Ex-Family as a young child: Not sure what happened to me

Posted by Anon on July 13, 2020 at 06:54:54

I am a teenager whose family I’m pretty sure was in The Family International from 2004-2009ish. We moved around to all these places: Syria, Iceland, Sydney and a small town in Australia a few hours from Sydney. I was pretty young so I don’t remember much but what I do remember is



• Reading all this propaganda lit. These characters were at the centre of it, this old guy (David Brandt, i think). I read some comic about him growing up in Oklahoma, and he had a daughter named Techi I think.

• keys to the kingdom or something

• this guy named David Milikan was our landlord and he seemed nice enough to 6-year-old me

• We lived with a bunch of people in Sydney including this older couple named Paul and Joy. I think I used to call them Uncle Paul and Aunty Joy,

• We always lived in big houses with all these other families and people and I was homeschooled

• lots of bible study and stuff

• we used to go to these markets in Sydney early mornings for something or other. It involved talking to people there. I remember someone saying we didn’t give out tracts any more because “people react badly to it” or something

• I don’t remember anything abusive or brainwashy but it’s so weird looking back on it

• if I acted up occasionally I’d get spanked or whatever by people other than my parents

• I was homeschooled all the way until we left it

• I read all this weird Family Lit, but I also remember watching mainstream movies like Cars and Finding Nemo and Veggietales



Sorry if this doesn’t belong here but my memory is so hazy because I was so young and my parents never talked about it or told me anything about it as I got older. I now have a completely normal life (public school, unrestricted social media, no religion at home, part time job) and nothing seems cultish/abusive in hindsight and I’m reading all these horrible things about The Family and I’m wondering what the fuck was going on around me during my early childhood. If anyone has any knowledge on what The Family was like - especially in Australia - in the mid-2000s, please tell me



Also I’d like to keep my anonymity so I really Hope my email isn’t posted publicly



Thanks

Replies to this Post:

• Re: Ex-Family as a young child: Not sure what happened to me Long time exer Aug 27, '20 04:38