Part 2
My wife and I were at a point where we wanted to move closer to our daughter as she was about to have a child.
So we put our house up for sale, and after a few weeks we had a buyer. As we previously had purchased a block of land in the town we had planned to live in, we needed to rent for about a year till our new house was built. During that time only one witness family showed any kindness to us. The elders did not contact me to see if anything was wrong, though they did sent a couple of messages via my wife, who was still going to Sunday meetings, to see whether I was ready to come back to The meetings. Then around three weeks before we moved into our new home, while I was mowing the lawn, an elder and his ms friend showed up in the witnessing work with some magazines for me. I declined the offer, explaining I no longer read them.
The elder asked if there were any issues I might need discussing, I simply said I didn't want to discuss them then and there, actually I thought it was rude that he would come along now, and want to talk things through, when so much time had passed with no spiritual help being given to my wife or me, it was a little to late for that. He had told me that exciting things were happening in the org, which I already knew about. He seemed to think with all the exciting changes happening that I should race back to mothers waiting arms. I looked him in the eye and simply stated that since I had left, I was a lot less stressful and did not miss the org at all, with or without the new changes. So ended our short conversation, pretty much the sum of his shepherding call, five minutes, just three weeks before leaving his congregation.
No one in the congregation wished me the best, or offered to help with our move. Three sisters in the congregation invited my wife to a coffee shop for a goodbye coffee and cake, and that was it, after sixteen and a half years, it makes you feel warm inside doesn't it.
Once we had moved and settled in to our new home, I wondered how long it would be before the witnesses came a calling? Seeing as my wife still wanted to attend the Sunday meeting, I presumed it would not be too long before an elder would show and see if he could not reclaim a lost sheep. I also wondered exactly what had my previous body of elders written in the introduction letter, and how would the new body of elders respond to it's message?
To be continued........