by Es 23 Replies latest jw friends
Esther, welcome! Great to have you join us! Lots of great people here with profound things to say in many cases. No matter what your interests, age group, spirituality, etc., there are people here that have things in common, and the biggest, of course was our previous JW exposure.
Look forward to hearing more from you.
Sherry
Welcome, Esther!
Jean
Welcome! Everyone is so nice here!
Welcome!
Kwin
Esther - Welcome to the Board!
Many of us understand your feelings. Good that you are creating different memories now for yourself and your child.
Looking forward to hearing more from you.
-Aude.
welcome! good to see a new aussie on here!
Hi guys
Thanks for such a warm welcome, maybe we could teach this to many in the congregations lol.
Hey there uncle bruce, where in South Australia are you from? I lived there for a bout a year. I actually met my ex at the District Convention there when i was visiting.
Have any of you watched "The Village" i was thinking of gettting many copies and sending them out to the elders.
I guess i will tell you a bit of my story, i was very naive in the truth, my father (elder) hardly ever studied with us so i dont actually know alot even though i was in in until i turned 23. My father wasnt and still isnt a very understanding father, he wasnt one of those fathers who let my brother and I choose if we wanted to be a jw, it was just expected of us.
As we grow older my dad was always checking up on us when we were out with fellow brother's and sister's (of course we were never allowed to associated with "worldy people). My mobile would ring every 20 mins to see what I was up to, as our behaviour would look bad on his eldership.
I once stayed at a sister's house she only had a double bed so i shared with her, when my dad found this out he accused me of being a lesbian.
I guess my faith started weaing when after I finished High School i decided to become a full time pioneer. I put my application in but during the time it was sent off and approved, the docs thought my dad had cancer so i went out and got a job to help support the family.
My father rang the elders and told them this and asked them not to announce my becoming a pioneer until we knew more. That night they announced it at the meeting ( I wasnt even there). The next meeting I was at i was with all my friends talking, and the whole entire body of elders walked up to me and ask if i would accompany them to the second school. I walked in they shut the doors and all the curtains......i was about to be interegated. They said how i made them look bad by announcing my appointment as a pioneer and now i wouldnt be pioneering. They told me satan is going to try and get to me every way he can when i go to work and rub with people in the world.
Sorry guys must dash will finish my story very soon
hope to hear from people and there stories
luv es
Esther, be careful of old Unc. He's been inhaling a lot of smoke from his quano fires.. He's likely to sneak up to your place and raid your cave!
caveman
WELCOME ESTHER !!!!!
We are glad you are here.
Hi Esther,
I know how you feel about holidays, but luckily, even though my parents were both very much a part of the organization (dad was an elder for 17 years), my parents never believed that birthdays were wrong, so my mother wrote the org. and asked them what was their take on birthdays and they told her that it was up to each individual's conscience to celebrate or not to celebrate and that it was not an df'ing or da'ing offense, but you know how that is.
Knowing this, my parents did give us birthdays, but they usually did not buy us presents, we only got a cake and they sang us happy birthday. We did not have any friends to share this with because, unfortunately, we grew up with few friends because no one was ever good enough (bad associations), so birthdays were really lonely. Even most of the kids in the halls were not good enough (most weren't, but still it was lonely).
Also, my dad loved Christmas music, so even though we didn't celebrate it, if it was on the radio around that time, we never changed the radio. We now celebrate Christmas and have for about 10 years. My mother refuses to include Santa as any part of her holiday, but my hubby and I do. He's not the focus, but he's included.
Ash
