AHHHH...the love from Bethel!

LDH

Listening to all of New Boy's stories of the Bethelites has reminded me of one of my own....

When I was about 17 (reg. pio.)our phone rang in the middle of the night. (!!!!!)

It startled us all, and I could hear my father saying, "A collect call from WHO?!?!? For WHAT?!?!?! and then finally, "OK, I'll accept the charges!"

Oh the excitement! But it was to get even BETTER.

It was a Bethelite that we did not know on the phone. He was stranded on the New York State Thru-way right outside of Syracuse. He had borrowed a car from another Bethelite. (it was a 69 BMW--how he had the nuts to take that thing on the open road in the middle of winter is beyond me. The car didn't even have heat!!!)

He begged my father to come and pick he and his two friends up, and I went along for the ride. Besides, what single pioneer sister would pass up the chance to meet three Bethelites in the middle of the night with *NO* distraction around?

My dad arranged for a tow truck to meet us at the location of the breakdown, and about an hour later three Bethelites we didn't even know were sitting in our kitchen enjoying hot chocolate and telling us how they ended up stranded in the middle of the night.

One of the brothers went to Toronto because he was dating a sister there, and two of his buddies tagged along. Now, mind you they were in a real junk heap of a car.

On the way back to Bethel, the car broke down. The brothers walked two miles in the cold blowing snow because luckily they had just passed an exit. They used the telephone of the diner to call Brooklyn Bethel. Well, if you've ever been at Bethel you know they close the switchboard at 10 pm.

The brothers BEGGED the switchboard operator (they had to call collect--they literally had NO MONEY) to accept the call. I guess they wanted to talk to the owner of the car, and decide where to go from there.

Bethel REFUSED to accept that call, the brothers were in tears because they didn't know what to do. They were told to get to Bethel the best way they could and if they didn't report on Monday morning they'd be in BIG trouble. These brothers called Bethel about 4 times in a row, crying and begging them to accept a collect phone call so one of them could talk to his roommate. He remembered his roommate was from the Syracuse area. FINALLY Bethel accepted the call and put them through to his roommate. The roommate, Mark Nadolny (very cool guy) advised them to call our house because he knew my Dad/Mom would help.

So, we find ourselves on the road at 3 a.m. going to retrieve some very unlucky young men.

My mom fed them and my dad fixed their car. They put them on the road the next day with $100 in each of their pockets, and bade them well.

Now, would you have ever believed Bethel wouldn't help three of their own VOLUNTEERS get back? We were shocked! If I knew then what I know now.....

Lisa

joelbear

Hi Lisa,

See. I read your story and remembered all the wonderful Jehovah's Witnesses I have known and experienced kindness from over the years.

Bureacracy kills this instinct in people very quickly. Clearly, bureaucracy in the name of god doesn't function any better than any other type of bureaucracy.

hugs

Joel

Elsewhere

Oh, such warm and fuzzy people!

"As every one knows, there are mistakes in the Bible" - The Watchtower, April 15, 1928, p. 126
Believe in yourself, not mythology.
<x ><

Patriot

S'up Lisa. That's incedibily funny.

I have one question about bethel that I never got the answer to:

Why do you have to abruptly get up toward the end of the meal? I remember working there temporarily and at first it freaked me out when everyone just slid their chairs back and stood up all at once. I just went along with it.

Dogpatch

When I was there they had just reinstituted working a half a day on Saturdays. The reason? Knorr said that the Bethelites often took long distance vacations over the weekends, and he wanted to put a stop to it. What a jerk.
Randy Watters
http://www.freeminds.org/bethel/exbethel.htm
Former Bethelites and their stories

LDH

Joel, truer words were never ~~spoken~~ typed.

Patriot, having dined with the Bethel family on numerous occasions, I can vouch for what you're saying. But I don't know the answer to that question. I do remember the Bethelites having to scarf their food down like dogs, and God forbid something was left over--they would run from table to table grabbing it up.

The saddest thing is how Bethel has reduced men to boys. The armed forces turns boys into men, and "jehovah's organization" turns men into boys. Disgusting. That's like a slve on weekend furlough -- whose horse died. He calls Massa for help--after all he wants to get back and be a good slave--and Massa kicks him while he's down.

Wouldn't you think Bethel would have a vested interest in assisting Bethelites who've had emergency situations?

Lisa

Patriot

I know, right?

Exodus told me about an occasion where he went to bethel just recently (about 9 month ago) and was invited to spend the afternoon with 2 bethelites that were in his hall (he was the P.O.at that time).

After spending about an hour in their room, it finally dawned on Exodus that there were no beds, let alone space to be able to put beds in. So he asked them: "By the way where do you guys sleep?"

To that they replied while pointing at the floor: "right there".

Exodus said he flipped. "You don't even have a bed?" "well, said the bethelite, we havent been here long enough to have a big room and we're in line to get one of those fold down closet beds".

I tell, you it's incedible. The funny thing about it is that they believe that, thats the way Jesus would have done it. Doing with the "bare neccesaties". (and sharing a bathroom in the hallway!!).

Meanwhile the bigwigs or G.B. had all the luxury items a person can ask for!

Mav.-

BTW-that was just ONE fold down bed for the TWO of them.... Damn, I wonder what ever bacame of them!

joelbear

Things I loved about Bethel.

1. The shower rooms. Okay Okay. I'll be serious. Oh wait, I was being serious.

2. Having lots of people around to interact with constantly. At the farm, we had a nice recreation room, a pool, wonderful scenery to walk around and enjoy and 600 people to associate with. I loved it. It was fantastic. I was never lonesome.

3. Feeling like I was a small part of accomplishing a big goal.

4. My work. I loved the subscription department.

5. Meal times. I had a great table. We were very close and looked out for each other and took smaller portions when we knew it was somebody at the table's favorite. It was like family.

Things I hated about Bethel.

1. Rules for everything. I thought at times if this was the way the new system would be it sure wouldn't be much fun having to keep up with all the rules.

2. The bureaucratic businesslike manner in which things were handled. You could be transformed from a brother into an employee in the blink of an eye.

3. Always being tired. Our congregation was 45 minutes to an hour away from the Farm. I attended the Port Jervis New York congregation. I was exhausted by the end of the week and usually spent Saturdays sleeping all day.

4. My first 3 roommates. Noisy. Took my food without permission. Used my things without permission. Snored. I was so glad when I got my last roommate. Of course that was about 6 weeks before I got ousted.

5. The smell from the dairy barn. My 2nd room at bethel faced the barn and it was not pleasant.

Joel

JT

LDH

You are lying, bethel being the House of God would never treat any member of the Bethel family in such a degrading manner.

but then again now that i think about it they WOULD and they DO- SMILE

I know of some guys who went to Philly for the weekend and broke down as well--we always drove Junk Cars , but never feared taking them out on the open road-- Hey we always had loving families like yours to hook us up

yes my dear friend you account brings back memories of the "Good ole days" yea right------

i had to send this link to my wife she called back dying, talking about James that sounds like some stunt you and your buddies would have pulled-

just be thankful you didn't marry one of those clowns- o man -i forgot that one of them could have been me, smile

at least i tried not to be GEEK when i was at bethel - i guess that is why i was able to get out later

Loved your post,

James

2SYN

Everyone who wants to be a Bethelite should read this thread. Now that I think about it, everyone who is studying with the Witnesses should read this thread.

"We are the happiest people on Earth" - PFFFFF, whatever.

They treat these poor kids like the stuff you scrape off your shoe after a walk in a swamp! It's disgusting, and one of the big reasons why I hate the BORG. These people give them so much of their lives, and they get treated like dirt. It makes my blood boil, really.

[SYN], UADA - Unseen Apostate Directorate of Africa - For Great Justice!

AHHHH...the love from Bethel!

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