Timewasting guide to Field Service.

by philo 15 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  philo

  Here's my list of experiences and comments about time-wasting on dub field ministry. It's a bit raw; sorry I haven't prosed it up.

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  Taking a personal interest in the householder
  Writing pages of notes about them, their cat, their driveway, their smile, comments about their car, children's names, milk order.
  Weave this into a personal door to door diary of a 'zealous' pioneer
  I once had a list of notes so full, it amounted to homespun psychological survey of virtually a whole street, and it was wonderful how common problems seemed to have cross-pollinated. I spent hours sitting on my car, poring over those notes. Tick, tick, tick - oh look at the time
  Tea and bikki callsold dears who are lonely, and tell you so.
  But you have to pretend to evangelise (to count your time) while they pretend not to be uninterested (so you can come back)
  "Yes, I know you read your bible, Edith…I SAID, I KNOW…" Tick, tick, tick

  My Pioneer Partner had an old man RV for years, and found out this bloke was gay when he put his hand on his knee, one day. He still went back there (but a little less often).

  Slow walking
  Having in-depth spiritual discussions about American football, like anyone cares? Walking at the slowest pace of the slowest dub - out of humility. You would think we were trying to delay Armageddon from our 'diligence' on field ministry. Tick, tick, tick
  Miming a door knock, or a bell press, or knocking so gently it makes no difference
  Walking up a driveway to the top, checking the curtains, and deciding to discreetly walk back again without knocking. Tick, tick, tick

  Gossiping: worshipping, horsewhipping. Anyway, when a house was NH. There was never ANY hurry about moving on, especially when preaching with the CO. You could stand for five-ten minutes blabbering away before The Spirit impelled you onwards.
  ----------------------------------------------------

  We all just wanted to be somewhere, anywhere else. And while we looked like robots on the ouside, when we were time-wasting...

  we were miles away.

  philo
• 

  Stephanus

  Having in-depth spiritual discussions about American football, like anyone cares?

  Considering Dubdom is just another American cultural export among many (I prefer KFC and Pepsi, myself!), it makes a lot of sense to me, Philo!

  Q: How do you know a Dub loyal to "Jehovah's Organisation" is lying?
  A: Their lips are moving.
• 

  drahcir yarrum

  Out in the midwest we had rural territory. Farm houses 1 to 2 miles apart. The trick was to get a big enough car group so you only went to about 4 or 5 doors in two hours. If you found a not at home, you would be certain to check all doors and the barn. (Look out for the dog.) Then when it was time for lunch, you'd drive to the nearest city with a decent place to eat.

  I'd have to say that as a pioneer trying to waste as much time as possible, I was an artist.
• 

  Hmmm

  14:59
  Two variations on this theme: In my area (don't know about others) there was the "15-minute rule." Basically, if you stopped "preaching" for 15 minutes you had to stop counting time.

  When doing streetwork, going back to the car to warm up or cool off, depending on the season. Stay in the car, chatting with friends for exactly 14 minutes and 59 seconds, then jump out and walk around one block until one circuit has been made, or one person talked to... whichever comes first. Then back to the car. Ratio 5 minutes walking, 14:59 in the car.

  When making return visits, follow roughly the same pattern. The other unwritten rules about making RVs can really work in your favor here. Consider this scenario:

  I (broA) am in a car group with broB, sisA, and sisB. I go on a call and take sisA with me. Whether the householder is home or not, we drag it out as long as humanly possible. (See Philo's point about miming a door knock, etc...) We return to the car at 2:00 pm. The clock is tick, tick, ticking

  Now it's sisB's turn, and she takes broB with her. We drive to the next call--as far from this house as you can get and still be in the same time zone. Arrival time at the next house is 2:06.

  At 2:15 sisB and broB get out to do the call. Luckil... er, fortunately, the householder is home and they're in there for a whopping 23 minutes. They return at 2:38. The next four minutes is spent giving us the high points of the call. During this time, the 15 minute rule is suspended. At 2:43 we drive across the territory for the next call. Interestingly, this call is on the same street as my first call.

  It's now broB's turn. The householder is a female, so he must take one of the sisters with him. He asks sisA to accompany him, since he was with sisB last time (besides, sisA kinda likes us both, and he needs to spend some alone-time with her so she can decide who she's going to hold hands with at the next movie outing.) At 2:58 they get out of the car.

  They do us a favor and take as long as humanly possible, continuing to knock despite the obvious fact that there has been a major fire at the house and nobody lives there anymore. No need to mime any knocking, here. They knock LOUDLY on the charred door frame, ignoring the fact that the fire department knocked in the door some weeks ago. They return to the car at 3:03, promising to look up the householder in another few weeks, since they weren't home.

  It is now after 3:00 and time for a break. We drive three minutes to Burger King for something cool/hot to drink. When we hit the BK parking lot, at 3:06, the 15-minute clock is tick, tick, ticking. At 3:21, not wanting our precious time to stop, we head back out. We arrive at the "next" house at 3:25. I must get out, but I have managed to count time for one hour and 25 minutes from the back seat of a car.

  Ahh, the good old days of pioneering.
• 

  drahcir yarrum

  Hmmm:

  If I'm an artist then you are Picasso. WOW, talk about having it down to the smallest detail!
• 

  AngelofMuZiC

  WOW!!! I remember those days now like it was yesterday, and I find myself laughing at some of the silly things I used to do to waste time. And how we always stopped to get something to drink, which usually ended up with me buying the whole Wawa or 7-E to eat in the car. An "adult" in the front would ask me to go on a Rv, but then they would see that I was eating, and I would applogize and say that I had a bad stomach ache because I didn't have time for breakfast. They felt sympatheic, and took someone else. Evey single time I knocked on a door, I hoped that they were not home. I usually lied on my time reports. Like I added an extra 5 or 6 hours, and 3 books, 4 brochures, 6 tracts, 3 sets of mags. "Well, I give these to my schoolmates" "Oh, well Joanne you are such a good example at school." What was I really doing? Skipping class to smoke cannibis at the park across the street! I had them fooled for awhile, but then that just got boring.

  My Regards,
  Joanne
• 

  BoozeRunner

  One of my favorites was, park at KH about a mile away from streetwork territory (FS meeting was next), make one circuit (magazines in hand) doing streetwork. At least 1 1/2 hours complete with a coffee break, and a breakfast break, being careful not to break the 14:59 rule.

  Boozy
• 

  BoozeRunner

  BTW....who remembers the "Pioneer Walk"?

  2 steps forward, and one step back?

  Boozy
• 

  individuals wife

  Boozerunner - the Pioneer Walk?

  Oh yes I remember that well. Do you know I was once reprimanded for walking too fast on the ministry?!?! I was told that as a pioneer I had to adopt the pioneer way and walk, oh so slowly.

  The JWs have rules for everything, even the speed you should walk at...
• 

  philo

  IW,

  The pioneer walk says everything about timewasting when you think , that the 'most active' publishers should walk the slowest. The scale of activity is measured in hours that can be reported. Can anybody tell us of a fist century model for this, while keeping a straight face!

  philo