I am posting this for my friend Jan Groenveld in Australia. Many of you know Jan, some love her and some don't. But she is a wonderful personal friend of mine and I want to see her web pages go on, they are helpful not just on the JW stuff, but on other cults. This is not at her request, but it is my doing to share this. Paypal works wonders! :-))
thank you,
Randy Watters
CULT AWARENESS AND INFORMATION CENTER
http://caic.org.au
is about to be disconnected!
Tonight I am feeling more than a little disheartened. It looks like I get to
go into retirement folks.
On July 22nd I sent out a call for help to cover the costs of our web site
account by July 31st. It is now 7 PM on July 29th Australian time and so
far not one cent has been contributed!
Maybe some thought I was kidding when I said we would be going off the
air -- I wasn't! . I was given a 2 week extension to pay, and when it was
obvious that I would not be able to get the money elsewhere I sent out this
call.
Putting it bluntly, unless I pay $1200.00, or a large part of it, by July
31st, this work will be off the air within the week.. First I will lose the
e-mail facility. When I don't pay within a week or so they will delete the
web site. Today I received final notification that this would happen.
Even if 10 % of the people I sent the call to had given only $5.00 each it
would have covered at least half of the account and given us breathing
space. The fact that no one gave anything is more than disheartening .....
The Internet costs have been even higher this last 6 months after
downloading considerable information for cult members and new ex-cult embers
who do not have the internet .... The extra megabytes have cost me
over $700.00 on top of the internet fees. For all that CAIC received a
$35.00 donation. Maybe because we do not charge a set fee people may think
we don't have any costs????
What more can I say ......?
Jan
Last weeks message BELOW ....PLEASE READ IT AGAIN! Following is the new
screed about CAIC I was planing to put on the web page.
p.s. It is now midnight my access to the website has been cut off. People
can still access it, but any e-mail sent to it will not be sent to my mail
box.
WEB SITE COSTS
Our costs for being on the Internet and having a Website now TOTAL $1820.00
a year! That works out at just over $150.00 a month. We have a huge
database on our website and more ready for uploading which is why the cost
is so high - we have to pay for that extra space.
There is no way we can support this from our finances since Simon is now
partly retired. The last few months I have been progressively selling off
our library to supplement this but this takes time ..... and meanwhile we
are falling further and further behind!
Other than a couple of supporters, who send in a regular contribution, we do
not have a regular income for our work. This year matters have been even
harder since I had to replace my whole computer system after an electrical
fault, caused by new hardware installed last year, finally caused the system
to crash.
I have never charged a fee for a consultation or counseling and I am
reluctant to begin doing so.
WE NEED YOUR HELP!!!!!!!
Being a pretty straight forward person, I am asking outright for your help
day with a contribution to offset our costs? We need support right now! Our
fees are a month overdue and if we don't pay them by the end of July we ill
be cut off!
If you are overseas, you can make a contribution on the Internet using your
Credit Card. Go to:
https://www.paypal.com/xclick/business=jan.g%40bigpond.net.au
This is the Donation Page especially set up for CAIC. If you are not a
PAYPAL member, you will need to sign up. Membership is free.
In Australia, if you don't want to use your credit card on you can send a
check to the address at the top of this letter. Please make the check out
to FIC/CAIC. (See address below)
NOTE: Our banks will NOT accept international checks. If you live outside
Australia, please do not send a check .....
In advance: Thankyou from all those who benefit from out website!
CAIC
PO Box 2444
Mansfield Q 4122
Australia
Who on Earth
is the
Cult Awareness & Information Centre??
* We are concerned about people who are ensnared in totalitarian groups.
* We warn the public about cults, their deceitful recruiting techniques,
the imprisoning of member;s minds though fear and phobia indoctrination and
the isolation of members from those outside the group either physically
or psychologically,
* We work together with others who are as concerned as we are.
Founder, Jan Groenveld, has been involved in liberating people from cults
since 1980.
Jan was involved in cults for 15 years. After studying with the Worldwide
Church of God and the Seventh Day Adventists, she and her husband Simon were
baptised in to the Mormon Church. Four years later, after the death of their
infant daughter, Jan began studying with Jehovah's Witnesses. (The Mormon
explanation about the early death of her baby made her leave Mormonism in
disgust.) For the next 7 years, Jan was involved with Jehovah's Witness. In
1975, Jan walked away from Jehovah's Witnesses when she realized she had
been lied to. Jan also realized was not going to get her infant
daughter back in a resurrection soon after 1975. For the next two years Jan
floundered. Her anger at God for letting her be deceived, along with the
grief at the loss of her baby
finally catching up with her, led to severe depression. Then in July 1978
Jan finally looked at her Bible again. There she saw things she had not seen
before. Finally, in August Jan became a Christian. She had finally found
the Truth. Her faith was not based on belonging to any particular religious
group and following rules, but based on faith in Jesus Christ alone, with
works that followed as a result of her faith.
In 1980 Jan put an advertisement in the paper to find other former JW's.
From there the work grew and since then Jan has appeared on national and
local Television, in national magazines and newspapers and for weeks at a
time was on the road, going from town to town, holding meetings to warn and
prepare people for their next encounter with a cult member at their door.
Jan was one of the first counter-cult workers to make use of the Internet
and its predecessor, the Bulletin Boards . There she moderated the Cult
Awareness forum. In 1991, Jan went on to the Internet, in the days when it
was truly cumbersome , and as it grew so did her information site. In 1994
the page began to change format with the introduction of Browser software
and since then it has grown from its original 500 kilobytes to its current
size.
Since 1996, Jan has worked full time on the Internet. Her involvement in
about 40 support groups and being Moderator of six of these groups keeps her
busy. Currently her e-mails number an average of 1500 a day! Approximately
50 of these messages involve counseling individuals, providing information
about various cults and their teachings, and supporting people who have been
spiritually abused by these groups.
The CAIC website has a over 1 gigabyte of information available now.
Currently over 2 gigabytes of information is
downloaded from the website each month . Daily Jan receives e-mails from
people who have been helped by the information.
Before the Internet CAIC was supported by the sale (at a nominal amount) of
this information. Now people in need have access to this information free of
charge to them. However, it costs us a considerable amount to do this.
CAIC is not supported by ANY church organizations, or any other
organization. CAIC has only volunteer workers. The only full time person
Jan. Yes, there are long hours and horror stories on a daily basis yet Jan
loves this work very much because she is helping others.