Book Studies in Your Home (page 3)

onacruse

Hux:

What is it about sitting on metal folding chairs during bookstudy that make you have to fart as never before?

LOLOL...our old KH had vinyl seats--same syndrome.

Carmel, we've got to get together again soon! Been too long, ya old beach-fart.

Most of my growing up years it was at our house. I did like that it was only an hour, even if it was a boring one at least it was over quickly, and I liked not having to leave home. Especially as teenagers, we couldn't WAIT for everyone to leave. The second the door shut behind the last person, that TV went on. I swear half the time they weren't even off the porch before we turned it on. Couldn't miss Roseanne for anything! I remember hating the nights that someone would feel chatty and stick around. We'd all watch the clock hoping they didn't run into our TV time.

I was also changed out of my dress clothes as soon as I possibly could. I couldn't WAIT to change back into my comfy clothes. We usually had goody nights once a month or so as well.

We had a pretty small group, usually 15 or less, and we made up 5 of the number. I remember one or two nights where no one else came, probably a winter storm, and we got out of it all together. Even though my dad was/is an elder, at least he had his priorities straight!

eyeslice

Had the group in my home for years and years. Like others, we particularly found it useful when we had small children - a night in as opposed to getting them ready to go out, coming back late and having to get them to bed.

However, I noticed in recent years that it has on occasions been difficult to find homes to host the groups. Way back, when people had less they weren't bothered about people coming into their homes with mud on their shoes and the general wear and tear that having a group entails. But nowadays many Witnesses particularly younger one have smart modern homes and the reluctance of these to host a group study was an issue debated at elders meetings.

bisous

We had one at our house, my evil rat bastard child molesting stepfather was a ministerial servant at the time, oh pillar of society (the watchtower society that is)

Not only was he a rat bastard he was a cheapskate rat bastard who rationed the food to the few of us who lived there, so no there was never any food provided to any of the poor shmucks who came.

And I hated it just like all the other meetings.

Next time I'll try not to hold back so much and tell you how I really feel. Hysterical

meat pie

I never had the book study at my home, but, as Eyeslice says there was great reluctance to hold the group at their home, so when the regular home was not available for a couple of weeks the question was raised at the group and everyone was looking at their shoes digging in bags etc,... so I shouted up. 'You can all come up to my place if you like'. Most ignored me, a couple laughed outloud! Now my place has plenty of parking and at least 1/3 of the group lived in my lane.The conductor ignored me when he saw the reaction. Snobs!!! Our place is scruffy none of the furniture matches and I can never get all the dog hairs vacuumed up. But they really would have been welcome, and my non-JW husband would have made them welcome too. Their loss.

S.

blondie

I can remember the down side.

One child turned on the water in the bathroom upstairs during the meeting and it wasn't noticed until it was cascading down the stairs.

Some children routinely looked through the bedrooms after going to the bathroom and took souvenirs. The home owners finally put locks on the bedroom doors.

One sister had sticky fingers and there was always something "missing" every week.

One child routinely abused the family's cat/dog and it had to be locked up.

One child wrote on the walls in the hallway.

Someone always raided the medicine in the bathroom unless it was locked up. (Every heard of the marble trick? Fill up the cabinet with marbles....)

tazmaniac

Marble trick....LOL...I never thought of that. I remember one book study in the creation book. A sister tried to make a comment about some "living organism". It came out Living ORGASM. When she tried to correct herself it came out orgasm again. We were laughing so hard we had to cancel the last 15 mins of the bookstudy.

buffalosrfree

My wife and I had the book study in our house, we had been asked and i didn't want it because we were already in a book study

that we were very happy with. but they kept asking us and i told them no, but they persisted and finally told me who would bethere. we agreed and guess what, no one that they told me would be there was, we had all the less desirelable one from the cong assigned and the elder leading had all the charisma of a snail, we hated it and opted out 6 months later, when it was announced the the book studies would meet for field service at the locale where they had thier book study. that was it. we refused.

jws

We had one from about the time I was 4 or 5 until my mid teens. So, 10 years, give or take. It had it's pluses and minuses.

Ours was in our basement, so boots and shoes were OK. But the bathroom was upstairs. Sometimes you could hear people to to the bathroom, flush the toilet, then go wandering to other parts of the house. Since our room became the dumping ground for "get it out of sight" cleaning, it was kind of embarassing to have people in our room. At one point, we started locking our doors. Our mom protested that that would be insulting to people. But, if they didn't try to open our doors, they would never know they were locked. If they did, they deserved to be insulted.

It also meant being ready 52 weeks a year (except vacations). No matter what kind of day you had, you had to be open for business by bookstudy time. Even if you just got home 30 minutes earlier, even if the snow and driveway had to be plowed, etc.

On the plus side, the common areas of the house were kept in pretty good shape. We installed lighting downstairs which really brightened it up and made the space more useful after the bookstudy ended. And once the bookstudy was over, we could go upstairs and get back to things like homework immediately. And I thought of it as kind of a privilege. Even though I was riding my parent's coattails, it sort of made us feel more "spiritual".

willyloman

Based on the comments here, most people enjoyed having the BS in their home. We had one for a long time, 10 years or more. It had its ups and downs. The good part was all the stuff that's been mentioned: You could control the environment, schedule "goody night," dress a little more casually (no jackets for guys, for instance), one less night to have to leave the house, etc.

The bad part: When only two or three people showed up and you had to conduct the meeting anyway, despite the fact that those present rarely answered. Or when only one other brother showed up and got to demonstrate his lack of reading ability. Or when the CO would go on the warpath and insist that the elders schedule all Saturday field service groups to meet at their book study site and every week the same few people showed up for FS and you had to work with them. If they were whack jobs, this made Saturdays doubly painful.

Book Studies in Your Home