Hey I saw it on the news, (Melbourne News) the waves were huge, I could't believe these waves were so big so close to the Sydney harbour.
Hope your wife is OK. Give her my love.
my wife just recently got back from the "cruise ship" from dave`y jones locker ,( hell) i`m not sure if it made news anywhere else in the world but it sure did here in australia.wife and her sister were on the" carnival spirit" 12 night cruise to the south pacific islands .2nd day out they had to try to skirt a cyclone , yet were still buffeted by strong winds and heavy seas .my wife suffers from parkinsons and takes medication for it , and has always been a bit of a panic merchant ,that`s just her nature coming home ,they encountered a catergory 2 cyclone that prevented them entering sydney harbour due to the rough seas .
7 to 9 metre waves were the norm , with a few 15 metre waves thrown in.this lasted more than 48 hours , causing them to stay another night out at sea ,and missing their flight back to melbourne.my wife did not cope very well at all with this experience probably due to her anxiety fear of water medication and some alcohol , plus the strong sedatives she was given { which she needed to cope } took a toll on her mentally .i was worried sick about her.
initially their were some issues with her sister that did not help matters either , though she did come good in the end.. thankfully , since the medications she was given has worn off , she is slowly coming back to normal , however i think it`s going to take a few weeks .. not being a medic , i think she had the closest thing to a nervous breakdown .. and to put things in perspective , she was not the only one who thought they were going to die.many people on board were scared out of their wits.. i just thought i would share what we went through this past week as a family .. smiddy.
Hey I saw it on the news, (Melbourne News) the waves were huge, I could't believe these waves were so big so close to the Sydney harbour.
Hope your wife is OK. Give her my love.
sorry for the long post but i need help.
ive been a jw for 20 years - still active and attending meetings, baptised at 18, i have recently become very dissillusioned.
a few reasons: ill treatment of my kids by a prominent 'assembly speaker' elder, then my son left the truth at 15 (not baptised) and was 'dropped' instantly, despite this community having been his whole life for 15 years.
All ex jws go through a range of emotions you are describing, so we all feel your pain.
You do not have to make any decisions right away, but I figured out that we were in a cult after I read "Crisis of Conscience" my husband stopped going to meeting immediately, but I felt that I would keep going to meetings and see how things went. I still have family in the JW's and did not want to get DF'd. When I was at the meetings, I would look up the scriptures that were quoted and read them in context, it got to the stage that I would get so angry because I could see they were twisting scriptures to suit whatever they wanted to teach.
My advice is to give yourself some time and research, research research, you will get to the truth. The JW's teaching will fall like a pack of cards once it has been put to the test.
You will go through a lot of emotions just like all of us here have, I left 25 years ago and still feel that I will never be normal. Because we were in a cult, there are a lot of hooks that are in our mind and we have to set free, e.g.; I still can't put a xmas tree in my house, although I know there is nothing wrong with it. I believe all ex jw's should have some type of therapy, although not all counsellors know how to help us.
But be very careful about your daughter because if she gets baptised she will feel that she will have to shun her own mother, I have a friend who were DF'd and she decided to get reinstated to that her children would talk to her again.
Everyone has to decide which is the best way they want to leave for themselves, but if you faded slowly you will have time to make friends with people that are not JW's. So the transitions won't be so traumatic.
Welcome to the rest of your life, "The truth will set your Free"!!!!!!
most of you have probably seen the apostasy trial video posted on youtube (and all over social media) recently.
well, there's a "wordly" woman from another country that i had worked with some time ago and she's posted it, tagged me, and asked "wtf?
", knowing i'm a still a jw just for family reasons.
i'm going to be honest and from the heart when i say that for 40 years in the jw religion i was very happy in my ignorance!
man, what a trip it was.
i loved every minute of it but then i was absent the bad in my religion.
ust so you all know I still attend meetings. I recognize the problems but I also see that there are few options outside of the Society for a Christian who does not believe in the Trinity.
I faded 25 years ago and thought I could never step into a christian because they all believed in the trinity and that the trinity has a pagan origin.
It has taken me 25 years to actually study the trinity and work out what trinity means.
The trinity that the JW's explain is not trinity, it is modalism (the father and son being the same person). The question we have to ask ourselves is when the bible says that Jesus is the "son of god" is his nature the nature of a god or the nature of an angel?
When Jesus called himself "son of man" we know he meant he was human, but when he calls himself "son of god, does that mean his nature is that of an angel (Michael the archangel) or the nature of god?
We may not be able to explain the trinity but I know the JW's are wrong with their reasoning.
It wasn't until I could grasp this that I could step into another church.
I still call myself christian, so now I will go to a local church once in a while. But I don't think I could be part of church community like I was with the JW's.
The first time I got enough courage to go to one I decided that if I was going to feel guilty about anything the said I would run out as fast as I can, I was quite surprised, the singing was so touching it made me so emotional. You'll never feel like this at a kingdom hall.
i've been lurking for about 3 months now and thought i'd better finally sign up.
you have all been an immense help to me as i have come to realize that this isn't the truth so i want to say a great big thank you!
what a crazy, emotional ride it is to finally face the truth about the doubts that i have carried for many years.
Hi Stumpy
Welcome to you and your wife from another fellow Aussie,
I faded successful 25 years ago, there is life after the watchtower, a really good one.
Take care
just found out (second hand of course) and by someone on here that my faithful jw mum passed away within the last couple of days, dont know the exact day, and what cause, she spent the last few years living with my fanatical sister, she was 65 and survived my father by 10 years, bitter, angry and hateful till the end and never as so much enquired or asked how her 2 grandchildren ever were , they are 5 and 7!
feeling a mixture of emotions right now, they were lousy parents in all honesty, she suffered health wise so maybe its for the best, dont even know when the funeral is!
Jookbeard
I don't believe the elders would know what your mum's wishes were, as they are only there to protect their religion. If they really cared about your family and your mum's wishes they would not be breaking families up. I don't won't to tell you what to do, but there is nothing wrong with a DF'd person attending a JW funeral.
I am not Df'd but have faded but when my sister in law passed away about a year ago, there were a lot of people that were DF'ed that attended her funeral, they were not sure if they should go but felt better after they did, they did this because they wanted to pay their respect to her has a beautiful human being.
Take care in whatever decision you make xx
just found out (second hand of course) and by someone on here that my faithful jw mum passed away within the last couple of days, dont know the exact day, and what cause, she spent the last few years living with my fanatical sister, she was 65 and survived my father by 10 years, bitter, angry and hateful till the end and never as so much enquired or asked how her 2 grandchildren ever were , they are 5 and 7!
feeling a mixture of emotions right now, they were lousy parents in all honesty, she suffered health wise so maybe its for the best, dont even know when the funeral is!
Sorry to hear about your mum, it must really hurt.
Make sure that they do not stop you going to her funeral, it is part of the grieving process, don't worry about anybody else's feelings, you need to do this for yourself.
Do you have anyone close to you that can support you when you go?
Take care
Freesoul xx
i honestly have never heard such claptrap being delivered in a memorial talk.. the speaker repeatedly put down the way other religions administered the bread & wine, and claimed that witnesses do it exactly as the bible describes.
oh yeah????.
he forgot to mention - when reading aloud 1 corinthians 11:25 - that after passing the bread, a full meal was to be shared, before the wine was passed around!
I went to a christian church in the morning, the singing was so heartfelt and quite emotional.
Went to yoga in the afternoon, I felt compassion and calm.
Went to the memorial in the evening, it felt legalistic, boring and no soul in the place.
i have a serious problem that i cannot solve on my own.
i was born-in but am only in by a thread at this point.
i quit the tms a few weeks ago and wrote a post on it.
Sorry to hear this is happening to you, the JW's believe they can lie to you and disrespect you, it's called "theocratic warfare".
You have to use "theocratic warfare" back on them, You know they lie to you, that should make it OK to lie back to them. This may means you need to choose your words carefully, if your are asked any questions about the organisation do not admit to anything you are feeling, you say you have been too busy or sick.
I believe your best bet is to say the only person your son can study with is your wife. No other person in the congregation should be able to have access to your son, this goes against bible principles as you are the head of your family.
Make sure you spend as much time with your family as possible and show your wife and son plenty of attention, love and caring, they will not find this at JW meetings. (the only thing they get from meetings is fear and guilt).
Go on family outings, camping in the country side with them and involve your son's friends. Try and get your son involved with team sports as well.
Your son is still young and I am sure you can get him out by asking him questions that will question his faith. It will be too late if he gets baptised.
Keep you head up and try to keep happy, balanced and calm, this will really confuse them.
Take care, I hope it all works out for you.
i am most curious.
When my dad invited my to the last international assembly my reply was
I asked if any of the governing body was going to be there because I am afraid of the 7 men in Brooklyn that direct this organisation, because if I don't follow them they can use me family as a weapon against me.