Hey 00DAD
I'm in Sydney, Australia... I would be very happy to send letters/postcards from here to people's families - just PM me.
Peachz
i've been toying with an idea that i think just might have some legs.
so here i am trotting it out for all of you to consider and comment upon.
for many of us, we are extremely frustrated by the fact that we have no way to communicate with our loved ones still stuck in the organization.
Hey 00DAD
I'm in Sydney, Australia... I would be very happy to send letters/postcards from here to people's families - just PM me.
Peachz
this might be an unfair question for those who have been out of the organization for decades, but i'm wondering if any of you remember your earliest doubt -- maybe something odd that occurred to you as a kid (if you were a jw then).
please try to limit to two doubts at the most :-).
i think my first "doubt" was simply realizing that at the time of the flood, every animal that wasn't in the ark died (well, besides the fish, supposedly).
I was about 5 or 6... I asked for them to provide actual evidence of what they were teaching about God, and to explain the dinosaur thing to me, and I got in lots of trouble, and got no evidence. I was known as the 'stubborn child' lol... seriously they should have seen the whole me leaving thing coming years ago!
i guess this is what the new system will be like.
enjoy the link every one.
and buy the way it is my birthday today.
happy birthday :)
" Of course, if you are lazy and indifferent toward your privileges you will probably be told, but you will be told for your own good. Jehovah is not pleased with a slug- gard. "
Uhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oml6exm-nk.
Huzzah!
during the past week, 17 different articles on various practices of jws and comments to those, have been published on the web page of the norwegian equivalent of the bbc, nrk: http://www.nrk.no/nyheter/norge/1.8397366.
in addition to this a special news programme with a discussion on sexual abuse and jw was broadcast on nrk2, and p1 contained an interview with an ex-jw on its weekly news summary programme.. it seems the expose is continuing..
The Norwegians are very clued into the cult thing. My family over there are very lucky, and have done a lot of work themselves to expose the religion in their country.
i know some have thought that about me.
my family used to but i think that hope is dwindling now..
Last I heard my dad was still desperately using the prodigal (son) daughter thing regarding me, however since they had the article recently ish about not contacting apostate relatives etc even more heavily, and they learnt of my tattoos they haven't tried to contact me with the prodigal stuff. Phew!
Essentially they were saying that they didn't believe I was serious in leaving, that I was just doing it because I was young and immature and wanted to 'taste the world', and that they fully expected me to see the error of my ways and come crawling back pregnant/addicted to drugs/beaten by bf. None of which has happened, and it's not even close to why I left (been an athiest essentially since I was about 6, I remember thinking that the whole God thing wasn't right even then, have never believed in it).
i'd just like to see who here has served at bethel, including myself.
this may be useful for those that have specific questions about bethel, but don't know who of us actually served there.
could we hear from those that served at bethel and where you served?
Both my brothers were in the Australian Bethel at overlapping times in the late 80s/early90s. One of them was on international construction all through the 90s and into 00s. They're both hardcore JWs, then and still, being elders and prominent was all they ever wanted.
so one of the things both me and my wife are faced with is breaking the news that we've stopped going to meetings to our parents.
my wifes parents could go either way, they have made several critical remarks of the wt over the years, while my parents are die hard jw's.
i tossed the idea around of sending a letter or doing a phone call or just not saying anything.. we've decided that were just tired of having to hide our true feelings and play pretend.
In person to my dad, then email to the rest of the family as I didn't live anywhere near them, and that led to months of gibberish in emails and letters and anger from them, so in hindsight maybe not such a great idea, but eventually they got the message that I wasn't coming back when I disassociated myself.
i'm really struggling with this.
i gave up smoking a few months back and have put on around 20lbs already.
i've gone up another dress size and i wasn't slim to begin with!
Cofty nailed it on head. Calories in < calories burnt, doesn't matter where they come from, but healthier for you in the long run to go low GI and vegies+fruit+meat, the less processed food the better. Be patient, it won't happen overnight. Maybe try and find a friend to do it with so you have support and accountability to someone if that helps? And yeah, don't beat yourself up if you don't follow any eating plan perfectly, have a treat day weekly/fortnightly and eat/drink what you love.
repost here for lurkers and newbies... if you would like a pdf copy please pm me, i have permission to distribute the english translation electronically from the author's, joseph wilting, family (my family)..
Copies sent! Should have clarified perhaps, I just need an email addess to send it to, it's not a huge file, only 580K.
Appreciate the interest!
PrincessPeachz