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"TO OUR WORLDWIDE FAMILY!"--Our Annual Mid-year Report--MO July, 1974 No.307A--DFO
Copyrighted July, 1974 by The Children of God
P.O. Box 31, London WC2E 7LX England or GPO Box 3141, San Juan, Puerto Rico 00936
Dearest Family:
1. GREETINGS IN JESUS' DEAR NAME FROM OUR SHANGRI-LA IN PARADISE! It is now almost three months to the day since we were wafted away on the wings of the wind to this fairy-tale world of legendary lore to which God himself bade us come by such a miracle!
2. AS SOME OF YOU RECALL, LIKE THE APOSTLE PAUL, WE HAD PLANNED TO GO TO ANOTHER COUNTRY to avoid certain conditions which were growing rather warm where we were, as our former location was becoming somewhat insecure due to an increasing knowledge of our possible whereabouts, partly due to our own relaxation of security measures and partly due even to the carelessness of some members of the family.
3. THIS WAS ALSO PARTLY DUE TO AN OMINOUSLY RISING TIDE OF POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS CIRCUMSTANCES fulfilling the warning dream which we had some time ago of "The Antenna" (read it again) that was standing on the edge of the cliff which was being gradually eroded by the waves. I was your antenna and you were warned to move me to place of greater safety--and this has now all been fulfilled, praise the Lord!
4. BUT, LIKE PAUL, WE WERE PREVENTED ON THE EVE OF OUR DEPARTURE FROM GOING TO THE COUNTRY FOR WHICH WE ALREADY HAD OUR TICKETS and reservations--and we now know why, because its leadership has rejected us and our message in spirit, although they are trying to imitate our methods in the flesh. The people received us and our message with joy, but their leaders turned from us, in final fulfilment of the prophecies regarding them, to work with carnal kings instead.
5. DESPITE OUR WARNINGS TO SOME OF YOU THAT OUR WORK WAS FINISHED THERE because they had rejected us, a few of you still tried to force open the door at great expense and cost in time, labour and personnel, contrary to our specific instructions and, just as we had expected with very little success. While on the other hand the mission on which you had been sent to a neighboring country was neglected and the opportunity of the moment virtually lost.
6. ALTHOUGH MUCH WAS ACCOMPLISHED AND LEARNED THE HARD WAY, we must not only glory in our successes but also be willing to confess our mistakes and attempt to rectify them. The great worldwide work which the Lord has helped us to do is largely the result our own personal confession of a very great mistake and a grave misinterpretation of the Scriptures and God's prophecies and meanings which we had been taught to apply to Israel when they were really intended for us. Our willingness to admit this and confess it to the whole world and turn completely around and start from scratch in an entirely new direction has been blessed by the Lord with our present tremendous worldwide success, praise God!
7. SO LET US LEARN SOMETHING EVEN FROM OUR MISTAKES! Amen? Your return to more important tasks is a great blessing to us all and we are very thankful. God bless you for a mission accomplished and a lesson learned even though it was not the one intended, but apparently it had to be learned that way so you'd know for sure I was right, and I'm sure all things have worked together for good because we all love the Lord. Praise the Lord!
8. OUR GREATEST PRESENT PUSH AND POTENTIAL IN REACHING THE YOUTH OF THE WORLD ON A RAPID WORLDWIDE SCALE IS AGAIN IN THE FIELD OF MUSIC and even dramatic entertainment, even as we began so long ago in our first little club in California, which started the Jesus Revolution! From club to classes to Colonies to multiplication to migrations to scatteration to worldwide evangelisation and publication we have now come the full circle around and are starting clubs again, but this time on a vast worldwide scale in a renewed effort to bring the new young lambs into our folds throughout the earth!
9. AGAIN MUSIC IS OUR MIRACLE TO ATTRACT THE YOUNG, along with dramatic presentations of our message in a recreational atmosphere of entertainment and enjoyable youthful fellowship with the same Family spirit and love of God as always. Only now we're doing it on a much larger scale and in many more locations and with much broader exposure in the entertainment fields of TV, radio and worldwide record productions of our music to reach the young everywhere by every means possible with the message of God's love and a hope and purpose for the future by our proven methods that work!
10. PARIS, LONDON, ESSEN, AMSTERDAM AND OTHERS ARE ALREADY A HUGE SUCCESS with followings of hundreds in each and harvestings of many new disciples, particularly the precious young new bottles who are so hard to reach in any other way! They are now flocking to our floors in floods and dancing with joy, singing our songs and viewing, hearing, and accepting God's message of love! Praise His Holy Name forever!
11. IT WORKS! HIS LOVE, JOY, NAME, POWER, SPIRIT AND WORDS STILL WORK WONDERS 'ROUND THE WORLD! Wonder working words and works in music, song, drama and even the dance!
12. EVEN SEX AND OUR MANIFEST LOVING AFFECTION HAS BECOME ONE OF OUR BIGGEST ATTRACTIONS to bait the hook for even the wariest of fish! The Devil uses it to hook his--why shouldn't the God who made it use sex to hook His own? There's nothing new about it. The churches have used it for years, although not as honestly and openly as we do, and certainly not as freely!
13. BUT WITH OUR NEW FOUND SEXUAL FREEDOM, you would think we had just recently discovered it, although it has always been one of our major attractions in our pretty witnesses and handsome distributors and the loving fellowship of our Colonies. It is one of youth's most basic needs, and the God Who made it is most happy to supply it if we are willing to open our arms and take them into our folds! Hallelujah! Thank God for sex and His love! He uses both!
14. AND DON'T THINK THAT THIS IS TO BE CONFINED TO JUST A FEW MAJOR CITIES! Every little Colony even in the smaller towns can have its own little club or place of youthful fellowship with just as much music, dramatics, dancing and loving fellowship as each of you are able to provide! We started it all that way ourselves with a very small group with very few entertainers and only a few refreshments in very small club in a very small town in a very small-minded country!
15. SO IF WE COULD DO IT, YOU CAN TOO, NO MATTER WHERE YOU ARE! Even if you're only a road team of two like the travelling mediaeval minstrels of old, you can sing and dance down the street and pied-piper them to some park and give them a good show!--And best of all you have a real message and real love and a real programme for living and remedy for dying that really satisfies!
16. SO WHY NOT TRY IT?--YOU'LL LIKE IT! AND THEY'LL LOVE IT--GET WITH IT!--START A CLUB TODAY! Don't let London and Paris think they've got all! You can do it, too--and again we've got a good use for some of those bands we used to have or even the little combos--or even just you and your guitar alone! You can do it! God is with you! You cannot fail! Hallelujah! Amen?
17. AND SOME OF YOU BIG CLUBS IN THE BIG CITIES MUST REMEMBER YOU'RE NOT THE ONLY PEBBLES ON THE BEACH AND YOU NEED TO SHARE SOME OF YOUR TALENT WITH OTHERS: Paris has had enough talent to supply nearly all of Europe, and you need to let those kings know they can't have everything! Meanwhile, London's been nearly too unselfish by nearly stripping themselves to the bone in robbing Peter to pay Paul--or Paris! We need to reach the English too, along with the rest of the world, more of whom speak English than French!
18. THESE MAY BE OUR LAST DAYS OF HARVESTING IN SOME OF THESE PLACES and we need to work fast while it's still day, for the nights will come when it will be much more difficult. So let's keep moving, keep changing, keep revoluting and keep on rolling the Revolution for Jesus! Praise God! Hallelujah! Amen?
19. MEANWHILE, NEW DOORS ARE OPENING TO US AROUND THE WORLD and we now have many new Colonies in many new countries some of which we never even heard of before, particularly throughout the Orient and Latin America!
20. GOD IS EVEN CHANGING GOVERNMENTS FOR OUR BENEFIT, as many regimes have been liberalised since our coming in fulfillment of such prophecies as "They Can't Stop Our Rain!" Also, in fulfillment of the admonitions, predictions and promises given in the "Birthday Warning" of February 1973, our Worldwide publications have circled the Globe!
21. WE HAVE PRINTED OVER 30 MILLION PIECES OF LITERATURE IN A LITTLE OVER A YEAR, many times over what was printed during the previous year, and God only knows how much more has more has not even been reported!--Please send in those reports!
22. THE LETTERS ARE NOW BEING PRINTED IN APPROXIMATELY TWENTY LANGUAGES AND DISTRIBUTED IN NEARLY 100 COUNTRIES around the world, and you may have noticed from the latest NNN that since we first began keeping records only two and one half years ago, we have witnessed directly by every means possible to over one billion people--a third of the world total population!
23. WE HAVE DISTRIBUTED NEARLY 130 MILLION PIECES OF LITERATURE THROUGHOUT THE WORLD, resulting in at least a quarter-of-a-million converts, nearly 150 thousand baptisms, nearly 5,000 fulltime workers and God only knows how many more readers, friends and followers around the world!
24. WE ARE NOW PRINTING AND DISTRIBUTING OUR LITERATURE AT THE PHENOMENAL RATE OF WELL OVER A MILLION COPIES EVERY WEEK, witnessing to about seven million a week, winning at least a thousand reported converts a week, half of them baptised, and gaining many more new disciples every day! It's a Revolution! Amen?--Not to speak of hundreds of marriages and more hundreds of babies!
25. IT'S AN EXPLOSION! GLORY!--And if you read the new New Nation News (formerly the "Tale") you know all the exciting new things that are happening to us. and to the world because of us, all around the world! Hallelujah! From beggars to kings we have filled the whole Earth with our doctrine! Praise God! Keep it up!
26. AND WE MUST WORK EVEN HARDER AND FASTER NOW, FOR THE LORD HAS SHOWN US THAT THE TIME IS EVEN SHORTER AND IT'S LATER THAN YOU THINK! The storm is fast approaching which will sweep the world with three years of great trouble confusion, strife and famine! Like a dying candle, the Lord showed me the lights of the world are soon to flicker out and "there will be great darkness throughout the earth and there shall be great agony of soul which will grieve the heart of thy father!" (Direct prophecy!) "And there shall be great weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth throughout the Earth!"
27. SO, LIKE "THE ANTENNA" I HAVE BEEN MOVED TO A SAFER LOCATION and the Lord has hidden us away for a little while until the storm blows over. Miraculously, we were told to come here by direct revelation in the middle of the night when we were praying where to go after the other door closed. A totally unknown word appeared before me like a neon sign in total darkness! Excitedly I woke Maria and said, "I think it's the place we're to go!"
28. WHEN WE OPENED THE ATLAS IT WAS THE FIRST WORD AND THE FIRST PLACE MY EYES FELL UPON! I had never heard of it before and didn't even know what it was like or where, but now we are here and it's wonderful! The folk are friendly, climate delightful and scenery gorgeous, thanks be to God and you! We write, work, walk and witness all day and pray, love and sleep all night!
29. WISH YOU WERE HERE! And you can be in spirit if you'll continue to read and pass on my love letters to you and others every day! Food for your soul is important: You can't make it without it! Please feed well!--And feed my sheep! Let's make this a "record" year in every way!--Amen? God bless you I love you!
--Dad.
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family}
