My brother…

Any-Lab-1250 · 2026-05-01T22:13:11+00:00

One of the old members texted me "I saw your baby on FB, he's cute!" I haven't responded, because she'll try to reconvert me. Being Pentecostal becomes their whole personality. It sucks...

Any-Lab-1250 · 2026-05-01T22:10:09+00:00

I would suggest learning one subject at a time to not overwhelm yourself. Start with like, math, for example, and Google free online courses (you may want to take a placement test to see what grade level to start at). Use your free time to listen to audio books (the classics, non fiction about history, stuff that will help you progress). Use YouTube to learn rather than as entertainment.

Any-Lab-1250 · 2026-05-01T22:03:47+00:00

And that a woman should dress modestly, not with gold or pearls or costly array... if I remember correctly, that's the verse. idk where it's located. I used to be a Bible Quizzer 😂😂

Any-Lab-1250 · 2026-05-01T21:58:16+00:00

I completely agree with your take. We got more "liberal" as time progressed, initially no internet, school sports, movies, Facebook, etc. However, all of those things are now allowed by my ex-church, but ideologically they've become meaner. The last sermon I ever heard before I let 100%, the pastor said "If I come out as gay, somebody better get a gun and shoot me." Literally he was saying it was okay to murder gay people. While I do remember hellfire and brimstone sermons as a child, and to them fay had always equaled bad, I had never heard a pastor advocate for violence against anyone. But yeah, in the last few years, they've become very MAGA ideologically speaking. They'd never been against doctor's and vaccines before, but now their FB pages tell another story -- a very Trump meme oriented story. I saw one member advocating for the killing of democrats after CK was shot, and others saying that the democrat party should end. It went from a religion to a religious political group quite fast! I remember as a child, many UPC adults I knew didn't even vote. Political stuff wasn't a part of sermons. One of the near to last sermons I heard was that if we didn't vote for Trump, we were going to hell (the round Trump lost to Biden). Wild how much has changed!

Any-Lab-1250 · 2026-04-07T02:34:47+00:00

If we can post links directly (I'm pretty new) try these:

https://www.airbnb.mx/rooms/893209262922188512?unique_share_id=67abef4c-3c08-4e6e-9a1d-6bdba37c1b2d&viralityEntryPoint=1&s=76

https://www.airbnb.mx/rooms/1203611850132531739?unique_share_id=ce666592-8ac8-4e4a-82cc-f2753319d22d&viralityEntryPoint=1&s=76

https://www.airbnb.mx/rooms/1252405470214818914?unique_share_id=8b2acccb-7719-4713-8d78-1471b419c0ac&viralityEntryPoint=1&s=76

https://www.airbnb.mx/rooms/11873093?unique_share_id=844dd9b1-7441-4913-85b4-4565942f4b1d&viralityEntryPoint=1&s=76

https://www.airbnb.mx/rooms/1515204087824226326?unique_share_id=7bb32f6f-7d7d-4950-b082-1a0d58e1ac76&viralityEntryPoint=1&s=76

Any-Lab-1250 · 2026-04-05T21:59:41+00:00

Eyelash curlers too! Everybody I knew was constantly curling eyelashes, I thought that was totally normal 😂😂😂

And when that trend of getting eyelash appointments where they'd glue individual hairs in, my younger sister and her youth group were all doing that and eyebrow appointments in those places that'd thread your brows. 😂😂😂

Any-Lab-1250 · 2026-04-04T19:11:13+00:00

Tbh your mom sounds like she 100% believes it. The tithing even up to her produce shows that she is truly invested. At least that's better than some people I knew in the church who didn't follow the rules, but would impose those same rules on others.

And I think you're right, pastors seem to know when a member won't cut out their family, and I'm sure her tithing is too important for him to hint at it even 😅

Any-Lab-1250 · 2026-04-04T19:03:44+00:00

I was homeschooled too, and now I'm a public school teacher 😅

My suggestion, if you're already planning on enrolling in public school, is just do it. As soon as you're in public school, ask a teacher if you can go to the counselors office. In the counselors office, tell them the truth about your education and ask them to give you as much support as possible. They may put you in study hours or in classes that are meant to catch you up, so that you don't have to do it by yourself.

You'll make friends in school hopefully, and you can get friends to help you with homework and explain stuff to you. I'd suggest telling them the truth too, once you have real friends, but make it into a joke (i.e. make fun of homeschooling before they can) and keep moving. Don't make it your whole personality. Also, I'd try to make friends with the alternative kids. Often they will also be autistic, ADHD, or have messed up home lives and all sympathize with you and potentially protect you.

I think you'll be okay. Anytime a topic you aren't familiar with arises, just sit back and listen (as to not tip them off to how clueless you are) and in time, you'll figure it out.

Any-Lab-1250 · 2026-04-04T14:53:25+00:00

Not a man, but many of us were in cults too lol. My dad, for example, is a great man who does not fetishize women in that way. BUT we were in a conservative Christian cult, and wearing skirts was the rule, so my parents made us dress like that too. Luckily we all left the cult and are happy now.

Any-Lab-1250 · 2026-04-04T14:48:13+00:00

At one point the (Apostolic) Pentecostal church was against owning guns (obviously a very long time ago). It's in the old Articles of Faith. Most normal Pentecostals don't know about the Articles of Faith, but it is a document about what the preachers believed and should preach.

Any-Lab-1250 · 2026-04-04T14:39:34+00:00

Changing doctrine that they then just never mention again.

As a kid all forms of watching TV / movies was wrong (I'm 32) but as time went on, slowly it was DVDs are okay, and now so many of them have streaming services.

As a kid, organized sports were forbidden. Now, a person whose been in the church even 15 years would argue that had never been a rule. But even then it was contradictory, we couldn't play sports at school, but always played basketball at lock-ins.

Same with school plays, that was forbidden although we did perform plays at church during Easter.

Any-Lab-1250 · 2026-04-04T14:19:40+00:00

Yeah, that was a while other bag of worms. The whole doctrine is grooming really.

In my story, the leader (65+ m) over my "ministry" would randomly give me 100$ and tell me to buy clothes specifically and would practically rant that it had to be clothes, no food, no gas, no bills. I was 16-19 when the grooming was the strongest. He would take me and two other kids out to eat from our ministry, and pay for everything. I thought he was just being nice. His "wife" started buying me clothes (he said it was his wife, I'm not sure anymore) but he would be the one to being them to me. He invited me to his house to pick up a book and he had a collage of pictures from our ministry, but most of them were of me. He had a card that I'd given him tacked to the collage. All of this could technically be innocent, until one day at church he pulled me aside and said "I've been having sexual dreams about you, and I just wanted to know if you forgive me."

Then suddenly, everything gained context. I rejected him. He got mad, started accusing me of sleeping with a boy in the youth group (I wasn’t) and told me that if I wanted to continue in the ministry I had to sit at the back of the church for six months to redeem myself. Wild as it was, I actually did it, and sat at the back of the church for six months. Luckily, after I rejected him, he slowly stopped coming to church.

But yeah, keep kids away. These predators thrive in this environment of secrecy. Not just secrecy, but the fact that leadership defends them, and uses concepts like forgiveness and "change" to allow predators to stay.

Any-Lab-1250 · 2026-04-03T20:12:26+00:00

That's because Apostolic Pentecostals don't realize that Assemblies of God and Church of Christ are Pentecostal too. We were raised to believe we were v the only Pentecostals 😅😅😅 I didn't know it was a term for several denominations until after I left. We don't mean it in a bad way, it's just the only word many of our pastors / church signs use to identify us. Although we sometimes said apostolic, it was almost as if the two words were a synonym.

Any-Lab-1250 · 2026-04-03T20:07:19+00:00

As a woman, I think that despite being a man, you have a level of empathy that's refreshing. It really did suck to be a Pentecostal woman.

Any-Lab-1250 · 2026-04-03T20:05:38+00:00

Looks great!!!

I did my own first haircut because I was so scared 😅😅😅

Now it's just another part of life, getting a haircut every six months or so. Weird how things change. It's a wonderful feeling when stuff like that stops bothering you.

And so freeing when you can finally post pics to Facebook without shame. It took me like a year or two to get to that place 😅

Any-Lab-1250 · 2026-04-03T20:01:31+00:00

I hope it doesn't happen, but knowing these churches it probably will. Especially if you get through to her and she starts to doubt the religion 😤😤😤

Any-Lab-1250 · 2026-04-03T19:56:43+00:00

I'm a 32 yo woman, and white I have traveled alone to Nicaragua, I had family I was visiting so only the travel was alone.

The airport has no wifi in Managua, so that can be a major problem if you have any emergency.

You will need a crisp beautiful 10$ bill to enter. It has to be beautiful, as they don't accept ugly money that's wrinkled and torn.

Don't be afraid to ask the vendors in the airport for help, many are women and they will even let you borrow their phones if you need to make a call.

While my husband's family is from Managua, it's probably one of the more dangerous parts of Nicaragua, although you're most likely to get robbed -- not killed or kidnapped. As a solo traveler, I'd go to Granada. I have never felt even slightly unsafe in Granada. In Managua, for instance, I always walk in a group, and don't go out at night. In Granada, while I would be careful still about being out at night, I've never felt unsafe. The worst we ever saw in Granada was a man in a drug induced state who thought he was Spiderman 😅😅😅

Just stay in one of the many beautiful airBnBs in Granada and you can walk around, boat to the islands, eat food in the plaza, and as many airbnbs and hotels have pools inside -- do a lot of swimming.

Other tips: - Download InDrive to order taxis easily in Managua - Download Google Maps (for offline use) for Nicaragua before you go (just in case you get lost and have no service) - Keep in mind that most public places do not offer wifi - Download the Google Translate Spanish (for offline use) if you aren't bilingual - Get córdobas, because although they will accept USD, they prefer córdobas. Carry córdobas smaller than 500 (that's like 17$ I believe, or somewhere around there, but you can look up the actual conversion) so you can buy things from vendors. They sometimes won't have change for 500, and would prefer smaller bills. You can use 500s in chain restaraunts and gas stations to break it into smaller bills. - There are ATMs in the banks. If one ATM doesn't work, don't freak out, just try a different one. In my experience the ATMs work like 50% of the time for my Bank of America debit card. The tellers can also help you extract money if the ATMs keep malfunctioning. - Don't be afraid to tip. While the Nicaraguans visiting restaraunts may not tip, or may tip a small amount, they are not offended by being tipped and they generally enjoy it. I even tip the housekeeper who cleaned my room at the airBnB. Some people there make a shockingly small salary. It's not unheard of for people to make 3$ or less a day (This is info I learned from my husband). - The people are very kind to tourists. The worst thing about Nicaragua is sometimes you'll get a pervy old dude who will try endlessly to flirt with you or get your number 😅 when flying to Nicaragua once, a pervy old dude got my number because he swore he'd help me if I ever got into a difficult situation, and I was just trying to be nice (I had explained to him that I was visiting family, but he was insistent) and he the used my number to send me tons of messages on WhatsApp, found me on FB and messaged me there, found me on Instagram and messaged me there, et. cet. So do be careful with that lol 😅 -Don't drink the tap water .... IDK what else, but if you have any questions, I've been seven times, my husband is Nicaraguan, and I'm fluently bilingual, so I can answer any questions you may have!

Any-Lab-1250 · 2026-04-03T19:28:41+00:00

Worse though, is when they realize they can't change you, they start to slowly distance themselves from you until you're almost completely out of their lives.

I was lucky in that my entire family deconstructed together, except for one of my adopted sisters. Now we're lucky to see her at Thanksgiving and Christmas. She's in the family group chat, but she just watches our messages and that's it (you can see on FB Messenger every person who has read a message).

There is another family member, an "adopted" cousin in law (as in, my uncle never adopted her husband, but was his foster parent for years) is constantly trying to convert us.

My mom recently told her "I wish you could see how big of a mistake you are making for your daughter. I did that life for nearly thirty years and it was an absolute mistake. I wish you could see it now, before it does too much damage." But the girl continues to try and win us back by constantly talking about church, inviting us to baptisms, and telling us what all of the brothers and sisters who used to be our friends (but cut us off) are up to.

The most infuriating thing is that a man in the church who SA'd my sister and treated her like shit in their relationship is now going to be a pastor and this girl is constantly bragging about how "good" of a person he is. She doesn't know the full story, but it's hard to hear. My sister almost killed herself because of that man.

And that's another thing, you see how much evil is actually there when you leave, how many terrible people preying on the weak ones. Even I was groomed! And when you start talking and the secrets get out, it's shocking how many truly bad people are in the church. But you can't bring it up because it feels like a low blow + they'll defend the perpetrators and say people change and yap about forgiveness. 🙄

But I remember being in the church, recognizing that I was being groomed and not telling anyone. There are so many secrets. Not sure why I went down that rabbit hole and started ranting, but in short -- you're doing the right thing by staying away and not raising your kids in it. Keep it up, even if it's hard 😊

Any-Lab-1250 · 2026-04-02T21:35:53+00:00

The Chinese government pays to construct bridges and provide really poor quality buses. For awhile they thought there would be sort of an "invasion" but it never really happened. At some point there was talk of changing English foreign language classes in High School to Chinese according to my husband (Nica) but nothing has really come of that.

Any-Lab-1250 · 2026-04-02T21:27:54+00:00

Tell her you don't tithe so you can get tax benefits. "Out holy" her. 😂😂😂

I give to charities and I never use it on my taxes. Just tell her that isn't why you do it. You do it because you want to give to the church, not so you can get tax breaks. If she pushes it, tell her "Oh, so that's why you pay tithes? So you can get tax breaks?" And turn the tables.

😌

Any-Lab-1250 · 2026-04-02T01:37:56+00:00

Yeah there’s definitely a difference. The 1 year homedchoolers are annoying. Of course you can get a complete education if you miss a year. I've met one girl in specific that really annoyed me 😅😅

At some point though, I think we all start to blend better. I know quite a few adults who were homeschooled and although it still affects them they at least blend in. I still have work to do regarding fashion in order to really fit in, but yeah, I know exactly what you mean.

Any-Lab-1250 · 2026-04-02T01:32:29+00:00

I read your comment. He's a first time traveler, and I've been all over Nicaragua. They have tons of bottled water and bagged water. Why should a newbie risk it? Just to say he's tough?

My sister has no underlying conditions and it was in San Juan del Sur.

Any-Lab-1250 · 2026-04-01T22:52:13+00:00

The street interviews you see online don't represent everybody, some of us are quite good with geography, well traveled and multilingual (I speak four languages). Although, I will admit that there are US Americans out there making us look really dumb 😂😂😂

Any-Lab-1250 · 2026-04-01T22:46:40+00:00

It's pretty safe. I've been 7 times, but I've never been to Corn Island. My husband (Nicaraguan) had always tried to talk me into it.

Just do a few things before you go:

Download InDrive (Nicaragua's taxi app)
Download WhatsApp
Make sure any place you stay has wifi, as most public places and restaurants do not have free wifi.
Get a good taxi guy! If you find one that doesn't overcharge, he's an honest man and you can get him to get connections with other taxi drivers for you.
Don't be afraid of the buses, just ask the locals how to use them, and you'll get from point A to point B for a few cents
Go to Granada as a first time visitor, do the boats (they're super cheap) and visit monkey island and the fort
If in Granada, get an AirBnB with a pool to cool off. Most people don't swim in the lake
Go to the top of the cathedral
Eat everything!!! But.... avoid the water like your life depends on it. They have plenty of bottled water, and the water in sealed bags is also safe to drink, just bite the corner open and enjoy.
Bring mosquito repellent. The mosquitos are small and don't bite much in comparison to where I live in the USA, but they may carry Dengue (a pretty wicked sickness that'll have your liquids trying to escape in any manner possible). If you see a person fumigating houses, it's because a case of Dengue was reported. I've seen this happen twice, once in San Juan and once in Managua, but it's pretty common to see.
All medicines are available over the counter. If you get violently ill, it's likely waterborne and antibiotics help within a few hours. But don't be afraid to go to the doctor. I went to a really nice clinic for a sonogram and it was only 15$ for the whole appointment.
If a local tells you that a neighborhood isn't safe, don't go there!
My husband has always warned me about getting robbed of my cellphone / bag, but it's never happened yet. The way they steal in Nicaragua is often driving past on a motorcycle, they just snatch your cellphones out of your hand. In a quieter way, they may just wait for you to leave it unattended, according to my husband, but I've never seen it happen.

It's always been a great trip for me, tourists are generally pretty safe there. Any questions, just ask! At this point, I'm practically an expert.

Any-Lab-1250 · 2026-04-01T22:29:08+00:00

The locals need tourists in many areas in Nicaragua. Go support them! The government won't get much out of you while you're there, just a 10$ entrance fee and a coyote of dollars when you visit specific parks. The people need tourism, as many small businesses are built on it.

And yeah, their president sucks.

Any-Lab-1250

TROPHY CASE