Street Corner "Witnessing"

by Darth Yhwh 38 Replies latest jw experiences

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  Jim_TX

  Not the same as 'street corner witnessing', perhaps but...

  I also remember that there was a big deal 'bus stop' witnessing that went on. Here's how it went...

  1) Ms Pioneer Sister drove the get-away soccer-mom van.

  2) There would be 8 to 10 others in the van.

  3) They would be on their way to the 'territory' to work for the day.

  4) They would careen up to the bus stop - where one of the occupants (pre-determined) would fly out of the van and run up to the unsuspecting group waiting for the next bus.

  5) They would give their presentation - to the person (or persons) - still in shock (or adjusting their pacemaker)

  6) They would then run back to the van - where the driver would zoom away to the next bus stop.

  My daughter - 'pioneered' one month (or more). When she related to me what they were doing, I told the wifey (now ex) that I did not approve. The neighborhoods were not very good, and I envisioned some person at the bus stop getting nervous, mistaking the careening van for a SWAT team - or undercover police - and pulling a gun and blasting away at them.

  After a few weeks of thinking about it, the ex finally agreed - and my daughter was removed from this group in the van. (The lady that drove them around was a bit... well... shall we say 'odd'?)

  Regards,

  Jim TX
• 

  WTWizard

  I always tried to dog it. Often there would be someone that my partner would say that I should get, and I would stall and give them a chance to take off. And I would always stay where there was a minimum of traffic--I liked it when there were no people to talk to with those rags.

  Oh sure, the other people would try to get more placements. They would talk to people, often chasing them short distances and would act like I should also be chasing them. Usually they would take the magazine and put it in the nearest trash receptacle (where they belong). The tracts would place easier, but since most people have seen them a billion times, they also end up in the nearest trash bin or even on the ground as litter. Of course I never bothered to take down the name and address like I was supposed to when I did place something, so I didn't get to hound and harass them into joining the scam. My partners usually did this, however.

  Once, the group took "street" work one step further. We went into a bookstore (which I will not name for the sake of not provoking active Witlesses to swoop down on that store like a bunch of vultures), and had a bunch of tracts to place. I would take off in a different direction, since store management would have been p*$#ed to have everyone in the same area. Instead, I would find a place where there were no customers and start browsing books, always out of sight of the others in the group. Of course I placed nothing. I don't remember what, if anything, the others placed that day.

  My favorite part: When they did take a name and it was across town and I had to go on it. Then they would have trouble finding the street, and even more trouble finding the house. And then after all that trouble and wasted gas, the person is not at home. A couple of times, that was my only service for the whole month--all because of street work. Hopefully, the people all lost interest when they did a search on the Internet for more information on Jehovah's Witnesses.
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  undercover

  I was in the Denver airport and I saw a couple of dubs walking around, handing out literature.

  I was sitting in a common area out of the way of the main foot traffic on a cell phone when a JW lady came near me and waited until I got off the phone. When I got off the phone she came over and started her presentation.

  I was a bit irritated because she stood there while I was on the phone waiting on me to hang up while dozens of people streamed by in the main aisle (This was outside of the security check points before you get inside to the concourses to the gates). I asked her why she waited on me instead of trying one of the other many persons walking by and she said that according to airport regulations, they were only allowed to talk to people sitting in the out-of-way common areas. They were not allowed to talk to anyone in the main aisles or in line at the counters. She said that airport security had each JW checked out and approved before being allowed to be there soliciting. They were given name badges to wear while on airport property.

  All that just to be an irritant to travelers...
• 

  Jim_TX

  "She said that airport security had each JW checked out and approved before being allowed to be there soliciting."

  So, would they find any pedophiles this way? Oh, that's right... the JWs don't report their pedophiles to the authorities.

  Regards,

  Jim TX
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  VanillaMocha73

  Spent many hours doing this street work stuff and / or parking lot witnessing. Back in the day, street work was also known as the "courting grounds" - where all the singles paired off while the unsuspecting parents were away. You got to meet all the specially spiritual regular pioneers bros from other congregations. (Oh, I mean the abusers and pedophiles...) Spent much more time talking to each other than to people....

  Parking lot witnessing was just another excuse to sit in a car full of 5-8 people, gossip, drink coffee and burn gas. Every now and then we would have a discussion about whether to approach a car with a person in it. We'd only talk to cars that had people just sitting there in the parking lots (how many of those do you see at 5am on Saturday?).. and then only single people - no cars with more than one person. The funnest time was talking to the drunks at the casino. Entertainment value was high.
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  Paralipomenon

  Parking lot witnessing was an interesting idea. Until it came out that all the women were going into the mall for a coffee break and not coming out.
  
  Honestly, send a car full of women to a mall and tell them not to shop?
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  gymbob

  I hated street-witnessesing! Not to get off-thread, but did anyone else hit the laundramats early in the morning with mags? People just sitting around waiting for their clothes to dry with nothing to read...this was popular in S. California when I lived there. Gymbob
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  Jim_TX

  "...but did anyone else hit the laundramats early in the morning with mags?..."

  Hey! I used to go to those laundromats in the evenings to do my laundry! I saw magazines left there by some ambitious JW wanting to count easy placements.

  I would take them - rip them in half - and place them in the trash cans that they had there.

  I happened to be there one Saturday morning - doing a much needed load of laundry, when a couple of young gals came in to try to 'convert' me. They tried to hand me some mags, and I told them that I had something for them to read - that was in my car (I had the letter from the U.N. stating that the JWs had signed up). She wasn't interested in letting me go get it - to give her. I told her that I idn't want her magazines, then - if she wasn't going to at least read what I had.

  Regards,

  Jim TX
• 

  DannyHaszard

  

  1996 Quincy Massachusetts
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  ninja

  woo hoo book em Danno.........as for the guys with the mags fanned out on street corners...is it wrong to call them fannies?