Earlier it was mentioned the name used to be The Informant.
How inappropriate as was in use right after World War II, if not earlier!
thaisun
JoinedPosts by thaisun
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How come it was Our Kingdom Ministry then it was Our Kingdom Service then it was changed back to Our Kingdom Ministry?
by hoser init was okm in the old days 50s and 60s then it was our kingdom service in the 70's then they changed it back again??????.
this is the publication used at the service meeting thursday nights showing how to preach in the territory..
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This Riddle reminds me of the WTBTS
by 3dogs1husband ini dont know how well this riddle will work in written form, this reminds me so much of the round and round reasoning jw (my mom) uses daily.. three men go skiing, and forgot to book their hotel rooms.
they find a hotel with only one room left, and the three agree to take it and share.
the bell hop kept 2 dollars.
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thaisun
So this the first "Theocratic Joke"!
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This Riddle reminds me of the WTBTS
by 3dogs1husband ini dont know how well this riddle will work in written form, this reminds me so much of the round and round reasoning jw (my mom) uses daily.. three men go skiing, and forgot to book their hotel rooms.
they find a hotel with only one room left, and the three agree to take it and share.
the bell hop kept 2 dollars.
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Banned expressions= Pioneers abused me for saying "that sucks or peeved"!
by Witness 007 inyes as a young man on 20 out witnessing with the special pioneers one brother said his bible study wasn't home...."oh that sucks" said i......well, you would have thought i said "that sucks balls" three pioneers completely freak out and as a "trinity" start telling me off...i didn't think it was a swear word....anyone else?.
once the c.o used the term "peeved off" during his talk...well, everyone did research on the word to see if it was the same as "pissed off.
".
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thaisun
Struth was one BAD word, 'cos it's short for God's Truth. Cor Blimey was another. That was a contraction of God Blind Me. One girlfriend I had 50+ years ago used to say the Russian town, Vladivastok. Sound good when said furiously!
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thaisun
What has happened to this site? It has been "disabled".
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PRAYING.... Is it the answer to eating disorders?
by Gill ini found that the article on 'young popele ask....do i have an eating disorder?
' in the awake magazine for october 2006 to have worrying advice in it.. apparantly the answer to this problem, according to the wtbts is prayer!
how did psychiatrists miss this for so long?.
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thaisun
Sosad Your story was heartbreaking and so revealing of the things that have gone on in this awful organisation. Your advise is so good so true.
Their treatment of you reminds me of when I had a back operation which had gone wrong. I was bedridden and an elder came round and told me I should get out of bed and do bricklaying!! We had a three year old son which my husband had to take care of. He was not able to lead the group one Sunday. Ultimately his Min Servants position was taken away from him for failing his duties!
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Gilead 42nd Class 1966
by thaisun inis there anyone out there who was in the 42nd class of gilead and has seen the light?
my name then was vivienne ainsworth.
i would dearly love to hear from anyone who remembers me.
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thaisun
Hi! Bit late replying.
Have I thought of writing a book? Yes. I have written my story but it is yet to be edited and is too long and does not cover all the aspects of the 30 years in the WT.
My feelings too, are that it is a cathartic thing to do and in the end it is important to move on. Why let the WT take anymore of our precious life? There is a danger of swapping the life we had of being totally tied up, for the flip side of the coin, of continuing to allow them to dominate our every waking moment after we have left. The past is the past; move on. Why allow them to take anymore of our precious lives?
If I can help someone get free and enjoy their lives, then great. But to constantly rehash the old wounds - to me does no good. There is a wonderful life beyond the
Your experiences are invaluable to helping others. Treasure them, but don’t drown in them! I have family that has allowed that to happen to them. They continually bring up the bad things that happened to them. Others are so traumatized by abuse that they have no life even though many psychologists have tried to help them.
I found my way out through the scriptures; others through different means. But in my opinion you can‘t leave God out of the equation. He loves every one of us as though there is ONLY one of us! He has a plan for each one. In Jeremiah 29:11-14 He says “I have plans for you, plans that will not harm you…. If you seek me with all your heart then you will find me…and I will bring you out of captivity.” He also promises “I will never leave you or forsake you.”
Welcome Sosad . Keep doing what you are doing and get yourself a decent Translation of the scriptures (you will never find the truth in the NWT) and read it for pleasure. Apply the scripture to yourself as though God is speaking to you personally. Read the whole chapter not just one verse. You will then see why these things were said. For instance in John 10 if you read the whole chapter you will see Jesus was talking to the Jews, so when he spoke of the ‘other sheep’ he was talking about the gentiles, not some separate group who will live on the earth. There is nowhere in the scriptures that teach a two-class system of Christians. John 1 says he came to make us ALL children of God. That’s you and that’s me and all who put faith in him. Ask God to help you with your faith. Remember the fish and the stone!! (Matt 7) Seek a personal relationship with Him. You will not lose your love for him. He won’t let you! Being religious is not the answer. It is knowing him. Another corruption of the scriptures by the WT. It’s not taking in knowledge that is eternal life, but knowing God.
The Scriptures hold the answers, NOT the New World Society.
If anyone wishes to read a taste of my story you will find it if you click on to http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/6/115874/2035024/post.ashx#2035024
Toronto Guy: - the only name I know there is Don Burt who was the Branch Servant when I was in Peru. I’m so sorry about the treatment you are receiving from your mother. Just keep praying for her! I left Peru in August 69, my partner Avril East had another partner after me. Avril as far as I know is still a JW, but not now in Peru.
I love you folks. Keep searching. And give Jesus a chance.
Vivienne.
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Gilead 42nd Class 1966
by thaisun inis there anyone out there who was in the 42nd class of gilead and has seen the light?
my name then was vivienne ainsworth.
i would dearly love to hear from anyone who remembers me.
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thaisun
Thank you so much you Guys,I was reduced to tears especially those who found my words encourageing. The names of those in my class ring a bell but as we finally destroyed all our bound volumes and year books bar those we could use to help people I can't put a name to a face. I do have a photo of the class and if you can point them out it might ring a bell. I am the one on the right in the forth row, one in from the end with the up turned face and cheesy grin, wearing a dark, square-necked dress!!
Someone asked about my experiences in Gelead. Well I don't know where to start! But things that rung a disturbing bell were things like Bethel bros who took delight in shrinking missionaries' trousers to boys sizes in the Bethel laundry - not a very Christian thing to do seeing as we were all fairly poverty stricken! But even more important was a long lecture by Nathan H. Knorr on the dangers of independant thinking. I thought how can we reason through this teaching and believe it to be the truth if we didn't use our independant God-given mind! As the Apostle Paul said 'do not allow anyone to take away your freedom of speech'. We were gagged. We had to sign a paper to say we totally believed all that the Society said. If we didn't sign, the "punishment" was to be sent home. How many people would have the courage to go back to their home congregation in disgrace!! None signed though some privately protested!
I remember one fellow who refused an assignment to Portugal - then under persecution. Even though we were told it would be no disgrace to refuse, he was sent home to his American congregation instead of being offered something he felt he could cope with. How different from the Christian Church where people go where THEY feel God is directing them. They then themselves choose the appropriate training for that country. That's the difference of being under God's direction and loving care as opposed to a cruel misguided man-made organisation.
There really is so much in the 30 years I was in the Organisation and the struggle to get free that it would take too much space here, but what ultimately (way down the painful track) helped me the most was a study of the scriptures using different translations, together with the Kingdom Interlinear. After two agonising years I finally gave in when I saw how corrupted the NWT was. Its words have been altered and others added to sway the reader away from the real message about the Lord Jesus, who he is, and the real Gospel of freedom. That being, that Jesus did everything for us when he took on our sins and set us free. All we are asked to do by him is accept this wonderful free gift. No striving for perfection or acceptance from God. He loves us and acccepts us, warts and all. Knocking on doors and attending meetings etc will do nothing for us. It actually takes away from what the Lord Jesus has done. It takes the praise and glory away from him and the Father's love. You can't buy a gift. It is given freely.
I'm sorry but I have to share this as it is so releasing from what we had to do before to be accepted!!! If anyone is interested we wrote some leaflets which others, not us, have sent all over the world and we have heard have been a help to JWs and those trying to help them.
I am so pleased to hear from you dear folk. When we finally made our stand we were virtually alone. Isn't it great to have this avenue now, to have encouraging friends like you.
With love, Vivienne.
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Gilead 42nd Class 1966
by thaisun inis there anyone out there who was in the 42nd class of gilead and has seen the light?
my name then was vivienne ainsworth.
i would dearly love to hear from anyone who remembers me.
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thaisun
Is there anyone out there who was in the 42nd class of Gilead and has seen the light? My name then was Vivienne Ainsworth. I would dearly love to hear from anyone who remembers me. I am now married with two sons. I live with my husband of nearly 37 yrs in Brisbane, Australia. It would be great to hear your stories of how you finally found your freedom.
I don't normally correspond on the net but was so touched by some of the personal stories I read that I had to respond.
God bless all you brave and courageous souls who like us have gone - or are in the process of going - through what we went through in 1990. It's a hard road but worth every bit of the difficulty to become whole and free again.
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My JW friend just read Crisis of Conscience!!
by fullofdoubtnow ini have recently been in fairly regular contact with a long - time jw friend who, despite my da status, decided to put our 25 - year long friendship before the shunning doctrine.
she has visited me, discreetly of course, several times, and has read on jwd and other sites when she has been here.
she recently watched some of the child abuse videos on silentlambs, and all she has seen has caused her to doubt the truth of the wts, after 45 years as a baptised jw, with many of those years spent regular pioneering.. it was the local dc a couple of weeks ago, and she only went for half a day, and missed the rest of the sessions, and she hasn't been attending all of the meetings lately either.
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thaisun
This is my first entry on the net answering anything on the JW subject as I find many of the things written are tasteless and hurtful towards sincere JWs. But my heart took off when I read your story Marion, and I just could not wait to add my two pennyworth! Bless you for your courage in reading COC and acting on it and bless your dear friend. You are in good company as you can see from the entries from all the great folk who have responded with their heartbreaking but encouraging stories. My husband and I have been free now from the Organisation since 1990. He being brought up a witness from the age of 9yrs and in it for 40 years and I a convert at the age of 20; in it for 30yrs. I was a regular pioneer and then a special pioneer going on to Gilead in 1966. From there I was assigned to Peru as a missionary. Due to severe health problems I stayed only three years and was hospitalized on my return to England. My husband (then my fiancé) was due to go to Gilead the following spring and we had hoped to marry as soon as the Organisation would let us, some 4 or more years down the track! Due to my health problems and returning to England, he shelved that and we married and were assigned to a Spanish speaking congregation in Paddington, London until we both suffered health problems and had to stop. We were treated in an uncaring way, which hurt us deeply, when we explained our situation to London Bethel . With time we were advised by doctors to get to a warm climate and so we emigrated to Australia in 1971. Years went by and one distressing thing after another happened and finally we drifted out, only attending the memorial. From my previous Christian upbringing I knew something was dreadfully wrong but couldn’t put my finger on it. To cut a long story short I was challenged by a Christian on the deity of Christ. Now, with two children to worry about and my faith in shreds, I ended up under a specialist for my nerves and on antidepressants. These helped me to shelve my fears temporally until the day came when I felt the overwhelming need to search the scriptures for myself using several translations, together with the Kingdom Interlinear on the subject of who Jesus really is. My faith in him had never waned and for 10 years we had prayed every night to know the real truth that would set us free as he promised. At the end of 2 years of study I could see clearly how the Organization had altered the scriptures about the true identity of the Lord Jesus. The Kingdom Interlinear being their worst enemy for revealing this! I cannot tell you what joy, mixed with trepidation, this brought me. Joy because Jesus had been faithful in answering my prayer, trepidation because I knew what leaving the Organization would mean. Well, all I can say is that God is faithful. He stands by what he says when he says “do not fear for I am with you wherever you go”. Ours is a very long story, which I am trying to cut short! My husband had followed my studies during this time and mercifully joined me when I decided to disassociate myself from the Organization and to state the reasons. Since then we have helped a great many people both JWs and those whose loved ones have become involved. God has brought these into our lives; we have not had to knock on doors or go looking. There are so many people who have innocently been harmed by this cult. Probably what I most would like to say to you Marion is: don’t throw the baby out with the bath water. Just because a destructive cult has damaged your faith and life, this is only temporary. God is real. He is there and knows all these things. He loves you so very much and in many ways your stand for truth is not unlike the sufferings of many thousands for the Christian faith through the centuries. We are special people with invaluable skills unique to us. No one else understands this struggle like we do. No one else can empathize with another JW like we can. You have a whole new family out there who loves you and is cheering you on, so take heart you WILL be victorious against this great evil and your strong character will be even stronger for it. Remember, only the strong can stand up against this deception. You are a strong person, not weak as they will have you believe. Our eldest son is now in ministry on radio in Sydney and has written a wonderful book. He works with organisations sponsoring children in Africa and India etc. God has blessed us so much and all the suffering in the end is worth it, you’ll see, dearest Marion. We love you. Hold on. It’s a bumpy ride but the freedom is worth it, believe me. Vivienne.