Article in Awake! is Truly Disturbing................

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ApagaLaLuz

hey! Hurry up with it. I just love a good disturbing Awake article

Funchback

I will try to summarize because the article is 3 pages long....

10/8/2004 Awake!, Page 13:

"Jehovah, You Found Me!"

This is an experience by a JW woman named Nelly Lenz. (Incidentally, she looks a LOT like Brad Johnson, the former QB of the Redskins and Buccaneers).

Nelly was originally going to be aborted by her mom. But, the mom's employer was a JW and she talked her out of the abortion. Nelly's mom placed her in an orphanage for the first two years of her life, then took her out of the orphanage after she got married. Now Nelly has a mom and a stepfather. Mom and stepdad began studying with JWs and attended the meetings. Then, they moved and began to stop studying.

A few years later, they studied again. Nelly would eavesdrop on the study to "hear what was said about the Bible's hope of a paradise earth." Nelly came to "love Jehovah very much."

At the age of 8, mom told Nelly that they stopped studying and would no longer attend meetings. Nelly says, "At first, I was delighted. As a child, I sometimes found the meetings to be rather long." That evening, though, Nelly wanted to pray to Jehovah but she was worried he might not listen to her.

The next Sunday, she saw her JW neighbors going to the meeting. After 3 weeks, she visited the neighbor and explained that she wanted to go to the meetings. The neighbor said, "Impossible", because Nelly's mom forbade it. Being insistent, Nelly and the neighbor approached Nelly's mom and asked mom if Nelly can go to the meetings. Mom agreed, said it would teach Nelly good principles. Nelly went to every Sunday meeting.

This went on for 3 years. But, at the age of 11, her parents divorced, and Nelly and mom moved away. Nelly lost all contact with the JWs.

One day, Nelly sat on her steps and two JW men asked if her parents were home. nelly said "no", and the men turned to leave. Nelly "ran after them" and declared, "Are you JWs?". They said "Yes.". Nelly replied "Me too!". Nelly was just 13 years old.

She begged the men to return in the evening. Nelly told mom. Mom became upset and said that she wouldn't let them in her home. In fact, she planned to leave before they arrived. Nelly "tearfully" begged mom to stay. Just as she was getting ready to leave, the doorbell rang, and it was just the one brother. (Hmm!)... Mom accepted a Bible study.

Less than a year later, mom stopped studying (again). She forbade nelly to have any contact with the JWs and she discarded all the JW publications ahe could find. but Nelly was able to hide a Bible, song book, two WT bound volumes, and a "Truth" book. During her last study, she asked the JW man what she could do. His answer? "Study on your own and pray often. Jehovah will care for you.". Nelly was now 14.

Every Sunday Nelly went to her room and had a pretend meeting. She sang "Keep Your Eyes on the Prize" at the beginning and end of each "meeting". To this day, "I cannot sing this song without weeping." She also studied the articles in the bound volumes and she concluded each "meeting" with prayer. "I felt that Jehovah was near me."

At the age of 17, Nelly and mom moved again. "those years were difficult, as our home was anything but a haven of love."

One day, mom accepted the "Paradise" book. "When I saw that it used God's name, Jehovah, I started to cry and silently prayed, 'Jehovah, you found me!' "

Mom told me that a neighbor might be a JW. She went to his home and told him she wants to get baptized. The man hooked her up with a study. But, again, mom began to oppose Nelly's studying with the JWs. She told Nelly she will have to wait until the age of 18 before she could become a JW.

Nelly's employer noticed her situation at home was "worsening". He invited Nelly to spend time with him and his wife on the weekends. Her employer owned some horses and they would ride together. "I felt that they were like parents to me."

One day, the employer said that he and his wife love Nelly very much and that they wanted her to live with them. He was offering something she always wanted - a loving family. But under one condition: Stop associating with the JWs. So, she declined their offer.

"Because of the trouble I was experienceing at home," Nelly moved in with her stepfather. He encouraged her to continue studying. She got baptized at the age of 19.

Then, stepdad began to change.When she was praying, he would speak loudly and throw things at her. He also insisted that she further her education that would "interfere with my goal to become a pioneer." Eventually, he kicked her out and gave her a $100 check and thold her that when she cashed it, she would know that Jehovah didn't care for her.

She began to Pioneer at the age of 22. She still has the uncashed check to this very day!

She met a JW man and got married at the age of 25. They have a son and a daughter.

------------------------------

This article is disturbing because there are so many sad things said, or not said, between the lines.

1) Nelly seems to have low self-esteem, knowing she was almost aborted and knowing that she was an orphan for a couple of years.

2) All three of them were dysfunctional. Mom would study, then not study, then study again. Daughter was allowed to study, not allowed to study, allowed to study, not allowed to study.

3) Mom "opposed" Nelly by telling her to wait until 18 before getting baptized (she ended up getting baptized at 19). What was the big rush?

4) Stepdad was trying to have Nelly get a better education. Ooooooh! Such persecution! Nelly wanted to Pioneer instead. Hmm.... I noticed Nelly didn't pioneer until 22. She could have gone to school and still be a JW. Oops....I forgot. When Nelly was growing up, the WTS forbid higher education. No wonder she felt like her stepdad was persecuting her.

5) Not once did Nelly say anything good about her mom. Did mom feed her? Clothe her? Allow her to study with the JWs? Um...Yes, yes, yes, and yes! But Nelly could only talk about the "opposing" mom, the anti-JW mom. Gee, I wonder how mom and stepdad will feel after reading this article?

6) I feel sorry for Nelly's kids. They probably won't have any chance to question anything about the JWs. After all, "Jehovah done found Nelly!"

7) Nelly slapped her parents the same way Moe would slap Larry and Curly (or Shemp) (simultaneous SLAP! SLAP!) when she said: Her employer and his wife was something she always wanted: A loving family.

All three just seemed to have "issues". But were Nelly's parents SO bad because they were SOMETIMES opposed to her studying with the JWs? Shoot! If my young, teenage daughter would isolate herself in a room singing 'Keep Your Eyes on the Prize', then I just might snap, too!

metatron

Good analysis. All sorts of ethical concerns get discarded while these zombies 'come in the truth'.

Maybe the Watchtower can follow up with another plea for Witnesses to take care of their aged parents

and then wonder why they must keep nagging about it.

metatron

kls

Nelly could hear the talking of Paradise Earth. An adult or child would get excited if it were true. You are right on this , she was an unhappy child and exposed to something exciting and wonderful that would end all her loneliness and sadness. I believe anyone that was remotely kind to her she would have been reeled in. If this story i to be true ,why did the mother keep falling away , i guess we will never know.

DaCheech

WT ~~theocracy~~ dictatorship says "it does not matter what your parents have given to you (including love and shelter) if they

have not given you the troof, they are EVIL

BONEZZ

Nelly says, "At first, I was delighted. As a child, I sometimes found the meetings to be rather long."

Wow, sounds just like me as an 8-year old...those gosh darn meetings went past my bedtime sometimes....oh how I hated losing sleep because it would cause me to be groggy during morning field service and I would not be able to make good presentations for Jehovah...therefore making me blood guilty, so I prayed for a goddamn Game Boy...oops that's the other me..please excuse him.

-BONEZZ

wannaexit

This is a bizarre story.

Nelly had the "truth" book published in mid-sixties and continued to be the book in vogue until late seventies.

Then her mother accepted the "paradise" book that was published in l959 and was no longer offered by the mid sixties.

I wonder what other discrepancies or embellishments (spelling??) there are to the story.

wanna

Article in Awake! is Truly Disturbing................

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dh

Country Girl

ApagaLaLuz

Funchback

metatron

kls

DaCheech

BONEZZ

wannaexit

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