Farmer Jim1

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Posts by Farmer Jim1

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  8

  Anyone like to meet up to compare notes?

  by Farmer Jim1 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  hi folks, i’m heading off on a road trip of northern uk next week and, living in a very rural place, would be keen to take the opportunity to meet up with any ex-jws/current jws to compare notes on jw and post-jw life.. if anyone is available please pm me.. for the record i’m 18 months out of jw, was a ‘model jw child’ & longtime ms & reg pio.

  leaving was the best life decision i ever made!.

  regards.

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  Farmer Jim1

  The Lakes, Lancaster, Manchester, Peak District, North Yorkshire
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  8

  Anyone like to meet up to compare notes?

  by Farmer Jim1 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  hi folks, i’m heading off on a road trip of northern uk next week and, living in a very rural place, would be keen to take the opportunity to meet up with any ex-jws/current jws to compare notes on jw and post-jw life.. if anyone is available please pm me.. for the record i’m 18 months out of jw, was a ‘model jw child’ & longtime ms & reg pio.

  leaving was the best life decision i ever made!.

  regards.

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• 

  Farmer Jim1

  Hi folks, I’m heading off on a road trip of Northern UK next week and, living in a very rural place, would be keen to take the opportunity to meet up with any ex-JWs/current JWs to compare notes on JW and post-JW life.

  If anyone is available please pm me.

  for the record I’m 18 months out of JW, was a ‘model JW child’ & longtime MS & reg pio. Leaving was the best life decision I ever made!

  regards
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  9

  Time Gained by Leaving JW World

  by Farmer Jim1 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  does anyone else wonder at the amount of time a person immediately gains when they leave the jws?.

  just today, a sunday, i would have woken up at 7, frantically taken a highlighter pen to my wt to make it look like i had made a deep study of it.

  packed my stuff for meeting and ministry, cycled to the kh, joined the pre meeting ministry arrangement, rushed back for the meeting, sat through a sometimes interesting public talk, sometimes mind-numbingly dull one, strained through a wt study to which i usually had more questions than answers.

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  Farmer Jim1

  Does anyone else wonder at the amount of time a person immediately gains when they leave the JWs?

  Just today, a Sunday, I would have woken up at 7, frantically taken a highlighter pen to my WT to make it look like I had made a deep study of it. Packed my stuff for meeting and ministry, cycled to the KH, joined the pre meeting ministry arrangement, rushed back for the meeting, sat through a sometimes interesting public talk, sometimes mind-numbingly dull one, strained through a WT study to which I usually had more questions than answers. Forced some lunch down and rushed out on the afternoon ministry arrangement. Back to KH, get changed, cycle back home knackered and pretty sure that I hadn’t done anything worthwhile with my day until I got out in my garden for some garden- therapy.

  The social aspect of it was sometimes nice but all in all Sunday was 8 hours of wasted daylight.

  Now, a little lie in on a Sunday, a nice swim in the sea with friends. A little creative writing. Sunday lunch with friends. Sky sports galore! Even time to do some real good for people by supporting a real charity event locally.

  no regrets, no disturbing folks on their weekend, no WT indoctrination, no fake friends, no ‘doing it’ to be seen doing it. And that’s just the Sunday benefits of leaving JWs.
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  20

  What’s the most effective way to wake the largest amount of JW’s up?

  by Farmer Jim1 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  what can one person do to save as many people as possible from this organisation?.

  youtube videos?.

  mail shots?.

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  Farmer Jim1

  What can one person do to save as many people as possible from this organisation?

  youtube videos?

  mail shots?

  visiting Kingdom Halls and planting doubts?

  writing a book/collaborating with journalists on articles?

  advertising websites such as JW facts and JW survey?

  Other methods?

  what does everyone think is the most effective way?
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  17

  Cong accounts analysis?

  by Farmer Jim1 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  anyone on here an ex accounts servant?

  i’d be interested in a projection of what percentage of contributions come from elderly jw’s.

  i.e, money that will be diminishing over next 5 or 10 years as these ones pass on.. i estimate that in one of my previous congs 50% of the contribution totals of approximately £400 each month were being made by the over 70’s demographic.. within the other 50% were pioneers and low paid workers who put in regular but small amounts.. i guess when the accountants ring the alarm bells you start cutting the biggest costs; full time servants, buildings, printed literature.

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  Farmer Jim1

  Anyone on here an ex accounts servant? I’d be interested in a projection of what percentage of contributions come from elderly JW’s. I.e, money that will be diminishing over next 5 or 10 years as these ones pass on.

  i estimate that in one of my previous congs 50% of the contribution totals of approximately £400 each month were being made by the over 70’s demographic.

  Within the other 50% were pioneers and low paid workers who put in regular but small amounts.

  I guess when the accountants ring the alarm bells you start cutting the biggest costs; full time servants, buildings, printed literature. With the UK member figures now appearing to have peaked and possibly heading into decline I would be surprised if there is anything less than a 50% drop in contributed funds within the next ten years.
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  12

  Positive Topic - ‘Good Elders’ or Extra Special Kindness shown by elders

  by Farmer Jim1 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  after the last topic getting me mad, does anyone have a positive experience of dealing with an elder or a particular favourite elder that was a top bloke?.

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  Farmer Jim1

  After the last topic getting me mad, does anyone have a positive experience of dealing with an elder or a particular favourite elder that was a top bloke?
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  29

  Do you or did you experience too much intrusion into your personal life by the elders in your congregation?

  by UnshackleTheChains in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i ask this question because i have personally experienced first hand the control and intrusion into my personal life by the elders at our hall; and for virtually trivial things or non issues!

  what's more, i regularly hear of individuals moving to other halls because they were stumbled by the thought police....er, i mean these elders.. have you had any such experience?

  have your elders been a bit ott over trivialities?.

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  Farmer Jim1

  And finally(although there is a lot of material in this topic). PO before the last one took me aside and counselled me NOT TO COME to meetings if my spiritually weak wife was not at meeting. Unsure about this but willing to follow elders’ directions I missed countless meetings by following his council. I later hear from several elders that he has been commenting on how disappointed he is because I was missing meetings! I was fuming and ‘took him in a back room’ during the next WT study. He was understandably upset when I tore a strip off him but still didn’t learn his lesson and kept spouting crazy personal opinions instead of scriptural advice. Complete fool, easily the worst elder I have ever come across. Am so mad just thinking about it that I should name & shame him
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  29

  Do you or did you experience too much intrusion into your personal life by the elders in your congregation?

  by UnshackleTheChains in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i ask this question because i have personally experienced first hand the control and intrusion into my personal life by the elders at our hall; and for virtually trivial things or non issues!

  what's more, i regularly hear of individuals moving to other halls because they were stumbled by the thought police....er, i mean these elders.. have you had any such experience?

  have your elders been a bit ott over trivialities?.

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  Farmer Jim1

  Presiding overseer once took it upon himself to voice his opinions to me and try to pursuade me not to buy a motorbike. Why he thought it was any of his business I’m not sure. Drunk on his own power.
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  29

  Do you or did you experience too much intrusion into your personal life by the elders in your congregation?

  by UnshackleTheChains in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i ask this question because i have personally experienced first hand the control and intrusion into my personal life by the elders at our hall; and for virtually trivial things or non issues!

  what's more, i regularly hear of individuals moving to other halls because they were stumbled by the thought police....er, i mean these elders.. have you had any such experience?

  have your elders been a bit ott over trivialities?.

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  Farmer Jim1

  Once had an elder pull me into the KH car park and insist that I no longer speak to or associate with a particular sister in the cong. I told him that was a strange request and asked for more details. He didn’t elaborate, just got more dogmatic about it. I insisted on him giving me a reason as she was a friend and I enjoyed associating with her. He said that she had requested that I no longer talk to her. I knew immediately that it was elder BS. I agreed to comply with the elder and then spoke to the sister the next week. She confirmed that it was BS and didn’t have a clue what it was about. When confronted the elder confessed he had handled things very badly & had some kind of ‘episode’ but did not apologise for bare faced lies he told. To think that I still trusted elders to ‘shepherd me’ after that nonsense!
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  20

  Deceptive comments or lies that you have heard from platform or brothers & sisters?

  by Farmer Jim1 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  ok, so what are the most deceptive comments that you have heard from your experience in congregations?.

  my top three are;.

  1) service overseer during the ’ how did we do?’ annual talk, twisted the figures to such an extent that it looked like the congregations ministry was in tip-top shape.

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  Farmer Jim1

  Ok, so what are the most deceptive comments that you have heard from your experience in congregations?

  my top three are;

  1) Service Overseer during the ’ how did we do?’ annual talk, twisted the figures to such an extent that it looked like the congregations ministry was in tip-top shape. He had said to me before the meeting that it would be too demoralising to give the facts as they were so he felt the need to ‘spin’ them to raise morale! It seemed to backfire because the congregations ministry continued on its downward spiral.

  2) WT conductor in my hall informed me that the branch had sent through a letter with specific instructions on how the WT reader should read and at what exact points they should enter and exit the platform. I decided to call him out on this one (usually was the meek & mild type) and asked him to show me the letter. He refused saying that it was a confidential letter and I should just accept what he was saying because he was an elder and I wasn’t. I suggested that he should just show me the wording and redact the rest of the letter because if the instructions were so specific I would want to make sure that nothing was lost in translation. He went ballistic and began to threaten my position as an MS. At this point I told him that I thought he was lying and that the specific instructions he said had come from the branch had actually come from his tiny, jumped-up little brain. He stormed off and I took it to some of the other elders. Guess what? He was a first rate liar. Elders confirmed for me that none of them were aware of his ‘rules’ but that I should follow his instruction anyway. I informed them that I would not deal with such a brazen liar and am only interested in fact. Elder disappeared off body a few years later.

  3) The reasoning given for the separate bookstudy evening being stopped. Something about petroleum costs? Don’t think so. How about countries where car ownership or travel costs are not part of the equation because everyone walks. Why did they have to stop their book Studies? Must be more to it.