I still do service.... I have just enough time to keep the family off my case. I hate every minute of it though. I actually feel guilty when I go door-to-door because I don't feel I should be telling people about something I don't even believe in or support to begin with. I usually am able to do "low-impact" service, that is, all return visits of others in the car group and a wawa or 7-11 stop.... sometimes I am lucky and we stop at a Dunkin' Donuts :-)
Knock Knock...
by KistByQpid 25 Replies latest jw experiences
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Prisca
I was never really that skilled nor interested in flipping scriptures or debating with ppl over their beliefs. Instead, as time went on, I was interested in the people I met at the doors. Sydney is very much a multi-cultural city, so you never knew who was going to be behind the next door. Not everyone was a Christian, and many were Chinese who had no concept of a God, a Supreme Being.
The last year that I was active, I'd come to the conclusion that not just JWs would be blessed by God, and surely other Christians or other people who strived to live a "good" and honest life would also be approved by Him. Therefore, when people said they had their own religion, I would say something like "how interesting" and genuinely ask them a question or two about their beliefs.
If they were Christian, I would just say that we (the householder and we as JWs) had the Bible in common, and that the Bible held some very good advice on how to live a happy life. The householder would normally agree, and I would bid them a good day, and leave without having offered them one piece of literature!
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Adonai438
I never had the pleasure of doing the door to door as a dub. I have had the pleasure of having them knock at my door though
Didn't take them long to take me off their list. The second you take out a Bible and don't fold to the name of Jehovah scripture they freaked. I guess maybe if you get them off their script they really didn't know what to say. All the sudden they had to go and meet the rest for coffee and ran away. At least thats what they tell me
Whenever I move into a new place they drop by though and I get to start all over with a fresh batch. I figure they come knocking on my door they should have to answer some questions, don't you?
Plus, I don't do the rude thing-- to many people just get annoyed and rude when they could use the opportunity to share a bit of truth with them. If everyone did that maybe we could stop this door to door routine, huh? [8>]
<>< Angie -
Kep
Some days were good, and some weren't.
I am one of those people that can talk for an hour to a complete stranger about nothing...
So going from door to door wasn't as bad as it is for others.
You get your rude people, but it's water on a ducks back, you expect those responses.
If you're with a partner, you find the humorous side of it as you carry on down the street.
The times I did have trouble was when working with the co or Service Overseer.
You think they're standing there watching you to see if you are applying all the suggestions given thru the meetings etc...
Most times I enjoyed just talking to people more so than trying to flick the literature off to them. -
Xander
I still do service.... I have just enough time to keep the family off my case. I hate every minute of it though.
At least when I was still 'active', 'informal witnessing' counted as time. My wife and I just stopped going out in service one month. For some time, we kept turning in time 'informal witnessing'. I think, for a while, we might even have believed we were actually informally witnessing those 2 or 3 hours.
Eventually, we just stopped caring and turned in total BS. That only lasted a few months, and we just stopped going altogether.
A fanatic is one who, upon losing sight of his goals, redoubles his efforts.
--George Santayana -
teenyuck
I hated going door to door.
We started when I was 5. Adults seemed to want a child along...they felt people would be more open...the thought was that we could possibly be Girl Scouts and people would be more friendly. NOT!
Going door to door in sub-zero temps, wearing a skirt...it is crazy. Making children go door to door and try to convince people that they had the wrong religion is crazy.
I never got into it. I would say "Hi my name is Tina, I am a JW." They would say they were not interested. Very rarely did we get to hand out literature. No one wanted to pay 5 cents per mag. No one ever had the change and we never did either. Since we had to account to our mother for any cash collected, against the mags sold, we could not dump them when no one was looking.
The best part of service was when it was over; the second best was when no one was home-we got to leave old mags in the door.
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Xander
I would say "Hi my name is Tina, I am a JW."
Yes, I remember that. My brother and I used to come up with presentations 'guaranteed' (in our opinion) to never have to have a conversation over.
Stuff life "Hi, my name is Xander, I'm a JW here to sell you magazines teaching you about the true religion". Nothing technically WRONG about it (at the time), but damn if I never had to finish the sentence
No one wanted to pay 5 cents per mag
I remember that, too (but I thought it was like .25 for the watchtower and .15 for awake, IIRC). Of course, we also had the 'new light' inflicted pretty quickly that had us giving them the magazines 'if they seemed interested' and making the contribution up ourselves when we got back to the hall. Boy, *that* was fun for a bottom-of-the-barrel-low-income family. It was like 'SHIT, there goes my lunch money' after a particularly successful series of doors.
A fanatic is one who, upon losing sight of his goals, redoubles his efforts.
--George Santayana -
chezza
i was 4 when my became a jw, so i grew up going door to door asa kid i absolutely hated it, i remember one time i was out and i thought i was in a area where i didnt have school friends, boy was i wrong, i happened to be witnessing with this brother who was pretty forceful in his opinions, and he had been talking at this door, and going on and on as they do, anyway we got around the other side of the block and i saw a friend from school, so i went all red and wished i could die but alas she said nothing, that is until i got to school the next day and she told me she saw me and i said to her i was just going for a walk, and she then told me she been behind the door that this brother had been going on and on and at, needless to say it went all over school that i was a bible basher.
I remember another time as an adult that i was out in the service and this european woman started hassling me, she was telling me off for having my children out in the service and that i should be at home cleaning my house.... how many of us would rus out the door to go in service without doing the beds and dishes before we left... but on thsi one day i had everything done at home so i proudly said to her your welcome to come home and see if my house is clean, and as to my children being out in the fresh air, would you rather they be at home in front of the telly? that pretty much shut her up.
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SmokeEater
When I was pioneering in the ASL (American Sign Language) group, our territory took up about 1/3 of the state of NC. So we could spend about an hour to 2hrs just driving to a call... Since we were considered "in the ministry" we would count that time. Boy, was that great!!! It was nothing to drop 8hrs in one day!!! Since I wasn't fluent in ASL (or I acted like I wasn't), I did no preaching for like a whole year. Every so often, I would informal witness, or go out with the Host congregation in a vain act to appear zealous...
After Pioneer school, I had learned all these "tricks" to the ministry, that I had grown up thinking was taboo (like we could officially start counted time from the moment we said amen at the end of the meeting for FS, and stop it when we got home)... When I got back to my host cong, I thought that I would be a smart ass and do all these things they thought was wrong, and say "well thats what the DO said in Pioneer School!!!" That would shut them up, and I would count my time!!!
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YoYoMama
99.99% of the JWs hate it with a passion.
It's fine to post your personal feelings about the preaching work, but to speak in behalf of 99.99% of Witnesses is just silly. I'm sure some do not enjoy it, they would rather be doing other things, but the majority do enjoy it. Some might not like door-to-door work, but they enjoy informal witnessing. A popular facet of the preaching work today is phone witnessing. Some hate it others love it as they can be sitting in the Hall sipping on a cup of coffee (or tea for our British friends) while they talk to people.