the 1975 prophecy<\/a>.\u00a0 My grandfather had given up his business and had lived a simple life in preparation for the end, so when it did not come, he and his wife left in disillusionment.<\/p>\nWhen I was 5 years old, we moved to a location where I made a lot of friends and enjoyed meeting new people.\u00a0 At 8 years old, my father pushed me into becoming a publisher.\u00a0 So, not wanting to displease my father or Jehovah, I agreed and gave my first talk on the platform.<\/p>\n
My father was very pushy when it came to theocratic activities because he was the Presiding Overseer of the congregation.\u00a0 As his children, we were required to make him look good.\u00a0 He wanted us to give our all to Jehovah by faithfully serving the organization.\u00a0 If we didn\u2019t, he told us that we would be judged in the battle of Armageddon that was \u201cright around the corner.\u201d<\/p>\n
My father worked 12 hours a day, 6 days a week as a postman with little pay. Then, he came home and collected \u201ctime\u201d (the hours each Witness spent in door to door activity) from the congregation.\u00a0 He had a lot of paper work, duties and talks that he was required to give in addition to working fulltime and taking care of his family.\u00a0 So we didn\u2019t have much of a relationship with him.\u00a0 Rather, our relationship was based upon fear: Fear of displeasing him, fear of stressing him, etc.<\/p>\n
I remember having frightening nightmares about Armageddon as a child.\u00a0 People were dying in my dreams right in front of me and I never felt like I was good enough.\u00a0 I always felt that I would be among the ones that were burned alive by Jehovah.\u00a0 When I was 11, my father pushed me to get baptized.\u00a0 I spent my whole summer studying and memorizing the questions for baptism.\u00a0 At the end of summer, I answered the questions in front of a small panel of elders and was baptized into the organization on August 8, 1998.\u00a0 I was told that this was the most important day of my life.<\/p>\n
However as a teenager, I was very troubled emotionally. I didn\u2019t have much of a relationship with my parents because they were more loyal to the congregation then they were to their children.\u00a0 My oldest sister was disfellowshipped when I was 16, and I lost a lot of friends when this happened.\u00a0 The Witnesses began to shun me as if I was the one who had been disfellowshipped.\u00a0 Some of my closest friends stopped calling me and talking to me at conventions.\u00a0 I fell into depression and turned to an older friend of my father for help.<\/p>\n
In a year, my sister was reinstated and we were a reunited as a family again.\u00a0 However, the Witnesses never treated my sister the same way they had before she was disfellowshipped.\u00a0 I felt so sorry for her, but I committed to faithfully going out in service.\u00a0 I felt I was finally on the right track again.\u00a0 I was invited to participate in the Assembly meetings and the dramas of the District Convention.\u00a0 I was so proud of myself!\u00a0 But people still gossiped, judged, and stared at me. I could sense their fake pretenses despite their cordial greetings.<\/p>\n
I still didn\u2019t feel right as a Jehovah\u2019s Witness.\u00a0 As I grew older, I was called into a lot of elders\u2019 meetings in which they interrogated me about my personal life and asked me uncomfortable questions about sex. I felt \u201cexposed\u201d as a young girl in a way that would be illegal in the real world.<\/p>\n
To get away from my congregation, I began to take Spanish lessons at another congregation and was required to join it after the lessons were done.\u00a0 But I soon discovered that this was a big mistake too.\u00a0 I felt alone in this new congregation.\u00a0 The Spanish brothers and sisters were nice, but the English speaking ones were very judgmental of me and rude.\u00a0 The congregation gossiped about me a lot.\u00a0 Finally, I decided to leave this congregation and go back to the English one.<\/p>\n
When I made friends outside the organization, the elders counseled me on the problem of having \u201cworldly association.\u201d\u00a0 But I still secretly remained friends with my non-Jehovah\u2019s Witness associates.\u00a0 I found more joy with these friends than I did in the congregation.\u00a0 They made me feel accepted, loved, and wanted. When I fell into another depression, I left the Witnesses completely.\u00a0 Although I lost my Jehovah\u2019s Witness family and friends, I was able to establish relationships with \u201cworldly people\u201d who cared about me.<\/p>\n
![\"allison2\"](\"https:\/\/witforjesus.org\/images\/jwstories\/allison2.jpg\")
I have recently gotten married to one of my non-Jehovah\u2019s Witness friends and announced it to my family.\u00a0 My mother sent me an email that said I was a \u201cdisgrace\u201d in Jehovah\u2019s eyes. She said that this marriage is against Jehovah\u2019s law and that \u201cthis home\u201d does not belong to me.\u00a0 She also said it is \u201cselfish\u201d for me to send her emails that say: \u201cI love you and I miss you.\u201d She claimed that I tore my family apart and she ended her email with: \u201cI hope my baby will come back to the truth. I know it will happen.\u201d So, I sent her an email right back saying:<\/p>\n
\n\u201c\u2026even if I was homeless, had no job, car, money, family, friends, etc., I wouldn\u2019t in a million years go back to Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
I cried a lot after I left my family.\u00a0 I feel as if I was deprived of a normal childhood.\u00a0 I always envy those families that are close and have a good relationship no matter what.\u00a0 But I realize how much my family wants nothing to do with me, and I\u2019m ok with that.\u00a0 Besides, my husband\u2019s family has shown unconditional love and acceptance of me.\u00a0 They are my REAL <\/em>family.\u00a0 I still believe in God. I still pray to Him and no one can take that away from me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":".: ALLISON – Pesadelos de Inf\u00e2ncia do Armagedom e um pai que era Superintendente Presidente fez com que procurasse o amor de Jesus. Crescendo como Testemunha de Jeov\u00e1, Allie lembra-se de ter pesadelos assustadores acerca do Armagedom. Nos seus sonhos, pessoas estavam morrendo bem diante de seus olhos e ela nunca sentiu que era boa…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[137,777],"tags":[463,458],"class_list":["post-20276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ex-tj","category-mais-historias","tag-1975-pt","tag-depressao-culpa","wpcat-137-id","wpcat-777-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.4jehovah.org\/pt-pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.4jehovah.org\/pt-pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.4jehovah.org\/pt-pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.4jehovah.org\/pt-pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.4jehovah.org\/pt-pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20276"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.4jehovah.org\/pt-pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20276\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20279,"href":"https:\/\/www.4jehovah.org\/pt-pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20276\/revisions\/20279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.4jehovah.org\/pt-pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.4jehovah.org\/pt-pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.4jehovah.org\/pt-pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"allison\"](\"https:\/\/witforjesus.org\/images\/jwstories\/allison.jpg\")
<\/p>\n