"Not of Our Sort" Part I (page 2)

nojw86

CULT written on their hearts, such a sad story , but sadly there are so many more. Glad that I am not one of their sort. nojw

Kismet

We had this young guy start studying. He was a construction worker with very rugged Italian good looks. When he walked into the hall, the swarm of sisters was incredible!! (I'll call him Rocky)

Well Rocky was really rough around the edges, he took his time in studying but progressed to baptism. This guy had a heart of gold. Just as the brother you ention TMS, Rocky went out of his way to help people and often was taken advantage of due to his generous nature. At the Kingdom Hall he was the first to grab the vaccuum or mop after the meeting. When renovations were needed he was there at 6 am gettting started long before the elders showed up at 10.

We had to replace the front stairs one weekend, Rocky ripped apart the old stairs by himself and had already started building the forms for the new ones by the time the "brother responsible" showed up.

It came time to discuss new Ministerial Servants. Rocky's name was brought up. The elders laughed. Oh we all love him (he's coming over to my place to fix my chimmney bragged the PO) but he doesn't want to read off the platform he is too scared to say a prayer from the platform. So they moved on. This happened for 5 years.

Finally one meeting prior to the CO's visit it was time for this same discussion. three of us newly appointed elders decided we would take a stand. We espoused his generosity, his Christian good works and that as a Ministerial Servant it wasn't about teaching ability. We read through the qualifications in Timothy, no where did it say he had to do public talks or public reading.

It took 45 minutes to convince the rest of the body that Rocky was not only qualified by that all in the room should imitate the guy!

So much for Holy Spirit. It took three upstarts to take a stand and force the issue.

While not being appointed as an MS is not life endangering, it is very discouraging and shows how stupid elders can be in their handling of real Christian people.

Kismet

LDH

Kis you are right and wrong in the same breath.

While not being 'life-endangering' in the real sense, anyone who's slaved for years for the approval of the elders and can't get it will tell you how rejected they feel.

They feel like they are not good enough for JEHOVAH, getting him all mixed up with those untrained skilled volunteers JT refers to.

I know a sister in my old congregation who has always told me she would not survive armegeddon and she want' worthy. She was just going to keep on doing what she was doing and pray Jehovah would have mercy on her. Her crime?

Her husband was an unbeliever. The bookstudy used to be held in her home before the edict came down that it shouldn't be held in the home of an unbeliever. (It's ok to go knock on their doors and convert them, but if they show hospitality by allowing the cong. bookstudy, you MUST REJECT IT because they are not true Christians.)

Ever since that time, she has just barely hung in there. The elders know, (cause I know I've told at least two) they said it's her problem they can't convince anyone that they're going to survive armegeddon. (If this is true--why do JW go door to door?)

thinker

Thank you TMS,
This ones a "keeper".

SanFranciscoJim

If I may quote David Bowie from one of his songs on his Space Oddity album:

"We had a friend, a talking man
who spoke of many powers he had.
Not of the best of friends, but ours.
We used him. We let him use his powers.
We let him fill our needs. Now we are strong."

The hair is standing up on the back of my neck as I type this....

TMS

I passed by Bill's old house yesterday. It's a little run down. He's been gone over thirty years now. He was such a square peg for our righteous theocratic round hole, but everyone accepted his generosity. I wish I had been a little older, wiser during that time. . . . . . . .He was such a do-er. After his divorce left him financially dry(by his own acquiesence), he rode a moped from Brownsville, TX to New York. . worked in construction for the summer. . made $20,000. . operating cranes, etc. This was the 60's. He set out on a worldwide tour of the branch facilities, etc. to make a non-sanctioned film for the Society. No one could talk him out of it. LOL! Just so much I could tell. . . .

tms

Abandoned

Sounds like an interesting person. I'm glad you shared your experiences with us.

TMS

This topic was posted 6-1/2 years ago. I don't think anyone who originally posted to this thread still posts on JWD. Bill saw a need and fulfulled without asking permission. Our Kingdom Hall then some faded, sorry wooden letters. He replaced them with beautiful brass designating Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses. He also replaced our primitive mail slot with a six slots for all of the major players at the Kingdom Hall including himself. He was barely regarded as a JW, so this was removed. (I was honored briefly to have my own mail slot at a very young age. LOL!) I mentioned in the thread the Town Hall restaurant. It was sort of a Chamber of Commerce, Rotary Club type restaurant. All the players in the city used it. Bill caught my wife and I there once. He found the waiter and changed our hamburger order to filet mignon. We were pioneers and I was making about $30.00 a week. Needless to say, we had never had filet mignon. Bill would sometimes convince people on the strength of his personal magnetism to visit the Kingdom Hall, but we never could retain them.

tms

Confession

Enjoyed this story (and the whole idea behind this thread), TMS. I feel like I know this guy.

JWdaughter

Your old friend sounds like he was quite a character. It does seem that the more interesting and vibrant a person you are, the less likely you are to 'fit in' at the congregations, huh? I'm glad to be 'not of their sort' as I know so many of you are also-we are in good company. I could only aspire to be interesting enough to be rejected for my colorfulness alone (you know the smoking was just an excuse-he put them all to shame from the get go.)

"Not of Our Sort" Part I

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