Can you recall when a householder placed a seed of doubt within you ?

The wanderer

The Seeds of Doubt that were Placed by Householders in Field Service

Advertise the king and his kingdom,"Advertise", "Advertise", "Advertise." Those words still ring out loud
in my mind from time to time. This was one of those slogans that was used years ago at a district con-
vention of Jehovah's Witnesses. It was broadcast to the masses at assemblies to encourage the door
to door field service work.

Two Incidents that Left Me Questioning Myself out in Field Service

The first time I encountered an "apostate" in field service, she shook my confidence in what
I was doing out in field service. Recalling her words she uttered, " In order to be a good
Jehovah's Witness you have to think exactly like them." Firing back, my reply was " No you
don't " and then she fired back saying " I studied at one time and I was not allowed to do or
think for myself." It dawned on me that she was an "apostate" and so I wished her a nice
day and left. Her words did not leave me though.

The Second Incident Left Me Doubting as Well

The second time was when I encountered a man from Germany who was very upset with
Jehovah's Witnesses and he uttered in his very heavy German accent " Zay, break my
family up, zees Jehovah Witness." He was very animated in the discussion but he made
his point very clear through out the discussion. This incident never left me either and
created about as much doubt about what I was doing as the first incident .

What about you ?

1.) Can you recall an incident or two that made you think about what you were doing?

2.) Was there ever a time that you could recall in which the householder made a good
point but you were reluctant to give them credit for it?

3.) How many experiences did you have which made you question yourself or the organization?

Will you please post your experiences to help aid
others and expand upon this topic of conversation.

Respectfully,

The Wanderer

Ingenuous

The most effective way householders put doubts into my mind was by simply going about their business.

Being good people who were simply happy with their lives - and I was supposed to judge them as evil for behaving better than half the "Friends" in the congregation?

Being too tired to talk because they worked nights or had little ones - and I was supposed to believe these people would die for not listening to my stumbling presentation?

Being too afraid of JWs to talk, though they clearly were sorry to turn me down - and I was supposed to "shake the dust from my feet" when they were acting like I likely would in the same circumstances?

Being more well-spoken than the Theocratic Ministry School Overseer - and I was supposed to invite them to my Hall where good grammar and tasteful illustrations were optional?

These weren't shocking, in-your-face types of things, and I often put my doubts "on the shelf" or "waited for Jehovah." But there were living examples that often haunted me and made me wonder.

alamb

So funny you should bring this up...I was telling someone of this yesterday.

I was working unassigned territory in South Dakota on the Lakota Sioux reservation. It was the last door of the day and I volunteered. The houses were miles apart and the men wouldn't talk to me because I was a woman trying to explain God...which was an insult to them.

So I knock on the door and here somes this HUGE man who fold his arms. I go into my cheap little talk about sharing hope from the Bible...yada yada. He says he must listen to me and then I should listen to him.

I offered the latest mags and that was it. He left and came back with a peace pipe. From it hung 6 feet of tied rags. In the rags were what looked like leather strips. He took off his shirt and his entire chest was covered in scars...from the hooks.....that hung him from the trees...and the leather was the skin of all his forefathers back generations. He told me this was his faith and who he was. And he had this deep peace about him and in his face which made my attempt to explain Jehovah/God/Life to him a joke.

I thanked him and left with my tail between my legs, sort o' speak. I have to go thank him one of these days for cracking the bowl my mind lived in.

chiddy

We had a road in the territory not worked much ,so me and this elder brilliant in F/S had an answer for anything, so we came to this big house at the end of the road and there seemed to be loads of people in the house when a guy opened the door. Well after about 15 mins of the usual presentation he says that this house is a house only for born again christians but they were all Indian , strange, so we got on the usual ping pong with the trinity etc, and after about half an hour he looked straight at me and said "I will pray for you" .Well I never forgot that comment and after that it was slowly down hill for me in the wts, he's prayer was answered never really got into evangelcal chrisianity, but I never forgot that day.

Sheri

While in service a couple of times I spoke with a householder that seemed to have so much love for God and Jesus that it made me question why I did not feel the same feelings and it was not all "praise the lord", but earnest heartwarming love and faith in God along with a sense of peace. I even asked one of the pioneer sisters why did these few I came accross seem to have more love and peace than I did. I asked if there was something wrong with my faith in God. She assured me there wasn't and the others were still misguided.

I now have more love and peace within me and a greater understanding and love for Jesus. I do not feel that I will ever belong to an organized religion but periodically do attend various services but most content in my own personal studies and research.

So it was the sincere feelings of love expressed toward God and especially Jesus. Also, since I did not isolate myself from worldly workmates I met and formed friendship with good people, who did good things for other people without conditional love.

Peace & Love,

Sheril

penny2

I was in my late teens. I was with my dad and he was having a discussion with a Christadelphian on some points of difference. The funny thing was, when I listened to my dad, he sounded reasonable - when I listened to the Christadelphian, she sounded reasonable. That was confusing. But I put it aside...

ithinkisee

My wife and I met a pastor at the door the year we were married. He calmly set us down and did some "seed-planting", methodically showing me and my wife how the New World Translation twisted texts to fit their doctrine by blatantly adding to scripture (or leaving stuff out). He did a lot of A/B comparisons since he had his bible and we had ours and he showed us how the NWT was rendering the EXACT SAME WORD differently in different places - even though the context was exactly the same.

His final words to me were - "Even if you don't listen to ANYTHING I tell you, listen to this - PLEASE go back and study the original Greek."

The next year or so I read a few books about translations and original Greek that stuck with me to this day.

-ithinkisee

fullofdoubtnow

It only really happened to me once, about 8 years ago. This guy's mum and dad had been jws, having joined in the flood of new converts just before 1975. He had'nt joined at the time, although he was living at home with them, and they had left the religion in 1977. He remembered how disappointed they were when nothing happened in 1975, and how the wts had tried to deny ever saying the end would come then, and how dishonest he considered the wts for that.

I had joined well after 1975 myself, and of course just accepted what my study conductor had said about it, but this man had a differrent version of events, so I asked an elder who I knew had been a jw in 1975, but he just gave me the "official line", and a wt refernce to check it, and unfortunately I just accepted his word on the matter.

greendawn

It was when someone told me "why doesn't the multibillion dollar WTS help widows and orphans or other needy JWs despite its fabulous wealth?" That did make me wonder if they did it it would be a much more effective way of witnessing to the world than knocking on thousands of doors. Then why doesn't the world's only true religion abide by a basic Christian principle?

XJW4EVR

Can I ever! I was about 15 or 16 and out in service in a Denver suburb. My mom and I were up in Denver with my father, who was getting trained as an instructor for the elders' school, I forget the correct name). We, mom & I, went out one morning, and I had the next door. Behind that door was a pastor's wife that knew what to say and what not to say. She basic questioned the authority of the WT, and got me to question it to. I never verbalized the thoughts, but they were there. That encounter at the door started my on the 8 year jopurney out of the WTS, and I thank God everyday for that lady.