How did you REALLY feel when you where out in field service?

by megaflower 42 Replies latest jw friends

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  Quandry

  Hey, I'm a JW, so we all know we disagree.." shook their hand and left...

  That is hilarious, all time jeff! Wish I had thought to say something like this.

  When I went out I always wished for some fun folks to go with. We could joke and laugh in the car group. At one time I had a big van and would take many sisters with me. We did rural territory, so there was alot of driving time, and only two could get out at each house. One time a young sister got out and a rooster began chasing her as she ran screaming back to the van. That was entertaining to all of us! We would eat, laugh, and talk. Yep, lotsa gossip. Those were the days.

  Other times, I had to go to apartments...up and down stairs...doors close together. Angry landlords....hated that! Or streets with lots of homes on them, and a group of people I didn't care for....no fun....hot Florida then Texas sun.

  One time I almost had a real fight with a sister....she kept insisting that witnesses from other countries could come and expect to be put up in our houses with no notice. I told her I would never expect to do that nor would I appreciate having people in my home with no notice as if I had no plans, work, and had plenty of food on hand, etc. She wouldn't let it go and infrerred that I was not "theocratic" if I did not agree. I have never come so close to actually wanting to hit someone. I might add that at the time I was in my thirties, a mother, and the wife of an elder......guess the fight might have entertained the car group!!
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  Scarred for life

  I absolutely hated field service. I do not remember any fun folks that went out in service. Especially in the last congregation our family was in. There was nobody having any fun. It wasn't just me. No joking, no laughing, no gossiping. I never, ever remember stopping for coffee or going out to eat with the car group. Reading that many of you did this is totally new to me.

  It was totally a job that had to be done. I have no good memories of it at all.
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  survived75

  I didn't enjoy it. I was a kid so I didn't go all that much. I totally quit the service once I was 12 or 13. I would have been embarassed if anyone I knew at school saw me. I remember the territory servant looking at me and shaking his head and looking downright sad once. He was doing totals of time in service.

  I guess I was so low in hours I wasn't considered to be a publisher anymore. It never bothered me I didn't respond to the remark.

  My Dad never seemed to mind either. Dad was good that way . He never pressured or criticized me about going to the hall or being active in the truth.

  I still think back sometimes about that look on the poor territory servants face . It so sad and sympathetic. He must have really thought I was going to be destroyed in the big A.

  Most of those servants from when I was a kid are dead or very elderly now. Funny how I feel happy the way my life turned out and so very sad for some of the old die hards. I guess we just all do the best we know how to do in this life. I hope they are all at peace.
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  loosie

  I was embarassed. I always hoped that no one would answer the door. I didn't learn about the fake doorbell ring until I got here to this forum. by then I wasn't going out in field circus anymore.
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  BonaFide

  Well, I was a publisher since I was 7 years old. Never missed a month. Then a regular pioneer at 16. Then a missionary at 24. Missionary for several years.

  Adding all of that up, comes to about 19,000 hours.

  What a waste.

  I did try to enjoy it, when I was a missionary, I used to feel good about it, because everyone liked to talk practically.

  Here in the States, though, I pretended like I liked it, but I was always glad to be going home. So was everyone else.

  BF
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  jamiebowers

  I didn't get baptized until I was 17 and out of school, so I didn't have the nightmare of being forced out into service as a child. For the first few years, I really loved going out in service and pioneered most of the time I was a jw. I was so snowed that I thought I was doing such great work. But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get a Bible student to baptism. It was a real bummer at the time, but I am so glad now that I'm not responsible for someone signing onto this evil cult.
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  WTWizard

  For the first couple of months, it was good. It was a new experience, plus I thought I was doing a real service. Of course, they wanted ever more (even then), taking time away from everything else.

  After a couple of months, it felt like it was displacing everything I previously enjoyed. Because of field circus, the times when I had light work (usually in the middle of the week) were no longer open. In fact, I no longer had any nice long periods of time where I could explore material on my Commodore 64 (which I got second hand, with a lot of software that had no labels). It also ate into time that I could compile music, listen to tapes or the radio, watch quiz shows on TV, or do anything else that I used to like to do. No longer could I take those nice long walks across town (to an arcade) that I used to do once a week (that block of time was taken for field circus).

  Within 6 months, field circus became something I "had" to do. I would hope no one came to the door, or that we would run into some nice cold weather so we could have to warm up (and I would open windows and let the heat out of the car to make it take even longer). I rarely got cold (I would tend to get hot in summer, though), but I would go along with the warm-up breaks because I did not enjoy spending hours and hours of unbroken time knocking on doors. And, if someone was not interested, I would count that as a relief.

  But, what took the prize in drudgery is when they tried their little stunt of keeping me out past quitting time so I would have more hours to report. It would be noon (the time I had made it clear that I was to go in), and they would have "one more street" or "one more call". Which would lead, back to back, to another--and another--and another. And, those last calls would drag on--they would pretend that it was almost done, fake a conclusion, and then lead to another major topic that could go on another hour or more. I know they did that on purpose so I would have something like 35 or 40 hours of field circus, and then they would hound me to pio-sneer all the time. All the while, it was not fun at all--nor did I get any reward for doing this.

  On top of that, there were plenty of gross things out there. Very often, I would see some old, ugly men come to the door (and they were extremely ugly--often drinking and seemingly at the end of their lives). They would take the rags, and the partner I was with would insist that I have to return on this call. I am supposed to be drawn to that? I don't think so. I would say that 9 out of every 10 people I got to take the rags were either so ugly (and invariably men) that I would want to puke, drunk when they took the rags, or were looking for an opportunity to exploit the situation to get money out of us. Needless to say, I did not look forward to going out in field circus--in fact, I would hope no one would show up or that it would be so cold that we would be spending most of our time in the car.
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  zombie dub

  the idea of "car groups" intrigues me. I have never heard of this in the UK, we just drove to the territory in our own cars, all got out and did the territory for 1-2 hours, then went home.
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  boyzone

  I liked it. I was good at it too. I'd make a good salesman as I can put people at ease and banter which helped to place loads of literature It made me feel as if I was doing something worthwhile and I really thought I was working for God. Talk about working free of charge for a publishing company in NY!

  Only thing I avoided was return visits. Hated those. I never knew how to progress a call to take on a bible study and I hated the responsibility of trying to find time to get back to people who were always out the next time you called, even if you made an appointment. Do you remember placing the mags and the sister you were working with saying "aren't you going to write that down"? I would go, "oh yeah - right" and get out a pencil and pretend to write the number down knowing full well I wasn't gonna waste my time going back.

  So my hours and placements were great, but cos I was rubbish at RV's I never brought anyone in. Thank God.
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  MidwichCuckoo

  I'm the opposite to you boyzone - all the words whizz around my head but I'm rubbish at verbalising stuff. I was always worried that I wouldn't be able to preach the 'Truth' properly and people would die because of MY incompetence. Does that make sense?

  Boyzone - your 'gift' in 'witnessing' need not go to waste now