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What it's like to be a Circuit Overseer - Part 3
Wednesday:
Time to preach. We started at 8:00 am in that country and preached straight for 3 1/2 hours door to door. Most householders listened sort of, out of politeness. I would first preach with whoever was being recommended for something, or an elder, then the pioneers one by one. There were no car groups, everyone walked, the territory usually surrounded the Hall. It was tropical heat and dust. If I was preaching with a cute pioneer sister, that made the time go by faster.
Looking back, I spent thousands of hours preaching. Before I was a CO, I was called a Field Missionary. 140 hours per month. Then as a Circuit Overseer it was 90 hours a month. Being a foreigner, I stuck out like a sore thumb in the neighborhood though, so I was robbed at gunpoint more than once.
The houses were mostly tile floored, some had dirt floors. No one had air conditioning. I had some crazy stories, mostly though it was reading the same scriptures and using the same reasoning thousands of times. I used to say, "If Adam and Eve hadn't sinned, where would they be now?" When they answered, "Earth", then I would read Psalm 37:29. I had no problem with the "secondary fulfillment" of that scripture. Or Revelation 21:4. Again, thousands of times using the same scriptures and same reasoning. Brainwashed and helping to brainwash others. My Bible would automatically open to the same verses because I had read them so much. Week after week, month after month, year after year of the same. I gave thousands of presentations at the door. After an hour of service every morning I started to go brain dead. I would forget if I had read a scripture or not. It was all so mind-numbing and I was in field service saying the same things over and over and over, I guess you get the picture.
Rarely did any householder bring up a challenging question. Even rarer was somebody talking about our organization. I remember a householder once talking about Carlos Russel. I wondered who that was. Usually though, the only discussions I had were with born-agains.
At lunch I would walk to the house of whoever had invited me to eat. Chicken and rice, mostly. Delicious. Though sometimes I had seen the live chicken that morning at that house for the meeting for service and I had been informed that was lunch. The friends were extremely hospitable. I appreciated their hospitality and I was always polite, though sometimes I acted as if I was important. Those are bad memories. Once in a while the family would invite a single sister to eat with us in case we might like each other, that was great. We would laugh about it later. Other times the "unbelieving husband" would be home or even a disfellowshipped husband. I would always eat with everyone, I figured it was a good Witness and after all, they were feeding me. I had a couple of strange experiences at lunch, I'll tell them sometime.
After lunch was usually a siesta, remember this is tropical country with no AC, everyone was always dripping wet with sweat. If you didn't rest, you would definitely fall asleep on the Bible studies later due to the heat and humidity. I would rest on a couch or on a hammock in the patio. Sometimes the mosquitos were so bad I had to sleep under a mosquito net.
At 2 pm, Bible studies. This was the Knowledge Book, remember that book? I went on two studies per afternoon, three days a week. Add that up. That's over 300 a year. I was bored out of my mind. I used to read other books while I was on studies and in service, including Newsweek magazine that my family had sent me. There was no real Internet service back then so the magazines my family sent were it. The friends would talk about how I knew every paragraph in the Knowledge book even though I didn't seem to be paying attention and I was reading other stuff. The Branch eventually sent me a letter telling me to pay more attention on Bible Studies, apparently word had gotten back to them.
Then came the Pioneer Meeting. I tried to make it happy. There was always complaining about territory, long meetings for service, no key to the Hall, pioneers not getting along. I almost always sided with the pioneers, not with the elders. The elders sometimes seemed to think they were better then others, I hated that. I supported the pioneers. Anyway, I tried to make the pioneer meeting lively and practical.
That's it for Wednesday. If there was a huge problem in the congregation, I might schedule a meeting to discuss it that night. Otherwise it was back to the missionary home or back to where I was staying. Occasionally I did a shepherding call with one of the elders.
Reddit user 'Askmeaboutmy_Beergut' commented:
Your service experience sounds just like when I was in Guatemala:
There we had mountains to walk up. Beautiful country and beautiful people. Just like you I'd use the same scriptures. The resurrection really appeals to those people since many had lost loved ones to the civil war. But it would get hot there, and I would get burned. People were so poor but very generous, they would give us mangoes or some sort of food for a donation, tortillas or offer us a plate of food, which you never turned down. I would be full from lunch and be offered a plate of rice and beans with chicken 20 minutes later on a study with someone and would somehow manage to put it down. There was ONE thing however I could not eat, which was popular with the poor mayans. It was called "Atole"! It was basically just food starch and water. A filler that the poor people ate. It was served hot into a cup. I can best describe it as warm snot in a cup. I couldn't do it I had to apologize many times for turning it down.
And yes beautiful women everywhere. But the Spanish women are very hot headed and jealous and those are hard qualities to deal with. Everyone wanted to work with me and ask me tons of questions about the US. Many had plans to go illegally to the US and would tell me, many did, they'd just disappear then later I'd hear they "went north to the US." I saw car accidents where people were dead laying on the side of the road. Way out in the mountains you can't wait for police, and the roads were narrow, the buses would stop and traffic would stop, and the people would move the cars off the road as well as the dead occupants (I saw a woman and her little girl about 11 or 12 dead) they'd just cover them up with a sheet, call the police then leave. We took chicken buses everywhere. Hot sweaty people packed 3 to a seat, the mayan people smelled like campfire smoke because they all cook with wood. And the women all had babies tied onto their backs. It really was a great time down there. Just ashamed I was part of a cult recruiting for them.
Here's 3 pics showing what my territory looked like. These pics are clear because I go back regularly with my wife. This is where I served back in 97 and 98. https://imgur.com/a/GrT75
Probably alot like where you preached. Those outside markets had the best vegetables I've ever seen, but if you didn't wash them you'd get amoebas and your stomach would ache for days.
You should write your story on here as well. You mention a lot of stuff I forgot. The car accidents are gross, and riding those buses with the chickens was an experience.
Yes the markets had great vegetables. But I always had to take amoeba medication every year as a precaution. I liked to barter the prices too.
Do you ever experience dreams where you are reliving the life you lived as a Jehovah Witness? My brother who was born in and finally woke up, keeps having dreams of all the people he affected in one way or another. Like people he studied with and brought into the organization, people he had a part in disfellowshipping, sisters he encouraged to leave their husbands for reasons of spiritual endangerment. Unfortunately many of the experiences and people Jws met and lived with will be etched in the minds and memories of Jws who finally wake up. And from time to time those memories will rear their ugly head in our dreams, of which we have no control. Which is why I ask if you ever relieve your experiences as a CO in your dreams.
I have dreams occasionally of being back in my assignment and being stuck there. Bad dreams.
That sounds boring as hell! I don't know how you did it. I would've died.
Reddit user 'Askmeaboutmy_Beergut' commented:
I went through the same thing as him basically and to be honest it was an incredible experience.
Trekking
through jungle, talking with indigenous people who live like they lived
a thousand years ago is amazing. The sights, the smells. Yeah all the
time spent preaching and meetings was boring, but man very few people
get to live in a 3rd world country with such colorful people.
The
moments are were it's at. Standing on the side of a mountain in the
evening watching the sun go down, the purple and orange sky, looking at a
village a mile down into the valley as all the lights come on, the cold
air and the smell of campfire smoke and food cooking is something very
few people have experienced.
I sat on the steps of a village
thousands of feet up the side of an ancient volcano in a mayan village,
early in the morning, cold, watching a village half a mile down, hearing
roosters crowing, smelling tortillas cooking, watching mayan women
laughing speaking kak chi que language. Yeah parts were boring, but
overall he saw shit no one here could ever imagine. Being a witness in
service took us to parts of those countries where no westerner has ever
been. Seriously, whole villages would come out to look at me because I
was the 1st white guy they had ever seen, little kids would touch me
like I had some magical powers or something. It was wierd.
Overall, worth it.
Very
cool. I had some rural circuits at first and I saw some of the same
things. Beautiful countryside, simple living, nice people. Cooking with
wood, drawing water from a well or from the river. Quiet evenings.
Completely different world there.
This is interesting in a morbid boredom kind of way. I would hate it. Sounds like busywork for nothing. Usually I wondered doing CO visits how bored the CO and his wife may be. We got a meeting that was different but boring every week... They heard the same shit every single week... Urgh.
I have a stupid question but I need to know this. You mentioned dealing with judicial matters... Do COs choke the chicken? Is it harder to do when you are visiting a different place every week? Did you ever have intrusive thoughts? I am really curious
Of course I did. The hormones were raging. Usually I finished the deal on Monday before I left for my assignment. Then all week I would act like the perfect CO. I think because I was so focused on service that it was easier during the week. Plus I had very little privacy. Come Monday I would "fail" again. All the young single CO's "struggled" with masturbation. The DO told me that when we had our private once a year meeting. In fact, the Branch was always so innundated with questions about it that they told us not to remove an elder or servant or pioneer for it unless it was a long time habit that they weren't trying to overcome. My substitute CO told me he was really having a difficult time with it and I told him just to keep fighting it. He felt I was being too lenient with him so he personally went to the Branch to confess. They told him the same thing. Keep fighting and as long as you do then you won't be removed.
I remember coming back to the States and talking with elders and CO's here about it. What a difference. They would remove them if their masturbation was a regular thing. I was shocked.
The Branch where I was had worse problems to deal with. Adultery was common. I had to find a long-time married elder to interview at the assembly and I had to find one outside my circuit since all of them in my circuit had committees adultery in the past.
One of the CO's I taught pioneer school with was watching porno movies at night with his wife. Then he was, ahem, receiving oral sex from a single mother in the bathroom where they were staying for the week.
He got disfellowshipped after he left his wife for her. That lasted three months, she kicked him out because he couldn't get a job, he had no skills. His wife took him back. Within a year he was reinstated and then a regular pioneer again. I think within about 5 years he was a substitute CO.
Then a marrried District Overseer was caught with his girlfriend at a mall, hanging out. They had been together for six years. Six years of him giving talks and counsel to other people while hiding his girlfriend. I knew him well, he was a very kind man who had married a quiet pioneer sister who was very studious and who also was extremely conservative in her dress and grooming. His girlfriend on the other hand was a little firecracker. The reason I mention that is because he often talked about how brothers should look for spiritual qualities in looking for a wife. So on Mondays he was dropping off his paperwork at the Branch which a lot of us did, then visit his girlfriend who lived around the corner.
So yes I did it my entire missionary career off and on. I really tried to stop though. I felt so bad after the deed was done and I would pray and pray to Jehovah for forgiveness, but I was able to relax and focus on the week of activity after that. I knew it was wrong, but I justified it since I dealt with so much porneia and adultery that what I was doing seemed relatively innocent.
Wow the knowledge book ? Then that was a long time ago. How long since you left the org?
My wife and I are faded. We are still technically in although we haven't attended meetings in years. Trying to help family and friends to get out.
I love how you still use the term "the friends". Old habits die hard. It took me forever to stop saying "the truth" Damn that cult. They really pound that shit into you.
I'm using all the Witness expressions! Its easier for me to write it that way and you all know what I am referring to when I say brother and the friends and bible studies and pioneer meeting, etc.
