Did you ever volunteer at or visit Bethel? What were your impressions when you were in the WBTS vs. now (looking back)?

by Poindexter Lionel Humperdique 27 Replies latest watchtower bible

• 

  OnTheWayOut

  I was in the U.S. Navy before I became a JW. The pioneer couple that studied with me really wanted me to become their coveted "bragging-rights" student-to-JW-to-Bethelite. I didn't feel a desire to go work for free at Bethel, so I took a more traditional path and got married.

  So roughly 4 years after baptism, my wife and I took the pilgramage to Bethel. We knew a Bethelite who gave us the tour and he didn't have any lunch-guest passes but got us in for dinner at Bethel.

  I got the vibe that working at Bethel was just like being at sea in the Navy- plenty of work and very little rest. At least in the Navy, we had plenty of downtime when we pulled into foreign ports. I was so happy I didn't even consider a "career" at Bethel.
• 

  hoser

  I went to visit one of the branches a number of years ago. It was only our family on the tour they gave us. As we walked past the kingdom hall at the branch the sister giving us the tour said "theres the kingdom hall, but we go to a different one. It gives us a chance to get out of this place at least once a week."

  She said it in such a tone that I knew she hated it at bethel. A mind awakening moment for me

  hoser
• 

  life is to short

  I was at Bethel as a married sister. It beat the heck out of serving where the need was great as my husband and Iwere doing piror to Bethel. Even though the schedule was very busy at Bethel I still had way more free time then pioneering where the need was great. With pioneering I was never home, I was always either out in service or working or sitting in the car waiting for my husband to come out of one of his endless elder meetings.

  In fact at Bethel it was the first time ever in our than four year marriage that we even had time together as a couple, before my husband was always gone doing some Congo thing. We were just ships that passed in the night. I talked to the CO when we were serving where the need was great and told him I was really loosing it. The CO berated me and told me I was being selfish and the Jehovah needed my husband, I knew that when I married him that I was marrying the only elder in the hall and I had no right to take my husbands time away from Jehovah. I could have a marriage in the new system.

  Now looking back I realize that the hall was a hall from HELL and that the CO did not want to deal with the problems and he was dumping on my husband.

  So to me Bethel was wonderful in many, many ways, at least I could go home in the eveings on non meeting nights instead of sitting in the car or working untill one or two in the moring to support pioneering, I at least had somewhat more of a life and even more money as the little bit we got at Bethel did not have to go for gas in field service, every cent we had pioneering went to car gas and car reparis as none of the other pioneers gave a dime to us to help out. So as crazy as Bethel might have been pioneering to me was way worse.

  LITS
• 

  moomanchu

  I visted Brooklyn about 30 times and the farm twice.

  I rememeber my brother taking us in to see the governing bodies offices after every one was gone.

  (very taboo and privledged)

  I felt like I was walking into the most holy of the holy in the tabernacle. LOL

  With Bethel leaving Brooklyn I have a question,

  in NYC they had ample congregations to divy up all the bethelites throughout the NYC boroughs.

  Now that they are moving to rural upstate NY where will all these bethelites go to attend meetings?

  Bethelite only congregations?

  Won't this just create a more isolated ivory tower of holy bethelites and annointed if they have their own seperate congregations?
• 

  breakfast of champions

  MOOMANCHU - the Bethelites are being assimilated into the existing congs in and around USNY. Some congregations are even "splitting" due to the huge influx. Some will be driving 1hr+ one-way to go to meetings.
• 

  Found Sheep

  upstate NY congregations. I don't know the exact year some time in the 80's I lived in a congregation that had bethelites. It went from maybe five to about 1/2 the congregation. The congregation suffered a lot. They were in charge, made extra rules, the congregation had to act like they were all bethelites. The bad part was when needed they were just not there. The local elders did all the work but had no control. Learning more are moving to upstate is going to be a disaster - I HOPE! wake up a few I hope FS
• 

  snare&racket

  Thg were not interested in me, I was a worker for them to exploit in the factory,

  the hours were lomg, the work was hard, the accomodation and living standards were basic, the food was basic and you were made to feel VERY appreciative of your food and lodging, not like you were earning it.

  you weren't part of the team or organisation, you were simply a worker.

  I was brought up once to the office because it had been reported that I had my heating on AND had a window open In my bedroom. One of my pals, a resl nice lad, fell asleep on duty twice following some shifts that went on until 11pm, he was sent home from bethel shamed.

  the worst thing for me was printing (what i think now maybe was illegal) literature for african and it was in such low quantities, i asked why and they said they couldn't afford much so shared a magazine per cong etc in some places. This was in the uk and 5 years after supposedly making the literature free based on the verse 'come take life's waters free.'

  this confused me until I also noticed that we changed paper every week, as s charity you have to purchase the chespest paper that week so different psper was used, it screwed up the press snd hence some magazines have a slight different tone of colour and feel to others in the same batch. Anyway likewise because they were now a chsrity and avoiding tax, the literature had to be free...... So that literature we made at night for France must have been illegal, noto mention unethical.

  But yes, it opened my eys..... The people running the joint were not people I would want to emulate as a human being, even as a JW. There were lot's of ego's and drunk on power men. The irony being they were simply fsctory staff, not only that, but factory staff with NO WAGE. It is amazing what people will do for free if you call it s privileage,

  snare x
• 

  WTWizard

  Sounds like a good thing I blew it off. Short meal periods, lots of hustle and bustle, wasting time and gas going to boasting sessions (and yes, this is very "not green"--legitimately so), and strict rules make it a good thing to not go. And for what? Poverty? I don't think so.

  And I am not in favor of wasting scarce resources. Paper, gas, energy--and in that organization, if you see something that is blatantly wasting energy, you shut up about it. Even at the Kingdumb Hell, I never saw anything recycled and I saw huge wastes of electricity in the form of inefficient lighting and lousy climate control (even beyond just being there is a waste of energy). Seems that everything at Beth Hell is even worse--no recycling, no cutting back on energy use with efficiency, no nothing. For a company that is so conscious of "political correctness" and "preservation of the environment", they are doing a lousy job--they are helping destroy the environment.
• 

  Julia Orwell

  I never had much to do with bethel except for a couple of official tours in bethels at international dc cities, in which case they pump hundreds of people through each hour and have all the printing and working offline, and provide lunch etc. I also had lunch at Myanmar bethel once, but it's a small place so not much was going on and most of the workers commuted from share houses nearby.

  But this is what my impression was overall: a highly regimented life where you had to keep your room clean all the time. The rooms at Myanmar bethel were Spartan with three beds. The ones in Sydney were a bit plusher. The people who worked there and gave us tours etc seemed to have the 'if you were truly righteous you'd be here or serving where the need is great. Oh it's such a blessing to be here.'

  And I noticed the kingdom hall adjoining the Sydney bethel had microphones attached to every seat, so you didn't have two guys running the mikes all meeting. That struck me at the time and continued cropping up in my mind ever after that if jws are supposed to be equal, then y did the bethelites have their own mikes? Why were their chairs not those thinly upholstered, ergonomically bereft back crunchers the rest of us had? For some reason their chairs and mikes really struck me.
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  stillin

  I appeared at the door of Brooklyn Bethel on a Saturday afternoon as a result of my job. I knocked on the door and two or three tried to wave me away, saying that it was after hours for visitors. But one brother took me in and gave me a quick tour. It was kind of him to do that.I wasn't impressed by the facility, but I could say now that I had seen it.

  recently, a local couple went to help with construction. The brother complained how the temps were kept separate from the bethelItes.