Saved from the clutches...

by jws 13 Replies latest jw friends

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  jws

  Yesterday, I'm in the hospital waiting room while my wife is having a procedure done. I sit down and on the end-table across from me is an Awake magazine. Not knowing who left it, I didn't pop right up and scarf it up (to be disposed of).

  As I'm waiting for the people in the area to clear, a guy a few seats down goes to pick it up. I tell him you don't want to get involved with that stuff. He looks puzzled. I tell him it's from the Jehovah's Witnesses. He looks shocked. Tells me he thought it was a hospital magazine and promptly puts it down (face down) and says he feels like he has to wash his hands now.

  I guess that's a tactic. Leave Awakes so that somebody might unsuspectingly pick them up. If it says Watchtower, most people probably know what it is or they get that religious vibe right away.

  After he left, I scarfed it up and made it disappear.

  Old too. August 2001. I remember my old magazine pile not usually being more than about 6 months old. Had that magazine been there that long? It looked pretty fresh. Funny to think it had been laying around a year and nobody touched it.
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  Matty

  We were encouraged to plant magazines in doctor's or dentist's waiting rooms weren't we? For some people I guess anything is better than a pile of Readers Digests from about 1972, that's what you usually get in the waiting room!

  I haven't really thought about Awakes being less known as a dub publication than Watchtower, interesting point. I guess the design and tone of the Awake is really so as not to scare people off too much, it's more subtle & insidious in the way it puts over the Witness doctrine.
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  Nosferatu

  I've seen this tactic used before many times. My mother always used to leave WT & Awake magazines in the waiting room. I also remember a guy who would go to the pool, and he'd always have a pile of tracts with him. While nobody was looking, he'd place the tract underneath someone's cooler, inbetween the chain link fence, under towels, in the change room, etc. In my opinion, that's littering.
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  Yerusalyim

  I, too, generally do a public service by throwing away the magazines when I find them lying around.
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  NameWithheld

  Yes, it is littering. People should react the same way that they would if the dude were going around leaving a big pile of steaming crap. Which is exactly what he was doing.
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  freedom96

  I think it is our responsibilty to get rid of the mags when we seem them. Do we really want someone to pick it up and get interested? Would we want that on our concience? I think not.
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  jws

  Leaving magazines was actually field-service in itself. When I was aux-pioneering (sort of), I went out in field service with a pioneer. Since I was working full time, hours in the day were limited and if you didn't have bible studies to call on at night, a great way to get in easy hours was to go from laundromat to laundromat leaving magazines. (Also got that magazine placement total WAY up there!) We sometimes even talked to the customers. That did make it more difficult.
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  Elsewhere

  At a previous apartment I would go to the laundry-room to wash my cloths and there would almost always be some Watchtower and Awake mags placed in there.

  I didn't just throw them away, I ripped them in half and then threw them away... wanted to make sure they would be very difficult to read should someone pull them back out of the trash.

  Strange though... after a few months of this, they suddenly stopped appearing. Perhaps the litter-bug happened to see me cleaning up his mess???
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  Mulan

  Two summers ago, we were camping with a large group of ex JW's. We went to a laundromat to wash clothes, and there was a stack of old WT's and Awakes. One of the women with us, put silentlambs business cards inside the magazines, and wrote something on the outside of them too............can't remember what. The KH was around the corner, so I'll bet they come in and check on the supplies quite often.
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  Country Girl

  I had a funny experience a few weeks ago. I live a million of miles from nowhere. I have lived in this house for five years and have only had Witnesses come out once, when I was not home, and leave an Awake in the door. I quickly filed it away in the round file. It was an Awake from like a year ago. I am glad I wasn't home, as angry as I am, because I'm sure they had cell phones and could have had the sherrif out here in, oh, 30 minutes. hehehhe. Anyway, I drive to the nearest convenience store (about 9 miles away) for gas. In comes a young JW boy, no older than 15, and tells the cashier "I'd like to leave this." He plops his Awake magazine on the iced beer. On top of the ice, with beers floating in it. I say to the cashier: They're everywhere. She says "They do this all the time. The magazines get soppy wet." I said I'd rescue it and channel it to the round file. She says "Thanks. I just let em do their thing and then it goes in the trash." I quickly took the magazine and deposited it the trash outside. It was soggy wet. They're either getting pretty careless, or this kid didn't give a damn. My bet is on the latter. Maybe another apostate waiting to happen. Heh.

  CG