by WildTurkey 8 Replies latest jw friends
I was Secretary in my cong, so I know how much the dubs donated, the cong I attended has about 60 publishers, but 5 families supported the whole KH. I guess in my Cong the dubs were obedient to all the "faith slave" said until it hurt their pockets. lol
Edited by - WildTurkey on 1 August 2002 14:51:32
in the congregation here it is the same way,,,,i do not know if it was required or strongly suggested,,,but every elder gave an alotted amount..
about 60 or so publishers...but not a wealthy congregation...the expenses
were mainly handled by just a few....i don't know but i don't think that
this is an uncommon practise.....
I, too, was accounts servant. I also did the audits and annual returns for a few years.
Most of the donations came from a handful of persons, and strangely, they came from persons who had the least. The largest contributors were an old couple (in their 80s), who lived in a modest house. A sister with an unbelieving husband contributed to both the Worldwide Work and Kingdom Hall funds monthly. The wealthiest families contributed very little.
I thought that "donations" were made discretely in the box at the back of the Hall. Didn't realize that the congregation was aware of whom made what contributions.
WT that's about the same thing at my old hall. There were a handful of publishers paying all the bills. Our expenses were right about 1200 a month. I donated 200 myself. We did have a lot of poor people in our hall as is normal with most halls. But I noticed that the poorest ones of all seemed to have the nicest home librarys.
LOL Great post.
The whole time my sister was being counseled for gambling (her choice, no husband no kids, wasn't a gambling addict, just very good at it and it allowed her to live an above average lifestyle)....
the elders counseled her about it every month or so.
But they still cashed those checks she wrote every month, too.
How dare they.
Lisa
Even though I am female we had a shortage of brothers for a while so I got to collect the money and count it and write the receipts and stuff with my brother. But what you say is true. Most of the big money came from about 4 or 5 of the brothers that were well off. We even had a parking lot fund for our Kingdom Hall and only one brother ever gave money for it, over the course of two or three years he practically bought the whole parking lot himself!
Although I have no idea what the donation status of the local cong (who gives more and what have you) but it doesn't surprise me a bit that there would be a few devout donors and a bunch of slackers. I know one of the MAJOR reasons my husband is attracted to the religion is because he is stingy. The fact that they don't pass an offering plate, and he never has to buy presents at Christmas and for Birthdays ever again really impressed him. This religion is perfect for cheapskates. Reality kicked in when he had to pay for a room for convention last year. Needless to say, we didn't attend this year...LOL...
My Hubby and I use to be very generous in donating. We had a brother(s) who embezzled from us and tried to take over a very lucrative account (approx. $150-175,000 a year). We ended up loosing the acc't, but stopped them from getting it. My Hubby was no longer an elder, so this is how the gossip went. Because Brother so & so is no longer an elder, he is refusing to help support our KH. He lacks humility and was being stingy with all of his money to get even. They seemed to forget that when the poor little theives butchered this account that we had worked for 10 years, that we didn't have the funds anymore to donate what we normally donated. DUH. We still donated, but of course, not what we did before, because we didn't have the same financial income. My Hubby never told me what our donations were. My Hubby would donate and then at the end of the month when there wasn't enough to pay the bills, he'd put in enough to cover the expenses.
Now, there wasn't enough donations to cover the KH expenses, so guess what they did. They took the money donated from the society's building fund & worldwide work fund. We know this because one elder when making the acc't announcement told the entire KH that because some brothers get upset with the elders because they have received needed council and due to their lack of humility now hold back donations to Jehovah to get even. Yes, the elders stole from the WTBTS. These elders all backed the embezzelling brother and their actions (stealing from the society) backed this theiving brother.
We were going through enough s#%t at the time, then to be chastized from the platform like that was so hurtful and humiliating. My little daughter at the time (11) understood exactly what they were doing, and wanted to put money in (piggybank savings) so they wouldn't make that kind of announcement again. She was so confused and scared. I told her Dad still donates every month what we can and that's all one can do. THESE ASSWIPES MADE MY LITTLE GIRL FEEL GUILTY. After that night how they paid their bills was no concern to me. OH except, I would donate about $5-10 worth of pennies so the elder acc't servant HAD to count each penny. Yes, it was worth the donation. They later asked the congregation to please not donate in pennies because it took them sooooooooo long to count and do the accounts. Yes, and as the elder said this I smiled to everyone with my big pearlly whites. I felt satisfied as well as sanctified.
All my neighbors are Morman and they pay 10%. I wish we'd only were required to give only 10%. We'd probably be able to support SILENTLAMBS, PAY OUR BILLS, AND HAVE PLENTY IN RETIREMENT. I could be able to go to all the appostate gatherings and meet all you good folks. Right now I've got $10.00 to pay for my daughter's DR. co-pay when I take her in today. But, at least I have that.
Life is a B#%@*h, but it will get better.
Love,
SUSCARRA
