shali

So far I've counted 12 brothers in my congregation growing beards. 3 elders so far and at least 3 ministerial servants. I'm an "old school" witness, who despite my age and up bringing could never understand why brothers couldn't have beards from the year 2000 on at least, so it doesn't bother me in the least, it's just weird to see now and will take a little time to get used to. I applaud all you brothers who were humble and obedient and followed the directions to not have beards if you wanted privileges even though there was no scriptural basis for it.

That was a bit of a cruel joke! You should tell them, "that's funny because I just got it".

I'm pretty sure New Zealand is a day ahead of us here in the States. We may not see the broadcast show up till tomorrow. I'm wasn't talking about the surprises we will HEAR in the broadcast.

Whatever surprise comes along with the broadcast, we won't get until next Tuesday at the earliest. NO meeting this Tuesday because our CA is this weekend.

It's 4:30 EST here and it still hasn't dropped. Wonder if they found the need to change or remove something before they posted it and are scurrying to make the changes and get it online. The hard part is that we got all this hype about it (and half a dozen notifications to watch it from the NW publisher app) and so far, no broadcast. There must be an unusual circumstance.

I'm wondering if they are waiting to later in the afternoon when most family heads will be home from work and it can be watched together with the entire family.

Thanks

The annual meeting still hasn't shown up in my app and it's 9:30 EST. Has anyone else seen it yet?

I'd rather exercise patience in this regard. I bet it will be there by the end of the day today. I definitely want to order a printed copy though when we are allowed to.

Wouldn't you know - the first month we don't report our hours or any publications or return visits, I broke my record on all of it!! LOL

For some reason it's not showing up in my JW Library app, it's not under What's New or in the Book section. I'll give it another day or two to show up before I download it from the website.

At our meeting it was announced that the annual meeting will be the broadcast for November and it will be released on November 6th and we will receive the reasons for the changes, I'm sure when we have the Watchtower released in January it might delve into these changes and the reasons for the new thinking a bit deeper. Personally, all my life I could never reconcile giving a "warning" when the GT started but no one was allowed to heed it. This is a big relief for me.

I trust Jehovah. He is doing this for a reason(s) and at this point in time, it's the right thing to do or we wouldn't be doing it this way. Don't bog yourselves down with the "what if's", just make a resolve that despite this change it won't diminish the zeal you have to help others. We don't need to worry about what someone else does or does not do in the ministry from this point on. I know plenty of older ones who only get in maybe an hour at the most a month but they're the most faithful coming to in-person meetings and commenting. That one hour is a 100 in Jehovah's eyes.

This, by far, is the biggest change I've seen in the organization (and I've been in the truth over 50 years). I am very interested to learn the reason(s) behind it. It will be interesting to see how the elders will decide on what brothers they can use for what priviledges now. I know my husband has never been used even though he is at all the meetings, helps clean the hall everytime, mows and does whatever else we are asked but because he only has one day a week he can be out in service and much of that time all it takes is one brother to get a return visit and the rest sit in the car the whole morning - there goes any time you could of had (he never felt right counting the time he he wasn't able to take a door). I recently introduced him to cart witnessing and his time has gone up quite a bit, but now the cold weather is coming.

This also might have something to do with future circumstances, not just present ones. There will come a time when reporting our time will be very difficult (during the GT) and only important communication as necessary will be of the utmost importance. Can you imagine how difficult it would be for the secretaries of our congregations to have to continue reporting and keeping track of the time of every single publisher in the congregation during a time when we may not even have or be allowed to be on the internet? We have been warned that it may be difficult just to get the necessities of life during that time. This simplification will go a long way to helping the elders out in the congregation as well as taking a load of some of the brothers in the branches.