Posts by joelbear69

67

Japan closes 638 Congregations!!!!! Why???

by Witness 007 in

japan since the 1970''s has had amazing publisher increases!

every year the number of witnesses shot up by many thousands.

this peaked in 1998, since then the number of witnesses and congregations has continued to drop!.

joelbear69

Japan has had a very low birthrate for a number of years.

no bambinos, means little growth for JWs who get most of their growth

through natural birth increases.

36

Pedophilia Summary

by LennyinBluemont in

ive read barbaras intro to the pedophile records and thought it might be useful to have a record here on the forum of the most damning and verifiable facts regarding the pedophilia situation.

sort of a summary.

that way we can all have a source to go to and be able to quickly summarize whats criminal about the way the society has used its authority in this matter.

Nightmares

by joelbear69 in

i had another one last night.

they all center around me seeing jehovah's witnesses from the past who i cared about .

and still care about.

bittersweet is I guess the best I will ever do with dealing with my past.

I really still have not learned to just accept and be who I am. So many
years of pretending broke my spirit and a spirit is hard to repair.

Socially I am still almost completely inept. I am terrified of counting on
people to be my friends because I don't think I can stand to lose people
any more. Of course, this leads to me losing more people out of my life.

Vicious cycle.

13

Nightmares

by joelbear69 in

i had another one last night.

they all center around me seeing jehovah's witnesses from the past who i cared about .

and still care about.

joelbear69

hey gregor,

who you calling old? :)

13

Nightmares

by joelbear69 in

i had another one last night.

they all center around me seeing jehovah's witnesses from the past who i cared about .

and still care about.

joelbear69

I had another one last night.

They all center around me seeing Jehovah's Witnesses from the past who i cared about
and still care about. Its always very surreal. I am trying to be their
friends again but there are always eerie circumstances that prevent it.

Last night, Chris, my best friend from childhood was in my nightmare.
I will always miss his friendship even though I have not seen him in 20 years.

Also in my dream were my friends Eddie and Cheri from Jacksonville.

I can list hundreds of people that are witnesses whom I love and will never
see again. Its like trying to get your mind to accept hundreds of deaths
of loved ones all at the same time.

The only witnesses who have stayed in contact with me are my parents, but I know
that they only do this hoping that I will return to the witnesses one day. There
is an agenda there, not simply love.

Its been 20 years. I still haven't moved on successfully from this trauma.

I will continue my efforts to find my real life.

57

My District Convention pioneer experiences- I fed my kids from the gutter?

by Witness 007 in

i wen't to the district convention 2 years ago, the talk was on "sacrifices," a pioneer couple were interviewed by the c.o.

they had pioneered for many years with two kids, the dad worked part time.

they explianed how money was "tight" for them many times.

joelbear69

wouldn't that be stealing if they knew the company that the vegetables belonged to?

37

What Positive Things Have You Achieved Since Leaving?

by sweet pea in

purps' wonderful thread about love made me wonder about something else.

what have you achieved/become since leaving the organisation that proves there is a happy, successful life outside being a jehovah's witness?

for me, although it's only been a very short time, too short to achieve much, i count becoming: non-judgemental of my fellow man; a mum that can give her kids all the room to grow and blossom without fear of 'sinning' or being kicked out for bad behaviour; a person that can feel comfortable worshipping in a church or not, depending on whatever i feel like doing; someone who can love and give freely and celebrate life in all it's glory (i just love birthdays!

joelbear69

got my bachelors degree found a life partner who i have been with almost 19 years had a successful career in banking discovered new hobbies travelled almost the entire U.S.

20

left 16yrs ago n still have issues and confidence probs,

by xnmad in

ileft "the truth" 16yrs ago and still cant move on in some areas of my life, i have no family now as they stopped talking to me and have never relented.this has left me with serious problems with needing aproval from people in my life.i have never stopped trying to win my fathers aproval and no i,l never have it unless i go back(which would never happen)jus wondered if any1 else has similar hangups, n if you do, how do i deal with it n move on.

joelbear69

the need for approval as almost destroyed me several times in my life.

i guess all you can do is keep taking it one day at a time and try to

find people who you can help and who can help you.

32

Jehovah's Witnesses Today & Yesterday

by minimus in

jw
friends

jws today are not like the ones i knew when i was growing up.

we used to look down upon those that didn't make all of the meetings and regularly go out in service every weekend!

if someone was not in the theocratic ministry school----what was wrong with them???

joelbear69

i think for the most part this is true of all religions and of religious thinking in general.

people take the concept of obedience to authority much less seriously today than

in the past when JW's were much harsher and so were other religions

no one expects the spanish inquisition

26

where did everybody go

by joelbear69 in

jw
friends

its been years since i posted.

i've gone through a rough period.

but i've posted enough about that.. i have recovered and hope to be part of the board again.

joelbear69

its been years since i posted. i've gone through a rough period. but i've posted enough about that.

i have recovered and hope to be part of the board again. hopefully Simon will give me my old name

back. but that's up to him.

where are all those people who posted years ago when i was here?