Your Most Hair-Raising Moments in Field Service

by The wanderer 38 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  The wanderer

  Your Most Hair-Raising Moments in Field Service

  Throughout my tenure of being one of Jehovah's
  Witnesses, I am thankful that there were only
  two or three incidents which proved to be some
  what dangerous.

  One time a man threatened myself and another
  brother with shooting us for waking him up early
  Sunday morning. Another time a man threatened
  us with his dog.

  The third was the most frightening though, because
  this man had a knife and the idiot elder who I was
  with did not take the hint that the man just did not
  want to be bothered.
  
  He just kept on rambling on and on. Finally, I
  stepped in and said " Okay, have a nice day."

  ---

  What about yourself?

  • What moments can you recall that left you or
    someone you knew on the edge of danger?

  • Was there anything that you can recall which
    made you think " no more field service for me." ?

  Please add your commentary to provide an inte-
  resting discussion and commentary session.

  Respectfully,

  The Wanderer
• 

  dobbie

  Wow nothing that bad ever happened to me thank goodness! I remember just starting out on the ministry and this bloke starting shouting at me, saying i was a murderer because of the blood, also a very well known C of E member looking at me and telling me i was possessed and he could see Satan in my eyes(!) and the last time i went out was with a schoolgirl and my eldest who was about two and we called on this drunk man who chased up out of the building(flats) swearing his head off and telling us if we went near him again we'd get it!This was in front of several people i bet they had a right laugh!Mind you i certainly learnt some new swear words that day!I didn't go out on ministree again, except on other peoples calls!LOL!
• 

  parakeet

  Dogs. Huge, angry dogs.
• 

  purplesofa

  I always hated it when the tables turned and the householder took control. One time we were politely listening to this woman trying to get away, she was obviously nuts......she started speaking in tongues.......At first I was shocked then I almost busted out laughing. When we walked away I was sure the demons were with me for a bit.

  Man came to door in his underwear. Scratching his belly, rubbing his chest........he just woke up. I was a good little sister and went on with my presentation........oh why didn't I just say what an ass he was for answering the door that way?

  When you go to a house and they invite you in and it smells so badly you hold your breath...........oh and then you fineally have to breath......a big freaking deep breath..........and you start coughing and feel like you are going to vomit. You fake something........say something like "I don't know whats wrong???? MAYBE A BREATH OF FRESH AIR???????? The person you are with seems to not be able to smell at all and keeps yakking away while you are backstepping to the front door.

  When there is someone in your car group that never shuts up...........takes over everything in service and starts to piss everyone off. But NOooo we can't tell her to shut her big mouth .......we all sit there and take it like a bunch of smucks.

  I could go on, but I would sound so pissy if I did.

  Can you tell I did not like field service?

  purps
• 

  Stephanus

  Man came to door in his underwear. Scratching his belly, rubbing his chest........he just woke up. I was a good little sister and went on with my presentation........oh why didn't I just say what an ass he was for answering the door that way?

  Er, excuse me??? Didn't you wake him up? Weren't you the intruder on his sleep time and space? Who's the "ass"?
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  girasole

  I never had any really hair raising moments. But one time I did go to a door - I think it was my first door of the morning and I had awakened the guy who answered the door who was groggy and droopy eyed, and trying to shield his face from the sunlight then streaming in from his open door. I introduced myself only I made a blunder and said that I was my friend and my friend was me - flip-flopping our names. I could have just moved on and he would have been none the wiser. But after the mistake I got so cracked up I could barely continue - so I just went blubberinly on trying to correct my mistake. You should have seen the poor guy - he probably thought he was hallucinating - or maybe still dreaming. I was laughing so hard that I don't think I even did my presentation.
  I just held out the magazines and excused myself and my friend - telling him we'd try again later. What a wake up call!
  
  Another time a guy came to the door and apparently the only thing he could find to cover himself was his door mat. So he stood there covering himself with it.
  
  There was also an older man who chased us off his property shaking his fists at us and screaming that we were "baby killers" (referring to the blood policy). We were literally walking backwards on the sidewalk away from his house with him following us.
  
  On another point, it always irritated me how JWs would pass judgement on people if they knew someone was home and they didn't come to the door or if they did come to the door and were curt, cutting them short. They'd walk away from the door snickering that the "householder" was hiding or remarking about how rude they were. I mean, hellooo, isn't it rude to come banging on someone's door, uninvited, invading their privacy, assuming, "if it's a good time for me it MUST be a good time for you too - and if it's not a good time surely you'll realize how important our message is and drop whatever you're doing to talk with us."
  
  
  girasole
• 

  Blueblades

  It started out as a nice sunny and quiet day in the field service on a sunday afternoon. Then all hell broke loose! Brothers and Sisters were running up and down the blocks yelling for us to get out of the territory! It was Hasidim territory, no one really wanted to work this territory. A mob of young Hasidic Jews from the near-by school had gathered and were violently chasing the friends out of the territory. It reminded me of Paul chasing down the Christians. Later we found out that some householders had made a call to their local school about Christian preachers knocking at their homes.

  My friend and I got caught on the block, Hasidems coming at us from both ends of the block, we were trapped in - between. The mob beat up my friend and gave him a concussion, they ripped my book bag out of my hand and put a pipe to the back of my head and forced me out of the block to where our car was. I had to carry my friend who was injured in his back and head. When we got into the car they threw the pipe through the back window and it landed between us onto the console.

  Later, some of the friends were getting phone calls that we were dead. They were calling from my address book that I had in the book bag. We drove over to the police station where the other friends had gone to file a complaint. We could not point out who did what to us with the exception of one youth who had reddish hair and a reddish beard.

  WE took them to court, the society told us to drop the charges and let it be. This event was later put into the Watchtower, May 1970, I think, in the back on Watching the World part.

  One of the Brothers who took the lead that day was one of the anointed. So, we all felt it was ok to go into Hadsidim territory. Some time later the Society gave a a new directive on how the Hadsidim territory should be worked. Quiety, two Brothers, a couple of doors then leave. There is much more to this HAIR - RAISING MOMENT that occurred on a quiet sunny day in Brooklyn near the Headquarters of the society.

  Blueblades
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  HoChiMin

  A friendly young women answered the door naked once, I wouldn't call that "hair" raising though.

  HCM
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  blondie

  Was that you, Blueblades. I remember that experience. I have worked around Hasidic communities and did not go in...

  I have had a gun pointed at me twice and a big dog sicced on me. Thank goodness, I am a glib talker and actually had one gun pointer shake my hand at the end of all of it. I learned to carry dog biscuits. Thow the biscuit as far as you can away from you and the car. Dog chases after biscuit, you get in your car.

  Blondie
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  mouthy

  purplesofa....So it was YOU who used to look at me like a dagger EH!!!!

  When there is someone in your car group that never shuts up...........takes over everything in service and starts to piss everyone off. But NOooo we can't tell her to shut her big mouth .......we all sit there and take it like a bunch of smucks.