. A major part of it was taken up with "When you are deserted by your friends and those who you love..." (We need some barf smilies on this site...EDitor?"

After this incident, I spoke to Danny Edwards about it and he said, "repentence still needs to take place." However, he was totally vague about who and what. Not only that, he believed that David G. had repented enough to be in fellowship and teach, etc.

Dabby told several other people that David's repentance was, "Invisible." I have to agree with Danny on this one, it certainly is not visible, so it is either false or invisible. Since David is God's Servant, the only choice is that his repentace is invisible.

So, to make a long story short, I have correspondence with Danny that was supposed to "confidential," however, he blabbed it to a bunch of other people. So, I am going to adopt his version of confidential and perhaps some of his letters will find their way on to the web. (We need some diabolical smilies here....EDITOR!!)

Also, I think I will write an article about how I have invisibly repented for putting all those articles on the Internet, and may I please preach again? It's no different than David not telling his wife and kids about his "repentance."

Eric, I certainly hope that SLO is shaking things up in the way you describe. Just wait till GeftakysAssembly.com gets on search engines.

Brent

PS-while most people were not offended by me referring to Danny as, "The Weasel," at least one person did not appreciate it. So, I decided to edit the post.

Yes Brent!!!!!! :-*

I love your nickname for Danny "the Weasel" Edwards. He comes into SLO acting as though he is not implicated in anyway with the assembly abuse. He acts as though he is the "Good Guy" coming to clean up the act. The reality is that he was simply the "cleaner" coming to cover-up and do damage control. His loyalty to Betty is absolute. His only goal is to keep the abuse from leaking further and to prevent the full extent of the abuse and the National Assembly leadership's involvement from becoming known. He is just as you said "the Weasel".

Hi Everyone,

You know...I never trusted "The Weasel", ever. When I saw he was sent to SLO, while I was still in the assembly and questioning things, I knew the issues would never be resolved up there.

<<Not only that, he believed that David G. had repented enough to be in fellowship and teach, etc.>>

Obviously, in all our years in the assembly, we never learned the "stages of repentance". Perhaps it was shared whilst we slept during the meetings.

Since it appears there are truly stages of repentance then it must follow there are classes of repentance. Let's see if I can present this accurately. We know of three types (stages) of repentance:
1. Avoidance and Vagueness - Avoid the ones you offended or sinned against and if confronted on it, be as vague as possible. Missing the meetings helps as it shows you're in mourning over your sin.
2. Invisible Repentance - A godly servant would not falsely repent. He would preach from the stand point of a victim and condemn those who did not confront him. "It's not really his fault, it's the fault of those he expressed his sin against."
3. Visible Repentance - A godly servant would rarely have to stoop to this level so we'll leave it at that.

I see there are five classes of repentance. Depending on which class you are in, depends on which stage you're at.
1. The Big G - Does not apply! You would be wise not to confront this "servant of God".
2. The Worker Bees - I am not clear on this, maybe someone can enlighten me.
3. The LB's - #1 & 2 apply. If it cannot be avoided, apply #3 with much fanfare and public apology. Don't actually mean it or implement it, just say it.
4. The Saints - You need to walk in the light! #3 is the only solution for you. If the LB's are not convinced, they may require additional humbling circumstances (See #5 below).
5. The Saint's Teenage Children (excluding those of classes 1-3 above) - Stage #3 definitely applies. In addition, the LB's may require unreasonable circumstances to "prove what sort of person this one is". Of course, if there is any apparent competition with a LB's child, then the "sinful" teenager will need to be severely disciplined. It might be wise to label one or both parents as well in order to discredit this family (that dare threatens the realm of a LB).

That's all for now.

The Lord bless you,

Eric

Hi Everyone,

Under Class #5 of my previous post, I have to clarify something. While I made it generalized, it specifically applies to the valley assembly. I'm not sure this happens elsewhere, but I figured I could assume it does.

I've lived in LB's homes and I've lived in non-LB's homes. I have seen some horrible things that are not appropriate for a public bulletin board like this. However, in one of the LB's homes, they allowed their child to not go to the meetings if the child didn't want to. At the meeting, they were not honest as to why the child was not there. There was, in this case, a clear double-standard. This LB was especially harsh toward any of the other assembly children (more so toward those who had adopted children), but very lenient toward his own. I believe by having the child staying at home, he could praise his child and condemn other's children.

The Lord bless you,

Eric

"This LB was especially harsh toward any of the other assembly children (more so toward those who had adopted children), but very lenient toward his own"

Eric,

This may have been true of some LBs but it was not the case in my family. Maybe it was because there were no other kids my age around most of the time. However, my father was always harshest on us.

I think that may have been the exception rather then the norm. It would seem more normal to be harsh on other's children and not on you own children.

Rachel,
I do not think that you and your family are exceptions! I see it out here in the midwest too! I have witnessed many child beatings, bruisings, and verbal assaults on children from various families here in the midwest!!!!! Its more that just a Geftakys thing. The abuse whether it be verbal or otherwise , from my perspective is based on this extreme hush - hush pressures to be perfect. Otherwise you are the victims of further abuse from those in charge or other viewers, you know : " you don't have control over your children" or " its not the time to train at the meetings, you need to be training at home" or "your child is a rebel and here is a book on just that very issue"! Gee no hints there right?
The pressures on parents there is unbelieveable! To the point where you almost have to have your kids be zombies to conform to the perfect "cookie cutter" mold in that despicable place! Even the pressure of doing personal choices of whether or not to breast feed. I was a rebel b/c I chose not to. That is my choice and I never inflicted my belief on them saying that if they did not do it my way they were in sin! That is a whole new topic though, b/c everything was a sin there. They had a new definition that even websters dictionary could not keep up with!
So its not just a SLO thing.....there is abuse and fakeness and pressures, and harassments everywhere! Its a darn shame that it has to be anywhere! God's house is supposed to be a house of prayer! A house of love, and growth in a positive way...to have the world see that there is a difference in HIS house. I believe that GOD will make all these wrongs right! His house cannot be shamed and full of abuse...its HIS character that is at stake , & this cannot be stood for. But HIS timing is perfect...so at just the right time.....POW the walls will come tumbling down!

Greetings:

In the MW assembly I attended I lived in the same house with a couple who had a daughter(8-9 years old then) who suffered from what I believe now-that I am not a useful idiot- to be cruelty.
The daughter was always being threatened with swats.
Even at a meeting I heard the mother saying "that's 3 swats ___(when they got home). A few minutes later "that's 4 swats___. This mother was faithfully tabulating the number of swats so as to be diligent.
Also, at after- meal times we had the obligatory readings, and then the round-robin commentary. More than once the young girl didn't get or have anything to share. She was
so browbeaten, even to tears by her father to share something. I am angry with myself as I write this 15 years later for not having said something. The father is an LB.
As we all know, the LB's would try to enforce this kind of harmful nonsense on others below them in terms of their families so that there was one dysfunctional family vision. Really, when I think of all the manipulation and thinly-disguised meanness, etc., it reminds me of Sartre's play No Exit in which a character says that "hell is other people."

I believe that the assembly illness syndrome is more than just from the suppressed anger. God simply did not design man to live in the way that assembly members are forced to live. I have seen various healthy individuals enter the assembly and become ill after a matter of just a couple of years. When we go against God's design, what else can we expect. I know of one Christian doctor who was treating several assembly members for what became quite debilitating illnesses, and without mentioning to these members, he prayed in private that the Lord would lead these people to a healthy place of fellowship. He realized that God had not created man to live in an environment such as the Geftakys assembly. I know at least two of his patients quickly recovered their health after leaving the Geftakys group and beginning to meet with other Christians in a non-Geftakys assembly. This doctor was a very humble and caring man, with a true love for the Lord, and a true concern for God's people. He was quite a contrast to what I had seen in many of the Geftakys workers and leading brothers.

If more of the assembly members would see Godly doctors rather than wacky quacks, then perhaps some real healing may occur. This kind of makes you wonder why so many assembly members were referred to the quack doctors by other assembly members and those in leadership positions ???. I have never seen anything like it before in my life.

: Oscar1 December 02, 2002, 01:32:32 AM

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