I've just re-read the whole thing, so it's time for an update. Chris and I are now both retired. We're loving our role as grandparents, plus I'm free to get creative around the garden. I've become a quiz master at our local pub, so every other week or so I set up 50 questions for the 7 or 8 teams who turn up. I get paid in beer, so usually stagger home afterwards. Chris does part-time invigilating 2 or 3 times a year around school exam times which usually funds a couple of holidays abroad, either on Greek islands or maybe Spain and Portugal. We celebrated her 65th birthday recently, so we were able to take our children and grandchildren away to a villa in Majorca to celebrate. See the pic! I have no complaints about my past experiences - life turned around for me so well that I'll always cherish that which is so dear to me - our family. 
snugglebunny
JoinedPosts by snugglebunny
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46
On the Subject of Demons, I Have a Story to Tell.
by snugglebunny ini have posted the full story on a fb site.
so my apologies to anyone who's already read it.
some of what i've written is what was told to me by my father.
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snugglebunny
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First Xmas? Or older traditions? 🎄
by Theonlyoneleft inis anyone here doing their first xmas this year?🎄🎄.
i love xmas!
almost around the corner and i’ve started thinking of all the prep needed for family time.
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snugglebunny
This was posted many years ago by Duncan. I think it was his first Christmas:
CHRISTMAS SHOPPING (17/12/00)
This weekend was Christmas Shopping for myself and Mrs Duncan. We spent the day in crowded shops, fighting our way through the press of bodies, securing this years must-have toys and gadgets for our kids.
At one point, we split up, I needed to go to the cash machine to get some money. I walked to the end of the street where the bank was. Of course, the week before Christmas, there was a big long queue. My heart sank, but I settled down for a longish wait.
The line moved slowly. Step by step I got closer. At last, I was only second-in-line. But the chap in front seemed to be having some trouble.
“Oh bugger!”
“What is it, mate?” I said.
“I think the machine has run out of cash”
Typical! Still, not unexpected this time of year, I suppose.
Behind me a voice called out “Hey, what’s the hold up?”
“No money!” said the chap in front.
“What?”
“ NO MONEY!” he shouted back.
This caused a stir.
“You hear that? There’s no money! NO MONEY!”
People started pushing and shoving. A fight broke out. People were shouting.
“There’s NO MONEY!! Our cards are worthless! The system has collapsed! It’s ALL OVER!”
There were now people fighting and rolling around in the street. Blood everywhere.
Next thing I knew there was a tremendous sound of smashing glass, as two people came through a shop window, gouging and biting at each other. A car went out of control and ploughed into a group of people who had also stated fighting. Everywhere people were screaming that their money was worthless.
A woman appeared at an upstairs window and started throwing her gold and silver into the streets.
The sky suddenly filled with lightning, and the buildings all around seemed to simultaneously burst into flames. More vehicles in the street went out of control, and then suddenly a great fissure opened in the ground and people and children and dogs and ladies on bicycles and 50’s –style American cars started falling into it.
I noticed that some people near me fell to the ground as their eyes started rotting in their sockets, I could just about hear what they were saying, it was truly pitiful, their anguish:
“Why , oh, WHY didn’t we listen to Jehovah’s Witnesses when they called? We were too proud and wicked!”
Another chap further down the street was calling out. He has a serious head wound from some sharp implement – and he also had the eye-rotting thing. His teeth, though, looked fine. I could see he was gnashing them, so it was a bit difficult to make out what he was saying, but it sounded like:
“ I was too stiff-necked to listen to the message! I always knew Christmas was a Babylonish false religious festival, but I allowed my wickedness to blind me to the truth! Oh, for a Watchtower!”
This astonishing scene of devastation was playing itself out in front of me, and I had just about counted a thousand at my left hand and ten thousand at my right hand who had perished, when all of a sudden, the fellow who had been at the front of the queue said:
“Oh, no - wait a minute! I was keying in the wrong PIN number. It’s perfectly okay, after all!”
The skies cleared and the fighting died down. People’s eyes seemed to clear up and various groups of folk were standing up and brushing each other’s clothing off. People were smiling and wishing each other Merry Christmas.
The line reformed and we stood around watching the arrival of the emergency services moving in to deal with the casualties.
I got my cash and rejoined my wife, and we went to the carol service at our local church.
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30
The Watchtower stole from me and you too
by rickroll inthink of how much time and money the tower stole from any who were in the cult.
think of the vacations as a child you could have taken with your families the memories you could have made instead of sitting in a hot bs week of echo talks and propaganda.
they stole so much from us.
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snugglebunny
Not sure that I acually had my childhood stolen away from me, although I was around 8 years old when my parents were converted. I did, however, became quite upset in the changes that took place in my parents attitude towards me, particularly those of my father. He'd always been quite a kindly sort of chap. A great pub man, a social animal, he adored my mother and was always making and constructing models of ships and planes. He would even cut up tin cans and solder them together to make clockwork cranes and boats.
My biggest problem occurred with the expectations he had for me. He'd quickly grabbed the witness teachings himself and couldn't understand why I wasn't busily devouring every Watchtower. He'd withold my pocket money if I forgot to read the day's text. He became almost patriarchal in his attitude. Eventually, during one particular counselling session I yelled at him that life had become really rotten since we came into the truth. He was astounded. He just stood up and walked away.
Of course I was at an age when everything that a person's parents do has to be the right thing, so I just assumed that my dislike for meetings and door-to-door work was down to my rebellious spirit.
It was many years later that it finally dawned on me that this religion wasn't actually The Truth at all. So I left. I resolved never to assume a victim mantle, but chose to believe that life is pretty much what you make it. And it is.
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The Watchtower stole from me and you too
by rickroll inthink of how much time and money the tower stole from any who were in the cult.
think of the vacations as a child you could have taken with your families the memories you could have made instead of sitting in a hot bs week of echo talks and propaganda.
they stole so much from us.
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snugglebunny
So sorry to hear about people who've lost family, especially children. Hopefully karma will put it right eventually.
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November 2019 Watchtower (Would love to hear the comments in the hall)
by pleaseresearch infrom the november 2019 watchtower study edition.. how many of you would like to know what the brothers and sisters would respond to this question.
also, if you went into a hall how would you like to respond to the question.. 8. how should we respond to lies?.
8 satan, “the father of the lie,” uses those under his control to spread lies about jehovah and about our brothers and sisters.
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snugglebunny
For instance, apostates publish lies and distort facts about Jehovah’s organization on websites and through television and other media.
Jehovah doesn't have an organisation. If he did, there would be some mention of it in Scripture. Which there isn't.
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Confession Time - Music You're Embarrassed to Admit Listening To
by Simon inadmit it, we all have things that we reel off when people ask what our favourite music is, just the same as if people ask what our favourite movies are.
we're meant to say "citizen kane" and "casablanca" and not "battleship" or "pacific rim" but we know what we're going to watch if they are ever on tv at the same time (and which ones we've never actually seen).. so how about some confession time?
what do you listen to when no one else is in the house?.
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snugglebunny
My first pop concert. Aged just 16. These gals were doing a tour of the UK. I thought they were incredible. Still love that Spectre wall of sound. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVb62XPxdsE
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1975 and 1981?
by Steel inis it true that in 1975 the watchtower falsely predicted the end of the world and a great number of the membership quit and just a few years later they turned disassociation into disfellowshipping?
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snugglebunny
Is it true that in 1975 the watchtower falsely predicted the end of the world?
Yes they did. I heard it again and again at assembly after assembly.
It started at the 1966 series of District assemblies. A special talk was given outlining that 1975 was the expected date of the start of the 1000 year reign. After that, it was repeated over and over at the Kingdom Halls. My KH even indulged in a countdown of how many more visits householders could expect from the witnesses before the end came. Our KH was at 9 more visits and counting. My own parents became need is greaters on the strength of it.
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How Long Did It Take To Finally Leave The Organization Once You Realized It Was Really Not The Truth?
by minimus init actually took me a few years to finally leave the organization so i was mentally out for a while before i simply stopped all meetings altogether.. how long did it take you to finally make the break?
?.
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snugglebunny
45 minutes. The time it took for the weekly book study to start on the modern day interpretations of Ezekiel's visions. It just suddenly clicked that I was doing so many things that I disliked intensely just so'd I could survive the Big A. And it was all based on these sort of inane ramblings from 1000's of years ago. The emotion I felt wasn't one of disappointment - it was one of relief! No more meetings, no more door to door work and i could finally say goodbye to that rather unpleasant person with whom I was sharing my life.
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Demonic Possession
by Nihilistic Journey ini am looking for articles that i recall reading from the magazines.
i recall getting the magazines through subscription so it must have been in the 1980's.
they were "biographies" from sisters that dealt with demonic possession and attacks.
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snugglebunny
WT Dec 15, 1966:
One under demon attack should calmly, not in hysteria, investigate his house and household articles. In some few cases the house may be the cause of trouble and the best thing to do is move out. Some demons delight in haunting a place. So if you experience trouble shortly after moving into a house, investigate. Was the house unoccupied for a long time? Why? Did people frequently move in and out? Why? Does it have a history of being haunted? Neighbors usually know, though the seller of a house almost always keeps the fact concealed.
But if a house has a clean history, instead of moving out, investigate objects in the house. If you at one time practiced black magic, witchcraft or other form of spiritism, did you burn up all articles relating to demonism upon learning of God?s truth? Get rid of every vestige of demonism. What did the early Christians in Ephesus do? On learning true Christianity they burned up all their magic books, even though their value was an astounding 50,000 pieces of silver! (Acts 19:18, 19) It would have been exceedingly dangerous to keep such works on how to perform the magical arts; in fact, to keep any appendage of demonism is perilous. One must be absolutely free of any relics of spiritism, so as to allow the demons no beachhead.
A vital question to ask if one experiences trouble with the demons is: Have you accepted any gifts from relatives or persons who dabble in spiritism? Any kind of article from such a person can cause trouble. In some actual cases it has been a radio, a sewing machine, a pair of shoes, jewelry, a "good luck" charm, a bathrobe, a blanket, a book. One woman had her bed tipped up at night when she tried to sleep on a mattress given her by her Spiritualist mother. A young woman had a fever of 106 degrees when wearing a garment given her by a Spiritualist.
Another Christian woman kept a handbag given her by an aunt who was a fortune-teller. Using the handbag in the ministry, she experienced powerful thoughts of "Go home!" Bad thoughts rushed into her mind almost audibly, all of them anti-kingdom. She could not understand herself, as these negative thoughts entered her mind as if by telephone, so that she complained of "hearing herself think." Only after getting rid of the handbag did she get relief.
Sometimes keeping a letter from a spiritistic relative has brought trouble. Some persons have reported gaining relief by burning letters from relatives who dabble in spiritism. Even if an article from a spiritist is an expensive one, is keeping it worth the danger? One woman was tormented for years by the demons; finally she got rid of many household effects that came from a spiritistic relative. "The material loss," she wrote, "was worth the peaceful calm that came over our house and family."
That objects from spiritists are implicated is clearly evident because relief almost invariably follows getting rid of them. The principle is similar to that used in sorcery, in which the demonist wishing to cast a spell will transfer an object into the possession of the intended victim.
However, sometimes objects through which demons make contact resist burning, indicating demonic anger at efforts to destroy them. Some persons have found it difficult to burn up ouija boards or books on occultism. Others have reported experiences similar to that of the woman who had much distress at home after wearing a dress originally belonging to a witch. Learning of the source of trouble, she set out to burn it. "We poured gasoline on it, so it would burn quickly; but what amazed us very much was the fact that the dress did not want to burn." Persist in your efforts to get rid of suspicious objects and relief in some measure usually follows.
When investigating objects, be reasonable, however. Do not burn up everything in fearful panic. Pray for Jehovah?s direction in your investigation, and he will deliver you from the wicked one.
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Kick The Bucket JW Style!
by Atlantis inkick the bucket jw style!.
https://jehovahswitnessfunerals.co.uk .
atlantis!
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snugglebunny
If you know you're going to snuff it, I guess you could always do a pre-paid job on a credit card. They're hardly likely to chase you for the money - are they?