WATON:
Good you are active for your age. I am many years out with a few single women JW friends I occasionally keep in touch with. One gets financial help from non-JW relatives. They imagine they can entice me back. They can’t. I explained to them what I would face with regard to being asked for money and what my response would be.
From what I have heard, the ‘needy’ don’t actively or obviously look for handouts nor would the congregations offer it. They would be discouraged from asking because it’s bad ‘optics’.
Everything is done privately or quietly- unless it’s like the woman who came up to me. Otherwise, elders do it on their behalf. 🙄 When I was ‘in’ elders would privately approach me with an envelope. They don’t DO this in front of other people - and they know WHO to approach.
I would never presume to tell anybody else what to do. But, I’m the one who got criticized for my full-time job, and I would never forget this.. I don’t want anybody with selective memory loss coming near me asking for anything for anybody. Other people can throw their money around like confetti. That’s their business.
It is also good that you mention about local ‘wealthy’ benefactors taking care of retired COs/DOs.. I would certainly never give anything to them after they criticized responsible working people like myself.
As far as local financial predators preying on ‘retirees’ and the ‘naive’, I would be immune to them. It’s just as well I am out many years. My JW friends can hope in vain because I’d never deal with any of this!
