Did you participate in STREET WITNESSING in your area? What was it like?

by BonaFide 19 Replies latest jw friends

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  BonaFide

  Here in Southern California, the Witnesses still do Streetwork. I did it since I was a kid. I used to spend two hours every Saturday morning from 7 to 9 am walking down the street near my house with my brother or sister. We rarely placed anything, but we thought we were doing the right thing. Later as I grew up we did Laundromats, I usually tried to offer a magazine to a person in there doing their laundry. The driving around doing Laundromats was boring, waiting for the donut break. Arguing with the friends of other congregations for "crossing over" into our territory.

  I haven't done it in a long time, but I see less and less Witnesses doing it as well. I see magazines sitting on newspaper vending machines, and in waiting rooms sometimes.

  There is so much less urgency nowadays from when I was a kid.

  And you? Have you done street witnessing? What was it like?

  BF
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  NINfan05

  i went out in service with the CO one time and he made us talk to people as they came out of the grocery store...it was really awkward because we would wait till someone was coming out then hurry and jump out of the van and practically run after the person...plus it was in the middle of the summer so it was super duper hot outside.
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  bluecanary

  My congregation actually set up a table out side of Walmart once. I did not participate.
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  vikesgirl101

  Wow, a table outside of WalMart? That must have been awful!

  I did street witnessing when I was about 16 in a small mining town that was full of bars and drunks. Not fun.
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  oompa

  omg i hate you typed that term on your keyboard!........arrggghhhh i hated doing that.........the worst was at bus stops and you started talking to one, and then another looked over, and you step back to include him...and next you are talkin to like seven people at once who as soon as you make eye contact with them look away!!!.......then you dont know who the hell you are really talkin to..............oompa

  and you should try this at a waterpark.........
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  mac n cheese

  BonaFide - you just described my Saturday mornings (and other mid-week ones) EXACTLY. It's making me tired just thinking about it. I can't believe we did that for years and years and years. Sheesh.
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  OUTLAW

  Boreing..People are trying to get somewhere.....JW`s are NoWhere!.....It`s a "Fool`s Errand"..

  Only a Fool would give themselves Credit..

  ................OUTLAW
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  WTWizard

  I have done it, but rarely. The group would occasionally, in lieu of going door to door, set up shop near a store and have us place the littera-trash. Or, I would find myself with a humanoid that insisted on wasting the morning (once I was spending the night with the humanoid that dragged me into the cancer in the first place and did street work, and another time I was stuck doing street witlessing before a Big Boasting Session with a self-righteous humanoid that felt it necessary to drag me into it). Placements were rare--perhaps one or two a 2-hour session, with never any return visits or studies coming from it.

  Later, I have done "street work" as dummy service. I would find a section of street where I knew no one was going to be, take a walk with my littera-trash, and call that an hour of field circus. Of course, I dogged it when it came to actually placing any littera-trash.
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  yknot

  My present area.....no (too rural for any formal streetwork beyond d2d)

  But in more 'urban' areas that I have either lived or visited .....you bet your bookbag I did!

  Done malls, bus-stops, appartment laundromats, tourist areas in California and Florida, day labor p/u, some subway and train stations in a few EU countries and open markets in Mexico and Venezuela (via booth and random passings).

  The closest I ever did on my own street as a kid was stuffing WTs/Awakes in the bags of vegetables we sold at our lemonade stand each summer. ( both of my parents (divorced) living 200 miles apart had me and siblings run such stands).

  What was it like:... Well early mornings could be scary but usually I was caught up in the fellowship aspect. Besides it isn't really that hard to pass out lit randomly if you truly believe and know how to make eye contact with a friendly smile.... the rest of the time you are yapping theocratic gossip and rearranging the lit pile on the tables.

  Gotta hand it to the WTS..... taught me how to talk to anyone at anytime about anything!
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  avishai

  downtown reno in the early a.m in the 80's