Phoebe

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Posts by Phoebe

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  22

  What Do You Do if the Household Does Not Celebrate?

  by BluesBrother in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  it is christmas morning ....the weather outside looks cold grey and dismal (typical britain in winter ) the house is quiet as my wife gets on with something.

  .... the street is silent, as dead as the grave.

  the tv is full of the purile nonsense that fills airtime this time of year .

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  Phoebe

  The oldest children are celebrating with their spouses, the youngest still at home with us. We are in no man's land. We're not longer considered JWs (I'm now officially inactive) but neither can I suddenly start celebrating something I never have in my 60+ years.

  Through my work - in online retail - I have seen these past few weeks, people behaving despicably to my colleagues. Goodwill to all men was certainly thrown out of the window! Rudeness beyond compare, all because a delivery was a day late or something else quite trivial. If this is the Xmas spirit, they can keep it. It turns people into monsters because they are under so much pressure to put on the perfect Christmas day.

  But it still feel immensely lonely because we now don't belong anywhere. We're just waiting for the day to be over so we can go back to work, because work is all we have now.

  The only bright spot was, for the first time I bought my children and husband some gifts. I thoroughly enjoyed choosing just the right gift for each of them and felt so much satisfaction watching them open them up. There truly is more joy in giving than receiving.
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  38

  How do I handle this?

  by Phoebe in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  a little advice please.. it's now 7 months since i stopped going to meetings.

  we still get regular calls by elders - at least every 2 weeks.

  i can handle them.

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  Phoebe

  dubstepped

  I just want to be left alone but it just isn't happening. Elders visit every 2 weeks, sometimes twice in a week.

  Yes, I'd DA I guess but I live in a teeny, tiny town my neighbours are JWs, I see JWs every single time I go out. I'm not sure I can handle them turning their backs on me just yet.

  Plus, my brother and sister will throw a party if they hear I'm DA. They will say 'Jehovah got rid of her at last' (My brother and sister are uber JWs that are frankly, the nastiness people ever)

  Why should I DA and give them that control over me? But then if I don't, they still have control, don't they?

  Hence wanting to disappear!
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  50

  Life after jw

  by Jrjw in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  hi has anyone still kept searching for the truth after leaving wts?

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  Phoebe

  Jrjw

  I guess I am. After over 50 years I feel a bit lost now. So I am looking for answers. So you are not alone.
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  60

  2017 Service Year Report Grand Totals

  by Drearyweather in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  2017 figures released to bethel families worldwide:.

  peak publishers: 8,457,107. total baptized: 284,212 .

  regular pioneers: 1,225,279 .

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  Phoebe

  There's huge pressure on parents to get their kids baptized asap. So I think there's a lot of kids in those figures.

  JWs are being constantly pressurized to pioneer, too. It's like if you are not pioneering, what's wrong with you?

  And let's face it, pioneering is easy compared to years ago. Several people standing around carts playing on their phones. I've seen them in every major city I've visited and it was the same everywhere except Italy, when the JWs were chatting to everyone - but that's lovely Italians for you!

  When I pioneered in the 60s I had to do 100 hours a month, we were expected to try and place 100 magazines and do god knows how many return visits (back calls we called them) 75? Plus hold down a job to support ourselves. Hence you'd only get a few pioneers in most congregations and they were usually school leavers still living at home.

  So these figures don't surprise me.

  I also think people in general are freaked out by world conditions. N.Korea/Trump etc so they want something to cling to that gives them hope.
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  38

  How do I handle this?

  by Phoebe in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  a little advice please.. it's now 7 months since i stopped going to meetings.

  we still get regular calls by elders - at least every 2 weeks.

  i can handle them.

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• 

  Phoebe

  Thanks everyone! I knew you'd come through for me.

  I told one of my kids and they said: 'did you know her well, then?'

  'Not at all, only spoken to her a couple of times. Barely know her.'

  Mind you that pretty much sums up my interaction with the entire congregation as I was largely ignored by everyone -- my kids went to uni and my husband left the truth, I think I was classed as bad association.

  I don't think for one minute anyone cares whether I'm there or not and the only reason the elders are keeping tabs on me is because they know about what my brother did.

  Isn't it all just ridiculous??

  Ideally, I want to win the lotto and get the hell out of here!

  XXX
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  38

  How do I handle this?

  by Phoebe in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  a little advice please.. it's now 7 months since i stopped going to meetings.

  we still get regular calls by elders - at least every 2 weeks.

  i can handle them.

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• 

  Phoebe

  Hi,

  A Little advice please.

  It's now 7 months since I stopped going to meetings. We still get regular calls by elders - at least every 2 weeks. I can handle them. But now something else, I don't know how to handle and I feel bad about it.

  A letter was pushed through my door. It was from a teenager in my congregation. I don't know her very well. Perhaps spoken to her about twice! But oh gosh, it was the sweetest letter. Told me how much she missed me, how much Jehovah loves me. How she looks for me at every meeting.

  Now the cynical me, says her mum and gran probably put her up to it. A few posts ago I mentioned her gran - who is my age - coming to my door and telling me repeatedly I was disobeying Jehovah. (She was the woman who reached over, touched my hair and told me to sort it out, if anyone remembers?)

  But the 'nice' me says ah, bless her heart, what a sweet thing to do.

  So, how do I respond to it? I can hardly tell this slip of a girl that I won't set foot in the hall ever again, that my brother got away with molesting me and the other zillion reasons I now know about this religion. Plus I am fading, I don't want to give anyone a reason to report me.

  So, do I just send a nice letter back, thanking her for her concern or what? What would you do?
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  9

  Sharing the Bad (shameful) News in all the Earth - Courtesy of the BBC

  by fulltimestudent in

  1. watchtower
  2. child-abuse

  australia's royal commission into child abuse released its full report yesterday, so it was gratifying to see the uk's bbc run this headline on their website this morning (aussie time):.

  australia jehovah's witnesses 'did not report 1,000 alleged abusers'.

  hopefully, all over the world people will learn the shameful news of what yhwh (as guided by the holy spirit) told his earthly witnesses to do.

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  Phoebe

  I told one sister about it and she reasoned it was either Jehovah cleansing the organization or Satan causing trouble for the organization, but more than likely the latter.

  I am afraid that, sad to say, even if the child abuse was committed right in front of their eyes they wouldn't believe it.

  They simply will not believe there is any fault with the organization or the GB.
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  6

  Ministry Ideaz - Online JW shop

  by Listener in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  ministry ideaz is an online shop that sells products aimed at the jw market.

  apparently the owner is a guy called greg holland.bridget azaz (youtube account) has posted a mirror of a video which attempts to disclose the relationship between this business and the watchtower society.

  it shows a photo of greg holland standing in the watchtower broadcasting studio and a claim that he was one of a very small number of people specially invited to a four day opening of warwick.it also shows a photo of gb losch, his wife and her family with claims that they were brought to equidor on holiday by greg holland.another claim is that greg admits that there is a contract between his business and the watchtower.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqfwsj6m0muthey announced the opening of their first physical store in july, 2017. visit us at our new location in pine bush, ny.

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  Phoebe

  I have recently been watching this video about them.

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLlXfkqAPwE
  
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  30

  WARWICK

  by Phoebe in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  as it's highly unlikely i'll ever go to warwick, i found lloyd evans latest video fascinating.

  i had no idea that the whole 'museum' (if you can call it that) was so big.

  notice the credit card machines by the entrance.

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  Phoebe

  Like him or not, I have to say if it wasn't for Lloyd and also Critical Thinker, I don't think I would have woken up. I always imagined apostates to be a bit more like Mike and Kim (who I was terrified of at first but now I'm a bit more used to them and like them) The John Cedars channel really helped me. I remember him saying 'research, research, research' so I did.
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  30

  WARWICK

  by Phoebe in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  as it's highly unlikely i'll ever go to warwick, i found lloyd evans latest video fascinating.

  i had no idea that the whole 'museum' (if you can call it that) was so big.

  notice the credit card machines by the entrance.

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  Phoebe

  The money all this has cost, too.