Lance?
you doing alright bro? we miss you around here. Loved all your fantastic insight into the BOrg.
any chance you could give us an update of your life right now?
;)
I Miss Awakened at Gilead too
by wallsofjericho 17 Replies latest jw friends
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St George of England
His YouTube videos certainly woke me up.
George
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jamiebowers
I was in touch with him few months ago. He's moved to two different states since he started making videos. It seems he's very busy with his career and life in general. He's not that far away from a newbie here on JWN and was very enthusiastic about helping any way he could. I'll let him know you asked about him, and maybe he'll pop in.
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breakfast of champions
The YouTube videos were great! Very compelling. He's got a pretty amazing story.
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wallsofjericho
sgoE
tx for update. maybe he'll stop in to say hi?
yes his vids are great....
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Dogpatch
Lance is doing better than ever. He still has his blog on my site, but just hasn't posted in awhile. He does Freeminds taxes now, is on my board of directors as Treasurer, and is quite happy. I would imagine, like many of us, you just have to take a breather, forget the WT and go on with your life. And that is indeed a very healthy move. We only live so long, so you need to get a new life and leave the WT behind.
Good advice for many of you... disappear from all things WT-related and you'll heal quickly with a little counseling, or even self-counseling. Get Steve Hassan's new book, Releasing the Bonds. I am pretty much his sole distributor... he won't let Amazon have it (I have a bookstore on Amazon that sells it, though.). His site is www.freedomofmind.com, check it out.
All former cult members have to face getting deprogrammed and starting over, or they will be filled with fear and guilt the rest of their lives.
That's why Freeminds new motto is, "Reinvent Yourself."
After finishing up my fixes on AJWRB.ORG, I will move on to my next website, 13Seconds.org; which will actually be a subdomain of Freeminds.org. It will be a virtual rehab site for all JWs but mostly the younger crowd of kids leaving.
It will not be religious at all. The idea will be to teach new skills, provide links for counseling and job help services, teaching writing and video skills, and giving out $50 rewards twice a month (as long as I can keep affording it) to the best work in each forum. Then the articles and videos will be placed on the site for all to benefit from. But if they desire to know the truth about Christ, it is all on the same server. I will not feature New Age stuff or conspiracy theories, but agnostics and atheists are welcome, as are Gays and Lesbians.
If they desire, it will help them understand Christianity in it's true form, instead of the WT or Ray Franz version, if they browse over to the main site. If not, fine with me. I'm not here to convert anyone, but to deal with their needs here and now. I'm not God or Santa Claus. Nor do I judge people by beliefs, I just confront credibility issues.
Plus blog space, video uploads, several forums (moving the LGBT forum over there because people don't seem to see how it fits Freeminds, which they think is a religious website, mainly due to my hundred of articles on Christian doctrine I wrote over the last 30 years). Plus forums for many niches of people who need recovery. Even the burnouts, rejects and minorities. Would love to have an international appeal to all cultures, even Islam. Any Islamists who are good, honest writers with no attack agenda?
Even dealing in the secular world is tough for a cult ministry. No company is going to give you grants, because of the "delicate": nature of the subject. I hired Boostability.com to do SEO work for me about 3 weeks ago, and they were happy until their bosses or attorneys said "We are ccancelling your account and refunding your money, as we don't want our company to be associated with "hateful" sites." Their message is still on my answering phone.
Hateful! I only take to task the cult leaders guilty of breaking moral and judicial laws, and being dishonest or bloodguilty, like Gene Smalley and the blood issue. Of course, the SEO company is based in Utah... :-))
But I can't do it myself, I have to hire a professional service to build the infrastructure in html5 and PHP. Joomla sucks when you try to convert 3000 files and 3 gigs of material from html to Joomla (which is why I have link problems from time to time.)
I am also consolidating my other sites except AJWRB and Watchtowernews.org, which is frequented by many JWs who don't want to see anything apostate, but just want links to the news. I want to focus on helping JWs directly, I feel much grief over the countless emails I get every day (4 hours worth of responding). For those who desire free advice from my trusted Christian friends, watchtowerworld.org will also be incorporated into Freeminds. These are the best people in the world to talk to, as they are mature and not crazy to convert you. But they are all legitimate believing Christians. Go over and meet a few! Just click on "Gallery" and you can contact them. You'll be surprised at who you find there. Ed Gruss is there, and Peter Gregerson, too, and they are thrilled to talk on the phone. You'll find Joan Cetnar, Jay Hess, and many more, all willing to help with a mere phone call. No charge except a phone call. Gruss can't do internet. Too new-fangled.
So I am back to doing most all the work alone now on the sites. It has forced me to spend thousands. But I'll go bankrupt before I will ever quit. I have nothing else to live for. I love people. And I despise bullies and crooks, and will never back down from a challenge that threatens my goals, until I am psysically incapable of doing it or dead six feet under. So far, I am in good health besides the normal aging and terrible spine problems, so no worries.
Fortunately I have many good long-term friends and contributors, but still live from month to month, often cutting my own paycheck back. But I love my work, it is my only joy in life.
hugs to all,
Randy
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wallsofjericho
Hey Randy,
thanks for update, I didnt realize how enveloped you are in your work of helping people. It's easy for us to take for granted the ones that put in so much time helping fix what the BOrg has broken.
to help your effort I just donated one month's award money for 13seconds.com
(don't worry about tax receipt, I'm still a JW, don't need any family memers finding a reciept and my accountant is a JW ;)Keep up the good work my friend!
anyone else that wants to support Randy and what he's doing click here to make a one time donation
http://www.freeminds.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2669:support-free-minds&catid=56:all-staticwoj
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OnTheWayOut
I met Awakened when he had first "awakened." He was a real firecracker, ready to make life-changing decisions. I loved the fire in him. While we kept up for awhile, he kept moving on with his education and his life. He seemed pretty good about moving away from all things JW-related and just addressing them occasionally in his life.
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life is to short
Thank you so much Randy for all you do. Your sight was the first one on stumbled on and it lead me to here. I truly do not know where I would be if that had not happened as I was so very depressed at the time.
Just a huge thank you for everything, I love freeminds so much.
LITS
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Awakened at Gilead
Thanks Jamie for letting me know about this thread... I think it's been about 6 months since I've been on JWN... nice to see so many newbies and people coming out of the org.
I'm doing well, moving on with my life and getting it to where I want it to be, in a great relationship with a non-JW and hoping to start a family in the next couple of years. I haven't been paying too much attention to the exJW world as it becomes less and less relevant to my current life, although I am using my degree in non-profit management to good use by being the treasurer for FreeMinds.
I still want to write a book about my experience, so once I'm ready to write, stay tuned...
A@G