Posts by WinstonSmith

49

HOT OFF THE PRESS: ZO talk in Japan

by WinstonSmith in

this is literally hot off the press as in from about half an hour ago.. we have a friend from nz (who is wavering and knows our situation) and he is on holiday in japan at the moment.

today there was a zone overseer talk that he went to in nagoya (southern japan) and it has just finished up.

straight after the song and still in the stadium he emailed us the info below.

WinstonSmith

Hello everyone,

Sorry for the late reply, glad to see this has been of interest. Heard from our friend again today and he emailed a photo of the book. It is light pink with a marble-esque pattern and is pretty much the same dimensions as a Daily Text book. It is written in normal size font and in the vertical Japanese style. He asked me not to post the photo because he doesn't know how to remove "EXIF data". I don't even know what that is but will respect his wishes.

The only reason we can think as to why they went with the book of Matthew is that perhaps it contains the most JW friendly synopsis of Jesus life and ministry? I think Japan would be mostly Buddhist wouldn't it? Maybe Shinto? Not sure of the reasoning. My mate has recorded about 30 mins of the talk but is having trouble sending it on the hotel wifi. If it comes through I'll see if I can upload it. The talk was broken up with the speaker saying a few sentences, then a translator repeating what was said in Japanese.

With regards to the possible reasons for decline, one thing my mate has noticed there is that there are lots of sisters in the congregations and there were visibly more at the stadium for the talk. He was pretty happy about that LOL! It seems that there are lots of unbelieving husbands. So maybe what is happening is the kids of these families are now getting to an age where they can make a decision, and choose not to go down the JW path. There is huge pressure for kids to go to University in Japan, and my mate said that there is huge pressure, especially for the brothers to be pioneers, MSs, and elders. Pretty much if you aren't a pioneer, you aren't considered marriage material.

These might be contributing factors? Surely the internet mustbe playing a role.

33

How to fade?

by naazira in

jw
friends

i am suppose to become an unbaptized publisher in a few days.

however ive changed my mind.

i finished my bible study and progressing in the org.

WinstonSmith

Naazira, the good thing about not being baptised or a publisher is that you don't have to fade. Just stop. Become one of 'those' studies that "just stopped for no reason." They'll compare you to the seed that sprang up then withered away, but who gives a crap about their opinion?

Run Forrest, run.

49

HOT OFF THE PRESS: ZO talk in Japan

by WinstonSmith in

this is literally hot off the press as in from about half an hour ago.. we have a friend from nz (who is wavering and knows our situation) and he is on holiday in japan at the moment.

today there was a zone overseer talk that he went to in nagoya (southern japan) and it has just finished up.

straight after the song and still in the stadium he emailed us the info below.

WinstonSmith

Hi everyone,

This is literally hot off the press as in from about half an hour ago.

We have a friend from NZ (who is wavering and knows our situation) and he is on holiday in Japan at the moment. Today there was a Zone Overseer talk that he went to in Nagoya (southern Japan) and it has just finished up. Straight after the song and still in the stadium he emailed us the info below. Anthony Morris and Christopher Mavor were the speakers:

- A publication was released, well not really a publication, it is the book of Matthew. Not a book about Matthew, but the book of Matthew all on its own. It is called The New World Translation of the Gospel of Matthew and is 128 pages long. It is to be offered on its own in the door to door work because "the Japanese people need to read the bible more." There was a copy for everyone there, and they will be available through the congregations.

- The lack of increase recently in Japan has been a concern of the Governing Body. The numbers have dropped off over the last 10 years. The new release book has been specially provided for the needs of the Japanese brothers.

- Luke 10:16 was read and the follow up statement was "Jesus sent these ones out in the work and if the householder rejected them, they were in fact rejecting Jesus and Jehovah. The same is true today. When people at the doors reject us and the food from the Faithful and Discreet Slave, they are rejecting Jesus and Jehovah."

He shot the email off because it was the first time he had ever heard of one book of the bible being released. Also, as he has some doubts, he got a chuckle from the comparison made between rejecting Jesus and rejecting the FDS. He's heading out with some friends now so I'm hoping he'll give some more info when he gets back!

30

For those faking meeting attendance

by His Excellency in

jw
friends

for those of you who are still faking meeting attendance and field service, do you still greet the dubs after the sessions?.

because for me, i am increasingly finding it difficult to showcase any fake smile and pretend everything is allright.

in fact, i'm already getting exhausted with the hypocrisy, i just have to remain in for family reasons.

WinstonSmith

His Excellency,

Mrs Smith and I went through the same phases. Once we were both awake we thought we'd just keep going along as though nothing had changed. That got hard and we ended up doing the arriving just before the meeting started and leaving just after the final song thing. Then even sitting there became such a drain. Its nothing personal against the people, you just realise that you have nothing in common with them. Nothing to talk about.

I stopped going altogether and then since the Memorial Mrs Smith hasn't been along either. We thought it would be an interesting test of how deep the true Christian love is in our congregation. Since we stopped going, only one person has been in touch, our best friend. The only contact we have had from an elder has been to check if we submitted our field service time.

Genuine love?

Shepherds?

Christlike?

Nope.

16

Why so much sickness!

by Julia Orwell in

jw
friends

i never met such a physically and mentally ill group of people outside jws except for at the local hospital or old folks' home.

from chronic fatigue to fibromyalgia to depression to arthritis to kids lacking lustre to heart problems to cancer, bipolar to every co and his wife having food intolerances.... are jehovah's witnesses the most ailing group?

what is your observation?.

WinstonSmith

Spot on Gingerbread

16

Why so much sickness!

by Julia Orwell in

jw
friends

i never met such a physically and mentally ill group of people outside jws except for at the local hospital or old folks' home.

from chronic fatigue to fibromyalgia to depression to arthritis to kids lacking lustre to heart problems to cancer, bipolar to every co and his wife having food intolerances.... are jehovah's witnesses the most ailing group?

what is your observation?.

WinstonSmith

Because they have very little interesting going on in their life their focus becomes inward. I suspect that a lot of what they crap on about is nowhere near as bad as they make out. When your religion makes you a greyed out drone, you have to do something to make yourself deserving of attention.

Me? I took an arrow to the knee.

13

new AWAA site up and new name

by Aussie Oz in

not sure if anyone has linked this yet.

go to the old site (lego men and green monsters have done the work it seems) as it redirects you to aawa.co.

http://aawa.co/blog/a-new-name-and-an-apology/.

WinstonSmith

Phase 2 activated! Let's hope things go better this time. I much prefer the new name.

Looks like the peanut gallery has a voice after all.

336

The New Diary of Winston Smith

by WinstonSmith in

we had to go off grid for a time, time and half a time as we thought we had been outed.

fortunately it was a false alarm, but it was a stressful time.

i asked for my original diary thread to be deleted in case there could be anything on there to identlfy mrs smith and i. i am always very careful when posting, and am sure there was nothing on there, but felt it best to have it removed in order to be as cautious as a dove.

WinstonSmith

Today is ANZAC Day here in Australia and back home in New Zealand. A.N.Z.A.C is an acronym for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, and the day commemorates the landing of this force in Gallipoli during The Great War. It now has expanded to be a day to remember those who have fallen in all wars, but with the focus remaining on Gallipoli.

I have always had an interest in the armed services, and I honestly think that had I not been a witness, there is a good chance I would be piloting an aircraft for Queen and Country right now. As ANZAC Day came and went each year I always wanted to go along to the commemorations to show my respects. Each year I felt a pang of guilt from my WT addled mind for wanting to 'glorify war' even though this day does not do that at all. It is a day where those who died are remmbered by their surviving families, and respect and recognition is shown to those who have served and still serve.

This year we are wide awake from the JW slumber, and for our long weekend we are out of town. So first time in my life I (with Mrs Smith) went along to the dawn service local to where we are staying. It was a moving experience, so respectful and full of deep, deep emotion. We shed a tear along with everyone else as we observed a moments silence.

So glad to experience this in person for the first time, and humbled to have been able to pay my respects.

15

New Light?

by Blind_Of_Lies in

jw
friends

have the faithful followers been informed of the new light yet?

i know its going to be in the july wt (i think) but i dont remember how far in advance those get released.

would someone who doesnt read this forum know about it yet?.

WinstonSmith

Ever noticed how when you expose something to JWs, before you can explain to them what they now believe, you have to explain to them what they used to believe?

336

The New Diary of Winston Smith

by WinstonSmith in

we had to go off grid for a time, time and half a time as we thought we had been outed.

fortunately it was a false alarm, but it was a stressful time.

i asked for my original diary thread to be deleted in case there could be anything on there to identlfy mrs smith and i. i am always very careful when posting, and am sure there was nothing on there, but felt it best to have it removed in order to be as cautious as a dove.

WinstonSmith

One more day of work and then I have a looooong weeked. Yippee! Thursday is a public holiday, and I have an annual leave day on Friday so we are looking forward to a few days of chillaxing!

A funny thing happened yesterday. I got a Facebook message from a sister in our congregation. Not much of a preamble, and no mention of us missing meetings since the end of February, just straight in to asking for some help with a question she had. You see, she had looked it up on the WT library and wasn't able to find the answer, so she was all out of ideas. This is the wonderful spiritual training that the WTS provides you see. Because everything is served up on a platter for them, they have no idea how to think. Lovely people yes. Thinkers? No.

It's funny, when you are "in" you think you know it all, and have it all figured out. You feel like you can answer all the questions, and it all makes so much sense. Once you have woken up, you realise that there was so much that didn't make much sense, but was accepted under the guise of "the Slave looks after us so well They have given us this spiritual food!"

I can understand why many are happy to be a JW. Life makes sense, it all fits together. All you gotta do is open your skull, pour in the WT spiel, mix, and serve.