wolford and betty john,nice loveing couple,always loved children.. arther and tinnie roderson, nice couple he passed away some years ago too young from cancer.. wiakato and hine gray couldn't ask for better people.. jack teesie ..single guy would never go to a single sisters place for dinner even if she had children apperantly a bad look.. joe sleighman and wife nice couple were d.o's leaft and joined our side.. sandy pannell and wife...he reminded me of bill clinton always love to look down from the stage and wave his left finger at the congro....never liked him.. han's hubler,nuff said has been a few threads started about him.. there is many more.. karter..
Hey Joe, I grew up sitting behind Glendenning the meetings. Don't remember too much about him as I was young. I'm fairly sure they moved to the South Island and are still there.
We were good friends with Kelvin and Sarah. Good memories of he and I sitting on my patio sipping beers while the BBQ sizzled away. The best times to have COs over was Sunday evenings because all their work was done and their weekend was underway.
Tell me more about the talk of his that started you on the way out....
wolford and betty john,nice loveing couple,always loved children.. arther and tinnie roderson, nice couple he passed away some years ago too young from cancer.. wiakato and hine gray couldn't ask for better people.. jack teesie ..single guy would never go to a single sisters place for dinner even if she had children apperantly a bad look.. joe sleighman and wife nice couple were d.o's leaft and joined our side.. sandy pannell and wife...he reminded me of bill clinton always love to look down from the stage and wave his left finger at the congro....never liked him.. han's hubler,nuff said has been a few threads started about him.. there is many more.. karter..
Jeff Ridlings wife's name is Mary. Such a lovely lady from what I remember. Sheesh if she is till alive, she must be in her 90s?
The Prices that I mentioned in my earlier post were Kelvin and Sarah. They were really nice too.
Joe134cd - Man reading through your list brought back some memories! There are some 'classics' on there. Didn't know that the Kramers were overseas. He was a good speaker, in fact he even gave my baptism talk. You could really hear his theatrical background when he spoke and sung. I remember him talking about Alice's anger problem at an assembly too. I remember thinking it was a heart wrenching story, but could never work out how it related to the talk he was giving...
Any ideas about the Geoff that I mentioned? He is a really tall and solidly built guy. Blondish with glasses. They were in the Auckland area around the time we left NZ. I'm leaning toward his last name being Stephenson, but honestly can't remember.
This is a great thread Karter, bringing back some good memories of times gone by. The only COs that I have dealt with that I didn't like have been here in Australia. Peter Kitchen for example is an a-grade wanker.
wolford and betty john,nice loveing couple,always loved children.. arther and tinnie roderson, nice couple he passed away some years ago too young from cancer.. wiakato and hine gray couldn't ask for better people.. jack teesie ..single guy would never go to a single sisters place for dinner even if she had children apperantly a bad look.. joe sleighman and wife nice couple were d.o's leaft and joined our side.. sandy pannell and wife...he reminded me of bill clinton always love to look down from the stage and wave his left finger at the congro....never liked him.. han's hubler,nuff said has been a few threads started about him.. there is many more.. karter..
Karter, thanks for the info on Ridling. Always liked him and Mary. They settled in our congregation when the finished the circuit work. That dude had the best eyebrows.
You don't happen to originate from the central north by any chance do you?
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.
I have made three posts over the last week on my blog, and Mum has clicked Like on all three and commented on two of them. Not big comments, just two or three words.
Still no reply to my email.
I think she is trying to tell me "I'm keeping in touch as best I can within the rules" or something........
Little by little the battle is won.
i just caught this in an upcoming study article which will be "studied" in the congregations the week of 11/18-24/13:.
he and his wife were elated when their eldest daughter, age ten, told them that she loved her parents, loved the brothers and sisters, and loved jehovah very much.
she said that she wanted to dedicate her life to jehovah and get baptized.
Even when I was 'in' it used to bemuse me when the WTS would mock the churches for infant baptism yet they and their ardent followers would be the first to rejoice at a young one getting dunked. "Did you hear about little Johnny, he got baptised and he's only 10! Such a wonderful example."
One of the reasons that WTS mocks the churches is because babies are in no position to make a decision such as getting baptised. I ask you, what 10 year old is in any position to make this decision and be cognisant of the fact that if they change their mind later they will lose their entire family, and actually understands what this could mean for them?
Child abuse on so many levels is rampant among God's chosen people.
wolford and betty john,nice loveing couple,always loved children.. arther and tinnie roderson, nice couple he passed away some years ago too young from cancer.. wiakato and hine gray couldn't ask for better people.. jack teesie ..single guy would never go to a single sisters place for dinner even if she had children apperantly a bad look.. joe sleighman and wife nice couple were d.o's leaft and joined our side.. sandy pannell and wife...he reminded me of bill clinton always love to look down from the stage and wave his left finger at the congro....never liked him.. han's hubler,nuff said has been a few threads started about him.. there is many more.. karter..
Cox, Kramer, Ridling, Sleighman, Teesey, Price, Rogers, Black, and there was another one, can't remember his last name, but his first name is Geoff, big tall guy with glasses.
And even further back, maybe around Joe Sleighman's time there was an older guy who's name i can never remember, but who's face I can see clearly. Made everyone sing two songs at the Devonport Assembly hall one year, back when they had a mini orchestra playing the music.
Damn I'm ooooooooooooooold!
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.
K99: I guess I am an optimist!
As for my blog, oooooooh it is tempting to post it here as blogging is a favourite hobby of mine. I am a hack amateur photographer and it is full of my poor attempts at the art, along with my ramblings on life and a commentary on the adventures of Mrs Smith and I as we trundle about here and there. It is immediately obvious when you go there that it belongs to me (by my real name) and I am not quite ready to pull off the mask just yet. However if you send me a nice PM (and beer), I might share the link with you....
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.
Hi team,
Thanks so much for continuing to check in on the developing story. It has been a tough time, but this is a war we win little by little.
Oubliette, thanks for your well thought out comments. I agree with you mate, it is easy to see the holes when we have our eyes opened eh? I just hope that maybe one day mum will also start to see some cracks. I appreciate that you have kept up with my story right from the start.
Watkins - I think you must be right. I am sure that the things I have discussed with mum must be having an impact on some level, whether she wants to admit it or not! Looking back it is amazing to see the things we used to believe (and would die for) yet we never even bothered to check them out with any depth. For shame!
Aunt Fancy - My goal is slowly let mum let her beautiful personality shine. She is a loving, caring, generous person, and I know that this shunning crap will be going against everything her natural inclination is telling her. I am quietly confident that even if I can't help her to see the falsity of the WTS, I will at least be able to maintain a semi-normal-agree-to-disagree-and-lets-not-tell-anyone-about-it situation. It may not be ideal, but it is better than nothing right?
In my last post I mentioned that mum had commented and clicked Like on a blog post I had made. Last week she did it again. No comment this time, just a Like. At least I know she is checking my blog and showing an interest in me still, albeit indirectly.
Last night I sent her an email. Just a real nice and normal email. No religious stuff, just a 'this is how work is going, this is what Mrs Smith has been up to, here are our plans for some holdays we have coming up' type email. I'm not holding my breath for a reply, but hey, you never know!
Enjoy the rest of your week guys :-)
WS
if reasoning with a jehovahs witness on the watchtower societys interpretations of the kingdom of god, parousia, the cross, blood, and so on is unlikely to break the wtss mental stranglehold, what then is its achilles heel?.
http://www.jwstudies.com/the_watchtower_s_achilles__heel.pdf.
doug.
Hello Doug,
I saved your PDF and enjoyed reading it over the last few commutes to work. You laid the points out nicely and it was easy to understand, great work.
Funny, in all my time as a JW I never realised that Paul's descriptions were of the same event reported in Acts. The discrepancies in the accounts are very interesting, and good ammo for discussing the so called authority of the GB.
Thanks again for a good read!
WS
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.
@Phizzy: Thanks for sharing your story mate. I do honestly hope that this is the same point I can get to with Mum, where we "agree to disagree" and just go on talking about everything else. I have never once said that I think she should leave, I have been very careful about that. I have said to her (and many others) that I am happy for them if they wish to be a JW for the rest of their life, all power to them. But where I struggle is with the policy of cutting family off, especially with no scriptural backing. Until I get a satisfactory answer I will remain firm in that stand. Like you say, I really hope eventually we can just talk about other stuff.
@Tornapart: Mum is pretty awesome, and this is half the reason why I am fighting so hard for this (you may note with interest that I have not really mentioned my sister in while - let the reader use discernment). Like I said to Phizzy above, I'm happy if she wants to remain a JW I've never asked her otherwise. All I am asking is for her to do the scriptural thing, the christian thing, and let the natural affection flow.
@Listener: No offence at all mate, just enjoying the chance to talk about this openly and vent it out :-) I appreciate you sharing your story, and feel for your situation. People said to me that DAing was selfish and that I should have just faded, even though they knew how I felt. I said to them "What is more selfish? Me seeking my mental heatlh, or you asking me to live a lie because it suits you?" Still never had a decent answer.
I really enjoyed this comment you made: "Although I lost the close relationship with my father for over 30 years I always felt that it was not by my doing and he chose to shun because he honestly believed what he was doing was right and I had no control over that." I liked it because if this is how it ends up with mum and me, I too will know that it was her choice, not mine, and that I did everything I could to prevent it and remain sane.
Let's hope it doesn't come to that ;-)
So here is some more.......news......
It has been a weird couple of weeks. After getting things to what I thought was a good spot as described above, about a week later I got a text message from mum asking me to not contact her for a while as she needs to "sort some things out". I replied and said "Well, no actually, you are too important to me to cut out of my life so I will continue to text you and email you like normal". By the way, its not like we text or email each other 5 times a day or anything. It is usually maybe once a weekish.
Anyway, she replied and said "I didn't mean forever, I just meant for a little while as I process stuff." I sent back pretty much the same reply saying that I would keep in touch as normal.
To be honest I haven't done that at all. I have not felt the motivation to email her or text her. I guess ultimately I am afraid that it might prompt a total cut off. So now I am stuck in that limbo where I'm thinking should I contact her, should I not? Goddamn organisation, seriously.
And then out of the blue she posted a comment on my blog the other day: "OMG ha ha, love mum xxx"
O.o
So confused right now!
