HomeARC ML 0957
NEW YEAR'S EVE PRAISE!--By Father David. DO957 31/12/80
1. WELL, HERE WE ARE ON THE LAST NIGHT OF THE YEAR, the old year 1980, & I am sitting here still telling you stories instead of getting your reports. Because tonight is your night & we're going to get your report of what you have accomplished this past year, what progress you have made this year, what blessings you've received & how good the Lord has been to you. It's a praise session, really.
2. WE'RE COUNTING OUR BLESSINGS OF THE PAST YEAR & that's why we're asking you to give these reports. Each one is supposed to give a report on your own work, your own department, on what you've accomplished, progress you've made this past year, victories won.
3. MAYBE IT WOULD BE A GOOD IDEA FOR YOU FOLKS OUT THERE AROUND THE WORLD EVERYWHERE, all the Family on the last night of the Old year before the New Year comes in, to take stock, to sort of keep books & sort of sit down & think, "What have I accomplished this past year? Have I made any progress? Have I accomplished anything? Was it a worthwhile year? Did we get ahead any at all?"
4. SO I'VE ASKED THESE FOLKS TO MAKE SOME REPORTS ON THIS, TO COUNT THEIR BLESSINGS! It's a praise meeting really, so each of your reports should be a real praise to the Lord for what He's done for you & for us in your department this past year. Amen? (Family: Amen!) (Sings "Count Your Blessings!")
5. SO THIS IS OUR COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS MEETING! On the last night of the year, how many blessings have you received during this past year? How good has the Lord been to you & what blessings has He given you? But before we do that & it gets late & then the poor little children have to go to bed & sometimes miss Communion, we are now going to count our greatest blessing by remembering whom? (Family: Jesus!) PTL!
6. SO WE COUNT OUR FIRST BLESSING & WE REMEMBER JESUS, right? And it says that He took bread & when He had blessed it--Lord, bless it--He broke it & he said, "Take, eat. This is My body which is broken for you, this do in remembrance of Me." (Lk.22:19.) And just like the Bible says, "By His stripes we are healed". (Isa.53:5.) His body was broken for us. How many ways was it broken?
7. HE WAS STRIPED, HE WAS BEATEN WITH A CAT-O'-NINE-TAILS, a favourite Roman punishment. It was a handle that had nine whips on it, nine leather thongs. And on the end of each one of them was tied a little piece of lead about that big, a sharp piece of lead tied on the end of every one, so every time they whssssssh, whipped Him like that, it literally made nine stripes across His back, nine cuts! They just cut the back to ribbons!
8. A FAMOUS FAVOURED PUNISHMENT OF THE ROMANS WAS 39 STRIPES. I don't know why it was called 39 stripes or 39 lashes with the cat-o'-nine-tails, but every lash was nine stripes. Can you imagine 39 x 9? How many is that? (Family: 351.) 351?Some of them are getting out their calculators now. Well, I just figure it would be about 350.
9. WELL, THAT'S BAD ENOUGH, ABOUT 350 STRIPES. Can you imagine what your back would look like with 350 stripes? Well, they said that it used to look just like raw hamburger! Their back when they got done was just one big mass of raw, butchered flesh. Horrible! And that's what they did to Jesus, think of that! You don't hear much about that, do you?
10. THEN WHAT DID THEY PUT ON HIS HEAD? (Family: A crown of thorns.) A crown of thorns, & what did the thorns do to his Head? (David: Cut it.) They pierced His head all the way around so it bled, so there His body was broken again. First it was broken on the back with the stripes. Think how many times He was broken for us on the back, then with the thorns on His head.
11. THEN WHAT OTHER WAY WAS HIS BODY BROKEN? (David: On the cross.) On the cross? Where was it broken? (Family: On His feet.) Nails through His hands & through His feet. It was broken again. And then the last place it was broken was where? (Jed: His heart.) A spear was thrust into His heart.
12. THINK OF HOW MANY PLACES JESUS' BODY WAS BROKEN FOR YOU & ME! He says, "This is My body which was broken for you." In another place it says in Isaiah, "By His stripes we are healed". Isn't that wonderful? His body suffered many wounds, many breaks, many places; He bled for us long before He died.
13. HE BLED, HIS BODY WAS BROKEN, HIS BODY WAS HURT & HIS BODY SUFFERED SO THAT WE CAN BE HEALED. Isn't that wonderful? So before He died like that, He took the bread & He blessed it & He broke it & He said, "Here, take, eat. This is My body which is broken for you."
14. WE'LL HAVE OUR HANDSOME LITTLE USHER DAVID COME TO PASS THE ELEMENTS, & I'll take one & each one take one & please each one hold your portion until all have been served & then we'll all partake together, shall we? Why do we do that? Why do we just hold it & wait & all partake together? It's to emphasise to everyone including the children that we are all one in Christ Jesus.
15. THIS IS NOT ONLY SYMBOLIC OF HIS BODY & HEALING IN HIS BODY BROKEN FOR US, BUT ALSO THIS IS ALL FROM ONE LOAF & in all of us eating from this one loaf we all become one flesh, right? All of us take part of this one loaf & thereby we all are one flesh in Christ Jesus.
16. THAT SHOULD BE VERY SYMBOLIC TO YOU & ME because it's a symbolism of what really actually takes place in our Family--& not many other churches, I'll tell you! We're all one flesh, one wife, one body. PTL? So do you believe it? (Family: Yes.) Really?! (Family: Amen!) This is His body broken for you. Broken for you why? (Family: For our healing.) For your healing.
17. DO YOU NEED HEALING TONIGHT? Some of you have had colds, been sick, so take this now, the best medicine in the world! It's the body of Jesus Christ which was broken for you, for your healing, "for by His stripes we are healed." Amen? (Family: Amen.) TYJ! Bless it, Lord, & make it a blessing & heal everyone who needs healing right now in Jesus' name Amen! TYL!
18. AND AFTER THE SAME MANNER HE TOOK THE CUP. If He took it after the same manner, then He must have prayed for it too, huh? Lord bless it & make it a blessing for what it symbolises, Thy blood shed for us & our salvation, in Jesus' name. After He Had supped He said, "Take, drink ye all of it"--& we have our little usher coming over here. Hold it firmly now, Honey, it's a big heavy goblet.
19. HE SAID, "THIS IS THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MY BLOOD WHICH IS SHED FOR YOUR SINS, REMISSION OF YOUR SINS. Here, drink ye all of it"--which means all of you drink it. It doesn't mean you have to drink it all, but if you need it, go ahead, if you need an extra dose of salvation remembering tonight.
20. SO TO REMIND YOU OF HIS FORGIVENESS OF YOUR SINS, if you feel especially bad or wicked or like you really need a lot of forgiveness, take a good gulp. If you've been a naughty boy, naughty girl, well, this is His blood shed for the remission of your sins & you take a good swig to make sure that you're testifying & remembering that Jesus shed His blood for your sins. Usher, get on the job & serve the people. That's a good boy! PTL! Hallelujah! TYJ! Amen! I'll take a double portion, TYL!--I've been so bad!
21. (MARIA: SHALL WE SERVE RICH & TECHI?) Yes, by all means! Do you think David could do it? Do you think you could serve Rich & Techi? (David: Oh yes!) Could you hold that & hold that with your hand real carefully like that, I think you could do that, & now tell Rich & Techi that's for them. (Dito carries'm to'm.)
22. IF YOU HAVE ANY ABSENTEES OR SICK FOLKS WHO CAN'T BE IN YOUR MEETING, maybe they're sick in bed upstairs or something, be sure you send them the elements so they can partake too. PTL? (Family: Amen.) Hallelujah! TYL! Isn't that wonderful! (Family: Amen!) He said, "As oft as ye do it, ye do it in remembrance of Me." PTL! We're remembering the Lord's death till He come.
23. HE SAID WERE GOING TO DO THIS UNTIL JESUS COMES. Now that's a wonderful promise because that shows that some of us are going to be here still doing this no matter what happens--Antichrist, Antichrist Kingdom, the Devil, Hell on Earth--some of us are going to still be here doing this till Jesus comes! Isn't that wonderful?! (Family: Amen!) So we still must be able to get a little more bread & crackers & a little wine or grape juice till Jesus comes.
24. I HEARD THAT IN SOME PRISONS ETC. THEY TAKE COMMUNION & THEY JUST USE BREAD & COFFEE, that's all they have or even bread & water. Maybe that's all they have, so that's the best they can do, as long they do it in remembrance of Jesus, remembering His death until He comes. PTL? So, Hallelujah! Isn't that wonderful? (Family: Amen!) We can remember His death until He comes.
25. SO I GUESS WE'RE NOT GOING TO BE STARVING TO DEATH. There's still going to be Communion bread & Communion wine even if it's just crackers & coffee or whatever it is. We're still going to have something to remember the Lord's death till He comes, in spite of everything the evil can do & the Antichrist & Hell on Earth & all the rest. We are going to continue to do this, to remember the Lord & His death till Jesus comes! Now there's a little bit of Bible Prophecy for you! The Lord Himself promised that, isn't that wonderful? TYL! Hallelujah! TYJ! PYL!
26. AMEN, THANK YOU LORD THAT WE CAN REMEMBER THEE, WHAT YOU DID FOR US IN THY LOVE, LORD, to redeem not only our spirits, our souls by Thy blood shed for the remission of our sins, but also even our bodies, to save our bodies, Lord, to heal them by Your body broken for us, "by Your stripes we are healed." TYJ! PYL! Hallelujah!
27. SO HERE WE ARE ON THE LAST NIGHT OF THE OLD YEAR REMEMBERING THE LORD'S DEATH UNTIL HE COMES. Some of you are going to be here when Jesus comes, isn't that wonderful? The Devil's not going to be able to stop us. He can't stop our rain! He won't be able to stop us right on through the Antichrist Kingdom & 3 1/2 years of the Tribulation & all the worship of the Beast & the Mark of the Beast & all that.
28. HE'S NOT GOING TO BE ABLE TO STOP YOU WHO LOVE THE LORD, & some of our little ones like David & Davida are going to keep right on preaching Jesus & preaching the Gospel & going to keep right on being fiery witnesses for the Lord right to the very end when Jesus comes, going to keep on telling the people about Jesus. Isn't that wonderful? Isn't that wonderful? Isn't that wonderful! PTL! Children? Amen? Aren't you glad, huh?
29. THEY LOOK A LITTLE BIT WORRIED, BUT DON'T WORRY, JESUS IS GOING TO KEEP YOU! He says if they try & hurt you you're going to be able to call down fire from Heaven from God to devour your enemies like Elijah did! Just keep on socking it to them! Hallelujah! (Rev.11:5.)
30. AND FINALLY WHEN THE LORD HAS FINISHED WITH YOU & YOU'VE FINISHED YOUR JOB & you've borne your witness to the whole World & everybody knows it & you've done a good job right to the very end, then the Lord is going to allow them to kill you--which doesn't mean a thing to us except that it just means release from our bodies to go up & be with Jesus.
31. HE'S GOING TO ALLOW THEM TO KILL SOME OF YOU & let the bodies of the last two witnesses--probably symbolic of a lot of witnesses--lie right out in the street for three days! Think of that! And the rest of the World rejoices & the Antichrist will rejoice over their death because it bothered them to have them preaching the Gospel, just like it does some today.
32. OUR ENEMIES & THE SYSTEMITES DON'T LIKE US PREACHING THE GOSPEL, right? 10:36ers send people to kidnap us & torture us & try to make us give up our faith in Jesus, isn't that horrible?--Just as bad as it was in the Inquisition & some of those terrible times! They don't like it! They don't like our Gospel! They don't like our literature! They don't like our testimony & our witness, so they do everything they can to stop us & finally kill us, because they follow the Devil!
33. BUT DO YOU KNOW WHAT THEY DID? THEY LET THEM LIE OUT IN THE STREET FOR THREE WHOLE DAYS, their dead bodies rotting in the street. Remember how you can walk down the road over here where they killed those dogs & rabbits & how bad it stinks 'cause they didn't bury them? They're not even going to bury you, they're going to let you lie out in the street dead for three days! (Rev.11:9.)
34. AND DO YOU KNOW WHAT?--THEY'RE GOING TO ACT LIKE IT'S CHRISTMAS! They're going to give gifts to each other because they're so happy that you're dead! Says so in the Bible! (Rev.11:10.) They rejoiced & gave gifts to each other, rejoiced that the two prophets that had tormented them & worried them are dead.
35. BUT SUDDENLY, THREE DAYS & BOOM!--ALL OF A SUDDEN UP STAND THE PROPHETS AGAIN, WIDE AWAKE & VERY MUCH ALIVE!--Resurrected from the dead & smiling & they go up into the air to be with Jesus! (Family: Wow!) In the Resurrection & the rapture. Isn't that wonderful? God's given so many signs of exactly when Jesus is coming, so when those two special prophets are killed at the end of their witness, it'll be exactly three days till Jesus comes! (Family: Wow!) Isn't that wonderful?
36. BECAUSE THE ONLY THING THAT CAUSES THEM TO BE RESURRECTED FROM THE DEAD & CAUGHT UP IN THE SKY TO BE WITH JESUS IS THE RESURRECTION & THE RAPTURE! So they're only killed just three days before Jesus comes, & probably during that three days they go up & be with Jesus anyhow & have a good time. Then they've got to come back & get their bodies they left behind & pick them up & jump up so that all the people can see that it didn't do them any good to kill them.
37. THEY COULDN'T GET RID OF THEM, BECAUSE THEY WERE STILL PREACHING FOR JESUS & STILL WITNESSING. I don't know if they still were litnessing or not, if they had any of the Word on paper, but if they had, I'm sure they were passing it out. But after three days dead in the street & the whole World rejoicing over their death & giving presents to each other because they were dead, all of a sudden they jump up & rise from the dead & rise up to be with Jesus! Isn't that wonderful? PTL?!
38. SO SOME OF US ARE GOING TO BE HERE TO THE VERY END, the Lord's shown us that. It says so in the Bible. So anyhow, we have had Communion & remembered the Lord's death, & some of us are going to be continuing to remember it until Jesus comes. PTL? (Family: Amen!) Well right now tonight we're not only supposed to be remembering the Lord's death, but we're supposed to be remembering what happened this last year. PTL? Amen? (Family: Amen!)
39. I HAVEN'T TAKEN OFF FOR ANY DAY LATELY YET. We've just kept right on working, Christmas, New Years, everything, because every day is the same to us. Every day is a holiday for Jesus. Holiday means holy day, so every day to us is a Holy day for Jesus. PTL?
40. THE ONLY DAY WE TAKE OFF IS OUR FELLOWSHIP DAY, SUNDAY, which we try to take off at least. You better take off. Some of the girls take off for the boys, and we have a nice rest day, study, prayer, fellowship & a meeting usually & a Bible Study, sort of like we're having today on the last day of the old year, New Year's Eve. This is our New Year's Eve celebration, PTL?--And we're sharing it with you.
41. SO NOW WE'RE GOING TO COUNT OUR BLESSINGS & REMEMBER THE PAST YEAR BEFORE WE PASS INTO THE NEW ONE. (Sings:)
"So who'll be the first, who'll be the first,
Who'll be the first to follow Jesus?
Who'll be the first, who'll be the first,
Who'll be the first to follow Him?"
Well, I thought I'd give you the best thing we've got first, that beautiful Queen that's sitting over there on my left & right hand both, & let her tell you exactly what she counts as her blessings for this past year. Hallelujah!
42. (MARIA: WHAT ALWAYS MAKES ME HAPPIEST & MOST THANKFUL TO THE LORD is when we can help pass on His life-giving & changing Words to the Family & the World. And we had a record year in this area, most of which showed up in our Magazines. We published 19 Mags during 1980, starting with No.14 & ending the year with No. 32, a total altogether of 3,388 pages of which 1,206 pages were MO Letters; & of those 3,388 pages, 860 were Komix & 600 were actual news stories & other items sent in by you the Family. So you have done very well at contributing to the greatest Magazine on Earth & sharing your blessings & victories with all of us.
43. (IN JANUARY 1980 WE STARTED WITH A MAGAZINE OF 84 PAGES & by the end of the year had tripled that to a Magazine of 232 pages including more & more MO Letters in each one. Until the highest number of MO Letters included in any Magazine during the year was 144 pages in Mag 23 & 324 in Mag 25.
44. (DURING THE YEAR 1980 WE PRINTED OUR FIRST FULL KOMIX MAG followed by four others during the year. We also printed our first slick cover, No.19 & have continued with slick covers ever since. We also printed our first colour cover on Magazine 20 & have had four subsequent colour covers during 1980. Besides the regular stapled Mags, we also did two bound book-sized Mags this year, the Latin American edition & the Mobile Ministry Handbook.
45. (OUR WONDERFUL FAMILY CARE CREW PUT TOGETHER OUR FIRST KIDZ MAG of 32 pages which was sent out with Mag No.28 & four subsequent Kidz Mags with each edition thereafter during 1980--a tremendously inspiring innovation for all our Family children as well as very interesting for adults likewise. And we hope that each Family member will remember to read the Kidz Mag as well.
46. (DURING 1980 WE ALSO DID OUR FIRST 32-PAGE LOVE IS NEWS, the beginning of a monthly Love is News of the same size, D.V. for all those friends & acquaintances & relatives who donate something each month. On top of all that, we did another project for the children of a complete Flannelgraph Mag containing Daniel, Revelation & various other flannelgraphs which was not sent out in 1980 but was printed then & will be sent out shortly, D.V.
47. (WE ALSO WORKED IN & PLANNED MANY NEW PROJECTS AS A UNITED EFFORT TO COME such as our five big 800-page Komic Volumes, one 800-page Childcare Encyclopedia, one big Dito Book with all Dito Letters included up to date, one beautiful leatherette Daily Might book with one different Daily Might reading for each day of the year, one beautiful colour calendar equivalent to 24 Magazine pages of colour, Grandmother's books "Streams that Never run Dry" & "The Hem of His Garment" & others which are still one the way.
48. (SO PTL, IT'S BEEN A TREMENDOUS YEAR & WE'VE REALLY MADE A LOT OF PROGRESS & are really rolling & have many other things in planning stages & many other MO Letters being worked on which we want to get to you as soon as possible, & with the help of you, our precious Family I think we're going to the able to do it, especially with help of Jesus who is on our side. TYL!) Thank you, Sweetheart.
49. THE NEXT REPORT IS OUR PRECIOUS DAVID, 5 1/2-YEARS-OLD, & HERE IS HIS REPORT: (David: I learned over 400 verses & 6 chapters & lots of MO Quotes. We studied Genesis & the Book of Acts & the Bible in Pictures & the Daniel Story & all the MO Letters. I like it when Grandpa shares lessons with us from television & the videos.
50. (WE'VE BEEN DOING MAIL MINISTRY & NEWSLETTERS & we sent 170 Letters in the last three months alone to encourage the missionaries. We learned about camping & handyman tips & swimming & riding a bicycle. We had Spanish lessons & I learned up to the 4th multiplication tables, & I learned hymns & guitar & piano & organ & we planted some plants & I lost my first baby tooth.
51. (I'M THANKFUL FOR OUR HOUSE & MY PRAYER IS THAT WE WILL ALL BE HAPPY FOR THE NEW YEAR. My verse is Proverbs 3:6: "In all thy ways acknowledge Him & He shall direct thy paths.") Thank you, David. TYJ! Give him his wish, in Jesus' name, amen.
52. NEXT IS DAVIDA! COME ON GORGEOUS, COME ON BEAUTIFUL! Oh, Wow! Mmmm! I didn't know I was going to get that first thing, a real smackeroo! All right, now tell us about what you've been doing (Davida: I'm Davida, 4 1/2.) What have you done this past year?
53. (DAVIDA: I'VE BEEN STUDYING THE WORD & READING KK'S--like "The Little Dog Dream", that's my favourite! I learned about prayer & new verses & we had flannelgraphs. I did "Kim in the Kitchen" & cooked cheese sticks. I learned some dancing & took care of Techi 'cause I wash her hands. We learned to swim & sew & I like to do Mail Ministry!)
54. DAVIDA HAS SUCH PRETTY NOTES! She's reading all that from her notes. Those are the prettiest notes I ever saw for any speech in my whole life! They're the most beautiful notes--they're all in colour! It says on her note also that they've been praying for Grandpa's tummy & Davida's verse for the New Year is 2Peter 5:7: "Casting all your care upon Him for He careth for you." Very good! Isn't that sweet? Isn't that wonderful? Oh, that's so sweet, TYL! All right, thank you for that good report. And next is Mommy Sara!
55. (SARA: WHAT I'M MOST THANKFUL FOR IS YOU & MOMMY & DAVID & TECHI & DAVIDA. A real big year of accomplishment. It's been a year of dreams come true. The printed Word so abundant now that before was rather lacking for the children, & the biggest fruit in their lives this year is the Word in print, our Family Pubs, our Mags & Kidz Mags & KKs especially, the MLs that we never had too much of for the children before this year.
56. (SO THAT'S A BIG BIG ANSWER TO PRAYER & YOU CAN REALLY SEE THE FRUITS IN THE CHILDREN & their progress & their interest & I think they've really matured, which has been a big reward & answer to prayer. So besides the pubs that have fed them all year long, it's been a big year of learning & sort of centering their lives & their learning around the Word & a bigger vision.
57. (I THINK THEY'VE GAINED A BIGGER VISION FOR THE FAMILY & THE LORD'S WORK THOUGH THE MAGS primarily, & we've based our school time on the Word most of all, & especially with Techi now joining our team--well, we should say since we joined Techi's team--we've included her a lot & on the songs & flannelgraphs & Word time, & that's been a real victory, a big reward.
58. (MOMMY'S HELPED A LOT WITH OUR CURRICULUM & SCHOOL IDEAS & giving us some tremendous help & tips that we really have prayed & prayed we'll be faithful to share with the whole World, all these precious lessons we have learned from our shepherds.
59. (SO TECHI WAS A BIG PART FOR THE KIDS THIS YEAR TOO & learning with her, & they got along real real well together & really loved one another, which has been a big big blessing & another area of our life story of taking care of one more child. Also the three children together had their first real witnessing experience at a sweet neighbour's where they sang & quoted verses & did real real good.) Next comes another indispensable member of our team, one of our faithful Daddies, too.
60. (ALFRED: MY NAME'S ALFRED & I DO SHOPPING & HANDYMAN WORK, help with the children & take care of survival. We finally got our survival pretty much up to date this year, but also found that if we moved to any great distance we'd probably have to forsake it, but PTL anyway!
61. (WE ALSO GOT A NEW XEROXER THIS YEAR THAT CAN XEROX ON BOTH SIDES of the paper & doesn't stick or smell or irritate your hands, which has been a tremendous blessing for all of us & especially for Dad, because that old Xerox used to set his teeth on edge & make him want to have to run out & gasp for breath outside & get fresh air!)
62. THOSE THINGS ARE POISONOUS! I read an article in the paper where they really are poisonous & the people that have to handle them all the time stand a chance of getting cancer & all kinds of things. So thank God for our new Xerox, PTL! It uses ordinary paper.
63. (ALF: AND WE GOT SOME CROCK POTS WHICH HAVE HELPED IN THE KITCHEN, & a paper-shredder where we can shred our security trash, in case we're not somewhere where we can burn it. We also got two guitars which has helped us a lot with singing with the children & everybody having some Family time singing together.
63. (WE GOT SOME CAMPING EQUIPMENT & EVEN EXPERIMENTED A BIT WITH CAMPING so we could learn to live the Letters. One of the latest things for the children is a doll house that Mommy & Daddy bought for them which is a daily activity at our house. First thing when the children wake up they always go to the doll house.
64. (AND THEN THIS YEAR WE ALSO GOT QUITE A FEW PLASTIC THINGS & VIDEO MACHINES. That's a big thing we got this year, the video equipment to start our new Video Ministry all over the World. We got more tape recorders for the Word recorders & we obtained a dolly to help us in moving all the heavy equipment when we move from one place to other, saving everybody's back & energy from picking up heavy things.) (Dad:)
65. AND I'M BUSY GETTING RID OF SOME OF THE HEAVY THINGS SO THEY WON'T EVEN NEED THE DOLLY! Alfred's our runner. He's really busy everyday on the run back & forth carrying materials & shopping, & we couldn't afford to be without him, I'll tell you. I remember the Lord once prophesied something about the buyer, He said, "The buyer goeth forth to buy". So the Lord knows it's a very essential ministry, buying, & he goes forth to buy almost every day buys us lots of good things. OK, who'll be next? Who'll be the next to follow him!
66. ALL RIGHT, COME ON DORA! The girls get to sit on my lap, isn't that nice? Dora's so sweet & so precious. I really don't get to love her enough for all she does for my Little Love. "Everybody can be happy with His little love!" Dora's one of my little loves & she takes care of my Littlest Love, & guess who that is? Tell them.
67. (DORA: HER NAME'S TECHI, & TECHI OF COURSE HAS BEEN THE GREATEST VICTORY FOR ME it's almost been my second year with her & for sure she has changed my life. She's been a real blessing to Dad & Maria & to all of us here. She has learned so much this year. At the beginning of the year we moved together with the children which really was a big step for her, maturing her into a toddler.
68. (SHE AT THE SAME TIME STARTED WALKING & SHE LEARNED A LOT ABOUT RESPECTING OTHERS & respecting the children as well as sharing. She really learned a lot about social grace. And when she started walking it was a real miracle how she hardly ever had any falls, thanks to Dad's specific prayers that she never would.
69. (AND THEN THE OTHER BIG VICTORY WAS WHEN SHE STARTED TO TAKE SUCH AN INTEREST IN THE WORD, which was partly through being with the children & watching them have flannelgraphs & Bible stories. She also at 10 months old started to have a real interest in books, her favourite ones having been Bible stories & Word flannelgraphs.) (Dad:)
70. SHE LOVES THE WORD, SHE REALLY LOVES THE BIBLE! She's flipped out over the Manger Story, I think, more than any other story. She wants to play it all the time. She goes around & grabs ahold of you & says, "You Joseph! You Joseph!" & she appoints different people to play the parts. Or she'll grab one of the girls by the arm, "You Mary! I innkeeper! This Baby Jesus" & she's really quite a dramatist! (Dora: This is also her first big story after she got saved.) Yes!
71. DORA LED HER TO JESUS A LITTLE BIT BEFORE HER 20 MONTHS' BIRTHDAY. She's now 21 months & a few days. Dora's done such a wonderful job in really teaching & training & loving her for the Lord. She's been a real mother to her while we're busy being a mother to you. We've had to let others be mother to our children. We're stacking up Techi stories too!
72. WE'VE GOT A PILE OF BEAUTIFUL TECHI STORIES! You could just hardly believe how pretty they are & all the pictures. Well, we finally got mother out of the hospital some time last year in her story & we published a few by Dora, so we're only about a year-&-a-half behind, but we're trying our best to catch up & I think we may come out with a big edition pretty soon with all the Dito & Techi stories that we have left behind for so long: A whole Childcare Edition with her biography & Davidito's too! OK. Now for Peter our business manager.
73. (PETER: I THINK THE MAIN THING THIS YEAR AS FAR AS THE BUSINESS ASPECT GOES was that Dad got out all the Letters on tithing which really caused a major affect on our financial situation, & by doing that we've been able to offer the Family a lot more dividends.
74. (THEY INVESTED IN THE WORD & THEY'RE REAPING THE DIVIDENDS in the form of the new Mags & the new books that are coming out. And due to everybody obeying the Message & sharing more & tithing faithfully & honestly, we have really been able to give a lot this year, all the GLP stock which was hundreds of thousands of pieces of lit & books were given free.
75. (AND THIS YEAR ANOTHER MAJOR INVESTMENT WAS MWM who have turned out the tapes not only for the radio but for the Family, starting with the Christmas tapes & continuing as free gifts as long as the Lord provides.) Yes, PTL!
76. WE'RE GIVING EVERYTHING AWAY NOW! Hallelujah! No more trying to be salesman & trying to sell books & tapes & whatnot. We're giving it all away free because the Family has done such a good job being faithful tithers. GBY!
77. WE FEEL YOU DESERVE TO GET IT JUST LIKE IT IS because you can't very well afford to give any more, so we're just letting you have it free. PTL! We haven't lost anything yet, have we? The Lord blessed us all the more. The more we give away, the more we get! The Lord really has been good to us. (Peter: We've really given, & our monthly income from the beginning of the year to the end of the year doubled, which has really been a blessing in getting all these projects done.) Yes, indeed!
78. WE REALLY SOCKED IT TO THOSE PEOPLE IN THE RNR & GOT RID OF ALL THOSE CHAIN GANG PEOPLE & the tyrants & the persecutors & also a lot of people who slumped for a while. We lost a lot for awhile because some of you didn't quite get the point that you work harder for love than you do for a slave driver, but you finally did, & things began to get better, PTL!
79. OUR INCOME IS ABOUT FOUR OR FIVE TIMES AS MUCH NOW AS IT WAS THEN, which is why we can get out four or five times as much literature & support four or five times as many missionaries & MWM shows & a lot of other projects.
80. (PETER: ANOTHER MAJOR THING WAS THE VIDEO MINISTRY which started out at the beginning of the year with just one video machine & now it's blossomed into a lot more. Another major accomplishment of the year was the LIMs who get 50% of the income & have really been producing the Mags!)
81. WHEN WE DECIDED TO GIVE 50% OF OUR INCOME TO THE LIMS we thought we were going to lose money, but we knew it was worth it. We knew it was necessary that in order to get out the message in the language of the land we needed to really help the LIMs all we could, so we decided to give them half the income & we expected a big drop in our own income, but instead of that it increased tremendously!
82. PTL! GBY ALL! TYJ! HAPPY NEW YEAR! A wonderful wonderful Old Year & an even better New Year we trust. TYJ! PYL for all these wonderful glowing reports & wonderful progress & wonderful advances & wonderful wonderful accomplishments for this past year, Lord, & we know it's even going to be better next year according to Thy Will, Lord. Thy will be done, in Jesus' name, amen. PTL!
83. WELL, THEY SAY THE GIRL YOU'RE WITH ON NEW YEAR'S EVE AT THE STROKE OF MIDNIGHT IS THE ONE YOU'RE GOING TO BE WITH, that's supposed to be your girl for the following year! So GBY, Son. ILY! I was supposed to be kissing you on the stroke of midnight! Ha, ha! I love you, Son. Amen! Hallelujah!
84. I THINK THERE'S NOTHING HE'D LIKE BETTER THAN TO FEEL HE WAS MY LOVE FOR THE COMING YEAR! Ha! Well, he's a mighty sweet love, I'll tell you, & he's done a marvellous job! TYL!--One of the salvations we managed to recoup from dear Rachel. He was one of those we reclaimed, so TYL! He's done a Wonderful job! Go ahead, Peter.
85. (PETER: VOLUME 6 CAME OUT THIS YEAR & VOLUME 7 IS COMING OUT REAL SHORTLY. We gave 50,000 Swiss Francs to 144 different people & missionaries, 144 different Families, plus during the year we were able to help all the WS Units with their survival funds & increase their reserves so they would be provided for in time of need.)--Yes, TTL!
86. WE TRY TO TREAT OUR PEOPLE GOOD & make sure they have all they need so they can continue their work for the Lord. The Lord's good to us, He gives us all we need, so we try to treat His children good & give them all they need, those who work fulltime for the Lord in WS for us & the Magazine & the publications & the business & all the rest. We try to be as good to you as we can to make sure that you survive, D.V.!
87. IT SEEMS LIKE THE MORE MONEY WE GIVE AWAY THE MORE THE LORD GIVES US! Isn't that fun, giving away? The more we give it away & spread it around honestly, the more the Lord gives us. We just can't give it away fast enough! No matter how fast we give it away we still seem to be getting more & the Lord pours it in faster than we can get it out.
88. WE WANT TO MAKE SURE IT GOES TO THOSE WHO REALLY NEED IT & WHO DESERVE IT & who use it for His glory, & now with all these new publications & MWM tapes & Shows coming out, we don't have to worry too much about where to put the money, because these are costing a lot of money.
89. EACH MAILING OF TAPES EACH MONTH FROM MWM IS COSTING US THOUSANDS! Each monthly Magazine mailing is costing us thousands, our proposed five Komix Books will be costing us approximately $100,000! So the Lord knows we're going to need it for these projects. During this year we also have gotten MWM on our first 50 stations.
90. WELL, THE LAST MOMENT OF ALL 1980 IS NOW GONE FOREVER!--No, not forever--we'll see the results in Heaven! In fact, we're seeing a lot of the results right now all round us in our new Family members & new disciples & new publications. We're going to reap a lot in 1981 of what we sowed in 1980, so you'll see a lot yet to come. PTL!
91. OK, HERE'S DEAR SUE WHO IS OUR VERY PERSONAL MAID & who really takes care of us in every way, God bless her! When Mama doesn't know what to eat, Sue tells her what to eat. When Mama doesn't know what to do, Sue tells her what to do. When Mama can't keep warm, Sue tries to get something to keep her warm. If Mama can't find something, Sue can always find it.
92. SUE DOES EVERYTHING YOU CAN POSSIBLY IMAGINE, HAND & FOOT! She waits on us hand & foot, so she's not only a handmaiden but a footmaiden! Praise God! She's a sex maiden too! She really supplies all our needs. Sue feeds us & makes the bed & vacuums the floor & fills the bottles & empties the bottles & does many of the things that need to be done for us personally. Well, I guess I've just given Sue's report for her, all the things she's done for us this year!
93. (AND NOW THE TESTIMONIES SENT TO US ON VIDEO OF SOME OF OUR PRECIOUS CO-WORKERS, who, though not right here with us, are our right arms & other half, helping in their unit to publish all the Words from the Lord, refine the raw materials & roll the gold & get it from the original stage into the final finished product & into your hands in the Magazine! GBY & them! WLY all!--M&M:)
94. JACOB: I'D LIKE TO GIVE YOU A LITTLE BACKGROUND OF MY TESTIMONY before giving you a countdown of the numbers of Letters we've been working on. First of all I'd like to say how thankful I am to be here & what a blessing it is to look back on the year & see the miracles that the Lord has been doing. It really amazes me that I'm still here & that the Lord can still use me in this matter, & I am very thankful for your trust & confidence & faith that you have shown me this year. Thank you so much for your many encouragements & guidance.
95. I AM FROM QUEBEC WHERE I LIVED HALF OF MY LIFE, & then Montreal where I joined the Family. Mainly what I'd been doing before joining the Family was studying in college & working here & there, having lots of little jobs. Mainly I was studying & I was in Fine Arts school until at the end of it I joined the Family.
96. I HAD RECEIVED THE LETTERS IN THE STREET & I HAD BEEN READING YOUR LETTERS. I didn't know what was behind it all or what was the movement behind these writings, but it sure had something to it & it really inspired me to look at them. And amazingly, very often each time I would go in the city I would receive them. I would always meet somebody who would give me Letters & I received about 30 Letters like that on the street.
97. AND AT THAT TIME I WAS A SEPARATIST, I was working for a political party in Quebec, working for the independence of Quebec & I wasn't at all interested in English, English literature or whatever was written in English. I was quite a rebel at the time. But having received a few Letters in French & being very interested in them, I took my dictionary & started reading the Letters in English & I got very inspired.
98. THE MAIN PIECE OF LIT THAT REALLY TOUCHED ME WAS THE "POOR KIDS" because it had something I could relate to, because at that time I was an artist & I could see that there was something to be done & there was a field open where I could probably fulfill myself. I really felt like it was my calling to join the Family with that vision of drawing the MO Letters & putting them into pictures.
99. SO FOR THE FIRST YEAR IN THE FAMILY IT WAS MAINLY A YEAR OF TRAINING & going to the field & getting to learn the people & litnessing, until the moment that I came to French Pubs. I went over to Europe after four months in Canada on the boat that I took from New York. I was determined that I was going to work in the publications with Philippe La Plume, & at that time I think Paul & Marianne were around.
100. SO EVERYBODY WOULD ASK ME, "WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO IN PARIS? What's your vision in the Family? What are you going to do?" And I would tell them, "Well, I came here to draw & I just brought all my stuff with me & I've got all my oil tubes & everything." I told them I wanted to draw, & I didn't want to go anywhere else from there.
101. BUT OF COURSE THE LORD HAD TO TEACH ME MANY OTHER LESSONS FIRST TO GET ME READY FOR IT, & it wasn't until six months later that I finally joined the publications. So from there I went on to Spanish Pubs & the artist Colony in Madrid, & finally I came here to Pub Creations two years ago.
102. I'D LIKE ALSO TO GIVE MY ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF THE YEAR, I've been working on 65 MO Letter front cover illustrations. Also I've done 52 pages of True Komix--that's 6 Komix of 4 pages each & the 28-pg. Easter Story which was a premier, the first True Komic without any words with only pictures. I was trying to make the Story of Christ without any words to help illiterate people or children understand it.
103. 52 PAGES OF TRUE KOMIX ADDED WITH THE COVER ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE MO LETTERS MAKES 117 PAGES OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Also I did a colour front cover of the Easter Magazine, the back cover also, & two colour posters: Jesus & the Good Shepherd & also Jesus with the baby in His arms. I could add to this the inside illustrations of "What Every Driver Should Know", "New Models", "Millions of Miles of Miracles", "The Meekness Dream" & "Trailer Driving"--so I've done about 43 inside illustrations.
104. THAT'S A TOTAL OF 160 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR THE WHOLE YEAR, 160 PAGES ALMOST. And if you want to know how many illustrations were done by week, that's exactly 3 pages of illustrations a week. In addition, I've done other miscellaneous projects & sketches, about 200, I did the layout for about 30 Letters. I also did a couple of advertising pages in the Magazine.
105. IT'S BEEN A YEAR OF MIRACLES! I THINK it's been an exciting & a wonderful year & I've learned a lot from working this year on these Letters. I feel like I'm working a little better now, a little faster, & it's a little easier to produce, TTL! And thank you also for all your prayers & encouragement & guidance.
106. I CAN TELL YOU ALSO ABOUT WHAT HAS BEEN A BIG CHANGE IN MY LIFE THIS YEAR IS THE "GET OUT NO.2" LETTER which made us get out everyday for at least an hour of vigorous exercise, & this really had helped me in my work & getting out everyday. The first week was a little hard, but as we did it regularly we found out that it really made us healthier & in better physical form, which helped us to do a better work on the Letters. (No. 956.)
107. I FEEL A LOT BETTER & A LOT HEALTHIER AFTER THESE MANY MANY DAILY WALKS. We've explored the whole region already & we're getting quite used to this vigorous exercise. It helps us so much, & we come back home & our problems seem so small & we go back to work with a refreshed mind & it is really an inspiration. Thank you so much for kicking us out & helping us to get our exercise daily which is so important.
108. MY PRAYER FOR THE YEAR IS A LITTLE PRAYER I PICKED OUT OF THE LETTER "THE OH OF ART", & it is this one here: "Lord, really inspire us in our labours with that same supernatural power with which You inspire Dad in the visions & the Words that he gives. So may God help us to be impressed with the importance of our task & help us to speed the production of those priceless illustrations."
109. SO THIS IS MY PRAYER, TO CONTINUE TO WORK ON THE LETTERS & TO CONTINUE TO HELP YOU AS MUCH AS I CAN & to be a blessing to many that way. And also I pray for the True Komix book which is about to come & which is almost under printing, but we're still waiting for more that are coming.
110. I'VE GOT ALSO A VERSE FOR THIS YEAR & IT'S MATTHEW 17:20: "And Jesus said unto them, "Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place, & it shall remove; & nothing shall be impossible unto you."
111. I THINK SOMETIMES I NEED THAT KIND OF FAITH BEFORE PRODUCING A COVER. In front of the white sheet of paper I feel a little nervous, but I know that the Lord always does it, & this is exciting to see how He's done it this year & I'm just thrilled to see what He's going to do for the next year.
112. SO I THINK THAT WITH THE EXPERIENCE I'VE HAD THIS YEAR I really hope with the Lord's help & your help to be able to be a blessing to you & the work. ILY! Thank you for this little interview, I was happy to talk to you, & we hope you'll enjoy this little time of fellowship with us. I'll pass you to the next one. Bye-bye! (Your art's improved amazingly! GBY!--D.)
113. JEWEL: HELLO, HAPPY NEW YEAR! ILY! xxx! Last night we were reading the "Happy Daze" Letter & it made me look back over my year & some of my life & made me really realise that that's the way it is for me too, that every year, every month, everything, my life just gets better & better! TTL!
114. LIKE YOU SAID YOU WOULDN'T WANT TO HAVE YOUR YOUTH BACK, I wouldn't either, to re-live my school days or university days when I was just an angry student until the Lord found me, TTL, until He led me to the Family & to you! TYJ! TYL! It's been a real happy year.
115. I'M SURE THAT THE HAPPIEST TIMES WERE THE SEVEN MONTHS THAT I SPENT WITH YOU to be around you & all the things that we learned, the practical things that our generation is so lacking in knowing about & also all the spiritual lessons that I learned, & that I'm sure the New Year's going to be full of more lessons like that, hoping that I won't have to relearn some of the bad ones & that there will be lots of good ones. TYJ! ILY!
116. I'VE BEEN, OF COURSE, MOSTLY IN THE KITCHEN. Everybody's been working on their stats, so I did a little adding up too, & I think we figured out that I'd cooked about 700 meals, something like 6 1/2 thousand plates all together, & done over 50 shopping trips. Well, those stats are just for the fun of it anyway.
117. IT'S BEEN A REAL BLESSING TO BE ABLE TO HELP WITH THE SEWING PROJECTS, the mending & the altering & the new creations & things. That has been a real blessing which I really enjoyed working on TTL. Also I wanted to say that it's been a real blessing to be able to work on a few book summaries, one on making candles, another Cooking Outdoors & "Your Teeth All Your Life", that's been a real blessing. TYL!
118. FOR MY VERSE THIS YEAR I CHOSE THE VERSE THAT I HAD LAST YEAR because I thought I needed it, & I think it's very good to keep in mind & heart & to look on. It's Proverbs 3:5,6. It says, "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart & lean not to thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him & He shall direct thy paths."
119. AND WHEN I WAS THINKING ABOUT THE YEAR THAT'S GONE BY & THE NEW YEAR THAT'S COMING, I also thought about a poem from the Mo's Music tape. I don't know if I can remember it quite, but it says, "I came to the man at the gate of the year & told him to give me a light that I might see my way. And he said unto me, 'Put your hand into the hand of God & He shall be more unto thee than a light & better than a known way'." TYL!
120. AND THERE WAS ALSO ON A TAPE WE JUST HEARD THE OTHER DAY A QUOTE THAT STUCK OUT ESPECIALLY that says, "There's no limit to what God will do if you'll just stick to it!" And I thought those were good thoughts & good things to keep in mind for the next year to keep following Him & trying to be a blessing in any way possible & be a help to you & to everyone here & to the Family. That's what I want most for the New Year, & keep going for Him. TYL! ILY so much!
121. I ALSO WANTED TO THANK YOU FOR PRAYING FOR ME WHILE I WAS SICK just this last week, I think it's a miracle how quickly it passed. It's really an answer to your prayers & our prayers here & I'm so happy to be feeling so much better now & being back to work. TYJ! ILY! I'm praying for you & for your health & well-being also. ILY! xxx (ILY, Sweetheart!--D.)
122. GENE: HI, THIS IS GENE! GBY! WLY! HAPPY NEW YEAR! "Happy Daze are here again & getting happier everyday!" In looking back over this year, 1980, I didn't take as good notes as I should have taken & didn't keep as good a record--which I hope I'll do better this next year--but here are the highlights of this year for me.
123. IT STARTED OFF WITH A REAL BANG WITH "THE CRASH IS HERE", & all the associated Letters & lessons. Then in late April came another big event in my life when I got sick again with another appendicitis attack. I think that was the 7th one I'd had in a year's time. I'd almost come to expect one every two months, it seems. But TTL for you, Dad, & the talk that you gave, "Get Out No.2." It was a real life changer & a life-saver.
124. IT'S BEEN 8 MONTHS SINCE THAT TIME & I HAVEN'T BEEN SICK SINCE THEN. So I feel the Lord is blessing me & keeping me as I endeavour & try to obey & heed your counsel. So I'm really thankful for it & thankful that you did take your time to do that, to share with me. I really needed a good kick there.
125. IT REALLY HELPED ME TO LEARN A BETTER BALANCE IN MY LIFE & WORK & PLAY & EXERCISE & REST, which I really needed for years, & I hope I'm learning, & I think others have benefited & profited from that lesson also.
126. IN MAY YOU & THE LORD PROVIDED US WITH OUR FIRST LITTLE CARAVAN, "SURELY" WE CALL IT, & we got it from the verse, "Surely goodness & mercy shall follow me all the days of my life!" And our little Surely we hope will follow us all the days of our life or as long as we need it.
127. IN JULY IVAN & JEAN CAME TO VISIT & TO HELP US FOR AWHILE. They both learned an awful lot. Jean left after a month & Ivan is still here with us helping out. And now maybe I can get into some accomplishments & statistics for this year.
128. I ESTIMATE THAT THIS YEAR WE DEVELOPED ABOUT 900 ROLLS OF BLACK & WHITE FILM, which averages out to about 17 a week. 18,000 pages of material were photographed, which includes all the Letters & file materials, RDs & different little photographs to go in layouts, everything for layouts, anything that required a negative to be made of it. Also this year I've done a lot of layout, about 50 Letters.
129. AS FOR PHOTOS THAT HAVE BEEN MADE, there again I didn't keep an exact record, but there's been about 126 or more Letters that were photographed & sent away this year. We made print samples on all pages of those, plus we made print samples on some of the Komix, all of the WNs, & then print samples on just everything that we sent to be used in the Mag.
130. THEN PRINTS WERE MADE FOR ALL OF YOUR LETTERS, DAD. "Millions of Miles of Miracles", "New Models" & "First Christmas", they all had a lot of photographs. Prints were made for all of the Dito & Techi Letters in the works, & we'll try to keep a better record this year on all of these so we'll be able to give you some better statistics.
131. AND THEN ANOTHER BIG ACCOMPLISHMENT THIS YEAR was the condensing of files of all sorts & getting all reference material, RDs, photographs & everything that we want to keep into a real concise file that takes up as little room as possible, but in a fashion & form that we can reproduce it at its best. The pages of material that we have in this file now total about 70,000 negatives of material--RDs, artwork of different sorts & Family photographs from as early in the Revolution as we could get them.
132. LOOKING BACK I ALWAYS FEEL LIKE I COULD HAVE DONE MORE, & I pray I can do even more this year. My verse for the New Year is I John 2:5, which is a real encouraging & comforting verse for me. It says, "But whoso keepeth His Word, in him verily is the love of God perfected." So I feel like to have God's love perfected & shinning through, we need to spend more time with Him & His Word, & then we can't fail.
133. AND THE OTHER VERSE THAT I GOT WHILE PRAYING just before we started our meeting yesterday was 1 Cor.15:10. It says, "By the grace of God I am what I am, & His grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain, but I labour more abundantly than they all, yet not I but the grace of God which was with me."
134. SO THAT IN A WAY IS MY PRAYER FOR THIS NEW YEAR, that God's grace which He's given me won't be in vain, that I won't let Him down, that I won't let you down in any way, & that I'll labour more abundantly than they all--though that'll be a bit hard to do with all the hard workers we have around here--maybe I can labour as abundantly as they.
135. LORD HELP ME TO KNOW THAT IT WAS NOT I BUT HIS GRACE WHICH WAS UPON ME, & I pray that at the end of the year '81 that that verse I can feel in some way was fulfilled, & that I can let the Lord fulfil it through me. So that's all I have to say. I just want to say ILY & thank you for all the mercy & love that you've given me & have with me. ILY so much. Bye-bye! (You're a real workaholic! GBY!--D.)
136. PATH: HAPPY NEW YEAR! ILY! HAPPY NEW 1981! 1980 was really a wonderful year. Of course it was a year full of greater victories, that's really quite a lot to say. It's been a really exciting year! I love you so much! xxx! Our whole Family, in fact. It's really been a great year, & I want you to listen to some of these exciting stats! Of course I'm sure we'll do a lot better in 1981 because there're always greater victories to be won ahead.
137. OH, I DID WANT TO SAY THAT WHEN I READ MY FIRST LETTER in Bromley in October 1972 that you really won me in the spirit! I think it was "Faith" & the next one was "Mountain Men". But then when I first met you & got my first kiss, I was really won in the Spirit too, & in the flesh. That was the best part, Dad, ILY! That was really fun & I'll never forget it. TYL!
138. WELL, I'LL START WITH "THE CHRISTMAS EVE MASSACRE" which was our first Letter this year, & it was typed on January 1, 1980, so that's exactly one year ago, & look at the results that Letter had! It's had quite an impact on the whole Family. We can read their reactions in the FN, & it's really been an encouraging Letter.
139. AND THEN AFTER THAT WE'VE HAD I THINK ABOUT 100 LETTERS THAT WE PRINTED UP THIS YEAR. But they weren't all done here, a couple of them Apollos did & different people did. But I personally typed 101 Letters, some of which aren't in print yet. So we started with "The Christmas Eve Massacre" & the last one for this year was the Ho Series, "Prodigal Prodigies." So that's 101 Letters I typed total, & of Letters in print I typed 654 pages.
140. THEN SOMETHING WE HAD NEW THIS YEAR WAS WE STARTED DOING THE DITO CHAPTERS, which is really fun, & the boys were a real help in doing the photos & layout on that. We typed only six this year in our little department here, but this coming year we'll be doing those all the time, D.V. OK, Sara? Also Techi's, Dora. We started doing the Techi's this year starting from number 1 & we're up to Number 19, but only four have come into print yet, so I'm sure 1981 will be a real time to get the children's educational material out too.
141. THEN WE DID ALL THOSE PAGES OF MEMORY VERSES. I final-typed 38 pages, & those included the "Fear" ones too, which has helped the Family get into their memory work by cutting those out & putting them in their little Promise Boxes, which is lots of fun. And lots of various other little Letters like "Emergency Childbirth" & lots of RFNs. We need to get some more out, because we've only done two testimonies so far, so if anybody else wants to do theirs we can get them out if we can.
142. FOR TAPES TRANSCRIBED, of your tapes, Dad, Margie & I have done 156. She did 62 of those & I did 94. Plus I typed 26 of Sara's log tapes & 25 of Dora's, which is really exciting, all of Techi's accomplishments. TYL! For WS it's been 157 business letters typed for them. I guess I couldn't get into the number of phone messages we've typed & received & the number of letters to you, Dad & Maria, it's been quite a lot, but it's really been an encouragement too. So that's the work-on-paper accomplishments.
143. THEN FOR THIS NEW YEAR, LOOKING AHEAD NOW TO 1981 after all that we did accomplish in 1980, I think the prayer for me for this New Year is that all of us here in this place can be a real sample & a testimony & a help to you in any way we can, & that we'll continue to obey & to be cheerful in our work & faithful, & most of all obedient in all that we do for you, & that we're able to help get the Wonder Working Words to the Waiting World as soon as possible & as quickly as we can, & to give our all & our lives to do it, & to really reach all the lands with these Words that have changed our lives so much, & we want to change others.
144. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE PRIVILEGE OF BEING ABLE TO WORK ON'M! It's an opportunity that only knocks once, & I know I want to do my best to help you & to love you & to care for you & for your Words.
145. MY VERSE FOR THE NEW YEAR IS JAMES 1:5 which says, "If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally & upbraideth not, & it shall be given him." So to run a house & to have a responsibility like we have here, I know I need a lot more wisdom. So that's my prayer for the New Year, is for wisdom.
146. AND MY MO QUOTE is the one about, "If you're willing to be what God wants you to be--not what you want to be, but what God wants you to be, then He can mightily use you." So that's my quote for the new Year & my prayer & my verse, & I want to tell you how much I really love you.
147. OH, I FORGOT ONE THING, I FORGOT ONE MORE ACCOMPLISHMENT. I would give you my love stats, but I didn't write'm all down. It's really not that exciting, but I wanted to say that my best one was my love stats with you, Dad, & I'll never forget 'em! You're tops in the field & you taught me a lot, in fact, everything I know you've taught me. That's quite an accomplishment too! (points to tummy:)
148. AND I HAVE ONE LITTLE ACCOMPLISHMENT DOWN HERE THAT'S GROWING, & I guess I'll have something to say about that at the New Years for 1982. So I wanted to say how much I love you, & it's only your faith & love & concern for me that's brought me through, & I really do love you. I'd better go. Sal's going to be next, & ILY so much! xxxxxxx! Bye-bye. (GBY! You're terrific! ILY!--D.)
149. SAL: GBY, DAD & MARIA, ILY! HAPPY NEW YEAR! This is my little New Year's Report for you! I met the Family in Los Angeles on July 31, 1971, Maria's birthday! Two brothers met myself & my sister on Hollywood & Vine at a little hotdog stand & asked me to come back to the bus with them, & I went with them & my sister didn't.
150. WE WENT BACK TO 5TH & TOWNE & there dear Amminidab spent all night with me singing me songs & telling me about Jesus. Since I was Jewish & didn't know anything about Jesus, I didn't understand what he was talking about or anything, but something was leading me, & as the morning dawned I asked Jesus into my heart, although I didn't understand at the time exactly what I was doing! So I stayed there, & then I went to Coachella Babes' Ranch, then San Diego, Burlington & then to Dallas--that's where I typed my first MO Letter which was "The Great Escape".
151. THEN I MADE MY GREAT ESCAPE & WENT TO ENGLAND WHERE I STARTED WORKING WITH YOU! PTL! So this year 1981 will be my 10th anniversary in the Family, in July, TTL! And of course I've been happiest since I met the Family. Before that were my sad days of youth, & these are my glad days, TTL!
152. AND LOOKING BACK OVER THE YEAR I'd say one of my greatest victories was on my birthday, April 15th, when I edited my first MO Letter, "Cleanliness Is Godliness"! I never knew I could edit before, but I did! PTL! Also this year I transcribed a total of 131 transcriptions of your tapes & edited a total of 87 Letters. Of course not all of them have been published yet, but I pray that they will be in their time. PTL! Also I final typed a total of 85 Letters.
153. ALSO THE FIRST 6 MONTHS OF THIS YEAR I WAS DOING ALL THE ARTIST CORRESPONDENCE & coordinating all their assignments & keeping them all busy, & I typed approximately 70 Letters to all the artists around the World. Then this last month I had a special assignment from you, Maria, to assign all our 42 Family artists around the World to do special Komix assignments from Volumes 1 & 2 to make those TK Volumes complete.
154. I'M REALLY ANXIOUS TO HEAR THE RESULTS & maybe we'll reclaim some of those artists that haven't contributed anything in a long time, & bring some back into closer fellowship. And one other project I had this year was a page-by-page index of all the RDs from 1972 to July 1975, & that's as far as I got before I had other projects to work on, & maybe one of these days I'll be able to continue that, D.V.
155. AS FAR AS MY VERSES FOR THE NEW YEAR, one of them was I Peter 1:7 which was a verse you gave me, Dad, on one of my letters to you, which is "The trying of your faith is more precious than gold." And another verse that came to me was 2Tim.2:3,4: "Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth entangleth him self with the affairs of this life, that he may please Him who hath chosen him to be a soldier." So I hope to be a good soldier for you & the Lord in 1981.
156. AND MY MO QUOTE FOR THE YEAR was something also that you wrote to me on one of my letters which was, "Keep busy for Jesus & He fills all the empties!" And also another quote I liked from one of the recent Letters, "How wonderful it is when people do what the Lord tells them to do & what He designed them for." So I hope I can do what He designed me for.
157. ONE OF THE THINGS I'M MOST THANKFUL FOR THIS YEAR IS FINALLY FINDING MY CALLING IN EDITING THE LETTERS, which I never knew that I could do before. It's like a whole new realm opened up to me. And my prayer is to be able to capture your spirit, the Spirit of David, in all the Letters that I work on, & to do it as you would do it, & to be able to help feed the Family along with you, & to do a good job & be a blessing to you as much as I can.
158. I'M ALSO THANKFUL THAT THE LORD'S BROUGHT ME BACK TO THIS PLACE OF SERVICE after a little bit being afar off, & I'm really thankful for that & for being in this little unit, it's such a blessing! I'm also thankful for the little prophecy that you got for me: "From henceforth thou shalt be called Hepsibah, for the children of the barren shall be more than the married wife."
159. I THOUGHT THAT WHEN YOU GOT THAT IT WAS REFERRING TO THE SPIRITUAL MO BABIES, but also the Lord has blessed me with a little physical baby too, & I'm a little over two months pregnant. So, PTL for that too! So I guess that's my report & I want to say I love you very much & thank you for all you do for us. I hope I can be a blessing to you in the coming year. ILY! xxx! (GBY! You're wonderful!--D.)
160. IVAN: HI! HAPPY NEW YEAR, DAD & MARIA. I'm Ivan, & I never expected to be here so long, & I'm very thankful that I am still here. Thank you very much for letting me stay. I think I've been here about 5 months now, & everyday's been a real blessing. I want to thank you so much for letting me stay each day. I think this must have been the heaviest year of my life, so many things have happened to me!
161. OF COURSE THE GREATEST BLESSING THIS YEAR & in fact in my whole life, after being saved, was to be asked to come here. I've learned so many lessons since I've been here. I think when I first came I really blew it a lot. I wasn't so sensitive, I didn't really realise the battle that was going on. And I've learned a lot & I got bawled out, & I hope I'm getting a bit more sensitive now & I'm learning a lot.
162. ONE OF THE BIGGEST LESSONS I'VE LEARNED IS TO REALLY DIG INTO THE WORD. Since I've been here I've really needed to dig in the Word & to stay so close to the Lord, because in some ways it's hard. It's like Faithy said the other day, it's almost like death in a way to be here. But death is so good because you're with your loved ones & you're so much closer to the Lord. (Dead to self!--Ha!--D.)
163. LIKE I SAID BEFORE, I THINK THERE'S SO MUCH MORE CLARITY IN THE SPIRIT HERE, you can see things so much clearer & really learn lessons, the lessons that I need to learn, so much easier here. It's really a blessing, & I'm really so thankful for all the brethren here who put up with me, because I think some times I make a lot of mistakes & I'm pretty much out of it sometimes. But I think I'm learning--I hope I am anyway.
164. MY WORK HERE PRETTY MUCH IS PHOTOWORK WITH GENE, & I'm real thankful to him for teaching me, & I've learned quite a bit there. I'm beginning to speed up. I'm pretty slow compared with him, he really is a fast worker, God bless him! But I think really one of the main things I'm doing here is just to really be a help around the Home.
165. MY MAIN JOB I THINK IS TO CLEAN UP THE HOME & TO FILL IN ANY HOLES. When there's nobody to do supper, sometimes I do it & try to be a blessing wherever I can be. That's what I want to be, I want to be a holy hole, because everyone's so busy & there're so many important things going on here. I know that we need somebody here just to do the little jobs around the place, to oil the wheels so that things keep going.
166. THIS YEAR I'VE ALSO DONE A LITTLE BIT OF LAYOUT & a bit of editing, just a couple of different things for the FN. The biggest thing I've learned is to be more sensitive in the Spirit, really. The main things I'm learning is to stay closer to the Lord.
167. WHEN I FIRST CAME I THOUGHT EVERYONE WAS GOING TO BE BIG LEADERS or something, I suppose, & real outward going, because I was used to public leaders like Faithy & Paul & Marianne & people like that. And it's such a surprise to see such little people, such sweet little behind-the-scenes people who aren't big public leaders but who really work hard & really press in & get so much accomplished, & I want to be like that. I really pray that I can get to be more like that, & to learn the jobs that I'm learning from those here.
168. ONE OF THE BIGGEST THINGS I'M WORKING ON RIGHT NOW kind of my baby, is the matchbox-size MO Letter Catalogue which is a catalogue of all the Letters from A through 1,000. I pray & hope it surely should be ready by number 1,000, & I think it will amount to over 60 Magazine pages. I think that will be a real blessing to the Family. That's my biggest baby & the thing I'm working on most of the time at the moment. PTL!
169. MY PRAYER IS TO LEARN TO BE A GREATER BLESSING TO THE WORK & have a closer walk with the Lord & to get freer in the Spirit & to be more honest with myself & others. I got this little verse, Mark 9:23: "If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth."
170. SO LORD HELP ME TO BELIEVE, because I want all things to be possible & I want to be a blessing. I want to not make mistakes & to be able to be a blessing to you & to the workers here, & through that to the World & to the Lord. ILY very much! Thank you for your time. Happy New Year! GBY! (You are a blessing! GBY!--D.)
171. (DAD:) NOW I WANT TO GIVE A LITTLE REPORT ON THE LATEST STATS FROM LAST YEAR, & that is that our population of the Family for about 3 years of '72, '73 & '74 was just a little over 2,000 total Family throughout the World; & then it soared up to a peak of over 8,000 in 1977. Then we were hit by the RNR in '78 & it plummeted down to probably the more realistic figure of a little over 5,000, with not so many padded stats--names off tombstones or dead catacombers of dead cats or whatever it was!
172. HOWEVER, WE DID HAVE QUITE A FEW PEOPLE LEAVE US THEN because they figured it was a little too tough, especially the Chain who couldn't live off the hard earned pennies of the Litnessers anymore & just sit there & collect money, they had to go to work themselves.
173. BUT THEN ONCE WE HAD THIS PURGING & THIS FLUSHING OUT & PURIFICATION OF THE RANKS, I knew the Lord was going to bless it somehow, if not in numbers, in quality. But right away we no sooner dropped to that 3-year low of a little over 5,000 in 1979 from about 8,000, then we began to soar again, & certainly 1980 has been the year of prodigals come home!
174. WE HAVE NEVER HAD SO MANY PEOPLE COME BACK TO THE FAMILY, a regular surge of a tremendous influx of former backsliders, former Family members, have come back to the Family in 1980. They went back home for a year or two & found out the System was just as much of a slime pit as ever, & they got sick of that vomit & that mire & wallowing in it & eating it, & decided it was better to serve the Lord after all!--So we're up over 8,000 again!
175. SO NOW THEY'RE COMING BACK IN DROVES REJOINING THE FAMILY & going out again in fulltime service for the Lord! I think that's one of the greatest accomplishments of 1980--the redeeming of many backsliders, the regaining of many of our brethren & the returning of many prodigals back to the fold,
176. WE ALSO HAVE THE HIGHEST NUMBER OF HOMES WE HAVE EVER HAD, ALMOST 2,000 HOMES! For the first three years of our Family, 72-74--at least the first years that we kept stats--we had in the vicinity of about 150 Homes--about 50 in the U.S. & then finally 100 abroad, etc. We thought that was quite a few Homes--not many churches have that many homes.
177. BUT THEN IN '75 AS WE REALLY BEGAN TO PUSH FOR THE BREAKING UP OF THE BLOBS & for the "going into all the World to preach the Gospel to every creature" our Homes began to soar & we skyrocketed from only 150 to around five or six hundred for about the next three years, '76 to '78. Then came WIM, & beginning in '79 our Homes immediately skyrocketed clear up to 1,800 & now finally we're up to almost 2,000 Homes!
178. SO IN SIX YEARS WE'VE GONE FROM 200 HOMES TO 2,000 HOMES SCATTERED IN OVER 80 COUNTRIES ALL OVER THE WORLD! We've been in over 110 countries. Our Family is really going everywhere in all the World preaching the Gospel to every creature, TTL! The total amount of literature that we have distributed during our entire history since we began keeping stats in '72 is 380 million pieces of literature!--380 million pieces! Now that's a lot of literature!
179. I DON'T THINK THERE'S PROBABLY ANY RELIGIOUS ORGANISATION THAT I KNOW OF THAT COULD EQUAL THAT, CONSIDERING OUR SMALL NUMBERS. We're only a few thousand members & have distributed nearly 400 million pieces of literature! That's a lot of lit! Our total witness has been to over 24 billion people, so it shows we've witnessed to lots of people more than once.
180. THE POPULATION OF THE EARTH IS ONLY FOUR BILLION, so we must have witnessed to most of them over 8 times, or some of them even more than that. So that's quite a record, I think, & the amount has been going up every year, of course.
181. IT MAY BE HARD FOR YOU TO BELIEVE, BUT THE NUMBER OF CONVERTS has been what would be the equivalent of about at least one convert out of every hundred pieces of literature distributed. That may not sound like much, but that's a pretty high record to have gotten over 3,700,000 converts for one little church like ours, one little Family of believers. We've led a lot of people to the Lord, isn't that wonderful? PTL!
182. AND OF COURSE ONE OF THE MOST PHENOMENAL RECORDS LATELY HAS BEEN GUESS WHAT?--"KNEW DISCIPLES!" We have now over 3,500 children in the Family, & at this rate half our population is going to be children! Out of our 8,000 people, 3,500 are children, so no wonder we're paying so much attention to the children, the childcare materials & Komix, etc.
183. WE HAVE A TREMENDOUS NUMBER OF OUR OWN CHILDREN NOW TO EDUCATE, & while we're busy having these children & you women are really bearing them & caring for them & teaching & training them, that's just about all some of you women can do! Some of you have four, five or six children, some seven, eight & nine, so that's a fulltime job! Hallelujah! GBY!
184. YOU CAN'T VERY WELL BE GOING OUT & CONVERTING STRANGERS WHEN YOU'VE GOT THESE NEW LITTLE STRANGERS IN THE HOME to teach & train to love the Lord & to serve the Lord, & you're doing a tremendous job of it, so that these little ones are born-in converts, TTL!
185. THEY REALLY HAVE COME INTO THE FAMILY THROUGH THE BIRTH CANAL & are the best kind of converts that I know of, because you can train'm & teach'm from scratch, & they're bound to be blessed of the Lord because they're our children. PTL? Hallelujah! So, TYL!
186. WE'RE WINNING AROUND SOME 40,000 SOULS EVERY MONTH NOW, so that's pretty good for a population of 8,000 that wins 40,000 souls a month! That's at least five each per month, about one a week! That's more than most church people I know of win to the Lord. How many church people do you know of that every member of the congregation averages at least one soul a week won to the Lord? I never heard of any like that! So, PTL, we're really doing a good job!
187. I'M GLAD TO SEE THAT OUR LITNESSING STATS ARE UP AGAIN NOW TO AROUND THREE MILLION. So they have been climbing again, thank the Lord! I'm sure that if you folks are faithful that you will continue to climb & God'll bless you for it, because that's our main job--getting out the Word!
188. EVERY PROPHET'S MAIN JOB IS PREACHING THE WORD! "Preach the Word!"--that's the main thing Paul told his disciples, "Preach the Word!" (2Tim.4:2.) And that's one of the best ways you can do it is to get out the lit. You can get it out fast that way to a lot of people, more than even by word-of-mouth. But to keep on witnessing word-of-mouth too is especially effective, individual soul winning.
189. FFING HAS SOARED & CONTINUES TO SOAR, & I HOPE THEY DON'T GET TOO SORE! Ha! GBM! We've witnessed to over 300,000 souls just through FFing in just the past 3 years, 100,000 souls a year! That's a pretty good record, huh? Is it worth it? (Family: Yes!) It's worth it! And we've won thousands of friends & we've witnessed to that many, over 300,000, actually won 57,000 friends & 26,000 souls! So that's pretty good, PTL! That's almost one out of ten that you FFers have witnessed to that you have won.
190. LOOK HOW EVEN MORE EFFECTIVE FFING IS THAN LITNESSING! In litnessing you win about one out of a hundred, FFing you win about one out of ten. Pretty good? Very effective way of witnessing! And of those they've only had to love about 45,000. Hallelujah! Wish I'd been one of'm! I have been, TYL! I have my little FFers right here who FF me almost everyday, GB'M, they've really won my heart.
191. AND THEY'VE WRITTEN 87,000 LETTERS TO FISH! Now that's really something!--& received almost half that many in return. Now that's really quite a record! It shows you the value of that little follow up, the Mail Ministry--not only the female ministry but the mail ministry--M-A-I-L, the post! PTL! GBY FFers!
192. SO PTL, WE HAVE HAD SOME REALLY TREMENDOUS GROWTH IN THE PAST YEAR ALONE in so many of these things! The Lord has really blessed! And as we have continued to grow, increased in numbers & results, we have reached in this past year our highest number of converts, our highest number of population of the Family & certainly our highest number of children! So it's been a record year!
193. 1980 WAS A REAL RECORD YEAR, & IT HAS DEFINITELY BEEN A RECORD YEAR FOR LITERATURE! We have never ever printed so much literature, along with the Magazines & the LIM printings & all the rest. So we're running about 3 million copies of the Letters or Komix being printed each month along with those being distributed, TTL!
194. THEY'RE PRINTING & DISTRIBUTING ABOUT 3 MILLION COPIES A MONTH. So that's a lot of people to give the Gospel to for just a little handful of 8,000 church members! Of course that's a pretty big church by comparison to most churches. Not too many churches have 8,000 regular dues-paying members, Families that faithfully pay their tithes & faithfully listen to the sermons.
195. WE'RE PREACHING MORE TO YOU THAN YOU'D EVER GET IN CHURCH, & you are working harder & witnessing more than you'd ever find any church people doing it. I never saw any church people like that. And we are also printing more literature etc. & distributing more to others, witnessing better than any church members I ever knew, & we're listening to more sermons than church people would ever put up with! GBY! TYL! That's why we're doing such a good job, we're listening to the Word & obeying it & spreading it. PTL?
196. AND ONE OF THE GREAT ADVANCES THIS YEAR HAS BEEN THE LIMS, & their total printing has been phenomenal in printing 2,500 magazines each month. Their printing now in other languages equals more than the number of Magazines we put out a month in English, think of that! Isn't that amazing? Was it worth it?
197. WE THOUGHT WE WERE GOING TO MAKE A SACRIFICE, we thought we were going to lose money in helping the LIMs get started & helping to support them, but look what they're accomplishing!--They're now printing more Magazines in other languages than we are in English, & reaching all the rest of the World in their own languages!
198. WE THOUGHT IT WAS GOING TO BE A LOSING PROPOSITION, we thought maybe they wouldn't be able to make it unless we helped keep them going. Instead of that you've done so well & you're being so well supported that instead of having sacrificed & given them too much, they're giving back to us now & helping to support us! So God bless them!
199. SO IT'S BEEN A TREMENDOUS YEAR, A RECORD YEAR IN ALMOST EVERY FIELD!--In the number of Homes, in the population, the literature distribution, the converts won, the increase in our publications & all the rest has been a wonderful, wonderful year. 1980 is going to go down in our history as one of our greatest years, thank You Lord!
200. I DON'T HAVE TIME TO READ YOU ALL THE REST OF THESE STATS & WONDERFUL RECORDS of the shiners & what a marvellous job they are doing in some countries. The top World shiners are in the most unlikely countries you could possibly imagine, places like Thailand or Borneo or some unlikely places like that where they're distributing lit by the tens of thousands, individual shiners! It's amazing! It's just almost hard to believe what a wonderful job they're doing!
201. BUT IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHERE THE MONEY ALL GOES, WE'VE GOT A NEW PIE GRAPH that's going in one of the next Magazines. Over half of our total World Service income, that which comes in in tithe & offerings from the Family from all over, over half of it goes to publications, to the Word, getting out the Word! PTL!
202. OF COURSE IT ALL GOES REALLY TO GETTING OUT THE WORD, BUT IN DIFFERENT WAYS, over half through literature. And then about 15% goes out to World missionaries, aid to the poor & helping the people who are getting out the lit. Also about 6 1/2% is special projects & ministries, that means also to people & the agencies that are helping to get out the Word. So it's all for the Word, really.
203. AND THEN THE CROS & WIM WHO ALSO HANDLE GETTING OUT THE WORD & handle the reports, finances, stats, etc.--all necessary to getting out the Word. About 25% of our income goes to the personnel who are helping in the business & administration & the publication & the creations & all the rest, the personnel who are in the mechanics of getting out the Word & its business affairs, etc.
204. SO THERE YOU ARE, A LITTLE LESS THAN 50% GOES TO ALL THE PEOPLE WHO ARE INVOLVED IN GETTING OUT THE WORDS, & over half of our income to the actual cost of getting out the Word itself. So one way or the other, whether it goes to the people or the printing, it's all to getting out the Word, amen?
205. SO WE HAVE HAD A TREMENDOUS GROWTH IN HOMES, POPULATION OF THE FAMILY, LITERATURE OUTPUT, CONVERTS SAVED, WITNESS MADE in all kinds of forms, not only literature but radio, newspaper & television, etc. We're still reaching hundreds of millions of people every year with the Message of the Lord's Love, isn't that wonderful?--A little Family that was so small & so persecuted & so hounded by our enemies, some of your parents got so mad at us they wanted to kill us because you decided to serve the Lord instead of them & the System, but we're still going on. Hallelujah!
206. "THEY CAN'T STOP OUR RAIN!" We're growing every year, things are getting better every year, we're accomplishing more every year & the Lord is blessing us more every year with souls & witness & children & money & more literature & more workers in every way. So we just can't lose for winning, PTL? It's wonderful what the Lord has done & has accomplished thru' us all! Hallelujah! GBY!
207. WELL, IT'S NOW ALMOST AN HOUR AFTER THE MIDNIGHT HOUR & WE'RE ALMOST AN HOUR INTO 1981 & you've already had lot, a lot of reports & a lot of wonderful praises for what the Lord has done! We've already counted our blessings & enumerated all the ways that God has used us & blessed us for this past year.
208. SO PTL, THE LORD HAS REALLY BLESSED US & MADE US A BLESSING, which is a prayer we've prayed every day. We have prayed that the Lord would keep us & protect us & lead us & guide us, & He has. We've had to move an average of every three months, but He has kept up & protected us.
209. OUR FAMILY HAS BEEN MOVING AROUND ALL OVER THE WORLD, hither, thither & yon, & now a lot of them are taking our suggestions to go to Latin America, which is a great white harvest field that we've really hardly touched. Despite the fact we've had quite a few Family over there for several years, it's still unreaped fully.
210. WE HAVEN'T SATURATED IT AS WE HAVE NORTH AMERICA & EUROPE & there are lots of Asiatic & Pacific places that we still need to go & deliver our souls & wash our hands, that we may feel that we have done all we could. So there is lots left to be done. We haven't done it all yet, but the Lord is doing more through us every year.
211. I THINK THAT SHOULD BE A VERY SATISFYING THING FOR YOU TO KNOW, a feeling of fulfilment & of real accomplishment--that you, as a Family, have been accomplishing so much with so few. I would say that never probably in the World's history has so much been accomplished for the Lord by so few!
212. IT LOOKS & SOUNDS LIKE GREAT NUMBERS TO US WHEN WE TALK ABOUT 2,000 HOMES & 8,000 MEMBERS--which is larger than most churches, & many preachers would love to have a chance to preach to that many people, which we do every month & all month long through the magazine, TTL, especially real workers & missionaries who are out witnessing, litnessing & winning souls for the Lord. I doubt if there are many preachers who have churches who are that active for the Lord.
213. BUT WE'RE A CONSIDERABLY SMALLER GROUP THAN MOST DENOMINATIONS OR CULTS OR ISMS OR SECTS or whatever they want to call us, & I think considering our comparatively few numbers, smaller than most, we probably are accomplishing more than any others proportionately, because all of our Family are real witnessers for the Lord, really active, really litnessing, witnessing & soul-winning! So we have a lot to be thankful for, amen?
214. AREN'T YOU THANKFUL FOR SUCH A WONDERFUL FAMILY THAT THE LORD HAS GIVEN US? PTL? Aren't you thankful to be in such a Family? PTL? I tell you, I get a wonderful feeling of satisfaction when I look back over this past 12 years of the Family--& even back from the times of my little family which was really the beginning of the Family--but during the past 12 years since you joined us, Maria, it's been a wonderful time, hasn't it, Honey? Have you had fun begetting 8,000 children? (Maria: I could never have dreamed of anything so great!)
215. WE'VE BEEN LOOKING A LITTLE BIT TO THE PAST, SEEING FULFILLED PROPHECY, but there are lots of prophecies that have not yet been fulfilled & I think are about to be. So I think we can look forward to a wonderful time in the Lord's service from now on until the Lord comes.
216. I'M SURE HE'S GOING TO SAVE SOME OF US & SPARE SOME OF US so that we can keep on witnessing right to the End, because the World is going to need it & we're going to need to keep busy for the Lord, PTL? So keep'm rollin'! PTL?
217. AND OF COURSE I THINK THE NEW VIDEO MINISTRY HAS TREMENDOUS POSSIBILITIES & POTENTIALITIES in drawing the Family together in closer fellowship & inspiration & surveying our ministries around the World, getting everyone an insight into what everyone else is doing & how they're doing it & how much they need our help & prayers.
218. I THINK THE VIDEO MINISTRY IS GOING TO BE A GREAT BLESSING. I know it's already been a great blessing to us to see you out there on your fields & to watch you work & train your children & witness for the Lord & to see your happy smiling faces & to thrill to your sweet spirits & wonderful wonderful lives that you're living for Jesus!
219. SO THANK THE LORD FOR A MARVELLOUS 1980, BUT GOD WILLING, AN EVEN GREATER 1981! When I said that last year I thought at the time, "I don't know how we could possibly accomplish any more than we have already, it looks like we have just about reached the limit!"--We hadn't even hardly started! As the fellow said, "We haven't begun to fight yet!" We 've got lots further to go, & thank the Lord, we trust we'll have a few more years to do it.
220. SO BE PREPARED FOR A NEW WONDERFUL YEAR FOR THE LORD, probably in new areas & with new methods & means & maybe even some new people. God is going to do marvellous wonders, signs, miracles, all that in the year to come. Well, we're yawning now & the Old Year's gone & it just about wore us out! We don't want to get worn out too soon in this New Year.
221. IT'S ONE O'CLOCK & I THINK IT'S A GOOD TIME TO QUIT, PTL? Don't you think we've had enough for tonight? I think those were wonderful reports, GBY! You did real well. We really enjoyed them & we're looking forward even to greater things than these, that ye shall do. Jesus promised it: "Greater things than these shall ye do!" (Jn.14:12.)
222. JESUS NEVER PASSED OUT 375 MILLION PIECES OF LITERATURE, but He did through you in recent years. But personally He never preached to as many people as we've preached to. Personally He never won as many souls as we've won. Personally He never visited as many countries or spoke as many languages or printed as much literature or was on radio or television, but you have done all these things!
223. YOU HAVE BEEN ALL THESE THINGS & YOU'VE DONE ALL THESE THINGS which are even greater than what Jesus did while He was here! But of course He's done them all through you, He has done them & it is all His work, but as He said, "Greater things than these shall ye do". So you have done greater things even than Jesus did when He was here on Earth--not greater things than Jesus has ever done, because He's done it all through you PTL?
224. BUT THANK THE LORD FOR A WONDERFUL YEAR OF 1980 & THANK GOD IT'S GONE, AMEN? I wouldn't exactly want to live it over again, would you? I prefer some new fresh job & new trials & new tribulations & new triumphs. Lord forgive me, I'm not asking for them, but variety is the spice of life & we get a little tired of the old ones. So we'll have plenty of new things this coming year, maybe many things we haven't had before!
225. I'M SURE THE LORD WILL BE ABLE TO HELP US MAKE IT & HELP US COPE WITH THEM & WIN THE VICTORIES, surmount the obstacles & accomplish His purpose for this coming year that we need to accomplish, amen? PTL? He hasn't failed to support us & provide for us, right? He hasn't failed to protect us & keep us & strengthen us for the task, which is a big job.
226. YOU OUGHT TO SEE DEAR MARIA WORKING DAY & NIGHT, she just hardly ever stops working. She just works all the time & I have to fuss at her & say, "Maria, you gotta quit! You gotta lie down & rest now! You gotta quit, you're going to ruin your eyes with so much reading & mail & materials, & you have just got to take it easy!" I just have to fuss at her, & Sue has to fuss at her to try to make her take it easy.
227. BUT LOOK AT HER, SHE'S DOING GREAT! Doesn't she look beautiful? Rosey-cheeked & smiling! She doesn't seem to be too much the worse for wear, she seems to be thriving on it. She spends all day long & half the night reading mail & working on the Magazine, etc. So you pray for her & me too, I need it, & you need it. We pray for you & pray for our dear family all over the World working so hard for the Lord & doing such a wonderful job for Jesus! PTL?
228. SO LONG, 1980! YOU WERE A GOOD YEAR, BUT WE'RE THANKFUL FOR 1981 WHICH WE HOPE TO BE A BETTER YEAR, PTL! Amen. I'm sure it's going to be better in some ways. As I said the other day to Maria, "You know what's the happiest day of my life?--It's today!" Every new day is the happiest day of my life, PTL? Amen? "Every day with Jesus is better than the day before!" So TYJ! PTL! Hallelujah! (Prays:)
229. AMEN, LORD, WE'RE LOOKING FORWARD TO A WONDERFUL NEW YEAR, BETTER THAN THE YEAR BEFORE! Thank you for the good year we just had, better than every year ever before, with more accomplished, Lord, & more lit out & more souls & more witnessing & more fun & Family & more children, just more in every way, Lord, even more support. We thank You Jesus! We've got
230. MORE MISSIONARIES OUT IN MORE COUNTRIES, MORE PEOPLE SERVING THE LORD, many that have come back again to serve You: More musicians, Lord, at MWM, more music & more broadcasting for Thy glory--everything is more, Lord! We don't just judge things by numbers, but you have blessed us in numbers in all of these things in all ways, the glorious wonderful productive fruitful profitable Old Year of 1980!
231. BUT NOW WE'RE LOOKING FORWARD, LORD, TO A YEAR THAT'S GOING TO BE EVEN AS GOOD, IF NOT BETTER, IN THE COMING YEAR. We hardly see how it could be any better, but you're opening up new ministries like MWM & the videos etc. which we believe are going to reach many more people than we have ever reached before. So bless them & keep them, Lord, & continue to make them a blessing, all of us, for this coming year of 1981, in Jesus' name. Amen, TYJ! PYL!
232. GIVE US A GOOD NIGHT'S REST, LORD, SAFEKEEPING, STRENGTH FOR TOMORROW, as we continue on in this, the first day of our New Year, Lord, the greatest year of our lives, because it's this year, & the one in which we're working for You now. So make it what You want it to be, Lord, help us to be what you want us to be for this year, in Jesus' name! TYL!
233. HELP US TO REACH A MANY SOULS AS WE CAN BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE. Help us, Lord, to reach many many in so many countries that are going to be destroyed in the coming war. We have pretty well witnessed & saturated those countries which are in the greatest danger, Lord. Help us now to get out of them into countries where we can reach more people, Lord, who will survive, in Jesus' name we ask for Thy glory.
234. THANK YOU LORD FOR HOW WONDERFULLY YOU'VE KEPT US & THE CHILDREN, LORD, & healing the colds. Keep us all safely in Thy care. TYJ! TYL! In spite of this late night tonight, many Worldly people, Lord, are staying up all night in parties until three, four, five o'clock in the morning, so we've given You a little extra time tonight & really to ourselves, Lord, to encourage our own hearts to count our blessing & thank You for them.
235. SO NOW IN THE TIME THAT'S LEFT, GIVE US EXTRA GOOD SLEEP that will make up for the time that we have lost in sleep, Lord. So strengthen us, Lord, for what we have to do. Especially those who get up early with children, in Jesus' name, we ask for Thy glory. Amen. TYL! TYJ! PTL! Hallelujah! Amen? (Sings:)
236. "EVERY DAY WITH JESUS IS SWEETER THAN THE DAY BEFORE!
Every day with Jesus, I love Him more & more!
Jesus saves & keeps me, & He's the one I'm looking for.
Every day with Jesus, is sweeter than the day before!"
I think that's a good theme song for the New Year! It's always been true: Every day with Jesus is always better than the day before. (Sings:)
237. "AND I LOVE HIM BETTER EVERY DAY!
I love Him better every day!
Close by His side,
I will abide,
I love Him better every day!"
If you do:
"So be a blessing to someone today,
Be a blessing to someone today.
Be a blessing to someone today.
Tell them the story how Christ came from glory,
And be a blessing today!"
238. DON'T WORRY ABOUT YESTERDAY! Forget about yesterday, except to thank the Lord & count your blessings. And don't worry about tomorrow, it'll take care of itself, & the Lord will take care of it when it comes! But love Him better every day, grow sweeter every day & be a greater blessing every day--today, amen? TYJ!
239. GOD BLESS YOU ALL! GOOD NIGHT! ILY! And we hope to see you one of these days soon, & we hope we don't have to wait till the Lord comes. We want to see you on video! Hope to see you soon on video! Hallelujah! TYL! Good night! GBY! Hallelujah!
240. (P.S.) SO THAT'S IT!--OUR NEW YEAR'S PRAISE & PRAYERS! GB'M!--What's yours?
{\ul RÉSUMÉ OF 1980 ACCOMPLISHMENTS}!
--Compiled by ML Creations 2 Staff.
PUBLICATIONS!
Record year for literature!--Printing & distributing 3 million copies a month!
Published 19 Mags!
LIMs printing 2500 Mags each month!
First All-Komix Mags!--5 in the past year!
First slick covers!
First colour covers!
2 bound book-size Mags!
First Kidz Mags!
First 32-page Love is News!
Complete Flannelgraph Mag!
Free colour calendar!
Volume 6 published!
First Techi Letters in print!
First RFNs in print!
Memory Verses for the Family!--Back to the straight & narrow!
More lit for the children than ever before!
Family artists commissioned to complete leatherette-bound Komix Volumes!--Coming soon!
Start of the Lit-Pics!
FINANCES & GIFTS!
Tithing Revolution & dropping IRF status!
LIMs get 50% of income!
More help to missionaries & W.S. Units.
Free books from Hong Kong!
Free Christmas Tapes from MWM!
Free 7-come-11 Christmas gifts from M&M!
RECORD STATS!
Highest number of Homes ever!--2,000!
8,000 Family Members!
Over 3,500 Children in the Family!
Total Witness to date--24 billion people!
Total Converts--3,700,000!
Winning 40,000 souls a month!
Total lit distributed--380 million pieces!
OUTSTANDING EVENTS!
MWM got rolling!
The New Video Ministry!
Year of the Crash!--Survival Revolution!
Year of the prodigals Come Home!--Influx of former backsliders!
"Happy Birthday Family!" began Feb. 18th this year!--Our anniversary!
Vision & emphasis on Latin America!
Take your caravan to Russia!
Renewal of the "Message of Jeremiah" in many Letters!
"Christmas Eve Massacre" helps solve Family drinking problems!
Outpouring of "The Shepherdess"!--Getting out the Words more than ever before!
More Family going mobile than ever before!
Preparing for the Oil Shortage!
Exposing Illuminati & Witchcraft!
First government-sponsored trip to China!
Dad's eyes revived through Family prayer & now glasses too strong!--Tummy better too!
Family Care song tapes made available to Family!
"Invade the Churches" ministry in full swing!
First "Sunday fellowship" days!
[EDITED: "end"]
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family
