Too Good To Be True Yearbook Experiences (page 2)

Corvin

*** yb02 p. 45 Africa ***

Grant is an eight-year-old publisher in the Copperbelt Province of Zambia. When just a toddler, he could not only relate simple stories about the pictures in the book The Greatest Man Who Ever Lived, but also put together one hour public talks for the unread elders in the his congregation. Grant?s parents forced him to memorize portions of the Bible before he could read. This made little Grant a nutjob before the age of two. Now he serves as an unbaptized publisher, works the literature counter, writes policy for the whole association of brothers, and loves to watch Barny each morning before field service. Grant conducts many Bible studies, some with the help of the publication My Book of Bible Stories and the rest with the brochure What Does God Require of Us? Because of his zealous activity, local children call Grant shimapepo mukalamba atalaya revista culero, meaning in the Cibemba language "the really messed up kid who won't shut the hell up about the Watchtower."

[my embellishment]

Gopher

My wife and I had been JW's while living in different parts of the country, yet we both heard the same experience told at an assembly.

It has a couple variations, but the basic idea is: A missionary or pioneer couple were just barely surviving materially, and continued to pioneer and "throw their burden on Jehovah".

When a bill came due that they didn't know how to pay, they chose to continue going in the ministry rather than discontinuing their special privilege of service to try to find work to get financially above water. Well, lo and behold that very day when their bill was due, they found an envelope full of cash with the EXACT AMOUNT necessary to pay their bill. Praise Jah, they could continue in their special service.

Or...as they were going in the ministry, along the side of the road they found a $100 bill alongside the road and were able to continue.

Or....they were about to run out of food, but they went out that morning in the ministry anyhow, trusing in Jehovah to provide. When they came home, lo and behold -- on their table were several bags filled with food -- yes someone in their congregation anonymously donated groceries along with a note thanking them for their faithful service to Jehovah.

Since these variations seem so common, I believe these stories are FABLES intended to make those who didn't pioneer feel a bit guilty.

XQsThaiPoes

does anyone remember hearing that one spooky story about the crippled old whitehaired woman in the nursing home. She was visited in the ministry (evidently they were calling on nursing homes...) by the circuit overseer. After calling on her and reading some scriptures she started standing straighter and as she studied her hair grew back in black and she became uncrippled. It was the deeeemonz all along that were making her like an old woman, but really she was kind of young.
Oh reeeaally??? I was told this one by a circuit overseer's wife who evidently believed that many of the old infirm people in the nursing homes were really just legions of demons in disguise. I find it even less likely that demons would enjoy hanging out in nursing homes than in old lamps at garage sales. Anyways, that one has stuck in my mind for years, though it wasn't in a yearbook.

Okay proof JWs read LOTR.

Sunspot

THIS wasn't in a yearbook, but I heard it at an Assembly one time.......the account was about how a man who had been going through depression due to personal problems was out raking his lawn. Up against a fence was half of one page in a Watchtower, and the man picked it up and began to read what he could make out on the page. This led him to call the WTS and ask for a "bible study" (tm) and subsequently he became a baptized JW. Amen.

(eyelashes fluttering with looks of adoration and appreciation inserted here :)

hugs,

Annie..........of the "I-used-ta-BUY-this-stuff" class........

Odrade

When I was still pioneering, I worked for a great guy (JW) who didn't at the time spend much time in service, but he was one of those people who looked after the poor pioneers. (Employing me was one example...) Anyways, there was a sister with bald tires on her car, so one day he went down to Les Schwab and pre-paid for a set of new tires for her. It was about $400. I know cause I cut the check. I remember it really pissed me off later, because she spent weeks talking about how Jehovah provides, but not one mention of thanks or praise for the guy who actually bought the tires. Geez.

I never understood giving the credit to some spirit creature, when it was a person who observed, cared and spent their hardearned money to be kind. It sort of de-values the gift that person made the effort to give. I mean, can you imagine if your significant other bought you a diamond, then you spent months thanking and raving on about the guy who cut the diamond, and never thanking your mate? That's about what it amounts to.

O

GermanXJW

On German ex-JW-board at http://infolink-forum.de/ member Ottonio referred to an experience found in the Yearbook 1996, p.7. It is claimed that the chief of a school in Napoli led by an Benedictinian-order ordered 350 Kingdom-News-tracts to distribute among the pupil's parents at an event.

The Italian paper Il Mattino checked the story and could neither find the school nor parents that would prove that story. When the paper approached the JW author, a guy named Carmine di Matteo, he stated that after all it was not the city of Napoli but Salerno and that it was not the order of Benedictinian but of Franciscan.

So much for Yearbook "experiences too good to be true...

See the Italian information: http://www.infotdgeova.it/suore.htm

blondie

They actually "edit" the story/experience/re-enactment (new term) to be more positive.

My husband had been calling on a man with severe personal problems. But a regular call was established. Why was he picked? The focus of the assembly was to show how studies could be started using the Require brochure on the initial call which is what my husband had done. What they did not want my husband to tell was that the call had ended when the man almost OD'd. He was instructed to leave that part out and let the audience assume that the call was still continuing sucessfully.

I wonder how many experiences are the "edited" the same way.

Blondie

GermanXJW

They sometimes even edit names and countries so that you always hear stories from far away that cannot really check. So, it is common to read an "experience" from Africa in Europe while the same "experience" is printed in an African magazine as an "experience" from Europe. The person has different first names in both stories.

Too Good To Be True Yearbook Experiences

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