Good morning everyone and many hearftfelt thanks for your warm welcomes. (I'm actually using this computer thing and my heart is in my throat for fear that I will mess up and everything disappears. I have my trusty bottle of 'White Out' handy though it messes up the screen something terrible...just a joke)
My user name reflects the fact that I'm fascinated with things Australian and would love to visit that beautiful land some day.
I came into the truth as a child in the 1950s and attended a small congregation in the western US. There weren't enough men to fill the positions of responsibility so my mother would don a head scarf and fill the role of 'magazine servant'. She took her position seriously and as her child I had to toe the line or suffer severe physical consequences. I was once taken from the KH with a concussion to the local hospital because she smacked me so hard in the ladies room that my head hit the sink on the way down. Lights out!
When I became a teen I told her that I wanted nothing more to do with the Witnesses and never attended another meeting. In the late 80s I was overcome with stupidity and began to reinvestigate the teachings of the JWs as it was the only religion I knew. I began studying with an elderly couple who convinced me that this was indeed the truth and swept along on the emotional tide of doing what was right in Jehovah's sight; I was baptized.
Things gradually began to fall apart and I discovered how cold and unloving the congregation was. The clincher was when my husband fell ill and had to be hospitalized for heart surgery and I called a loving elder as I have no family here. He was too busy to come to the hospital or send anyone to sit with me in the waiting room so I endured that all alone with only my prayers to God for my husband's well being. He did very well and is now completely recovered.
To make a long story short....I prayed diligently to God to show me his organization here on earth, fully expecting that I'd read something from the WTS to show me the way. Instead I found a copy of Crises of Conscience at the local bookstore, bought it and read it through. From then on I no longer looked to the WTS for my spiritual food. The icing on the cake was the Dateline expose of the pedophile issue. I look forward to the visit from the elders asking me if I still consider myself one of them.....they're gonna get it both barrels!
Thanks all you kind people for listening
