Wow Yesidid! Needlessly agressive! Perhaps things have changed, but her step-father and mother are being provided full medical coverage (her mother has a chronic illness) and monetary support. They "retired" last year.
Are Circuit Overseers Getting Discouraged?
by metatron 54 Replies latest jw friends
-
-
yesidid
Perhaps things have changed, but her step-father and mother are being provided full medical coverage (her mother has a chronic illness) and monetary support. They "retired" last year.
Ifwhat you relate is correct, and your friend has her facts straight, it is a very, very unusual occurance. I would be interested in knowing what extenuating circumstance would have made the society make an exception for them.
I will repeat, it is not society policy and they do not as a rule support co's and do's when they leave the travelling work, unless they are taken into bethel, either to work or to the infirmary. Otherwise I can assure you that as far as Brooklyn is concerned, they are on their own. -
steve2
In New Zealand in the late 1980s, the wife of a brother who had served as a CO for several years hung herself, leaving behind a shattered husband and two very young children. She had been clinically depressed for years.
I was not active in the organization at the time, but the feedback I got was that her death was viewed somewhat sympathetically by the JWs in this country. However she was given a private service at a funeral chapel, not a kingdom hall.
My heart still aches when I think of this lovely young woman who had poured her heart and her life into being a loyal JW, but whose inner life was so filled with emotional torment that she could see no way out other than death.
-
uninformed
Confucious,
Your post was sad for me to read. So many of us have a similar story. Maybe the best thing that happened to you was the rejection.
u
-
Justitia Themis
Yesidid: If you can "assure me that as far as Brooklyn is concerned, they are on their own," I certainly will not be providing any more facts. Frankly, I do not know who you are, or what you represent, and I do not want to mess up anything for them. I can say, your unapologetic attacking tone is very JW appointed manish. If you no longer one, you might want to drop that in addition to meeting attendance.
I can say, I have known my friend for 20 years, during all of which her parents were in the circuit work.
-
XBEHERE
Anyway, one of the last straws was they appointed the guy I studied the Bible with when I was 20 - to be come an Elder BEFORE me.
Confucious this is so very typical! They probably were jealous of you and passed you over. I was appointed an elder VERY young primarily because there was a need in my congregation and I was a "Company Man" back then. I am sure some of the elders brought your name up but the more prominent ,likely the jealous ones, beat the others down. Then they just gave up and this type of complacency is very typical on BOE's these days. Idiots!
-
Trojan
Justitia and Yesidid: Hey, friends. No need to fight over this one! I still work for this "exclusive club" (called Bethel) and have some experience with the way this cases are handled. Let me say: BOTH OF YOU ARE RIGHT!
Yes! Isn't this ridiculous? I've said that already in other threads: nowadays the Society has a very erratic way of handling things! Yes, there is a policy of: NO-help whatsoever, kick-ehm-out, send ehm to the desert but at the same time some people get away with incredible things, like your friends (not that I think they don't deserve it), but often you wonder how one department takes an approach that goes against another departments "rules" or "policy".
Don't sweat over this one.
Godsthe Organizations ways are difficult to understand...Trojan.
Oh, james_woods: Loved that one! That's exactly me!!! (No, I don't have the sports car), but I like to help the kids...
So, being the young cool elder with a sports car, I got the teens off to the side for a little heads up before they were to get their butts chewed upon
dune:
Our CO hates our congregation. The rotation is 6 montths and he waited 9 months before coming back. When he DID come back, he left in the middle of the week.
Dear dune, there is nothing worser as this: our CO hates our congregation (and guys like me) and even if the rotation is every 6 months he comes back after only 3 1/2 months!!! Everybody on the BOE: when we heard he can do this! -
Justitia Themis
Trojan:
That's exactly why I do not want to give any more facts! I don't need someone calling Bethel to complain because they didn't get theirs and they heard somebody else did, thereby ruining it for everyone.
I have always thought it despicable that they were summarily dismissed...not even a gold watch. If it is changing, I am all for it.
-
Confucious
X BE HERE...You are right.
I can talk very candidly about it now.
I'm a different person now.
That kid - me... back then.
That kid was full of gusto for the "truth."
The Head Elder (and yes... there is a head elder in every congregation)... anyway the most prominent and powerful elder - the leader... was a jealous man. After all, how can it be that we were both pioneers - but one of us was a success both in the "truth" and out.
I pioneere'd just like him.
My wife pioneered just like his wife.
Only difference was I was driving a Lexus. And that drove him mad. Confucious
-
yesidid
Hi Justitia,
Now I have simmered down a bit I would like to apologize and explain why I was so upset.
First I apologize. As you pointed out I was aggressive in my posts. I should not have been, I am sorry.
If you will bear with me I will give you some background which may explain the anger I was feeling at the time.
My brother whom I shall call Gary was on the circuit work. One of the brothers in my husband’s family was a circuit and then a district overseer. I shall call him Paul. Gary went off the circuit and was given nothing, but he had good health and coped. Paul, who was never robust, but sincerely loved God and really wanted to help his fellow witnesses, kept going many years after he should have stopped. At last, when his health was completely wrecked he stepped down. Paul was so ill he could not work, and it took him many, many years to recover. His wife did what she could. He was never, at any time given even one cent by the society. Not even the gas money to get them from their assignment to their family fifteen hundred miles away. As for medical bills, the family did what they could, but we were brainwashed witnesses putting "kingdom interests first", and had little money. As a close family I lived the pain of their poverty. For many years they lived in an old trailer on others properties. Then in an old house which was later condemned. I knew there were times Paul needed medical help but could not afford it. I also know that at this present time the society's policy for ex co's and do's is, as Trojan has confirmed :"Yes, there is a policy of: NO-help whatsoever, kick-ehm-out, send ehm to the desert".
So you may now be able to understand why I was angry as I followed this conversation:
Cbew said:
No wonder so many COs and their wives are depressed and miserable. Many of them do not have anything to fall back on once they leave the work! I would be depressed and miserable too! The Society has certainly conned alot of people. I hope their day of reckoning comes all the more sooner .
Then you Justitia replied:
Dear Cbew:
Don't cry for them too much. They get pensioned and medical for the rest of their lives. My very best friend's mother and father just "retired" from the circuit work.
Cbew replied:
I am not crying to much for them Justita, just saddened because they sacrificed so much for nothing. I didn't realize their medical needs are looked after by the Society when they retire from circuit work. I suppose to receive their "benefit package" they still have to tow the organizational line.
It was obvious from Cbews reply that, from your comments, she and others would think that ALL ex co’s and do’s were looked after in comfort, by the society.
That so negates the sacrifice of my family members, whom I dearly love, and that of many other ex co’s and do’s who have paid the high price of aged poverty for sincerely doing what they thought was right.
Perhaps you now understand why I was so upset.
sincerely
yesidid