The $160 million figure is for the residences only. The total figure would be much higher , but remember that most of the cost is done by virtually free labour , which is the highest element of most building costs , so the value is much higher. The whole point of these projects is to build tax free with "slave" labour , hold for a few years , sell , repeat.
Posts by dozy
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45Ramapo
by Mit123 inhow much is ramapo going to cost?
my daughter in africa meets in a cow shed for her meetings.
i wonder how many khs in africa they could build if they dropped ramapo?.
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Almost got caught lying about listening in to yesterday's Memorial
by RULES & REGULATIONS ini have not attended any kingdom hall meetings in 10 years.
the elders gave up on me a while ago.. the last 3 years i get phone calls to listen in to zoom meetings.
listened in several times... nothing has changed!
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dozy
It seems a bit strange that the Org puts so much emphasis on passing the emblems even to the rather theatrical method of serving the servers , yet they are comfortable with people dialling in via Zoom for the memorial.
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11530
It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars
by Newly Enlightened inoriginal reddit post (removed).
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dozy
Am I missing something? if he has 500 patrons paying (on average , lets say) £10 - £20 a month plus a bit of income from Youtube ads and occasional live streams - how is that so bad? As a side hustle - in addition to a job - it seems a pretty good income to me - even if you have to pay Tibor to edit the videos (which is hardly rocket science these days).
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Cost of living crisis
by ExBethelitenowPIMA induring the height of the pandemic all elders had to report to the co anyone who was struggling with bills or who couldn’t pay the rent.
the co reported it to the branch.. i don’t know what happens next.
do the branch help at all?
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dozy
I remember when I was an elder quite regularly in elders meetings we would have a discussion about a needy JW in the congregation who was saying they couldn't afford to go to the convention or pay their electric bill or whatever. The problem was that we weren't allowed to use congregation funds for this kind of purpose ( this was before the Society appropriated them all ) and because an announcement was made every month about how funds were spent it would have had to include such an announcement.
What tended to happen is that one of the elders would say that they would give (say) $100 to the sister and deduct $20 a month from their donations for the next 5 months so in essence the congregation would be paying. I actually did this myself a couple of times. It was the only way we could work things around.
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Do the old boys on the GB actually report their field service hours?
by eyeslice inthis came to mind as my 71 year old wife got up at 6:30 to drive 1.1/4 hours to meet the field ministry group.
we live a long way from the kingdom hall and the traffic is horrendous where we live!.
somehow, i doubt the good old boys do much themselves.
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dozy
Ray Franz said that the GB members did very little ministry (ISOCF P200).
Just my limited experience - there was a vacation home in my territory that the owner would only rent out to "higher-ups" in the Org as a freebie. Basically the more senior you were - the more chance you would have to stay there. So there were prominent JWs from all over the world - Construction Overseers , Regional Overseers , Branch committee members , Bethel Heavies- a Who's Who of JW top brass. I was a keyholder and myself and my wife would often clean it so we often would meet the occupants , who usually stayed for a week. Somewhat optimistically , the meeting times and field service times and locations were pinned up on a notice board inside. Occasionally they would turn up for a meeting (KH was only 10 minutes drive away. ) NEVER did anyone ever go to a scheduled field ministry arrangement. NEVER.
Regularly on meeting up I would ask them if they wanted to go out for an hour doing a few RVs close by and often my wife would ask the sister if she wanted to go on calls or a bible study. I supposed I had an assumption that as "spiritual people" they might want to do an hour on the ministry locally during the week. Virtually every single time the offers were kindly refused - I can honestly only think of a couple of occasions ( over 10 years ) that someone went on a study with my wife ( and the property was occupied almost every week of the year).
I actually mentioned this to the elders who visited me after I faded and one of them was honest enough to admit that it was something that really stumbled him as well.
I know these people were on vacation and the Society gave them very little time off but it does show the attitude towards field ministry by the higher ups in the Society that I would assume is mirrored by the GB.
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question for those who had been elders on judicial committee
by enoughisenough ini was wondering if some who may have been in the judgement seat ( so to speak ) had a wake-up call while judging someone who was defending leaving jw.
( or maybe it was from reading a letter of disassociation.
) .
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dozy
Same as Blues Brother - nothing I saw in JCs raised any flags whatsoever.
The JCs I was involved in were the usual run of the mill - adultery cases, courting couples having pre-marital sex , smokers ( cigarettes , pot ) , boozers etc. Often repeat cases and most involving marginal JWs that basically believed but couldn't live up to the rules. Generally just private / public reproof - I think only two or three got DFd and they were pretty much open and shut cases. Apostasy cases were rather rare back then pre-internet - I never dealt with one.
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Watchtower November 2022... Adapt to new adjustments and new changes
by RULES & REGULATIONS inthe watchtower—study edition | november 2022. study article 48. keep your senses when your loyalty is tested.
14 vlado, a 73-year-old elder in slovenia, struggled when his congregation merged with another congregation and the kingdom hall that he attended was closed.
he says: “i did not understand why such a beautiful kingdom hall would be closed.
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dozy
The trend has got to be a further reduction in Kingdom Halls - if even 25% of JWs are accessing via Zoom (anecdotally , much more than this in some congregations) , inevitably many more KHs are going to be sold. And as much of the easier mergers / sell offs have already occurred , some of these sell-offs are really going to bite - JWs won't like the idea of driving 40 minutes or more to their new congregation.
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Unmarried couple staying at my house
by suavojr ini need your help with this topic.
i’m trying to find an elder’s letter or wt article that frown upon a good standing jw allowing an unmarried couple to stay over their house for the night.. my wife claims this is a conscience matter and i say that’s bs, this leadership does not allow it.
would like to find this info..
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dozy
This situation is pretty common. Policing it is a challenge - depends on the elders and the nosiness / gossip of the congregation and the person concerned and their standing in the congregation. An elder in my own congregation often had his (non-JW) daughter stay with her long term boyfriend in their house but he basically told anyone who enquired to mind their own business as far as the sleeping arrangements were concerned.
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JW "new light" immediately reversed/contradicted
by BoogerMan inseptember 2022 study watchtower - par.
14 p. 18 - "after all, no one will be allowed to practice vile things in the new world.
the unrighteous must have practiced these vile things before their death.
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dozy
I'm assuming (though it is a bit ambiguous) that really bad things (eg murder) will not be permitted in the new order , but general naughtiness / "worldliness" (eg beard growing) will be permitted , at least till the person either dies due to being judged unworthy or gets finally snuffed out at the "Final Test". . But a lot of the Societies ramblings about the "New Order" remind me of the debates about how many angels can dance on the end of a pin and it really underlines that this doctrine has literally been plucked from a couple of random scriptures and spun together.
For a leadership that talks about how we "needn't speculate" on what will happen in the New Order , they sure do like to speculate a lot.
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Kneel before me, for I am an ... Activist!
by Simon ini thought it was just me that had a negative view of people who proclaim themselves to be activists.. but no, it seems i'm not alone!.
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dozy
I sometimes wonder if those that brand themselves "activists" are , consciously or sub-consciously , looking down on those who share their beliefs but aren't as vocal or "active" as the "activist" is. A bit like the self righteous pioneer / elderette etc types in the congregation who always seemed a bit dismissive and sometimes openly critical of those who didn't do as much ministry as they did.