Door knocking in difficult territories.

by LeeT 7 Replies latest jw friends

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  LeeT

  I live in a 'difficult territory', though there is a Kingdom Hall only 15 minutes walk away.
  How do JW's deal with door knocking in difficult territories?
  
  Our door can be hard to hear if people come knocking but there is usually somebody home. I haven't seen a JW at my door in 10 years or so.
  Now most of you would think that was great I know, but it would be good to meet them in the flesh occasionally, without having to go to the hall or arrange a study.
  
  I live in inner city Bradford in the UK. For those who don't know the UK too well here's a little info on our area.
  
  Our Council ward has an estimated mid 2007 population of 3077.
  The 2001 census data shows
  68.4% Muslim
  7.9% Christian
  14.2% had either no religous affiliation or chose not to say.
  
  43% were immigrants.
  
  The census was taken during our local university vacation, so our student population isn't represented in these figures. We know though that the more education you get the less likely you are to be duped. More recent years have seen the arrival of large numbers of immigrants from EU accession countries and Africa as well as large numbers of Arabs and Chinese students. Indeed the last sister I saw was outside a Chinese supermarket and she was learning Chinese to Witness to this group.

  Here they'd face hostility from people of a strongly held altrnative faith, or incomprehension from people with poor standards of English, or intellectual stuff that would confuse them. I'd imagine doing the rounds in my area would be very frustrating for any JW that tried it.

  How do JW's deal with door knocking in difficult territories?
  How frequently do other people get the knock?
  Do JW's deliberately target the low lying fruit in better areas where they've a better hit rate or at least a better reception, or do they not discriminate?
  I seem to remember years ago my Mum saying that houses should get 2 knocks a year. Is this right?
• 

  deep-blue-sea

  Oh yes, it is recommended to work the territory twice a year.

  You must leave in a very difficult surrounding, since you as Christian are the minority.

  If you define ‘difficult’ your territory because of immigrants, what would you say to preach in a territory where the area is under control of the local ‘mafia’?

  This is what happens in a particular area in Italy, where even the police is afraid to approach and interfere, since the whole population is ready to fight against the police, where gangsters are accurately hiding, drugs (preparation and distribution) is sold for a good price, so people from all over Italy goes there to ‘test’ it…sometimes some die….

  Well, in such a wonderful environment, the Watchtower (my sister told me) has appointed a couple of pioneer to preach there!!!!!

  The first day, they founded their car with two tyres flat…..

  Is it really wise to expose people to such dangers? Has the Watchtower, some compassion, some feeling and concern for people who works free of charge for them??????? Do they still think that the ‘good news’ will operate on the hearts of such people????
• 

  zzaphod

  I don`t know why, but I live about 12 miles South of you, and my parents get a call about once a year, (I don`t get any being an Apostate!). I remember when I was in the cult in the `70s & `80s we would often cover an area every other month.

  Perhaps, they`re not as keen on following up on "Not at homes" as they were in my times with them.

  The ethnic make up where I live is almost the opposite of Bradford with 70 odd % professing to be CofE or other Christian, and approx 12% Muslim, the rest being of other faiths/no faith.

  Paul UK
• 

  LongHairGal

  deep-blue-sea,

  I read somewhere that the GB don't even go out in service so what do they care what kind of dangers you will face? Even though I never did service in an area like what you described, I occasionally was in circumstances where I did feel scared. I feel like such a fool now even thinking that I put myself out like this facing dangers and insults just to place magazines that will get thrown in the garbage. My time would have been better spent catching up on sleep.

  In my opinion, the ministry is nothing more than a yardstick that the religion uses to measure how active or 'faithful' the JWs are. If there was a real urgent lifesaving message they would be using a more efficient way to spread it than the stumbling door-to-door work.
• 

  straightshooter

  Depends also on the number of publishers in a congregation. If the congregation has few publishers and a large assign territory, then a congregation may have difficulty covering all the territory. I know of some congregations that cannot cover all the territory even once a year.
• 

  BluesBrother

  What do you call difficult??

  Inner city areas often yield more hearing ears and interesting people than stuffy suburbanites with entrenched views. Rural areas are nice locations to be in but rubbish for finding"interest" ( gosh, the J W lingo comes back too easily)

  They have specialists in the languages of immigrant communities.. If somebody is nasty, "you" wear it as badge of pride to go on preaching, and can brag about it (or giggle about it) at the Hall..

  In my memory, the "worst" areas were ones where everyone was not at home, or gave you the deadpan "not interested" response.

  Looking back, I am surprised that people were as tolerant as they were to us..
• 

  BluesBrother

  Double post..How did that happen?
• 

  LeeT

  I suppose I was in part questioning whether some areas are favored over others.

  I guess large numbers of Muslims who in general take their faith more seriously will be more resistant to the 'Truth' than the average UK nominal Christian who only has a vague faith which isn't too deeply held. I mostly meant difficult in this sense.

  There is also the problem of deciding whether houses are unoccupied and language issues.

  I'm not sure how active our local KH is (not very in my neck of the woods anyway). The sister I mentioned in my previous post came in from a congregation some distance away. she was working on a specialist skill though (Chinese). She never got back to me with the literature I wanted either.

  deep-blue-sea

  You must leave in a very difficult surrounding, since you as Christian are the minority.

  Well, I'm an atheist, and whilst in a distinct minority I actually quite like it here. If I didn't I'd move out.

  zzaphod

  Wow, visits every other month in the old days. That's pretty active.

  On a brighter and lighter note if the kingdom is to be preached worldwide to give everyone a chance to accept the 'Truth' before armageddon, it will be a while coming if my local cong doesn't pull their fingers out and start hitting the streets.