Question: Are single sisters allowed to be missionaries in other countries?

by Wild_Thing 19 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  John Aquila

  Was there something else in the organization that you could only do if you were a married couple?

  Yes, the missionary position.

  
• 

  Village Idiot

  wheelwithinwheel,

  http://www.believermag.com/issues/201302/?read=article_scorah

  "why sisters can't be trusted"

  That's a fantastic story you linked to! Thank you.
• 

  fulano

  For a long time they accepted single sisters as missionaries, as a fact, we lived with one in our missionary-home, from fifth class.

  she died in 2009, I read.

  This was under Knorr. After the seventies policy changed and they preferred single brothers or Couples.

  To tell you the truth, it makes sense. As a home- overseer like I used to be it is like having an extra wife. If you want or not you feel responsible for the safety and health for such a sister.
• 

  blondie

  This is it; the WTS no longer needs to send missionaries in for more than administrative purposes, branch committee, CO and DO, Bethel, which requires men rather than women. There are few mature single men, they are mostly married. Up until the 1950's Bethelites could only get married and stay at Bethel under special circumstances (been there 20 years for example).

  Single women are called to Gilead only under special circumstances...they are engaged to another Gilead student and they will marry and go to their assignment when she is done with Gilead. Years ago a family who had 3 regular pioneer daughters were allowed to go to Gilead as single women. That was the Rittenbachs, mom and dad at Bethel and their sons at the time.

  Now single sisters can make arrangements with the branch office to go there as pioneers but they do not go to the Gilead program. It is at their own expense, housing food, transportation, etc. They are not underwritten by the WTS, but probably by their parents. I know several women who did this and found husbands.
• 

  fulano

  Hi Blondie.

  Personally I havent seen that much missionaries that went straight to branch work or travelling. In fact having a missionary to do Bethel work would be a waist of money.

  I do have seen some that came from other branches in the developped world and were assigned as bethelites, they brought some needed skills with them ( accounts, construction).

  Directly into travelling work is not wise in a third world country as conditions are bad sometimes not to speak of learning the local language. All of the missionaries I have seen coming went straight into homes. That was a periode of almost 10 years I served as a missionary.

  No single sister I have seen being assigned.
• 

  Deltawave

  The old ministerial training school was abolished and a dual training programme was set up. Bible school for single brothers and bi le school for Christian couple. Both those schools have been abolished and it is now Bible school for Kingdom evengelizers to which both married and single brothers and sisters may attend. This is not the same school as gilead which is still for couples only.
• 

  blondie

  I only speak of my experiences. For some time I had close contact with those who taught at Gilead and many missionaries. I hope I was clear in saying that it was only brothers that were needed for the administrative duties not the actual preaching. There was a time in my past that those on the branch committees were rarely local brothers who did not have the necessary administrative abilities. As local brothers qualified and were trained by jws from outside the country, they would be brought on the branch committee. Sisters who made their own arrangements through the branch were not "missionaries" under the immediate direction of the branch etc.

  Many missionaries found the living circumstances in their assignment a big surprise and even the "European" missionaries proved to be an irritant to the other missionaries. Not many lasted longer than 10 years or contracted some chronic disease. I met a sister who contracted polio (her parents did not believe in vaccination). She was a quadriplegic and had to come back to the US to qualify for medical care.

  I met a black couple from the eastern US that had a lesson in what is black and what is not. The local jws bunched them with the white jws from the States and Europe rather than seeing them as part of their social group.

  Whatever the case, single sisters had no value in Gilead except as the wife of a candidate.
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  fulano

  The greatest challenge of missionary-work is, in my opinion, as I wrote here many years ago....the missionary-home. Living together as strangers, from different cultures is just not easy, and no course ( that's what Gilead is when you are used to wordly education), can prepare you to that.

  Day after day living with people who never had learned how to handle a fork or/and knife, speaking loud with their mouth full of rice or bread, instead of taking a shower spraying " old spice" is hard.

  Then morning worship, in the local language, hearing the strong accent of Some of the biggest countries in the world in Spanish, after years and years making the same mistakes and errors....thanks who ever to be liberated of that.Than the art of cooking of some, horrible.

  Anyway this is off-topic I know.
• 

  wifibandit

  Single Sisters are eligible to go to the School for Kingdom Evangelizers. They could theoretically get assigned as missionary's, but I've only heard of them getting "Special Pioneer" status.
• 

  fulano

  In fact many missionaries never went to any training at all.