So HAPPY for all concerned!!!
Hugs and Best Wishes all around!
just had to share some good news in our family - my granddaughter has her car packed and she's getting moved into the dorm at her university tomorrow morning!
all day i've been thinking about how fantastic it is when you know without a doubt that a precious kid has absolutely made the right decision for their life.
we have hoped so much that she would be able to attend college.. she graduated high school this past may and qualified for a scholarship to a wonderful school.
So HAPPY for all concerned!!!
Hugs and Best Wishes all around!
according to its own statistics, the jw organization in germany had 1075 kingdom halls in august 2011, 997 khs in november 2016, and 940 ones in august 2018. .
the average decrease was 1.25 khs per month in 2011-2016 and 2.7 khs per month during the past two years.. .
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16znuhftwpwq1nf_9jidc_srarst0errjssgcuxkbl8a/edit?usp=sharing .
Do you know how the "work" is in Frankfurt?
Maybe 20 years ago there was a small street in that city that had numerous kingdom halls built next to each other.
not really sure in what forum this topic belongs -- trying to find out where kh or other jw org sells the jewelry that is donated to it..
One of the posters on this forum wrote a story and posted it several years ago.
It was a tantalizing read. It was entitled "The Opal Ring".
The ending was a real possibility.
It was dealing with the OP's premise of what happens to donated jewelry.
i was recently given a gift of ancestry.com and i’m curious if anyone else has used this service?.
When you get your results back and see you are related to someone with only 6.2 cM, centimorgans, it is not futile.
If your Line is long, you can find them.
I am on a FB closed Family website and there is a know it all that says, something that small is dismissive. His Line must be short. We are not a DNA match. My Line is from Oyster Bay, NY and his is not.
I have helped 2 DNA cousins who we matched at the 6.2cM level.
It was of interest to me that I had a 4th great grandmother 1748-1820 who was granted a divorce from her bigamist husband Uriah in 1798. He was a big landowner in two different states where he had kept two different wives and children. He was only charged $500.00 and granted a divorce. He lived and died 1740-1817, so I am glad she outlived him.
my father would have started college 49 years ago this week.
about three months earlier, the week he graduated high school, the awake!
magazine came out with some very clear direction to teenagers.
@Virgochik,
The 2 different families I mention is because they are all DEAD.
#1. Had a beautiful home in Huntington Beach, Calif. Sold it and moved North to pioneer until... "this old system of things came to an end... ". The husband ended up dying with dementia. His wife died of cancer. Both had Jdub funerals but lived their last years in poverty.
#2. He was an engineer and made good money. They lived in Claremont, close to Pomona. They "heeded the call... " sold and moved North to Redding, Calif out to a mountainous acreage. He told me at their 50th wedding anniversary, that The Society told the ones way back when to ... flee to the mountains for safety, so they did. Sitting their in a grand hall with all old family and friends, John sat in a poop filled diaper because his wife Mildred was having such a good time visiting with everyone, she forgot to take him out and check. Shortly afterwards, he was diagnosed with dementia.
did you see the performance of stephen lett on august broadcasting?.
the illustration of painting the kingdom hall?.
used for explaining that you have to listen to elders even when they are totaly wrong?.
All those older people in the video above are DEAD!
Did they not feel like fools, when it came their turn at the end of life's conveyer belt?
Just because a bombastic speaker tells you he has god's blessing and he knows, millions now living will never die! Just follow him! No, we don't pass a plate for money, we have conveniently placed boxes! But, it is not a plate! See! We have god's blessing. We are not like the rest!
What a honky tonk religion.
i was recently given a gift of ancestry.com and i’m curious if anyone else has used this service?.
@RebelFighter ~ Wow. Tough row for you to hoe.
I am on Ancestry and am good at blocked walls.
Read all available documents throughally. I have found so many clues to further my search by reading old documents.
And you found your (RIP) father and 1/2 brother and first cousin. Fabulous!
Do you have American black DNA by any chance? Three generations probably takes you back to 1880's ~ 1900. Not far. Those DNA cousins of mine who's great great's were slaves have a very hard time with blocked walls galore. I have only been able to help one DNA cousin because his 1st and 2nd and last name was past down and also it was known where they lived. He was a 3rd great uncle's (slave owner) illigetimate son. (Same name as the slave owner).
And if you are American (I don't know) the early Colonists were very British with precise record keeping. Religiously, if they were Quakers, so much info is available.
In my Tree I have helped DNA cousins who have been adopted, and like you have had walls. Because my mother was like yours, a pathalogical liar, I am like a bloodhound on a scent to find the truth. I find it a fun challenge to dig the truth out from publicly available documents and expose their lies.
Many people have discerned that who their grandparents were, was something that they wanted to distant themselves from and start over. Change their name (your mother did) birth location etc. and especially age (so many kept making themselves younger in US Census through the decades). Lies, lies and more lies but it gave them what they wanted. A new start. Some had shady pasts and didn't want that name to be used (might get arrested?).
One of my ethnic groups is rare. On MyHeritage I have only 10 matches for this group. None of them know our vast history that my grandfather told me so I share and they are thrilled.
My suggestion is everyone should do it. I can't imagine what it must feel like to be adopted and not know...
i wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who has posted here as i have been reading all of them.
i have realized that i am not alone in my struggles and the realization that the " truth" is a bunch of crap.
i have been over come with emotion over the last years or so.
In my life time as a JW, I have found, inequitable, ALL the self righteous ones... were hiding something. That is why they needed to be "seen" as more so called "spiritual" than others.
How well do you know your wife and in laws?
a circuit overseer or a member of the gibbering body is giving a talk about demonism and he says the following, "there was an elder in a congregation in california who let his 8-year-old daughter watch disney movies that involved witches, gremlins, magic, and sorcery.
many may feel that they are harmless movies and are just entertainment.
well, the 8-year-old daughter actually brought a blue smurf doll to the public talk and watchtower study.
Back when the whole smurf thing came out, we had some water glasses with their image stamped on them. We got them at McDonald's with a child's meal. No biggie to us.
But, our CO and wife stayed with us. They were horrified. Don't you know... ??? so we threw them in the trash.
What she said didn't make any sense to us but it was a contentious point with no room for debate.
i wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who has posted here as i have been reading all of them.
i have realized that i am not alone in my struggles and the realization that the " truth" is a bunch of crap.
i have been over come with emotion over the last years or so.
I am sorry you are having a tough time.
You have posted that your little ones are 6, 9, and 11 and that your wife is from a very judgemental family but yet they are very spiritual.
Are you sure your not the nice guy that married a bit+h but you are too kind hearted to want to acknowledge it? Do you need to save your children from your wife and her family and the religion too? That is a lot to handle for sure.
My elder husband who everyone thought was so spiritual tried to kill me several times. I thought...No. He didn't mean that... And let it pass away from my mind. I know how loveable I am ... so of course he didn't calculate and plan it. It was so confusing. My mind wouldn't, couldn't accept it.
For the sake of your little ones... who need to be in a healthy environment, they need to be in after school activities. They need to be around normal people.
If you ask me as a born in too, like you, what would I start changing with children? Do not allow them to go to meetings during the week. They need sports, do their homework, play, eat and sleep yes, even down time to rest and think. Chores? Sure. Animal care? Sure. Help them to be normal.
No door to door to strangers with a little suit, a big plastered on happy smile, with humiliating dumbed down religious trash. Children need to learn personal boundaries. Religion is one of them.
How are children to learn Stranger - Danger? when their parents take them around strangers all of the time?
How many child abusers do you have in your Hall? Do you know? Of course you don't!
My home congo was filled with sick ooze. Pedophiles, adultery... And who by??? The leaders in the Hall. Some were like sleepers, but others were the ones in leadership positions and pioneers, raising their self-righteous hands and looking down at others. "They were white washed graves... ".
I am sorry. I do not mean to be harsh. I also don't recall if you are an elder... which your wife certainally would not want her "position" as an elder's wife taken away from her.
You are in a tough spot. I feel for you. Keep reading. Keep posting. This is our Worldwide Brotherhood Therapy Class.