My niece called me last week, as she does every year at this time, to remind me of my sister’s anniversary. This is the only time she ever calls me, I am a black sheep and she is a pioneer. None of them (except possibly her dad – will call me an apostate – “cause I’ll come back one day”)
Anyway, she said that she had been going to either Baytown or Beaumont to help with the rebuilding of over 800 homes that were damaged/destroyed during Katrina. I can’t remember exactly how long she had been going down there but I seem to recall she said that she had been going down for several months. I was in temporary shock of the word volunteer and helping victims that for a minute i didn't hear what she was saying. She also made the comment that at least she doesn’t have to go in field service so much because of volunteering to help with the rebuilding.
My questions:
Does anyone else know of the ‘brothers & sisters’ going to the Baytown/Beaumont area to rebuild JW houses?
Does Volunteering’ now count as field service hours?
Is this one of the setups that the WT ‘pays’ for the rebuild and then charges request a donation from their dedicated followers?
The only thing I can ever remember as far as volunteering was for the quick-builts. Helping victims was left up to Jehovah.
Rebuilding Katrina Victims Homes in Baytown/Beaumont Tx
by Mystery 3 Replies latest jw friends
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Mystery
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IP_SEC
Does anyone else know of the ‘brothers & sisters’ going to the Baytown/Beaumont area to rebuild JW houses?
I dont know if the society is going to help after Rita. Katrina didnt hurt Beaumont and Baytown.They rebuilt all of the witness homes and halls after Allison in Houston.
Does Volunteering’ now count as field service hours?
Only if you are a pioneer and your local service committee aproves it.
Is this one of the setups that the WT ‘pays’ for the rebuild and then charges request a donation from their dedicated followers?
They pay and then expect to get the insurance settlement from the witness when it comes in. If there is no insurance they still do the work. -
Quotes
IP_SEC said:
"They pay and then expect to get the insurance settlement from the witness when it comes in. If there is no insurance they still do the work."
Exactly. Think about this: if you have insurance, it covers the cost to rebuild: Labour and Materials. But the WTS has a free labour force (since room and board is covered by the local brothers; also they do not pay hourly wages) so their only out-of-pocket expense it the materials.
So, they collect the insurance check from the affected Bro or Sis, and he/she is comfortable knowing that their new house was rapidly prepared by unpaid, and possibly unprofessional, non-union volunteers. I hope that Brother Mumbler has better drywall skills than verbal skills in the TMS! :)
My question is: how, exactly, does WTS get the insurance cheque? How do they keep track? Or is it an honour system? Or do they inform their insurance agent that "Witch Power Building Services" will be the General Contractor, and request the cheque be sent to Witch Power? Seriously, does anyone know how the transaction takes place?
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itsallgoodnow
Yes, they are helping in Beaumont. It was hurricane Rita that destroyed many homes there. It's pretty far away from anything and there's nowhere to stay, so they are camping out for the weekend and working 2 or 3 people in each home for the whole weekend. Or, they just drive out there and work for the day. I'm not sure what they do about food for the volunteers, but I did hear they were camping out Saturday nights.
Not sure about this, but I think if you are a pioneer, and you help out with any building project or relief effort, you can not make your hours and note that you spent X amount of hours in the building project/relief work that month.