we haven't heard much recently about india.
whats the current situation over there?
.
In 06 I spoke with Service Dept in India. They acknowledged that local congregations often do things differently than Brooklyn. Bribes and payoffs to avoid DF and get position recommendations often occurred. Even the less than 50k Indian JW don't even beat to the same drumbeat as Mother Borg. Very much a blip on the religious scene. Likely hasn't changed in a decade
Snakes
maybe it's a british thing, but we tend to be polite.
too polite.. even if someone is inconsiderate, we apologize as though we did something wrong.. prime offenders?
people in supermarkets, specifically costco.. they have nice wide isles and yet somehow, for some reason, some idiot will find a way to put their trolley sideways and keep a hand on it while reaching for something, thus blocking the entire isle.. or another favorite ... you're going through the entrance and someone just stops, maybe to answer their phone.. how about you wait in a queue at a checkout for ages and when it's their turn, then they start looking for their purse.. how many times have you thought "idiot" or muttered under your breath?.
I can't be too crazy or flip the bird because I drive my company car on and off the clock (nice perq). Drawback is the company logo on the sides. Which also makes me a target of bad drivers.
Got in an accident the other day, now the company is providing a rental from Enterprise.... sans-iogo.
***'evil grin*** guess who is flippin' the International Symbol of Displeasure to bad Drivers?
Snakes (Rich)
i saw this on reddit:.
https://www.reddit.com/r/exjw/comments/5mlgsm/2017_yearbook_of_jehovahs_witnesses/.
overall the numbers are better than last year (1.8% growth compared to 1.5% last year -- as i predicted ;-) ) with an increase in all major figures including 1300 more congregations (i assume this is not physical kingdom halls?).
When I was in MTS, a discussion was had about how many publishers a congregation had to have on average to split into a second congregation. The direction was an average of 75 strong adult publishers per congregation. Taking the 8.132 million avg publishers / 75 = about 108k congos. Current 2017 figures are 119k congos.
Looks like lots of room for consolidation...... lol
Snakes
my daughter asked if anyone has heard anything about a 'big announcement' being made sometime this week in congregations in canada and possibly beyond... in her words "it's like a biggggg long thing, they cut out part of the book study for it and people heard it was a historical thing"... any ideas?
could it be the mexican branch closing or the theme of the convention?
or something else?
If you are a local dub, you cannot just "show up,'" you have to be assigned or invited to International Conventions.
BUT, if you are just John Q. Apostate, you could just show up as an interested visitor. LOL.
Snakes
dear friends, i am relatively 'new' on this website, but i have been posting about not being allowed to see my granddaughter and the 'shunning' thing..i was just going to start a court proceding(my husband is an attorney)to try and get visitation, then my dad passed away..many of you wrote to me and showered me with much needed support.
thru my dad's 'passing', i had to contact my daughter and we had a long 'talk' and she wasn't 'shunning' me after all..my sister, who is a "double-life" witness told my daughter some terrible lies about me which were ridiculous, and my daughter at that time was being treated for depression, so she didn't know what to think(as my sister is a witness, and she naturally assumed she was being truthful)..i have a damaged neurological system from 8 months of very high-dose chemo, at times i use a cane, i have chronic pain, etc.,but it is all from my illness..my sister was telling my daughter i was on drugs, and yes i am on medication, but not medication that gets one 'high', this is medication i must be on for life.
so, thru my dad's passing, a miracle has happened, after 2 years of missing my granddaughter, in a few weeks i will be spending an entire weekend with her and my grandson whom i haven't seen, so my daughter and her husband can have some 'alone' time!!
It would be interesting to know how the now 16 yr old grandchild and family are doing. Sometimes resurrected threads can be fun.
Snakes
when i got baptized as a jehovah’s witness in the summer of 83, my honeymoon period lasted about two years before i began to wonder if the society and its adherents were all it claimed to be.
no of the things i encountered for the first few years was really faith shattering, they simply just made me pause and think.
after a short while, i would file those issues in the back of my brain files and move forward.. .
No, I believe the OP. We had an elder who asked the most inappropriate questions in sexual cases.
I was chairman on a JC of a single sister who was involved in sexual conduct with a worldly man at work. Despite being single, as an MTS grad and an outsider, she trusted me to "confess" to. Our pervert elder (former PO), wanted to chair and me not be on the committee at all, allegedly because I was single. The other elders agreed she had come to me and I had the details and I was chair.
This other elder insisted on being on the JC. Couldn't figure out why he wanted to so badly. The reason was apparent when he started to ask very innapropriate questions. I asked the sister to give us a few minutes. When she left, I ripped him a new one. I took over the questioning, carefully, asking for only the bare minimum of details. I made sure the notes also only had the same. I tried to help her maintain her dignity.
It was after that I began to really examine the scriptural foundation of JCs, which we discussed in horrible detail in MTS. Of course there was none.
Not long after this the same elder finally succeeded in having me removed for unrelated "unreasonableness," starting my departure from the Borg.
So, all that to say, I have no doubt of the veracity of the OP details. I do question the need to detail it here, just my opinion
Snakes (Rich)
with our latest and final run in with the elders, the wife and i had a very long talk about what's next in our life.
do we try to help others see the light as it were concerning watchtower or do we just let it go and move on with our life?
we have made it perfectly clear that we will never go back to watchtower and we are finally happy.
Dark knight, move on and be glad you have your wife along with you. This board has been a great support. I probably still come here because I see stories of older JWs leaving WT and it gives me hope that my 73 yr old JW mom will leave it behind.
For me, I cannot take on the role of ex JW activist. If someone comes to me, knowing my exit story, and asks for my help, I will. Once my mom either leaves the cult, dead or alive, I'm done too
Enjoy your freedom.
Snakes
i'm putting the below information on this forum first to get your input.
so my 9 year old leukemia survivor wants to do his science project searching for the cause of leukemia in children.
the data required to put together a semblance of a cause is vast to put it lightly.
Don't know where you are located. Check with local Children's hospitals and pediatric cancer centers. Also teaching hospitals with a strong pediatric program. Maybe your child, as a survivor, will illicit a positive response from researchers in these programs. Social media is a good place, but be careful, you might get TOO MUCH unusable info. Keep it simple.
Good luck, one never knows which mind the cure will come from.
Snakes (Rich)
i registered in the board and i wanted to present myself.. i used to visit this forum some time ago and even register an account but then i tried to convince myself all was ok in the congregation.
now, i'm coming back :).
i live in a southern european nation, i'm a young jw, a good example in the congregation serving as a regular pioneer and ms. for all in the congregation i'm the good guy, one of the best examples in the area i live.
Good plan, quit pioneering, take the job, save up money, stay out of debt, move out on your own, switch congos....fade. The treadmill in WT never stops.
Do you know what foie gras is? The way a goose is raised for that is horrible. That is the way I felt growing up in the cult...force fed with goals...pioneer, ms, elder, mts...all of which I did...in the end ...the goose is still cooked, with a horrible life until then.
Good luck with your new life and freedom.
Snakes (Rich)
as i was sitting in the meeting last night i thought about this question.. sometimes it feels really lonely because i don't connect with most others in the congregation and i have to be so careful with the ones with whom i do associate.. quick rundown on my life...got baptized at 17...married at 20...became inactive at 28 wife still active though...came back to meetings with her 20 years later just to keep her quiet and see if they had changed (for a while i actually thought they had)...now i am still inactive and haven't gone out in service or anything.
i just go to meetings with my wife who is happy as a lark to have me there with her...just go to meetings and think...and think...and think.... anyway, i just wondered if there are any out there like me who are going to meetings and nothing else?.
It has been 10 years this month, Christmas week to be exact, since I was removed as an elder during the CO visit. Best gift ever. Moved congos, circuits, states without physically moving away. Started to fade. When the new elders figured they couldn't reappoint me, an MTS grad (read: dump their work on me), as an elder, the new car smell faded almost as quickly as I did.
When the KH went through a total renovation, everyone scattered and I left for the summer, coming back for the first Sunday back in the shiny new hall. Listening to the visiting speaker, a friend, I had the same type of thoughts as the OP. I knew I no longer fit in. I stayed only through the talk and left.
Never stepped foot in a KH in over 9 years since. No funerals, no Memorials, no CONventions. Been to 2 JW weddings held at a banquet hall. Same elder (initials RC) gave both talks. Both times the worldly people attending scratched their heads with a WTF look. Bad even by witness standards. I won't be doing that again either.
Friendship in the Borg is CONditional.
Snakes (Rich, of the "never being CONNED again Sheep Class")
