My experience living with Jehavah's Witnesses in Colombia.

by dpw41 5 Replies latest jw experiences

  • dpw41
    dpw41

    In 2012, I met a girl online who lived Colombia and who happened to be a Jehovah's Witness. We got to know each other for about 8 months before I went down to see them.
    I was there for 6 weeks during my first stay. I went back to the US. While I was there I had some personal family issues to deal with in which compelled to decide on leaving the situation. I was still on good terms with the family I was living with before in Colombia, so I decided to go back down there for what I thought would permanently.

    During my friend stay, I was told by the family there not to trust the locals because they would take advantage of me. They were right because THEY were the ones who took advantage of me.
    This was the pattern I had to endure while I was living there;
    Either the mother or the daughter would cause a crisis and they said they want me out of the house. But since I didn't know anything about the area, they said I should go home, so I booked flights home. However, they would sit me down and said they would let me stay if I stopped doing something, so I lost more and more of my freedom every time and because of the tickets they forced me to get were discounted tickets, I could not get a refund. To let you know how long this went on, I spent over $3000 just so I am not thrown into the streets, which were a total loss.
    My passport was about to expire so I had to come back to the US to renew it. The situation was peaceful, so I assumed everything was ok. However, within the first couple of weeks home, when I contacted them, they would be belligerent and tell me not to go there, but they would change their and acted like I was welcomed in their home. After I received my new passport, I looked into the prices of the ticket, they were very expensive in the summer as no flights from where I am was under $1000 so I had to wait for a cheaper flight. They told me that if I don't get there by a certain time, I should not come at all. So I bought a ticket to go there that was over $1500. I thought things were ok until the last time I talked to the mom. She said that if I didn't convert to Jehovah's Witness, I would not be welcomed in their home. That was the last straw. I cancelled the ticket and I didn't want to live there.
    However, I had a lot of clothing and other stuff there. When I called them to see if was ok for me to get my stuff, they said no and that they would sell the stuff. During the last 2 weeks I was with them, they made me believe that my family here would do that, but in the end, they were the ones to take my stuff and either sold it or gave it to people in their neighborhood.
    For the past year or so I have been gravely ill and one time I was at the hospital, I stopped breathing and my heart stopped, the medical staff first thought I was dead, so my friends who were there with me text message them that I had passed away. However, the medical staff was lucky enough to revive me.
    Yet they said it was a lie and that I was not sick or even almost died. One time when I had a severe seizure, they left me on the floor and laughed at me I passed out and I gained consciousness the next day, they said 'how did last night on the floor?'

    This is the kind of behavior and conduct that the Jehovah's Witnesses condone?
    They have no concern, care or compassion to help people like they claim to?
    If this is an example of the kind of behavior that the Jehovah's Witness encourage?
    Are they the kind of people who would choose God over another person?
    Do they put god before even things about people who need help?

    This experience alone has convinced me that Jehovah's Witnesses shut out other people and they would throw their own children out of the house if they don't follow the rules and edicts of the Watchtower Society.
    In my opinion, the examples I have just written down, shows how callous and shallow the congregants are so when when they come knocking on your door and wanting to talk about their religion with you, now you know that the things they tell you about forgiveness, helpfulness and spirituality, they are lying to you.

    To me, Jehovah's Witnesses are no batter than the Taliban, ISIS or the Mormons.

  • Simon
    Simon

    That just sounds like they were dysfunctional. Those people exist everywhere of every faith.

    Maybe no better, but probably no worse though.

  • Village Idiot
    Village Idiot
    Welcome to the forum dpw41. It's sad to see how manipulative and uncaring they are. I hope you have nothing to do with them in the future since those are people who would just as soon kill you or look at you.
  • JakeM2012
    JakeM2012

    DPW41,

    I've lived in Colombia, Buenos Aires, Mexico City, and El Salvador, while building branches for the WTBTS. While living in Central and South America I noticed some behavior, ideas, and attitudes of publishers that didn't seem correct with my understanding of "The Truth" as known in the U.S.A but at the time it seemed minimal and at the time, I did not understand TTATT. It was not until I had some exposure to the Spanish Congregations in the U.S.A that I realized that all was not well in Jehovah-dome JW-Witness world in the foreign languages and their radical thinking.

    I do not doubt your story at all. But, there is a big difference in the extremes you will encounter in the congregations of JW's on an international scale. From the young women I knew in Columbia, and your willingness to pay so much for the air line tickets, your friend was probably a FOX, am I not right?

    I did run into families that did everything they could to get me hooked on their daughters, thinking we would marry, and their daughters would be U.S. Citizens and then they have a ticket to the U.S. But, I was a bit smarter than that. But they were beautiful.

  • joe134cd
    joe134cd
    There are a number of things that stand out to me here. What you have to bear in mind is that although there is a lot of pressure for conformity there are also different levels of belief. Just as there are people who say they are catholic but have never stepped foot in a Catholic Church, and other Catholics who never miss mass. For instance were these fully fledged members, of perhaps interested people who attended the KH and used the TJ title Because this can make a hugh difference to what you can get away with. Hence everyone saying not to get baptized because that just takes everything to a whole new level. What makes me think your GF and in laws may be more loosely associated is. Firstly to have a wordly BF come and stay in there house would of been a massive no no if the farther had responsibility in the cong. Even the fact the daughter had a wordly BF would of been enough for elders visits. Well this never would of happened with JWisim in the USA.
  • JWdaughter
    JWdaughter

    I don't know much, but I do know that JW culture varies a lot more than many of us would understand unless we had been exposed to it in different countries or even regions of the US. I have seen the difference just between the E and W coast and also in a bit of S. America.

    I therefore wouldn't question the JW'ishness of the family for having a young man visiting to start with.

    I would however say that the particulars of the way they act is not condoned. They sound like a manipulative and controlling family that had an agenda.

    Good riddance to bad rubbish. Lesson learned (fill in your favorite platitude).

    Take care of yourself. Stay away from JWs. Its just a mind muck no matter how "good" they are (or not).

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