by Witness 007 57 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Blimey Gill - we may have 'met'. I volunteered in the refurbishment of Dudley Assembly Hall (maybe 1976?) when it was being converted from a Cinema.
The nettle story is pathetic - who would encourage a stranger, let alone their 'brother', to eat nettles. NETTLES for God's sake. I bet they were praising the WTBTS as they were being stung picking them.
Morning MC!
I always loathed the Dudley Assembly Hall but they did make nice ice cream sundaes, in those days!!
Do you remember the dreadful stench that used to come from the downstairs men's toilets!!!
My husband helped out with the early refurbishment but I believe I was much to young to have anything much to do with it when it was being refurbished!
I remember another experience of a family who 'claimed' to all be auxillary pioneering regularly at the Dudley Hall.
Turned out non of them were actually making the hours. A few months later all the kids had left 'da troof' the parents had divorced and this was despite the 'abundant blessings from Jehovah' that they claimed to be receiving because of all pioneering as a family!!!
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.
Amazing. What a compassionate and thoughtful brother. I remember my Dub brother in law being a coal miner during the last national strike. All of the mining community helped each other out and there were collections and donations to ensure that the miners and their familes wouldn't suffer hardship. Also of course we as a family helped them out - there was no way we would let them go hungry. When the going gets tough you can more often than not rely on "wordly" people. What do you get from the Dubs? Handy hints on surviving on roadside weeds. Tossers.
Clam
PS
Do you remember the dreadful stench that used to come from the downstairs men's toilets!!!
LOL - Memories of a life in the service of Jehovah
Gill
I believe that your experience with pioneering is very much the norm.
I agree with you. Those who have the support of their families have little else. Many of them work as cleaners, as their lack of educational qualifications prevent them from being able to obtain anything better job wise. I have a degree which I obtained pre-jw, and was able to get a pert-time job which paid reasonably well, but it was always a struggle nonetheless. I suppose studying with a couple of pioneers was what got me interested initially - they certainly encouraged me to make it a goal once I was baptised. They seemed so content with their lives, and I naievely thought I'd be the same - how wrong I was!
When I used to hear of the experiences of some pioneers at conventions, I used to wonder where I'd gone wrong - my experience was nothing like theirs. For most of the 6 years, it was a thankless, joyless, penniless time. Nowadays, I can see those so-called experiences for what they most likely where - pure bs. They were either afraid to tell it like it really is, or blackmailed by the elders into lying about it.
Morning Gill I was 15 years old when I volunteered. I can't remember much - I think I used to 'turn off' during Assemblies. Stories of Jehovah providing were always bountiful though...what's that Scripture that was always quoted? Mathew 6 v 26...
''Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?''
Linda - Yet what amazes me is that some couples actually persisted in this terrible life style for so long.
They seemed to relish their poverty, illnesses, hunger and deprivation as if it was a hair shirt that symbolised their superiority and their right to position in the congregation and eventual immortality!
These by all appearances, usually intelligent people, had succumbed to a sacrifice so great, and a non existent prize of such glaring ridiculousness, that I really began to believe that genius and insantiy must walk hand in hand.
The Lotto motto of 'You've got to be in it to win it!' has more application in the Pioneer Slave Class than it does in the Lottery! At least in the lottery there is a slim chance of winning something. To be a Pioneer you have to pay to lose and that is a guarantee every time!
Hi MC,
Did you go to assemblies at Dudley?
I went a few times, and never really liked it. Once the East of the Pennines hall was built at Hellaby, we went there. I liked that place better, but don't have any fond memories of there or Dudley nowadays.
They seemed to relish their poverty, illnesses, hunger and deprivation as if it was a hair shirt that symbolised their superiority and their right to position in the congregation and eventual immortality!
Gill - The Watchtower equivalent of the cilice, lol
fullofdoubtnow - yes, the last Assembly I ever attended was at Dudley. No fond memories. The Assembly Hall is relatively close to where I live - I often drive pass it (pity I didn't 20 years ago, lol).
what amazes me is that some couples actually persisted in this terrible life style for so long.
Me too. My friend Marion pioneered for 28 years, from 1967 until her husband had a stroke in 1995, quite often with her two sons in tow, though she did get a bit of help from in laws with them sometimes.
I don't know how she did it, and she wonders herself now. Now retired, she has little money, no property and is living in a small rented flat. She's never had a car, so has to rely on public transport, although if she needed to go anywhere urgently she knows she only has to ask and Trev will be straight round there to take her.
I remember when her husband died it wasn't long before the elders and the co were round there trying to persuade her to go back on the pioneer list, and they were quite forceful about it, not gentle at all, saying things like "don't you think it would be a good example", and "it's what Ron (her late husband) would have wanted you to do", and all this after he'd only been dead a few months, the heartless b**t*rds!
There must be thousands or maybe millions of couples and individuals like Marion, people who gave up any hope of a reasonably comfortable life to serve the watchtower full time. I wonder how many of them really have no regrets, despite the bs they spout from the platform at conventions that it was the best way of life they could have chosen.
MC,
We may have met at an assembly at Dudley then. I went there for several years in the 80's myself.
The Assembly Hall is relatively close to where I live - I often drive pass it (pity I didn't 20 years ago, lol).
I also wish I'd driven past the kingdom hall I attended throughout my years as a jw when I first visited, instead of turning into the car park!
