shepherding visits.....were they?

by angel eyes 42 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

  • shopaholic
    shopaholic

    My family had one when I was teen, a few years after being reassigned to new congregation. We didn't need one but they said they wanted to make sure they visited every family every year. They never opened, or pulled out, the bible but only asked us (my mom and her teen and college-aged kids) a bunch of personal questions...until my non-JW dad (who was listening to the whole thing from another room) walked in and asked the purpose of the visit.

    They responded with something about "encouraging the flock" as they begin to put on their coats. That was the only shepherding call I've ever had.

  • mouthy
    mouthy

    Yes one of my worldly neighbours called the K.Hall to tell them my husband was beating me
    (She could hear it..)Two elders came & told my Catholic Hubby he shouldnt do that,

    Read him the scriptures,Looked at me with my black eye.& told me in a very kind voice
    That even though I had been beaten,many of my Bro's were in concentration camps
    & prison suffering also, But look at me I was free to go preaching the GOOD NEWS!!
    What a priviledge,I just had to be more submissive to my hubby.I then explained
    If I had to obey him, he was always telling me" I was sitting on a pot of gold
    I should use it to get us out of debt" Well they did explain to him ,that was not an
    option,Read him the scriptures, Funny thing though many years later ,when a brothers
    wife died,he wanted me to visit him,I said I would bring another sister,He objected...
    I think he wanted to see my "Pot Of Gold" TRUE STORY!!!!!

  • jamiebowers
    jamiebowers

    We had one as a family where the elder strongly advised my mother's husband to stop being such a dick. But alas, he continued to remove the fuses, so we only had access to hot water every other day and were never allowed to use the clothes dryer. Luxury food items such as milk were still off limits to us. He continued to leer at me and torture my brother with various insults and threats. He even killed my brother's beloved dog just to be mean. Yeah, that shepherding visit yielded lots of fine fruit!

  • WTWizard
    WTWizard

    Being told, on September 3, to get back out in field circus for the month? As if not going out in field circus during the first two days of the month means I am not going out later--perhaps that's an idea for a new rule of no field circus after the second of the month.

  • angel eyes
    angel eyes

    So ive not missed out on anything then...lol Sounds like im thankful not to have ever had one...

  • Deceived
    Deceived

    I had one shepherding visit many years ago. I was married to an apposing husband and if I wanted to go to meetings he would make me take all the kids with me to the meetings, refused to take care of them even if one of them was sick. I had 4 children 6 years old and under. I was going to the meetings regularly but when I had my last baby it was just to much to go to the meetings and haul a newborn with me too. NO one in that congregation would help me with my children or even to bring in the baby carriage. I had made my bed, married an unbeliever (while disfellowshiped) and now had to many children. I got reinstated right after I had my second child. I was so worried about armageddon. But from the beginning after I got reinstated it was made clear in the 3 congregations that I attended that It wasn't their job to help me with the children at meetings. I just stopped going for awhile when I had my last baby. Two pompous elders came over to visit unannounced. My husband was livid. I had a hungry 4 week old baby in my arms and was breastfeeding. He was hungry when they arrived and wailing away while they preached at me. Finally I pulled a blanket to cover myself and started feeding the baby. They turned red, went silent, looked disgusted and said they had to .leave. That day I really started to disrespect them and it put me on the path to disassociation.

    Velvet aka Deceived

  • misguided
    misguided

    I've had many. So glad I don't have them any more. My husband was abusing my kids and me. Help? No! Just be more of a submissive wife...thankfully there is a government agency - social services...the school called them after my daughter had a wound on her face that she said her step father had caused. They interviewed all 5 of my kids (I have 6 - one is his) and they all told the same story... I was to have him out of the home by 3pm or they would apprenhend my kids... in the end he gets a 30 day jail sentence and 1 year of probation for what he's done to us...what does he get?...BAPTIZED!!! Now there's Jehovah's spit at work!!!

  • scotinsw
    scotinsw

    Sheperding visits? What were they?!?!?!

    In the 4 years from being baptised to leaving I got two. One when I'd just joined a new congregation and the second after I had missed loads of meetings (the beginning of the fade but I didn't realise it was that at the time.) Waste of time on both occassions.

    Never got them when I lived at home. It appeared that although the elders liked to talk about sheperding the flock, love etc they lived by "do as I say not as I do". I think my family only had one every 10 years or so. It may have been longer.

  • scotinsw
    scotinsw

    Angel eyes,

    You've never had a sheperding call and still you defend the organisation. Things like that is more often than not what moves someone to leave. I know personally it was the lack of sheperding and caring for the congregation that made me realise the org is a waste of time.

  • homeschool
    homeschool

    Blue, that breaks my heart. The only time the elders came to visit me, they were trying to find a way to DF me. (didn't work). My parents get regular sheparding visits, and I'm fairly certain all that is said is "women must be submissive to the husband. Oh, and please start your meds again"

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