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Training Center Christmas Memories

27 December 2011, 06:48

Moderator

Recovering Grace asked former Advanced Training Institute (ATI) students what they remembered about the Christmas holidays — and the preparations for them — at the various training centers at which they served. While some of the students had pleasant memories, others remembered stress-filled weeks of onerous, highly-detailed work, culminating in large events that they were […]

PTSD for Christmas

20 December 2011, 06:00

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Moscow, Russia. December 1995. — I sat in the lobby of the Moscow Training Center (MTC) orphanage, watching the snow fall. The red carpet and chandeliers cast a cheery glow upon the white blanketed view beyond the windows. I could sit and watch the snow fall for hours. As one unaccustomed to snow, I was […]

The Gift of Peace

19 December 2011, 04:00

Ileata

I was lying in a hospital bed recovering from an emergency D&C. I had given birth to a beautiful baby that morning in a free-standing birth center with a midwife. After he was born, things had gotten complicated. His placenta had grown into the muscle wall of my uterus and wouldn’t detach. So, after some […]

My Life in ATI, part three

13 December 2011, 06:00

DavidA

Courtship? After ALERT, our family moved to North Carolina. I had a crush on a girl back in Texas and told my Dad about it. My Dad thought that our personalities were not compatible, but I was insistent, so he told her father about it. The girl’s father said that they would be attending a […]

My Life in ATI, part two

5 December 2011, 06:00

DavidA

Life Focus Advanced. Soon after I turned 15, I received a letter about a new program called Life Focus Advanced. The concept of the program was this: two Life Focus graduates would room with a leader in training (LIT) for three months and try to counsel and help him out. I was like, “It’s the […]

My Life in ATI, part one

29 November 2011, 06:00

DavidA

Beginnings. I was raised in a normal home until we joined the Advanced Training Institute (ATI) in 2000. Up until then we did normal family things and went to church. I had friends and held normal expectations of myself — as did my parents. Our family attended the annual conference in Knoxville and quickly afterwards […]

Keeping Up Appearances.

21 November 2011, 06:00

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I am a survivor of Gothardism. I fully believe ATI is a twisted system of unrealistic rules and regulations. Even more, it gives abusive parents the tools and justification they need to rationalize their behavior. Let me start at the beginning. I went to public school from preschool through first grade. After that, my family […]

Promises, Promises…

4 November 2011, 06:00

RickH

How Do I Stop? Which one of us does not want to stop mistreating our families? Which one of us does not want to stop “raising our voices” at our children or spouse? To stop allowing our eyes to wander and our hearts to lust? The list could go on.Who wants to say, “No, actually, […]

Once a Child Always a Child???

31 October 2011, 06:00

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When I was 15, a lifelong dream was fulfilled–I finally got to go to a Bill Gothard seminar. My parents had been going annually for years and I was ecstatic that I was old enough to attend. When my parents first went, they were astonished at the practical nature of Gothard’s teachings. He had a […]

They Will Know You Are Christians… By Your Standards?

29 October 2011, 05:00

Julie Terrell

There is an abundance of teaching within the Advanced Training Institute (ATI) and the Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP) about “high places”–about the danger of putting things in the place of God and our relationship with Him. But isn’t this exactly what has happened with our “standards” and “character”? In a recent conversation with […]