Pioneers Assist Others program

by rocketman 13 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  rocketman

  I was still an elder and I was present at the elder's school about three years ago when it was announced that the PAO program would be re-introduced (it was evidently in practice some years before).

  The program was a problem from day one. It was very hard pairing publishers with pioneers. Publishers who were approached and asked to participate felt that they were being thought of as "weak". Some pioneers were very lax in getting together with publishers, and vice versa. Some pairings did not last past the first time spent together in service. In many cases, I was surprised how many pubs did not like the pioneers they were assigned to. You could tell by their reaction. One pioneer called me once and told me she just gave up getting a publisher assigned to her out into service.

  Was anyone here in that program? Or do you have anything to relate about it?

  My daughter was in, and the pioneer assigned to her called her twice to go out in service in 6 months. Any other arrangements were made by me. I was not the only elder to feel that the program should be put back in the scrap bin.
• 

  JT

  o yes i am laughing my A$$ off, cause that WAS THE JOKE OF THE DAY

  i recall we were like can't the boys in service come up with anything better

  and the way it was handled in some congo was a joke

  some congo POSTED ON THE BOARD THE NAMES OF THE WEAK FRIENDS WHO WOLD BE ASSISTED along with the Strong spiritual piioneer assigned to them

  the pio hated it cause they were accustomed to 4-8 hour days, while pub are good for at least 45 min door to door and 20 min of RV and then it's a day\

  so many pioneeer were pissed off cause these folks missed up thier time\

  while working with another pioneer at least the two of you could stay out, but so many of the "weak" would call it quits- they hated that program

  once again another HalfA$$ idea from the service dept
• 

  rebel

  Hi rocketman,

  My son and daughter were on this programme. My son worked with the assigned pioneer roughly 6 or 7 times and my daughter only worked with the pioneer once because this sister (a really obnoxious wife of an elder) didn't like her or think she was spiritual enough. She used to make arrangements to work with others and then pretend that she had completely forgotten to contact my daughter. She would also say she had tried to contact my daughter but the phone had been engaged which was a lie. My daughter was quite hurt about it at the time.

  xxR
• 

  undercover

  You've got 5 meetings a week at an hour each. Preparation for them that should be more extensive than the study themselves so you're looking at another 5 hours minimum. Publishers should get 2 hours a week in service. You have to prepare for service. Should take an hour. Pioneers have to get 18-20 hours each. Elders have elder meetings to go to and sheperding calls to make along with those midnight phone calls from the completely incompetent publisher who can't decide for himself if he should take that new job or not. Family heads are supposed to study with their family. Another one or two hours. Got to clean the hall/mow the lawn/repair the gutter/roof/driveway/etc. Couple more hours. Elders have to prepare meeting parts, sometimes assembly parts. And then to top it all off, a program of firguring out who needs help in service, matching up the "weak" one with a suitable pioneer(if they're willing) and getting them out in service, and then making sure it happens and works. Yea right. Elders are going to kill themselves to make sure this works.

  Come to think of it, I was asked(before I did the big fade) if I would work with a pioneer. I was kinda caught by surprise so I answered in the affirmative, even though I didn't want to. The elder said he would let me know what pioneer he would assign to me. Never heard back about it. Oh well.
• 

  Gopher

  This program was a special provision from JEHOVAH himself, right? Then how come it was such a flop. The Bible says all his works are good. Oh well.

  This program should have been called "Pioneers RESIST others".
• 

  jurs

  I was on this program!!! I didn't like the pioneer sister that had been assigned to me but I didn't say anything. It didn't work out very well. Nothing changed. It wasn't very well organized . I also felt like I had been labeled weak but I already knew that................Soooooooooooo glad those days are over!!!

  jurs
• 

  rocketman

  lol@ Gopher's name for it...resist indeed!

  undercover, very true. A good commentary on your psrt on how the jw reigion consumes so much of one's life.

  hi rebel - sorry to hear that your daughter was lied to like that and plus looked down on by that elder's wife pioneer (no wonder she thought so highly of herself - elder's wife plus pioneer!).
• 

  logansrun

  As a pioneer/MS, I had the privelege of assisting three brothers locate all the Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts on the north side of Chicago.

  Bradley
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  blondie

  My husband told the service overseer that any pioneer was fine except one, because she was such a gossip. Guess which one the SO offered me? You got, Sister Gossip. So I was labeled as being uncooperative. I found out that 4 sisters had refused to paired with her. It's just to look good. The intention was not to do anything constructive for either the pioneer or the "weak" one. Not a single person was helped by the program in the congregation I went to. Some "weak" ones went through it 2 times, still no change. The pioneers lacked any real enthusiasm and felt they had no choice but to participate.

  Blondie (I remember the last time they tried this in 1978-1979 when the overall number of JWs dipped with almost a 2 percent decrease; it didn't work then either)
• 

  Scully

  When I first heard about this program, I was amazed. I mean REALLY!! This is the LOVING WORLDWIDE BROTHERHOOD we're talking about here!! And they need a PROGRAM to tell the people who are supposed to be setting an EXAMPLE for everyone else to SHOW LOVE and KINDNESS and BASIC HUMAN DECENCY to people who need to be shown LOVE and KINDNESS and ENCOURAGEMENT and BASIC HUMAN DECENCY.

  What's wrong with this picture??

  Love, Scully