xjwsforChrist

I was thinking again about the idea of starting a " Good News" thread and I think I would like it personally as I have some small good news to share this a.m.

I have a first cousin who has been following me on Facebook and I have not seen her or her siblings except for a couple times since we were small children (and when they came to our wedding in 1980)

Anyways, my aunt ( her mom) has been dealing with breast cancer and comes to the Bay Area occasionally from Oregon for treatments I guess.

They have reached out to me and wants me to drive to my cousins house for a luncheon next month and all of us meet together including my father and stepmom. It's about a 3 hour drive for us.

That was unexpected but a nice surprise as these ones were never JWs, ( except for my dad, he's disfellowshipped) therefore WE didn't do anything with them and my family drama always divides family anyways LOL!!!

Not that anything big will come out of it, but any opportunity to share our Lord or just show love to some family members that I PERSONALLY never reached out to because of me being a witness and apologize for my actions then.

Just wanted to share this real quick....
Enjoy your day everyone,
Love and peace to you ALL, your sister and slave of our Lord Kim

Enjoy! Hopefully something good comes of this.

That is lovely, Justmom. Even just to see them, and say the words you want to say, and whatever else the Spirit may lead you to say/do.


And that is two calls now for a good news type section. Are y'all sure you want another category on here, lol? Hmm. Maybe a sub-section under personal experiences?



Peace to you!
your sister, and servant, and a fellow slave of Christ,
tammy

Not to take anything away from dear 'Mom, dear tec (peace to you both!), but I had something a little different in mind. I mean, I think if we make it about "potential good news," then we would... should... all have something to post. Perhaps the idea I shared is more suited for the "Personal Testimony & Experience" room but my thought as that non-members can't see that room, so I thought maybe one where they could would be encouraging.

BUT... I need to rescind my suggestion (but please do not let this effect dear Mom's request) as I've heard from my Lord that it will be a danger. He reminded me that we are not to take a census ("I've brought 13 Bible Studies into the 'trooth'!") as it is not by OUR will or might but JAH's and so only HE can keep count. Making a thread every time someone IS found... or worse, when we're starting a "Bible Study", per se, COULD lead to that, counting "studies", etc., especially if we still have some WTBTS "baggage." And so I for me I think things are fine as they are. I will rejoice with those who rejoice, when they rejoice.

Not that anyone SHOULDN'T share their own joy - not saying THAT at all. Just saying I've changed MY mind because of the danger I'VE been warned about from my Lord. You know me: I don't dismiss what he says, even if I can't see the fulfillment at the time. He knows what I don't, so...

Peace to both of you dear ones!

YSSFS of Christ,

Shel

I'm glad for the warning. Keeps us on the watch for where we might have headed, personally.


Personal testimony and experience is on the open board though, just so you are aware. Non-members can see it.


Peace to you,
your servant, and sister, and a fellow slave of Christ,
tammy

Well, there you go! Thank you!

Peace!

Good morning,

Well, if our Lord can foresee a danger....that's good enough for me! I do not ever want to go back to the WTBS mentality of keeping a census, keeping a count of placements, bible studies and hours for what we do.

Thanks for sharing this as it could lead into a danger, yes. I'm okay with the personal experience section girls.

Peace to you both, Kim

He reminded me danger. He reminded me that we are not to take a census ("I've brought 13 Bible Studies into the 'trooth'!") as it is not by OUR will or might but JAH's and so only HE can keep count.


Yes, and exactly what the WTBS knows and keeps doing. Counting ( keeping a census) of everything.
Going against what they quote constantly " a Great Crowd which.... NO man is able to number"...
yet they not only keep numbering but keep track of all the other aspects.

Thank you again for sharing this Shelby,
Love, Kim

I found it strange when, just a few years back, they came out in a WT article and said they do not know who the anointed are because they don't keep track of that. How very strange that they keep track of everything else EXCEPT that!

Hypocrites.....

And how presumptuous they are counting themselves among the great crowd. The great crowd refer to those that come THROUGH the great tribulation. None of them have done that yet, and at the rate of their false predictions and changing dates and seasons... it's not going to be in ANY of their lifetimes.
So they would not technically be called part of the great crowd.

The lies continue.....

Love and peace to you, Kim

That's a lie, dear LE (peace to you!). They may have STOPPED keeping track (because the number started INCREASING), but:

1. If they know the number of the "great crowd", then by simple math they know the number of the "little flock" (n=total no. publishers minus total no. great crowd). One only needs to do the math. Even more so, though...''

2. They absolutely kept track up until... well, whenever it is they're claiming they stopped. Which had to be in the last 10 years or so. You dear ones may or may not have known but you can ask any former elder of, say, 10-15 years ago or more and they will tell you: EVERY "publisher" card had an indication of which group the publisher "belonged" to. It either indicated an "A" (for "anointed) or an "O" (for "other sheep"). And it wasn't random per Congregation. The publisher card had a little space SPECIFICALLY for this entry.

If you've never seen your publisher card you may not know this. But every publisher HAS (okay, had) a card.

Don't let the smooth taste... er, talk... fool ya, dear one.

Peace to you!

YSSFS of Christ,

Shellamar

OMG....

I forgot about that until you said this. Absolutely, there was a boxed check yes indeed. They don't want you know how many people truly have been partaking. It's more than they expected and the numbers are supposed to be by now in 2014 near ZERO!

So instead of accepting that it is okay to partake of CHRIST period ( regardless of how many it is)...they now take this number ( and conveniently lose it) and write all these folks off as mentally diseased and apostate. And then only count the eight GB members as the only true anointed supposedly left on earth. This makes their prediction of the number decreasing look better on their part now in 2014.

Yes, the lies continue...
Love and peace to you, Kim

The good news is that you have renewed contact with family.

The bad news is....count the cost. It's sad that the mom has cancer and that it has progressed to the stage where she must seek treatment so far from home. How convenient that you and yours live in the area!

Convenient if they can work on you for lodging (evenif a small sum is paid "to cover expenses" as well as for any additional accommodations such as rides to pick up and drop off the traveler(s), runs to the doctor(s), clinic(s), hospital(s), to stores for necessary items inconvenient for them to transport, refreshment(s) for the traveller(s), extra cleaning and preparation for stressed, exhausted, ill or taking care of ill "guests".

I sense a "family conference" in the making. The thing is, as much as a person (you) may want to help, or reason that such contact will spread The Good News, one's main responsibility remains one's own (nuclear) family, one's own household. Taking proper care, even part-time, of a person with a serious illness, is draining, both in terms of finances and wear & tear on household members. Even if you feel able to take on the extra load, does everyone else in the household, after reflection, feel the same way?

Back in the day when "family" was all a person had, there were no alternatives. Now we have insurance policies, home health care, visiting services, transportation services, hospital stays, convalescent care, and more. Many people are afraid to reach out for services, reasoning that they'd rather stay within the comfort of family. Even the sick person, though, needs to count the cost; the effect on helpers during and after the immediate situation. Counting the cost goes far beyond dollars and cents or emotional crisis. Love can mean protecting yourself and your household as well as extending appropriate assistance to others.

Forewarned is forearmed. I hope your visit with these relatives is both peaceful and productive. If, though, either on the initial visit or subsequent contacts, you must exercise humility in order not to exceed limitations, I hope that your loving spirit is met with acceptance all aound.

Peace!

From the w11 8/15 p. 22:


When I served as an elder, I was the secretary, so I know of that which you speak. I can tell you definitively that while this was on the publisher card (and still is), this information did NOT get sent to the branch. Only aggregate numbers got sent, specifically: number of brochures, books, magazines, hours, return visits and bible studies, active publisher, inactive publishers, regular pioneers and auxiliary pioneers. (Now, they've added tracts to the count that gets sent back.) That's it. There was no sum total of "other sheep" and "anointed" that got sent to the branch. So, from that perspective, the branch was not THEMSELVES keeping track. The only way the branch kept track of this is by counting how many partake. And as they have intimated, that number is a complete fudge because some who have a "mental or emotional imbalance" partake (their words, not mine... see above quote).

That said, you are right, it IS on the publisher card. And, it would be a VERY simple thing to ask each congregation to tell them who is and who isn't of the anointed, as it IS tracked at the local congregation level. But, again, why this information is not sent to the branch is still baffling since every other number is EXCEPT this. They are more concerned about ACTIVE vs. INACTIVE publishers than they are about TRULY how many anointed there are. Why they don't ask for this information based on the publisher card rather than who partakes is a bit strange, now that I think about it. Why they don't maintain a global network of these is also very strange, too. For an organization that is high on statistics and "knowing positively the flock", they fail miserably in this regard.

It may not be sent in the Congo report, dear one (mornin ' and peace to you! ). What, though, of the CO report? Let me explain:

When I was in I professed an anointing from day one. It's why I WANT in - I thought, "FINALLY, others like me!" Didn't really find them, but that's another story.

Anyway, once I was baptized my card kept changing. If the PO/BOE believed me (and most did) it was an "A". HOWEVER, after his visit... which usually included a "meeting" with me, the sundry CO would have it changed to "O."

I know this because when I once saw all the changes on my card (when I was Congo "secretary" - yeah, I was the woman "behind" the BOE a couple times... for Congo recordkeeping/reporting purposes... and so saw ALL the docs, deeds, letters, and publisher cards, including the white out, cross outs, erasures, etc., on mine and so I asked about it. Of course, I did!). And I was told that the CO "decides" what goes on the card. And since I hadn't PARTAKEN, THEY said it MUST be marked "O."

Those who marked it "A" though knew WHY I hadn't - I told them that I didn't want to "stumble" anyone OR subject my children to the persecution I KNEW they would receive (and some did try it, but by the time my kids were very secure about it and set folks straight right away. Still do, when the sundry comment comes up. They are not DF'd. Many of the JWs we used to associate with want them to come back. Thankfully, they graciously decline! But they've kept virtually all of their JW friends and are on good terms with their JW parents. I digress.).

My point is there is more than the Congo report and maybe its transmitted via CO report? I mean, c'mon: are we to TRULY believe that an organization as METICULOUS about counting... time, members, literature placements, no. of congos, Bible studies, KHs, baptisms... and God knows what all else... DOESN'T keep METICULOUS track of the ONE number on which there very (false) premises are based??!

C'mon, now. Sure, they don't keep track of the folks THEY think "aren't anointed." Like the sundry Bible Study, the stranger who just happened to attend, the 10-year-old whose overly preoccupied mom didn't see and stop him... or the mentally challenged adult daughter of Brother and Sister Poor Things.

But not keep track at ALL? C'mon, now. THEY ' RE still watching that number, those of the GB who have not yet figured out that they're merely puppet pawn figure heads being fronted for a publishing slash real estate holding company.

If anyone believes they're NOT tracking that number... somewhere, somehow... JUST because they SAY they aren't... well... I'd tell that one I have some prime real estate in downtown Brooklyn that they can have for $.50 a square foot so they'd better hop on that deal and start buying from ME real quick like. Fork it over.

BUT... I could be wrong. Perhaps there's a former CO out there who might know? Not that we should really care. Just out of curiosity, maybe.

Peace to you all!

YSSFS of Christ,

Shellamar