by minimus 36 Replies latest jw friends
The pressure was pretty intense and I usually pioneered every April and October, and finally was a regular auxiliary pioneer most of the time (except July and August) for about two years. It became pretty easy so it was a natural transition to become a regular pioneer. So I did.
What a waste of time. I sure wish I had it all back.
I remember when I first got out of school at 18 years of age, and the elder approached me and asked me if I was going to continue the "family tradition" and also regular pioneer. I told him that I didn't really know and that if I did pioneer it wouldn't be because my family had done it before me. He seemed astonished by my candidness.I did pioneer for 2 years. 100 hours per month....(the good old days). I helped bring in a family of 6 into the "truth" as well as a number of others that I studied with. And yes, as far as I know, there still in the organization. I really never enjoyed service. So after the second year, I got a "real job" and later got married. I think I auxiliary pioneered maybe, 3 times after that and hated doing it.
The pressure of being an elder's wife, to pioneer, is amazing. Circuit Overseer: "Brother King, is your wife a pioneer?" Dave: Well, no, she is a full time mother and homemaker." Circuit Overseer: "Oh, I understand. Maybe you can work with her on that." He hated that so much, but I really wanted to anyway, but wasn't Supermom, so waited until I only had one child at home, so it was more do-able.
"Maybe you can work with her on that".....I'd like to tell the Circuit Overseer to BLANK OFF. What was your husband supposed to do? Counsel you??? Order you?.....It's so patheticly dumb. It gets me angry.
oh gawd, Mulan, those CO's really knew how to put pressure on people. And they had such a handle on real life! NOT
j2bf
My mom was pressured into it a few times and gave in. She finally got a job so she didn't have to lie anymore. I was just pressured to get baptised. That didn't work either. yaaaaay for me
I have an ex sister in law, who said one CO told her he knew of women who got pregnant just so they had an excuse to NOT pioneer. Now, of course, she won't talk to me.
in the 70's when we were pioneering as a couple and aspiring to higher goals <gag> there was a saying "if you're nervous in the service and you don't know what to do.......have a baby!"
yeah, those babies come at great times. It was horrible at Bethel when a couple got <gasp> prego!!! It was like a funeral, sorry to see another couple HAVE to leave. Tsk, tsk. What a warped way of looking at things.
When we were in high school every school vacation in the summer a talk was given reminding us that this was the perfect opportunity to give your all to jehovah by auxilary pioneering. my sisters all did it but i just was never a morning person. i went out a little more in the summer but quite frankly i enjoyed my morning snooze and would rather do chores and then watch Bonanza than go in service. Fortunately my mother never pushed the issue. Probably since she was always off and rarely ever pioneered.
flower
For those of us raised in the "truth", when you got out of school, you were EXPECTED to preach fulltime. Forget about even thinking of college or of getting a good 40 plus hour job. And regarding those that didn't pursue a goal of pioneering, well, they were considered dog doo. Now, you don't have to get pregnant to get out of service. All you got to say is that you want to go to college for a few years so that you can pioneer later...Yeah right!
