Post by Alan Vandermyden on May 22, 2011 15:22:11 GMT -5
This comment, taken from the "Vic/Tas Workers List 2011" thread, intrigued me - and I haven't followed the thread, so there have possibly been many more similar posts:
I still find myself reading new worker lists (which is of course not all that frequent now), in a "workerly" way - and particularly California lists. I don't intend this disparagingly at all - it's just that it is of course very meaningful to the workers on the particular list, or to others who have various connections.
First, I did find it rather amusing that some of the California brother workers would try, each year to "guess" the new list, though I don't remember them getting too much correct. I was never any good at this, so didn't contribute much, though I was interested, and listened along as they "composed" their new list - I'm typing this as I picture a group of us huddled over a notepad in "Struggle Inn" - the Santee, CA convention grounds brother worker quarters. Though the "guesses" were largely incorrect, it does illustrate the importance of the list to workers, and it shows the kind of questions workers can be concerned with.
Upon receiving the actual list, there was much analysis. Of course, right there at the Santee grounds, immediately following the worker meeting and sitting down to a delicious lunch the local friends had prepared, comments were often just a polite, "that's nice," type of remarks, although there was excitement in the air, and in some situations, as when I was going back to the islands - and the staff all knew that's where I wanted to be- there were comments of "lucky you."!
But we would later begin to discuss and analyze the pairing of workers, who had responsibility - particularly if it was the first time for someone, or if they had it before, but didn't that particular year - and of course the field they were assigned to, with its particular needs and situations. And this is by no means always a negative thing, and I it is not just "gossip." I think the tone was generally one of appreciating the older workers' efforts at trying to create helpful situations for the workers and the fields. An older brother once remarked to some of us that it would be easy for him to put together a list in which he wouldn't have any sister workers left by the end of the year. And this was a brother worker whom I respected - and still respect. So, our "analysis" of the list was not "judgmental," or "critical," though we did sometimes wonder why certain "combinations" were planned.
To put some specifics on this, I was very interested when some friends with whom I occasionally chat told me last summer that Larry Taylor would be coming to O'ahu. As an old companion, I knew that Larry is a very kindly man, and he of course knows Hawai`i friends and history (of the fellowship here) well too. I saw it as an effort to help the years of "turbulence" here. This isn't just from my viewpoint - workers and friends from many "vantage points" have been distressed. This same man, in subsequent visits, told me how Larry has had such a calming effect on the friends here, and that they feel like they get something out of his meetings that they weren't getting before.
This doesn't make me feel inclined to return to meetings, but, at the same time, I do see God involved, and I do see ways in which overseers attempt to deal with things. I still feel that certain things are being covered, but that's a different story, and I digress. This post/thread is just to share a little of things I learned to see in worker lists . . .
May 20, 2011 20:27:39 GMT -5 @redback said:
I find the pairing of Bernard Manning and Claude Punke strange.I still find myself reading new worker lists (which is of course not all that frequent now), in a "workerly" way - and particularly California lists. I don't intend this disparagingly at all - it's just that it is of course very meaningful to the workers on the particular list, or to others who have various connections.
First, I did find it rather amusing that some of the California brother workers would try, each year to "guess" the new list, though I don't remember them getting too much correct. I was never any good at this, so didn't contribute much, though I was interested, and listened along as they "composed" their new list - I'm typing this as I picture a group of us huddled over a notepad in "Struggle Inn" - the Santee, CA convention grounds brother worker quarters. Though the "guesses" were largely incorrect, it does illustrate the importance of the list to workers, and it shows the kind of questions workers can be concerned with.
Upon receiving the actual list, there was much analysis. Of course, right there at the Santee grounds, immediately following the worker meeting and sitting down to a delicious lunch the local friends had prepared, comments were often just a polite, "that's nice," type of remarks, although there was excitement in the air, and in some situations, as when I was going back to the islands - and the staff all knew that's where I wanted to be- there were comments of "lucky you."!
But we would later begin to discuss and analyze the pairing of workers, who had responsibility - particularly if it was the first time for someone, or if they had it before, but didn't that particular year - and of course the field they were assigned to, with its particular needs and situations. And this is by no means always a negative thing, and I it is not just "gossip." I think the tone was generally one of appreciating the older workers' efforts at trying to create helpful situations for the workers and the fields. An older brother once remarked to some of us that it would be easy for him to put together a list in which he wouldn't have any sister workers left by the end of the year. And this was a brother worker whom I respected - and still respect. So, our "analysis" of the list was not "judgmental," or "critical," though we did sometimes wonder why certain "combinations" were planned.
To put some specifics on this, I was very interested when some friends with whom I occasionally chat told me last summer that Larry Taylor would be coming to O'ahu. As an old companion, I knew that Larry is a very kindly man, and he of course knows Hawai`i friends and history (of the fellowship here) well too. I saw it as an effort to help the years of "turbulence" here. This isn't just from my viewpoint - workers and friends from many "vantage points" have been distressed. This same man, in subsequent visits, told me how Larry has had such a calming effect on the friends here, and that they feel like they get something out of his meetings that they weren't getting before.
This doesn't make me feel inclined to return to meetings, but, at the same time, I do see God involved, and I do see ways in which overseers attempt to deal with things. I still feel that certain things are being covered, but that's a different story, and I digress. This post/thread is just to share a little of things I learned to see in worker lists . . .