Sallyforth

I’m a longtime Beatles fan (though, of course, like most artists, there are some of their songs I don’t find appropriate) so that’s how I knew this. The other thing is that as far as I’ve read, McCartney is an atheist or agnostic, so I’m also assuming that to be another reason why Let It Be isn’t a religious reference.

Mary was the name of Paul McCartney’s mother. She died of cancer when he was 14 and he has said she is the Mary referred to in that song. So yes, I do listen to it.

I’m over 65. Fully vaccinated, got my boosters, flu shot. Out and about quite often, neither my husband or I have had COVID. I was a very sickly child, lots of upper respiratory infections. As an adult, I very rarely get sick. I wore a mask when it was recommended. I think it’s a safe estimate to say that 70 to 75% of the friends in our congregation have had COVID, one of them (unvaccinated) died and several were very sick. In the last few weeks alone,I know about 20 friends who got COVID, some for the second time. There is so much misinformation/conspiracy theories out there anymore, and I take most of it with a grain of salt. It does seem, though, that repeated bouts of COVID can have bad long term consequences. I personally think that the Governing Body wouldn’t have strongly recommended vaccines and masks if they didn’t believe there was sound basis for doing so for most people.

I must be cynical. Her story sounded fake pretty early on.

I read it earlier. Favorable article which goes into detail about what our Russian friends are facing.

I initially thought the protest didn’t seem very violent but have since watched several reports that squashed that idea. The police officer dragged down the steps and ruthlessly beaten with an American flag (not the officer who died after being hit with a fire extinguisher), cries of “Hang Pence!” and the cop screaming for help when he was trapped by that steel door while rioters tried to rip his helmet off were only a FEW of the disgusting acts caught on video. Cops were overwhelmed by the size of the crowd and reportedly, one woman protestor was trampled to death. Pure chaos. Also, social media posts show that rioters were deadly serious (no pun intended) about looking to harm certain ‘targeted’ politicians. A very dark day and fears that worse lies ahead. Bible prophecy about the iron and the clay not mixing makes it all somewhat unsurprising but I can’t say it’s not disturbing.

I'm pretty sure I recognize his voice. I'm ruling out Larry Graham, too.

This is fantastic news! I am so happy for our friends in Eritrea. I hope they are all released soon.

We’ve had this arrangement for several months now.

Thanks to all of you who took part. That was really cool. Makes me wish I’d participated instead of holding back out of shyness. Maybe if there’s a next time...

Loved it!

Incidentally , that article is dated June 2017 (and it does seem quite fair and balanced).

USA Today has been around several decades. It’s definitely legit not some scandal sheet.

Coordinator of the body of elders, I believe.

Kangaroo court, no regard for actual evidence, Ministry of Injustice prevails! I am sickened but not surprised.

It probably won't happen but I was wondering about the idea of including a special section on the field service reports just to list the letters sent to Russia. That would give a good idea of the numbers at least from Jehovah's people.

We Won't Forget You Your Word Endures Forever Just Around the Corner

It seems odd to have to "like" this but of course, it's the only way to express appreciation for the post.

My husband and I sent six each, 12 in all. +12 = 1293

Wow. I have read through a lot of these posts. It's all quite interesting. I've typed up several variations of my letter to the different officials since I don't want them to seem too formulaic but I'm running out of time! I want to mail them today. Anyway, I think as long as we are respectful (no 'poking the beast') as we have been asked, and show proper adherence to basic letter writing skills, spelling, grammar, paragraphing, etc., we should be fine. I saw a few posts here that dislike the idea of addressing letters to "Dear". Frankly, I don't see anything wrong with addressing any of these officials as "Dear". The use of "Dear" is simply standard business practice without any real sentiment attached to it. I highly doubt that Russian officials will be expecting people from other countries to know the idiosyncrasies of Russian forms of address, so I'm not worrying about it overly much as long as the form of address is respectful by the standards of whatever country we are from. I do love the idea of the Russian authorities being inundated by our letters. It is quite exciting to take part.

Sorry not to have replied sooner. Internet has been out. I guess I didn't read this topic closely enough. Last CD I have is the 2015. Our KH hasn't got the 2016 one yet. I can install it once we get it. It's been a long wait. Thanks, though. My husband just told me that our congregation has a copy that's being circulated around. Wish it would come our way soon!

Is it possible for someone to send me a link to download the update in English? Thank you.

Didn't notice that originally. It does say it's "likely the first in a series of Dead Sea Scroll discoveries" as there are many more caves to be searched/found.

This is pretty interesting. http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/08/world/new-dead-sea-scrolls-cave-discovered/index.html