Has anyone had feelings or experiences on the field where what happened seemed only to be from one source - Divine?
Strange experiences on the field
by wozadummy 13 Replies latest jw friends
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James Free
experiences on the field
On the field? Sounds like Babel all over again...
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PrimateDave
Generally, field service is a pretty neutral experience. Sometimes it can be pleasant because there are nice people out there. Once in a while it can get downright nasty.
I remember going to a house in Georgia once where the man of the house was blunt and rude. It was a nice home out in the country and the man was white upper-middle class in appearance. I was about 20yo and naive but at least tried to be nice. Our exchange lasted about 30 seconds, and I started back for the car. Next thing I knew a dog had bit me on the ankle without any warning at all. I remember it was a collie. I yelled out and the man came back out of the house looking like he wanted to fight. I was shaking and said that the dog had bit me. The man then proceeded to chase the dog around the house kicking it while his wife came out and looked at my ankle. The dog had just barely broken the skin, and it wasn't quite bleeding. She was apologetic. I decided to just leave and never go back there.
I was once on a return visit with a pioneer elder, a nice young guy from Pennsylvania. His RV started to present questions relating to hellfire. The man insisted on literally interpreting the relevant scriptures from his KJV. It became evident that he had planned this out before our visit. Naturally, we ganged up on him with our 'scriptural proofs' which just made him angrier. There were actually three of us in the man's apartment, so he accused us of ganging up on him. Well, needless to say, the RV was over and the poor pioneer felt obligated to apologize to the man and later to me and the other witness who had accompanied him.
Anymore, to me the whole door to door arrangement just seems to be the way for a publishing company to distribute mediocre literature in an effort to bolster membership in its subsidiary religion. It has as much to do with true human spiritual experience as modern American Suburbia has to do with the ancient nomadic tribalism.
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Deadwood Rico
I usually made friends with all the dogs in field service even when owners would get upset and say "that's a vicious dog" as I was petting it. I had enough sense to avoid the truly vicious ones. But the worst ones I thought I could pet and almost got attacked by were monsters that belonged to JW's themselves, not to "worldly" people.
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Highlander
Welcome Deadwood!
Hope to hear more from ya.
What part of california are you in? I'm in the LA area.
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james_woods
Thanks for the thread - it seems that the really strange ones are the easiest to remember after 30 years.
I am pioneering where the need is great about 1968. My presiding overseer and I are calling on a half-way attending non-baptised family. P.O. has decided that they need a serious tuneup on the chronology of 1914 - one of his favorite subjects.
He shows up fully armed with not only Babylon the great, several bound WT volumes, etc. and a rather valuable "worldly" historical reference book which had this one date about the fall of Babylon that he wanted to display. So we do about 45 minutes on this vital scriptural subject. The western Okla. family consisted of a single mother who barely had a high school diploma, and three bored and unruly little boys about 8-10.
We might as well have been discussing the possibility of clean nuclear fusion power in our lifetime.
I am sitting on the couch playing grab the corner of the watchtower with a tiny little white and tan baby kitty that they had. Little kitty suddenly gets a funny look on its face, starts a tell-tale episode of heaving, and deposits a good healthy stomach contents heave right into the center pages of the historical reference book! Panic ensues, the BS is ended, and we try to paper towel off the damage as much as possible.
Presiding Overseer would hardly ever go back to this family - he just kept growling about their "pukey old cat..."
At least it got the worldly book instead of the precious WT food -
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juni
Rico, welcome to the board.
My husband has a way w/animals also. A long time ago we were to go out and pass out tracts w/o any "sermon" included. My hubby stepped over a huge, sleeping german shepherd on the porch and carefully put the tract in the crack of the door. Fortunately the dog never lifted his head!
What you do have to watch out for ladies are dirty, old former elders who have a silent crush on you. Happened to me when working w/such a "man" while doing return visits. Thank god no one was home. Oh? You want to know what happened? w/o the lipstick. Blllllllllllllkkkkkkkkkk. Petuuuuuuuuuuuuuuueeeeeeeeeeeee. Spit, spit. Need I say, that service day was over. I was pioneering and it was at the end of the day.
Juni
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juni
At least it got the worldly book instead of the precious WT food
NOW THAT IS DIVINE DIRECTION!!!!
Good story James W.
Juni
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wozadummy
Welcome Deadwood and thanks for the experiences, I shall share a couple too......
Working rural territory with single mid 40"s German brother who had a penchant for chasing young sisters as soon as they grew up into women, well he is a bit of a nutter, we knocked on this door and after a couple of seconds he says in his loud voice whilst grabbing his crotch "Oh jeez I need to go for a piiiisssss" leaving me to pray to God no-one came to the door!!
Now this one has puzzled me for years and I would like to hear from anyone who has experienced any thing like it - a sister asked me to call on a man who she left a book with and see if I could witness to him ,well , he was home and on opening the door I saw a large petagram on the wall ,his house was untidy along with himself and he handed the book back to me saying he read it and was glad he read it and had made some pencilled in comments. So I left and found everyone else had left the field so I proceeded walking home . On coming to a street corner ,across the road two men drinking large bottles of beer appeared from the side of their house looking very threatening at me. I stopped on my tracks and felt this tingling rush all over my body and it felt like there was thousands of angel whispering to each other behind and next to me. Next they lurched forward at me saying "what the f... are you doing here " angrily with their bottles menacingly held as if to hit me.
I was stunned but then suddenly i felt my legs move forward and my moth said "well I'm here to give you this message about the Kingdom of God from my bible" and instantly they withdrew walking backwards to their front door, and on closing it said in fearful tones "OK see you later"
Well I had never had such an experience and as soon as they shut the door I felt the angelic prescence disappear. I know this sounds like a classic Wacthtower story but his happened to me! I'm not here to turn ones back cunningly to the Society but when I told a few people of this, ones I thought might believe it they all treated me as though I was weird and I think they would only ever believe it if they read it in a Watchtower . I've often wondered about this experience and now that I have left it has come back at me again since I don't go to meetings anymore.
So is it from the devil or God or am I dillusional, only I can say that it was a real experience but it leaves me with the troubling question that if it was from God ,then I've left him maybe.
But at the same time all the study I've done and reading others experiences in why they left the Org shows me they are so wrong..........help
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jwfacts
Hi Wozza,
That is not just a classic Watchtower story, it is a classic story.
It does not matter if you attend a church, or Santanic cult, they all have similar experiences. Go to a Church convention and you will see people on stages telling how God saved them in their time of need. People feeling angelic presence, not feeling pain during beatings, meeting a Christian the moment that they are praying for truth - these are all normal experiences.
What does it prove? Is it that God is directing all religions, that this is all just coincidence, or that our bodies have the ability to create these impressions in stress? I really don't know. But if it doesn't just happen to JWs it can not be a sign of special guidance.