Snakes and Donuthole were both very caring witnesses. Snakes took time for the elderly and the downtrodden, and Donuthole and his wife reached out to the elderly and downtrodden. I think being the kind of people they are is why they can no longer be part of the borg. They are too good for that.
Got a visit from door-to-door JW's!
by donuthole 39 Replies latest jw experiences
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Quentin
Terry and I were talking about this today, we both agreed the wt has ALWAYS been a slavish cult, yet the quility of "publishers" over the last 20-30 years has dropped way down form what we used to be. No doubt there were those who hated door knocking, even back then. But, it seems to me more effort went into "training" jw's for "field service". As to covering the territory, more effort seems to have gone into that as well. Didn't care what their status was, I'd have stood there and talked to them anyway. Our goal was threefold, give a positve witness, place books and mags and get Bible book studies. The only thing I hated about door to door was getting book studies, always found someone to pass one off too, usualy a pioneer.
Terry, myself and a handfull of others spent at least 3min attempting to get someone to the door. Rang bell, no answer, knocked door, no answer, rang bell, no answer, well, you get the picture. Heh, heh, sometimes we even went to the back yard. We were crazy and if Harry was with us he was busy moving things around on the poorch, or trying to dismantel the mailbox and drop it in the flower bed. If one of us had showed up Donuthole we'd have stayed and had one hell of a conversation as well.
Terry's of the opinion the wt is interested in money more than anything, since, from what I've read here, they demaned donations from the r&f why put that much effort into "field service"? Pad your hours, stay in good standing, become an elder.
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donuthole
DH, have you shared your experience here? If so, I would be interested in hearing it.
I don't think I have -- just snippets here and there. If you'll PM me your e-mail address I'll send you my story.
I hope my family says "hi" back to you when you greet them.
Eh ... not yet, but maybe some day.
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SnakesInTheTower
quentin:
at least 3min attempting to get someone to the door. Rang bell, no answer, knocked door, no answer, rang bell, no answer, well, you get the picture. Heh, heh, sometimes we even went to the back
the only reason I do this now is in my job as a bill collector. sometimes I even knock like a cop. When I was a "pioneer" (though by 1986, what were we really pioneering?), I had the fake door bell ring, light knock, leave a tract, hit and run down pat. I hated pioneering and door to door in general...even admitted it from the platform during public talks and service meeting parts. That got people's attention. I was not kidding.
On a similar front.....I seen a whole bunch (gaggle, flock, group?) of dubs in a QT (QuikTrip) convenience store today (Granite City, IL). One older (50s?...so older than me) sister was waiting next to me in line for the restroom (the men's room was closed for cleaning). Do you think she would take the opportunity to share The Good News of the Kingdom® with this poor sap? No...but I am certain they did not recognize me....even though I had given several talks in their KH. Mostly sisters, but one older brother.... all buttoned up in his suit and tie...suit coat buttoned all the way.... not sure if he looked dapper or lost. He sure did not look like he wanted to be there. Mostly they stood inside of this store between the donuts and the coffee stand yakking.... sure not much "urgency" in their message.
Snakes (Rich )
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isaacaustin
DH, sent you a pm
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Quentin
That's what I keep reading Snakes. Jws would rather DO anything than rattle doors. I have no doubt in my mind even back then there were jw's who did as you described above. Yet, most of us stayed at the door to make sure there would be no answer before moving on.
Our "book bags" were stuffed with all kinds of pulications. Books, mags, tracts, with the answer to most questions. Stump the jw was almost non-existent. If you realy couldn't answer the question you left a book, or booklett, encouraged the householder to read it and followed up with a back call, as we kept meticullous bc notes. I don't pretend the wt was any better then, than now. Will say the average r&f publisher was more prepared to do d to d work. We had a message to get out and were determened to get it out there. Then again it was pre 1975, if a jw publisher reported 4 hr for a Sat and Sun you can bet 95% spent that time in fs.
Summertime was the worst. sweated like hogs, many brothers left their jackets in the car, sometimes loosing our ties. We were there for one thing, and one thing only, preach the good news of the kingdom. Like I said, we were CRAZZY and MAD AS HATTERS. FS, even then was a waste of time. Thankfully I can look back and SEE that along with the 100 PLUS YEARS OF wt LIES. Can also see I WAS NOT Bible smart. I was a TRAINED DOG and wt MOUTH PIECE. Well, I've said enough...... Peace to all....
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donuthole
So long as we are confessing - one of my favorite tricks was to made-up return visit. Basically I would claim not to know the address but direct the car to some street way across town and then look for the driveway/house that looked empty. "Yep, there it is. Oh rats, her white car isn't there. I guess I'll try the door anyway since we came all this way."
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johnnyblazedog
Here is my confession-I would pair up with a buddy of mine and say we had to go do a return visit so that way we would have an excuse not to go knocking door to door with the rest of the group. Then go to the trunk of my car, take out some cold coronas from the cooler and drink, and then ended up at the local arcade or the movies. Hey I was young and was pretty much ready to get out!! Those were some gooooood times-LMAO
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SnakesInTheTower
dh:
Yep, there it is. Oh rats, her white car isn't there. I guess I'll try the door anyway since we came all this way."
so is that why we both always had not at home return visits when we worked together? LOL In reality, I had a fancy schmancy RV book.... kept very organized..... and almost none of those RVs were interested. Most of them were scratched out. Lots of dates, fake notes from previous "successful" RVs...until they were finally determined "NI" (not interested).
My trick was to work with those older ones who had lots and lots of return visits. I would volunteer to take them to their calls all over town...especially the ones out in the country.....take lots of time to get there. The older ones appreciated that I did not speed. I appreciated that I controlled the car not them. In reality, most of their calls were mere social visits with a sprinkling of magazines.
I think that is why my JW mom goes out 5 days a week... socializing.
Snakes (Rich )
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donuthole
so is that why we both always had not at home return visits when we worked together? LOL
My problem was that I never had any return visits. I only wrote down the ones that actually showed genuine interest versus keeping tabs on everyone that reluctantly took a tract from me out of pity or to shoo me away. Then I'd get in these car groups that were "just doing calls." and they would be digging through their call books bursting at the seams with index cards, loose leaf notebook paper and Hardee's napkins. ("Hello, I'm so-and-so, I don't know if you remember that I came by here ... oh, maybe, four years ago, and I left you that red book ...") Well in those groups it was either make up RV's or show my hand as a the slacker of the car group and slink away in Theocratic shame. :-)