Posts by Bonsai

five (5) year old child baptisms, smaller magazines, child sexual abuse exposed, smaller annual growth, no one wants to reach out, young ones leaving.

I think they'll start to include spiritually mature sisters in JCs involving women. They'll stop dfing minors and they'll reduce pioneer hours to 50. They will require all JWs to put a JW(b)org sign on the front of their house saying it is necessary to imitate the Isrealites who splashed blood on their door posts to spare their firstborn from slaughter.

39

Gettin' my garden on - looking for inspiration! !

by Mary J Blige in

gardening is my physical activity thing.

i like to have a productive garden but dot it with a bit of pretty.

the front lawn is around 40m2 and i am converting it to potager this year.

Bonsai

Hello Mary.

Summers are long where I live, so we are still in the growing season for another 2 months.

Last year I designed a Japanese garden with a water basin (tsukubai), stepping stones (tobiishi) and a dry waterfall cascade (karetaki - which means dry waterfall design). I planted in some evergreen trees and Japanese maples. The garden has elements of both a Japanese courtyard garden for drinking tea and karesansui (dry landscape) elements as well. It's only 10 meter by 5 meter garden surrounded by walls on all sides (thus called a mini courtyard garden), but it's packed with lots of pretty stones, moss and greenery which are a joy to look at while drinking a morning coffee or tea.

This year, on the other side of the house, I attempted a butterfly garden for the first time. I focused not only on nectar plants, but also on gathering host plants for the butterfly to lay eggs on as well. It has been a spectacular success! I recommend planting in Heliotrope, Lantana, Buddleja (butterfly bush), butterfly weed, zinnias and orange cosmos for anyone who wants to attract butterflies to their garden. Also milkweed for the monarchs if you live in the U.S. As far as edibles, I planted in fennel, celery and parsley for both the swallowtails and for me. I also planted in broccoli and a cabbage to attract the white cabbage butterfly.

I've also planted in several different citrus trees and 4 kinds of prickly ash (which are also in the citrus family) to attract over 5 different kinds of swallowtail butterflies. I also had success growing 3 fig trees from cuttings.

I've also planted an herb garden in the parking lot that I rent. I'm growing thyme, lemon thyme, lemon verbena, lemon balm, pinneapple sage, rosemary, English lavender, apple mint, spearmint, peppermint and hyssop for herb teas.

Finally, I have a collection of bonsai trees (thus my user name) and bonsai group plantings (mini forest on a trey) that keeps increasing every year. My favorite bonsais are ezo spruce, fuji (wisteria) ,Japanese maples and azaleas.

After all that, I have no space for vegetables! LOL

35

A Judicial experience.

by John Aquila in

when i was an elder in the 80s, a 16 year old baptized jw girl had confessed that at school during lunch a boy kissed her and touched her privates over her dress.

the circuit overseer was in town and we told him of the situation and he called the society and then told us that mother said we were not allowed to conduct the funeral in the kingdom hall or anywhere else with the threat of removing us and being dealt with judicially if we disobeyed.

the mother who is about 79 years old comes once a year to talk to my mom about the situation.

Bonsai

Sigh. The poor girl probably suffered the accident because she was distracted by her disfellowshipping. I wish, at the very very least (and this is not good enough by any means) they would not disfellowship minors. At least give them immunity until they are 20 and are more mentally developed to handle such a traumatizing punishment. There is just no mercy with this religion.

You are one of my favorite posters John. If it wasn't for the fact that I live on the other side of the world, I'd by you a drink and reminisce about life with you.

324

VA shooting suspect was raised a JW! He mentions it on his Twitter account

by WingCommander in

jw
friends

anyone in the usa following this morning's shooting "on-air" live tv will know what i'm talking about.

bryce williams (not real name, but on-air name) shot and killed 2 people on live television this morning in roanoke, va. he was wearing a go-pro camera, and uploaded his first-person video onto his social media accounts.

i've seen his twitter feed (before it was taken down), and not very far down he mentions being raised a jw.

Bonsai

What a sad tragedy today. With all the racism problems, religious problems and crazies who use guns to solve their problems, I think the U.S. needs to make free counseling available for all. Having free access to highly skilled counselors/psychologists that are on government salaries could help defuse a lot of potential people who are capable of carrying out this kind of crime.

46

JWs nearly killed my mother

by cookiemaster in

the past week has been hell for me.

my mother started feeling ill and we went to seek medical assistance.

we live in the mountains and the nearest large hospital is about 150 kms away.

Bonsai

I hope she records the conversation with those elders for public consumption.

"We would like to inform you sister _____ that we must disassociate you because you engaged in an act that is contrary to our interpretation of a scripture and has prolonged your life."

There would be a delicious public outrage!

83

What woke you up?

by Israel Ricky Gonzales in

in march of 2014, i was a very active jw, a ministerial servant, gave a public talk, was an attendant for the memorial, and one of 4 cleaning captains for an international convention of 40,000+ attendees.

so what woke me up?

an innocent comment from a co-worker about the candice conti court case rang a bell that could not be unrung.

Bonsai

Perhaps one of the first little things that opened up my eyes ever so slightly was when a sister made a beautiful collection of bible poetry. When she asked the elder dubbarubs if she could publish it, they counseled her that such outside publicizing would be taking away from the organization that Christ was using. She relented to their counsel. This is a woman who is battling sever manic depression and also cancer. They denied her the basic right to share publicly her love of the bible and her unique expressions of love and fondness for god and the bible. Would that have happened in the first century? No way.

39

What went wrong in your congregation?

by The Rebel in

jw
friends

the target is converts.. why does it seem such an outrageous aim for a congregation to recruit new converts?.

in my old congregation, the enthusiasm was there but the knocking on doors produced zero " baptisms" in my final years.. a) why so little interests?.

b) was it the internet ?.

Bonsai

I think many people were afraid to make new converts. I know I was.

26

Buddhism Anyone?

by LaurenM in

so, i have recently been delving in buddhism and i must say it all makes sense!

like, the philosophies and ideas are what i've always believed but could never put a name to.

for example, they don't believe in god, they teach acceptance of all faiths, that peace can be achieved - not by changing other people - but by changing yourself, that everyone has goodness in themselves, that happiness can be gained internally (not externally as a gift from god), and that life is temporary so we should enjoy it!

Bonsai

I've seen a lot living for over a decade in a Buddhist country. There are some appealing aspects to it, but I have the same problem with it as I have with the JW religion - there is no verifiable proof that any of it is true. Also, here Buddhism equals big business. Any kind of religious service costs boat loads of money to have performed. It costs a small fortune to have priests pray over the deceased and perform the funeral rituals. Shrines require money to gain a wish or make a prayer for good health etc. If there is a true religion, money shouldn't be the force holding it together.

Of course, Buddhism in Japan is somewhat different from its Chinese cousin, or the Indian version. Like Christianity it has numerous sects and varieties.