i am an ex-jw and a member of this forum (not so active lately ;)).
in poland, we created a map of ex-jws (and their friends ;)) to find former friends from the organization or to contact someone living close to them.
many people found each other after many years outside of the organization thanks to this tool.
What a good idea!
Roxie, I will send you a PM, I'm thinking about presenting this map in a Spanish-speaking forum.
BTW, I agree with some comments, I visited Poland recently and it's a great country. Liked the food, the landscapes... and places like Krakow are incredibly beautiful.
hi all.. it's being a while that i don't share in the forum.
after moving to another country and finding a job, i asked my congregation in my country to send my publishing card here.
once i did it, i stopped attending meetings.
Thank you. My life after being a JW is work, saving for the future, care for the people I love... Well, actually it's nothing similar to how Witnesses try to describe it (heavy drinking, immoral life...).
The only thing I regret is not having done it 5 years ago or 10. But it's never late.
hi all.. it's being a while that i don't share in the forum.
after moving to another country and finding a job, i asked my congregation in my country to send my publishing card here.
once i did it, i stopped attending meetings.
Hi all.
It's being a while that I don't share in the forum. After moving to another country and finding a job, I asked my congregation in my country to send my publishing card here. Once I did it, I stopped attending meetings. As I only went there once to ask for the secretary address, nobody knows where I live or my mobile phone number. I no longer use my country's phone number and they can't know my whereabouts.
It's been three months since my last meeting. I'm now inactive and only one year ago I was a pioneer and ministerial servant in a foreign-language congregation. Well, actually they sent a letter to my new congregation here to recommend me as a ministerial servant.
Since then, I know nothing about my new or my old congregation. I have a new job and a new life in a new country. Had to do a lot of things so had no time to think about JWs. Looking back, it has been the best decision I could have taken.
I would like to say thank you to this site and people sharing on it. I still have my mother back in my country who is a JW and I will have to deal in the future with JW doctrines so I will share here in the future but needed this time of mental disconnection from everything related to the WT.
My life has changed completely for the better. Now I have new concerns and problems but JWs are not one of them anymore. I live the life I want completely free. This freedom is something I have never felt. Being able to decide your life and live accordingly to your own ideas and conscience is invaluable.
And finally some words to those that are living the same miserable life I had before, reading this site and going to meetings at the same time, being a witness in name only and having to hide what your thoughts and feelings: I were there before. I know that you think that you will have to live that way for the rest of your life. I thought life outside of the WT was not for me. I had fear of what was there, out of my comfort zone of the Kingdom Hall and meetings, preaching and the brothers and sisters. But one day, I decided to take the decision of going out knowing that I would lose everything because I couldn't afford the mental stress of that life. What I found was something that I couldn't have expected.
Thank you.
if you remember, i've been posting here my subsequent steps from a regular pioneer and ms at the beginning of this year to a rank-and-file publisher after stepping down as ms two months ago.. during these months, i've been through a difficult way.
but after every step, i could feel freer and better.
i've met a person outside the wt that has changed my life forever and i have experienced a freedom of thought and an inner peace like never before.. however, i knew that staying in my hometown would make my fading very difficult.
Hi, thanks to all!
Finally, I only went once to the meeting in this country to ask for the Secretary's address. Then, I called the elders back in my country to send him my publisher card. Since then, I've disappeared. Have attended no meetings, no preaching, nothing.
No one here knows my address, my phone number or any detail about me. I'm not going to come back to my country in the foreseeable future. The number of JWs that I know here is zero.
I'm not reporting this month so I will become inactive. Don't know what the elders here will do after reading a recommendation letter and receiving the card of a 'ghost publisher'.
Anyway, I found a job here and I'm starting a whole new life. Thanks for the advice I received in this thread. In case I had attended more meetings, I would be stuck dealing with the elders.
I still have JW family in my country but in my everyday life, I'm completely free. It's starting from scratch in every sense: new country, new job, no more meetings or WT indoctrination, no pretending, being myself and doing what I really believe... It's freedom!
if you remember, i've been posting here my subsequent steps from a regular pioneer and ms at the beginning of this year to a rank-and-file publisher after stepping down as ms two months ago.. during these months, i've been through a difficult way.
but after every step, i could feel freer and better.
i've met a person outside the wt that has changed my life forever and i have experienced a freedom of thought and an inner peace like never before.. however, i knew that staying in my hometown would make my fading very difficult.
Hi Roxie,
Thanks for your message. It's true, we all live in a different way our experience in the Organisation and there are many different options to leave it.
I just tried my own way of leaving.
I do know there will be difficult times ahead but also many joys. There are a lot of surprises in life, this life, the real life we have in front of us. Probably the only life. We don't have to wait to the new world to be happy. We can be happy here.
I'm starting to enjoy freedom like never before. And it's worth the effort of quitting the WT. I've known someone who wouldn't have known if I had stayed in the darkness of the Organisation.
Thanks and good luck in your life!
if you remember, i've been posting here my subsequent steps from a regular pioneer and ms at the beginning of this year to a rank-and-file publisher after stepping down as ms two months ago.. during these months, i've been through a difficult way.
but after every step, i could feel freer and better.
i've met a person outside the wt that has changed my life forever and i have experienced a freedom of thought and an inner peace like never before.. however, i knew that staying in my hometown would make my fading very difficult.
What is more upsetting is that elders back in my country don't know how to send the recommendation letter because they can't speak the language of the country I'm now living in. So the process would be slower than I had expected.
if you remember, i've been posting here my subsequent steps from a regular pioneer and ms at the beginning of this year to a rank-and-file publisher after stepping down as ms two months ago.. during these months, i've been through a difficult way.
but after every step, i could feel freer and better.
i've met a person outside the wt that has changed my life forever and i have experienced a freedom of thought and an inner peace like never before.. however, i knew that staying in my hometown would make my fading very difficult.
Thanks for your tips!
I will wait until I'm announced in my congregation and later will be missing meetings for a time until I move to another. In fact, my working schedule will conflict with midweek meetings. They still don't know my address and no one even asked for it.
if you remember, i've been posting here my subsequent steps from a regular pioneer and ms at the beginning of this year to a rank-and-file publisher after stepping down as ms two months ago.. during these months, i've been through a difficult way.
but after every step, i could feel freer and better.
i've met a person outside the wt that has changed my life forever and i have experienced a freedom of thought and an inner peace like never before.. however, i knew that staying in my hometown would make my fading very difficult.
Hi Incognito,
I don't want that elders in my country know about my fading but I don't mind here. I don't care about them, even if elders want to visit me in the future. I have no JW family or JW friends here. So stop attending meetings and reporting wouldn't be a problem for me.
if you remember, i've been posting here my subsequent steps from a regular pioneer and ms at the beginning of this year to a rank-and-file publisher after stepping down as ms two months ago.. during these months, i've been through a difficult way.
but after every step, i could feel freer and better.
i've met a person outside the wt that has changed my life forever and i have experienced a freedom of thought and an inner peace like never before.. however, i knew that staying in my hometown would make my fading very difficult.
Hi, everyone!
If you remember, I've been posting here my subsequent steps from a regular pioneer and MS at the beginning of this year to a rank-and-file publisher after stepping down as MS two months ago.
During these months, I've been through a difficult way. But after every step, I could feel freer and better. I've met a person outside the WT that has changed my life forever and I have experienced a freedom of thought and an inner peace like never before.
However, I knew that staying in my hometown would make my fading very difficult. I was serving in a foreign-language congregation, taking part in convention parts and well-known in my area. So, I decided that I have to move, far away, if I wanted to start a completely new life.
And here, I am. In a different country where I just found a job and I'm about to start from scratch.
So, I would like to ask for advice to all of you. I went to one meeting in a congregation in my new city for asking to the secretary's address. Then, I conveyed this info to my last congregation elders and now they're in the process of transferring my publishing card. Do you think I shall attend some more meetings until I am announced as a new publisher and then disappear? Here, I don't mind to deal with elders but wouldn't like that they inform elders back in my country although it would be very hard because of the language barrier. Or maybe should I make another congregation change in some months?
Thanks for your help in these difficult times!
just before the month ends i would like to congratulate the watchtower magazine for completing its run of 138 years of publication.
the first copy was printed july 1st 1879. well done watchtower!.
as a reminder, let people remember that in its time this magazine has one of the world’s largest print runs for a periodical.
138 years announcing the end is just around the corner. The endless end.
