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Polish Student Trapped With Fundy Family...


Ex-COG

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Oh great, so now fundy looney-toons are trying to convert exchange students and use them to establish churches in other countries. :ugh:

 

POLISH EXCHANGE STUDENT IN US

My Half-Year of Hell With Christian Fundamentalists

When Polish student Michael Gromek, 19, went to America on a student exchange, he found himself trapped in a host family of Christian fundamentalists. What followed was a six-month hell of dawn church visits and sex education talks as his new family tried to banish the devil from his soul. Here's his story.

 

 

Michael Gromek

'Possessed by the devil': Exchange student Michel Gromek, 19.

Editor's Note: The following story first appeared in SchoolSpiegel, a SPIEGEL ONLINE Web site that solicits original contributions from school kids about their experiences. The site also features first-hand accounts of foreign exchange students.

 

"When I got out of the plane in Greensboro in the US state of North Carolina, I would never have expected my host family to welcome me at the airport, wielding a Bible, and saying, 'Child, our Lord sent you half-way around the world to bring you to us.' At that moment I just wanted to turn round and run back to the plane.

 

Things began to go wrong as soon as I arrived in my new home in Winston-Salem, where I was to spend my year abroad. For example, every Monday my host family would gather around the kitchen table to talk about sex. My host parents hadn't had sex for the last 17 years because -- so they told me -- they were devoting their lives to God. They also wanted to know whether I drank alcohol. I admitted that I liked beer and wine. They told me I had the devil in my heart.

 

My host parents treated me like a five-year-old. They gave me lollipops. They woke me every Sunday morning at 6:15 a.m., saying 'Michael, it's time to go to church.' I hated that sentence. When I didn't want to go to church one morning, because I had hardly slept, they didn't allow me to have any coffee.

 

One day I was talking to my host parents about my mother, who is separated from my father. They were appalled -- my mother's heart was just as possessed by the devil as mine, they exclaimed. God wanted her to stay with her husband, they said.

 

"God's will"

 

Then, seeing as we were already on the topic of God's will, the religious zealots finally brought up a subject which had clearly been on their minds for a long time: They wanted me to help them set up a Fundamentalist Baptist church in my home country of Poland. It was God's will, they said. They tried to slip the topic casually into conversation, but it really shocked me -- I realized that was the only reason they had welcomed me into their family. They had already started construction work in Krakow -- I was to help them with translations and with spreading their faith via the media.

 

It was clear to me that there was no way I was going to do that. The family was appalled. It was a weird situation. After all, these people were my only company at the time. If I hadn't kept in touch with home through e-mail, I might have been sucked into that world.

 

It was only after four months that I decided to change my host family. I had kept hoping that things might improve, but it was futile. Telling them that I wanted to go was the most unpleasant moment I experienced in that half year. Of course they didn't understand -- how could they? They had grown up with their faith and were convinced of it, and then suddenly I turned up and refused to fit in.

 

From that moment on, I counted the days. The two months that followed my decision were hell. My host parents detested me. There were constant rows. I could sense that they just wanted to get rid of me. They didn't know what to do with me any more.

 

67 days later, I was finally in a new family. They were young, actually more friends than host parents, and I was very happy there. Because my new family was only 50 kilometers away from the other one, I was distrustful at first and afraid that things wouldn't be any better. But the change was worth it.

 

Despite everything, I still haven't come to terms with my experience. I want to write to the religious family soon and explain to them, clearly and calmly, why things went so wrong. It shouldn't just end this way."

 

http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,448350,00.html

 

"I want to write to the religious family soon and explain to them, clearly and calmly, why things went so wrong. It shouldn't just end this way." Um, sorry Michael, I doubt they'll see it that way.

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Ugh, what a rotten time :(

 

Yeah, the world would be better off with more fundyism. :Wendywhatever:

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At least he got to experience the second, normal family before he left. I'd hate to have him go back thinking all Americans were nut jobs.

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Oh yes, that story. Already read it somewhere on Der Spiegel online, some days ago. :Hmm:

 

Almost makes me wanna try and pass myself as an exchange student, deliberately aiming at a fundified host family. Let's see who'll make life a Niflhel for whom... :pureevil:

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*shudder* That's just scary. Poor guy, I agree with Max, I'm glad he got to visit with some Americans who weren't total fuckwits.

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I read that on the Dark Christianity LJ community. I felt so bad for that guy, but also glad he got to go somewhere better. I know I'd lose it if I were him, heh.

 

And yeah Max, I'm not an American but I too thought that it would suck if he got the impression that all Americans are whacko.

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Almost makes me wanna try and pass myself as an exchange student....
I don't know, Thurisaz...

 

I'm thinking that if you look like this,

photo-86.jpg

 

You'll find that your choices will be severely limited. :Hmm:

 

 

:lmao:

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Almost makes me wanna try and pass myself as an exchange student, deliberately aiming at a fundified host family. Let's see who'll make life a Niflhel for whom... :pureevil:

 

Ooooh, that would be good. I can just see the headlines now.

 

Greensboro, NC. Family Converts to Heathenry. (From the files of Ex-Christian reporter Ex-COG)

 

A local family, formerly active and devout members of The Greater Saints Memorial Power of the Living Jesus Pentecostal Faith Fellowship Church, have had a radical change in their spiritual understanding. "We are so grateful to our German exchange student, Thurisaz, for enlightening us with the truths of the Asgard gang. Odin Himself must have sent Thurisaz to us!", says Freya Thorsdaughter (formerly known as Sister Reba Louanne Speckles) during an interview at her family's temporary home at the Red Roof Inn. "This warrior of Thor has been a great help to us. Not only did he share this wonderful pantheon of Gods and Goddesses with us, but Thurisaz and his associates in Germany have supported us wholeheartedly after our former fellow church members dismembered our cat and burned our house down." Her son, Ran, wiped a tear from his eye at the reminder of his pet. "Whopper was my best friend," Ran said. "But Pastor John Calvin Spruggs told everyone that because Whopper was a black cat, he was of the Devil, and had to go." Brother Toby Speckles, now going by the name of Balder Thorshammer, continued. "Yeah, ol' Spruggs thought that Whopper was a familiar and had drawn Thurisaz to us. How silly; he doesn't know the difference between Norse mythology and Wicca!" The family now awaits zoning approval for the purchase of a large Victorian house, where they plan to live upstairs and convert the lower level into an Asgard Information Center, the first of its kind in Greensboro. Members of the formerly-known-as-Speckles family's previous church have been marching around the earmarked property, praying in the name of Jesus that Satan would be thwarted. "We claim this land for the Kingdom of God!" chants Sister Wanda Weebles on her seventh march around the property. "We rebuke that nasty German demon and cast him OUT of the hearts of the Speckles family, and we command the evil spirits to flee and make way for the Holy Spirit to take over this house for a Christian Bookstore! We only have five in this town, and pray to God for another!" Church members continue to pray for the reconversion of the family; they have no doubt that Jesus will come through with the victory. Freya, Balder, and Ran however, have a different opinion on that matter. "We are tight with the Asgard," Balder insists, "Thanks again to Thurisaz."

 

Almost makes me wanna try and pass myself as an exchange student....
I don't know, Thurisaz...

 

I'm thinking that if you look like this,

photo-86.jpg

 

You'll find that your choices will be severely limited. :Hmm:

 

 

:lmao:

Why Fwee, how can you say something like that about a respectable bank employee?

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Ugh, what a story! I'm glad the guy got out of there, though it seemed to take a long time to get another host family.

 

I should talk, ha, back in 1993, my husband agreed to have us host a 19-year-old student from Germany for three weeks during the summer. He only stayed with us for one night, then asked to be put with another family and, whoosh, he was gone, so they found him another family quick.

 

The story he told the organization was he didn't like my husband smoking all the time. Horse-hockey, we heard that he liked to go to nightclubs and you know they smoke there. In fact, as soon as he arrived and we went to a "welcome" picnic for the students and host families, he and some others were trying to organize a bus trip, on their own, to San Francisco to go club-hopping. That was a major problem for us, as other parents there started asking us what we were going to do about this. We don't have kids so don't have any rules (except stay employed and live within our means) and didn't know what to do with a teenager, especially a 19-year-old. We quickly realized we were in over our heads so we were not sad to see him go.

 

That's a great story, Ex-COG :lmao::lmao::lmao:

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Greensboro, NC. Family Converts to Heathenry. (From the files of Ex-Christian reporter Ex-COG)

 

A local family, formerly active and devout members of The Greater Saints Memorial Power of the Living Jesus Pentecostal Faith Fellowship Church, have had a radical change in their spiritual understanding. "We are so grateful to our German exchange student, Thurisaz, for enlightening us with the truths of the Asgard gang.

 

Man, that is bloody brilliant. I was pretty damn low of that fundy family to only take in that boy just so they could expand their church's influence and not to learn and care for him.

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Greensboro is in my neck of the woods. I'm completely disgusted by this story. This young man's views of my state will forever be tainted by his experience with these idiots. I only hope that he may have had a few other, more positive, experiences while he was here.

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I don't know, Thurisaz...

 

I'm thinking that if you look like this,

photo-86.jpg

 

You'll find that your choices will be severely limited. :Hmm:

 

 

:lmao:

 

Eh, just two years ago I looked quite harmless and conservative. You know, add a suit and fitting tie and I could pass as a successful businessman ;)

 

Ooooh, that would be good. I can just see the headlines now. [...]

 

:lmao:

 

Why Fwee, how can you say something like that about a respectable bank employee?

 

Careful... I work in the bank's helpdesk. That's why I became that way. Support makes you cuuuu-raaaaaaaa-ziiiiiiiiy! :crazy:

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