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Tag Archives: training-center

Snooping, Spying, and Snitching: A Training Center Status Quo

10 January 2012, 06:45

Moderator

41

Former ATI students share stories of how they were watched, spied on, and tattled on regularly At Advanced Training Institute (ATI) training centers, students and staff quickly learned not to expect privacy in any activity. E-mail, telephone conversations, and even letters and packages from home were monitored for contraband and for forbidden contacts, especially with […]

Training Center Christmas Memories

27 December 2011, 06:48

Moderator

13

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

Moderator

20

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 […]

My Life in ATI, part three

13 December 2011, 06:00

DavidA

19

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 […]

The Disease Catalogue

7 December 2011, 05:00

BrianD

35

Have a migraine? You may be struggling with guilt. Did you just develop a sinus infection? There is a good chance fear and anxiety are plaguing you. Does your grandfather have Osteoporosis? You may want to tell him that he is struggling with envy and jealousy. It’s hard to believe, perhaps, but these kinds of […]

My Life in ATI, part two

5 December 2011, 06:00

DavidA

2

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

8

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 […]

A Real-Life Lesson

15 November 2011, 05:52

lizs

1

Candles are an essential part in making rooms homey. A room that is going to be your home for a year (or more) needs atmosphere and ambiance, and candles can help to fulfill that need. Some time ago, two girls shared a room in a certain tall building in the central part of the Mitten […]

A Look at Life at the Riverfront Character Inn

8 November 2011, 05:30

lizs

8

Life at the Riverfront Character Inn (RCI) was not exactly like life at the other training centers run by the Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP) and its home school branch, the Advanced Training Institute (ATI). But there were many similarities. One of the things that set the RCI apart from other training centers was […]

Missing the Beat

3 November 2011, 06:04

RyanR

15

One day several years ago while doing some spring-cleaning, my wife and I stumbled across the personal journals we’d each kept while on staff at the Indianapolis Training Center. For the uninitiated, journal keeping is touted as a very important discipline within ATI/IBLP (Advanced Training Institute and Institute in Basic Life Principles) ranks, right after […]