HomeARC ML 1205
A STRING OF PEARLS!--12,000 Miles of Miracles on a Ten-Week Tour!
DFO 1205 17/1/82
--Good advice for all Fellowships!--By Father David
1. WELL, PTL! HALLELUJAH! TYJ! HAPPY NEW YEAR! God bless you all & all you beautiful, wonderful, beloved MCV'ers & the marvellous work you are doing there! We have been absolutely thrilled with your videos & tapes & shows & programmes & everything!--As well as all those beautiful dances! PTL!
2. THANK YOU JESUS FOR FREEDOM SO WE CAN GLORIFY GOD IN EVERYTHING WE CAN DO, whether it's song, music, video, dancing or sex! Hallelujah! Amen? PG! TYJ! And most of all in preaching the Gospel, witnessing, litnessing & winning souls. Amen? TTL? GBYA!
3. WELL, I HADN'T REALLY INTENDED TO MAKE A FORMAL ADDRESS TO YOU FOLKS & I'm speaking right now particularly to your leadership & especially to you & Juan, Faith, with an idea for a plan that we have for Latin America--another inspirational tour for you two or more. You could take along some helpers if you want to, you'll maybe need help on the technical end of making videos as you go. It usually takes at least two, a camera man & a sound man. But of course you'll probably have some in the places where you're going, too, to help.
4. I DOUBT IF YOU'LL NEED TO TAKE ANY MUSICIANS WITH YOU because you'll have'm on tape & that'll inspire the Family to come & see your videos, etc. They've already received your audio tapes so you don't have to have any special sessions for those. But you can take'm some of your first available video tapes & have them arrange to show at least one or two one-half hours of those each night.
5. WE'VE FOUND THAT ABOUT TWO HALF-HOUR SHOWS IS ABOUT ALL MOST FOLKS CAN STAND, a one hour programme of video & at the very most an hour-&-a-half & that's about all anybody can stand in the way of a meeting. We have really kind of pushed some of these poor people to the point of exhaustion & desperation by having meetings that were too long & I want you to learn how to have shorter meetings. You can have more of them that way & so you don't just absolutely "wear out the saints", or they may accuse you of being the Antichrist! (Dan.7:25)
6. WELL, WHAT I'M TRYING TO SAY IS I THINK GENERALLY SPEAKING IT'S TIME FOR YOU TO TAKE ANOTHER TOUR OF LATIN AMERICA! I was just discussing it here with Maria & as usual she stuck a tape recorder in my hand & a mike in my mouth, or almost, & here I am wired for sound again. I shouldn't complain about it because that's the way you get it, & although sometimes I object, I tell her, "I'm not going to make a tape! I am not going to make a speech! I am not talking to the World, I just want to talk to you!" "Well," she says, "you might say something important & we might miss it, & why just tell me about it? Why don't you tell them all about it while you're at it?" So here I am!
7. I WAS DISCUSSING THE IDEA WITH HER & SHE THOUGHT IT WAS A GREAT IDEA & you're probably due for a change & a rest & a change of scenery. It may not be too much rest but even a change sometimes is a rest & an inspiration & I think Latin America is due another tour. You ought to have one of these maybe about once a year. It gives you a chance to get away from MCV, & MCV a chance to get away from you & have a little variety & a change too for awhile! You don't want to wear out your welcome there!
8. THEY SAY FAMILIARITY BREEDS CONTEMPT & A PROPHET'S NOT WITHOUT HONOUR SAVE IN HIS OWN COUNTRY AMONGST HIS OWN PEOPLE" (Mt.13:57), & if you get away for awhile they'll appreciate you more when you come back. That's what my Mother used to do with her pastorates & it really worked very well! Of course, she finally got so used by the Lord on the road that she just never went back & they got along without her & kept going anyway!
9. HER GREATEST MINISTRY WAS AS AN EVANGELIST, LIKE YOURS, & MOST EVANGELISTS REALLY DON'T MAKE VERY GOOD PASTORS. They need variety, they need change, they need to see new faces & new places, they need the inspiration of a new congregation every few weeks or days & that really turns them on! It's just like show business & actors & actresses & performers & singers, if they keep just singin' to the same old bunch all the time they get a little bit soured & worn out on it & even the Alliance used to change pastors.--Not only have evangelists every year but change pastors every two years.
10. THEY USED TO SAY THAT A MAN HAS GIVEN HIS BEST TO THE PEOPLE WITHIN TWO YEARS & told'm everything he knows & he's gotten sick & fed up with them & they're sick & fed up with him & then it's time for a change! Well, I'm sure the folks there in P.R. are not sick & fed up with you, at least maybe not yet, we hope! Some of them might be, I don't know, but you might even be a bit fed up with some of them, so it might be mutual!
11. BUT WE ALL NEED A CHANGE & SOMETIMES WE DON'T LEARN THE FEAR OF GOD ANY OTHER WAY as the Scripture says, "They fear not God because they have no changes." (Ps.55:19) You need change, everybody needs change. It gives you a chance to exercise faith & initiative & that ol' pioneering spirit & have new inspiration, new faces & new places! Variety is the spice of life & you need to get away from that grindstone & that treadmill there--which it can become when you're working that hard & really turning out the grist & the grit & the grain! It can get a little old sometimes & a bit wearing & tiring & you need a relief & a change & a rest & some variety. So I just suggest that it's about time you need to take another trip & get away from it all.
12. IT'S GONNA TAKE SOME TIME, OF COURSE, TO ORGANISE THIS TOUR & give each Family in each country time to arrange facilities & dates & the places to meet & house & feed them etc., because I would suggest that they be like NAFs, National Fellowships, which they're supposed to have about once a year & cover that particular area, that country & go perhaps to the capital city of each country for this gathering.
13. I WOULD SUGGEST MAYBE JUST A WEEKEND IN EACH PLACE so you'll have mid-week to rest & relax & recuperate & recover & regain your strength for the next weekend. In fact, that would even be pretty tight in some cases & you might have to just make the arrangements for every two weeks because it'll probably involve more than just a weekend in the country. You may want to go there in time to have conferences with leaders & talk & pray over their plans & problems etc. & discuss the arrangements for the meetings & the programme & all of that with them before you actually appear publicly before the Family in the actual general meetings.
14. SO YOU COULD EASILY PROBABLY SPEND A WEEK IN EACH CAPITAL helping them to make the last minute arrangements for their meetings & programmes etc. & conferring with the leaders & then having the actual general meetings with the Family for perhaps a couple days. Maybe like on Saturdays & Sundays you could have a daytime general meeting with the Family, maybe a Committee leadership meeting too somewhere in-between, & then general night meetings for watching the new videos which I'm sure they'll be thrilled to see & so you can take a little bit of a rest & not have to be the whole show all the time!
15. YOU CAN CARRY THE BALL & INSPIRE'M & THRILL'M WITH YOUR WONDERFUL INSPIRATIONAL TALKS & really sort of whip up a storm & some enthusiasm for our new plans for taking South America etc. & really encourage them & inspire them & thrill them with what they can do! You'll be going around like saint Paul the Apostle, going back to the various churches as he did. He said, "Let's take a trip to go back & see how the brethren do."
16. SO YOU CAN BE OUR PAULINE INSTEAD OF PAUL & JUST WATCH OUT FOR THE PERILS! There used to be a famous serial movie at the movie houses that came on every Saturday. Every weekend they had a new one of the old flickers like "The Keystone Cops", Charlie Chaplain & they had a series called "The Perils of Pauline!" & all the narrow escapes she had. Mary Pickford played the part in some that I saw when she was the World's most famous movie star at that time of the good ol' silent movies, & they were always very very exciting & very thrilling & she had the most narrow escapes!
17. SHE'D BE TIED HAND & FOOT & BOUND & LAID ON THE RAILROAD TRACK BY THE VILLAIN & the express train was coming speeding down the track, & just by a miracle she happens to wiggle around & squiggle & wiggle & roll off the track just in time to roll down between the rails & the train passes over & you don't know whether she got killed or squashed or cut into little pieces or what until the train passed over & there she lay still & flat & motionless & looked lifeless between the rails--& all of a sudden she sat up & was rescued by the hero!
18. IT WAS CALLED "THE PERILS OF PAULINE" & SHE SURE HAD A LOT OF PERILS!--And you sure have had some perils too, & you know what a trip & a tour like that can mean! It really can be an ordeal sometimes & really can be pretty trying. Anyhow, we hope you can take this Pauline journey without too many perils & with really good advance planning & advance arrangements & dates & facilities by the local Families & a well-planned itinerary with dates not too close together so that you don't find yourself too pushed or squashed between dates so that you don't have time to rest or recuperate.
19. EVEN IN OUR SERIES OF EVANGELISTIC MEETINGS we found that having nightly meetings in a church even with good loyal church people, you couldn't go much longer than about two weeks, for example, till the congregation's pretty worn out coming out every night & having to work hard at their jobs all day etc., & it was about all we could stand too.
20. TWO SOLID WEEKS OF NIGHTLY MEETINGS PUTTING EVERYTHING YOU HAD INTO IT WAS A REAL GRIND & you really have to throw yourself into it with all you've got to really inspire'm & stir'm up & revive'm again & have another revival so they wouldn't peter out & die before you got back next year! You had to really pour a lot into it in order to get'm revived enough to live long enough until you could get back again a year or two later! It's pretty hard on both you & the congregation, so you don't want to have too many meetings & too close together.
21. WE FOUND AFTER TWO WEEKS OF MEETINGS, FOR EXAMPLE, WE HAD TO TAKE A COUPLE WEEKS OFF just to rest up & recuperate & relax & recreation & we'd usually go out & rent a cottage by a lake or the sea or something & swim & boat & horseback ride & fun in the sun & generally enjoy ourselves & relax & recuperate & get refreshed & prepare for the next meetings.
22. SO I DON'T WANT YOU TO ARRANGE YOUR ITINERARY TOO TIGHT & APPOINTMENTS TOO CLOSE TOGETHER, a week apart would be pretty tight. I recommend that it would be better if you had them about two weeks apart, then you would be sure to have plenty of time for rest & relaxation & recuperation between them, also plenty of time to meet with leaders, have in-between leadership meetings, planning & arranging the next programme etc., the last minute details & praying with them about their problems & helping them with their needs & maybe sometimes even dealing with their problem cases.
23. THERE ARE A LOT OF THINGS AN EVANGELIST CAN DO THAT LOCAL PASTORS FIND DIFFICULT because they have to live with the people. It's a strange thing, but this is one purpose of evangelists. They will take it from an evangelist when they won't even take it from their own pastor. An evangelist usually has more authority & can even tell the pastor off if he needs it!
24. SO YOU'LL NEED TO HAVE SOME CONFERENCES WITH LEADERS & LEADERSHIP, sometimes before in preparation for the weekend meetings, arranging programmes etc., agreeing on a schedule according to each place & its needs & facilities, & then perhaps even have an after-meeting with leadership, a farewell with them as well as your Sunday night or Sunday afternoon farewell meeting with the congregation, whatever it is. Then perhaps the next day, Monday, have your farewell leadership meeting to tie up all loose ends & say goodbye & be on your way to your next meeting. (If a NAF it could be a whole week!)
25. IF YOU DON'T WEAR YOURSELF OUT TOO MUCH WITH TOO LONG MEETINGS & TOO LONG WEEKENDS, you could probably do one every weekend in a new capital with a NAF every weekend if you make it a two-day weekend only with your public meetings with the Family just on those two days, perhaps on Saturday afternoon & Sunday afternoon & videos each night with a little wee word of introduction--Ha, ha!--Ahem!--from you & closing words as well. I know you'll stretch those meetings out two or three hours like you usually do, but you shouldn't really. It wears out the congregation & it wears you out too!
26. I FOUND THAT I DO MUCH BETTER SINCE I'VE BEGUN, BELIEVE IT OR NOT, TO LEARN HOW TO HAVE SHORTER MEETINGS & TO TRY TO END WHEN THE TAPE ENDS! I've been doing pretty good lately with just one-hour Letters, one-hour tapes & that makes only eight or ten pages instead of going on for two or three hours to 20, 30, 40 & we just got one of 50 pages which of course was from the old days when I used to preach for three, four or five hours as you recall!
27. WELL, IT WORE ME OUT & IT ALSO WORE THE CONGREGATION OUT & it may wear the neighbours out as well, or your hotel or campground facilities & a few other things & wear out your welcome! So I suggest you try to keep a good tight rigid schedule & plan that your meetings are only going to last so long & that's it! Just as long as you can maybe just stick on a two-hour video tape & turn it on & determine that you're going to have the closing prayer at the end of the video tape & that's that!
28. I STRONGLY RECOMMEND THE TWO-HOUR MEETING AT THE LONGEST! I found lately with the local Family here that even our one-hour inspirational meetings are even better & then they don't groan when they see me comin' & they don't groan thinking about all the work they've got to do while they're sittin' there worrying about it while I go on & on with a long loud harangue!
29. THEY KNOW WE'RE GOING TO QUIT AT A CERTAIN TIME after our luncheon or our dinner meeting, whatever it is, that we have a set time for it of an hour-&-an-half, half-an-hour to eat & an hour to talk or listen to a tape or watch a video & then that's it! We cut it off & we say good night, kiss'm good night & I wind up in bed or havin' sex with one of them usually! Ahem! PTL! GB'M!--Or them with me or on the couch or on the floor, whatever happens to be handy, & that makes that nice, too!
30. IT MAKES SURE YOU SAVE TIME FOR YOUR SEXUAL FELLOWSHIPS & you're not so worn out that you can't make it! You have a little time for some real good sexual fellowship afterward & not clear to the wee hours of the morning so you're absolutely exhausted by the day & you can just hardly drag.
31. CUT YOUR MEETINGS SHORT, LEARN TO KEEP & DO THINGS ON TIME! Learn to start on time, learn to keep the schedule moving, the programme moving according to a certain definite schedule if you possibly can. Try to organise a schedule & a programme & try to stick to it. Now, I can't say that you're always going to be able to do it. Sometimes if you get really inspired & the Lord takes over & something happens that you didn't even plan but God did, well you can always do that, you know.
32. YOU DON'T WANT YOUR SCHEDULES SO TIGHT that like once when I was leading a meeting the preacher tugged on my coattail & told me, "That's enough, we dismiss here at nine o'clock & that's it!" And I think I made some crack about, "Don't we have any freedom of the Spirit here?" or something. He said, "Well, the Spirit is free but we're not & these people have to get home & go to bed & get up & go to work in the morning, so I let'm out promptly at nine o'clock!"
33. WELL, YOU DON'T WANT TO GO TO THAT OPPOSITE EXTREME where you're just absolutely hide-bound to dismiss punctually on the point no matter what's going on if things have cut loose & the Spirit really is free & people are really having a good time. You've got to judge that according to the situation & play it by ear & go along with whatever way the Spirit is moving.
34. BUT AT LEAST HAVE A GOAL, HAVE A TARGET, HAVE A DEADLINE! Have a set time that you're at least going to try to aim at even if you don't quite hit it, that you don't miss it too far, you know that's the time you're supposed to close the meeting. Your talk show & your introduction show & introducing different members of the congregation like you did in the other videos that you made was all very good except some of them were too long & some people talked too long & you talked too long & some of the songs were too long & the video ran on & on & on for three solid hours! It's almost more than anybody can stand or anybody can take.
35. I NEVER CARED FOR THOSE THREE-HOUR MOVIES! Even the World has found out that the standard length of a movie of about an hour-&-a-half or 90 minutes is about all most people can take. A two-hour movie is considered a very long movie & three-hour & four-hour movies are all virtually intolerable! They have to give them a break & have two or three intermissions or show them in series or something or they just can't do it, they can't take it! The people can't take it & especially if you're a speaker or singers & leaders & talking a lot, you just can't take it either!
36. YOU MAY THINK YOU CAN TAKE IT & YOU MAY BE ABLE TO CARRY ON THAT LONG & you get under the inspiration of the Spirit or your own spirit & the thrill of being there with the people & the fellowship & you get carried away & you carry on too long, but then afterwards you nearly collapse. I know what I'm talking about, Honey!
37. I'VE BEEN IN THIS BUSINESS MYSELF ALL MY LIFE & MY FOLKS BEFORE ME & my grandparents before that & I'm just telling you, giving you some good sound advice about the kind of meetings you should have & the way you should arrange your itinerary & how you ought to give yourself plenty of time for rest, relaxation, recuperation & recovery in-between! And also not to push the poor people too hard & too long so that they are going to groan the next time they hear you're coming & think of those long torturous ordeals called meetings!
38. NOW TRY TO CUT YOUR MEETINGS DOWN FROM TWO HOURS TO AN HOUR & NO MORE, & YOUR VIDEOS TOO! Put on one-hour videos & that way you'll know you're going to come to the end & you've got to quit. And start off with your inspirational music & singing & don't drag that out too long either. They've got plenty on tape & they don't need so much when you come. They can do their singin' when you're gone.
39. SOME OF THOSE SESSIONS WENT ON & ON & ON & ON SINGIN' & SINGIN' & SINGIN'! Well, it was all nice & wonderful & good to see'm sittin' there happy & smiling & singing away & clapping their hands & the kids dancing & everything, but you know, they can do that when you're not there & they don't have to do that much on tape. It's not all that interesting to go on hour after hour at it. So I suggest you just open up with maybe a song or two, a little bit of inspiration.
40. WHEN WE WERE IN EVANGELISTIC WORK WE USUALLY COUNTED ON A MEETING BEING NOT MORE THAN ABOUT AN-HOUR-&-A-HALF. That was the standard average, which was about all we could stand & all the people could stand. We started at 7:30 & we tried to wind it up as close as we could to 9:00 dismissal & then we always had, of course, an after-service with the people at the altar & praying for the sick or praying for souls to be saved or dealing with problem cases, & we were usually there another half-an-hour to an hour.
41. SO IF YOU DON'T KEEP YOUR PUBLIC MEETING SHORT you're going to find out that your dealing with people afterward & praying with people afterwards & dealing with cases of sickness or salvation or problems or leaders or whatever is going to stretch out your own participation so long that you're going to run into two or three hours anyway.
42. WELL, THAT'S WHAT IT USUALLY DID WITH US & therefore we knew we had to try to cut it short & dismiss the public meeting about nine o'clock & at least try never later than 9:30 so that the poor hard-working people that had jobs & mothers with children that had to go to school early in the morning could get home in time to get a good night's rest & feel refreshed.
43. THEN THEY WOULDN'T MIND COMING BACK AGAIN THE NEXT TIME IF YOU LET'M OUT EARLY. But if you started stretching out the meetings too late, then they got weary very fast & then they'd stop coming & your crowd dwindled & your congregation of hearers dwindled. And like most church people, they not only didn't become doers, but they even ceased being hearers if you went on too long!
44. MY BROTHER USED TO TELL A JOKE ABOUT BIG WHEELS & THEIR SPEECHES, meaning big shots & company big shots & politicians & preachers & all kinds of speakers. He said, "The bigger the wheel, the greater the tire, & the longer the spoke the bigger the wheel but the greater the tire." Now I don't know if you get the point or not.
45. WHEELS USED TO HAVE SPOKES LIKE BICYCLE WHEELS, those little wires or spokes, & they even used to have wooden spokes on the wagons & carriages & even the first cars. I can remember the days when they had wooden spokes. So people may not know what spokes are nowadays but they'll know what is spoke-en & what you spoke & they remember it better if they're not asleep!
46. SO THEREFORE THE SHORTER THE SPOKE, MAYBE NOT SUCH A GREAT WHEEL OR BIG WHEEL. You may not be such a big wheel but it'll also be the lesser the tire, if you know what I mean! In other words, big wheels might be able to get away with it but they tire people out more. So the shorter the spoke, the lesser the wheel, but also the lesser the tire. And little wheels can go a long ways & they turn faster but maybe they'll get there quicker.
47. SO TRY TO CUT IT SHORT & STICK TO A PROGRAMME SCHEDULE THAT WILL NOT WEAR YOU OUT EITHER, you or your congregation, nor you & the people in the after-service which you'll almost always have. If you didn't have it with people at the altar praying for the sick or souls, usually you had it with the leadership or the pastor & we'd go out then after the service for a snack or at his house & have another long conference with him & his wife etc. or the elders & that'd be another hour.
48. SO WE HAD AN HOUR-&-A-HALF OF PUBLIC MEETING FROM 7:30 TO 9:00, & then we had at least half-an-hour to an hour of after-service dealing with souls, & that would be then, in other words, till around 10, 10:30 & by 11:00 we went out. We were hungry & went out with the preacher to have a steak or a meal somewhere, either in a restaurant or his house & we'd have a nice happy fellowship & long conversation & sometimes dealing with problems & with them & discussing plans etc. We seldom ever got home to bed till after midnight & sometimes one or two o'clock in the morning, as you know, in evangelistic work.
49. YOU TRAVELLED WITH DADDY LONG ENOUGH TO REMEMBER, FAITHY, I'M SURE, HOW SOME OF DADDY'S MEETINGS WERE! And you don't want your wee word of introduction to turn out to be like Daddy's were so that every time I'd get up to introduce the movie or something I remember Aaron leaning over & whispering loudly to one of you, "Here comes another one of Daddy's two-hour wee words of introduction!"--& somebody heard him & they laughed! But I didn't think it was so funny then because it was too true! It was hitting below the belt where it hurt because it was a sensitive spot, because I was too long-winded & still am! But I'm learning & maybe another 10, 20, 30 years or given the Millennium I'll learn to really cut it short!
50. BUT I'VE PRETTY WELL GOTTEN IT DOWN NOW TO JUST AN HOUR, HAVEN'T I, MARIA? (Maria: Yes, amen!) PTL! And I found it's easier for me, it's easier for the people & I just encourage myself with the thought, "Well, I don't have to tell'm everything I know within this one meeting. I'll be here with them tomorrow & I can tell'm the rest the next day!" So try to keep that in mind, try not to tell them everything you know in one meeting.
51. KEEP YOUR PUBLIC MEETING SHORT, DOWN TO NOT MORE THAN AN HOUR-&-A-HALF TO TWO HOURS. Then you'll have to deal with people afterward & then a nice meal conference with the leaders at some restaurant or somewhere where you can get away from the mob & the crowd & the people & have a personal heart-to-heart chat & lots of fun & fellowship with them, including maybe a little bedtime afterwards. So try to keep it short & try to not wear yourself out.
52. I'D ALMOST RECOMMEND ONE MEETING EACH TWO WEEKS to really give you plenty of time to make plans & arrangements & give yourself travel time & rest-up time after your trip before you meet with the leaders to plan your programme, & then plenty of time for your meetings & public meetings & committee meetings, leadership meetings during the weekend & then maybe some after-meetings with needy cases or leadership when the public meetings are over.
53. IT'S GOING TO TAKE YOU AT LEAST TWO DAYS OF PUBLIC MEETINGS & MAYBE A DAY OF LEADERSHIP MEETINGS BEFORE & AFTER. There's four days shot right there & if every weekend you spent four days, the two-day weekend Saturday & Sunday & you've spent Fridays & Mondays in leadership meetings before & after, that's a pretty heavy schedule. You'll find out that the Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday three-day rest in-between for your trip to the next city is not too much by any means.
54. AND IF SOME OF YOUR MEETINGS HAPPEN TO RUN OVER or you happen to stay over a little bit too long in one place & maybe the leaders tackle you too soon at the next place, you may find out you're cut down to where you may not even have a day's rest. You'll have to count on maybe one day for leaving one place & your trip & getting settled in the next place, your hotel & rested up etc.
55. YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE TO HAVE MAYBE A DAY FOR GOODBYE & A DAY FOR TRAVEL & A DAY FOR REST--there's your three days gone right there in-between your weekend meetings. A weekend meeting every weekend would keep your schedule very tight. You may find that you may have to stretch some of them out a little longer & maybe due to the programmes & dates & arrangements for facilities you may happily find out that you're glad some of the meetings are two weeks apart, although you may have to push it with some & may have to have some of them a week apart. I'd say at least a week apart & not more than two weeks apart if possible. (Unless it's a one-week NAF.)
56. THAT GIVES YOU PLENTY OF TIME TO REST & RECUPERATE IN-BETWEEN, get refreshed, take care of your mail, phone calls, communication, reports & tours of the city to show us the sights of the city & what it's like there etc. You've already done some real good videos along that line in some of those places, so keep up the good work! Just try not to make them so long.
57. THEY'RE LONG TO MAKE & THEY'RE LONG TO TAKE & WE SELDOM EVER CAN TAKE A THREE HOUR VIDEO AT A STRETCH, NOT EVEN IN BED! I usually go to sleep before the thing's over. Last place I got myself set up so I could reach out in my sleep & just punch one button & everything went off so we didn't have to sit up in bed or get out of bed & turn off all the various equipment & several different buttons. I had a button at the head of the bed, I fixed it up with a switch so even if we'd both gone to sleep, if I woke up & could hear the thing still going I'd just reach up one finger & push the button & everything went off!
58. SO THREE-HOUR VIDEOS ARE A BIT LONG, BELOVED! I would say really that if you do make a three-hour video in a place, for example, first when you go there you have your primary leadership meeting & on a video you introduce the leaders & have each one of them give a little testimony & you discuss their problems--this is before the meeting & sort of helps us get acquainted with the leadership--& try not to stretch that out for more than half-an-hour. I'm talking about let's say a three-hour video you'd make in one place.
59. YOU HAVE A HALF-AN-HOUR OF VIDEO LEADERSHIP INTRODUCTIONS & TESTIMONIES, & we don't need any more music or long drawn-out songs or anything else unless you just particularly want us to hear some new talent that we haven't heard before that's not already at MCV or not already on video & you want to give us a sample to see what we think of it. Tell them to please pick a nice short song, will you, & not sing all ten verses! It doesn't take us ten verses to know whether the guy can sing & play or not & we don't have to hear his entire life story either but just make it short!
60. TRY TO GIVE THEM A SET TIME & SAY, "NOW YOU'VE GOT FIVE MINUTES, PERIOD, & THAT'S IT!" So that if you've got 20 leaders to introduce & each one of them is going to testify five minutes & sing five minutes you're not going to get them all in, you'll only get in six of them. And with you yack-yackin' in-between introducing them & everything, that's going to take another five or ten minutes & you may not even get three leaders introduced & their life story & their long harangue & their long-spoke, great-wheel & very great tire! You're not going to get it all on one video just like you didn't in some of those cases.
61. TRY TO CUT YOUR LEADERSHIP INTRODUCTION AT YOUR FIRST LEADERSHIP MEETING BEFORE PUBLIC MEETINGS DOWN TO ABOUT HALF-AN-HOUR, & then if the meeting runs from an hour-&-an-half to two hours you'll be able to get it all in on the video & then still have half-an-hour left over for a city tour of the sights to show us what the town looks like. That makes a nice three-hour video if you'll have your leadership introduction cut to half-an-hour & not more, preferably even less, & no more than a two-hour meeting on video, meeting the people & getting to see their happy smiling faces & hear the little folks' testimonies & watch you shine & feel you burn while you inspire'm & preach away!
62. MAYBE CUT YOUR MEETING TO AN HOUR-&-A-HALF & YOU CAN GIVE US A HALF-AN-HOUR OF AFTER-SERVICE of the little folks' testimonies of people of the congregation. Introduce us to the most important ones or most interesting ones & let them talk on video after you've inspired them & thrilled them etc., & then you'd still have half-an-hour left over for a city tour.
63. MARIA MENTIONED THAT SOME OF THOSE COUNTRIES HAVE ALREADY SENT US VIDEOS introducing all the leaders & the people & the song services & everything else so we don't need any more, really, & some of them have already given us a tour of the city as well. So you might find out before you start videoing what to video & what we've seen & what we haven't seen.
64. YOU HAVE SENT US NUMBERS OF VIDEOS ALREADY ON SOME OF THESE PLACES & THEIR PEOPLE so we don't need any more introductions or tours. We may only just need the meeting to see how you're getting along & how the folks are getting along & feel the spirit of it & maybe catch a few points of what they might need & maybe some suggestions you might need. So anyhow, please, for God's sake & our sake & the people's sake & your sake try not to have too long meetings & videos that are too long!--Certainly not more than a two or three-hour video on each place along with its leaders, meetings & tours & everything. Amen?
65. OK! THERE'S A GENERAL IDEA FOR YOU, HOW TO ARRANGE YOUR MEETINGS & YOUR VIDEOING & YOUR ITINERARY ETC. so that they're at least a week or two or three days apart before you start your preliminary meetings, your pre-meetings with leadership & arranging programmes & schedules etc. Then your after-meetings again probably with leadership or some cases of people who want to talk with you personally & have problems & want prayer or you need to discuss their potentiality for leadership or for being used at some other place or by World Services or something.
66. THERE ARE SO MANY THINGS YOU CAN DO AS AN EVANGELIST TO DISCUSS WITH THE PEOPLE! We were always having to have private discussions. Somebody would say, "I've just got to see you!" A sister might want to have a talk with you & prayer with you about a certain problem & maybe she had a problem with the pastor or the preacher's wife or her husband, or maybe she was just tired of the place & wanted to go someplace else & wanted to know where she could go or something.
67. THERE ARE ALWAYS PEOPLE WHO'LL WANT TO HAVE PRIVATE SESSIONS WITH YOU, private conversation, a private prayer & discuss something they don't even want to discuss before the leaders or the local people & they need to talk to somebody. You're the visiting evangelist & you're the ear they're looking for & waiting for to hear their pleas!
68. THEY CAN'T APPEAL TO THE LOCAL JUDGES because they've already judged them & maybe don't like them & maybe there's good reason for it, so they're waiting for an outside judge to come in & judge their case. That way you can also give much better unprejudiced judgement because you don't know the case or hardly anything about it, or maybe the leader has told you something but then you can judge for yourself.
69. SOMETIMES WE FOUND OUT IT WASN'T PROBLEM PEOPLE, IT WAS PROBLEM PREACHERS, PROBLEM PASTORS! A pastor would tell us about some problem case he had in the congregation & it turned out that he was the problem when we heard the person's story! So as an evangelist you are also like a district superintendent & you have to hear some of these people's problems & some of their stories & get their side of the story & their case as well as the leadership side.
70. SO I SUGGEST YOU GIVE THEM SOME TIME & TRY TO TALK TO AS MANY PEOPLE AS YOU CAN who want to speak to you privately about something, & reserve some time for them. And be sure you get both sides of the story! There are always two or three or more sides to the story. Usually there's their side of the story, then there's the preacher's side of the story, & then there could even be one of the congregation members has a different tale to tell even from the problem case & the preacher & he sees it in a different light! Maybe he sees that both of them have problems & they both need dealing with.
71. THAT'S PART OF YOUR JOB AS A TRAVELLING EVANGELIST, TO COUNSEL & PRAY WITH PEOPLE ABOUT THEIR PERSONAL PROBLEMS. So you should try to arrange your schedule so it will give you enough time for all of these things & ministries that you will have as you go from place to place as an evangelist, which is what you are, my Dear, whether you know it or not! You can pastor, & many an evangelist has pastored, but most evangelists do not make as good pastors as the ones who are really called to be pastors themselves.
72. PASTORS HAVE TO BE PLODDERS WITH LOTS OF PATIENCE & EASIER ON PEOPLE, MORE LENIENT. They live with them, they understand their problems usually better & they're more merciful, can put up with more. Evangelists are kind of hit-&-run people who come in & lay it on the line & sock it to'm & slice away, sometimes without mercy--& sometimes they need it--& sock it to'm & then hit-&-run, & the people can only stand so much of them too! That's why they usually only have evangelistic meetings about once a year in most churches. They can't stand having it socked to them that hard too often.
73. BUT IT'S THE EVANGELIST'S JOB TO SOCK IT TO'M & SAY THINGS TO THEM THAT THE PREACHER WOULDN'T DARE SAY TO THEM OR THEY'D KICK HIM OUT! But they expect it & they need it & sometimes they even want it. They want to be told the truth but they don't want their own preacher or pastor telling them because they've got to live with him. But they don't mind your telling them off & socking it to them because you're a stranger & they're willing to take it from you since they don't have to take it all year.
74. SO THAT'S ONE REASON WE WERE OFTEN SUMMONED TO GO INTO A CHURCH & HOLD A MEETING is to tell the congregation what the pastor himself couldn't tell them & was afraid to tell them & wouldn't have dared tell them or they'd've thrown him out! But they'll take it from you as a passing evangelist & even love it & like you for it & love you for telling them the truth when the pastor's been trying to tell them that for years but they wouldn't listen to him!
75. BUT THEY'LL LISTEN TO YOU, THE GREAT EVANGELIST, & WHAT YOU SAY COMES DOWN FROM THE HEAVENLIES, GOD HIMSELF! The poor local preacher, they realise he's just a human being & he's only a man & a poor prophet is without honour in his own country amongst his own congregation. So they'll take it from you, but don't sock it to'm too much & too hard & too long especially!
76. SO THERE'S A GENERAL IDEA ON WHAT I WOULD CONSIDER FAIRLY GOOD MEETING PLANS. I'm just speaking generally, of course. The specifics, the actual times & all that will be up to the local folks & their situation & when they can book the meeting hall or the hotel diningroom or campground or whatnot. And don't forget, a lot depends, as I say, on how much the neighbours can stand. It can't go running on late at night with a noisy meeting with neighbours that you're going to annoy as well.
77. AS THE OLD SAYING GOES, "A NOISY NOISE ANNOYS AN OYSTER!"--Even an oyster that tries to close his shell & his doors & windows to keep all your racket out, if you keep that noisy noise going on long enough the noisy noise is going to annoy'm & "a noisy noise annoys an oyster!"--Even an oyster in the shell, so don't forget that too! If too much noisy noise annoys too many oysters you're going to have trouble.
78. THE HOTEL IS NOT GOING TO LIKE THEIR HELP STAYING THAT LATE. When we had meetings in school auditoriums the janitor would virtually come & start banging on the doors & banging around to let us know that it was his time to go home! They didn't pay him to work after 9 or 10 o'clock or whatever it was, & the cafeteria help are not going to like it either if even just the caretaker has to stay overtime. If he does, you'd better tip him heavy to cheer him up & try not to do it next time. So the length of your meetings & how much noise they can take depends a great deal on the place & the neighbours & the management & the help etc., so you'd better watch your step.
79. FINALLY ON THIS TOUR I'D SUGGEST YOU GO JUST THE SHORTEST DISTANCE BETWEEN TWO POINTS, A STRAIGHT LINE & TO THE NEXT CAPITAL & you just hop around from the capital central city of each country only. Make it a NAF, a weekend Nationwide Fellowship Meeting & come prepared to stay for the weekend. Maybe coming in on Friday night to rest up for Saturday's meetings & maybe staying through Sunday night & take off & go home on Monday. (Or make it a whole week NAF if possible.)
80. IF YOU ARRANGE YOUR MEETINGS ON JUST THOSE TWO DAYS, the people who can't stay that long will come on Saturday morning, stay overnight only one night, Saturday night, for the Sunday meetings, then go home Sunday night. That way if they have to pay for lodging & meals etc. it won't cost as much & if they have a long ways to go it won't take so much of their time. (That's why camp meetings are best for one-week NAFs.)
81. SO HAVE A LITTLE HEART FOR YOUR POOR PEOPLE & THEIR PHYSICAL NEEDS & their physical limitations. "The Spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak!" (Mt.26:41) Don't forget it, & have a little consideration for their poor tired weary flesh, amen? Lots of those dear people would've loved to have had us go on & on through the night but they just couldn't stand it physically. So they'd come one night & stay & if we kept them too late then they just couldn't make it back the next night. So we were minus a few hearers the next night & if we kept that up too many nights pretty soon it got down to almost nothing!
82. SO THERE'S YOUR 10-WEEK TOUR, & AS I CAN MEASURE IT, IT LOOKS LIKE ABOUT 12,000 MILES OF MIRACLES! PG! Your 10-week, 12,000 mile tour of miracles! PG? Come back with lots of nice lively videos, maybe about 10 three-hour videos of one three-hour video on each place, & maybe not that much in places you've already covered in previous videos. So that's just about what I figured.
83. MY FIRST ESTIMATE WAS THREE MONTHS WASN'T IT, MARIA?--That you need at least three months to make that kind of a tour of all the major capitals of Latin America from Mexico to Buenos Aires & back again. PTL! So there's my idea for you & God bless you & keep you & make you a blessing & give you a great 10-week tour of 12,000 miles of miracles! Hallelujah! In Jesus' name amen. (Or longer if one-week NAFs.)
84. SEE HOW GOOD I AM AT CUTTIN' IT OFF NOWADAYS? Just short little one-hour micro tapes, one side of a micro tape. Hallelujah! I'm really learning how to cut it down. I think these micros have really helped me to go micro on my talks & miniaturised my big wheel to smaller spokes & lesser tires! Hallelujah? GBYA! ILY!
85. AND YOU FOLKS THERE AT MCV GIVE THEM A GOOD SEND-OFF! You're going to need about two or three months to arrange the itinerary & the schedules & correspond & communicate with all those leaders in order for them to try to set up their schedule of meetings or NAFs so that you can go right from one to the other without having to go too far between & waste too much time & space & money on too long hops.
86. THIS IS THE THING THAT REALLY COST US THE MONEY IN EVANGELISTIC WORK if we couldn't arrange our meetings so that they would be on a sort of a circle tour. If we had to make too long hops criss-cross back & forth instead of going right to the next nearest place. So try to do them in the chain reaction style & not the scatter shot style.
87. STRING YOUR BEAUTIFUL PEARLS OF MEETINGS ON SHORT STRINGS & THEY'LL FIT BETTER!--& don't make the pearls so big & heavy that they're so hard to bear they wear'm out! OK? No matter how beautiful they are, enough is enough! Make'm a string of pearls & not a hard & heavy yoke for poor folks already over-burdened. Have a heart! Have a string of pearls!
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family
