by deemoo 29 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
I still can't figure out how I got appointed--perhaps I should have asked for the job, and then they would have told me no!
But yeah...all the above answers are valid. I just remember getting sent out to do various things the elders couldn't be bothered with doing. So yeah, you are like a sort of jockstrap. It's the organizational equivalent of Robin to a Batman. You get to help beat up the bad guys every so often, but you can't drive the Batmobile.
Thank you yknot!
And everyone else... the descriptions make me giggle :D
Deemoo, I can't say more than this as I've never been in: Ministerial Servants are invariably male. Women are considered second-class citizens in the organization.
Being an MS was hell on wheels. Hated it!
You said it. I was the "Siervo de Cuentas"--Accounts Servant. That is the heaviest job you'll get as an MS, in my opinion. Pain in the a$$. Litterature counter is creampuff by comparison. Have to make every damned meeting because no one else could count ca$h out of a donation box reliably. Had to balance and deposit at the bank every week. And you've got the Body of Elders draining the account all the time in order to help the Washtowel out on some special thing or other. Or it was Agent Smith, our CO, that needed a hand out. Then having to tell them, hey geniuses, we gotta make the mortgage payment, and the light bill. It was three Spanish congos and a wealthy English one in our hall, and the English BoE lorded it over all the wetback dub congos. I had to tell the PO to get a backbone when costs would get divvied up more than once. And the waste, they renovated an almost new Kingdumb Hell (5 years old, tops), because it did not look good enough anymore for the latte sipping BMW driving English congo. Bunch of rich retirees, their offspring, and snowbirds. They had a nice fat congregation bank account, of course.
I was also the PO's personal bitch, I mean assistant. He was computer illiterate, and did not speak English. So guess how much extra privileges I mean chores I would get stuck with? Plus, I got the privlish of speaking about Jehober's Kingdumb every week, at least once a week. Usually more. I got a real nice insight into his life. He had been a Cuba Bethelite before the Hammer and Sickle came down. His wife couldn't stand him, and he couldn't stand her, and I don't blame either one of them. I remember the look on his face when I gave it up late in 2006. Then I disappeared 3 months later.
BTS
For those of you who have been out awhile, take it from one still in (and still a MS!): It's still just as horrible as ever.
An MS gets his tongue nice and brown
While some sisters may do MS duties (accounts, sound, literature/mag/territory)(usually in very small congregations) they are never "appointed" officially through the WTS. I have seen women do all these duties.
BTS, your situation was much like mine. I was the account servant and looked after the sound department at the same time. I wasn't even an MS. My computer illiterate PO tried to make me his computer bitch too.
Eventually I lost all my "privileges" because I had enrolled in a Cisco PIX firewall course which ran for 4 consecutive Saturdays. This made me a "bad example". My PO was even stupid enough to come to me a week later and ask me for computer help. (he couldn't open a word attachment). I told him, in front of a half dozen other people, that maybe he should take a course and lose his privileges too, but not to bother me again. Watching him turn and literally run away was one of the high points in my career as a cultist.
W
They assist the hounders. Some regular publishers get assignments such as passing microphones, handing out littera-trash, timing talks, and assisting the congregation. But, once you are appointed an assistant hounder, you get locked in. You will now always be assisting with some department, and sometimes accompanying a hounder on hounding calls. Some of them give public talks. And, you will often get more parts at the boasting sessions.
To me, it is another way to waste all your time.
While some sisters may do MS duties (accounts, sound, literature/mag/territory)(usually in very small congregations) they are never "appointed" officially through the WTS. I have seen women do all these duties.
Blondie, you're post reminds me of a couple old sisters I knew growing up who were around way back when. They used to tell stories about being colporteurs (the early pioneers...as a kid I used to wonder what Cole Porter had to do with JWs, but I digress) and starting new congregations in remote areas. They were in congregations where there might be only one or two men, let alone any elders. These sisters ran everything, did everthing except give talks and give teaching parts.
One old bird was sharp as a tack and never really forgot that she did more and knew more than most three elders put together. She never took guff off MSs...ever. She used to try to tell us how to do our jobs and when we got our feathers ruffled, she'd let us know how much more experienced she was and that we'd do well to listen to her instead of some of the know-nothing elders.
Wasn't quite sure how to take her then, her being a head strong and fairly unsubmissive woman. But now when I think of her I have fond memories of her spunk and attitude.
