by Englishman 28 Replies latest jw friends
LOL @ Larc
We used to have a holiday place up the coast, where Dad was planning to build a house and retire. When we went up there, we'd go to the meetings and go witnessing!!
Other times we went on holidays, it was only for a week here or there, so Dad didn't worry about going to the meetings. We went to Tasmania for 2 weeks once, but we went to the District Convention first, so he reasoned that was enough spiritual food to cover us for the time we were on holiday!
Attend meetings while on holiday? You must be absolutely barking.
It was hard enough to get me to a meeting when I was at home.
francois
Talk about binding heavy loads...
I never went to a meeting on vacation, but it was amazing the sense of guilt I felt.
They say, but do not perform. They make the rules, but when they are on vacation - they are on vacation. (the GB)
I can't imagine being forced to attend 5 meetings a week, and then being shouldered with guilt for not being able to attend all the meetings while on vacation.
Whenever my husband and I travel, we usually find a local protestant church in the neighborhood to attend. We look at how close and what time (11 am is nicer) more than the specific denomination.
But we are FREE. We don't have to go, and we don't feel guilty if we don't. (We are always glad we did, though.) We really enjoy the fellowship of worshiping God with others--it isn't a burden at all!
Guilt is a horrible motivator! Especially for anything long-term.
In total agreement with francois - just the thought of such a suggestion would have been revolting, and, as with francois, it was difficult enough to get me to attend a meeting at any time toward the end of my sentence, regardless of vacations.
cheeses - who never ceases to be amazed at the extent of the WTS attempts to control their hostages.
jst2laws, I was thinking about those KM parts. When we were more spiritual, we did attend a few meetings on vacation. I have to say that we met some very nice people who took us out to eat and some that invited us to stay with them. But the "spiritual food" didn't matter to us. I have to admit that some congregations ignored us totally.
I have found though that elders are the worst offenders when it comes to justifying not going. They always say they conduct their own meeting. See, they are elders and can do that. Brothers who aren't MS or elders, or sisters, can't do that because they lack the congregational authority (hmmm).
Last year we didn't go to any meetings. We didn't have to bring any meeting clothes or books. We didn't have to arrange our schedule to stop on the road to go to a nearby KH. It was great. Of course, we are on vacation from all meetings now.
Blondie
Mulan and my sister in law actually went out in service while vacationing in Hawaii one year. Pioneers, sheesh!
Yeah...........that was amazing, to think back on it. We got to go to the pioneer meeting too. The CO was visiting and was an old friend of ours, and invited us. At the time, we thought it was fun. It was a different experience anyway, from the same old same old.
Oh yes. EVERY time we went on holiday, number one priority was finding the local KH. I would usually volunteer to be map reader and 'helpfully' send us in the opposite direction to where the KH was but it didn't usually work. The worst time was in Spain and my parents had got prepared by learing the spanish for 'Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses' and would stop every passer by to try and find out where it was. After a whole afternoon of wandering round we found it and found out when the next meeting was and we had to go. If you think it is hell on earth sitting thru a meeting, that is nothing compared to sitting thru a meeting which was totally in Spanish and we couldnt understand a word. Somehow Elder Dad kept up with which paragraph they were on in the WT and he actually answered. In English. I wanted the ground to open up, I really did. They all just looked at him like he was on drugs or something. And then for the rest of the holiday my Dad was just droning on about 'Jehovah's Pure Language' and how wonderful it had been attending the Spanish meeting. Good God.
Until some years ago, I always attended one meeting during the holiday. Mostly to satisfy my curiosity on how the KH looked like, how the congregations make-up where, and what kind of reception we got. I always attended the TS/TMS meeting, being the most "varied" meeting in a foreign language. Altogether I’ve been to 11 branch offices, to assemblies in 7 countries, meetings in 15 countries, and preaching in six countries. At the time, I did enjoy it... (On one holiday, we "forced" another elder to come with us. He did not understand the point at all of going to a meeting in another country. After all, we had holiday. That was the last time we went... (Getting our children disciplined from impolite attendants did not help either).
