HomeARC ML 1731
NEW TAPE MINISTRY!--By Peter & Lydia--Indonesia--1/84--This New Outreach Could Boost Your Support & Fruitfulness Amazingly! DO 1731
--A GREAT IDEA TO MAKE OUR MUSIC MINISTRY MORE FRUITFUL!
Dearest Dad & Maria,
1. GBY! WLYSSM! HAPPY NEW YEAR! WE WANT TO THANK YOU, DAD, ONCE AGAIN, FOR YOUR ENCOURAGING, QUICK, PERSONAL RESPONSE TO OUR LETTER TO YOU IN NOVEMBER (SEE FSB #8) REGARDING LOCAL LANGUAGE MWM HERE & THE POTENTIAL OF A NEW TAPE MINISTRY TO HELP US IN REACHING MORE PERSONALLY WITH OUR MESSAGE! In this letter we hope to give you a bird's eye view of the Tape Ministry's progress & stats (for one month) & answer your questions. We want to include testimonies & "How-to's" from the Homes here, & some of the comments on the TM (Tape Ministry) from their TRFs.
2. OVERALL, THE RESULTS OF THE FIRST MONTH OF SOMEWHAT CONCENTRATED EFFORT ON THE TAPE MINISTRY HAVE BEEN GREAT! TYJ! Already it's beginning to really roll along, & everyone is excited about the potential as a door-opener & ice-breaker for deeper personal witnessing & soul-winning, & even disciple-winning, we pray!
3. ALSO, WE'RE ALREADY STARTING TO SEE A TREND AMONG SOME HOMES OF WANTING TO SWITCH FROM ENGLISH TEACHING, ETC. TO THE TM MORE FOR SUPPORT, TOO, AS IT CAN BE QUITE PROFITABLE IN THAT WAY! So far, whether getting out the tapes DTD, Shop-to-Shop, while provisioning, English teaching or just spontaneous personal witnessing, the response has been tremendous! TYJ!
4. THE FOLLOWING ARE SOME VITAL TAPE MINISTRY STATS which we thought you'd like to see. These are just from the first month that we sent out a stats report form especially for the TM for the Homes to fill out. Here are the stats from these first report forms we sent out:
Number of Tapes Distributed: 3078 (Mostly the Christmas tape)
Lit Pages Distributed w/Tapes: 51,728
TOTAL DONATIONS TO HOMES FROM TAPES: $6894.00 US!
Total Personal Witness through TM: 8659
SOULS WON THROUGH PERSONAL WIT. W/TAPES: 159!
Holy Ghosts: 76
Potentials on line through TM: 11
Disciples Won through TM: 0
# of write-ins in response to TM: 52
# of sheep personally visited from TM MM: 12
5. AS YOU CAN SEE, THE AMOUNT OF SOULS & POTENTIALS THROUGH THE TM FOR ONE MONTH ALMOST EQUALS THOSE WON THROUGH THE MWM MAIL MINISTRY HERE FOR OVER A PERIOD OF 1-1/2 YEARS! And besides that, it didn't cost us anything at all (in $); in fact, after subtracting the costs of the tapes, the Homes made a profit of US $5,025! The Homes averaged about US$2.25 per tape & everyone felt this was pretty normal & easy to obtain. (Of course, some give higher donations & some give less, but this was the average.)
6. ALSO, HALF OF THOSE SAVED RECEIVED THE HOLY SPIRIT, which, as you have said, should ensure that those souls have the potential of becoming better followers. (We noticed that Holy Ghost stats were not included in the MWM report stats.) (Dad: Probably nil!) The mail response was low, but we believe as soon as the local Follow-Up Teams ("FUT's" we've named them!--"having your 'FUT's' shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace..." Eph.6:15) get going, we'll have more! Ha!
7. AND "HOW BEAUTIFUL UPON THE MOUNTAINS ARE THE 'FUT'S' OF HIM THAT BRINGETH GOOD TIDINGS, THAT PUBLISHETH PEACE; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation...!" (Isa.52:7) Wow! TYJ! Also, Romans 10:15. And another verse that the Lord just brought to mind as we were trying to think of "feet" verses for our "FUTs"!--"Every place that the sole (or soul or Spirit) of your "FUT" shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses." (Jos.1:3) WOW! TYJ! That's quite a promise to claim, if we interpret "every place" as the heart of each sheep our FUTs follow-up on, or "tread upon"!) And, of course it's clear which "Moses" this is! TYJ!
8. THEN JUST NOW, AS WE ARE TYPING THIS, THE LORD OPENED UP ALL THE MEANINGS OF THIS VERSE TO US! IT'S REALLY EXCITING! TTL! We know that, if this idea & ministry comes to anything good, it's only the Lord that has brought it about & causes it to bear fruit, through the inspiration of your Words, the Lord's Word in the Letters, TYJ! Anyway, getting back to the FUTs & the Mail response, as soon as the FUTS are set up & organised in each local area of the country with GP untraceable P.O. Boxes & follow-up systems better organised, we think these stats will increase quite a bit. The FUTs should be pretty well set-up by the time you get this letter, DV.
9. HERE WE'D LIKE TO EXPLAIN A LITTLE OF WHAT WE HAD IN MIND WITH THE DECENTRALISING OF THE MAIL MINISTRIES here & the local FUTs. First, as we mentioned before, we felt it is better security, since we've had to close down our former very well-known GP MWM Boxes & also our Combo office teams. We thought it would be safer & more effective to let the local Homes & teams follow-up on their own local sheep that they themselves have witnessed to with Tapes, the Lit or whatever. Each local FUT area will stamp their tapes & lit with their particular local Box, so that there won't be any one central address for follow-up. On the Tapes & lit we produce, we'll leave a space for these. This also, of course, leaves the possibility of giving tapes or lit with no address, if the situation warrants.
10. WITH CLOSER, MORE LOCAL IMMEDIATE FOLLOW-UP BY THE FUTS, WE HOPE THAT THE FOLLOW-UP CAN BE MORE PERSONAL & easier to meet the sheep personally & find out quicker who the "live ones" are & bring them along into closer discipleship. From experience with the central Mail Ministries from before, we feel it will be more effective for the FUTs to follow-up personally the "hot leads" from the mail, & preferably not try to build up large mailing lists that aren't going to bear some kind of lasting fruit in souls & disciples.
11. THE MAIL THAT HAS STILL BEEN COMING IN TO THE OLD GP MWM & LIT BOXES WE'RE FORWARDING ON TO EACH FUT handling that area, & we've made a form letter for the FUTs to send these people, informing them of the closing of the Radio Show &/or P.O. Box & including a little questionnaire for them to send back to the FUT, which informs us if they are interested in receiving a visit from us, etc. In this way we hope to make sure we don't lose any sheep from the central MMs (Mail Ministries) we're closing.
12. WE'LL BE SUPPLYING THE FUTS WITH THE MATERIAL THEY NEED FOR FEEDING THE SHEEP, by mail or personally, with our Lit-Pic MM Basic Course Book (10-Course MO Letter/Komix Series) & other lit. We'll also have a FUT Stats Report Form for them to fill out each month & send in, so we can keep a good record & know what fruit we're bearing in the most important areas, like souls, potentials, disciples, etc. Our IHC overseers will be directly overseeing the FUTs, of course.
13. NOW WE'D LIKE TO ANSWER SOME OF THE QUESTIONS WHICH WERE ASKED ABOUT THE TAPE MINISTRY HERE. REGARDING THE CONTENT OF THE TAPES & TO WHOM THEY'RE GEARED, we whole-heartedly agree that they need a good chunk of message & hook! Thanks so much for your counsel on this! At the moment we have 4 different tapes in the works. One is a "faster beat" tape, geared more for the younger university types, with a "Musical Key" type of message included. It includes such songs as "It's a Miracle", "New Worlds to Conquer", "Time of the End", "Sea Cruise", "Elixir", "Born Free", "Cool Breeze", etc. It'll be entitled "Cool Breeze", & will have 8 LL songs & 11 in English. Another tape will be a more general, milky, easily-digestible-by-anyone type, called Garden of Love. It will have more message than the Cool Breeze tape. The 3rd tape will be called Love is Forever & will be deeper & more full of Word & hook even than the first two. The 4th we've planned is actually a GP Daily Might Word Tape with musical background, &, of course, it will have a good hook, too.
14. WE WANT TO BE ABLE TO HAVE ALL OF THESE READY VERY SOON, SO THAT THERE IS SOMETHING SUITABLE FOR EVERYONE, SO THAT THERE ARE A VARIETY OF TAPES a team can have with them at the same time, & give out according to the particular person & situation. We were glad to get some ideas from you about the contents of the tapes & the need to really present a solid message with Word quotes included, as these were our sentiments, too. Some brethren have said that they had gotten reactions that there was too much talking on the cassettes.
15. WE FEEL A BALANCE SOMEWHERE BETWEEN MESSAGE & MUSIC WOULD BE GOOD, where what is said is really significant, like real Quotes, & not just chit-chat. The Christmas Special tape was actually a Show Tape, the last of our Local Language Show cassettes, so it was a radio program, but we don't plan to make any more of the tapes like this.
16. METHODS IN GETTING THE TAPES OUT: When the brethren go DTD with the tapes, what openers do they use? And do they introduce the message first or the tapes? Although there are lots of different ways the brethren do it, it seems most present the tape first, after introducing themselves very briefly, & then start their witness afterward according to the situation & sheepiness of the people.
17. THIS IS ACTUALLY ONE THING THAT IS SO GOOD ABOUT THE TAPES--THAT THE TAPES ARE SO USEFUL AS AN OPENER to get their interest & attention, as it usually turns them on in the beginning to make it easier to start witnessing to them, besides leaving them with a permanent witness they can listen to over & over again & share with others. So the brethren usually start by giving their name & say something like they are involved in volunteer social or missionary work among youth & that they distribute the cassettes to help support themselves & their volunteer work.
18. WE'VE FOUND THAT THE TAPES MAKE A WAY TO BEGIN TALKING TO PEOPLE WHILE GOING DOOR-TO-DOOR or Shop-to-Shop without hitting people right away in the face with "I'd like to talk with you about the Lord" or immediately presenting the lit. Along with the cassettes they always give a piece of lit, usually after they've got the tape, & sometimes wait till the end to give the lit & say something like "By the way, here's something for you to read, too." It all depends, of course, on the people & situation & what kind of a witness you've been able to give them.
19. AT THE MOMENT THE HOMES ARE USING 32-PAGE KOMIXBOOK (we will also be continuing to produce these Komic books!), which we had produced before. We are planning to print another booklet very soon to be used with the tapes, which will consist of the "From Here To Eternity" Condo & the Heaven Poster Condo on the back, along with the poster itself inside. We also want to print the new "Lover of All Lovers!" tract & one or two others so that there's also a variety of kinds of lit to give people with the tapes, too. We're also planning to do a 62-page GP Daily Might Booklet, which can be used also.
20. YOU ALSO ASKED IF THE PEOPLE USUALLY WANT TO HEAR THE TAPE BEFORE THEY BUY IT, or if they are willing to buy it without listening to some of it first. From what we've found out so far from various brethren, it's different from one team to another, & sometimes it depends on what kind of a "salesman" you are. Jeremy, whose teams got out about 1000 tapes last month, said that with him people will usually buy the tape without listening to it, but that he usually encourages them to try it out on their tape deck, which usually turns them on even more when they hear it. And this also gives more time & opportunity to talk with them & get in a better witness.
21. THE FIRST SONG IS PROBABLY WHAT THEY HEAR FIRST, SO WE WANT TO ALWAYS CHOOSE THAT ONE WELL & TRY TO PUT THE BEST, MOST ATTRACTIVE SONG FIRST. Other brethren find that lots of times the people do want to hear the tape some first, & some of them even carry a micro with them, with a copy of the tape on micro, so they can play it for people. But usually here in Indonesia, especially when going DTD or Office-to-Office or Shop-to-Shop there's always a tape player handy where they are.
22. MOST PEOPLE, HOWEVER, BUY THE CASSETTES NOT JUST BECAUSE OF OR FOR THE MUSIC, BUT ALSO TO HELP OUT OUR WORK. Some brethren have their own personal PR books with fotos, recommendation letters from orphanages, etc. which they use to explain themselves; some have their children distribute the cassettes; others use the tapes along with their music ministries--busking & singing in restaurants, etc., etc. Some go Office-to-Office & find that the receptionist or secretary will distribute the tapes throughout their offices & take up donations for them. The possibilities & ways of getting the tapes out & using them along with & for a witness are endless!
23. WE MENTIONED BEFORE THAT WE THOUGHT THE TM (TAPE MINISTRY) MIGHT BE GOOD FOR AREAS LIKE INDIA, ETC. ACTUALLY WE'RE SURE THAT AT LEAST FOR THE REST OF ASEAN, the TM could be just as fruitful as it is here. When we were the SEA archbishops before the RNR, we started producing & distributing Wild Wind products throughout the Homes in SEA, & the result was fantastic! The Homes literally went from rags to riches & bore a lot of fruit, as they distributed yokes, stickers, badges, calendars, etc. Shop-to-Shop, Office-to-Office, & DTD, & even just on the street. They kept their witness balanced with the lit, & it was a super blessing!
24. WE HOPE THIS REPORT HELPS YOU to get an idea of what progress the Lord has helped us to make so far in this new potential ministry. We'd be so happy to hear any more ideas or suggestions you might have for us after reading this report. We'll send you copies of the cassettes we're producing as soon as we've completed them, with a translation. Thank you, again, for all your encouragement! It means everything to us!
25. THE THINGS YOU SAID IN "THE NEW COMBINED INDEX" (SEE NO.1655) WERE ESPECIALLY ENCOURAGING for us in regard to our situation here. For instance par.16 is particularly fitting with the tapes & the lit..."When I think of all the things we could publish on paper that gets something concrete right into their hands, something they can use & use & use & re-use & use again & pass around & loan out, there's hardly anything more profitable & fruitful than paper publications!"--(They can do this with both the tapes & the lit with it!)--Also what you said in par.48 of the same Letter...
26. "FRANKLY, I WOULD RATHER HAVE TWO REAL WELL-TRAINED WITNESSING SOLD-OUT DISCIPLES IN ANY TOWN ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD THAN ONE RADIO STATION! I think they're going to win more souls & accomplish more & get more done than all the radio in the World!--Two fulltime disciples instead of just a little half-hour show a week!...And if we can take the money...& put it into helping to support a few disciples or missionaries or visiting minstrels (FUTs!) to go out there & contact'm & get'm established & teach'm & really make good solid disciples out of them, I'd rather use the money that way..." Amen! TYJ! This is our vision with the TM & the FUTs!
27. IT'S ACTUALLY JUST THE NON-RADIO BRANCH OF THE MWM!!! Please pray for us & our precious Homes here, that the Lord will continue to make us bear fruit & even more fruit!
28. WE LOVE YOU & can't thank you enough for all your love & concern for us! We pray for you & your precious Family & Staff every day! Much love & prayers in service to our King & Queen & King of Kings,--Peter & Lydia
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family
