As Jehovah’s Witnesses we spent countless hours trying to make the world a better place but we never did anything charitable to help our fellowman. As ex-Jehovah’s Witnesses it is easy to get mired down in our own trauma and trying to build a new life and to forget that we are now part of the bigger world around us. So Ex-JW Help Day is one day out of the year to remind you that you are part of the world around you and to help you connect to that world by doing something unexpected to put a smile on someone else’s face. There truly is much happiness to be found in giving.
What could I do? This is a day of helping random people around you with random acts of kindness. You can do something that really helps you to connect to someone directly like walking up and handing cash to someone that is pumping gas and helping them pay for it. You could buy someone’s meal in a restaurant. Maybe find a parent shopping for school supplies at a store and contribute toward that purchase. Tip someone at a drive through or someone that would never normally receive a tip. Go to a thrift store and find someone that could use the money in their life or buy what their cart has in it. Find a family in the toy aisle and offer to buy a toy for their kid. Fill up an expired parking meter. Put some food items together and/or toiletries and hand them out to the homeless. Buy the person’s food behind you in a drive through. There are so many possibilities to help in a financial way. Buy a dozen roses and hand them out. Hand out cold water bottles to people working outside. The possibilities are endless.
What if I can’t participate financially? How could I get involved? Look for the good in people and offer them compliments. Write a letter to someone that you appreciate. People like getting mail that isn’t a bill. Or do so electronically through Messenger, email, whatever it is you like. Cut someone’s grass in your neighborhood that could use the help. If you’re washing your car, offer to wash the neighbor’s while you have everything out. Leave some positive reviews for things that you like. Leave a kind note in your mailbox for the person that delivers your mail daily. Make some homemade cookies and deliver them to neighbors. Volunteer at a nonprofit, or just offer to watch someone’s kids so that they can have a night out. Again, there are so many possibilities here, and once you start looking around for ways to truly be of help or brighten someone’s day you might find more opportunities to engage. You might even make some friends along the way.
Where did the idea come from? I’ve always liked doing little things here and there for people I knew. But on my birthday one year I found myself without anything to do and pretty bummed out about it. So I decided that if I couldn’t do something for myself I’d do something for someone else. I went to the area that I grew up in, an economically depressed area of Louisville Kentucky, and I took some cash. I found a pregnant woman at a thrift store and offered her some money if it would help her as a random act of kindness for my birthday. I needed to get some gas to get home so I filled up a woman’s tank next to me. I tipped a lady at the local taco place when I got food through the drive through. One person was overcome with appreciation, one cried and just let me know that “life has been hard”, and one beamed with joy because she was appreciated for a moment. This day helped me see how many people are hurting around us. We aren’t the only ones that have been hurt and traumatized, and I want to inspire others to bond with their fellow humans by making someone’s day. Those people I met that day aren’t saved from the lives they lead by my one act that day, but for a moment they knew that someone cared, they connected to someone, and I guarantee you that they won’t forget it. I want others to feel this too.
Why September 2, that seems random? My wife and I were officially announced as no longer being Jehovah’s Witnesses on September 2 of 2015. Two years later I started the Shunned Podcast on September 2 of 2017. Four years later I started this initiative on September 2 of 2021.
Share Your Experiences!
What did you do for Ex-JW Help Day? How did you help someone? Please share what you were able to do to put a smile on someone else’s face. Let’s inspire others to get out and do something that day too. If you want to take a video of yourself afterward talking about what you did, please share that here. If you want to write out what happened as you went out and did random acts of kindness, whether one or more than one, please share that here too. If you are posting things on social media please use the hashtag #exjwhelp .
We will be compiling these videos (please give us a link if you can) and written experiences to help inspire others next year so if you share it may be used to help that happen. The goal is to grow this into something that we as a community of sorts can be proud of and something that brings a smile to everyone’s face involved. Life is tough by itself some days, and we’ve all been through a lot, but so have others and something like this can be a win-win situation.