I hope you Jehovah's Witnesses are doing well.

[Matthew9969]

Not sure if you all are aware of my life...my mother has been a Jehovah's Witness for probably 45-60 years or so, her mind is foggy at 78 years old, but she still can be the unlit fire cracker. She lives with me and is very vocal with her phone conversations and such...I don't read the current material...but I am privy to her conversations with other jw's/elders, etc. We all know meeting together in worship is better than using zoom meeting from afar. And the Wtbts and the FDS have chosen to keep their services on line only. So my aging mom is experiencing a great disconnect with her congregation because she is not tech savvy and my sister and I help her as much as possible, along with a few other sisters who are, but she and those others are loosing faith in God, loosing faith in the governing bodies ability to maintain jw's connection with God. They continue to put their faith in the governing body, and when they don't follow through, they view that as Jehovah God not following through. So many things have happened with this pandemic, I hope jw's who do not have people who care for them are doing ok, physically as well as spiritually.

[Arauna]

7 hours ago, Matthew9969 said:

jw's who do not have people who care for them are doing ok, physically as well as spiritually.

Lockdowns are a great problem. We are doing field service and encouraging sisters online due to this circumstance. Yes, the very elderly have problems but Jehovah is just and kind and he will remember their faithfulness in the past.  It is not the GBs fault that we have a pandemic, neither is it Jehovah's fault..... it is Satan's world we are living in. GB will obey the law until they force us by law  to disobey god...... then we will kindly and passively disobey man and obey Jehovah.

The world tide is turning, becoming totalitarian and secular - several countries now ruling by decree under emergency measures.  10 years imprisonment in Britain for visiting Portugal..... a decree not passed by the lower house. They are already turning against religion in USA - especially white Christians.  Saw a report this morning given to Biden against Christians labelling some as extremist and a new law tabled law under number 350.

If your mum's faith is lagging it is because she is locked in - we are supposed to be encouraging each other and giving physical hugs and warmth...... There were illegal experiments done on people (MKULTRA) in USA. Depriving people of sensorial input destabilized them and drove them mad. 

Yes we are living in extreme times and set to become worse. If you trust me enough you can send me your mum's telephone number and I will communicate with her now and then and support her. 

[Patiently waiting for Truth]

19 hours ago, Matthew9969 said:

They continue to put their faith in the governing body, and when they don't follow through, they view that as Jehovah God not following through.

I hope you and your mother are as well as can be expected in these times.

But are these times showing that JWs are putting too much faith in the GB and the Org, and not enough faith in God through Christ. Personal Bible study and prayer are always good. 

[TrueTomHarley]

12 hours ago, Matthew9969 said:

So my aging mom is experiencing a great disconnect with her congregation because she is not tech savvy and my sister and I help her as much as possible, along with a few other sisters who are, but she and those others are loosing faith in God,

You help your mom and those few other sisters, or you and those few other sisters help your mom? The wording is not clear. 

It does remind me, though, of a local situation of an elderly sister who moved in with family that built an in-law apartment for her. She has never fully integrated with the congregation and I’m not sure why. Somewhere there is a disconnect with her unbelieving family who say, in the person of a daughter-in-law that they want to help spiritually (there is no question that physically she is cared for) and yet somehow there is no follow through. How hard can it be to physically get her connected with Zoom meetings, and yet somehow it doesn’t happen. Believe me, I personally have tried, and I am not the only one.

Complaints filter down through that daughter-in-law that the congregation does not do enough. That daughter in law tells me she studied with Witnesses in another country for several years but the friends here are not loving like they were there. While that may (or may not) be true, I told her, that is not why someone pursues a relationship with God. It didn’t help when a local elder went to visit and got bit by one of several yappy dogs on the premises. 

The elderly sister has the beginnings of Alzheimer’s. Even when she did not, she was very reserved and not easy to get to know. A local couple would pick her up for meetings. Something about the situation eventually wore them out, particularly as they began to cope with the ill health of their own parents. 

I’ve visited this sister. The house is massive and new, with as many as six cars in the driveway. When the sister took a fall and broke an arm, the congregation provided meals for several months, at the suggestion of the daughter-in-law. It may not have occurred to them otherwise because plainly she lives among relatives that physically care for her. My wife coordinated that campaign. It seems like it might have run on forever, far longer than with anyone else, until my wife said ‘okay, glad that we have been able to relieve pressure, give the family a break, etc, and no doubt you can take over again as before.’ It is possible that we were being “used,”—it is not nothing to provide meals every day, particularly when it is not clear why family can’t do it themselves—but that’s not the important thing. I can even picture unbelieving family muttering about “cults” and so forth, but it has never been to our face, so it is just a possibility.

She gets some phone calls, some cards, she is connected on Roku, I’ve been there to see that, but somehow things do not gel. I don’t know the answer. We do what we can do, but cannot do everything. Whatever family interplay there is was established long ago in another area, and there is only so far you can go in unraveling the oddities. There is a believing daughter that visits from time to time and hopefully alleviates matters.

This is the only situation I know of, but it is reasonable to think every congregation has one or two parallels. On the other hand, there are also several old ones not tech savvy who have come up to speed with Zoom, usually with help, but it has happened. One who was never much in the physical ministry has blossomed in the virtual one. In short, I don’t think anyone has been “left behind” any more so than what would have happened prior to Covid.

If you have @Araunaoffering to call all the way from Albania, Matthew, sounds to me like you should take her up on it. You, too, have some dysfunctional background, I recall. Didn’t you say your folks fought like cats and dogs and shouldn’t have had children? It’s to your credit that you provide for her, that being the case. Not all children do.

12 hours ago, Matthew9969 said:

They continue to put their faith in the governing body, and when they don't follow through, they view that as Jehovah God not following through

This may be so, or it may be your interpretation of what is so. You say you don’t read the current material. If you did, you would notice at the latest midweek meetings how such a fuss was made over “there at Chebar a vision came to me,” with application that even if far removed from the physical organization, one is not removed from God.

12 hours ago, Matthew9969 said:

We all know meeting together in worship is better than using zoom meeting from afar.

I’m not sure we do know this. I’ve heard several old-timers say they don’t care if we ever go back to physical meetings. It saves massive amounts of time and energy, which is not boundless at their age, and you can do nearly as much on Zoom as in person. I think pandemic is harder on young people than on old. As for me, I have unchained my inner hermit and he is doing just fine.

You act as though the organization forsakes physical meetings because they care not about anyone’s concerns than theirs. Forgive me for saying it, but this smacks to me of the complaining victimization spirit of the day. When circumstances change, you have to adapt. The reason KHs are closed is, not as a personal affront to you or your mom, but because it is thought, and authorities continually advance the view, that it saves lives. Forgive me again for saying it, but if the KHs were open I can picture you complaining  how the organization doesn’t care if members die. It is kind of what you do, and I would be happier if you didn’t.

[Arauna]

5 hours ago, TrueTomHarley said:

The elderly sister has the beginnings of Alzheimer’s.

I have worked with people with Alzheimers - n the beginning they can still function but get disoriented very quickly and unfortunately become very emotional and sometimes depressed. They repeat some older stories over and over and sometimes display anxiety. It is hard to deal with, so you will mentally have to prepare for this. Anger also comes up quickly.  If she loses her faith - Jehovah knows she has been faithful all this time.... He will be just.

I think it will be harder on you to watch this deterioration and on those in the congregation who will not understand what is going on.  I suggest you read a book about Alzheimers or dementia because they often have very similar manifestations.

Do not take her moods to seriously and talk with her calmly and kindly. Go with her through old photo albums and play her favorite old music.  Short term memory is bad and long term memory is good - so she may tell you a few things you never knew - lol