Yesterday, Mike and Kim retracted on their YouTube video channel what they said about 5,000 Bethelites dismissed from the Egyptian Bethel. That information came from an email supplied by a former JW who received the email from his relatives at the Egyptian branch. Due to the way the email was written by a native Egyptian in broken English, it was easy to see why a mistake was made.
What the receiver of the email didn't know was that Egypt is a banned country, and under those circumstances there are "usually" less than a dozen Bethelites living at such a branch. So when all concerned read in the email of the closing and sale of the Egypt branch and that 5,000 Bethelites were dismissed, they repeated the information.
However, the author of the email meant that he and the others living at the Bethel home in Egypt were part of the 5,000 Bethelites, from around the world, who have been dismissed from Bethel service and asked to pioneer. Happily, the writer said, he and three other Bethelites living at the branch were invited to special pioneer in another part of Egypt which thrilled them to know they were still going to be in "special service."
I questioned the information when I heard about it because I knew there were no WT branches housing that many people in a banned country. Yes, banned countries have WT "branches" and those who live in these branch buildings (large houses) are considered Bethelites and receive the Bethel reimbursement, etc.
Joe and I have visited some small branches when we were JWs and stayed overnight free because we could as Bethelites. The JW (Bethel overseer) who ran the Turkish branch when the Witnesses were banned there, was a German businessman and he operated the branch as his business. If I remember correctly, I believe there were five Bethelites at that branch looking after all of the WT's concerns in Turkey. We do remember two married couples and a single Egyptian Bethelite woman who lived in the house.
Off topic, but of interest, when, Don Adams, president of WT of PA, heard we were going into Turkey, a banned country, he gave us an envelope from the Bethel Executive Office to give to the branch overseer. The envelope contained branch business. And the other Bethelite couple who we traveled with, was given a small PC (computer) to give to the Turkish branch office to save them money. Computers were very expensive in Turkey then.
The story doesn't end there. As we were going through airport customs, custom agents notified airport guards (two Turkish soldiers), with military rifles hanging on their shoulders, that we four were suspicious. After a few minutes we knew that the soldiers were very close to arresting our friends for trying to smuggle into Turkey a computer. It took a half an hour to clear that mess up, but it was touch and go for awhile. (That episode took years off of our lives from the stress.) Finally, the soldiers were convinced by our traveling companions that the computer belonged to them and that they were in Egypt to write an article about their travels. (Smuggling and lying were part of our "theocratic warfare" then.)
Barbara
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