Them thinking that pioneering is equal to my full time job!

by LongHairGal 24 Replies latest jw experiences

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  LongHairGal

  This was a topic that annoyed me and I got into a bit of an argument years ago over this.

  Some sister (who never worked a day in her life I might add) with the cushy life, affluent husband thought that because she pioneered it was equal to me having a full time secular job. There were others there who naively thought the same thing. Somehow I gave them an inferiority complex because I worked so they had to dream this up to make themselves feel better.

  While I agree that someone who pioneers may be physically tired at the end of the day, there is no comparison to what I have to deal with in going to and from and being on a full time job. I won't even get into the crazy, rude people you meet on public transit or driving with dangerous people on the road plus the back-stabbing behavior you are faced with on a secular job.
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  hartstrings

  
  I'm sorry that they turned their "privilege" that they willingly volunteered for into a pissing contest.

  For dh and I, pioneering was grueling work. I work approximately 60 hrs a week at present as a business owner and the hardships I face now pale in comparison to the struggles and work I put into regular pioneering in a rural community with just my husband companion for six years. The rejection, the stigmatizing, the physical impact of such hot and cold long days, the personal demons in knowing your 20's are flittering away for absolutely nothing to show for it... But, that being said, I would have never told anyone who was not pioneering that I had it "harder" than them, that is just rude.

  HS
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  jula71

  Well, back in my hard-core dub days I had some pretty close pioneer friends. I can't count how many hours were counted on say fishing trips. They would bring someone not-baptized on purpose and "share" a few thoughts, count the time. Or how many hours we spent zig-zagging the city, do a call on the south side, then one on the north side, then one on the west side, then back to the south side.....you get the picture. Even my mom has told me about the "pioneer shuffle" and other tricks like doing a call BEFORE the group meets in the morning and keep the clock running just to get your time started. Geeezzz, I wish my job was like that!!!!
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  crazyblondeb

  The pioneers have learned to milk the system! Talk about deceptive ethics!As a nurse, I never got doughnut breaks, never got to act like I'm doing something--when I'm not doing a thing. It's all about how it looks on the outside...........doesn't matter who you stumbled or lied to along the way.

  If they had real jobs, they would have already been fired! Or severely hurt by fellow employees!

  shelley
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  Scully

  how many hours were counted on say fishing trips. They would bring someone not-baptized on purpose and "share" a few thoughts, count the time.

  Even as a hard core dub, I found this practice of basically "using" unbaptized people to pad the service report to be extremely objectionable. If the only reason to invite them on a fishing trip or camping was to get time to add to the service report, and not for their encouragment or their friendship, then that's hypocrisy.

  I made a point at Memorial time when a JW "friend" called to invite me to the Memorial that we didn't appreciate it when JWs visited ONLY when they were already out in service, counting time. If they really cared about us as friends they would try to call when they weren't out in service. She replied that "life is so busy as a Witness, sometimes that's the only chance we get to visit other people use their bathroom to let them know that we care about them."
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  Bluegrass Tom

  Scully, I think you are right-on!

  I personally know Elders where their only Field Service time is what they count talking to the unbaptized. This includes their children and/or grandchildren. Several haven't seen a door in years. They put in the 10 hours per month to keep the CO off their back, and give Service Meeting parts about the need to preach. It is unbelievable.
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  rebel8

  While I agree that someone who pioneers may be physically tired at the end of the day, there is no comparison to what I have to deal with in going to and from and being on a full time job

  
  

  
  Yeah. Let's compare.

  5:30 a.m. You get up. Pioneer still sleeping.

  7a.m. You start out on your one hour commute in harrowing traffic. Pioneer still sleeping.

  8 a.m. You arrive at work and begin a hectic schedule with little time to even go to the bathroom. Pioneer rolls out of bed.

  10 a.m. Pioneer starts her time while heading to the KH by running into the laundromat and leaving magazines on a chair.

  11 a.m. While you are working through lunch, the FS meeting is ending. They stop for coffee on the way to the territory.

  11:30 They knock on their first door.

  12:00 - 2:00 Lunch time for the dubs.

  etc.

  My whole day in pioneering was about how to kill time w/o doing anything--the opposite of what a job is like!
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  delilah

  I have seen what happens to these, snobby, full-time pioneer sisters, when all of a sudden, their glass house falls down around them....it ain't a pretty sight, let me tell you. Especially when their "elder" husband has been cheating on them for years, finally gets caught and disfellowshipped. I actually felt sorry for one "sister", as she had NO clue, how to carry on....she had to get a full time job, for the first time in her life, and things were tough going for her. That is, until her parents, once again, stepped in to "help" their little girl out....she is now back to pioneering, and working part-time, but making lots of dough, and has been entertaining the idea of "moving to where the need is greater", ahem.....and it's not in a poverty stricken part of a paradisaic country, oh no!!! it's in Mexico....sun, sand and surf..... I wonder, if she still looks down her nose at those "sisters" who work full time?????????? and complains about how hard she has it........she once showed pics of the territory she worked while in another "hot" country, and it was always , having a bible study around the pool, where they were living......nice and cushy...

  Delilah
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  Netty

  My God, the things they say, shish! How ridiculous. That's just like, "reading the watchtower and awake magazines, is the equivalent to having a college degree". My Mother herself has said this very thing.
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  Panda

  When I pioneered I worked 3 PT jobs; one in retail, one with another sister stripping and waxing floors at a donut place(in the middle of the night while they were closed), and one cleaning offices (and stairwells and bathrooms )various time schedule and except for the offices and bathrooms everything else took a week to get done (and then start again). Then field service and I never padded my pioneer hours. I thought that Jah would know, and good bye new system.

  Mr.Panda cleaned at a supermarket at around 5AM and came home, changed and we met with the group for service. We had no time to breathe and got by on little or no sleep. We weren't the only ones working like dogs to support ourselves... Once when MrPanda broke his ankle we got food stamps ... I was so embarrassed that I made him go into the store with me so people would see the stamps were for an injured person.