by Room 215 28 Replies latest jw friends
Has anyone observed that the Witnessing groups are seldom seen in recent times?
There was a time when you couldn't fail to see a witnessing group out somewhere in your area on Saturday morning or Sunday, but it's many months since Ozzie has seen a group out.
Come on you guys, when are you gonna come and see me in the highlands?
Cheers,
Ozzie
"It's better to light a candle than to curse the darkness."
Anonymous
This is all true. I knew a handful of JWs who were enthusiastic about the FS. The "Pioneer Shuffle" in the UK area I lived in was termed the the "Pioneer Plod". Much of UK door-to-door work in cities and large towns is done on foot. We'd meet for FS at a home and then walk to the territory. We'd approach someone on the street as soon as possible with a mag to get an immediate "No", start the clock and then walk for 30 minutes to start the real "work". With leaving to do "return visits" after half an hour you spend the next 2 hours walking all over the neighborhood.
This is an effective ministry. Meet 3 people in first hour and manage one 30 second presentation of the latest mags. Then engage in return visit activity for next hour and find one person home who says there not interested in any more mags. The result, you feel good because you did it, you looked good because you set the lead and can have "freedom of speech" when bragging about the FS at Service Meetings.
The FS serves little purpose as an education tool. The WTS makes lots of money because "publishers" buy the magazines. Most of the magazines are not placed but end up as trash. Those that are placed likely become immediate trash because the householder took them to be polite. Ordinary congregation members keep doing it because this is how they are controlled.
A billion hours a year are spent like this. What a colossal waste of time.
Thirdson
'To avoid criticism, say nothing, do nothing, be nothing'
There was a pioneer in one of my congs. who was a real sanctimonious prat. To really annoy him, me and another brother would always stop and INSIST that we gave him a lift to the top of the 3 mile hill he was walking very slowly up, knowing full well that this would totally ruin his plan of getting 2 1/2 hours in. He would come up with all sorts of reasons why he wanted to walk but we would never take no for an answer! It was obvious after a few times what we were doing,but he could never admit to what he was doing, which used to rile him even more!!
Greetings All,
Funny this thread should come up.
Whilst running errands yesterday,I saw many JW's doing streetwork(for the 1st time in quite a while) all over the place.
I was not surprised ,due to recent events,that they would come out and prey upon peoples vulnerabilities and emotions.
And of course,,,,ALL were doing that 'pioneer shuffle' down the various streets.
I observed for a bit. No one approached and stopped them,and they didn't seem at all eager to approach anyone. Tho a few had this 'yearning look' in their eyes that said,"Please talk to me'. They just gave a couple of drunks a tract. Just 'easy time'......luv to all,Tina
Carl Sagan on balancing openness to new ideas with skeptical scrutiny..."if you are open to the point of gullibility and have not an ounce of skeptical sense-you cannot distinguish useful ideas from worthless ones."
Ha ha, this is hilarious. Nothing changes. My years of pioneering were spent driving from one end of our territory to the other (and we were lucky to have a HUGE territory - about a hour from end to end). Of course, you HAD TO stop and leave a mag/tract w/ someone in town to 'start' your time. Those were the rules you know. Or better yet, some of the pioneers would call a 'study' in the early morning, then get ready/dressed/etc for the FS meeting, all the while counting the entire time since they had 'started' w/ the call. Leave it to the pioneers to 'take the lead' in inventing ways to count time! Loved those 10-12 hour days in late summer trying to make up the year's time...
I actually know a guy who tried to be holier than the pope: he only counted the minutes spent talking at doors that actually went open AND where it was his turn to do the presentation. I never understood how he ever managed to turn in at least 1 hour.
I really enjoyed explaining to him how I started the meter whenever I opened my eyes on sat/sun-morning, carefully argumenting that the time spent on the toilet, brushing teeth, having coffee, travel, etc. all had to be seen as an essential part of the holy service, without which I'd probably still be snoring in my bunk.
I realise this is an 'old' thread, but with a toddler and a newborn, I have to grab my browsing time when I can, and this topic brought back lots of memories.
I pioneered for years and was probably guilty of a number of time-stretching ploys. I never really enjoyed field service, though I did get some personal satisfaction in chalking up the hours every month (I'm an achievement-oriented, A-type personality). People who got out and pounded on doors out of altruistic love for their fellow humans were, in my opinion, VERY few and far between--there were only a handful in my cong of 150. I tried to do it out of love, but it was just a hard slog. I have to face the sorry truth that I did it because I got brownie points and it made me look good to others in the cong, not because I really believed that I was saving lives. I did it because I felt I HAD to. It was almost a relief when I was turned away--I had at least participated in the all-important 'separating work'. The funny thing is, with all my years of pioneering, the only person I 'brought into the truth' was my now ex-husband, who basically converted in order to marry me. Shows you just how effective that door-to-door work is.
I still (15 years later) have dreams (nightmares?) that I'm expected to put a certain number of hours in each month and (oh my God) I've not even read the magazines yet!! (Kind of like dreaming about being naked in your high school classroom-arghhh.)
On another note, I like this board, but I wish I had found it sooner. The topics seem to have moved away somewhat from jw issues. I've tried to go back through some of the 400+ !! pages of threads, but it is a daunting task. That said, I do enjoy the variety of opinions expressed and hope to contribute a little more instead of just lurking.
to all former pioneer bros.......
how painful was it to lead the group everday
trying to think of something new to say....................ouch
I never realised how much pioneers 'took the piss' with their hours, even when I Aux'd!
Of course, I did what everyone else did it, but had this guilt complex about it in the three or four months I reg Aux'd.
Nice to know I was 'normal' LOL!
Keep on rocking in the free world...
Ooooh, yeah.....pioneer memories......
I just about wrote the book on how to constructively kill some time. Since I was the only bro-man hangin' with the sistas, i'd start my time right before I took the group out. You know, offering the magazines in front of the KH to passerby or witnessing to dead roadkill on the side of the road.
Once we got to the territory, you drop the sistas off and just ride around for a good 20 minutes to survey the land, make sure peeps were working the right doors, catch that nice DJ mix on the radio. Got out of car go up to home (where you know no one's home) and stand at the door for 10 minutes to make sure you're giving that potential sheep every opportunity to hear the good news.
In between doors, complement sister so-and-so on that god-ugly hat she's wearing, linger in convo, get in the car, go to the next street, drive down the street, check out that vicious looking poodle chained to the fence at the end of the block, go back and warn friends not to work the home of the vicious looking poodle chained to the fence, ride around some more, park, listen to that slammin' song that just came on the radio while looking like I'm prepping my service bag, get out of car, go up to house, press doorbell in gingerly (where it looks like you're pressing it, but in reality barely touching it), wait 10 minutes come off of door, end of territory, suggest bible studies and R.V.'s to group, go to lunch at McDonald's......
I really didn't learn the art of riding around the territory to kill time until I really started working with a lotta the elders early in my pioneer career. You can just ride all around and talk about anything AND COUNT THE TIME.......
