You are right Jemba, I've puzzled over this too. Because they talk about it all the time, yet it's only in other communities that I really saw love in action.
When I was young, we had to be so grateful for second or third hand clothes passed to us. If we gave someone a lift to the meetings they were so thankful! And of course a big show of "petrol money" everything was always marked on....wow, aren't we lucky to be in this loving brotherhood etc etc. a simple dinner invitation became some big gift that only Jehovah's organisation could have provided...blah blah blah.
When I was out, for years after I was constantly amazed at the generosity and love show by "worldlies". Just a few examples from my life.....
- caught a taxi from pireas to Athens years ago, when the driver realised I was handing over my last drachma, he refused to accept any money.
- I unexpectedly had to go into hospital with my infant daughter, was there for weeks. In the first week the night nurse took my clothes home with her & washed them & returned them 7 am the next day.
- when I was DFd & kicked out of where I was living, work friends organised 6 weeks of accomodation for me, sleeping on different people's couches ( none of them knew the truth about my situation, they just thought I was young & "flighty")
- my friends around me volunteer in so many ways, free swimming lessons for kids with disabilities, free yoga for the elderly, cooking meals at a homeless shelter, school canteen duty, dog walking at an animal shelter, accounts at sporting clubs, coaching kids etc etc
- my dad (non JW) drives elderly friends to their appointments & swimming every week. He does their gardens & walks their dogs for them.
I could go on and on, but I wanted to put some examples up, because often I read JWs expressing "but what else is there?" Or "where would we go?" As if the world is some big bad place.
and it's not bad at all.
all the generosity I have experienced, all the works I see around me, are done quietly, without any fanfare, and, it's just normal. Maybe that's what the Org is afraid witnesses will discover if they spend too much time in the world?
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