HomeARC ML 1818
HAVE MERCY! DO 1818 8/84 Letter to the NROs from Peter, Dad & Maria--We Thought You ALL Needed to Hear This, Amen?
Dear NROs,
1. GBY & GIJN! We love you so much & are so thankful for the wonderful job you are doing in helping to shepherd our precious Family. You are certainly fulfilling one of the major needs of the work in helping to oversee your area, which allows Dad & Maria to rest assured that the flock in your country is being well-cared for, loved, shepherded, & that their needs are being met due to your loving care, GBY!
2. DAD & MARIA ASKED ME TO WRITE & THANK YOU FOR YOUR FAITHFULNESS & DILIGENCE & ESPECIALLY FOR YOUR OBEDIENCE TO "TIGHTEN THE FAMILY". You've helped us to weed out the problem cases & have been faithful to enforce the rules regarding "No Blank TRFs", minimum tithes, etc. Because of your obedience, we've been able to plug many of the gaps & breaches in the wall, thus preventing more of our literature from falling into the hands of our enemies! Thank you for your cooperation! You are a very needed part of our administration because you have your hand on the pulse of the local Work, you know the people & are familiar with their Homes & you've been able to properly shepherd & care for them on the local level. Your good reports & faithful correspondence have also helped the Folks to be much better informed of the activities of the Family than they have at any time in the past--so the NRO plan that the Lord gave Dad has certainly proven to be fruitful.--And you are helping to fulfil that plan by your precious labours of love. PTL!
3. WE TRULY ARE THANKFUL FOR YOUR WILLINGNESS TO ENFORCE THE "NO BLANK TRFs" RULES. It seems that now the Family is being much more faithful to fill in the blanks with at least zeros & that everyone is complying much more with the rules. Of course, much of this is due to the fact that you obeyed & put people's mailings on hold who were not filling in the blanks. As you know, the rule is that if someone's mail is put on hold for such a reason they are no longer eligible to receive the mailings which they missed. Certainly at this stage anyone who leaves blanks or puts dashes in place of zeros should have their mailings put on hold & should not receive them even if they resend their TRF with the blanks filled in. These are the rules that have been laid down by Dad in order to be sure that we receive the full stats. However, as you must realise, part of the problem with the blank TRFs was due to the fact that few people realised that when Dad said no blanks, that he meant specifically that zeros must be entered in each box where they have no stats to report. Even you, the NROs, misunderstood this & for years allowed people to turn in TRFs that had blanks or put dashes in place of zeros. Once the Letter "Tighten the Family" came out you rightfully cracked down on this, & because of this crack-down many people lost a few mailings.
4. ENCLOSED IS A LETTER REGARDING JUST SUCH A CASE AS AN EXAMPLE OF THE TYPE OF MAIL WE'VE RECEIVED REGARDING THIS. It seems that in many of these cases people who were TRFing & tithing & were diligent to fill out the TRFs have lost some important mailings because they left a few blanks or omitted some zeros due to ignorance rather than disobedience, more a blunder of the mind than a blunder of the heart. However, some of these people lost one or two extremely valuable mailings such as the FSB#9 etc., which is of course a shame, as you know what a tremendous effect the FSB#9 is having on the lives of the Family around the World. Therefore we would like to request that anyone who missed a mailing during the time when you were first enforcing "Tightening the TRF", especially anyone who missed FSB#9 simply because they put a few dashes or blanks out of ignorance in an otherwise full TRF, that they have those particular mailings released. We realise that it might take a bit of work for you to figure this out, but we feel that it would be well worth it & would certainly encourage the sheep! Of course this does not mean that anybody who at this late date leaves blanks should be given clemency, because they've certainly had enough time to make the change & should by now have a full understanding of what no blank TRFs means--& it means just that--no blanks!--Or even dashes! But since this was rather ambiguous to many people, since they had always used dashes or blanks for zeros & therefore they did miss some mailings, we would now like to show mercy & have their mailings released. Please look back in your records & see if there's anyone in your area who falls into that category, & if so, please send a letter to the Sprint Shop giving them the Home Number & their name & what mailing they missed so that these can be sent to them. Thanks!
5. AS YOU KNOW, DAD HAS REALLY BEEN PUSHING TO MOVE AS MANY BRETHREN FROM THE WEST TO THE EAST AS POSSIBLE. He has written numerous Letters on the subject which have resulted in a great influx of new missionaries to the Eastern fields, which has been a great boost to the Eastern work & has helped them to reap more disciples, get out more Word & reach millions more than ever could have been reached in the past! God bless those families in the West who have worked diligently to raise their fares & Home Support & have been able to make it to the mission field! It takes an awful lot to make such a move, especially since so many of the Western brethren have large families, which means it takes all the more work & time & effort to make the change from West to East.
6. AS YOU KNOW, THERE ARE STILL QUITE A FEW BRETHREN WHO ARE TRYING TO MAKE THE MOVE & we believe that with the latest Letters on Halley's Comet & on 1986 as well as the Letters regarding Deb's book & the expected wave of persecution caused by it, that many more brethren in the West will want to make the move Eastward. Some time back Faithy made mention that people in the West, especially in Latin America, who want to move East should write to her & send her their qualifications etc. so that she could help with the placement of them. However, due to her many writing responsibilities as well as her field visitations with Magdalene, she is no longer able to work on placing these various personnel. Therefore, this task now must fall on the shoulders of the NROs.
7. IT SEEMS THAT OUR MODES & METHODS OF OPERATION FOR CLEARING PEOPLE FOR MOVING FROM WEST TO EAST HAVE BEEN SOMEWHAT SLOW & INEFFICIENT & HAVE THEREFORE RESULTED IN A LOT OF POTENTIAL MISSIONARIES BECOMING DISCOURAGED & NOT MAKING IT OUT OF THE WEST. It seems that a lot of our potential missionaries have raised their fares, their Home Support & their landing funds but have had a very difficult time in getting clearances to the East. In some cases people in the West have written to Magdalene, Faithy & other leadership in the East, but yet due to the heavy responsibilities or various things that these leaders have been going through these past months they've been unable to answer these requests, & therefore these missionaries continue to remain in the West. It seems that the time to push to get them out is now, & in order to get as many as possible of these families from West to East it's going to take your full cooperation!
8. ONE OF THE MAIN SNAGS TO GETTING PEOPLE EASTWARD IS THE NEED FOR HOME SUPPORT. Dad has been very definite regarding this, stating that each family going Eastward must have some Home Support. However, it seems that in many cases the required level of Home Support is quite stringent & perhaps the doorknob is a bit too high. We are enclosing a letter from a brother in America regarding his situation, which is just one example of the many we have received regarding the clearance problem. This letter is enclosed not to point the finger at anyone, but just to raise the question & the problem & to show the way the sheep are feeling, especially those who really desperately want to get out but yet are having a difficult time doing so.
9. THIS LETTER DEFINITELY PRESENTS A NUMBER OF GOOD ARGUMENTS FOR THE CASE OF EASIER CLEARANCE. Of course we realise that there is another side to the story, in fact, many other sides to the story. We know that you as NROs may in some ways be reluctant to clear people, especially those whom you don't know & those who are coming from the States & who are perhaps weak in faith. You do not want to get stuck with some weaker brethren coming to your mission field who turn out to not have the needed Home Support, can't raise the support on the field & won't even have enough funds to return home, & will therefore become quite a drain & a problem to your area. This is completely understandable & we'd like as much as possible to avoid this happening. However, on the other hand, amongst those who are requesting clearance, there are many tried-&-proven missionaries, those who have had great success as missionaries in the past & have been able to raise their support & live by faith on the field for many years. In Europe, for example, there seem to be quite a number of people who were real missionaries during the pioneer days etc., many of whom worked in difficult fields for a time & then at the time of Dad's call of "Americans Abroad" moved to Latin America in obedience to the directions the Lord was giving at the time. These same missionaries have proven themselves on the fields of Latin America & many of them held leadership positions there. When Dad's call Eastward came out they decided that they wanted to once again obey & follow the leadings the Lord was giving & therefore many of them tried to raise their Home Support on the field, & if that was unsuccessful they moved back to the States to raise support there.
10. THEY HAVE FOUND, HOWEVER, THAT THE HOME SUPPORT REQUIREMENTS ARE QUITE HEAVY, & it's becoming very difficult for these families to raise this necessary Home Support in spiritually hardened & economically failing America. But we feel that these people who have leadership potential, who have proven themselves as real missionaries & have proven that they can support themselves on the field should perhaps be given clearance to your area if they are requesting it, so that you may benefit from their leadership & their abilities & their talents, rather than make them waste away trying to raise enormous amounts of Home Support in the States. We have to realise that the time is short & that pretty soon no matter how much Home Support they have, they're probably going to lose it anyway because of the economic situation & the Crash, & at that time they're going to have to support themselves on the local field anyway without the benefit & aid of Home Support. Therefore, it seems that it might be wiser to give some of these people clearance now so that they can get used to being on the field even if they may suffer a bit of initial economic hardship. Many of them have already proven that they can overcome this & can support themselves on the field. It seems that in some cases it might be better to give easier clearance to these tried-&-proven missionaries.
11. OF COURSE THIS DOES NOT APPLY TO THOSE WHO HAVE NOT PROVEN THEIR ABILITIES & CAPABILITIES IN THE PAST & who perhaps have been in the States almost all their time in the Family or have been weaker in faith & have not been able to do very well on the mission field in the past. For these people we feel that they should work to get their Home Support so they can support themselves according to the Home Support rules. But in order to speed up the movement of our more tried-&-proven missionaries we feel that it might be worthwhile for you NROs to be somewhat more lenient in your requirements. What we recommend is, if someone is writing you for clearance, perhaps you could drop a quick note to the NRO of their area to get a full report or at least a recommendation on this person. For instance, if someone in Argentina is requesting clearance to India, perhaps the Indian NROs could drop a quick note to the Argentinian NROs asking about these people, & if given a good recommendation & if these missionaries have proven themselves faithful & diligent & have perhaps been in a leadership position, have borne good fruit, have won disciples, have supported themselves & have not been a problem, then the Argentinian NRO could inform the Indian NRO, who can then give swifter clearance.--Or even tell the Argentinian NRO that if he recommends the people, he could give them clearance immediately. This may mean a bit more work on your part, but it may make the difference in getting some missionaries to the Eastern field instead of forcing them to return to the States, only to become bogged down trying to raise more Home Support.--Or leaving good people in the States so long that they use up the support they do have or get discouraged & just give up.
12. GETTING THE TRIED-&-PROVEN MISSIONARIES TO YOUR FIELD WILL ONLY SERVE TO BENEFIT YOU & THE LOCAL WORK. With the new Door-to-Door tape ministry most of these missionaries could probably help to support themselves if they got out & really hoofed it. So for these tried-&-proven missionaries, the need for such large amounts of Home Support may be unnecessary. Another possibility which would speed things up even more is, if you are an NRO in the West & you know that some particular person in your area is requesting clearance to the East, then you could simply shoot off a quick brief resume' & recommendation on those persons so that the NRO of the Eastern field will know your opinion of these people, which will help them to make their decision regarding clearance. We ask that you please put these procedures into effect & that the NROs of the East should please try to clear as many of the tried-&-proven missionaries as possible so that they can make their move from the West to the East while the tunnel is still open & it is still possible. We do not want to delay too long because the time is coming when they will no longer be able to make such a move & we'd hate for any of them to be caught in the West due to lack of clearance or not having thousands of Dollars of Home Support. Please be prompt in answering either the clearance request or the requests from other NROs regarding information so we can get more missionaries to the field! Time is short & we certainly wouldn't want to have any stranded in the West simply due to your lack of diligence or slowness to answer the mail. Thanks so much for your cooperation in these matters, we know that we can trust you to do your best regarding this! GBY!
13. WE ARE VERY THANKFUL FOR YOUR GOOD REPORTING & ESPECIALLY YOUR MONTHLY SYNOPSIS & SUMMARY OF THE AREA, which is a tremendous help to us! Due to the urgent matters & the tremendous amount of work that we are presently trying to accomplish, we cannot personally answer all of your letters, except of course those which require our answers on matters of major importance. However, you do receive the GNs & the other Family publications, & most of the needed answers are already written in the Letters, which if you diligently & faithfully study with the aid of your Index, the Lord will lead you to the answer to virtually all of your questions! PTL! As long as you stay close to the Word & the Lord & in obedience to both, He will certainly lead you & guide you in all situations. We trust that you understand that it's simply not possible for us to answer every single question or comment on every situation within your country. Although we need to hear about the problems & the questions, we can't always answer, but we do pray for you & we make you & your problems & prayer requests a matter of prayer in our devotions, & especially Sunday Fellowship, when our whole staff gets together & prays for you.
14. BESIDES YOUR MONTHLY SUMMARY & MONTHLY LETTERS ETC., you might want to type any personal notes of thanks to Dad & Maria on the back of your personal photo. These notes are virtually the only letters that Dad personally has time to read as he must give all of his time to the Word & prayer. He is of course kept up to date on the various activities in each of your areas & any major victories & problems, but he is unable to read your pages & pages of reports & summaries en toto. However, if you would sometimes wish to write a note of love & thanks & encouragement to him, we know he would appreciate it if it is on the back of your photo & he'll read it at once!
15. THERE ARE MANY PUBLICATIONS THAT ARE PRESENTLY IN THE WORKS WHICH WE ARE TRYING TO GET OUT TO THE FAMILY AS SWIFTLY AS POSSIBLE & WE ASK THAT YOU PLEASE KEEP THESE PROJECTS IN YOUR PRAYERS. With time being so short & the Crash being just around the corner, we're trying to get these materials completed, but there are so many of them & so much to do that we really do need your prayers to get them finalised before it's too late. One particular book that is in the works, which we trust will be out sometime in the very near future, is the "Office & Communications Book". It's a real leadership handbook & covers how to manage your time & how to effectively work with people, lessons which should help to make you more effective leaders. It covers many areas which we believe will be a great help to you not only in your office procedures but in your day-to-day life & diligence with your time & especially working & loving others.
16. ONE PARTICULAR SUBJECT THIS BOOK COVERS, WHICH WE BELIEVE WILL BE A HELP TO YOU, IS LETTER WRITING. You, as NROs, are most likely using quite a bit of paper power, writing letters to your sheep, answering their questions & their reports as well as trying to encourage them. We believe that you are also probably writing quite a bit to the other local leadership, NASs, GASs, DASs etc., & in many cases some of you have sent us copies of such correspondence. Overall, from what we have seen, you are generally doing good in your letter writing, GBY! Dad recently gave a talk regarding writing things to the Family, which we hope will be published some time in the future, but in order to help you now we thought it might be helpful to give you a few brief points which may be useful to you in the writing of your letters. The whole point of Dad's talk was: "Without Love, It's Nothing!" (No. 1819)
17. WE KNOW THAT OFTENTIMES IT IS NECESSARY FOR YOU AS SHEPHERDS TO WRITE TO PEOPLE REGARDING VARIOUS PROBLEMS & AREAS IN WHICH THEY'VE DISOBEYED & BEEN CAUSING PROBLEMS IN THE HOME OR IN THEIR AREA ETC. These often are very unpleasant & difficult letters to write, but they need to be written. However, the one cardinal rule when writing such letters is "To do unto others as you would have them do unto you." When you have to write such letters, we ask that you please do so in love & that you try to make it as easy on the person as possible by giving them as much benefit of the doubt as possible. They look to you as their shepherds & your letters to them can have really great effects, either for the good or for the bad. If you write someone & really put them down & make them feel bad, they may not be able to overcome it, they may read your letter over & over again & continually be discouraged by it. Whereas on the other hand, if you do have to rebuke them, & you do so in love & understanding & compassion, they will feel it from your letter & that will inspire them to do good & to try harder & to do better. They will reread that letter over & over again & it will continue to inspire & help them.
18. ALTHOUGH WE CANNOT GIVE YOU A FULL CLASS ON LETTER WRITING NOW & NEITHER DO WE HAVE DAD'S LETTER ON THE SUBJECT PREPARED AT THIS TIME, WE CAN AT LEAST PASS THESE POINTS ON TO YOU; that you please write others & take care of your sheep in love with a true shepherd's heart, having mercy & compassion on them. Remember, each one is a member of our precious Family even if they're causing problems or going through particularly hard times at this moment. Remember, the Lord called them & chose them & they forsook all & they joined & they're following Jesus just like you are. They love the Lord & they love the Folks & they love the Letters & they love the Word, even though they may have fallen on particularly hard times at the moment. They may just need your counsel & your help & your love. You are their local shepherds & you need to love them & tenderly gather them in & care for them, which above all is your main responsibility as a NO, to shepherd the sheep, to love them, to care for them, to encourage them & to inspire them. As Dad has said, all of the other is nothing if you don't have love! So above all we ask that you please love your sheep, shepherd them in love, write to them in love, lead them in love & they will in turn accomplish more for the Lord, out of love!
19. WE TRULY LOVE YOU & ARE SO THANKFUL FOR YOUR WILLINGNESS TO BEAR THE BURDEN & THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE FLOCK IN YOUR AREA. We know that leadership is a difficult job & one which is often in many ways quite thankless, but please know that the Folks are very thankful for you & they greatly appreciate the time & effort & trouble you put into shepherding the sheep. They know it's a big job to have to make all kinds of important decisions & to give counsel & to try to efficiently & effectively operate your area, especially with so many ministries under your jurisdiction--the IHCs, the reaping, the NRO office, the DTD ministry, the NVL, the lit printing, stats, TRF reports, finances etc.! It's a huge job, but one in which you are doing so well--thanks to the Lord & thanks to you! Dad & Maria truly love you & are so thankful for you & don't know how we could do without you! We are praying that the Lord will give you great wisdom & love as shepherds of His flock, & we believe He is because you've been so faithfully taking care of His lambs! MGBACTMYAB!
Love in Jesus & David,
Peter for Dad & Maria
(--PTL! AMEN! GBAKYAMYAB FOREVER!--IN JESUS' NAME, AMEN!--ILY!--D.) (--YOU'RE WONDERFUL! I LOVE YOU!--M.)
P.S. Dad & Maria want to thank you so much for your prayers for Dad's health. Generally he has been feeling so much better, but he has developed a cough recently which wakes him frequently in the night, thus causing him to be quite tired during the day. Could you please keep this in your prayers? Thanks!--Peter.
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family
