fifth.column

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Posts by fifth.column

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  53

  Is Watchtower's stance against education only for North American witnesses

  by wannaexit in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i was reading on a european ex jw forum where some feel that watchtower's railing against higher education is primarily for north america issue.

  this is due that many in usa and canada leave home to leave on campus.

  it was mentioned that many young european jw attend universities and its not frowned on.. i found this odd because i heard what morris and losch said about education in italy.

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  fifth.column

  in France, we hadt he same instructions on not going to university. However, it seems that in most cong (depending of your BOE) these instructions were only counsels, not mandatory. 10 years ago, you had the choice to follow or not. 

  Today, I think it is a bit more complicated, we are pressured to follow more closely our American mother. Depending of your cong., if your father is an elder, if you want to avoid him some trouble while going to university, you have to pionneer every time you can. 

  Same for the beard. 
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  8

  France - Bethel extension project

  by fifth.column in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  hi everyone, fyi :.

  at the mid week meeting we had a letter, and a video to explain the extension project for the french bethel for the next 3.5 years.

  the video was 5min long, in 3d (nice job in fact...) to show the future buildings for flats and offices (translation, video dubbing...).

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  fifth.column

  Of course they did...Big brother was watching... 

  I had a look on your introduction post, we are in very similar situations, and maybe close geographically (Paris - east). Sometimes during meeting I wonder how many in my Hall go to this forum...it gives hope ! Or maybe not...don't know...
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  8

  France - Bethel extension project

  by fifth.column in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  hi everyone, fyi :.

  at the mid week meeting we had a letter, and a video to explain the extension project for the french bethel for the next 3.5 years.

  the video was 5min long, in 3d (nice job in fact...) to show the future buildings for flats and offices (translation, video dubbing...).

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  fifth.column

  The bethel is at Louviers, 100km from Paris (North West)

  
  

  I think nobody (except us) notice that the borg grab the money by closing branches, and then ask for more money to extend one... incredible idea, and it works !
  

  They make 4 years plans to build, so, logically, they plan to use these facilities for what, the next 15 years ? 

  In the same time,  most of the time you're considered  not spiritual if you make 10 years plans... (education, buying a house...)
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  8

  France - Bethel extension project

  by fifth.column in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  hi everyone, fyi :.

  at the mid week meeting we had a letter, and a video to explain the extension project for the french bethel for the next 3.5 years.

  the video was 5min long, in 3d (nice job in fact...) to show the future buildings for flats and offices (translation, video dubbing...).

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  fifth.column

  Hi everyone,  FYI :

  At the mid week meeting we had a letter, and a video to explain the extension project for the French Bethel for the next 3.5 years. The video was 5min long, in 3D (nice job in fact...)  to show the future buildings for flats and offices (translation, video dubbing...). The need is greater (...), and they have to relocate some members after some branches closures.

  Of course, at the end, they explained that all that requires volunteers and lot of money ( why is there a need of money, as they closed several branches under France supervision, and sold their building ??? )
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  58

  New congregation accounting system

  by thedog1 in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  i'm sure i read a thread here about the new congregation accounting procedures.

  i ask because i handle the accounts in our cong and in our part of the world the new accounting system has just arrived whereby local congs do not have their own account any longer, but all funds outside of basic monthly costs is forwarded to an account controlled by the org.

  this is causing huge confusion in our cong as we have to work out how much we need to keep back for monthly costs and the new idea is that you send all your extra cash to the org and if you need it back you can ask for it but we don't know how easy or hard it would be to do that.

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  fifth.column

  Hello from France ! It is the same in France, it changed 18months ago, seee my previous post : http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/watchtower/beliefs/243341/1/France-no-more-local-bank-accounts-for-congregations

  I still do not have all details on this new accounting system, I asked some questions but it was not well perceived... I think it is like TheDog1 explained.

  Since that, what is strange is that we only know how much cash is given in the boxes. We have no idea of how much is given by checks (very common in France), because it is automatically sent to the national account.

  But we still sometimes receive a letter of thanks from the branch, and in my congregation, the offerings dropped a lot since this new process !

  I think we will have a special talk very soon...
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  49

  What Are Some Stupid Rules In Watchtower World?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  there's a lot.

  .

  one that i just don't understand is that no one should hold hands during a prayer.. where the hell do they come up with these rules??

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  fifth.column

  To be more precise with beards in France :

  An elder can have a beard, although it is strongly discouraged. But he won't be allowed to give talks outside his KH (other KH or conventions).

  By extension, this stupid rule is the same for every brother for convention. Recently, a friend of mine was asked, 3 days before the convention to cut his beard, or he couldn't not go to the platform for his demo.
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  10

  Wow! Things have moved on!

  by Oneoutallout in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  this is only my second or third post.

  my previous posts were under the username piglet.

  i couldnt remember my log in details so i have now changed my username, which i feel is more relevant now anyway.

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  fifth.column

  very encouraging for me, thanks for sharing. I hope I can write the same in the near future...
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  8

  France Bethel Balance sheet

  by Viva la Vida in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  on these links we can have a look at the french branch balance sheet, at least the ones that were submitted to the government.

  i don't speak french neither i'm an accountant so maybe someone here can made a bit of more of sense out of them.

  http://www.journal-officiel.gouv.fr/publications/assoccpt/pdf/2012/3108/434966719_31082012.pdf.

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  fifth.column

  Hello,

  I speak french, but I don't understand anything in these financial documents. I don't think that a word translation would help. But if you want a specific information, I can try. I did not see something special.

  This document is a financial report after an audit by an external expert, called "commissaire aux comptes".

  When you 're a compagny or association it is a good idea to have this done each year, and to attach it to your tax declaration form.

  Fifth
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  32

  How Do I Explain To My TalkTherapist That JW's Believe They Will Never Die?

  by LoisLane looking for Superman in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i know for us exjw's that have awakened from this religion, it seems incredulous that we ever.

  could have believed we were going to live forever and never die.. not just never die, but never die, like i was raised to believe with.

  the millions now living will never die, garbage.. i said that to my highly educated professional therapist last week.. her eyes got big, and she said gently as to a child, "loislane, we are all going to die".. yes, i know that now, but that is not what my religion taught and i believed, for 60 years.. any thoughts on how i explain this lunacy to her?.

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  fifth.column

  Hello,

  I used to think I would never die, I expected to keep my parents with me forever.

  I opened the eyes 2 years ago during my mid 30's, could not sleep the next night.

  And you can't speak with anybody : not to family, not to colleagues or friends, without looking stupid.

  It hurts, and you're alone. Except in places like here. Thanks.

  Fifth
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  83

  WATCHTOWER IN A PANIC!

  by JW GoneBad in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  jws are in need of more kingdom halls in many major u.s. cities.

  at this years agm where it is expected that most of the faithful will be able to listen to the meeting (being tied in by video), dont be surprised if the wts 8 gb members take part in a symposium delivering some long winded appeal, petition, plea, proposal, proposition, solicitation or otherwise hit-on the masses for $$$ in order to lighten the burden and overuse that many kingdom halls are experiencing.

  an acquaintance from the west coast mentioned to me that in late august thru early september of this year that a number of pow-wows involving close to 5,000 elders from numerous areas (riverside, los angeles, ventura and orange counties) took place to drum up financial support from the 800+ (not sure) congregations in those areas.

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  fifth.column

  Hi there,

  In Europe we had this kind of survey during the last years, before launching big projects.

  Fifth