Page 3 - Failed Experiment

A Failed Experiment

I had just graduated from a Midwestern university with a technical
degree. I had not been a member of the Worldwide Church of God
(WCG) long and all I knew of AC was the adulatory descriptions that
I had heard in the local congregation and on the World Tomorrow radio
broadcast. When I was accepted to work on the AC Campus, it was
very exciting. In the weeks before I left for AC, I recall church
members approaching me and commenting that I was going to go to
the “Kingdom of God”. My own view was that I was young, educated,
dedicated to God and I was falling into the kind embrace of one of
God’s foremost institutions on earth. So I was expecting something
quite different from what I encountered.
Amidst all the brightness and optimism in my local congregation, one
dark chord sounded. An AC student from my congregation found out
that I was going to Big Sandy for the 1-W program. By phone he told
me that Les McCullough, the President of AC Big Sandy, did not like
1-Ws. He advised me to keep as "low a profile" as possible and never
ask for anything. He said "just do your work and keep to yourself.
When your little work program is over, leave." But the darkness of this
statement was lost on me at the time. I had no context in which to
evaluate this strange message.

3