[Oe List ...] Another Time article

Wed Aug 17 18:43:25 EDT 2011

Len et al,

Just posted an OpEd piece that was printed today in the Saipan Tribune on "Blue in Uptown Chicago", which one of our colleagues dubbed as nostalgic and tended to romanticize my time with the Order.

I mean to do a separate reflection as a 'report to the Order in diaspora' but am heading towards the Realistic Living symposium in 24 hours and might do a report on the long haul back to Saipan and onward to China.

Elsa's response (and there is no reason to think beyond the objective level) triggered memory of the Armas' family who joined the Order in Manila when I was there.  Bob Fishel's explanation of our corporate support system when I joined the House was that on health and education of our families, it would be dealt through corporate assets.  One of the Armas' children qualified to go to Med school then but was unable to matriculate because we could not give her the go-signal on the (my understanding) assumption that the family owned family land that can be sold to support the educational venture, and the Manila House was (as the case with most Houses) had cash flow issues.

I wanted to say "Yes, let us send her to school" then, and work out the details of transferring the Armas' family asset to the Order ledger, but I was a newbie to the Order and was not perceived to have a full view of the organizational policies.

This is not to revive painful memories (although I told Terry, with more than a touch of humor, that there was an element of exorcising whatever vestiges of resentments I harbored against the Blue in my overnight stay at 4750) but I would be curious if any of our non-US personnel ever benefited from the College trust fund.  This is not an implication of overt racial contradiction, though we were/are not blind to the 'national' issues that bedeviled ICA's relationship to INS.

When I contracted malaria around Lake Lagos while trying to run an HDTS, the Order and the Oylers did not hesitate to send me to the best medical service available in Abeokuta.  So, no complaints here.

However, when we pointed the obvious re SS contributions that some were "more equal" than others in the Order, we were accused of "organizing 3rd World sentiments against Kemper".

Again, this should not be perceived as accusatory, although objective questions should be allowed to surface in this listserv in case there are those who can provide factual answers.

We are delighted to hear that Order funds benefited many.

As to SS, Terry revealed that he kept paying his contribution as a consultant while living outside the US.  I was a member of the Philippine UMC where the Order was supposed to be contributing to their retirement fund, which we did not do.  Mary Lou did not have SS coverage, as well, though she caught that glitch early enough to rectify it.  Again, this is not to fault anyone. Nor shrink from our own responsibility to take care of our own affairs.

The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (in Saipan) government collected five years of retirement contributions. I cashed out my contribution when I found out I had cervical spondylosis on C5-C6 and decided to deal with it sans the recommended scalpel procedure.  Neither here nor there since it did not affect SS either way, but at 66, I am 10 quarters short of SS contribution and other than coming back to work for McDonalds for two+ years, Terry suggested that I look into the individual consultant route and pay SS contribution while teaching in China.

Sorry for this longish-ICAish (like it ever stopped me before!) rejoinder.

Should anyone chose to respond to this, you may direct it to SVESjaime at aol.com.

J'aime la vie

-----Original Message-----
From: Len Hockley <lenh at efn.org>
To: Order Ecumenical Community <oe at wedgeblade.net>
Sent: Wed, Aug 17, 2011 11:52 am
Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] Another Time article

  Hi Elsa,
Our family benefited from the college fund.  Matt attended Purdue andreceived a monthly stipend of I don't know how much from the fund. With this and help from working and colleagues in Lafayette amazing asit may seem he got out with a degree and no debt. 

Len

On 8/10/2011 5:31 AM, E B wrote:

or did any of our children benefited from the "collegefund"?
Elsa Batica

--- On Tue, 8/9/11, Elizabeth Caperton <ecaperton at bellsouth.net>wrote:

From: Elizabeth Caperton <ecaperton at bellsouth.net>
Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] Another Time article
To: "Order Ecumenical Community" <oe at wedgeblade.net>
Date: Tuesday, August 9, 2011, 11:05 AM

So what happened to that "travelfund, whichenables two couples to travel abroad for three months each year" by thetime I arrived?          

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,836839,00.html#ixzz1UY3fMvbP"           

On Aug 8, 2011, at 11:14 PM, Lynda Cock wrote:

This is the Time article that caught ourattention in 1967 when John was minister of education at Central UMC inAsheville, NC.  

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,836839-1,00.html

The next year we took a PLC and then helped setup a RS-I.  After that pitch by Marilyn Miller Oyler  and Phil Townley,we sold our house and car and journeyed to Chicago in March 1969.  

Lynda and John Cock 

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