Did The Circuit Overseer Ever Do Anything For You On His Visit? (page 5)

thom

One CO made me a MS. Another CO removed me as a MS.
I remember a CO in Indiana about 10 years ago that I got along very well with (Bro. Bender). He seemed to really understand people and was very helpful and kind to me. The elders and their wives couldn't stand him, but I had no idea why. After his time with our cong he stepped down as a CO and moved to Las Vegas. I really hope he's doing well now.

GMahler

During my brief tenure as a regular pioneer, the CO, who never said so much as hello to me before this time, and the service overseer pulled me aside to ask me why my hours were low. I didn't want to tell them how depressed I was at the time, so I said that everything was fine. I thought that it was sad that it took something like a time report to get his attention.

In one of my last meetings with the elders before I submitted my letter of resignation, I told them what a joke I thought the position of a CO was. The apostle Paul is usually used as a example of a travelling overseer. In his epistles he mentions by name those in the congergations that he visited, so it was obvious that he had a deep and personal relationship with many of the members of the congregations he corresponded with. If the CO's know the names of any congergation members, it's probably only the pioneers or the elders. In a week's time, it's pretty difficult to get to know any members of the congregation. Ultimately if anyone does benefit from the CO's visit, it's the regular pioneer's who have part-time jobs and are able to meet with the group during the week. Otherwise, you may only have a brief moment to exchange a greeting after one of the meetings before he's pulled away by an elder who has an urgent matter to discuss with him. When he does send any correspondence, it's just a stock letter that he sends to every congregation that he visits, only changing the name of the congregation. In my opinioin, CO's are glorified babysitters for the WTS whose job it is to make sure that elders are in full submission to the GB and that every publisher in the congregation is reporting at least 10 hours a month. There was one CO who had a reputation for being a hardass. His name was Jack Thomas, but he was affectionally known as "Jack the Hack". (Hack was used in this case not to describe someone who is dishonest, but because he was like an axe that one would use to hack at a tree). To Jack Thomas, one's relationship with God was directly related to the hours they reported each month. From the platform he was very straigtforward about his position, and did not hesitate to remind congregations that their chances of surviving Armageddon was dependent on their evangelistic efforts.

Many Witnesses feel that Jesus Christ's direct representative is among them. They have such reverence and awe over mere humans.

That is very true. My brother, who is now disfellowshipped, was always annoyed with how our congregation would respond to a CO visit. People who were usually late were always on time. And although Saturday meetings for service were usually low, during the CO's visit it was hard to find a seat. I think that for the rank and file the higher a person is in the WTS hierarchy, the closer they are to the GB. I have witnessed cases where the DO would come to visit (I had an opportunity to meet Sam Herd when he was still a DO, a few years before he became a GB member. He seemed like a nice guy.) and once the news spread to other congregations, the Sunday attendance easily doubled. My mother said that she actually saw someone ask Herd for his autograph! And he gave it to them!

For some, I think that the CO is supposed to be a problem solver. When I lived in Baltimore, where there was a lot of feuding between different families. So when the time arrived for the CO to decide who he would work with that day nearly everyone would raise their hand . Everyone had their version of the events that transpired during his absence, and they wanted to make sure that when any decisions were made that he was one their side. They wanted to assure the CO that whatever he may have heard from the opposing side that their version of events was the right one. I found the whole situation a bit humorous.

Iforget

I think Bender is in Illinois now.

Junction-Guy

We had a relatively young circuit overseer stay with us once for a visit, he was from Hawaii and brought us a box of macadamia nut chocolates. He seemed like a decent person, very friendly and had personality. Most of the Circuit Overseers I remember were very bland and stern faced.

Dave

alreadygone

When I was about 7 or 8 years old, the CO was visiting our cong. Several wives were supposed to make a dinner for the CO and his wife for the week. My mom was one of them. The prepared dinners were supposed to be brought to the hall on Tuesday night.

As we were driving to the hall, my mom announced that she forgot their meal in the fridge at home. We get to the hall and the first thing I do is go up to the CO and tell him my mom forgot his supper. I'll never forget the beating I got that night...

sinis

Years ago Jamie Rundquist felt it necessary to belittle regualr pioneers for not getting there time in. As far as my contact with him he was very demeaning, and did not "listen" when an individual spoke. I hear today he married a VERY young sister (over a twenty year difference) and popped a few kids out. One in particular has been in the news because of multiple surgeries (trying to get donations, etc.). Though it is bad to say, I really do feel what goes around comes around.

Soledad

There was one guy, Jack Purvess, that used to do magic tricks for my little sister and I !!!! LOL

WOW messing with spiritism now wasn't he?

A CO once pinched my butt. That's about the only eventful thing that ever happened to me during a CO visit.

garybuss

This guy wasn't our circuit servant but it's a circuit servant story. In 1971 for the district assembly in Sioux Falls, we had circuit servants arriving ahead of the assembly and staying after to make ready and make right and one of them was with his wife and they pulled a trailer house behind their car. We let this guy and his wife park their trailer in our side yard and hook up to our garden hose for water and dig a post hole for a sewer plan.
They were nice and when they left it had rained the night before and the trailer made deep ruts in my side yard because they couldn't wait till the yard dried up because they had to get that trailer in Jehovah's service down the road. He laughed about the ruts and he told me to send him the bill. The next time I heard of him I was reading about him in the papers about his kids murdering both him and his wife. His name was Freeman.

outoftheorg

In my experience, Co's run the gamut from wierdos, control freaks to a few genuine people.

Early in my short time as an elder, the publishers would come to me for help and ignore some of the older elders.

To this day, once in a while one of my children will make a comment like, brother or siste so and so mentioned "they sure miss me, I was one of the good elders"..

This of course caused envy and dislike from some of the elders.

My first encounter was with a co who after the day was fading to night, spent his time in bed with his wife watching the TV from around 6 pm to 11 or so.( Every night). Now this was in other peoples homes. Where one would expect some visiting and getting to know their keepers and conversations of uplifting subjects to be tossed about.

This guy knows nothing about me and at a meeting he says my car is in the way. So I get up to move it and he demands my keys and (HE will move it.)

Next thing is he holds my keys up, I had quite a few keys. Then he says before the whole meeting (here is a man with too many toys).

It was obvious that he wanted to show some level of control over me. Today I would tell him to fuck off. But being the good little jw I said nothing.

The next co I encountered was staying in my home during his visit. My now ex wife was having some problelms with depression. So her sister talked her into putting some lighter strips in her dark hair.

It seemed to cheer her her up and I thought it looked very good and told her so. She had to be submissive I guess and asked this jack ass how he saw it. He tells my wife in front of me "I THINK IT MAKES YOU LOOK CHEAP". This time I stood my ground and told her in front of him, that I liked it.

There was nothing I could say to convince my wife to keep her hair as it was. She died it dark again.

The third encounter was a very nice happy man who treated everyone as an equal. At that time the co's could tow a trailer to live in. He had a nice car and a new trailer. This stired up the envious self righteous anger in some elders. He and his wife were the only co's that seemed normal and not judging everyone and who enjoyed some of what life has to offer.

The co asked if any of us could install a CB TRANSCIEVER in his car. Another jw a friend of mine, and I liked to use ham radios and I had the tools to install and adjust the radio to its surroundings.

So we installed the cb radio and it was like we put a cross on his car and we were helping this evil co in an endeavor started by satan.

For me it was all these things that seemed small and unimportant at the time that grew into a larger and larger dissatisfaction with the jw's.

Outoftheorg

blondie

Gary, here is a website about that JW family (Freeman).

http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/family/freeman_brothers/

Did The Circuit Overseer Ever Do Anything For You On His Visit?

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