I already tried to post this, but I can't find it on the board, and don't know what went wrong, so I am trying again. If this becomes a duplicate, please excuse my ineptitude. I am just going to have to start keeping my front door closed. Today, I had it open, and there was no way to pretend I wasn't home when the two 'brothers' rang my door bell. Actually, they had been by last Saturday, too, but the door was closed that day, and I didn't answer it. But they are persistant. I was a regular and well known member of the local congregation for many years, but never a local 'star', and I have not been to a meeting for over a year. Today the local PO and the visiting CO paid a 'shepherding call' on me. I suppose you could term it. I felt a moment of panic when I answered the door and saw them standing there, but all they seemed to want was to leave me the latest magazines, invite me to the CO's talk on Sunday, and inform me that the District Convention was next week. They did say some interesting things though during the course of their visit. The PO said that although the WT used to proclaim 'Christendom' as the major part of Babylon the Great, that has changed, and now it is Islam, since they now outnumber Christendom worldwide. He stressed the terrorist angle as being the impetus for the political powers to turn on religion, and said that most people would not protest, since few consider attendance to church vital and they will sacrifice liberties like this for personal security if necessary. He also stated that the current understanding is that it is not to be expected that the witnessing work by JWs will penetrate into all corners of the earth, or that each individual will personally get a 'witness', just that the message will be proclaimed worldwide. He said that it was reasonable to expect little penetration into areas such as China and the Moslem countries, because these cultures had never even been receptive to the growth of 'false' Christianity, how then would it be reasonably expected that they could likely grow 'true' Christianity. I said that this was an awfully huge portion of the earth's population to discount. His reply consisted of a couple of anecdotes about individuals from one of these places, who came to the US or Europe through immigration, and then became JWs. Jehovah knows where honest hearted people are and can get them out when he wants to. I guess that must be fairly easy, since there are only a handful of them, apparently. Too bad that the rest, more than a billion, of those people had the misfortune to be born into such stubborn cultures, or somehow lack whatever vital JW gene would have saved their lives at armageddon. The PO also gave some quotes from a Sunday talk he has about armageddon, in which he related a story supposedly channeled through some Bethelite high ups about an inquiry made to persons who participated in the dismantling of the Berlin Wall. When asked why they did it, they said that they just woke up that morning with the thought in their heads, implying that it was planted there by divine suggestion, I suppose. Then he gave an account of some of the (unnamed) European leaders, who upon consulting their spiritualistic, divining mediums with the question, "Why didn't you tell us that this wall was coming down?", received the answer, "Because we didn't know." He smiled and nodded with a confident knowing look, explaining that Jehovah doesn't let those guys in on his plans for this stuff. It's tough to be out of the information loop. While all that was interesting, he had some more personal items to regale me with. I heard about, at length, all the cruises and European travel that the various 'brothers' were privileged to enjoy. This brother and wife were granted the status of International Convention delegates at one country on the continent, and another brother was going to another. The CO who was with him, was to attend a third in another city. A JW mother and daughter were doing yet another. I guess it helps break up the mind numbing drivel of daily JW life , to get these officially sanctioned trips from time to time....if you can afford them. Most of them have a substantial 'vacation' attached to them after the JW event is over (thank God that is over, and we can have some fun now), and are assigned and booked through connections with the WTS. It seems to be becoming quite the status symbol among the 'friends' to have attended one or more of these foreign conventions as a 'delegate'. Bummer if you are one of those minimum wage earners in the congregation, who can't afford these 'privileges'. Well, it was all very interesting, but I don't think I will make any plans to attend the District Convention as a delegate next week, even though it would mean a trip of 100 miles for me, and could therefore be a feather in my cap, as 'theocratic travel'.