Who Pioneered?

sass_my_frass

My two sisters did the right thing, pioneering straight out of school, janitoring to pay for the petrol (one didn't even bother with her final year of school). It was this kind of fine example that got me guilt-tripped into auxiliary pioneering just after getting baptised at age 20. I only lasted six months; I took a holiday in Queensland and returned not knowing much more about life but at least that it's bigger than my little congregation. I despised the field service, I dreaded the daily schedule and every morning I was on my way out there was this awful countdown from the alarm going off to the first door opening, knowing that it's just a big setup to another depressing humiliation. One Saturday morning for the first time in three years I didn't get up to start the day in field service group in the lounge room. It felt so good that I never did it again, and I was instantly inactive.

What pushed you in, and then pushed you out?

Effervescent

I Aux. Pioneered every summer from the time I was about 14. (I don't specifically remember what age) I did it because I liked the praise I got from doing it, and was desperate for love and approval. Like you I hated every single second of it. I would wake up in the morning with a pit in the bottom of my stomach that wouldn't go away until after the last door was knocked on.

The summer between my Junior and Senior year in HS was my last time doing it. I left home and left all that garbage behind and couldn't be happier about it!!!

Calliope

a friend of mine gave a talk at a circuit assembly. it "moved" me.

so the following day i drove over to some elders house and gave him my application.

all the while, i was smoking pot while pioneering...

i finally quit when i realized i couldn't reconcile the 2.

quit right before the pioneer school. and when they asked why. i told them i smoked - so i got reproved.

cal.

sass_my_frass

Aaaaw, but you didn't take advantage of the excellent privilege of attending the Pioneer School?

Mysterious

I never did. I said I would sometimes to get people off my back but in the end I left the organization and went to college instead. I kept getting pressured to do it in the summer but Im not sure how I evaded it for so long. Special service month, or whatever it's called, mom tried to make a push for me to do evening/weekend witnessing with her but it never came to that.

Another girl here pioneered right out of high school, she might still be doing it for all I know. She works part time for minimum wage in a local store. Another girl pioneered while she was finishing high school by homeschool, she must be 27 or so by now and I'm not sure if she's gradded yet. She works part time for her father's janitorial company. There were others but I didn't know them as well.

darth frosty

I did, I had Bethel in my head as a career so I pioneered out of high school. I remember one time at a DC I met this sister who was also pioneering and she said she always thought it would be great for a male and female pioneer to marry and support each other in their ministry. Thankfully I didn't take her up on her offer, should have seen the BS then.

fullofdoubtnow

I was a regular pioneer from September 1984 until March 1990. I had to give it up then because off ill - health. I sort of enjoyed the ministry, I can't say I ever loved it really. I studied with a couple of pioneers, and used to love to hear their stories of their experiences, always positive of course, and made it my goal once I was baptised.

When I first quit pioneering, the elders were good about it, but they assumed I'd go back to it when I recovered, but I knew that this wasn't going to happen. I felt much better once I'd left that gruelling schedule behind me, and had no real desire to take it up again, though I did auxillary occasionally. The elders did pressure me to go back to regular pioneering, but I kept saying no, and eventually they left me alone, though I was never as well thought of by some of them afterwards.

Black Sheep

I despised the field service, I dreaded the daily schedule and every morning I was on my way out there was this awful countdown from the alarm going off to the first door opening, knowing that it's just a big setup to another depressing humiliation.

SNAP.

I didn't do a day's preachin' in QLD. I was still a believer (read: mentally unstable), but I didn't sell MuckTowers and Asleeps and didn't make any converts. ( Praise the Lord!!!!)

I could claim that fear of water was an excuse for my not getting baptised, but that would be lying.

I was having much more fun learning how to play darts with my tutor, Jimmy Wonga, now deceased, God bless him.

I very much regret that my parents, in their pioneering fervor, stole the innocence of childhood from me while spreading their Watchtower virus in virgin territory.

I have a child that is following my parent's example and that really hurts.

I fear for the children of their converts.

There are enough Black Sheeps in the world already.

I am lucky that they still talk to me because I was never baptised, but I am still balancing on that very thin wire that ex/exiting-JWs know so well.

drip

freedomlover

I did.

right out of High School.

I kind of liked it though because all of my friends were pioneering also. we would go out in service but then usually we would end up at the pool hall shooting pool, or the movies or something like that.

I felt pretty good pioneering because I finally got some approval from my parents, and the elders, and it made me feel valuable for the first time in my life. The schedule was brutal though and I burned myself out before I quit.

It's so nice to not have to do that anymore......

:)

purplesofa

my Mom signed up to be on the pioneer list starting in Sept........she mentioned it when my brother committed suicide a few weeks ago.......like his suicide was supposed to discourage her from pioneering. Or possibly her pioneering was the cause of such a disaster. Who knows?

I am not impressed with pioneering like I once was............some of the biggest chumps have circumstances that allow them to pioneer and they walk around all puffed up with some kind of false OKness..........

purps

Who Pioneered?

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