Aquestion, Bethelites in foreign service is a Brooklyn term for when bethelites serving at their homeland branch would be asked to serve in a foreign country either on a temporary or permanent basis. For instance, when the society was building many of the branches that they have recently sold some of the overseers were sent from Brooklyn, Walkil, or Patterson to oversee the work. I believe that the Bethelites in foreign service still get the homeland monthly stippend. There are probably 16-20 different types of "Bethelites" ranging from several temporary statuses to Full Blown Bethelites with all the benefits, and evidently, bethelites in foreign service. The "full blown" bethelites that I knew that went overseas on "temporary" assignments could be overseas from 3 to 5 years before they returned to their Walkil home. I hope that this helps.
JakeM2012
JoinedPosts by JakeM2012
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For Bethelites or anyone who knows - 'Bethelites in foreign service'
by A question inwhat are bethelites in foreign service?
i've heard this term but do not know much about it.
is then when they start at bethel in their home county?
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1973 versus 2013 (40 years later)... How much confidence have J-Dubs lost in the Slave's "End-Time" estimations?
by Calebs Airplane inback in 1973, when i was just a pre-teen, i remember that meetings in general were chock full of persecution talks, great tribulation talks and armageddon talks.
so much so, that there was a hightened sense of anticipation that the end was really just a few years away.
most j-dubs really believed, without any doubt, that freddy's estimation about armageddon in 1975 was a certainty (give or take a few months... not years).
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JakeM2012
I was 10 in 1973 and remember the clock on the platform at the circuit assembly that was set to 3 1/2 minutes to 12:00 and the brothers loudly exclaiming, "36 more months, 36 more months Brothers until the Great Day of God Almighty". All I can say, is that what was said from the platform was alot more than whatever came out in print. And for all lurking doubters, it is not being exaggerated.
I hope that people will start to wake up to the fact that JW's religion has a "born on date" and is expired and is really starting to smell. I just can't believe that people will continue eating the same spoiled garbage, the so called "spiritual food" that didn't have a bit of truth to it then and has no chance of fulfillment as so stated now. It's like waiting for Elvis who died in 1977 to come out for an encore. Not going to happen.
Only comfort I see is that with all the branch closings maybe the old men behind the curtain realize the "end" is imminent,..... for them. Thank God.
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Resigned being an elder
by subytrek ini am new here and this is my first post although i have lurked here for a couple years.
i started having doubts about the org back then and my curiosity overcame my fear of so-called apostate websites so here i am.
i just resigned being an elder 2 weeks ago.
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JakeM2012
Subytrek, Welcome to the forum, I congratulate you on the course you have taken. I also served as an elder and when word gets around that you are not serving anymore, it is interesting how people will treat you as insignificant, even invisible. There will be attempts to try to encourage you to serve again for awhile.
My wife has not gone to a meeting for a few years and is concerned about the problems if/when her parents find out. We have had very frank discussions about TTATT, and while I can say she agrees, I believe she is an apologist and I know I can't push the discussion much, just be content with where we're at.
I admire it that you woke up so early, I wish that I had, it would have saved me 20 years. Welcome again.
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I didn't expect to be here at age 49. Here as in my employment
by wha happened? init's been a terrible economy these last few years.
i had a very successful loan brokerage and watched that crash and burn in 2011. i went back to my previous firm in the computer industry that was struggling after i left.
it seemed like a good match.
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JakeM2012
Wha happened? I'm 49, have similar experience of what you have gone through. In other words, "Been there done that" expecially with the "brother" business partners, the "spiritual and fleshly family" business partners, and while I have strong evidence that I consistantly gave them not only fair, but get this, an equal financial deal,... (oh lord, and why.) What did I receive? What could I expect from Bethelites and ex-Bethelites? Did I say family???: I got screwed, Big Time. As far as the withdrawl from activity in the company and watch you flounder from coping with dissatisfied customers, financial losses, lost accounts, as the economy contracted; just because they wanted to cash out of the company and go work at Bethel as a volunteer for nothing? I had to work for nothing in my "worldly" company, and they expected me to do that, but they would not work unless paid top dollar, even if they didn't show up, let alone for nothing. HaHa. I guess it was my priviledge to employ ex-Bethelites. They had a problem of saying what they wanted. No, they had a problem letting their yes mean yes and their No..,. No. . I guess this is what JW's have learned as their "Divine Education" at Bethel. Oh, I've learned alot also. When it comes to Brothers, RUN!!!!
The last years have been difficult, and 2013 has indicators that it will be the same or worse. I understand your pain, and all I can say is that you are not alone.
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JakeM2012
I know this brother personally, and very closely. So does Brandt Jones. Bro XXXd has only recently not been an elder; taken out by some young pompous ass COBE in Wimberly. Brother X0XX is 70 plus years old. Several in his family have seen the TTATT and I believe that Brother XXYX feels stuck. I also know his older sister, she is still active and she made the comment one time that she felt she wasted her whole life, but she "has too much invested" to leave the "truth" now. The family members that have remained active JW's seem to be paralysed in their inability to even go to work, let alone, plan for the future. It is sad.
This brother's fleshly brother was removed as a bookstudy conductor in the early 1970's because he would not teach 1975. (But the Society never said it) HA HA,. He said the scriptures say that "no man knows the day or hour". He also wrote letters to the society about 1975 as did others that I know; with hateful letters returned from Mother. The congregation is Alendale, and the PO was Roy Oatman. Roy is and was a company man, always looking for a way to make himself look better, a real suck up, even if it was at the expense of others.
BTW, the original letters written by Brother BXXX are on WTFacts.com. I have no idea how they got there. I hope to see him in the next few months and I will ask him if he knows these letters are on JWFacts and if he minds if his identity is disclosed. I just went to Jwfacts, and am having a difficult time finding them again. Sorry, I could not give you a link.
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Please restart 2013
by akafreelife inthis year is not going so great.
lost my love, got forgotten on my birthday, car got hit the day before my birthday, car got hit yet again last weekend, and today i got a flat tire.
what the f did i do to karma to deserve this crap?
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JakeM2012
Well I hope you saved a lot by switching to Geico.
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Landlord business
by hoser inonce you spend your property it is spent forever.
this is what the wts is doing by selling out of brooklyn.
would it not make a lot more financial sense to become landlords in one of the hottest rental markets in the world?.
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JakeM2012
Where there is that kind of money, especially when it is more liquid than real estate, there is corruption. They've been taken before.
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Former Bethelites, please settle this argument
by Resistance is Futile ini was recently talking to a friend that's a former jw, and she argued that there are just as many women that live at bethel as there are men.
admittedly, we're both slightly ignorant on the subject, since neither of us have actually lived at or even visited bethel.
i've made the assumption that there are significantly more men than women at bethel, am i correct?.
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JakeM2012
I remember when building Patterson and commuting between Watchtower Farm and Patterson that there were was a serious shortage of women. Communters where one option, they rented their own homes and all stayed together. There was one single nurse at WTF named Ravena, she later maried Jeff? So be it.
I remember one brother at the evening dinner at the cafeteria bad mouthing a visiting sister. She was in a skirt and just as cute, .....no, she was beautiful, she could have been in an onion sack and still caused an arousal in all men. But she was a visitor. I regret now that I didn' t ask her for a date. Was there a shortage of women at Bethel, hell yes. The atmosphere just felt weird, it even smelled weird, like moth balls and ink. There were married women that would give me an eye of wanting; evidently they weren't satisfied with their men. (Speculation) But hard to resist.
If we go back to the original thought, that there were just as many women as men, that is an overstatement of truth. If you were a single man, this statement is just pathetic. Well, if you consider the old women in the sewing room, married women, and dorky women ok, perhaps there were just as many women as men. But as far as eligible women? Why did I assume this? Nowhere close, Bethell was just an un-natural atmosphere. How I wished that I had gone to college!!!! and lived in a dorm.
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Weird "new world" artwork from the 2013 calendar
by cedars inmy mother-in-law has a strange obsession with calendars, and orders the society's calendar each year.
this year's calendar is especially weird.
it features images depicting future events - in particular, the society's vision of the new world order.. i've taken the opportunity to scan some of the images for you all to check out.. please note - there are captions for each of the images, but i don't have the english language version of the calendar so i'd rather just quote the scripture used so as not to reveal which country i'm in.. .
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Post KM Elder School, you may see elders become a little nosier or nebby than usual.
by Theocratic Sedition inafter reading through onedayillbefree's thread about being taken into the back room and asked inappropriate questions, i was reminded about a part done at the km school.
one of the common themes throughout the one day school was viewing things the way god sees them and how doing so will require that elders develope insight.
they defined insight as, evaluating individual aspects in light of others, or getting & understanding facts and how all relate to one another.. next, they gave specific examples where an elder will need insight in order to assist wayward sheep.
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JakeM2012
I used a resignation to fade, and cited the scripture that said that if you did provide for your own household you were worse than an unbeliever.