Rutland and "The Twelve Tribes" Hostel
Some thru-hikers were raving about the new free hostel in Rutland. The keepers were warm and friendly, the food is great, etc.Smoothies, soups, home-made bread. It's good that this religious group has seen fit to provide hospitality to hikers, but a basic internet search turned up some controversial information about their worldwide fellowship and "apostle".
I helped build the hostel...
I lived in the Twelve Tribes for 7 years and spent 6 months in the community in Rutland working in the cafe and also building the hostel above the cafe. The communities support them selves through different cottage industries but the ONLY reason they have cafes and hostels, they also have a hostel in Nelson BC and many cafes throughout the world,, is to recruit new "disciples". They are definitely a destructive high control group and have destroyed families and damaged many lives. All is not as it seems. The link that Isreal provided is one of the best I know. I actually spent 3 mos at http://www.meadowhaven.org/ to help get my head straight in order to go back into the real world. If anyone has any questions about the TT, feel free to ask.
A friend of mine made this site http://www.twelvetribes-ex.org/ and will tell you the other side of the story that someone here was talking about.
Also if anyone wants to email me privately, my email address is [email protected]