TheOldHippie

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Posts by TheOldHippie

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  80

  Are there any ex-missionaries here??

  by fulano in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i have been a missionary in the dominican republic for almost 10 years and i was wondering if there were any ex-missionaries on this forum.. i am back in my country now for 3 years and totally inactive.. what i noticed in those missionary-years was the lack of spiritual interest among the missionaries.. discussions were about rooms, cars and greater responsibilities, the bad territory.

  and the local c.o.s and d.os.. was this only in the dr or are there other experiences??.

  ere other experiences?

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  TheOldHippie

  Whether a missionary or not, whether in the Dominican Republic or not, there is in so many parts of the Earth such a total lack of spiritual interest. Try to start a spiritual dscussion or raise a point at a gathering, and the silence is close to roaring. The talk is about cars, beer and whiskey brands, soccer, clothes, gossip, COs and DOs and rumours and who knows what - ah! I forgot - and houses and furniture. Strange; the people who once became Witnesses because of their spirituality and interest in the Bible and in spiritual things or the supernatural and prophecy and voices and who knows what, and who were so eager to read and study and investigate and discuss and talk - WHERE HAVE THEY ALL GONE? Now they have become people of the other sortI wrote about. The spiritually minded ones are hard to find, they are few. And everybody is watching each other, afraid of uttering some false words, some words of doubt or critisism; no, better keep to the party line, being in front, never looking depressed or anything but smiling.

  Strange ....................
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  63

  Calgary Blood Case Effectively Over - We Won!

  by AlanF in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  thought everyone would like to hear some great news about the calgary blood case.

  i was sent the following, which i've modified to protect the guilty:.

  at the witnesses' request, the trial has been put over till october.

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  TheOldHippie

  Quoting Greg Stafford when replying on the Board mentioned above, as to to what extent the child abuse stand of the Society has been damaging to them:

  "To the extent that the WTS's policies have led to distrust, confusion, and scarred the lives of those desiring to worship God, they have also contributed to harming truths of the Bible that are to a large extent uniquely championed by Jehovah's Witnesses. That is why I believe it is essential to view Bible truths as existing independently of the WTS, though the WTS publications continue to attach themselves to core Bible teachings in such a way as to depict themselves as the medium of such teachings, rather than the Bible."

  That, in my opinion, is the core aim, the core sentence, the core philosophy of Greg Stafford, and it can be used in the blood issue, the child abuse issue etc. And it sums up very well what I have tried to state on occations, that I do not want to throw the baby out of the bathtub together with the water. Bible truths are one thing, the Society is another, and they exist independently of each other. Noone can in my eyes take away from the Society the great and important work they have done in bringing out great Bible truths, and the present sad situation within the Society must not lead to our slipping away from those same great Bible truths.
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  63

  Calgary Blood Case Effectively Over - We Won!

  by AlanF in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  thought everyone would like to hear some great news about the calgary blood case.

  i was sent the following, which i've modified to protect the guilty:.

  at the witnesses' request, the trial has been put over till october.

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  TheOldHippie

  AlanF, could you please tell me/us about the role of Greg Stafford in this? Was he due to appear as a witness AGAINST the Witnesses? He is critical to the blood doctrine in his book, and he is one of my "heroes", but me thinks he has embarked on one tough journey if that was the case?
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  2

  Tomorrow night: BORN TO BE WILD!

  by TheOldHippie in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  john kay & steppenwolf are coming here tomorrow night, as the main attraction of a huge, three days long rock and blues festival.

  they do their 35th anniversary world tour, which will probably be their last tour of this type.

  i have been a fan for 33 years and a fan club member for 15, and am invited back stage to meet and greet.

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  TheOldHippie

  John Kay & Steppenwolf are coming here tomorrow night, as the main attraction of a huge, three days long rock and blues festival. They do their 35th anniversary world tour, which will probably be their last tour of this type. I have been a fan for 33 years and a fan club member for 15, and am invited back stage to meet and greet. Feel like a 15 years old boy again. After all that has happened lately, this will be the night of the decade. Monster, The Pusher, Magic Carpet Ride and then Born To Be Wild. Oooh, do I love those tunes, that band, that man!
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  17

  A million thanks - all is well so far!

  by TheOldHippie in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  a million thanks to all of you good people responding to my post regarding my daughter's surgery - it made me very humble and grateful, and my eyes very "watery" to read all the good thoughts and vibrations.

  my daughter woke up last night after a looong surgery, and was very tired and in pain, as they had removed knots and stuff and things, and in order to get more working space, they blew in gas to separate the various inner parts, liver and stomach and uterus etc., to keep them apart when operating (man, are they capable of working miracles these days!

  ), and so she felt as if her entire inside had been turned upside down and separated and looked into and put back - what was not too far from what had really happened.

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  TheOldHippie

  A million thanks to all of you good people responding to my post regarding my daughter's surgery - it made me very humble and grateful, and my eyes very "watery" to read all the good thoughts and vibrations. Thanks to you all!

  My daughter woke up last night after a looong surgery, and was very tired and in pain, as they had removed knots and stuff and things, and in order to get more working space, they blew in gas to separate the various inner parts, liver and stomach and uterus etc., to keep them apart when operating (man, are they capable of working miracles these days!), and so she felt as if her entire inside had been turned upside down and separated and looked into and put back - what was not too far from what had really happened. She has slept all night and is still groggy, but as far as she has been told, all went well and the things that shouldn't be have been removed. She'll be informed more later, but so far it's OK.

  Again, thanks for the good thoughts - I'd like to think it helped not only mentally, but in reality, too. I'm going to recreate in a very special way - read the next post!
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  42

  My daughter undergoing cancer surgery

  by TheOldHippie in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  right now, 4 hours this very minute, removing tumors, still no news - and i am one nervous father ...........

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  TheOldHippie

  right now, 4 hours this very minute, removing tumors, still no news - and I am one nervous father ...........
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  20

  Sad, Sad Life Story...July 1st WT 2002

  by ISP in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  zambia.

  early ministry in africa.

  it has now been 65 years since i began my full-time ministry as one of jehovahs witnesses.

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  TheOldHippie

  Oh, Reborn2002, you don't really mean that? :-)
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  20

  Sad, Sad Life Story...July 1st WT 2002

  by ISP in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  zambia.

  early ministry in africa.

  it has now been 65 years since i began my full-time ministry as one of jehovahs witnesses.

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  TheOldHippie

  OK, Gozz, it was just a thought, as I remembered the Albanian articles.
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  20

  Sad, Sad Life Story...July 1st WT 2002

  by ISP in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  zambia.

  early ministry in africa.

  it has now been 65 years since i began my full-time ministry as one of jehovahs witnesses.

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  TheOldHippie

  But perhaps you should allow a bit for different cultures when it comes to how one tells a story. I in my younger days studied the communist literature - and other literature - of Albania, and they are so full of names. They are always so eager to tell that this person's name was so and so, and he was the son of this one and married to that one etc. And when you then read the life story of the Albanian Witness I think it was back in '92 or something like that, close to the only one who had survived 40 years of living in an atheist nation, you see the same - names, names, names.

  What I mean, is that perhaps one reason why so many people are unnamed in this African Witness's story, is because they do not use the names of other people so often as some other cultures do? I don't know, all I'm saying (... is give peace a chance ...), is that different cultures tell a story in different ways.
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  21

  COMFORTER: Allow me to be direct

  by HomebutHiding in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  why do you associate with apostates, comf?

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  TheOldHippie

  Dear dungbeetle, I am sorry I have not got much time right now to go into each of your points in detail, it would require more time than I have right now to write, and also of course to find background quotes etc. But, in general, I have no problems in seeing the problems with these points, and in saying that many of them fall into what I referred to as legalism, as the points where the organizational rules and proceedings have poor basis for them in the Bible. With 'no problem' below, I mean that I have no problems in seeing the poor or failing Bible basis.

  Point 11 - no problem, should be reported directly.

  Point 10 - no problem, have experienced it in my own family.

  Point 9 - no problem.

  Point 8 - no problem, I do not know anything about Japan, and I know very little about how this is done elsewhere, but of course people should be encouraged to ask as many questions, do as much reading etc. as possible beforehand, because once the doors are shut behind you, the emergency exit might be hard to find.

  Point 7 - yes and no; I do not feel I have to tell everybody everything, including the things they did not ask for, but once a definite question is asked, a truthful reply should be given. Differs between whether one is speaking about a personal level of communication, where I have no problems in stating to someone that "I do not wish to reply to or comment on that" or if one is asked by a journalist or policeman for example.

  Point 6 - having stuck to left-wing political opinions for all my life prior to becoming a Witness and still being at heart a left-winger, this has been a problem for me, firstly that the organization is so USA-based, and white-uneducated-middle-class, secondly that there have been very few black people - or anything but the above-mentioned for that part - in the leadership. They have been out in the field, but not behind the desks.

  Point 5 - no problem; people should find out for themselves, as long as one part is not forcing his / her opinions on the other part.

  Points 3 and 4 - have become more and more difficult to handle or understand since blood is divided into parts, of which some are acceptable and some are not. I have made my choice, and others should make theirs, and then all of us in the final end stand responsible to the Creator. If it was an enforced "No", then it was of little value after all. Life is sacred to me, I take care of small birds that have flown into the windows, and have spent hours trying to make them well again. I wept yesterday, as we bid farewell to an old riding-horse after 12 years of faithful service at the riding school, although he is not going to the sausage maker, but to a nice farm to live his final years as a pensioner. Life is sacred, and I know in my heart what I will do if one of my children or closest ones experience this - but I will tell noone. It is my decision.

  Point 2 - no problem.

  Point 1 - much the same as point 6, but you have some nasty Bible utterings.....

  OK, as I said, just some scattered lines and no way a final reply, but just - some thoughts. People can be traced .......

  Greetings