We used to go out on Christmas day every year. There is a large Muslim community in our territory, and they don't really celebrate it anyway, so the thought was we might contact them. I can't remember much success though.
Did you ever preach door to door on a Christmas day?
by JH 25 Replies latest jw friends
-
-
Robert K Stock
I took a lot of heat from other Witnesses but I thought we would not get a hearing ear on Christmas.
I always refused to go door to door on Christmas Day.
-
rebel8
I went in FS on one major holiday, can't remember which. I found many people at home and willing to listen to our presentation. I quickly realized they were no more interested than they were usually, they were just being nice. I also realized within maybe an hour that we were being terribly rude by disturbing people on their special day and telling them their special day was evil. I never did holiday FS again after that.
-
bailabklyn
That was the "The Greatest Man" book day. Yeah, I'm guilty of it.
-
greendawn
It would be too silly and fanatical to go preaching to people on Xmas day, I never did. They wouldn't want their celebrations interrupted.
-
willyloman
It would be too silly and fanatical to go preaching to people on Xmas day
That's how I felt, too, even though I let myself get talked (guilted) into it once. And it wasn't the worst morning I ever had in service; people were generally friendly, happy, but busy
Householder: "Listen, we're kind of busy here this morning, got a house full of company, but thanks for stopping by. Merry Christmas!"
Me: "Uh, thank you."
One guy looked us up and down and said, "Take a day off," and closed the door (but not too hard).
One man insisted we come into his living room. He offered us some coffee, which we took, and soon we were seated on his couch watching a little boy play with newly opened toys in front of the Xmas tree. It was all kind of surreal. The man told us he was divorced and this was the first year he had gotten to have his son on Christmas day. I realized he was all alone, except for his son. It was apparently a lonely holiday for him. Of course, all that did was confirm for me that Christmas was nothing special.
I feel differently now, of course.
The bottom line was, after I got home, there was no sense of satisfaction whatsoever. With the one exception, where I think we provided a lonely man with some adult company for a few minutes, it just wasn't productive. It felt even more awkward that FS on any given Saturday. After that, I made it a point to always be busy on Christmas day and I never went out on that day.
But every congo I was ever in at least paid lip service to Xmas service. The KM always mentioned it under announcements ("announce plans for holiday witnessing"). I'm told very few dubs showed up.
-
zagor
Oh boy, Yes.
I was in Europe on a holiday at the time. In this weird occasion we as a congregation went downtown to do "street witnessing" i.e. holding mags. Entire congregation had to do it, there were like 80 of us on different corners. The funny thing was that there were more of us than people passing by, something like 7-10 to one person passing by. It was one of the most embarrassing experiences I've had as a dub. It all looked like a protest against humanity and civilization. -
Darth Yhwh
If the holiday fell on a Saturday or Sunday you better believe that JW's in my congregation were going out. Although I know that I went out on X-mas my most memorable holiday FS event was on Thanksgiving. I can remember being at this womans side door and the "brother" I was with was preaching to her while she stood there with kitchen gloves on holding a turkey baster. She looked so funny to me then.
Now as an adult with a family of my own and having lived the Thanksgiving experience for several years I can appreciate the patience that this woman displayed with us. If that was me and JW's showed up at my door in the middle of prepairing for a big family dinner I very well could physically throw them off my poarch under all the pressure.
-
LDH
LOL @ Baila and other who did The Greatest Man book day. I did too.
-
justicehope
I enjoyed going out in service Xmas day--but never before 11:00 A.M. I always felt it's a great day to talk about Jesus and what his life meant for us. I would never go out on New Years day. I felt that was rude and invasive. Let our neighbors have an opportunity to sleep in after partying late.