Re: Arne Dietrich?
Yes. I am fairly sure that is the same Big Josh.

Re: Arne Dietrich?
by the photo and the story, yes, it has to be him.

Re: Arne Dietrich?
Where have all the Royal family gone? Hosea is the only one left and not really in a strong leadership position. Big Josh really payed his dues and look what it got him.

Re: Arne Dietrich?
Definitely Big Josh. I'd recognize him anywhere. I had only encountered him for about a week at TSC in 1971 but about 10 years ago I walked into an ex-COG reunion and he was the very first person I saw, sitting at a table, reading his Bible, and I recognized him immediately. I took a couple of photos of him which I still have.

Reading further on the site where this story is, I found this:

HCCH was incorporated and developed a clinic facility to serve the ever-growing clientele that had no insurance or other source of medical care except hospital emergency rooms.

That is what a lot of late leaving, long time exers are in for. I doubt that he is eligible to draw much of U.S. Social Security payments if he never had the gainful employment to pay into it. Obviously he is qualified for some welfare. Having been affiliated to some degree professionally with the homeless community for a period over 30 years, this HCCH was an angel for him. I know that programs tend to put on their best face online, but this one seems to outshine any others I had ever dealt with. He is lucky in that respect. I doubt that there are that many opportunities anywhere else in the USA, much less in the developing countries where TFI may now be.

I could have ended up in his predicament, not that I don't have any others of my own, but I wouldn't have wanted to be homeless and estranged from my family at that age because of something like COG.

Re: Arne Dietrich?


Is Hosea Berg still in TFI? If so, is he a full member. What does he do? What about his second wife?

Re: Arne Dietrich?
Homeless and estranged from your family? Now I live in a nice home and in a upscale neighborhood with a very nice bed. Sadly, I know how it feels to walking the streets late at night with nothing to eat and feeling cold as hell.

Re: Arne Dietrich?


Hopefully that experience has become a source of compassion and rather than a cause for resentment and envy.

He would be hurt you said this and forgiving at the same time.

I met him in a homeless shelter Honolulu Hawaii. I had it all and lost it all and was living in that hell on earth shelter called IHS. Violent and chaotic. Then came Arnie-big Josh. That man changed so many lives. He was a leader and showed all of us there that we had potential, some of us had forgotten that. It is a long story to tell I met him there in 1986 and left in 1990. I know about the real GOD and it is because of Arnie. I was in my 20's then and now I am 56 and I have never had a friend like the friend I had in Arnie.

Your comment about living in a nice house and neighborhood did seem mean spirited. If it was not meant to be then I read it wrong. I too was homeless and thoughts of those cold nights and cold showers and the violence of the streets haunt my thoughts. They pop into my mind for no reason. Without a single exception to this very day when I take a hot shower I am thankful for the hot water. I would have not made it had I not met Arnie-big Josh. When I die my Soul is God's and it was Arnie-big Josh and his wisdom and his stories he shared that made this so. He shared with me, Selah, his life's regrets. I'll not reveal them here in any detail but broad strokes, he had many regrets. A man's regrets are his burdens later in life. Leave him alone with his and remember your own.