Rural Service

by buffalosrfree 12 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  buffalosrfree

  Rural service was always the most fun for me and my family. We loved it. I almost always drove out there and i mean out there from 14 to 25 miles from the hall we drove and then spent at least 1/2 of the day or all day out there in the "door to door" service. It was almost alwyas fun that is we had brothers and sisters to talk with and to speak of many subjects both society blessed and unblessed. We went to some of the facilities for food and drinks that were in the area and we took breaks as needed and always seemed to have a good time. i finally brought it up to my wife that we were the only ones to spend the money for gas and that i had no help with it. But that for some reason seemed okay although it stuck in my mind that hey dummy you are the only one paying for this trip!

  How did all of you like the rural territorities?:"??
• 

  Wolfgirl

  I preferred it to city, that's for sure. Less doors. :)
• 

  James Free

  The brothers in one cong. I was in had it all worked out. They would choose someplace very distant to go to, (after knocking a token door in town to start counting the time) travel nice and slow, and make lots of coffee stops etc. Even better, each area had a 'market day' when all the farmers would go into town in order to sell their livestock etc. and THAT IS THE DAY we would go to their farms!

  We wasted so many hours that way, but our record cards always impressed the CO, which led to our cong. being used on the platform a lot. It was a great scam and still runs to this day!
• 

  cognizant dissident

  lol James Free

  I used to be in a congregation that was full of pioneers but had very little territory. So we get car groups together to go to the downtown area of the closest big city where there were so many highrises, the local publishers could never get their territory worked. Nothing wrong with that right. Of course not. But we always had to make one call in our own territory before we left and then after we got back. That way we could count the extra hour and a half drive to the city and the hour and a half drive back home. Presto, 3 exta hours for all of us everytime we did it. It sure was easy to get those pioneer hours in. And just in case you think only the slackers did this, all the elder's wives were in on it too. Oh and lets not forget the hours and hours handwriting letters to put into not at home mailboxes the night before our time was do when we needed four more hours to make our quota! I was the only pioneer who had trouble making her time before I wised up!

  Cog
• 

  Highlander

  Yep, it's usually the elders' wives and the pioneers that a privy to such 'field service' tactics of getting your 'time' in.

  Personally I hated all aspects of preaching, but if I had a choice, it was to have an extended van packed with 10 J-Dubs working the rural territory. Oh, and ofcourse I sat in the back so

  it was hard to get out of the vehicle. On a good day of this type of rural preaching I would talk to maybe 2 people. Obviously, the less the better!
• 

  Es

  I loved it travelled up to two hours do two doors come home again heheh it was great

  es
• 

  Lapuce

  Yup it made it easier on those hours, did one door or two then jumped in to go to the farthest village in the cong, then back for a coffee, and finish off with a visit did this often, it made great hours with not much preaching......

  Lapuce
• 

  lucky

  I pioneered for awhile in a super rural cong. where the farthest away territory was something like 100 miles. Most of the roads were dirt and not very well maintained, so you needed a 4-wheel drive vehicle to get to lots of the territory. Sometimes we'd put in 10 hour days and only make it to a handful of houses. It was great. I sure wouldn't want to be doing it now, though, with the price of gas and the poor gas mileage of those vehicles.
• 

  Legolas

  Pretty much that was all that I would do was the country!..And I usually always went out with the same bunch of people and all they wanted to do was country as well!

  We wasted more time that way!

  I'm glad i'm not there now...I don't know how the people are doing it now with the price of gas!
• 

  limbogirl

  I grew up in a small town in the midwest and we spent a lot of time doing rural work. I loved it. Usually we would pack a picnic and when it was lunchtime we would find a lake or stream and spend an hour or so eating and skipping rocks. The people we encountered in the rural service seemed much friendlier -- I think they were happy to have someone to talk to. My little brother and I were always offered treats and I remember one hot summer day a woman offered us a swim in her swimming pool while she and our mom talked about the bible. Unfortunately, mom said no. I was too young to think about inflating my hours (that came later) I just remember rural witnessing as a really happy time.