Who pioneered with the promise of having 'Jehovah provide' and ended up dirt poor anyway? (page 6)

hoser

Some of our pioneers are ones who went out and worked full time for 20 years while doing nothing for "the truth", own their house mortgage free, have built businesses in the time they were "materialistic". They started pioneering in their 40's after they were materially secure

flipper

JULIA- Very good thread on this subject. Before I had children my JW ex-wife and I pioneered for several years. If I had devoted those 90 hours per month to my self employed business we would have been much better financially prepared to have children in our mid to late 20's when we started having them 6 years into our marriage. To this day now that I'm in my 50's due to not going to college and pursuing employment I may have pursued if I was educated from a university I've had to remain self employed for over 30 years now. But I still don't have any retirement set aside. Due to scraping by all these years. Paying my own way. I'm proud of that accomplishment that in spite of being raised a JW and told to " pursue kingdom interests first " somehow, someway my business survived all those years - in spite of being a Witness. I raised my children up to be responsible adults providing for themselves doing my business . But with NO help from any JW. No JW EVER hired my services. Always non-Witness customers.

So I PROVIDED for myself- Jehovah or the WT Society didn't provide $hit ! Just headaches. My JW ex-wife ran our credit cards into the ground to the tune of $ 25,000 and in 1999 I had to file a form of bankruptcy to survive and re-establish myself. Which I did. So " Jehovah " " provided " people around me ( ex-wife included ) that ran me adrift financially after 19 years of marriage and it was only by extricating myself from the JW organization finally in 2003 that I was able to get back above water financially and survive like a normal human being. My current wife and I are much better at watching our money carefully than all the Witnesses that buzzed around me while in the organization. Yes, it was very tight back in those days. Still IS tight, but I'm much smarter now. As the group The Who said, " I won't get Fooled Again "

Heartofaboy

To some pioneering is no sacrifice.

As finallyawake & hoser have said some made their fortune in the world & then used their material wealth to 'coast along pioneering' & become leading lights in the cong.....no sacrifice, no discomfort.

Some women had husbands with well paid 'worldly' jobs & needed something to do, so they also did 'coast along pioneering'.......no sacrifice, no discomfort here either

Quite a few youngsters had wealthy parents providing for them well beyond the normal age when someone would start to stand on their own two feet financially, they did 'coast along pioneering' again no sacrifice & everything done & provided for them so no discomfort either.

These 'coast along pioneers' would be used in assembly programmes as examples of putting the kingdom first in their lives.

LongHairGal

finally awake, hoser & heart of a boy:

You are all correct.

finally awake - my critics were older married women with a cushy life. They had no business criticizing me because I work full-time. Most of them wouldn't be caught dead pursuing poverty and pioneering like some of the younger gullible ones!

hoser - I never had a problem with people who made their money and then pioneered. But, they should not be held up as an example, because this would be misleading and really holding out an unattainable goal. These people were pioneering but living comfortably. Living comfortably and pioneering don't really belong in the same sentence if you really followed the JW "rules".

My problem is that the whole thing was misrepresented to gullible younger people there who had NO BUSINESS PIONEERING. They should have been getting an education or establishing themselves in a career!!!

Heart of a boy - they had NO business parading these coast-along pioneers with their cushy lifestyle and using them as an example. Very misleading!

Found Sheep

I pioneered for 13 years straight out of HS. I was extreamly poor most of that time. I had boots with holes in them and got frost bite. I had a lot given to me like clothing and food. I was never hungry unless you count being so depressed I stopped eating as hungry?

What a waste of time and money

hoser

longhairgal andh heartofaboy

I agree with you wholeheartedly. However this is not how the watchtower society rolls. Its survival depends on making its members feel unworthy. What better way to do that than by making publishers feel worthless by making unfair, unscriptural comparisons. Most of the time important details are left out of the interviews on the assemblies to make the audience feel like " why am I not pioneering?"

One couple in their 30's I know well were interviewed about the sacrifices they made to enter the pioneer service.

sacrifices? His grandfather passed away leaving him close to $1million inheritance. Not stated in the assembly interview and most in the audience were not aware of their complete circumstances

Julia Orwell

That's it, it's about guilt-tripping. Or they'd use the same pioneers every assembly like there was a shortage of them somehow. I always called those parts the 'you should be pioneering' talks.

Funny also how the ones who had built up their fortune or worked hard for decades and then coasted along as pioneers would look down on me when I was in my 20s and going to uni. Or anyone having to work to support a family. They forget it took them decades of 'worldly' pursuits to get to the stage where they could spend 70 hours a month in witnessing.

Heartofaboy

I hope you have been able to negate the financial hardship pioneering caused you Lost Sheep.

I feel sorry for ones that took to heart the mental & verbal beatings we had to endure at the meetings & assemblies trying to make us DO MORE IN THE MINISTRY.

"CAN YOU STAND BEFORE JEHOVAH & JUSTIFY TO HIM WHY YOU ARE NOT PONEEIRNG?"

We've all heard it haven't we?

hoser

I feel sorry for ones that took to heart the mental & verbal beatings we had to endure at the meetings & assemblies trying to make us DO MORE IN THE MINISTRY.

"CAN YOU STAND BEFORE JEHOVAH & JUSTIFY TO HIM WHY YOU ARE NOT PONEEIRNG?"

We've all heard it haven't we?

I actually heard a DO from the assembly platform state that only pioneers would survive the big A

guilt and fear mongers

Julia Orwell

Welllllll if only pioneers etc are gonna survive, the rest of the peeps can save themselves the trouble and go home and do whatever they like!

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

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