My "foster" family whom I lived with on and off were their own car group... and her husband was the PO so he always headed up the service meeting. He's always arrange car groups and keep his family together in one car. Then after the service meeting we'd go run errands. Picking up movie tickets for later that day, running in to pay the water bill, etc. Then we'd meet for "break" and head home. lol.
When I actually went out in service, there was a lot of time wasting. lots of driving around town and stopping to "check records" and discuss where to go next... mixed in with jokes and small talk. I can't imagine any of us really enjoyed the "at the door" moments- but the road trip feel of some of those pioneer Wednesdays were fun at times.
The door knocking and talking was mortifying for me. I'm kind of quiet by nature, and I just don't talk to random people. I always asked the other person at the door to speak... I had no shame. Since I didn't go out often, when I was it was usually with a pioneer sister who was trying to encourage me. So it fit the dynamic to ask that of them.
Posts by AlyMC
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6whats it like going on the "work" ministery
by looloo ina lot of ex dubs i know have said they did not enjoy it at all , and i certainly got the impression it was more of a duty than a privelidge by ones who are still in it , they even asked if they could use me to get thier time in !!!
at work .
i used to think to myself that at least the born agains look as though they actually enjoy worshipping god considering they are serving satan !!!!!!
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AlyMC
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What 1st made you come to JWD??
by karter inid been out for a few years my wife brought a computer when she was at the meeting one nite i typed in jws here i am today still learning.
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i guess we will look at sites we know something about.
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AlyMC
you know, I read at a lot of these sites when I first left (4ish years ago) and I don't remember for sure if I ever read here or not... but it does look familiar.
This time I was looking for other ex-jw's... just because a lot of people can't really understand the history and sometimes you want to talk about that experience. Someone on myspace directed me here, so I joined :) -
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Stories; Who got d/f'd and it really shocked the congregation?
by jambon1 inany stories?..........
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AlyMC
Every congregation has their drama. I remember in one congregation there was the "elder leaves wife for fellow elder's wife" scenario.
I think the most disgusting thing I know was when my good friend was DF'd for repeated same sex fantasies and crushes and I think some mild physical action... not even for actually having sex, but for repeatedly confessing himself that he had what he thought was a "weakness" the worse part is that they DF'd him while he was fighting a heart condition and in and out of the hospital. He died within the year believing he was in "Gehenna" for his "impure lust". I was really young at the time (15ish), but that was a big turning point in terms of where my heart was.
Oh, and once a couple I was friends with had premarital sex a couple times and confessed each time... and the guy didn't get DF'd and the girl did. That always pissed me off. They did the same thing and I KNOW it was her who felt compelled to confess and not him... so really her "repentance" was stronger.
I can't think of anything shocking in the sense that you never expected it. I was never a "good girl" and I could usually spot the other double lifers. lol. -
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AlyMC
Thank you, V, for the link :)
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Was your decision to leave the jw's based upon worldly friends/influences?
by chicken inhi guys, i'm new to the forum :) i'm a worldly girl and got a friend who is a jw so im quite interested to hear from all of you :) also how did you're worldly friends compare to your jw friends.
thanx in advance x.
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AlyMC
I did have worldly friends and associates, but honestly they had very little affect on my decision to formally leave. it was really just a process I had to go through, and it was very internal.
Seeing hte unconditional friendship offered by worldly friends was appealing, but I'm not sure it was really a factor. -
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AlyMC
I find that fascinating, and I am unsure why. Thank you so much for filling me in!
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did anyone on here ever have a paedophile in thier congregation?
by looloo inif so, did it bother you that he had been reprooved and forgiven rather than reported to the police?
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AlyMC
There was one I knew of in our congregation. He was the PO for years and when it came out, it really only came out to his wife and fellow elders. It was announced that he stepped down as an elder so even his kids never knew it was anything more than a choice he made.
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AlyMC
"Long gone are the days of the Kool-Aid opening paragraphs that we used to see before there were public and private editions of the Watchtower."
I'm sorry, I've been out for 4 years and haven't kept up at all... there are public and private versions of the Watchtower now? I wonder which version we've been getting from my mother in law?! -
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Raising children without a religion - thoughts, advice?
by atpeace inalmost ready to take the plunge, but have held back for years because of topic.
husband and i have not been active for many years and no longer consider ourselves jw's.
we also have no desire to be part of an organized religion.
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AlyMC
hmm... do we have to use html to format our posts? I'm not sure why it all ran in to one paragraph there... sorry about that!
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26
Raising children without a religion - thoughts, advice?
by atpeace inalmost ready to take the plunge, but have held back for years because of topic.
husband and i have not been active for many years and no longer consider ourselves jw's.
we also have no desire to be part of an organized religion.
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AlyMC
I don't know if it is proper etiquette for me to reply before having introduced myself, but I didn't see an introduction forum so forgive me if I am committing a board taboo by replying when nobody knows who I am. I've been a mother for almost 7 years now, and we've been out of the JW faith for (I think) the last 4. you know, it really isn't much different parenting with belief or without. I'm agnostic, for what it is worth. You're still guided by your love of your children and your hope to give them a world of opportunity along with a good solid foundation. The only difference is what you believe forms that solid foundation. My oldest at almost 7 is beginning to ask questions about death, how life on earth started, why people make vastly different choices (why her cousins can't celebrate holidays for example). It really has proven to be worlds easier (thus far) than I anticipated. I've become comfortable with the idea that I can not tell her the unknown truths of the world, because nobody truly knows. What resonates with her, is hers to find. So, really I only have to present information. So when she asked "mom, if babies come from the mom's tummy- how did the first mom come to be?" I asked her what she thought. She replied that perhaps another animal laid an egg and because of some anomaly a human was hatched. "Interest theory" I told her. And I went on to tell her briefly about evolution and a couple god theories. In other words, her interest and questions were completely satiated without giving her a theory as a concrete fact or truth. Though I was honest that I find truth in evolution. In other words, I don't feel like my lack of belief has been an issue at all in mothering. If anything, I feel my kids are really free to find their own truths from a young age which is a luxury I wish I'd been afforded as a child.