BeautifulGarbage

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Posts by BeautifulGarbage

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  8

  Shepherd #2 - Someone Stole George!

  by Amazing in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  someone stole george!

  in memory of george westerlin, veteran of wwii.

  not all shepherding visits are by two elders making formal calls.

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  BeautifulGarbage

  Amazing,

  I have many reactions to your experience with Nancy and George.

  Anger At the way George was declared undesirable by your fellow elders. He was obviously in no condition to push magazines and add to the time tallies, so they deemed him unworthy of their congregation.

  Ambiguity Because I don’t agree with JW doctrine, I have mixed feelings about the Elders rejection of him. Would have becoming a JW been good for him? I don’t know. Seems he greatly enjoyed Nancy, and later, your attention.

  Sympathy for Nancy. I am considered by many to be off-beat and quirky. “Weird” if you will. I remember doing grocery shopping for an elderly lady that couldn’t leave her home. She was a bit odd (told me to make sure no one followed me to her house), but was harmless. She was a customer of the bank I worked at. My co-workers thought it was strange I was helping her. They couldn’t understand why I would bother. There were snickers behind my back. So, from my perspective, Nancy is totally cool!

  Fury At the pastor and nurse treating George like he was some religious pawn on a chessboard. Even though he was in ill health, it was very apparent he could make his own choices about what he wanted.

  Grossed out by the descriptions of drool and other “colorful stuff”. I don’t mean this to say I was offended in anyway. Some old people drool. I remember having a bank customer, an elderly man, completely drench my desk with drool. The whole time I was helping him conduct business, I never said a word. Though I have to admit, I was a bit queasy on the inside. After he left, I quietly clean up my desk.

  Touched by how you were affected by this experience and how you honor George, and Nancy, in this post. May George rest in peace!

  Andee
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  26

  Those people with the cardboard signs.

  by Princess in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  what do you do when you see people holding the cardboard signs?

  sunday afternoon i was driving to a day spa in seattle for a pedicure.

  i was sitting at a red light and there was an older man holding a cardboard sign.

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  BeautifulGarbage

  Lisa,

  I lived out in the country. Jensen and 99. Let me tell you, THAT is one long red light!

  Andee
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  12

  How about an Overseer for the Elderly??

  by Mulan in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i was telling my daughter in law about this ongoing saga, with the elders and my mother.

  she isn't a jw, and attends a christian church.. when i told her about calling the local elder, who is the presiding overseer, she asked me why i called that elder.

  "is he the one in charge of helping the elderly?

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  BeautifulGarbage

  It never ceases to amaze me how the WTS tries to be different just for the sake of being different.

  Andee
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  5

  Shunning Us

  by Dawn in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i guess that since i'm new i've probably missed something.......... but shouldn't "youknow" and "mavman" be shunning us?

  after all - we're like.....df'd, da'd, and possible even .

  don't get me wrong - i enjoy their posts because i always want to have an open mind and hear both sides of a discussion - but it seems to me that if they truly believed the organization was jehovah's only source of information and the only "ark" so to speak, they would do what it said and not be spending time (lots of time) on an anti-jw discussion board.. my dad was an elder before he passed away recently - he was always willing to listen to my questions and try to answer them (a good thing - open mind) - but he truly believed the jw was god's organization and would not in any way have anything to do with an anti-jw web-site, material, etc!!

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  BeautifulGarbage

  I, quite frankly, like that active witnesses come here. Usually, they aren't active very long.

  Any witnesses reading this, WELCOME!

  Andee
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  26

  Those people with the cardboard signs.

  by Princess in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  what do you do when you see people holding the cardboard signs?

  sunday afternoon i was driving to a day spa in seattle for a pedicure.

  i was sitting at a red light and there was an older man holding a cardboard sign.

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  BeautifulGarbage

  I remember when I lived in the Fresno, CA. area and the local newpaper, The Fresno Bee, did a big new spread about the cardboard sign beggers. Nearly ALL took the money they had received from kindhearted people and bought drugs.

  I remember being approached by a whole family once in a restaurant parking lot. All were clean and looked well fed. The "Dad" had informed me that they had just driven up from San Diego and they had no money for a place to sleep and food. I asked why didn't he take the money he spent on gas and feed his family! Why would he drive 100 miles to a different city knowning they had no where to sleep? I remember the whole clan slowly backing away from me.

  Back to Fresno.

  The freeway exit I used to get to my home always had this same guy sitting there with his "Veteran, hungry need food, God Bless" sign. There he would sit in the 100 degree heat day after day. If a person can sit in that kind of heat for hours at a time, they must be in relatively good health.I would always make a effort to look directly at him. I have nothing to feel ashamed of because I am unwilling to give away the money my husband busts his ass for to feed and cloth our children.

  That being said. I have a very big place in my heart for people that are in difficult circumstances and are doing all that they can to pull themselves out of it. To those, I can always manage to give something to. However, panhandlers do not have my sympathy. Sitting at a traffic signal with a sign to deliberately play on peoples emotions, and guilt, only evokes my disgust.

  Andee
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  15

  she won't stop

  by apostate woman in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  where do i start?

  my mom and dad had gotten into the jw religion about 23 years ago.

  about 5 years ago, my mom fell away from the religon and then eventually ended up divorcing my dad.

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  BeautifulGarbage

  Oh good grief!

  Here we go with the "pagan" thing again.

  Just about everything in use today is "pagan" if one applies the definition used in the dictionary.

  Celebrating wedding anniversaries is pagan. Wedding rings are pagan. Heck! The alphabet is pagan! Toilet paper is pagan!

  No offense, Trudy, it sure seems that you still tow the JW party line.

  Andee
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  33

  I need your prayers please

  by WildHorses in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i was at the hospital all day with my best friend, mattie.

  she had a biopsy on her colon this morning.

  they are looking for cancer, seeing they can't seem to find anything else causing her problem.

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  BeautifulGarbage

  (((((((((((((((Lilacs and Mattie))))))))))))))))))))))

  Sending you, and your friend, good thoughts and positive vibes.

  Andee
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  7

  The latest info on Prince

  by terafera in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  this was emailed to me[:.

  let me provide you with some facts about prince .

  his full name is roger prince nelson.

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  BeautifulGarbage

  "When Dubs cry"

  LMAO!

  That's a good one!

  Andee
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  17

  Wouldn't It Be Great If We Could Only.......

  by Englishman in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  do you remember feeling like that when you were a jw?.

  if only we were allowed to ........... (fill in the blanks stating what it was you really wanted to do, but couldn't because of your religion.

  ) i'll wait for someone else to start because my "if only" is a bit obvious.. englishman...

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  BeautifulGarbage

  Well, since I only have childhood experiences, I can remember in my young mind thinking:

  If only we were allowed to be normal.

  To be normal to me was being allowed to do those things that other worldly kids could do. Plus, not having a fanatic JW grandmother, who lived with us, that witnessed to everyone, regardless of age, within a 5 mile radius.

  Andee
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  13

  Shepherding #1

  by Amazing in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  introduction: much has been said about the jw judicial committee system, and all the negatives, along with some concurrent shepherding visits.

  the purpose of this short series is to discuss how and why we made shepherding visits, and what those visits were like from the perspective as elders.

  nothing here is designed to be self-serving, self-indulgent, or self-justifying ... it needs to be told from the vantage point of how we felt at the time, and what we thought we were accomplishing ... though blind to the hurt and harm some of this caused.. ps: future installments will eliminate the background, and be shorter.. background: our congregation was known as the armpit of the circuit because of high inactivity, high irregularity.

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  BeautifulGarbage

  Amazing,

  Thank you for sharing this experience.

  I am also the child of an alcoholic, and a JW, to boot. To list all the resultant maladys that came from such an upbringing is a book in itself.

  I remember the first time I was shown the list of characteristics of ACoA's, it was like having the wind knocked out of me. I just couldn't believe that there were "others". I went to ACA meetings for a while and found that they helped me begin to heal. However, I'm not John Bradshaw fan. Yet, I know that he has helped many.

  Even though as elders you and your partner were not "trained" to council this woman, the geniune love and concern shines brightly in the words so gently expressed to her. Those type of gestures in themselves can, and seems to be in this instance, of great comfort.

  Look forward to number 2.

  Andee