James Thomas Rook Jr.

February 19, 2018 TO ALL BODIES OF ELDERS IN THE UNITED STATES Re: Online Congregation Donations Using JW.ORG
Dear Brothers:
As outlined in our letter of January 22, 2018, online donations via jw.org are now available in the United States for congregations and circuits. The five-minute local needs part on the midweek meeting of March 5, 2018, will be used to explain this arrangement more fully to the congregation. We are now writing to provide more details on how this part will be handled.
We are pleased to inform you that an excerpt from the video entitled “Making Donations Electronically” has been prepared for the congregation. This two-minute video provides a reminder of how to find the donation feature on jw.org, how to set up an account, and how to set up a recurring donation. The screenshots shown in the video have been updated to show the new layout of the donation page on jw.org that includes congregation and circuit donations. The video will soon be available in English and Spanish in the “Event Media” section under the “Documents” tab on jw.org.
Begin the part by summarizing the announcement read the week of February 5, 2018, and playing the video. Thereafter, briefly mention the monthly local expenses that are covered by donations to your congregation. (See letter dated December 2, 2017, paragraphs 22, 23.) Highlight that the jw.org recurring donation feature can be used as a tool for budgeting donations to support these congregation expenses. (1 Cor. 16:2) Provide the congregation with the names of the elders or ministerial servants who have been selected by the body of elders to assist individuals with donations on jw.org. If your congregation has used KHDonate.net in the past, remind the congregation that this service will be discontinued on May 31, 2018, and that any questions about this discontinuation should be directed to KHDonate.net. Warmly commend the congregation for the generous support provided by the brothers and sisters.
Please make sure to follow the feature activation steps before this part is presented, as outlined in the form Instructions for Processing Donations Made to the Congregation via JW.ORG. If the jw.org online donation feature for your congregation has not been activated before the part, inform the congregation of the date that it will be activated or that you have decided not to participate. If your congregation is attending a circuit assembly the week of March 5, 2018, this part may be scheduled for a future local needs part.
Thank you for caring for these matters. We hope that this new provision will provide an additional opportunity for publishers in your congregation to make their local donations.
Your brothers,
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yay, there is not an actual plate to pass, so we're all good and different then all those other churches we talk crap about. 
Why did there need to be a special announcement about donations? online specific to the .org. If you have to filter the donations from NY then back to the local, you're going to have to pay for it to get back to the local, by then there isn't much left so might as well just keep it in NY right? 
Oh and another thing, no paid clergy? Are the gb on the payroll? 

This is an addition added after rereading your comment, but I wanted to put it here first. I really loved your last two paragraphs. They make complete sense. Thank you. 
I agree with you on most of your comment here. I will have to get my head together, reread your comment, and come back to you slightly later in the day. I am not anti -JW. I only left the Org because of what I'd discovered regarding the Child Abuse problems. However, from what I've gathered online, the Australian JW Org handed over the documents to the ARC, The UK JW Org handed over the documents to the Charity Commision, but, the USA JW Org /WT or Governing Body, or their legal departments, are refusing to hand over, what might possibly be twenty years worth of child Abuse accusations documents to the Supreme Court of California. Now if the online news is true, this is costing the American (or earthwide) JW Org $2,000 per day in fines. amounting to, it seems, over $2 million so far. ( Unfortunately i cannot seem to find any updates on this, which is frustrating. Is the JW Org actually paying this ? Do they still owe this ? Has it all been squashed and forgotten ? ) But I'm going off course herre. My point was that the Org in different countries are acting in different ways regarding this situation. Therefore it is splitting up the 'oneness' of the Organisation. In my opinion it cannot be 'against the law or rules of God' to obey 'the law of the land' in this matter. If it was then surely the Org in Australia and UK have gone against God ? It makes no sense. 
As for your last sentence, I fully agree with you. But, do we endure within an earthly organisation or do we endure alone ? We will of course be judged as individuals whether we are within or outside an Org. I do truly feel that the JW Org are right in many of their teachings and i can see the need for a lot of their instruction. but obviously the Org cannot be allowed to continue with it's wrongful course regarding Child Abuse / Pedophilea and some other issues. So for me its a case of, will God cleanse the JW Org ? Will God chose another Org ? Or will God help us as individuals to 'go it alone' ?  
Now backtracking a bit on your comments above. 
"But as for JWs, it may probably depend on what the elders says and how the family is to takes action, for if it were me and my child is victim, I would talk to the elders of what happen even having my child speak, and whether they tell me or not, I will go to the police so they can handle this, what can be done internally on the church's side, the elders,will most likely give some details on who the person is and I myself as a parent can see if so and so is indeed the person who did the crime". 
There are two issues here but once again I have no proof of the claims being made, only reading of many court cases that have quoted these things.
1. Many claims are being made (leading to many court cases) in the JW Org of different countries, that Elders were instructed to tell people not to report any child abuse to the police or any outside authority, as it would bring shame on the Org / Jehovah. Along with this there are also claims that people were threatened with being disfellowshipped for reporting things to the police / outside authorities.   And in some cases it would seem that people have been disfellowshipped and felt most alone as no one would even talk to them. 
2. Again claims have been made that the GB gave instruction that the Elders should not warn the congregation of pedophiles within their congregation. Therefore congregation members would not know they needed to be extra careful and they would have no idea who was 'unsafe'  for their children to be with. Remembering that the Kingdom Hall, though only being  a building and a meeting place, is supposed to be a very safe place for people to meet together, not only to give praise, but to feel secure and relaxed in each others company.  
So if these claims are true then the Elders 'hands are tied' and they cannot do anything of their own choice. 
I will add here, ( and this is what i find worrying ) that I had a case way back in 2009, when i reported an Elder to the Body of Elders of my congregation for something very serious and personal. Well, I say I reported it to the 'Body of Elders', and here is another problem, it seems my letter was only seen by two or three Elders and the rest of the Elders knew nothing about it. Anyway, I was called into the Kingdom Hall, to 'talk it through' with, what I thought would be the 'body of elders'. As it happened there were only two Elders present. One sat behind me and said nothing. The other Elder did all the talking and it was obvious from the outset that he had made his mind up about the matter before even listening to me. He did not even listen to my accusations against the Elder, it was easy to see that he was 'closing his ears to it all'. But what he did do was to say to me that I would be disfellowshipped if i did not retract everything i had said against that Elder. My response was simple, I told him, if he thought he had the authority to disfellowship me then he should go ahead and do it. I didn't wait for an answer, i got up and left the hall..... Needless to say nothing happened and i wasn't disfellowshipped. In fact i wasn't even reproved.
But what i found out for myself was,  the Elders would only believe what they wanted to believe, and, not all Elders are informed about things taking place within their own congregation. Hence when I resigned from the Org, I sent out emails to as many of the Elders as I could. (We have a list of Elders and their phone numbers and email addresses). So I was sure that most of the Elders knew I had resigned.... 
The reason I've added that personal experience is to show that i have fair to good reason not to trust the body of Elders, and to show that any person that may try to report Child Abuse or any other wrongdoing, may not get a fair hearing, especially if the accused is an Elder. I honestly think they 'protect their own' as it were. 
So I have a serious problem here. Do i return to the JW Org, which would mean being obedient to 'men' / Elders / Governing Body that i do not trust ?  Do I look for a different Org ? Or do i just 'go it alone' and try to serve God 'my own way'. If i went my own way would God help me if i prayed to him regularly? I honestly do not know what God wants from me, but i do know that serving God is of the utmost importance. God deserves to be served, He deserves praise and thanks, and as you have said, we should stand up for the truth and truthful teachings. 
I hope some of this makes sense. 

Several years ago, in Grand Prairie, Texas, Four Sisters out in Service were killed when their car was T-Boned at an intersection.
Those that "live by the car .... die by the car"".

Every time I have ever challenged you to identify a falsehood I have EVER stated in over 7,000 posts here on the Archive, you have come up with ZERO specificity.  You are living in a fantasy world where things you are ignorant of, you consider lies.
I do thank you for referring to me as ROOK,.... even better as ROOK!!
And as far as the NRA goes, I don't support them ... they support ME!

Cos:
If you check 200 MILLION driver's licenses, you will NOT find a single one that says the licensee's name is "human being".
God has a Name ... in English, it is commonly and by custom since the 1600's  in English .... Jehovah.
The Son of God has a name ... In English, it is Jesus.
The Archangel was referred to, again in English ... as Michael.
The Slanderer and Resister Angel turned demon is named, again in English ... Satan.
All five of my dogs have individual, specific personal names, as did every dog I have owned before them.
(... pauses for a swig of Cranberry Juice ...)
Even the juice I drink had a name ... Cranberry.
SOOOooo....
What is the Holy Spirit's personal name?
Descriptions and Titles do not count ... I have a comforter on my bed ... and as I have learned recently ... the Advocate is not a personal name... its the name of a "Gay Rights" magazine, or a Baton Rouge, Louisiana Newspaper. If they were Greek publications, they would be TITLED "Paraklete", identifiers to be sure ... but not being PERSONS , DNA or Spirit based .. that would not be PERSONAL names.
You must be thinking of CASPER, the FRIENDLY Ghost, of yesteryear's comic book fame.
What is the Holy Ghost's personal name?
 
 

 
CASPER?
 
 

Since Jehovah God created men and women WITHOUT clothing .... and they DECIDED THEMSELVES THAT THEY WERE NAKED ... DECIDING FOR THEMSELVES what was "good" and what was "bad" ... perhaps the REAL question should be "SHOULD YOUR STYLE OF DRESS BE ACCEPTABLE BY NORMAL HUMAN STANDARDS TO OTHER HUMANS"
I spent some time in the Congo in 1974, and saw Brothers and Sisters in RAGS that would not be acceptable at any Kingdom Hall in the United  States.
I was a grown man with three children before I got my first warm coat .... it just never occurred to me that there was a way to keep warm in winter for Adults. It was such a revelation to me that I went back and bought a SECOND one, exactly the same, just in case they quit making them.
 

I try to be the man, my dog thinks I am.

I find that simple 325mg Aspirin is a GREAT help to fall asleep faster, and stay asleep for many hours. 
I take TWO Aspirin in an 8 oz glass of chilled Vodka, and sleep like a baby!

Yeah.  I am glad when I wake up, so I can get some rest..

It is very true that one is not one's self when sleepy.
I met him one time and he was wide awake.
...and he was dressed better than me too!

Have a friend you trust, with a large rubber hammer?

Yeah.  I am glad when I wake up, so I can get some rest..

...
 

I dream every time I go asleep ..... massive epic dreams .... I am going to have to use my recorder and transcribe them for instant novels.
Sometimes my dreams are nested three levels deep, and I wake up to the level above, but I am still asleep, etc. 
Many times I realize I am dreaming in the dream and can take control ... usually about flying at high altitudes.
Those are the BEST!

I dream every time I go asleep ..... massive epic dreams .... I am going to have to use my recorder and transcribe them for instant novels.
Sometimes my dreams are nested three levels deep, and I wake up to the level above, but I am still asleep, etc. 
Many times I realize I am dreaming in the dream and can take control ... usually about flying at high altitudes.
Those are the BEST!

I believe in Raptors ...
 

Actually, I think it is a WONDERFUL INVESTMENT  for the next HUNDRED YEARS!
It's called "Future Proofing", and when I upgrade something around my home, I try to think 20 years ahead of the maximum lifespan of my wife. who statistically will live 20 years longer than I will.
With that huge acreage available for expansion on site .... it is clear that their plans are for the next hundred years in this System of Things, and historically there is 100% consistent evidence that is a good and practical thing to do.
Where the property exits onto the main road, directly across the street,  Bro. Stephen Lett has personal huge investments in acreage, according to official tax records, so you know he is also planning for the future for his wife.
 

...........................................................................................
I think this is the very first time I have completely agreed with Allen Smith ... and it really confused me.  Not his statement ... that was clear enough.
I am a big fan of discarding "feel good" theory when it is contraindicated by hard evidence ... and in this case apparently the 3/4 of the Witnesses he mentions have the same perception.
THAT's the part I agreed with.
... If it walks like, a duck, quacks like a duck, and looks like a duck ... self aggrandizing protestations to the contrary are painfully transparent ... end extremely cringeworthy.
When the videos say " ... and the Governing Body loves you ..." it totally creeps me out.
 

I  agree.....   and  I  would  help  him  too,  yes   I  hope,  he  will  find  people  and  a  room  for  living.  Also  a  brother  or  sister  for  little  more  help  and  tell  him  from  Jehovah  and  the  big  news,  the  truth  and  BIG  hope  for  him    
THINK  TO  THE  BLIND / DEAF  JW !!   ALL  CAN  UNDERSTAND  THE  BIBLE....  of  a  simple  kind  of  teaching, also  this  man,  why  not??
When  a  person  want  it,  we've  to  try  it,  YES !   Thats  our  mission / order...
Thanks  for  your  comments, dear  Brother  Colin

I cannot understand why there is only partial information concerning the Jehovah's Witnesses and Watchtower Society Child Abuse accusations from around the Earth. I have just put a status on my FB page saying that : The one thing I have learnt in life is, that I don't know the truth about anything".  The reason for this is that there is always some doubt about things read 'online'. Are they true ? Does one want them to be true? Are my opinions correct?   So with that in mind I will continue with the information I 'have read online'. 
We all know that Child Abuse and Sexual Abuse accusations are, or appear to be 'in fashion' right now. In politics, in entertainment, and in religion. But Jehovah's Witnesses claim to be 'no part of the world', that is the 'world' that belongs to Satan the Devil. So it would come as a surprise then that from top to bottom the JW's are being accused of Child Abuse Earthwide. 
What I've noted so far : The Australian Royal Commission did a three year investigation into the JW org, most of which is available online to read. They found that since 1950 there were 1006 accusations of Child Abuse within the Australian branch of Jehovah's Witnesses, none of which were reported to the police or secular authorities........... In Canada there have been large court cases in Quebec and Ontario againse JW org..... A $66 million lawsuit against the religion's leadership is taking place.....  In the Netherlands 'Reclaimed Voices' foundation have set up emergency phone lines and have put out advertisements concerning victims of abuse within the JW org there. The 'hotline' had received 80 replies as of December 28th 2017..... In the UK (where I am) the Charity Commision set up an inquiry into the UK branch of Jehovah's Witnesses regarding child abuse / sexual abuse. I think this started with the Manchester New Molton congregation in 2014. The Charity Commision also set up an inquiry into the Watchtower Soc (WTBTS) here in the UK. In Feb 2016. The Org went to court to try to block the investigations but failed. A former elder from South Wales said there was instructions to elders to destroy all documents regarding child abuse. There seemed to be a cost to the Org of over £1 million which I presume is court fines and payouts. 
Then of course we have the USA. In 2014 a $10.5 million lawsuit against JW Org by Valicia Alston and others. In 2015 the Candace Conti case against Jonathan Kendrick. And in April 2016 the Watchtower Soc' remained defiant in refusing to hand over documents about the Child Abuse in the USA branch of the JW Org.  Now it seems (and remember I'm only going on what I've read) that the JW Org in USA sent out a letter in 1997, to all elders of congregations in the USA. The letter was a direct instruction to the elders to send in ALL documents and information concerning accusations of Child Abuse / Sexual abuse both current and passed. This was to be an ongoing instruction and all information was to be sent in special blue envelopes to Brooklyn. Now there are approx' 14,000 congregations in the USA, and the time period from 1997 to 2017 is of course 20 years. So it would seem that the Governing Body have 20 years worth of accusations concerning Child Abuse and Sexual abuse with in it's USA congregations. However, despite court action and direct instruction to the JW Org / Watchtower Soc', the W/T and JW Org still refuse to hand over the documents to the High court. In November 2017 a High court of California fined the JW Org / WT Soc'  $4,000 per day for not handing over the documents, and it seems the cost so far to the Org / WT is more than           $2 million. I cannot find out if any of this money has been paid or is still owing. 
One other point that I found interesting (providing it's true of course) is that the Governing Body has deliberately separated the JW Org, known as the Christian Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses, from the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society. Each of these now has its own Legal Department. The purpose of this is to slow down all court proceedings because the Legal Dept from one has to write to the Legal Dept of the other for information, then the legal Dept of the other refuses such information etc. This is what caused the Supreme Court of California to impose the heavy fines on the Org. Basically the court got fed up with the 'clowning around of the JW Org.  
So to sum up: It seems that many countries, Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, UK and USA, have found and proved many cases of child abuse / sexual abuse within the Jehovah's Witnesses and Watchtower Society. But what makes this worse is that the Governing Body of the Org' is deliberately withholding  the information about pedophiles within its ranks. Add to this that elders of congregations Earthwide are instructed not to inform their congregations about pedophiles within their congregation. And, congregation members are told not to report child abuse / sexual abuse within the congregations, to the Police or outside secular organisations. On top of this victims are not believed, because the Governing Body has made a rule that says there must be two witnesses to any accusation of abuse, which of course will not happen in the case of Child abuse or Sexual abuse.
About me : I was one of Jehovah's Witnesses until about a month ago.  After doing approx three months research online my conscience would no longer allow me to remain within the Organisation. How could I encourage other people to join an Organisation that allows Child Abuse /Sexual Abuse to continue unreported and unpunished within its ranks. There could be a pedophile within the congregation that I was part of, I would never know, because the Elders would keep it secret.... However, I do believe in God, whether His name is Jehovah, Yahweh or something else, and I am keeping my mind open as to how I will find the 'truth' of God's requirements. 
What i am hoping for is that some BIG media source will bring all the information together concerning all the Child Abuse / Sexual Abuse accusations against the Jehovah's Witnesses Org' and the Watchtower Soc' Earthwide, so that all info' is readily available to everyone. At the moment it all seems so 'bitty' and not organised. Yes there is info' online, but are the sources trustworthy. What is needed is a neutral unemotional factual report, please. 

Jehovah's Witnesses only formally celebrate the one event that Jesus commanded his followers. The memorial of his death (1 Cor. 11:23-26).
They also celebrate other events which are referred to favorably in the Scriptures such as marriages, anniversaries, the birth of a baby, graduations and many other happy occasions. But why don't Jehovah's Witnesses celebrate St. Valentine's Day?
Because Jehovah's Witnesses take their worship very seriously and insist upon keeping their worship of God undefiled (James 1:27), there are two main reasons why Jehovah's Witnesses do not celebrate St. Valentine's Day:
1.) Pagan ceremonies honoring pagan gods are mixed in with St. Valentine's Day's origins.
2.) The Bible makes it clear that there is to be no veneration or adoration of Saints as intercessors with God. Our approach to the Father can only be through Jesus. (John 14:6, 14; 1 Tim. 2:5)
St. Valentine's Day - It's Pagan Associations
It would be wrong to incorporate anything used for pagan worship, into our worship or related activities. Holidays, for example, are "Holy Days" and are a part of "worship", by their very name. Notice what the publication How It Started had to say about St. Valentine's Day on pages 46-47: "Ancient Romans placed great stress upon holidays that fell about the middle of the shortest month of the year. Dedicated to the goddess Juno, who was the wife of Jupiter, these festivals stressed love, courtship, and marriage. "That was appropriate since Juno, queen of heaven, was regarded as the special protector of women in `critical times of life.'.... "When Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire by edict of Emperor Constantine, religious leaders immediately started trying to do away with pagan festivals. Many of them had been observed for so many centuries that they resisted all frontal attacks, so there were many efforts to bring about change in a more subtle fashion.
One of the most effective was a substitution of a Christian[?] observance for a pagan one, with special ceremonies held on or near the date of the long-established holiday. "Since the martyrdom of St. Valentine was celebrated on February 14, it made sense to stresshomage to the man who was said to have been stoned to death on that day in A. D. 269. For that reason the name of a man about whom no written records exist came to be attached to the day formerly dedicated to Juno." And The World Book Encyclopedia, Vol. 20, 1973 ed. on page 204 says this: "Valentine's Day comes on the feast of two different Christian martyrs named Valentine. But the customs connected with the day ... probably came from an ancient Roman festival called Lupercaliawhich took place every February 15. The festival honored Juno, the Roman goddess of women and marriage, and Pan, the god of nature." Some would say that it's wrong to pay such homage to dead men, whether "Saints" or not, but certainly it's incredibly wrong to mix in pagan ceremonies honoring pagan gods in the process. "What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? .... `Therefore come out from them and be separate,' says the Lord. `Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you ...' says the Lord Almighty." - 2 Cor. 6:16, 17, NIVSB. [NIVSB f.n.: "agreement...between the temple of God and idols. There can be no reversion to or compromise with the idolatry they have forsaken for the gospel (cf. 1 Th. 1:9)."]
Additional Reading: What is the origin of Valentine’s Day? (rs p. 176-p. 182; Watchtower Online Library)
Should We Venerate "Saints as Intercessors" With God?
Notice what Peter's response was to a certain situation in the account of Acts 10:25, 26, JB: "As Peter reached the house Cornelius went out to meet him, knelt at his feet and prostrated himself. But Peter helped him up. `Stand up,' he said `I am only a man after all!'" Peter did not approve of such adoration when he was personally present. He understood what Jesus clearly stated in John 14:6, 14 that our approach to the Father can be only through Jesus and that our requests are to be made in Jesus' name: "Jesus said: `I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one can come to the Father except through me. If you ask for anything in my name, I will do it.'" (JB) 1 Tim. 2:5:
"For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." (NASB) Note what Martin Luther wrote concerning the reverence of Roman Catholic Saints: "The pity is that we are so blind that we do not leave the devil alone to play his tricks in his own way; rather, we support him and multiply them. I wish people would leave the saints in peace, and not mislead humble folk. What spirit was it that gave the pope authority to canonize saints? Who tells him whether they are holy or not? .... God is just in judging us with His wrath and in allowing the devil to lead us hither and thither, to institute pilgrimages, ... to set about canonizing saints and other foolish things." - p. 458, Martin Luther, Selections From His Writings, Dr. John Dillenberger, Anchor Books, Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1961.
by Elijah 

A few decades ago I also used Open Office, so it's safe. Tested  (Norton Safe site)
This upload can now be seen by all:
Animal pictures.docx

Wow .... all those beautiful kitchens!
And to think .... much of my life I just opened a can and stuck in a spoon.
Then one day, as I was eating, I happened to notice on the directions that you could heat the stuff up !
Who knew?
 
 

Colin Brown's photos are in a .docx file .... which is a later version of Microsoft Word.
I only create documents with a copy of Microsoft Word that I bought in 1997 ... "Word 2000".
However, if you can download and install the FREE software "Open Office", it is compatible with all the new Microsoft Software.
After installing, you can click on his ".docx" file, and it will open as if you had the latest versions of Microsoft Office Suite Software.
The pictures are GORGEOUS!