really , I was crackin' up also ...as opposed to the time
some street preacher called me the "daughter of Satan"
when I was about 18 ..wearing a full length dress and
with long hair (the minimum of dressing in sobriety) and
cape (homemade) and married myself to a "street preacher"

 

Wow, Josh has written such a beautiful comment that I can only second it !!!!

Welcome aboard my dear sister !!!

PS: I've been so long absent from here, busy because of so many trivial things that only this stupid system can invent, that I'm taking advantage of this post to welcome myself back too....

 

Not sure if this is the right place to post this.

But Im from London, I was brought up in the truth. I saw a lot unchristian things going on in my local body of elders, my Dad was an elder and waiting outside elders meetings to go home with my mum and other wives, we sometimes heard raised voices in the 2nd school. The other mums would raise their voices as well thinking of something to say to hide the elders 'private' arguments.

My dad hated it all, I think he hated having to keep things secret from my mum and me.

Anyway, I got baptised, and as we did back then didnt think about further education but instead pioneered. I went to pioneer school, had a few bible studies and the elders put me on the pioneer asist program to help 'weaker' publishers, soon I was appointed young mini servant.

One CO visit the CO said I should apply for Bethel, as I would be old enough soon as I was 19, and I could apply now being 18year old.

I didnt really want to go, but applied at the convention not thinking I would be invited.

Sure enough they invited me. I went to Bethel at 19, did my nappy run, the Bethel entrants school, and soon got some more responsibility in Bethel. I was giving morning worship reading,slowly had more responsibilities.

I became a tour guide, and then an overseer of my department. I dont want to give too much away incase anybody from Bethel back then works out who I am.

If your still reading then I will come to the point soon.

I met a pretty sister on one of my tours, she liked the sound of coming to Bethel, so we started courting, long story short we got married with the plan to stay in Bethel until Armageddon.

Trouble is a few years later she got pregnant. Hey any form of contraception is never 100% guaranteed. So we were kicked out to fend for ourselves.

It was then that I realised, that I may have made a mistake not getting any qualifications, and just 'trust' in Jehovah to look after me..

I have huge regrets wasting the first part of my life, working for free all those years, geting kicked out with nothing to show for the best part of my life given up.

I did what most Brothers did, became a window cleaner. Here in the UK, most window cleaners are Jws, same in many countries.

My conclusions now that I dont want my kids following my example now that I have come off being an elder, and its pretty obvious to my cong that I have come to see TTATT, and I am now PIMO.

 

As a result of Elders poking their nose in, my wife and I are now separated. she has custody, and Im sure spreading all kids of stories about her 'bad' ex, who has decided to 'leave' the truth.

I havent left, I still go to meetings. Although the elders view me as a dangerous black sheep of the cong.

They made such a fuss, made things far far worse.

I have seen so much, and now know so much TTATT, my conclusions are that the Christian principles i the bible are beautiful. But they are not being applied by the Org.

The elders have made some very serious mistakes in my case, and instead of apologising they continue to make excuses and try to shift ALL the blame to me.

I do wish I had done things differently, mainly I wish I hadnt trusted the elders to have my best interests at heart. They kept saying they are doing all this to help me, this is not a witch hunt, they just want to help me. I kept saying if you really want to help then please stop making things worse, why are you making such a fuss, why do you delight to find fault, why cant you look for the good, and not make such a big deal out of things that dont need a big deal made out of.

 

Hi SimpleBalanced

Welcome to the forum. Sorry to hear about the unloving treatment from the elders.

 

Thanks for the welcome

 

Joshua wanted me to send him a bio so here's the first part.

I'm a male baptized publisher in my early 20's residing in the US. I was born in the truth my parents were bethelites. I'll get into my family background and relationship with Jehovah tommorow.

My standing in the congregation

I engage in the ministry twice a week and am working towards becoming a ministerial servant the elders expressed several months ago that I'm the most insightful and studious publisher in the congregation. That being said I was confronted by them a while back about a fairly irrelevant matter, they opened with asking if I'd visited apostate websites recently something I couldn't comprehend given the nature of the topic the way it went from there was fairly enlightening so I'm a little wary of them.

How I found the forum

A while after that I checked the jehovah's witnesses reddit for the first time in a little over a year I came across e-watchman from there and read his book, I checked out several jw communities and reform sites before finding this one while the membership is small I do like the overall spirit of the forum and agree with the mission so I joined.

 

Hello “Abdiel7 = Son of God”
Be careful how you answer the questions of the elders, without being untruthful. You must remember that they will have a heavier responsibility when standing before Jehovah.

“Moreover, stop judging, and you will by no means be judged; and stop condemning, and you will by no means be condemned. Keep on forgiving, and you will be forgiven.” (Lu 6:37 NWT)

“But why do you judge your brother? Or why do you also look down on your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God.” (Rom 14:10 NWT)

“And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds.” ( Rev 20:12 NASB )

WE will all have to stand before the supreme judge when that time comes. Each for HIS/HER life style and the conduct WE have done.

 

Abdiel=Son of God? I thought it meant servant of God picked it after Abdiel the probably fictional angel in Paradise Lost one of several names I had in mind for if I have sons someday. Either meanings is somewhat fitting my father was an active part of my life for my first 17 years but due to circumstances that'll be in part 2 my fleshy fathers parenting didn't particularly mean much I very much looked to Jehovah as my father loved him, strove to imitate and please him and gain knowledge as many of us do.


As far as the elders go this is the best elder body I've had I respect them a fair bit one of them just started partaking discreetly a few weeks after that meeting and I've been keeping clear in mind this year 2 Peter 2:10-11

10 especially those who seek to defile the flesh of others and who despise authority. Daring and self-willed, they are not afraid to speak abusively of glorious ones, 11 whereas angels, although they are greater in strength and power, do not bring against them an accusation in abusive terms, out of respect for Jehovah.

If it's not faithful angels place to conduct themselves in such manner out of respect for the creator it certainly isn't mine.

I'm just a little more aware of the tightrope things are is what I meant to express.

We all are to be judged as sheep and goats, all accountable to the most high and the one he's delegated the coming judgement to I find great peace knowing the master will set things straight. Nothing on this earth happens that Jehovah doesn't permit.

Yes not many of us are to be teachers given the weighter judgement. i have no desire to be an elder if I were though and I were in an issue of policy vs. Conscious and human decency like child abuse for example I'd ensure the police were notified without consulting the branch first even though I'd be deleted. Status, position, power and reputation mean nothing to me. I'm reaching out towards being an MS because we are asked nothing more or less than our best I feel like I'm at a point now I can give more.

Part 2 Family background

My father started working at brothel a few years before my mom did he told me a number of stories so I know some things about his service there that she does not he had very intimate access to Fred Franz in his last years as one of the young brothers they'd send out to him with bibles while he bathed. Paternally I am a fifth generation witness he served as an elder for many years and is a child molestor from a family with a few generations history of incest and pedophilia. My little sister and I were both abused though the period where she suffered was of far greater severity and duration. The situation wasn't brought to the elders till I was 17 after an imminent threat to life became clear the elder body did everything possible to drag there heels and spare my father they spent three hour spans multiple times asking my sister lewd questions about it. At the end of the day he wasn't disfellowshipped till a year or two later for reasons we do not know. On top of all of this in pursuing a restraining order and in my mother's case divorce not only my paternal relatives but my mother's side of the family stood against us in court and remain aligned with him to this day.

My mother idolizes the organization and is quite paranoid of the demons I've suffered a number of soul shredding traumas as a result of being sacrificed on the altar of her peace of mind.

Though both my little sister's boyfriends were in the truth she has very poor taste in men her first boyfriend was disfellowshipped for criminal activity which was just the tip of the iceberg the fellow had some serious issues but just needed some growing up to do I wouldn't have minded if they had married 5 years later she rebounded on a man almost a decade older who'd just been reinstated bad news a real psychopath she ran away from home less than a year ago moved in with him and his parents and married him less than a week before she was disfellowshipped. I'm confident she'll be reinstated. Her husband allied himself with my father and his supporters and she's gone along with it there's nothing I can do about her situation another matter to wait on Jehovah.

 

Hello Abdiel7.
You are correct! It is “servant”, I misread the Hebrew, as “ab”; it is a root word in conjunction with “el” as the “father of an individual”. I can now see why AJ wanted you to tell us your story. I am very happy to see that you have persevered, and kept your faith in Jehovah. We face many obstacles in this world of evil. I became disillusioned with the org and still have nothing to do with it at this time. I became aware of the “anointed” worship within the org when Franz was in power.

In 1981, I had a few friends who were involved with some crooked brothers in businesses. I notified headquarters and was chastised for going above the local elders. Let’s see . . . Oh!, they were the ones who were crooked!! I was marked. They would not call on me during studies. They were afraid I would bring up their behavior. So, going to meetings was a waste of my time. I haven’t been back to the local hall since 1981.

In 2003 I found Robert’s website. I thought there was a group of people writing the articles. When I found out it was just Robert, I was amazed. It took me a while before I started commenting on the Forum. When Robert decided to drop the Forum, I decided to stay with it, as did many of those who are still here. I’ve gradually stopped going to Robert’s site. It has changed the way programs run, and other features don’t run on my old machine. I still check out his podcasts but, he hasn’t posted one since January 2018. In the article “Who is Elijah, foretold in Malachi”? Robert says “Jesus alluded to himself as the foretold Elijah as well on the occasion of the transfiguration.” He left out, “For all, the Prophets and the Law, prophesied until John; and if you are willing to accept it, he is ‘Elijah who is to come.’ Let the one who has ears listen.” ( Mt 11:13-15 NWT )

There is a lesson to be learned here. It is; We will not know when the signs are fulfilled until after they are fulfilled. Just as the apostles did not recognize John to be the promised Elijah. “This is the one about whom it is written: ‘Look! I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way ahead of you!’ Truly I say to you, among those born of women, there has not been raised up anyone greater than John the Baptist, but a lesser person in the Kingdom of the heavens is greater than he is.” ( Mt 11:10-11 NWT ) It is very important to learn the written language. It lacks certain inflections and sentence structure. We have a friend visiting from England. I joked with them, “When you write, does it have your accent?” We both had a good laugh about it.

 

Thank you for the warm reception brother.

 

Greeting to you Von and daughters, you are more than welcome here in this little congregation. I read your Registration email three times, I thought I could not understand English no more. I am saddened to hear about your health issue we will keep you in our prayers. What is happening to you at your Kingdom Hall is beyond my understanding I guess we have entered another World. One thing that I do know is that no one will be left behind among the E-JW.org congregation. May Jehovah Blessing and Love be with you andyour daughters. Regent

 

Hi there Von and hello to your daughters, too

I was sorry to hear about your situation and the lack of support in the congregation. It's a shame. The brothers and sisters have so much to deal with already, through having to cope with various trials and trying to serve Jehovah at the same time.

My circumstances changed too - I'm not part of what I call the "in" crowd either.

It's nice to see you here.

 

AJ, Wallflower, What happened with Utuna? Somewhere along the line I missed any announcement.
I miss his input.

 

Not only we lost Utuna, but Joshua too, since his last message was on October 2, and the one before on September 8.