I guess I've been out too long, cause this surprised me. I was visiting my mom recently in Modesto, California and was walking into a Walmart (hey! we don't have one where I live!) and there were two guys in suits, sitting outside the front doors behind a large display rack of literature. They were chatting with each other, but as I stepped closer to see if this was indeed JW material, they said hello, as if to engage me in conversation. Is this the new way to witness? Weird!
JW literature on racks - outside Walmart? WTF?
by BizzyBee 29 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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blondie
There was another thread on this with pictures. I'll try to find it unless someone has it bookmarked.
Blondie
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daniel-p
Wal-Mart is pretty open to faux-peddlers with a message on their entrances. Most of the time I see some obscure charity organization or maybe Red Cross or something, but not yet the JW's. I used to do "street work" quite often back when I was pioneering. It was the only way to get all my time in because I could never keep enough calls to make a "magazine route" to take up time. I would stand in front of the local post office where the people inside were nice and knew us for a long time. It was my favorite kind of "preaching" simply because I didn't have to peddle the magazines - I would just say hello to passersby and thats it. I would never place anything, except maybe a few people who would get the latest issues from me instead of their regular calls. I would invite someone else out with me, maybe go and pick a younger brother up, so I could have some company. Most of the time I would go from 7:00 or 7:30AM to 9AM. I would hold my coffee cup right behind the magazines so I would have something warm to have in my hands as well as the much-needed caffiene.
I have mixed feelings about those memories. From one angle they are fond memories because they represent a huge part of my youth (pioneered from 16-19, then again at 21-22), but then it is also very sad because I now see it as such a waste. I did street work so I could spend less time out door-to-door with the other pioneers because I experienced panic attacks all the time and constant diarhea-inducing anxiety. And yet I stuck with it because I thought that was making "Jehovah's heart glad." I guess we have all experienced that....
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Highlander
Yeah, I think this is becoming more common. One of the last congos I attended was Buena Park, CA which was about 3 years ago, had started doing this at the local malls.
There was such a hoopla about it. There were the usual comments about Jehovah showing us a new form of witnessing and that it was very successful. In reality, the only
people that would approach the watchtower stand were very old and bored senior citizens that were more curious than anything else. There was no success ofcourse,, no conversions,
no baptisms. Just a big waste of time,, or maybe the 'brothers' viewed it as an easy way to get their 'time' in.
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Legolas
To my knowledge...That would NOT be permitted here at all!
A few years ago there was a 'sister' that worked at Wal-mart...and she wasn't allowed to bring ANY religious books to work!
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undercover
Wow...
If that don't shout out "cult recruitment" I don't know what does...
...but then, again, it is Wal-Mart...they might find their niche crowd there.
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carla
I think the Walmart corp needs a few letters. Never got a response from the last one I sent.
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blondie
Thanks, Jourles, for posting that.
Blondie
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moshe
I would just walk up announce , "I'm an apostate" and proceed to tell them all about their organization. I would imagine they would pack up and go home very quickly.