Second in a series of reminiscing disappointments that cut me off this religion one string at a time...
Actually, I had a one week break which I spent quite poorly: not sleeping at night, so I could catch up on my favorite shows, eating crappy foods the whole day, booze and hangovers. I'm an introvert and really, this for me is an ideal holiday :)
But...all the above, coupled with having too much free time has brought back some demons who had been sleeping...and snoring.
Back to the topic.
In my former congregation, there's one wannabe-elder-no-education-hates-his-job-envies-others-mysogynist-ministerial servant. I'll simply call him brother Frustration. He didn't like me and I didn't like him either. We couldn't just click.
He happened to be the one who shares the slips with assignment (part) info. Around that time, they had already started the 'no-slip, check the board to know if you have a part' craze. This brother continued to share the slips but decided to apply the rules to ME. I wasn't a fan of reading the announcement board ( I mean, what is it?). This incident happened the very first time he decided not to give me the slip.
3 days before the service meeting, bro Frustration called me in the night to graciously 'remind' me about the part I had on the meeting. I told him that I knew nothing about it since I didn't receive any slip. He triumphantly announced to me that he was no longer bound to do that and that as a publisher, it was my responsibility now to check such info on the board...
So I had 48 hours to put something together and present a part. I could have refused to do it, but I knew that's what they wanted and I simply didn't want to give them that satisfaction.
Since it was a foreign language congregation, I had to get as partner someone who had the language as first language, in order to minimize the time needed to prepare. I had few options. Among those, there was an elder's pioneer wife I used to look up to. She was one person I secretly admired for no particular reason. I'll call her sis BigDisappointment.
So I called her, fully hoping that she was going to understand the situation and accept my request to second me for the part. I'm not even the type of sister who will involve my partners in the 'research' stage of the preparation. I hated that! So I called her, and contrary to my expectations, the conversation went aw-ry!
She scolded me for accepting a part with the date so close and her tone of voice made me wonder if that was the first time in her life that she was hearing about a last minute preparation for a part in a meeting. She acted all shocked, scolding me and criticizing the brother, and advised me to tell bro frustration that I wasn't going to do the part because of the short time limit; and then she dropped the line of the title. Twice.
I was shocked. Here I had a zealous pioneer whose life was all dedicated to God's service, refusing to second me on a last minute part and inciting me to refuse doing it altogether. I was never able to get those few words out of my mind.
I eventually got a sister (after several unsuccessful attempts) who reluctantly accepted to do the 'dirty job' with me. At the end of the meeting, sis BigDisappointment walks up to me, and told me how beautifully I had done the part and that nothing in the way it was done showed that it was a last minute thing.
I wonder what was the big deal?! Copy a few sentences from a book, read 2 or 3 verses, get up and leave the chairs? Was that the big deal?
Mind you...suppose I had refused to do the assignment...bro Frustration would have called sis BigDisappointment to the rescue, and sis BigDisappointment would have quickly accepted to do the part of that higher-education-full-time-job-materialistic-too-busy-making -money-to-devote-her-time to spiritual matters sister who had the guts to refuse her part. The school overseer would have announced from the platform how sis BigDisappointment had accepted to do a last minute part in lieu of the one who couldn't do it (though she was present at the meeting)... and he would have graciously thanked her for such exemplary benevolence.
It was just another day with the witnesses.