You have never heard of anyone have a bad day in field service, Right!

by life is to short 18 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  life is to short

  I grew up hearing that over and over. I used to think about those bumper stickers that say I would rather be golfing or fishing. JW's should have bumper stickers that say I would rather be going door to door.

  Once I got old enough to understand it, I used to beat myself up all the time because some of the most hellish days of my life have been out in service.

  For so many reasons even more then I will list!

  First: being smashed into a car that should truly only hold four people but there are five if not six people in the car and I was always stuck in the middle of the back seat between two of the heavy sets feeling like I could not breath for hours on end.

  Second: I was in a car with people who truly hated me and made no qualms of letting me know that they hated me.

  Third: I was going to strangers doors uninvited and bugging the hell of people who did not want me there, trying to tell them that the religion and beliefs that they hold dear are wrong and that soon God is going to kill them unless they repent of their sins and become Jehovah's Witnesses.

  Yep no one has ever had a bad day doing Jehovah's work of field service!

  LITS
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  sabastious

  Getting bit by a dog would turn any day into a bad one. Good thing there aren't many in the field service...

  -Sab
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  simon17

  I have to say, I often had a decently good time in service. If you manage to be with people you like you're in pretty good shape. There were some crazy stories that came out of service so I'm happy about those. I was never with people that were gung-ho, so we basically just said hello-goodbye to householders--nothing too stressful. That was the last thing I stopped doing actually. Sitting silently in meetings or pretending to believe things was that are clearly not true was the brutal part. Of course, a good amount of the time I did NOT want to go out in service Saturday mornings but its not like THursday night or Sunday afternoon when I'd be missing out on big games or school parties and stuff. If service was, say, once or twice a month, I really wouldn't have much negative to say about it.
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  NVR2L8

  For the last six months I attended meetings, I would go out in service with my wife only. I can't remember ever going to my new service group after they eliminated the traditional book study groups. I conducted the book study at my house and when that was over I asked to not have a field service arrangement at my house. So my wife and I would do a couple of return visits - most of them social - with an old couple who took the literature and I had a few calls a long way out in the country...This would allow me to put in a service report...

  I always hated service and I still clearly remember when my mother would "vacation" pioneer in April and she would have me stand on a street corner every morning holding up magazines right across from my grade school. All the teachers and students would see me and I felt so embarassed.
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  OnTheWayOut

  bumper stickers that say I would rather be going door to door.

  I love the idea of "selling" those bumper stickers through Stoops or maybe even inserting them into their next release at the conventions.

  The dubs would look down on anyone who refused to put one on their bumper.

  I think Smurfs were demonized so that kids in the 80's would be pressured to leave Saturday morning cartoons behind (a Unites States television thing very strong at that time) and knock on doors.

  Cars were crowded for recruiting so that they didn't have to do as much. After the door-to-door and the coffee shop break, a crowded car meant that only a couple of people had to come up with "return visits" and everyone else could just sit in the car.

  A coworker commented about JW's on his street the other weekend. He noticed that they went as slow as molasses as if they were not enjoying themselves. I told him that even they had a name for that pace- the pioneer stroll. No point in burning yourself out to do the job faster when the important thing is that your time is rolling.
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  BluesBrother

  no one has ever had a bad day doing Jehovah's work of field service!

  I had plenty of them!!..........It was the longest hour or so of the week. The watch hands refused to move on, it would seem.

  I guess anything is a bad time if your heart is not in it, and I knew that mine was not. I did want to be a part of the Organisation and I liked the rest of the life (all the time I believed it), but Field Circus? NO, you could stick it!

  Wife used to say that I had "no love of people"...but perhaps I knew deep down that something was wrong with what I was asked to do
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  life is to short

  OTWO

  The pioneers where I live call walking slowly the pioneer shuffle. To me that even makes it sound worse then the word stroll. In all the years I pioneered I had never heard that term until we came back from Bethel. Then it was all over the place, I was applied when I first heard it. I guess I was in the dark in some ways. I clearly remember asking the pioneer how she could say such a thing and she said well you know us pioneers have to be careful not to get burned out. She was only 19 years old at the time but she is still going strong now 15 years latter doing the pioneer shuffle.

  What a truly waste of life.

  I would love to make those bumper stickers also, I think it would be a riot if someone the dubs would actually put them on their cars.

  LITS
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  cult classic

  Yeah every day spent in the ministry is a good day. Spending hours on end as a young child listening to middle-aged underachievers talking about all that is wrong in the world. Complaining about congregation politics and gossiping about those getting reproved and disfellowshipped. Hearing about how Satan and the demons will try to tempt you away from Jehovah as you grow up. Listening over and over again to those recycled recorded talks given by WT heavies.

  This elder gave an experience of a longtime pioneer who died while in field service. The question he posed to the congregation?

  "What better way to die?"

  Seriously?
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  life is to short

  I know cult classic I have heard that experience. Unbelievable

  LITS
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  wha happened?

  I'm much more hard pressed to find a good day out in service. I really hated that routine