I wen't to the District Convention 2 years ago, The talk was on "sacrifices," a pioneer couple were interviewed by the C.O. They had Pioneered for many years with two kids, the dad worked part time. They explianed how money was "tight" for them many times. One time they repaired their old car and had no money for groceries. On their way home they found a buch of vegetables in the gutter where a goods truck would pass everyday. They had many handfuls of food to take home tonight! Thanks to Jehovah they were never hungry...I nearly felll off my chair, I felt like rushing the stage and bitch slapping both parents! Luckly I was late that morning, and sitting 4 stories up! Get a job you bum, your kid's live in the western world and their eating from the gutter!! I told my Witness wife how angry I was, she said that it was not "so very encouraging." Im sick of these pioneer stories of poverty, "I had no shoes then someone gave me $50 buucks crap...while the Watchtower is a richy rich ORG. Have you heard any "pioneer stories?"
My District Convention pioneer experiences- I fed my kids from the gutter?
by Witness 007 57 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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avengers
I fed my kids from the gutter
When I started reading your article I first thought you were talking about the WT teachings.
Then I realized they literally fed their kids from the gutter.
I gues there are two gutters they can feed their kids from: A Spiritual gutter and a Material gutter.
Wow!
Eating from two gutters. These are really blessed people.
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MidwichCuckoo
Eating from two gutters. These are really blessed people.
Lol avengers - that's so funny
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aniron
Witness 007
I would have felt the same way. I wonder how their kids felt about it all. I wouldn't be surprised a few years from now those kids won't be JW's. Then how much will all that "sacrifice" be worth.
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MidwichCuckoo
Poor kids. I find it difficult to believe these stories. ''What's for tea tonight Mum? Road kill vegetables again?''
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fullofdoubtnow
I'd have been tempted to phone the Social Services and report them for cruelty to children, though I find such stories difficult to believe anyway.
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Gill
Morning, Linda!
I remember a pioneer couple giving their 'experience' at the Dudley Assembly Hall in the 1980's.
They were both window cleaners and struggled just to survive in the caravan they were living in. They had no money for food one day and a brother advised them that they could eat stinging nettles as stinging nettle soup is very nuritious. So they collected nettles and cooked and ate them to survive.
I have never been so nauseated and sickened in my life. That story haunts me to this day, that the brothers were willing to advise them that Jehovah always provides free food for his servants but were not willing to feel this starving couple themselves!
During the same talk, the speaker advised not giving money to brothers in hardship. He gave the example of how one elderly couple were very concerned about a married pioneer couple and so they gave them money. They found out later that instead of spending the money on food and essentials they bought a crystal chandelier!
This reminded me of the WTBTS. People, who are JWs are in hardship and poverty all around the world and yet 'Mother' buys crystal chandeliers for Patterson and its other 'overdressed' meeting places.
They may criticise the Catholic Church vehemently, and God knows it is NOT perfect, but I have yet to see a Jehovah's Witness Hospital of soup kitchen anywhere!
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brinjen
Once I realised it was literal, my first thought was "what about the others in the congregation?". Wasn't there anyone who could offer some assistance (or better still part time employment) to the family? It's not right to expect kids to live like that, and yet they glow with pride over these situations.
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fullofdoubtnow
Hi Gill,
When I became a pioneer in 1984, I had my head filled with tales of how jah looks after his own, and whilst I'd never be well off I'd never be destitute either, and I lapped up every word.
Of course, those stories were only half true - I never was rich! As for being destitute, well I always had somewhere to live, but I didn't always have something to eat. I remember making a tin of baked beans last several days on more than one occasion, drinking water in winter as I couldn't afford hot drinks,or the power to heat water, and didn't have the money to buy electricity or gas anyway. I think my car was off the road more than it was on, and all my clothes, without exception, were either hand-me-downs or from second hand shops. I don't remember jah providing that mush, if anything at all, to me, and I don't remember most of the congregation doing so either.
The other pioneers in our kh had family in the org who supported them, which I didn't have. When, after almost 6 years of this, I came off as a pioneer, the elders were distraught, and for several years afterwards trie to get me to go back on the list, with promises of more support next time. Thankfully, I resisted. As zealous as I still was for the org, I never quite believed that this support would be forthcoming after they'd promised it the first time around but failed to deliver.
Of course, experiences like mine will never be related at a convention, they might have the effect of discouraging rather than encouraging those who are thinking, or more likely being persuaded to think of pioneering.
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Gill
Linda - I believe that your experience with pioneering is very much the norm.
There was a pioneer couple in our local cong until the last few months. The husband was killed tragically in a road accident. His wfie has been left homeless and penniless and wait for it, is in search of part time work so that she can continue to pioneer. He left no life insurance, no home, no nothing basically. Just a woman of 39, who has the cares and wrinkles of an 80 year old and no where to lay her head. She may well have to move back in with her elderly parents as soon as the rest of her lease on the flat finishes very soon.
The Pioneer Slave Trade is a travesty of life and justice.
And as for the WTBTS which cons people into this way of life, I have nothing to say that can be repeated in public!
I remember this young woman being an A grade pupil at school! She was a very clever young woman.
She left school with all of her her O levels and went to work, part time, 10 hours a week at the local freezer store.
She was married and pioneering, and holding a ladder, and wiping windows for the last 20 years. She is skeletal in frame from lack of nourishment and basically has not even lived yet.
The Watchtower Steals everything, absolutely everything from its Foolish Slave class!