HomeARC ML 0164
"OPERATION P.A.C.C."--MO May 26, 1972 NO.164--GP
Copyrighted May, 1972 by The Children of God
P. O. Box 31, London WC2E 7LX, England or GPO Box 3141, San Juan, Puerto Rico 00936
Precious Children: Greetings in Jesus' Dear Name! By this time you should have received all of the series of Letters about our present evacuation of the U.S. and God's reasons for it: "The Great Escape" (including "Flee as a Bird" and "Emergency"), "Labour Leaders", "Mene, Mene...", and "Jeremiah 40". In these, the Lord has given us the full picture of why we have to leave now, what will be happening in America while we're gone, and how we shall eventually return-a series of events very closely paralleling the history of ancient Israel, from the fall of their country to their subsequent return.
2. We are calling this evacuation procedure "Operation P. A. C. C.", to remind you of exactly what you will need to take part in it:
PASSPORT. ..ABILITY...CASH...CLEARANCE
Those of you meeting these four major requirements will be the first to go, God Willing, and will be called CLASS I, which means: Those ready for immediate evacuation overseas because they have
PASSPORT: You have a valid, current, unexpired, legal, American or foreign passport enabling you to travel in most countries of the world as a tourist.
ABILITY: You have certain abilities or qualifications immediately needed on the fields abroad, such as:
1) Proven leadership ability, particularly in pioneering, including older brothers who can help with new babes;
2) Good linguists who are able to speak some language other than English well enough to witness, teach, interpret, or translate-or even provision and handle public relations in that language if possible, and able to train the local nationals to do these jobs in their own language;
3) Inspirationalists: Good musicians and inspiring singers who, though they may not now have a working knowledge of another language, can quickly learn to sing their songs in the languages of the countries where they minister, even by memorisation;
4) Technicians: Secretaries, printers, mechanics, drivers, maintenance men, midwives, nursery helpers, etc.
CASH: You have or can raise the necessary cash for your fare overseas, as well as money for equipment and gear, like backpacks, tents, etc., and incidental expenses, such as enough carrying money to cross the border-usually about two hundred dollars, or an onward or return ticket, plus promised financial help, weekly or monthly, while abroad, if possible. Many young people are travelling around the world today on this basis by means of help from their parents, friends, or relatives. Or, you may be able to raise these funds yourself, or have your loved ones help you raise them through contributions from friends, businessmen, churches, etc. You may even have to make a trip home to do this, and it would certainly be worth the trip if you can! Only in the rarest cases of the most urgently needed personnel abroad will we be inclined to help financially such needed personnel who find it impossible to raise their own. Even in such cases, we will have to ask the Colonies who need them to try to raise these funds themselves, if you cannot.
CLEARANCE: You must first fill out an application form, which we hope will be enclosed with this Letter, but if not, will be sent you immediately upon request. This form must receive the approval of your local Advisor, District and/or Regional Supervisor, National Supervisor, the Overseas Supervisors and the Advisor of Colony of your destination.
3. CLASS 2: (1) You who are working on fulfilling the above requirements for CLASS 1, but have not yet met all of them, and are therefore not yet ready to go, but expect to be soon.
4. CLASS 3: Those of you unable to obtain passports for some reason, such as legal problems, inability to obtain the required documents needed to get a passport, etc., but who have needed abilities, can raise the cash, and can obtain clearance, as above under CLASS 1, and who, therefore, can be evacuated to neighbouring countries, Territories, and islands not requiring passports for tourists, such as: Canada, Mexico, Caribbean Islands, Alaska, Hawaii, etc. Even though some of these are still U.S. Territories and islands, such as Puerto Rico, Alaska, and Hawaii, these are at least outside the Continental U.S. where most of the trouble will be, and therefore safer than within the U.S. itself. Most of these places, even though they do not require passports, usually require some proof of your U.S. citizenship, such as a birth certificate, baptismal certificate, driver's license, or reliable identity card. None of these places, including overseas, require vaccination certificates of any kind, either when leaving or coming from the U. S., but only when returning to the U. S., at which time the U.S. Health Service will vaccinate you for free at the border, PTL!
5. CLASS 4: Those of you unable to leave the U.S. for some reason, such as legal problems, lack of ability, cash, or clearance, etc.; Or those who feel called, like the Prophet Jeremiah, to stay at home in one of our refuges in the wilderness and weather the storm while helping those in distress, giving shelter to refugees, witnessing to those who remain, and reaping the Harvest of the souls who will turn to the Lord during this time of trouble and transition, and caring for our properties and peoples who are left behind. This will be a very important and vitally essential ministry, like it was with Jeremiah, so do not feel bad if you cannot meet the requirements of the other classifications and leave the Country, or do not have the burden to leave, but feel truly called to remain to help those in need at that time. "The people that do know their God shall be strong and do exploits, and they that understand among the people shall instruct many", and though some may fall by sword, flame, captivity, spoil, etc., to try, purge, and make them white, they shall be helped by the Lord! The Jeremiahs and blasters don't fit any other countries, anyway and that type of ministry is more needed at home. In this group of those who will have to stay home will probably be included the Rahab Houses of mothers and widows with children on welfare, etc. Those who stay behind are also not necessarily doomed to stay forever in the U. S., but some of them may be able to leave at a later date. Even certain essential leadership may have to remain as a rearguard to care for the troops left behind, including many of our Kings and Queens, friends, parents, and oldsters, etc., who cannot or will not leave.
6. EVACUATION ROUTES AND ORDERS: Those in CLASS 1 who have met all the requirements and are ready to leave should be sent out immediately and as rapidly as possible to the countries for which they have been cleared and where placement is prepared for them, by the shortest, simplest, easiest, and most economical route and means, such as charters for Europe from New York, Montreal, Toronto, Chicago, or Seattle. These could be routed through Reception and Distribution Centres in London or on the Continent. Those who feel called and are cleared to the Caribbean or South America could be routed by the cheap air bus from New York to Puerto Rico, and Puerto Rico must be helped to find larger accommodations sufficient to act as a Reception, Distribution, & Processing Centre for those going to these areas. Those leaving from the South-east for these areas could be funneled through Florida at Ft. Lauderdale or Miami, and this could be another Reception, Processing, and Distribution Centre (RPD Centre). These RPD Centres should have strong, capable, knowledgeable, leadership who can prepare these evacuees for their respective fields and help them obtain their necessary transportation, information, equipment, papers, and whatever else is necessary to get them to their final field, make sure that arrangements have been made in that field to meet and receive them, notifying the field of their departure and time of arrival, etc., and making sure they have all the necessary addresses, names and phone numbers of the field Headquarters or contacts in cases of emergency. They should also have prayer with them and give them a royal send off at their point of embarkation with the whole Colony out, if possible, to see them off. This always makes a good witness, as well is being a great inspiration and encouragement to the departing missionaries.
7. Another good route to Latin America, especially to Mexico, Central America, and South America, is, of course, through Texas, particularly for those coming from the Midwest or Southwest, or even the Northwest, or anywhere in the West or Western Canada. So Texas should prepare a staging centre for the same, another RPD Centre to prepare these and see them off to their fields. We understand that Texas is already preparing overnight stops of mission stations about a day's journey apart en route all the way from Texas into South America so that those going by vehicle or even hitchhiking in pairs can make the trip easily and be helped along the way. Also remember that you can go by luxurious first class train all the way from Texas to Mexico City, Vera Cruz, and other parts of Mexico for only a penny a mile, or about ten dollars all the way from Texas to Mexico City in 24 hours!--And a roomette with bed and commode only costs an extra $2.50 each!--And the buses are even cheaper: Only $8.00 all the way from Brownsville to Mexico City and with even cheaper rates beyond. I think we only paid $5.00 each to ride all the way from Vera Cruz, near Mexico City, through the jungles and pyramids to Merida, on the tip of the Yucatan Peninsula! Or you can fly there from Miami for about $25.00 in 45 minutes!
8. Those going to Pacific regions, such as Japan, the Philippines, China, Indochina, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, or the Pacific Islands can fly from either L. A., San Francisco, or Seattle. Most of these flights go through Hawaii, which might make a good staging area or RPD Centre. You can also get fairly cheap fares of around five or six hundred dollars on Japanese freighters, and spend a pleasant, economical, and relaxing two weeks at sea, being treated like a king!
9. The routes to Africa, the Mideast, and the Indian area are, of course, cheapest through Europe, with charters to Europe, especially London, then second class trains and third class boats to anywhere in the Mediterranean area for less than a hundred dollars, or charters all the way from London to Bombay, India for only $200.00--Or you can drive or hitchhike from London on! In other words, you can make it from New York to Europe for about a hundred: the Mediterranean, North Africa, or the Near East for about $200.00; or India, for about $300.00. Multitudes of kids will be backpacking and hiking around the world this Summer, and you can be one of them, and with a much better reason than sight-seeing! In fact, many bicycle through Europe and caravan to the Mideast, and even to India! Where there's a will there's a way! Amen?
10. When you application has been approved for anyone of these three classes of evacuees, you will receive a notification of exactly what you will need to get to the field of your choice, or to which you feel the Lord has called you, including an estimate of how much cash you will need to get you there. When you have met all the requirements necessary for your chosen field, including clearances from your Colony to the Colony of your destination, you will receive a letter of appointment giving you authorisation and instructions on how to get to your staging area and RPD Centre, and when. Many will be able to hitchhike that far or travel together by car or drive-away, or even by bus or plane, if you can. Each Region should try to make up car loads of those going from their Region to the same point of embarkation, or organise two by two hitchhiking teams, flights, or busloads. Be sure you do not leave without your letter of acceptance and appointment telling you when and where you will leave from, and what your destination will be.
11. PLACEMENT: At least you should know where you're going before you leave, unlike millions of other kids who will be travelling this Summer. Your final clearance and your letter of appointment should state the Colony toward which you're headed in the field of your choice. You will go to that Colony because they have requested you from a list of candidates referred to them by their Field Supervisor and which he has received from the States. These Colonies in the field should prepare a requisition letter listing the type of workers they need and are requesting, and should be able to choose them as much as possible from the list of approved candidates. When this process has been completed, the Colonies' choices will be referred to their Field Supervisors who will pass them on to our Dallas office handling Operation P.A.C.C., where they will receive final approval, and from whom you will receive your notice of appointment, God Willing.
12. FIELD PREPARATIONS: This means that you Colonies in the fields outside of America will have to make preparations for the receiving of these new field trainees and evacuees, who should be kept in your Colony as long as you think necessary to prepare them for further service. This means you will have to prepare your present trainees for road teams, pioneer teams, and other outstation service, or even transfers to more remote pioneer Colonies in need of such personnel, so that the new evacuees from America can take their places in your Colony to receive training for your field.
13. In other words, you field Colonies must so prepare and time these replacements so that you do not have a sudden traffic jam at your Colony because your road teams are late in leaving and your American evacuees have already arrived with little or no room to stay! Don't let this happen to you! Find out exactly what date and time your new trainees are expected to arrive at your Colony and be sure your old-timers have hit the road before they come!--Unless you have lots of room and want them to enjoy each other's fellowship before your road teams depart. In that case, they could help train the newcomers before leaving.
14. SEMI-PERMANENT STAFF: This method of replacement of personnel by installments, with the older ones moving out and the new ones moving in, will require a good semi-permanent staff at the top of each field Colony capable of handling these new recruits. They should also be able to organise, equip, instruct, and assign their graduates to specific routes and fields which will not overlap those of other Colonies' road teams, communicate with them, have them report weekly, and help as needed.
15. The European Colonies and others who have been begging for more help and crying for labourers are now probably going to have to pray for the grace of God to keep from being swamped by the same! And it's going to take a lot of grace, believe you me! Already the Enemy has been trying to bring division between the Americans and Europeans, particularly with the Europeans putting down the Americans, and the Americans even putting down themselves. I have even been guilty myself of encouraging this dislike for the ugly American, since they are pretty ugly sometimes!
16. But now I'm going to have to say a good word in behalf of the poor Americans with whom you Europeans are soon going to be flooded: So I want to remind you critical Europeans that you didn't start the Revolution, and it didn't begin in Europe! If you're so damned much smarter than the Americans, why didn't you start the Jesus Revolution and bring it to us instead of our having to bring it to you? Think that over! And we wouldn't be in Europe bothering you with our ugliness and stupidity if we hadn't loved you enough to want to come over here and help you find the same Answer that we have found in Jesus and His Way of doing things!--that you have condemned as the "righteous COG System"!
17. I'll confess that we American leaders have made plenty of mistakes, and some are still making some of them!--But I'd like to know where you'd be right now if it hadn't been for the American leadership which started the Jesus Revolution, the Children of God and their leaders? If the Children of God and their leadership are not of God, then how did they manage to start God's greatest modern Christian revival movement amongst the youth of this last day, the Jesus Revolution? If the Children of God and their leadership is not of God, then the Jesus Revolution is not of God! But if this mighty worldwide wave of witnessing amongst youth, known as the Jesus Movement, is of God, then its pioneers, founders, and leaders are of God: the Children of God and their leaders! You can take it or leave it, but that's the way it is!
18. I've been cursing the Americans along with you, Brother, but when you start cursing the Children of God and their leadership, you're treading on my toes and sticking your finger in God's eye, for He says, "Touch not the Lord's anointed and do His prophets no harm for "He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of Mine eye!"
19. We would have been happy to have let you have your own Jesus Revolution if you had started it and were able to run it, but you didn't and so far you haven't. Nobody has been bugging for European leadership more than i, and we'll be happy to let you have your own Revolution and run it your own way as soon as you can handle it. But I'd like you to be a little more specific! We'd be happy to remove those American leaders you don't think you need-please name them, and we'll be glad to move them where they're more needed into other pioneer fields of other countries and Continents where the Jesus Revolution is still only heard of and not yet seen because their own people have not started one!
20. But where are these European leaders that you boasts of, that are able to handle their jobs? Please name the Europeans that you want to replace the Americans and who are ready for the job! We wish they were, and we would love to let them do it if they could, and we believe that some of them can, or will soon be able, and that's exactly the goal we're plugging for! But your saying that the European babes could do the job better than the American leaders is like saying the sheep ought to be leading the shepherd, we ought to exalt the novices, and let the children tell the parents what to do! It just isn't wise or Scriptural!
21. I'll grant you that a babe with a knowledge of his own language can probably do more in some areas than an American leader without the language, and this is a serious handicap, and I think the native babes, with their knowledge of language and customs, laws and culture should make good deacons or custodians of the material affairs and business of the Colony and its relations with the public, but if he has just recently been born again, he could hardly equal the Biblical knowledge and spiritual experience of his American elders to make him capable of true, spiritual leadership until he's had more time and training and knowledge and experience himself, which can only come with time.
22. How can the American leader "take the lowest seat" and "sit back and let the babes do it" unless it's something the babes can do?--like maybe running the Colony physically and materially. But how can they teach what they don't know, or lead in what they haven't experienced or counsel in doctrines they're not even familiar with? This is like telling the Mother and Father to get out of the house and that the little children can run it better now! I'll grant you, they may soon be able to do so, but after only a few month's training, not many of them are ready for it now, but we hope they will be soon.
23. The Jewish leader and Apostle Paul had this same problem with the new Gentile members of the early Christian Churches of his mission fields. They didn't like the Jews to begin with, and they didn't like them running things any better, and they were anxious to toss them out and forget them! But dear Paul had to remind them that they did have a few things to thank the Jews for, including the Message, for unto them were committed the oracles, or Words, of God--unto the Jew first, and then to the Gentile (Romans 3; 1:16). It was the Jews who had first received the Message and the Jews who had first brought it to the Gentiles, and the top leadership of the Early Church continued to be Jewish until the day of the Apostle's death. It just couldn't be any other way because they were the first, and God said so, like God used us Americans to originate the Jesus Revolution and bring it to you!
24. You may feel a little bit about us Americans, many of whom are Jewish, by the way, like the Gentile who wrote this little verse about the Jews:
"Tis odd that God should choose the Jews!"
To which a Jew replied,
"God chose,
Which shows,
God knew His Jew!"
Maybe you'll have to say that about us Americans: We may be a little odd, and some of us ugly, pushy, arrogant, and domineering! But you'll have to admit that we've led the world, not only in that which is evil, but also in that which is good, and we have faithfully brought it to you and shared it with you, so God apparently knew who He could trust with the job. Not all the Jews were bad and ugly, or crucified Jesus! Almost the entire Christian Church was composed of Jews, including most of its missionaries to you Gentiles, like us Americans today, and it you want God's Message and Method for winning the world to Christ you'll just have to accept us the way we are and love us and thank us for it, whether you like us or not, until you yourselves are able to carry on without us, as the Gentile Church was eventually able to do without the Jews!
25. But I guess in the meantime you'll have to put up with us and thank God for us, and learn what you can from us, until you're able to carry on, on your own, after which you can do things your way, which I hope will be God's Way. Frankly, not all the Europeans I've met were necessarily the epitomes of virtue themselves, and some of them are about as proud and conceited as they come! So don't knock us!--Use us! Let's forget being Jews or Gentiles and just be Christians, shall we? Amen.
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family}
