Yes, sounds very likely Morpheus, we probably all signed a similar one as part of our new member stuff. But yes, as I remember it, they made a big deal of us signing this one in 2002, and it came with a 3 page letter, and a special talk about it after the Monday Watchtower study.
HowieTran
JoinedPosts by HowieTran
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Special Pioneer Vow Of Obedience And Poverty Contract - Is This Legit?
by pale.emperor insomebody posted the contract on exjwreddit: https://i.redd.it/1u8808gy6ni01.jpg.
it appears to be signed by howie ernest rutledge.
im assuming this is howie rutledge tran, former assistant to the gb?.
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Special Pioneer Vow Of Obedience And Poverty Contract - Is This Legit?
by pale.emperor insomebody posted the contract on exjwreddit: https://i.redd.it/1u8808gy6ni01.jpg.
it appears to be signed by howie ernest rutledge.
im assuming this is howie rutledge tran, former assistant to the gb?.
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HowieTran
Yes, that was me. I was Howard Ernest Rutledge, but my legal name is now Howard Tran, also known as Howie Rutledge Tran. This was the new "Vow of Obedience and Poverty" that we had to sign in 2002 (I don't remember signing one before this one and I had been at Bethel since 1995, so already 7 years in when I was required to sign this one). It also came with a 3 page letter explaining this vow. I made these documents available online with a number of others. Cheers!
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How have you felt since you learned TTATT?
by tornapart init's been 4 years since it happened to me.
an almost overnight experience.
i read ray franz coc in 3 days and that was it.
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HowieTran
My change of beliefs was a gradual process. When I came to the realization that JWs were not God's chosen people it was a scary revelation. As many of you, I had spent my entire life under the impression I was living a life directed by God's spirit, and putting any desires on hold for a new world that I came to realize would never come. When I finally accepted I could no longer fake it and remain in the cult, I faced the reality of loosing all of my family and friends; something that now 9 years later gives me lingering pain; on occasion. I also had to start over in life, scraping the over 30 years wasted; including up to then, the almost 11 years at Bethel.
After exiting it was at first a struggle to survive. Worked days & nights as a waiter, also attending day & night college classes. living a very humble existence with very little until I could get myself on track. My JW past feels like someone else's life most of the time - faded memories of another lifetime. Except when the holidays come around, when family (in-laws & adoptive) & friends ask about "my family" and I reply, "I have none". I also have no lifelong friends. I am married now, I did graduate from college and became an RN. I am also the proud father of happy & healthy 2 1/2 year old twins (above pictured from their first time trick-or-treating 3 days ago).
Life is good, but there has been loss; I realize many of you can relate. -
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Where are you from?
by BeautifulMind ini know we are all anonymous for our own personal reasons, so i understand if you would rather not say.
but if you don't mind sharing that would be cool.
i currently live in georgia, usa.
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HowieTran
I was born in the Ozark mountains of Arkansas, when I was 14 we moved to Oklahoma city. When I was 19 I moved to Brooklyn Heights, NYC, Bethel 11 years. After leaving Bethel & the cult I remained in the metro area, partly because I was destitute and had nowhere to go, but also it became my home. We moved to Clifton NJ, bought a house with a yard, we are still in the metro are of NYC, 10 west of Manhattan where we still commute for work (still less than 30 minute drive from my old Bethel neighborhood, and yes, sometimes I visit, lol). -
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Lets start a "Go Fund Me" for those special pioneers being kicked to the curb by the GB,.
by notjustyet inlots of great potential to help those sp that are being sent off without any financial help from the wtbts.
i think that it would be a great way to get some exposure on this topic and how the wtbts thats those that dedicated their lives to the wtbts only to be sent packing at a late age.
then someone can take the funds to one sp couple, possibly, and give it to them in honor of the apostates that know what is really happening.
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HowieTran
How about a fund to help people who wake up and want to actually do something positive with their lives? Could even be specialized, perhaps college age exJW kids who have zero family support & are actively shunned?
Not just Jehovah's Witnesses removed from a privileged position (e.g. Bethelites, SP, etc) within the cult who will simply be transitioning into another cult position in the real world as rank & file JWs. The fund you describe sounds like an ineffectual waste of folks hard earned funds, unless the people who are recipients are actually choosing to leave. -
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ANNOUNCEMENT CLIP ...2015 Annual meeting Sam Herd confirming what we knew a month ago about slow down and halt of worldwide construction
by Watchtower-Free inhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_h68ktwpim&feature=youtu.be.
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HowieTran
JeffT "Based on my time working in real estate development I estimate the Warwick project will cost them three hundred to five hundred million dollars, if everything goes well."
That would be a much higher estimate than I would have imagined, especially with their reliance on volunteer labor and history of cost-cutting. For example, the entire Patterson project was less than 40 million, that was over 20 years ago. In my opinion, even 300 million sounds way to high an estimate for this group.
So far, if you add up the properties sold based on newspaper articles, they've already finalized deals in excess of 700 million, and they still have more to sale of their over 30 buildings Brooklyn Heights portfolio. I am not sure of their liquidating strategies in this case, but historically, they've preferred the bird in the hand philosophy.
Will be interesting for sure to see how it unfolds, or unravels. Cheers. -
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ANNOUNCEMENT CLIP ...2015 Annual meeting Sam Herd confirming what we knew a month ago about slow down and halt of worldwide construction
by Watchtower-Free inhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_h68ktwpim&feature=youtu.be.
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HowieTran
One thing I'd almost bet the farm on, we won't be seeing them go bankrupt in our lifetime. Not without something very drastic happening. Sad, but I feel true.
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ANNOUNCEMENT CLIP ...2015 Annual meeting Sam Herd confirming what we knew a month ago about slow down and halt of worldwide construction
by Watchtower-Free inhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_h68ktwpim&feature=youtu.be.
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HowieTran
Sounds like they're claiming both a reduced need for those special kind of workers (Bethel, special pionees, etc), and reduced funds available (which they may be using as an added excuse for letting people go, to help soften the blow).
He said ones are giving as much as they can (no doubt trying to humor publishers in the field). He then compares it to a family stretching available funds to care for necessary things.
Perhaps, they are hurting financially? But that would mean old debt finally catching up with them, at a rate even a billion dollars in real estate sales couldn't help; maybe so.
Or, more likely in my opinion, they are trying to sure up their future financial viability. Taking advantage of available technology and other progressive steps that reduces manpower needs, and using the excuse of "better utilizing of limited funds" as a means of doing some desired housecleaning.
Will we ever know the real truth? I doubt it. -
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Anybody on here from Milwaukee, Wisconsin?
by Joliette inplease feel free to pm me.
looking for more ex-jw's to connect with from milwaukee.
if you are from the wisconsin area also that is a plus.. thanks!.
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HowieTran
I knew Jeffry Pirtle, former CO. -
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Jersey City Assembly Hall
by MC RubberMallet induring my first few years at bk, i spent a significant amount of time at jcah.
i am really trying to make at least one connection with someone i know personally.
lol.
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HowieTran
Hello, This is Howard Rutledge, now Tran. I was a caretaker at the JC Assembly Hall (aka Stanley Theater) 2003-6, and before that Brooklyn Bethel 1995-2003. I do not remember anyone named MC RubberMallet, perhaps you used another name then? :-)
