by Eyebrow 25 Replies latest jw experiences
Sometimes I read things on this site that make me wonder if I was a JW! I don't recall any secrecy around the Pioneer book, nor any pioneers using it as proof of membership of an elite group. Pioneer School was like a 10 day Theocratic Ministry School for me (i.e. involved a lot of day dreaming) and when I got home the book went on a shelf to be left undisturbed - it was just a collection of (dull) stuff from KMs.
If you didn't have the Pioneer book, you missed nothing.
I can remember being told not to share the book with others who weren't pioneers, not that it was secret but that it was a special privilege to have attended. They wanted others to sign up to pioneer so that could experience that special privilege of going to the pioneer school and getting their own book, not have us share it with them without them making the sacrifice. I was told there was nothing in the book that wasn't in the WTS publications. I was discouraged from sharing any specifics of the school to keep the mystique and attract people to signinug up for pioneering.
Of course, as in any policy/procedure of the WTS it is unwritten and interpreted/experienced differently depending on the CO/DO running the school.
I never hesitated showing my book to those who asked. They were disappointed that there wasn't anything special info in it. The only thing I found oustandingly different was the training to make an RV the same day and then 2 days later. I also remember that when I worked with the CO in door to door that we stopped at a garage sale and shopped around discounting tales I had heard about COs vilifying publishers for stopping at them during field service.
I learned that I could be more "productive" if I made my RVs early and that I didn't have to wait 1 week or more, that people would not be upset. Of course, the goal could not be to place a publication on every contact but to have additional scriptural discussion. Now that is a secret that should be shared with most JWs.
Blondie
Regarding this comment from Scotsman: Sometimes I read things on this site that make me wonder if I was a JW! I don't recall any secrecy around the Pioneer book, nor any pioneers using it as proof of membership of an elite group.
Thank you for your unpretentious comment.The World Wide Wonder allows for a free and critical comparative exchange of experiences.I too encounter JW's who recoil in disbelief at my horrid stories of all the mean willful bulls**t I have had to endure.I've sojurned in half a dozen congregations in several states,with nearly half a century of exposure.
There really are some happy contented Jehovah's Witnesses out there.Good for you folks, i wish you healthy and happy, I don't have to be the one to judge you,God is.
While I was a JW for 30 years and came across plenty bullshit amongst the Witnesses, i didn't know anyone who thought the pioneer school was some secret brotherhood. Our experiences are sometimes unique and may indeed reflect a lot about us as individuals rather than the organisation we were part of.
God is judging us? Isn't that a line from a Bette Midller/Crystal Gayle song?
My Pioneer School sounded like Mulan's, but is mainly memorable to me because it allowed me to go out drinking with some old friends of mine. The last afternoon also involved enduring some dreadful poetry and abysmal songwriting. And what was with the meaningful little lines everyone tried to write in each other's books!
Here is my class 1991. I am in the front row, far right. The CO's were Bill Spangenberg and Peter Michas. Peter is an opera singer, and at lunchtime, he played piano and sang to us. He was wonderful. The school was his last duty as CO. He retired to take care of his aging mother, who died almost immediately. Last I heard he was singing in an Italian restaurant in Seattle, and doing quite well too. It was also Bill's last duty as CO. His wife was chronically ill, so they asked them to quit the Circuit, since she so seldom came along with him. Interestingly, after they quit the circuit work, she got a full time job, and handled it great. I guess she didn't really have Lupus, Hepatitis C and several other things she said she had.
In looking over my class, I see that two have died (young men...........one had leukemia, and another had AIDS...........he told us all about it one day. He became a JW after spending his youth doing IV drugs..............one of his contacts was a young JW boy, who was also using.............he got him going to the KH). Three (including me) are now ex JW's. One is the youngest brother of one of the members of this board. And one is an elder who lives next to our eldest son. The woman in black in the front row with the scowl on her face was one of the angriest women I've ever run across. She and her mother (sitting next to her) came to our school from Oregon. I guess the one they were assigned to was bad timing. The mother was so nice, but the daughter was a witch.
We were encouraged to share our pioneer book at our PSS. I took it out in service with me for a while afterward and we would look at it between houses.
The first half of my book is chock full of notes, but I think I started to get burned out on all the studying as the second half gets more and more sparse.
As others have stated - there really isn't anything secret in it, just alot of info pertinant to field service at your fingertips. It definately helps you be more "productive" and gives you both a reason to finish your first year and a boost going into your second. (I didn't finish my second year though - got burned out)
Mike
