Posts by Sail Away

46

Mom died, How and When I found out

by 3rdgen in

hi friends,.

it's been awhile since i've been talkative.

thought i'd give you an account of my latest family dysfunction.. a brief backstory is that i am an only child whose parents were born in jw's.

Sail Away

3rdgen, I'm so terribly sorry for the pain you are experiencing. I know what it is like to be a caregiver for an abusive, aging parent. It does drain your last bit of strength, both phyically and emotionally.

Just know that you did the best you could by your mother, and please try not take her clearly deranged behavior personally. Mental illness and dementia can be among the most demanding illnesses on the family. JW crap only adds to the pain of the situation.

Please take good care of yourself,

Diane

19

How long does it take to get a response from the branch office?

by Homer notsimpson in

jw
friends

does any one have any experience with writing to the branch office?

i know they're busy, but while reading through the shepherd textbook, it says to write to them quite a few times.

so if a body of elders write to the branch office, whats the usual wait time for a response?

Sail Away

Back in the days of the Isaiah book, I wrote in to question their dates/timeline being off. I got a 6-page letter back which defended their erroneous dates. My then P.O. asked if I understand the answer. I said yes, meaning I understood that it was B.S.

I later wrote in because my husband was a permanently "inactive" JW. They wanted me to appoint a JW as my Healthcare Agent on my DPA. I wanted to be able to write on the document that my Healthcare Agent was only to make decisions regarding "non-blood medical management", and my husband was to make all other decisions. Of course, my elders couldn't advise me directly. I watied nearly a year with no answer. I sent a copy of the original letter with a new cover letter saying that this was an urgent matter.

One afternoon within a few weeks, I got a call from Bethel asking for Sister Sail Away. It scared the hell out of me. He gave me the go ahead for my plan. I still wonder if they just didn't want to put their answer in writing.

40

Sisters running microphones?

by NikL in

jw
friends

so our sunday meeting was on the 25th (christmas) and my active jw wife and i were out of town enjoying some family time with relatives.. apparently there were many others in our congregation that missed as well.

so few were there in fact that sisters ran the mics.

(actually it was a sister running one of the two mics) a friend of my wife commented to her about how the brothers just aren't stepping up and it "makes her want to cry.

Sail Away

tepidpoultry
I was just wondering if somehow they could build that hedge
trimmer incident into an Assembly demo (I hope everybody was OK!)
:0)

Hahaha, tepidpoultry! Actually, the this dope of a pioneer/elder who butchered the hedges was the owner of a landscaping business-- ya just can't make this stuff up! No person was harmed, but it took years of gentle pruning for the bushes to recover.

Lol, Rebel8!

40

Sisters running microphones?

by NikL in

jw
friends

so our sunday meeting was on the 25th (christmas) and my active jw wife and i were out of town enjoying some family time with relatives.. apparently there were many others in our congregation that missed as well.

so few were there in fact that sisters ran the mics.

(actually it was a sister running one of the two mics) a friend of my wife commented to her about how the brothers just aren't stepping up and it "makes her want to cry.

Sail Away

In my former congregation two other sisters and I were assigned to divide up the territory and make new maps.

One sister did the job of Accounts Servant until her teenaged daughters went off the rails-- one got pregnant, the other DA'd herself.

I was assigned to shred old files. Of course, I was instructed not to read them.

Also, I was the defacto person in charge of food service during our second KH renovation turned rebuild during midweek work. The RBC only came on the weekends, and the pioneer/elder they appointed was incompetent, so he recruited me.

I was also in charge of trimming bushes, because the same pioneer/elder mauled them with a hedge trimmer. Toward the end of my time as a JW, I enjoyed my gardening chores, because I did them in the mornings while the other sisters went out in service.

Apparently, the Holy Spirit appoints incompetent brothers to take the lead, while sisters did the job.

Diane

14

A most interesting Christmas present

by JeffT in

jw
friends

so our daughter gave my wife and i a very nice family album of photos from the course of the year.

as we opened it, she said it had a surprise hidden in it, so we're watching for something to fall out.

about 2/3 or the way through it we hit an ultrasound print of a tiny baby.

Sail Away

Congratulations! Being a grandparent is the best! We are spending the holidays with our daughter, son-in-law and two-year-old grandson. He just started calling us both Grammy! Our second grandson is on the way and is due in April. He will be born in Guatemala just like his big brother. Two Irish-American boys born in Guatemala.

23

MERRY CHRISTMAS

by jhine in

l don't visit very often now , but l wanted to drop in to wish all you folks a merry christmas and happy new year .

as l cannot find a thread already started for this l have started one !

in the immortal words of chuck berry ( l think ) " come on everybody " join in wishing your fellow posters a merry christmas , happy holidays etc .

Sail Away

Happy holidays and Feliz Navidad from Lake Atitlan in Guatemala!

Diane

14

Update to: As a Matter of Conscience, I Am Resigning from the Christian Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses

by Sail Away in

i just had a two-hour doctor's appointment (treatment for branch retinal vein occlusion) that requires screenings, scans, dilation, anesthetic and injection, etc.

this makes it necessary to spend a lot of time in the waiting room..

my former p.o., book study conductor and later field service overseer was there and greeted me in a friendly way.

Sail Away

millie210

There is a sub message these days among some of the brighter Witnesses to take a softer approach.

It sounds like your friend is one of those who has internalized that message.

Good for him and you. I hope it makes his life a little easier in the Org and it certainly made it easier for you!

Hope your eye is doing well sailaway!

Vidiot

Sail Away - "...Apparently, the congregation is growing (20% increase) and has lots of children now... I just don't think this can be called growth..."

Neither do I, considering two thirds of 'em will be out within the next couple of decades.

BTW, from reading the rest of your OP, I suspect this elder friend on yours might know a thing or two about the TATT.

Millie and Vidiot, my wish for him is that he has a few years of peace ahead of him. He seems happy and rather well compared to when I saw him last-- over 5 years ago, relaxed and happy. I do hope he and his family are awake to TTATT. For him, I'm sure it's just a matter of it's too late to change. He is 69, and this has been his life. His daughter and son-in-law are born-ins. It is an older congregation, one of the first in the area. They are dying off-- old age, cancers and strokes. One former elder has dementia, but he was always a little nuts-- made for interesting comments at the meetings.

PS Thank you all for you kind concern about my eye. The occlusion happened just over a year ago. At first I had to go for treatment once a month. I just got moved out to every 7 weeks. I regained my peripheral vision (driving with one eye while legal, is a nightmare), and my vision corrects to 20/20, there are just holes in what I see due to tissue damage that won't regenerate. I am unable to do full-time work on the computer anymore, but that's not all bad! I'm taking a year-long teacher training in teaching Mindfulness Meditation. Researchers are working on a time-release medication that would mean only one shot a year, but that is down the road a bit. Could be worse, some go blind from this.

Sail Away

aka Diane

14

Update to: As a Matter of Conscience, I Am Resigning from the Christian Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses

by Sail Away in

i just had a two-hour doctor's appointment (treatment for branch retinal vein occlusion) that requires screenings, scans, dilation, anesthetic and injection, etc.

this makes it necessary to spend a lot of time in the waiting room..

my former p.o., book study conductor and later field service overseer was there and greeted me in a friendly way.

Sail Away

WingCommander
20% Growth? BULLSH*T!!! There is no way, NO WAY, that a Congregation would see that much growth. What really happened, was that 1 or even 2 or 3 Congregations were dissolved, their Kingdumb Hells sold, and profits sent back to "Mother Org". Then, the pauper Sheeple were commanded to come to your old Congregation. Whaa-laaa! Instant "growth" for your old Congregation. There are lies, damned lies, and statistics. JW's are the masters of manipulating the numbers and statistics in order to make themselves look good.
20% growth in a Congregation? Ha! FantasyLand.

WingCommander, I fully agree. I did ask if the local two congregations had merged, and he said no, there are still the two. Of course, they did gain a few members from another hall closing about 10 years prior, and these two congregations used to have their own KHs and are now sharing one building. They lost some members in the far reaches of the territory who were too old to travel the distance. He said more children and "growth".

I think the biggest "growth" here is that his congregation is the more loving of the two that share the KH. It is the more rural congregation and was always small. I was baptised in 1976 there, 40 publishers back then. What happens is when there is a dust up between family members (Everyone is related in some way!), some migrate over to the kinder, gentler place. The lines are pretty fluid.

Also, as I said in my OP, the smaller, rural congregation traditionally had to "invite" new families with elders, pioneers and/or servants to come and "help". It's a rough go in the area-- high cost of living and few jobs. The imported families often can't afford to move closer and grow tired of the commute. Lather, rinse, repeat.

There are a lot of factors in play, but new "growth" from the field is likely NOT one of them!

14

Update to: As a Matter of Conscience, I Am Resigning from the Christian Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses

by Sail Away in

i just had a two-hour doctor's appointment (treatment for branch retinal vein occlusion) that requires screenings, scans, dilation, anesthetic and injection, etc.

this makes it necessary to spend a lot of time in the waiting room..

my former p.o., book study conductor and later field service overseer was there and greeted me in a friendly way.

Sail Away

DesirousOfChange
I asked about his daughter and son-in-law. Apparently, they are still active in the congregation and bought a house on the beach and by Dad’s words are “enjoying life.”
The best thing you did was show that you are living a happy and successful life.
Yes indeed!
The greatest revenge is living a happy & successful life!

Doc, your saying came to mind on my way out of the office! So True!

I did give pause to the thought that his daughter and son-in-law might be awake but stuck in due to Dad. This elder's wife died of cancer years ago, and he still grieves for her. If he lost his daughter and son-in-law too, it would likely kill him. That said, the son-in-law was a MS and resigned within a year. I never heard why. Genuinely nice people stuck in a cult.

24

black dog comes to visit

by zeb in

jw
friends

dear friends,.

once again my depression has got the better of me and i must bow out for a time.. "the angels sang glory to god in the highest and on earth peace unto men of goodwill'.

so if that means at this special time of the year then have a happy and safe christmas time all of you.. hugs.

Sail Away

(((Zeb))) Please do take care of yourself, and let us know how you are doing as you are able.

Diane