i prayed before i came on here.
i know that it weird.
i have been reading here for a long time.
You will find friends
This is so true, though I believed that I would never have true friends if I "left." That's what you're made to believe. My new-found friends were the sisters (and a couple of bro's) that supported me through some difficult times. I was not df'd or da'd but my birth, spiritual sisters offered nothing.
A couple of brothers helped us move once. Two of my grandmothers rings were stolen from my jewelry box; irreplaceable. I watched their wives and daughters for any sign but never saw anything.
i heard that the latest watchtower mag made reference to the borganization undergoing "invisible growth".
anybody can fill me in with the details and context?
thanks..
I'm with Caedes.
I've always said it doesn't matter what they change, what the color of the fog is or what flavor kool-aid. There is a core of believers who have bought the "we're the faithful slave speaking for the great jehovah" who will always, always believe everything that's printed in the wt, rumored, mentioned at the assembly or by the co, po, whatever. It would be nice if the borg dwindled to that small core.
i've not been so regularly here lately because of my own health issues but i don't recall seeing our dear friend ian (dansk) lately.
his last post was on march 26 when he wrote:.
i was in hospital for a week, thursday-thursday, so i got home in time for easter.
bttt
good lord... anyways, i took your advice and played it cool.
my brother told me my parents feel really bad about hurting me.
my mother made me lunch.
And my other sister (the one who was a complete jerk to me) sat there with a dirty look the whole time. She would not say ONE WORD to me. Just sat there as I was talking with the whole family with a dirty, mad look.
Is her name Lorraine? Oh, wait, that's my sister.
I'm glad things went better than expected.
i have been faded for a long time now and of course my immediate family are in "intervention mode".
the latest c.o.
visit in my moms cong stressed the fact that "the end is sooooooooooooooooo close now" - we must do everything for jehovah and his organization before its too late.
Imagine looking back at a lifetime wasted working for a printing company that demanded overtime, interfered with your family life, and didn't pay you a dime.
They desperately want/need justification for their efforts.
That's why they have to keep believing its just around the corner. They've invested their entire life and being. They can't have wasted their entire life so it has to be close. I can imagine how desperate they would be if they let themselves think they might have been wrong. I think thats when you'd see individuals mixing up their own Kool-ade.
a friend just informed me that the c/o in his hall will be instructing the elders that anyone with a child in college will be stripped of privileges in the hall.
i am not sure if this is true this is just what i was told.
it could be that it is only a campaign directed at him as he has some ties to ex-jw's and some how got found out.
I was in a small congregation in PA in a university town in the '70's; an elder sent his son to college and the boe removed him. He was sort of a vip, had been at bethel, friend of knorr but these small town, uneducated elders still removed him. I'd moved away and don't know if he appealed or how it turned out.
What I can't see is how they'd make exceptions. If they do that, why bother as a jw can find a justification for anything.
just about everyone i've known my whole life thinks somethings wrong with me because of my "abnormal thinking".
everyone is in agreement that there is something wrong with me.. i just keeping thinking i'm doing something wrong or i should be doing something different.
i don't feeling terrible about it or anything, just this nagging thing in me.
I still don't know what the hell to actually say.
I told my family that I would absolutely talk about it and asked them to respect that. Every time one of them tried to wrangle me into a conversation I reminded them that I wasn't talking. It was hard but I stuck to it. Sometimes I had to just smile and bite my tongue.
i've come a long way, baby!
i stood for the national anthem for the first time ever at graduation on sunday.. i saluted the flag for the first time ever at a community event last night.. it was surreal and felt wonderful, like i was doing something so natural and good.. when i put my hand over my heart for the first time, it felt very strange.
i had to think for a minute if i used the proper hand over the right place.
I think my first time was just after the events of 9/11.There was an impromptu concert that came together at the UM campus. The vocal music department s well as singers from all over the area joined to make one huge choir. We sang the national anthem, among other patriotic songs and it felt so good to join in.
i'm going to start this topic, i know some of us know people who have left before we did, and have lost touch.
so i'll go first, i am looking for jennifer n. of lancaster/palmdale ca area, she had a son and i use to hang out with margie.
Sandy and Ernie Harrington, Canada. They were at Canadian Bethel for a few years until the birth of their first child. I think they may have lived somewhere in Quebec after that.
Any of the Maycut family from central Pennsylvania.
