Posts by nevaagain

28

A Green Handshake

by dgp in

jw
friends

i just learned that sometimes people give "green handshakes".

is this the same as bribing your way up?.

thanks for any posts..

when we joined our actual congregation, there was a brother who had his own business. he was neither an elder nor a MS which seemed to be odd to me. I dont know his story before but anyway, after he sold his business (he is in his 50s) he almost immediately became a MS. one year later he became an elder.

Our old CO in my former congregation, always bragged about the gifts he would receive in other congregation (with wealthy members) as far as I remember it was not unusual for him to get laptops, phones and even a new car. our congregation was not so wealthy so i guess he didnt like coming to ours.

few years ago we went to visit the bethel in brooklyn and patterson, thanks to somone we knew in the NY area who knew ppl in Bethel, they took us inside for dinner. so after the dinner when they took us outside we said thanks hugged them and wished them jehovahs blessing for their efforts ... they also said thanks but then there was an akward silence ... like they expected to get something in return for taking us inside. so this happaned both times, for brooklyn and for patterson so i guess it is not unusual to give something to them.

the last two CO couples my wife liked very much so and the end of their visit she wanted us to give them some money and i said yes, so far my status hasnt changed so i guess it was not enough ;-)

20

How Scary Are Circuit Overseers Now?

by minimus in

jw
friends

back in the day, when the co came to the congregation, it was quite stressful for the elders and often, the rank and file.

.

is it as big a deal as it used to be?.

nevaagain

in my last congregation the CO prevented us from having the sunday meeting at 1pm, saying the congregation needs to go out in service more on sunday and the meeting would prevent that. still nobody wanted to be out in service on sundays and when the CO changed the meeting was finally moved from 5pm back to 1pm.

its so funny, the day that every witness has free time and at the same time its most likely that you will find people at home, nobody wants to be out preaching.

Also I was a literature servant at that congregation and the days before the CO would came, my elder boss wanted the binder where i keeped the literature documents to be in perfect shape. Rest of the year there was no need for that I guess.

There is a lot of work and a lot of micro management going on for something you do voluntary.

You are also supposed to count the remaining literature every month and fill the form for that. Man nobody has time for that!

62

WT is shorting literature orders by congregation with a problem contributing enough for literature $3500 just for mags

by oppostate in

at our meeting last night there was a talk about having run out of magazines for the last three months.

it's expected this will continue to happen.

the "branch" has not sent the requested number of magazines.

nevaagain

I am a literature servent in our congregation and this has never happaned to us, we always receive the amount ordered. The only problem is that when ordering magazines someone has to keep in mind, that if you adjust the numbers, the effect will only be visible in three months and not immediately with the next shipment.

Even though the new magazine arrangement means less work for the servants to do the job, this also means that jws who take a lot of magazines at the beginning of the month dont leave any for the end of the month. I saw a lot of brothers/sisters being annoyed by the fact that they had no magazines to place at the end of the month.

Then there was a special magazine issue and somehow our elders thought especially that magazine would be placed like hot cakes and cranked up the order of that magazine ... i got the special task to get rid of them months later because we still had a big pile of them, funny that our CO always tells me to be discrete when throwing them away.

30

GB member and 17000 US$ iWatch !

by sp74bb in

jw
friends

one member of a similar spanish speaking forum has found something quite interesting.. it is quite funny to see that gb members do not really realize how their belongings are really showing them as a fraud.

do you expect to see a gb wearing a 17000 us$ iwatch when answering to a court.

geoffrey jackson does !.

nevaagain

this is half off topic, but i just wanted to mention that this is to be in the culture of those higher ups.

we used to have a couple of COs which would always flaunt gifts from rich congregations hoping we (as a congregation) would be equally generous. which most of the time never happened because our congregation members were poor.

Our CO would tell us stories that upon mentioning that his laptop were broken, the congregation bought him a new one plus a new printer. The wife was notorious for dragging her service partners to department stores in hope that the service partners would buy her something fancy.

Then we had another CO, whenever you would invite him for lunch, he would come late, eat and then leave unless he had a cash present coming his way.

41

Canadian branch getting rid of their trucks and drivers

by wannaexit in

jw
friends

a recent letter to the elders outlined the new arrangement for delivering literature to the congregations.

the canadian branch will be downsizing by eliminating drivers and trucks and utilizing commercial carriers to bring the boxes of monthly literature .

more outsourcing and more lay offs.. the funny thing about it is that they want to have the literature delivered to various private homes of the rank and file rather than have the literature delivered to the kingdom hall.

nevaagain

I am in europe and this happened 6 months ago here.

The brothers here dont seem to be too happy about this new arrengement. For example, a big congregation near our is being used a big hub where aprox. 30 other congregations have to pick up their literature, so whenever literature is getting delivered a huge swarm of bros/sis have to sort them out for the 30 congregations. Previously the bethel truck would deliver the literature on a Friday and they had the weekend to do the job and starting with Monday we were able to pick up our literature. Now UPS delivers the literature a couple of days later on a Monday so everybody has to wait one week to pickup the literature because the bros can only do the work of sorting out the literature for the congregations on a weekend.

The brother who signs up on the delivery papers is not too happy either, previously he was good friends with the bethel truck driver and because he had a long route, he even stayed there over night. Now the communication with UPS is not existed, they even arrive at different times so the bro signing up the deliver paper has to stay there a whole day waiting for UPS.

23

... and keep fighting

by nevaagain in

jw
friends

last week we had the cos visit and i wanted to share my experiences with you.

some background info on me, i knowttatt and am fully awake, my wife also knows my doubts and read a few things on the internet but she is still 100% commited to the truth, saying everything on the apostate sites are lies.

so right now i am in just to keep the status quo.

nevaagain

TheListener yea I can see where you are coming from. But being a born in, baptised now for 20 years it might be easier. I dont have any other friends outside of the WT, I dont have family outside of the WT. I am not ready to leave everything behind, be shunned from my family and friends ... still working on the exit plan

sad thing is, i have known the TTATT since before I got married, forgot everything when I moved away from home because it was easy to make new friends in the WT then i met my future wife in the new congregation ...

23

... and keep fighting

by nevaagain in

jw
friends

last week we had the cos visit and i wanted to share my experiences with you.

some background info on me, i knowttatt and am fully awake, my wife also knows my doubts and read a few things on the internet but she is still 100% commited to the truth, saying everything on the apostate sites are lies.

so right now i am in just to keep the status quo.

nevaagain

@hoser

the first lunch was private at our place, the second lunch was at a restaurant after the sunday meeting with everybody from the congragation who wanted to join. maybe i should have added this information into my posting, sorry.

anyway I dont think i was being setup and if yes i dont think i said anything which could incriminate me.

this whole thing seemed surreal though ... i had to pinch myself because i thought i am still dreaming

23

... and keep fighting

by nevaagain in

jw
friends

last week we had the cos visit and i wanted to share my experiences with you.

some background info on me, i knowttatt and am fully awake, my wife also knows my doubts and read a few things on the internet but she is still 100% commited to the truth, saying everything on the apostate sites are lies.

so right now i am in just to keep the status quo.

nevaagain

i know, i would have never brought up that topic on my own! all i want is to fly under the radar and appear to be a normal brother who just doesnt make enough to be considered as a MS, but still more than the minimum so he cant be bothered.

but i can only imagine that the CO would ask the substitute moments later when we werent around, what was he thinking bringing up that topic before a lowly brother.

maybe in a few years when they want to try me for apostacy, and they asked me how everything begun i can cite exactly that moment, that made me to start questioning everything haha

18

The new RBC

by drawcad_1 in

jw
friends

the new rbc now called the ldc.

sold to us as new and improved rbc.

working with all of the congregation funds after we sent them all back to new york and what have they done.

nevaagain

Our congregation is in a building with three halls. Even though the building cant be that old, it shows his age because no renovations were ever done. So everybody in our congregation was glad that the new arrangement came because finally now our building can be renovated.

Indeed a couple of weeks after that announcement a delegation showed up to inspect our building and the elders showed them everything that needs to be done (basicly everything). Couple of days later I ask one of the elders how it went and he kinda dissapointed told me, that probably not much is going to happen to our hall.

Apparently they told them, if they replace our heating system, they cannot build one hall in africa. If they renovate our bathrooms, there goes another hall in africa and so on, so all of the elders arguments were shot down. Basicly they were guilt tripping our elders.

Funny thing is, it is not like we were short of funds, before the announcement of the changes was made we had for years saved funds for much needed renovations.

23

... and keep fighting

by nevaagain in

jw
friends

last week we had the cos visit and i wanted to share my experiences with you.

some background info on me, i knowttatt and am fully awake, my wife also knows my doubts and read a few things on the internet but she is still 100% commited to the truth, saying everything on the apostate sites are lies.

so right now i am in just to keep the status quo.

nevaagain

Last week we had the COs visit and I wanted to share my experiences with you. Some background info on me, I know
TTATT and am fully awake, my wife also knows my doubts and read a few things on the internet but she is still 100% commited to the truth, saying everything on the apostate sites are lies. So right now I am in just to keep the status quo. Both of us are born in with every family member being in the truth ...

Anyway about the CO visit, this is the second time and at the same time it is going to be the last time we have this particular CO couple, because of circuit changes (dont JWs love to juggle around with the circuits?!?) This time our CO couple was accompanied with a second couple, apparently the substitute CO also needs to "practise" from time to time.

So my wife wanted to invite them for lunch. At first I was a little bit hesitated to invite them, but my wife
as I said being 100% commited to the truth wanted to invite them and since my wife already sees me an apostate
(tried to woke my wife up, didnt work but we have some kind of truce, thats going to be a different story)
so I didnt say no. I also didnt want to stirr anything up

So they came for lunch, and after a while, the substitute CO brought the topic about child abuse in
Australia up. I wanted to say something but I remained tight lipped, not to reveal more than I would possibly know.
My wife looked at me with a WTF face - awhile ago I had already told her about the cases that the WT
lost in the US and we didnt really expect that topic being brought up at our homes from one of the CO, albeit
the substitude CO but still!

The real CO tried to play it down saying that it was mostly worldly ppl who abuse witness kids, then his wife
weighted in, saying that she knows ppl in every congregation who were abused as a kids and that the problem
is indeed widespread. The substitude added that it is indeed the WT being on trial here, because they were
apperently trying to keep the brothers from going to the authorities. I think the substitude CO repeated that
a few times!

Now the real CO tried to shoot it down, saying that the elders would never tell the parents not to go to the
police and the allegations have no claim. I knew it was dangerous but I wanted to say something, so I said.
Maybe, just maybe some elders tried to keep it in the congregation and told the parents not to go to the police.
The real CO was baffled! The substitude agreed with me and even added that he personally knows cases like that.

We changed topic after that, but what is still puzzling me is, why did the substitude bring up that topic?!?
Keep in mind, the real CO and the substitude, they didnt know each other before and possibly the first
time they were eating together was at our place, so maybe the substitude was testing the waters with the CO?
Maybe he knows the TTATT? I know if I would have brought up that topic my wife would have looked mad at me,
but the substitudes wife was even participating at that topic!

CO Week went over quick (thankfully for that). Went to both of the field service meetings on saturday. So funny,
they are over after 5 minutes they dont even make sense anymore. Our parking lot was still occupied from
the brothers who had their field service meeting before us, waited till they were gone so we can park. Went into
the meeting two minutes late and it was already half finished!

Sunday after the meeting we went to lunch with the both CO couples. After we were finished and the (real) CO
couples wanted to leave, they hugged us both (my wife and me) said some words and then added "... and keep fighting"

If that is not cult speak, what is?!?!