About 1973, before I bcame an inactine jw, I lost my job. The employer refused to give me my pay that was due. We had no money, no food and a six month old baby. I called the congergation servant , explained our situation. Two brothers come around with a sack of grocies and a fifty dollar bill, was sternly warned not to use the cash for smokes ( this was before the df edict came down ) then left. Took me a month to find full time work.
We lived day to day while I did day work. The kind where you worked a day got payed at the end of the day. No one from the kh came by to check on us, no one at meetings asked how we were doing. No other assistance was offered. One Thursday night I got called to the back room. I had gotten full time work by then, but had a two week wait before drawing my frist check. The congergation servent and assitent demanded to know where the fifty dollar loan was , why hadn't I paid it back? At no time wae I EVER infromed the fifty was a loan. They grilled me for thirty minutes, was told I had a week to pay the money back, or eles be publicly reproved, it was even hinted there could be a jc over the matter. That was one of the low points of my jw life. There were more, but that's another story.
Present day. I'm a Freemason. Several years ago Kathy was in ICU, we didn't know if she would live, or die. I had missed a lot of work. One night two Lodge Brithers came by the house . They gave me an envolope with a $1000.00 in it. I cryed like a baby. They consoled me, said they'd "passed the hat at Lodge" sorry there wasen't more. "Take that money and use it to pay your bills and however you see fit to use it". It was not a LOAN. Those men went into their pockectbooks and gave freely what they could. They expected nothing in return.
Our Church, and we have been unable to attend on a regular basis, I cannot tell you how many times over the last four to five years has made sure we have had gas in the car, grocries, brought food by, seen to it needed prescptions were filled and many other things they have done. A Church member comes by once a week to visit Kathy. Over the summer the Pastor and his son mowed and cleaned our yard. Kathy and I can't do much more than cook, wash clothes and dishes. Someone in the Church paid a cleaning lady to come by once a week for three months and clean the house and I do mean clean. How can I ever repay all this? I can't. The Lodge Brother's and Church member's did what they did from the heart, no questions asked, no judgements passed down. We needed, they gave.
Go back to the jw's? No thanks, I'll take my chances out here in the world with the rest of the bird food. Not with a group of go out in fs and attend ALL the meeetings dimwits, because Jah will provide. Provide what? Nothing, it's an empty promise.