A Personal Message...

Hello and welcome to JWR. I decided to create this website and community for a few reasons. I struggled for many years with the aftermath of being raised as a Jehovah's Witness and what that meant as I moved through my adult life. Certainly there were residual effects, some positive, many negative; all of which crept into my life and influenced many of my relationships. I found that nearly a decade after my exit the one thing that helped me the most was the support of others who had been through similar experiences. I found a great deal of comfort in being able to share my story and experiences with others after bottling them up for so many years.

There was one website in particular that I would consider as the catalyst that began my healing process. JWD or Jehovah's Witness Discussion was a wonderful community of people who supported one another in a positive way. I found the site more than 8 years after I was disfellowshipped. The community was so supportive and the people so compassionate that for the first time I began to vocalize my experiences and began letting go of my pain and frustration.

Now with JWD set to close by 2009 I wanted to find a new home, a place that held true to the same values of mutual respect, support and healing. After looking around I found nothing that really came close and so I decided that with my years of tech experience I had the ability, time and desire to create a new meeting place that would honor these values and would aim to continue the JWD legacy.

The hope is that JWD members can regroup here whether transitionally or permanently, but most importantly that individuals in the future who are beginning the exit process, or even current Jehovah's Witnesses who have questions, will have a positive community environment to come to. I can't tell you how much JWD helped me and I would like to be able to help others, even if it just means facilitating a website community as a place for them to meet.

So, thank you for visiting and I hope you find comfort here....

Sincerely,