Who pioneered with the promise of having 'Jehovah provide' and ended up dirt poor anyway?

by Julia Orwell 66 Replies latest jw friends

  • likeabird
    likeabird

    **raises hand**

    Can almost guarantee pioneering will ensure you live well below the poverty in housing that ... let's say don't quite meet certain standards.

    The thing is, when you grow up in a cult, your mind is trained to take anything as a blessing or sign that Jehovah provides. Even finding edible food in the street or in a bin can be viewed as such.

    Unfortunately when I was a kid, this was my role model and what I always dreamt of experiencing when I got older :

    *** yb88 p. 86 Ireland ***
    JEHOVAH PROVIDES
    Billy Holland came into the truth in 1926 after reading The Divine Plan of the Ages. Like so many colporteurs, he relied greatly on Jehovah’s promise that his servants would never be “left entirely.”—Ps. 37:25; Matt. 6:28-34.
    Brother Holland explained: “Sometimes I went without breakfast; sometimes I had a few slices of bread without butter. I remember one time when I was out in the countryside in County Down. After spending some time in the ministry, I went down a little lane and put my bicycle alongside the hedge. I sat down and was eating my dry bread and listening to the birds singing. Then I looked more closely at the hedge and saw some lovely blackberries. I picked some and put them between my slices of bread. It was just like blackberry jam—I really enjoyed it!”
    He had the same spirit when funds ran low. “My shoes were wearing out and my feet would get wet,” he recalls. “Then one sunny day as I was walking along a country road, it got very warm, and the tar on the road began to melt. The tar filled the holes in the soles of my shoes. So I got my shoes ‘mended.’” And that was without cost!

    Needless to say my dream came true, many times over...and at the time I thought it was wonderful. Now when I tell my therapist about it, she just hangs her head in disbelief.

  • Calebs Airplane
    Calebs Airplane

    The Witch Tower has an easy answer for that... If you ended up poor, it just means you didn't trust Jehovah as much as you should have... Works every time...

  • Tater-T
    Tater-T

    I knew someone who was pioneering and was so poor she only ate Instant mashed potato flakes and almost DIED...

    I wonder how she is doing now..

  • Heartofaboy
    Heartofaboy

    marking

  • LongHairGal
    LongHairGal

    Julia Orwell:

    The stories here are very touching and I am sorry if anybody actually went hungry or suffered because of this. In my area, you would have at least gotten people's left-overs! And I am glad for any joy you may have experienced.

    In my observation, the only people who could pioneer and be dignified and not starve would be retirees, children living at home on vacation or a lucky few who could work at a part-time (professional) job that made a decent wage.

    I was one of the people criticized because I work full-time and refused to quit my job in order to pursue poverty. I liken the religion telling people to pioneer as telling somebody to jump from a plane without a parachute. Also, we are not living in the same world as Jesus and the disciples did and it is unwise to pretend otherwise.

    I saw for myself that the poverty being "preached" in the congregations was not for everybody. Those comfortable retirees and older ladies would never be caught dead doing this. And I hated hearing them say: "aw, look how spiritual he/she is". Yeah, but it wasn't good enough for them.

    It is bad enough when circumstances force somebody into poverty. Why pursue it intentionally??? Just look at all the people fleeing third-world countries to escape poverty!

    I also never liked being around certain individuals who pioneered full-time because they were always sick and run-down and I picked up a bug if I were in their car group. So, I avoided them because they seemed unbalanced and unwise to me.

    Let me tell you that the religion just does not care.

  • wasblind
    wasblind

    The following month I spent every single day job hunting and that is how I eventually got one!___Amelia Ashton

    You showed spiritual weakness

    All you had to do was take note from the lillies in the fields

    and let God dress ya

    When your hungry, Fly from pillar to post

    like a bird in search of food

    You should have ignored the good sense to be greatful for the God given strength

    to be able to go hunt for a job

    You should have continued to " Sit and wait "

    Jehovah's Witnesses are good at applyin' scripture to fit thier need

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  • Gojira_101
    Gojira_101

    Yup, yup, yup! It was hard financially on me and my parents. Especially when my dad lost his job and still trying to support a pioneer...

    During this same time it was District Convention time and my parents were about $200 short so he asked the elders for help and they came down on him horribly. And my dad said ever again will he ask for money to get to a convention...if it happens again, we will miss it.

    G

  • ShirleyW
    ShirleyW

    Anyone remember the stories about the pioneers serving where the need was great and they were down to their last dollar and no food, then they open their front door and there's a basket full of food ?? Actually remember someone sharing that our Hall as a kid, but interesting thing is that just about all Congs have someone that says that happened to them.

    So what happened after the food in that basket was gone? I guess they were starving again.

  • gma-tired2
    gma-tired2

    My son and guess who kept having to help. His inactive parents who lived in another state, money, car to pioneer.

  • wasblind
    wasblind

    Anyone remember the stories about the pioneers serving where the need was great and they were down to their last dollar and no food, then they open their front door and there's a basket full of food ?? Actually remember someone sharing that our Hall as a kid, but interesting thing is that just about all Congs have someone that says that happened to them.

    So what happened after the food in that basket was gone? I guess they were starving again.____Shirley

    That probably WAS true

    It coulda came from a householder who took in a study

    and figured if they put food in that pioneers stomach

    they could finally hear what was bein' taught

    Who say's Jehovah's Witnesses don't FAST

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