My wife & I left the F two years ago after being ‘in’ for 24 years. I’m 43, married with six wonderful kids. Thankfully our kids missed allot of the hell that many kids in the F went through & are not aware of things like the victor camps, LJR, etc. Thankfully we did not witness any of the horrible things done to F kids, except for what I’d call comparatively minor mistreatment like silence restrictions, things like that. Is seems we were in the wrong place at the wrong time or the right place at the right time! I think that’s why it took us so long to leave, because we swallowed the lies & denials, that it was a very few isolated occurrences as it seemed to jive with our own experiences.
When we left we continued on in the ‘mission field’ for one year borrowing many of the F’s concepts of living by faith & witnessing, etc.
Financially things were very tough and eventually we returned to the West with our last few pennies. Since then we’ve gotten jobs, kids in school & I’m taking a degree course.
It was only after returning to the West that we had the strength to re-evaluate our faith and had to go back to ‘Is there a God?’ Bottom line right now is, we’re basically Christian but there’s allot of questions. And that’s where I hope this site can help???
I’ve looked in the archives for answers to these questions but to be honest I find it difficult to wade through the thousands of postings so I was hoping that someone might be able to point us in the right direction or share their own thoughts or experiences on the matter. Anyway, here goes.
If the F is not of God:
is it possible for it to be God’s will for you to be in it?
can God answer your prayers while in?
is it possible that He guided people while in the F about general things to do with their lives like marriage, where to live until He knew they were ready to leave?
can God heal people while in the F?
When reading some Christian books every now and then someone will say, ‘But the real meaning of this word in the original Greek or Hebrew is that so that changes the meaning of the verse. This indicates to have a true understanding of the Bible we must study Hebrew & Greek, read and translate it for ourselves then make our own mind up what it’s saying to us. Any thoughts on that?
I’m often hit with moments of despair when I look at my current situation. Getting a decent job is difficult as I left school at 16, I have little applicable experience or history from the F to offer in the ‘real world’, no investments, no savings, no pension. I might as well have left school yesterday. The difference is: I have a wife & six kids and I’m already middle aged. I feel like I’ve thrown away the best part of my life for a lie.
Anyway, any words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated. Tx so much!
Fred