by invisible 6 Replies latest jw friends
When I was a young kid of approximately 7 years old, I seem to recollect memories of 'encouragement' by the Society for JW's to sell their properties, their homesteads, am I right in thinking this? And if so, how many here were affected adversely by such decisions either on the part of their parents or who directly sold their houses thinking that the end was imminently nigh?
Can anyone refresh my memory?
Celtic Mark
Hi Mark,
My parents sold up in 1972 to move "Where the need is great". They then rented a house instead of buying another one. They moved to Matlock in Derbyshire from Portsmouth. My Dad went from air traffic controller to petrol pump attendant in one easy move. My brother was DF'd for doing what young men do and the Matlock committee turned on my dad because he wouldn't rubber stamp another ongoing DF'ing case.
Such great blessings!
Englishman.
Hello E-man
i think we are almost the same age, and I hade as you grow upp inn the truth, but my fader who was PO have his one firm and i take over it when i ended school.
I never was like this almost fanatical boys as always say you can not by a new car now,it is so closed to end,i told them i dont care when the end is here,the most important thing is that we love our lord and try to bee lovley and showing it to others,always have your dor open for all peopel in the cong for exampel.
I have been a doing my 8-12 ours inn service and enjoj it, and i can not say that CO for exampel complainig on me. I was in as 17 yer old boss for some kitchen work on assambleys, smaler and bigger.
So it is intresting to compare our life, and see the diffrens and what is the same.
i wish you realy good times inn you life, and ofcourse England and Swenen still inn on wensday evning.
i
We came in the in early 80's and it was made clear by certains ones that those with mortgages where investing in satans system and the more spiritual way would be to rent a flat (nothing too big) until the big A, and of course take a job with less hours and pioneer.
Of course if you where renting and earning less money no problem beacause the social security would pay the bills that you could so your family wouldnt starve or be homeless. That was always put across as 'Jehovah providing'.
We are thankful that although we followed a lot of things we kept our house and the skilled job that my husband had qualified for.
I suppose that loyal dubs would say that is the reason we are now Xdubs lol.
A
I lived during that period and the percentage of people selling property and going where the need is greater would not be much different than what you see today. Of course, I come from a very conservative area. I did see a rise in marriages because the idea was that there would be no marriage in the new system or at least the GB wasn't sure there would be. More people were regular pioneers and more brothers went to Bethel. But the Vietnam War (conflict) was a larger influence on those decisions (avoid the draft).
I can think of ten times as more people who resisted urge to set and date and just waited. They figured if Jesus was alive when Eve was created, then he would have known when the 6th creative day ended and would not have said he didn't know the day and the hour 4,000 years later. I was a young adult during this period so I think my memories are fairly accurate and representative of other adults during that period.
I can't think of one person who put off dental work or necessary surgery. If I had known someone who racked up credit card bills and other bills with a view that payment would not be necessary, I would have thought them a total idiot with extreme ideas.
1975 should be the last real prophetic date you will see set in the WT publications; at least until 50 years pass like it did with 1925. Then those living will be dead or alzheimer's candidates.
My parents sold their house and quit their jobs in 1972.
In 1976 they got jobs and bought another house.
Of course my mother will deny that this four year "vacation" had anything to do with WT predictions
Yeah, right.
My parents, who had been studying with the JWs since 1969, were baptized just as 1975 started looming. Dad in late '72, and Mum in early '74.
There were several people in our congregation who had moved to Quebec (where we lived) to 'serve where the need is great', in the five or six years coming up to 1975.
As well, there seemed to be a lot of these same people - who had families to support - were so sure that Armageddon was going to come in 1975, that they built homes that were beyond what they could afford, thinking that they'd struggle for a few months making the mortgage payments but once Armageddon came and went that they'd have a nice new home without having to pay for it. That was 27 years ago, and I can remember these conversations like they happened yesterday. I was between the ages of 11 and 12 when all this happened.
Once 1975 passed uneventfully, every one of these families ended up selling their homes (because they could no longer afford them) and went back to their places of origin. The congregation where I lived was pretty much established, and so there wasn't a real need for them to endure the harsh winters and hot humid summers of Quebec, never mind the language issues that started occurring in Quebec once Ren Lesvesque and the Parti Qubeois formed the Provincial Government.
Love, Scully
