Love or Hate Field Service (page 2)

Kagloo

Re: Field Service.... Just a personal point of view.

For a long time... a very long time... I went on the ministry without giving it much thought... it was just something that we did! Sometimes I enjoyed it but others times I was just on automatic pilot!

But recently I have changed my view of the ministry altogether... it's no longer about hours or mags or books its about people, real people with whom I want to share the stuff that I have in my heart. It's about listening instead of talking all the time and hey guess what... I love it!

Now it's just me and my Bible... oh sure I still offer folks literature if they really want it. But more often than not I just listen and then talk a bit then listen a lot more and then share a scripture with them - if they want me to - and dignify them with the right to agree or not... then I leave them smiling - if that's possible... and I move on.

In my opinion the preaching work that I do is not primarily about Armageddon or destruction or about ramming my Bible down people's throats it's about doing the simplest thing that I could have been asked to do... listening and talking!

Before he went to heaven The Master said go and "teach people all the things that I have commanded you"... and that's what I try to do. Perhaps not everything I say to people will prove to be 100% but I think that most of it will.

Looking through some of the comments in some sections of this site I see so much hatred and negative things that I just wanted to offer my PERSONAL, and I hope positive point of view.

Even if I had lived 500 years ago I would still want to talk to people about Jehovah and about Jesus, and whether the end of this sytem comes now or in 500 years I am proud that I was able to have a share in doing the things that Jesus did.

Cheers.

bikerchic

I hated it and only went to keep from being inactive.

Kate

TresHappy

I enjoyed it when I was with some decent people, which was rare. We would have a good laugh, while placing magazines in laundrymats and going to Braum's for ice cream. The best fun for me was when it was raining and we did return visits with the old people who loved having company. We could get several hours visiting with those folks. Then it got to be drudgery with a capital D. I look back and cannot believe I actually sometimes enjoyed going out in field service!

Strawberryfieldsforever

I hated going out in service. After I'd knock on the door, I'd hope that nobody would answer. I even left right away, so they wouldn't get the chance to come. I hated trying to answer questions that I was never prepared to answer. I hated weekends because you were expected to go out with the groups. I always wished I could stay home and work around the house or garden without the guilt trip. If you didn't show up, someone would always ask "where were you yesterday, we all had such a wonderful time"!

Carmel

Hated it!! Selling rags for a big corporation sucks!

carmel

cyber-sista

Remember when they used to tell us that the reason many didn't enjoy field service was because you weren't doing it enough and the more you did it the more Jehovah's spirit would bless you and the more you would love it? (The old taste and see if Jehovah is good routine.)

Well, the more I did the more I didn't like it and then I would feel bad and think that there was something wrong with me--why didn't I feel like I was suppose to feel? I shudder to think of it all... Sure was a bunch of twisted mind games they played on us.

Sassy

I HATED IT.. actually hadn't gone for a yr before I stopped going to meetings and before then, only minimal time.

meat pie

At first I felt like Kagloo does. I really wanted to tell anyone and everyone what I thought was something great. I had naievely expected people to want to listen. The first call I made - someone was home, an elderly lady who said she went to the Kirk every Sunday and she wasn't interested in the Bible.Little did I know that it was to be one of the most productive calls I ever made. I still felt enthusiastic, week after week, month after month. Slowly realising that I'd go weeks, no- months without getting anyone at home. Even if I did, they only took the mags in a -yeah ok now go away- kind of way.Once I even came back with more mags than I went out with, as someone returned a heap! Thanks! Once in a while someone seemed like they wanted to talk, on the return there was no-one home, time and time again. When we were out far away from home, we were actively discouraged from trying to get a return visit. we were going somewhere different next time and we wouldn't be back here till next year, if then! After what I thought looked like a hopeful call, an elder actually said to me, "Do you really want to come all the way back here again?"

I gradually realised that nearly all the others were just finding ways to fill their time, walking v-e-r-y slowly.Long coffee breaks, time to go back now! I was angry that they could answer up at the meetings about 'the privelidge' of the ministry etc when it was a big lie.Almost no-one wants to hear and almost no-one wants to teach. The zillions of hours in the yearbooks, WHAT? I often said we should have stopwatches, we'd be lucky(Irony intended) to really speak to people who wanted to listen for more than an hour or so a year.

Towards the end we had the start of the Foot and Mouth in UK. I said I did not want to go out while that was on," Oh but we should wait till we're told,"- viruses don't know about Brooklyn was my attitude.About the same time there was a paedophile JW report on the radio and TV every bulletin. I said it was crass insensitivety to go on the min with all this going on. I got a lot of sideways looks! The ministry was just an excuse for a lot of back-biting bitching too! I honestly never met such a bunch of back-stabbing hypocrites.

Things stared to crumble. The hypocrisy, the lies. And what FOR anyway.I had better things to do at home.

So, sorry to go on, but in short, I started out thinking it would be great and soon realised it was a bunch of rubbish., and stopped - just like that!

Shirley.

Lady Lee

I admire those who can go to the doors with nothing but a Bible and a message. I think that is what it is supposed to be.

My concern is that those who do this with a good heart and the best of intentions are actually paving the way for the next JW/literature peddlar and wind up setting up the person to think this publishing company is actually a religion.

Love or Hate Field Service