Posts by NotBlind

23

anyone from the St. Louis, MO/ SW illinois area?

by SnakesInTheTower in

jw
friends

illinois circuit 6 or 7 and mo 5, 1, 2, 10?

(southern iliinois/se/ne missouri) especially.... snakes (.

ps i have ties to the area.... pm me if you dont want to post publicly.

NotBlind

Well, Marion was easily the largest cong in IL#7 for several years. They had what I considered the coolest KH I had ever seen. It was a semi-circle hall that really looked like a mini-assembly hall. I think the place was so big they had 4 or 5 mic handlers. Anyway, this cong had as many as 18 elders and nearly as many MS. They had a reputation for appointing really young guys as MS & elders (17-yr-old MS and 25-yr-old elders). They had many elders & MS quit. And when I mean quit, I don't mean fade. They just quit, right out of the blue. That cong loved to party. They had dances, parties, raves, whatever you want to call them, complete with flashing lights, smoke machine, everything.

They built a new hall back in 2001 I think. Not as much character as their old mini-assembly hall. Since this cong had several wealthy JW's, they went all out and spared no expense. I do know that Marion went off-task & refused to build to specs. They were supposedly reprimanded by Brooklyn & the RBC for their 'refusal to follow instruction'.

That cong never did split, though, even though they were huge for a while. Their meeting attendance was pretty awful & most of their membership seemed apathetic & a little aloof - pretty typical these days.

23

anyone from the St. Louis, MO/ SW illinois area?

by SnakesInTheTower in

jw
friends

illinois circuit 6 or 7 and mo 5, 1, 2, 10?

(southern iliinois/se/ne missouri) especially.... snakes (.

ps i have ties to the area.... pm me if you dont want to post publicly.

NotBlind

In the early 90's, I think the Sonderman's were in Cairo. Cairo was one of those 'orphan' congs: Even though they were geographically in Southern Illinois, they were actually in MO#1, so they were isolated from the other So IL congregations.

I haven't heard about the closing of Carlyle, but it certainly wouldn't suprise me. For many years, they had only 2 elders, after a serious deflation. For a while in the early 90's, they filled their hall on Sundays and had 8 elders. Anybody here know Rick Wheeler from that hall?

I knew that Nashville had a hall that closed a LONG time ago, perhaps early 70's? And I knew they had some serious problems, but I never knew the details. I think that's where Irving Kelle was. He ended up in Carlyle until he passed away.

Oh, and the stories I could tell you about Marion, DuQuoin, and Benton! Enough for their own post, perhaps even their own thread!

Metropolis still exists, with more attendees than ever before. Val Sichling is still there and is the same as ever. Rumor is that Metropolis will be building a new hall within a year or two; their current hall is in the middle of the local meth-lab neighborhood.

And Wood River: Well, I never spent much time in that cong, but I was there when they built that hall back over Thanksgiving weekend 1987 - it rained like it had never rained before.....

More later....

43

Boring bookstudy book...which one was the worst?

by White Dove in

i remember the old timers saying that the red babylon book was the hardest to understand.. in my memory, i'd have to say the isaiah books and daniel book were the most involved and boring.. the revelation book had gorgeous pictures in it (the writing was horribly boring), so i just looked at them, and i was 22 at the first study of it!.

NotBlind

I hated both Isaiah books - it was the same study week after week, literally, for well over two years.

Blah, Blah, Blah 1914 Blah Blah 1919 blah blah spiritual restoration blah blah free from the chains of Babylon blah blah 1919 blah blah 1919.

Isaiah books - even worse than the Revelation book!

23

anyone from the St. Louis, MO/ SW illinois area?

by SnakesInTheTower in

jw
friends

illinois circuit 6 or 7 and mo 5, 1, 2, 10?

(southern iliinois/se/ne missouri) especially.... snakes (.

ps i have ties to the area.... pm me if you dont want to post publicly.

NotBlind

Three congregations in Southern Illinois recently folded and were made into one due to lack of elders and attendees: Carbondale, Anna, and Murphysboro. All three KH's are currently for sale, with the intent of building one KH to handle the new cong.

If you're from that area, you may remember Melvin Branam, CO from the 80's & early 90's. Really long-winded, but seemed like a nice-enough guy. He served MO#5 (I think), IL#6, and IL#7. Whatever became of him?

Ted Jaracz is from Southern Illinois. The house where he grew up still stands. I've heard of a few JW's from the area stopping by to take pictures. Crazy if you ask me....

20

HAVE YOU WONDERED? Pubic WT of Oct 1.2008 page 31

by bobld in

jw
friends

"you may have heard that jehovah's witnesses do not accept blood transfusions.this scriptural stand is often misunderstood.their stand is based on the fundamental law that god gave to mankind.just after the flood of noah's day.god imposed this one restriction.they were not to consume blood.

(genesis 9:3,4)it was never recinded.

over eight centuries later,god reaffirmed that law to the nation of israel,explaining that the blood is sacred, representing the soul,or life itself.

NotBlind

I knew the WT had stooped to an all time low... They have now instituted a pubic edition :D

8

2008 Distric Conventions..... Dates announced yet???/

by still_in74 in

jw
friends

maybe this just pertains to southern ontario, but have any dates been announced yet for 2008 district assemblies?.

my cousin asked me the other day if i had noticed that we still had not had an announcement for 2008 but that we have had an announcement for 2009 international convention.

after our last dc the accouncement was made that there was nothing to announce as of yet for 2008 dc.

NotBlind

That letter is usually read the last week of December at the Service Meeting.

If you don't want to attend the Service Meeting, the assembly dates and locations have been published in the March 1st Watchtower the last few years.

5

Do elders take vows, and what are they?

by rebel8 in

jw
friends

more specifically, do they have to repent of past wrongdoings, and do they have to make amends to those they harmed in the past?

(i know, this question sounds like aa.

)

NotBlind

The night one is appointed as an elder, two elders simply meet with him in the back room and ask him if there is any reason why he shouldn't be appointed. No question is asked regarding former child molestation, etc. The 'encounter' takes all of two minutes.

Technically, the 2001 KM School instructed elders to do this 45 minutes before the beginning of the Ministry School the night he is appointed to speak with him at length about his 'new role', but in practice, this seldom happens.

20

Secret elders website?!?

by icyestrm in

i was chatting with an elder a few months ago and he spoke of a secret elders website that only privileged elders knew of.

it is used to submit the monthly field service reports and other letters in.

that is the 3rd time i heard about this and want to verify if any of you know about this..

NotBlind

Initial passwords are given out by the Society, but when someone logs in for the first time, they have to change their password to something of their choosing. I bet there are lots of '1914' passwords out there, just like '1914' will arm/disarm lots of KH security systems.

20

Secret elders website?!?

by icyestrm in

i was chatting with an elder a few months ago and he spoke of a secret elders website that only privileged elders knew of.

it is used to submit the monthly field service reports and other letters in.

that is the 3rd time i heard about this and want to verify if any of you know about this..

NotBlind

This website, located at http://www.ccjw.org, is nothing more than an 'enhanced' way that congregation secretaries (in the USA anyway) turn in service reports for the congregation.

I think they also send in literature orders online now, as well as Memorial attendance reports via this website (or a similar one). Nothing really exciting, and you have to have a password to get in, of course.

68

Assembly Hall shakedown - Columbia SC

by sir82 in

jw
friends

from someone who attended:.

there was a big elders meeting in columbia sc on saturday june 9.. around 240 congregations, 2000+ elders.. the society wants to build a brand new assembly hall in columbia, sc, to handle the huge influx of jws moving to the us southeast from up north.. they expect to have it done in 34 months (finished by april 2010).

total cost estimated to be approximately $8 - 9 million.. they want to have the whole thing paid for by the time the building is done - no long term loans.. they "strongly suggested" that each of the 240 congregations commit to supporting "their share" of the expense.

NotBlind

Assembly halls are such a bad deal for local congregations that have to use them. The WTS charges the circuit several dollars per publisher per day (can't remember the exact figure), but back in the 80's, it was something like 3-4 bucks per pub.

The circuit I was in had something like 700 publishers, so for a 2 day assembly, that's close to $6000 rent, which goes right back into the coffers of the WTS!

By comparison, I later moved to a circuit that had to rent a facility for its assemblies. The same two days cost about $3000, and it was really just as nice as the ASSembly hall.

The WTS would much rather get a free $10 million building built courtesy of the average window-washing members, then charge said members $6000 a weekend to use the same building they supposedly already paid for.

What a racket!