HomeARC ML 2471
WE'RE ALMOST DONE! DO 2471 9/88
1. In a few countries the press smeared us, but then we laid low, & by & by it cooled off & simmered down & we were eventually able to even hit the streets again & all that sort of thing. PTL! We don't know yet if it will happen that way in Japan or not, let's hope so. But frankly, I feel that if the Family there never got any further than they have now, I would be satisfied that we've done the best we could for that country.--Especially if they reject & shut us out, then it's not our fault.
2. Thank the Lord, I got most of the Family to go South, & I got nearly half of them to go East, & I just think we've pretty well done our job. I think we have done our share, frankly, of trying to go into all the World & preach the Gospel to every creature, particularly into the areas that we hadn't gone before & into the Tropics & into the Orient & all those idolatrous, abominable, Devil-worshipping countries with heathen, pagan religions & all that.--And we have just about worn out our welcome in most of them. The only way we're managing to do anything at all in some of those is by creeping & sneaking back in undercover & working undercover.
3. So even if we got kicked out of the East completely, I would feel like we have done what we could & the best we could. In fact, we've gone back 2 or 3 times in some countries & reaped some more.--Gleaned, at least, not reaped. After we reaped we got kicked out!
4. I've really been thinking & praying about the situation, & I have warned you of this before. I said the day is going to come when we will have exhausted our refuges & places to go, when the World would get too small for us & there wouldn't be any more places to go! Let's face it, it's very difficult to live in some of those countries with nothing but three-month visas & three-month extensions with only a total of a six months stay without the big hassle of leaving the country & all that sort of thing.
5. We have managed to survive & to accomplish a lot in the East! We have circled the globe & we're now getting back to square one. In our time we have covered over a hundred different countries, & we have saturated most of them with our message, the Gospel of the Lord's Love, PTL!
6. I would say we've really done a good job. We have now been in over a hundred countries, we have witnessed to billions of people, we have actually personally passed out millions & millions of pieces of Gospel lit, we have won millions of souls to the Lord, & if anybody has done their share & more of their share of this job of keeping Jesus' commandment & going into all the World & preaching the Gospel to every creature, we have certainly done it! So I am more convinced than ever that He's got to come soon (Mat.24:14), especially with the way the rest of the World's going & the horrors that are arising & coming!
7. Now if we are finishing the job--I don't say it's finished, but we are finishing it, that's for sure--I can't see much further to go. The way things are going, I don't see too much chance of staying hardly anywhere very long in the nations that have needed evangelisation & have now been evangelised. We've even advised a lot of our people, "If you can't find someplace to go, go home & do the best you can!" (Maria: A lot of them have had to do that.) Yes they surely have! I've just been reading the stats.
8. Our population in the U.S. & Canada & Europe has increased from 30 to 50%! In other words, there are a lot of people going home. They just can't go on any longer, there's no other place to go. We've worn out our welcome in a lot of countries, & we're even banned & forbidden to go to some countries. The only reason we've still got some people in them is because they're sneaking back in again or they're sneaking around undercover. But how much can they really accomplish that way? Well, they're doing the best they can, as much as they can, God bless'm.
9. We're gleaning now. We're not doing so much reaping as we used to do. (Maria: The more persecution we get, the less support we can get.) Right. As we're driven off the streets & driven out of the countries, it gets harder & harder for our people to find places to go to minister. It's harder for them to get support, & the harder it gets for them to get support, then of course that reduces the entire Family's support & our ability to help support others.
10. As far as we're concerned, I can see the whole World is winding down, & as I have said before, our job is almost over, we're almost done, thank God! We're still working as hard as we can in as many places as we can, as many people as we can, trying to win all we can while there's still time, but it's definitely winding down. It's amazing that we're even able to do all that we're doing.
11. But we may just find out by the end of this year that this is our first year of actual decline. Virtually every other year during the past 20 years has been a year of increase, another better year & another better year. Every time I've said, "Well it looks like this is the last one", it's been better! Well, we may have tremendous lit stats this year because of our rush last-minute printing in desperation to get everything printed that we can, but I know this, we're going to find out that more of our people have left the field & had to go home than any year in recent history. I think the increase in population in the U.S. has gone up 30-some percent, & in Europe, 50-some percent. So that shows you how they've had to go home.
12. So things are winding down & the fields are getting more limited, more difficult, support is getting more difficult & income's going down & it's getting more & more difficult to stay in countries long enough to really accomplish anything. I believe, frankly, that our Family in Japan has been having their last big bang there because it hadn't been fully exploited, fully saturated previously, & they hadn't reached everybody they really could there. But now, as our enemies are beginning to stir up trouble there, they usually manage to finish it, at least their big shitty media smears.
13. We've debated about whether such smears would affect the Japanese very much or whether they might just ignore it. They're a pretty sexy people, at least the men, & they might not even care, & might even like it. But the women are pretty conservative & the culture is pretty conservative & they're pretty conservative about their reputations most of all. They're so self-righteous, they are afraid of scandal more than anything else, almost more than anyplace we've ever heard of. The Family has enjoyed the glory & fame & popularity & good publicity there, but it just may be time for something else to happen.
14. (Maria: In any future evacuation of any country, we probably won't be able to do like we've done in the past & just more or less transfer them to other nearby countries. Most of them will probably have to go back to their home countries.) Yes, we're also running out of reserves to finance such massive evacuations. We've been able to afford it & help them in the past, but we just can't do it any more. They're going to have to somehow get somewhere on their own, & most likely go back home.
15. Let's face it, we started out with the vision of circling the globe preaching the Gospel.--And now we've done it, & we're almost back where we started, square one! There's almost no place left to go but home! I've said this for years now, that the time would come when that would happen. Well, I'd say that it's just about come for a lot of our people. There's no place else to go & some countries are getting filled up again with refugees from other countries, & God only knows how long that's going to last.
16. I have foreseen the future, in a way, & I've foretold it, that the day would come when if we were able to survive at all, it would be undercover, underground, & if nothing else, we could be thankful we would be able to keep our Letter ministry rolling, our pubs ministry, even on a small scale to keep feeding the sheep, keep in contact, keep in touch, keep encouraging, keep up communication. The time will come when we'll be thankful that we can just do that at all, & from the looks of things, it's about to come. The Enemy is closing in, & the Lord is allowing it to fill their cup of iniquity so that our job will be done & He'll be ready to take us. PTL!
17. There's nothing to be sad about, it's something to be glad about! We've done the job! I've said it before, we're almost done, it's almost over! Thank the Lord! I'm not like Alexander the Great, I'm not going to cry because there are no more fields to conquer, I'm going to be thankful that we've done the best we can & conquered all the fields we can & won all the souls we can & saturated billions of people! TTL! I'm going to be thankful that our job is done!
18. Who's going to be sorry that their job is done, that we finished the job? Doesn't every worker rejoice when the day's over & he's finished the job, thankful that he's accomplished something & that he's through? Well, the night's coming when no man can work (Jn.9:4), to be followed by the Morning when we'll be taken away & won't have to work like this any more, PTL! I'm sure He'll have other jobs for us, but we won't have to work like this, under these handicaps, thank God!
19. (Prays:) In Jesus' name, Lord, keep Thy children on their mission fields as long as possible, & let us continue to be a blessing & a testimony as long as You want us to be, Lord. You're perfectly able to do it, to keep us as long as You want us in these places. But Your patience must be running out if our time is running out. Have Thy way. That's all we ask is for You to have Your way, Lord. You know what's best, Thy Will be done! You can keep our Family on their mission fields as long as You want us there, Lord, so Thy children can continue to be a blessing & have a ministry & continue to sow the seed, Lord, feed Thy sheep.
20. As long as You want them there You're able to keep them there. But if You know that the time is up & that some of their cups of iniquity are almost running over & it's time for us to move on, which it looks like more & more with our enemies catching up with us, we ask Thee to help us & to have Thy way. Rebuke our enemies, Lord, hold them at bay so they don't give us too much trouble until we have done the job. In Jesus' name, amen. PTL!
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family
