DTR WITNESSING!--Part Two
FSM 205 (FN 314) DO
Copyrighted Feb.1992, by Family Services, Zurich, Switzerland
CONTENTS:
WORLDWIDE TESTIMONIES OF PERSONAL WITNESSING!
2
TEACHING TEENS & JETTS PERSONAL WITNESSING!
3
Witnessing skits & Endtime Bible Classes
5
Taking the Plunge & Learning by Doing!
5
DTR LESSONS: THE DANGERS OF NOT PUTTING PERSONAL WITNESSING FIRST!
6
THE LORD BLESSES WHEN WITNESSING COMES FIRST!
8
CARING FOR OUR OUTREACHERS!
9
Applying DTR Lessons While on the Road
11
Personal Witnessing Brings Back the Fire!
12
JETTS & CHILDREN SEE THE LORD MOVE & GET PERSONAL VICTORIES!--From Michael, North America
We found that when we send Shepherds out with other top soul-winning adults, along with some of our kids, it causes a major explosion in the Spirit! The testimonies & inspiration inspires just about all the kids in the Home to want to get in the act & not miss any of this! The desire to win souls is contagious! The sample sparks a fire in others very quickly & we just keep rotating the kids, & before you know it, they're all out there winning souls! TYL! Even our youngest YCs really get on fire & no one can resist them, PTL!
Personal witnessing has been helping some of our JETTs to overcome their NWOs such as shyness & self-consciousness, while at the same time teaching them to be bold & on fire, instead of lazy & draggy. Making witnessing a team effort teaches them about really working together.
Doing follow-up with children & JETTs is a very good way for them to see the effects of the Videos & Tapes. They really see the fruit of people changing, as they see the Lord working in them. As doors open to lead people to the Lord, the children & JETTs really start participating & getting involved & excited. They personally get a chance to see the Lord moving in these people's lives as they hear personal testimonies from people about the tools & the effect on their kids & themselves. Meeting these people for themselves on follow-up visits, our kids have learned that we're not just selling these tools, but we're changing hearts & lives & bringing eternal values to these people.
Through follow-up, especially after the second or third visit, the kids are able to see a lot deeper into the lives of the sheep we are ministering to. The first time they meet somebody, it may look like they're quite rich, cool, & everything's just fine, etc., but when the kids are able to go back, they can see a lot deeper than the surface as people begin to pour out that they really do have a lot of problems & they're a great big mess. It just confirms the Word to our kids & gives them faith & depth in the Word. It's a real expos of the fruitless System & its empty worldliness.
As the JETTs get into personal witnessing more & more, they develop a hunger to want to have the right answers for the sheep & feed them the right Word. Actually it's good to pow-wow the questions the sheep ask them, if possible, on the way home while it's still fresh, so the kids don't have lingering thoughts or unanswered questions for a whole week.
Here in our field we got the same singing outfits for everyone, even down to our babies, & even for some of our adults. We found having them for everyone is very effective. It makes you look like you're "somebody" & people just automatically expect something special. The initial reaction is almost always positive, whether it's a show in a restaurant, or going DTD. People seem to be more receptive to whatever it is we're approaching them about, as they're very curious & want to find out what we're all about.
We found that whether we take a big team or a little team, these outfits bring about the same effect. The kids get inspired about getting all dressed up & they feel really special.--GBT, they are! We also noticed that when the kids are all dressed the same, it generates more unity, they feel like a real team, & they work together better etc.
One way we found to reach the upper class, top people in tougher DTD areas, is to have the whole singing team with guitars, minus-one Tapes, or even singing a capella. They introduce themselves at each door & start out with a song to break the ice. This technique has been good for meeting people & even getting out the Tapes & Videos, working well in areas where people normally won't even answer their doors.
Recently our JETTs caught the vision for learning how to play guitar. One day they went in a guitar shop & provisioned a guitar, & this caused a major guitar-learning explosion. Within days, they began taking the guitar out on their DTD teams & singing to everyone they met. "Guitar fever" went down through the ranks, & everyone else wants to learn, too. Our kids are really on-fire witnessers, GBT, & the first songs they learned on their own were witnessing songs for personal witnessing, TYL! It touched our hearts that they wanted to learn the guitar for witnessing, & to see them put their time into learning to use this tool. They truly have a vision & heart for souls!
Soul-winning & personal witnessing have definitely spurred our JETTs on & inspired them to teach our little YCs how to perform & sing for sheep, too! They even taught them a couple of songs on their own initiative.
Our kids only get out witnessing once a week, so we're trying to find more ways to get them out more frequently. They like variety in their witnessing & if we find they're getting bored with going DTD after a while, we switch to STS or some postering & follow-up to keep it moving & alive. They're so on fire & geared to want to get out & win souls, GBT!
Children So Inspired by Witnessing!--From Ado & Kanah, Latin America
The children in the Home are much more inspired & enthusiastic since they've begun going personal witnessing, singing & provisioning. They look forward to it so much & ask to be on the teams. Having a five-day school week allows more time for witnessing on Saturday, & then during the week the YCs go out sometimes in the mornings & the OCs in the afternoon, after the local school hours. Since we have small groups in our Home, sometimes all the children get to go out in the afternoon, which is a blessing. It's been very exciting for the children to go & meet people & they come back beaming & full of testimonies.
WORLDWIDE TESTIMONIES OF PERSONAL WITNESSING!
From Scandinavian Shepherds:
Personal witnessing has been a real key in getting our JETTs & Teens more inspired! Before making a number of changes in the Teens' schedule, we had a little Keynote talk with them in which we went over goals. We clarified to them that the main reason we're here is to witness, & that is their main ministry. This was a help to them, as many had previously felt like their main responsibility was JJT or school. We explained that we were going to do everything we could to make it possible for them to get out witnessing a lot more.
Some of our Teens still need 12 hours a week of scholastics, so we decided to squeeze their scholastics into just three days of the week, freeing them to be able to go out or be in a Home ministry the other three days. The Teens prefer this & have been inspired to press in during their school time, knowing that they have inspiring ministries & witnessing to look forward to.
From Rebecca Daysman, Latin America:
We started taking the children, JETTs & Teens out with us to see some of our contacts, & they saw the Lord start to work in different people's lives through different problems they were having. One person's warehouse burnt down, another had a car accident, another went bankrupt, & the children saw these things happen to the people they had witnessed to & they then began to pray more for them. It made the prayer life of the children much more meaningful & outgoing, as they were praying for the contacts rather than for themselves. Even the little ones would say someone's name & were learning to be specific for others in prayer. Personal witnessing has had an effect on our kids, & even on our whole Home, helping us to be more outgoing, rather than introverted.
From Anna, India Area:
Taking the Teens to airport hotels for witnessing to English-speaking travellers has been a big victory. They are learning more about personal witnessing & how to reach out to people & give them God's answers for their lives. Until now they have done a great job at presenting the Videos & Tapes, & even the Salvation prayer, but because they have spent the majority of their time in Muslim or Hindu fields, they haven't learned so much about personal witnessing & feeding people.
We go out with one Teen each & experience a lot of different witnessing situations. We have a wonderful opportunity to critique as we go & learn valuable lessons of discernment & how to direct conversations, like Dad says, "Circling around like a boxer to feel for your opponent's weak spot, only we use it to get in the Lord's Love & Truth!" Hallelujah!
From Eastern Europe:
Getting the Teens & JETTs out personal witnessing has been a super inspiring experience here. We have one witnesser, Hungarian Faithy, whose main job is follow-up, personal witnessing & caring for the catacombers. Each day Faithy takes one or two of the Teens or JETTs along with her & has them do the majority of the witnessing, while she translates for them. The results have been phenomenal! All of the Teens & JETTs eagerly anticipate their turn to go personal witnessing & return daily with glowing testimonies.
From Philip Davidson, Europe:
We started taking the JETTs out personal witnessing. It's been very inspiring & the young people here are very sheepy. The first day the Lord led us to nine English-speaking people, who all received the Lord! It was encouraging to see the JETTs themselves take up the torch & boldly witness.
We met an older teen boy, who himself is a Christian youth leader in a summer camp. He said he has had his first communion, but didn't really understand what it meant. We took time to explain about Eternal Salvation & showed him verses on it. He received the Lord & right away caught the vision to share the same Message with the young people in the summer camp & lead all the kids to the Lord. We then gave him some Posters on Salvation & the Future to inspire his faith & share with the others, too!
TEACHING TEENS & JETTS PERSONAL WITNESSING!
From Daniel, North America:
We scheduled a few days for the JETTs where we would go out witnessing just with our Bibles, without planning to sell anything, & it was a little bit difficult for them at first. The first time I took them out in a mall, they all wanted me to start talking, but it was interesting to just watch them & see how they got into it. One thing that we've found is that most of our kids are in a rut & it's hard for them to break out of it. They are used to saying, "Do you want to go to Heaven?" & then just grabbing the person's hands & praying with them. A lot of people will pray when they are asked like that, just because a child is asking them. So we finally had to forbid the JETTs to use that approach, so that they would learn to explain more, rather than just getting people to pray a short prayer without any explanation.
From David K., JETT Shepherd, SEA:
Our frequent JETT witnessing teams have been going to parks, a few times to department stores, & DTD, really concentrating on personal witnessing. It's been very inspiring! We noticed that the commercialism that was flaunted before them was a big pull on the JETTs while at department stores. After that we began concentrating on parks, DTD etc., rather than department stores.
From Hope, North America:
Every Saturday night we have an inspiration night, & for one of our inspiration nights, we decided to set up a caf & have skits to practice personal witnessing. Just as is explained in Hope 24, we had the adults & Teens all sit down & some would be the sheep & others the witnessers. We served snacks & we went through skits, just practicing what it would be like to go witnessing, because our kids hadn't been out personal witnessing. At first we had to guide them. Sometimes they would just look to the adult, but we had three hours of personal witnessing skits & they really enjoyed it! Then next day we packed them all up & went to the park personal witnessing! TYL!
From SEA Training Center:
We saw the need for our Teens to get some more training in knowing how to witness, as we have found that sometimes when they are faced with people who can speak English, or who are inquisitive about our beliefs & the Bible, some of our Teens don't have their answers ready. Although they may know the Bible verses, they don't know the references, etc. So it has been a real blessing to work on the weak areas in their witnessing & our outreach deacon has been having weekly witnessing classes with the Teens.
Up to now, they hadn't done that much witnessing, so they haven't had the practical experience of learning through having to face those questions on the battlefield. Therefore, we created impromptu witnessing situations in our witnessing classes, coming up with questions that people have asked. The teacher also shared some good Bible answers to the most commonly asked witnessing questions & the Teens have been able to learn those. (Coming soon in an upcoming issue of the Hope Mag, D.V.!)
From Valiant, Latin America:
From reading the Letter, "How to Teach", I got the vision of "ATA", "Advanced Training Assignment". ATA is a five to ten-question assignment that we give to the Teens at the beginning of the week, with such questions as: "How do we know that once we are saved we are always saved, that we can't fall from grace?" The questions that are used are examples of questions that the Teens might need while out witnessing.
Every other week we give them a one-question assignment that a contact or a supporter who was having a problem had written in about, asking for counsel. The Teens gather together quotes & Scriptures from the different pubs & compile them into their one or two-page letter. At the end of the week we get together & discuss the different questions & bring out all possible answers. With the personal letter question we read the best ML which is well-suited for the contact. The Teens are not graded or scored in any way, but rather they are learning to dig in the Word & really search the Scriptures for the answers. (Editor's note: You may want to save letters with these quotes & verses, for future use in your Mail Ministry in answering questions posed by your friends & contacts.)
From Faithy, Eastern Europe:
When the DTR push on personal witnessing began, I think I went to the extreme of letting the JETTs or Teens do almost all the talking & I took it for granted that they knew the answers. But now I've realised that the Teens & JETTs need some help until they gain more experience. The more they go out, the more they will be able to effectively witness, but right now we need to help them in giving answers, simply because the Lord has given us adults lots more practice. Of course, we mainly need to simply encourage them, because they do know the answers to people's questions, they just need to learn to use & present the Word they know.
Witnessing Skits & Endtime Bible Classes--From Josiah, Pacific
The JETTs & Teens are all very inspired about the personal witnessing vision. The Teen Shepherds at one of our field Schools have been active in taking them out, but have found that they do need a lot of help in learning how to witness & relate to people.
In order to help the JETTs & Teens more in personal witnessing, they recently started a couple of inspiring programs. One was in the form of skits where they lined up the Teens & JETTs in the witnessing lounge, & then different adults would come in, posing as different characters & personalities, such as a university student, a musician, a hippy, businessman, etc., & then they would ask the Teens & JETTs questions. The Teens & JETTs would try to answer their questions, & as they got stuck the adults would then help them answer the questions or witness in the right way.
The JETTs & Teens were thrilled about this & learned a lot. With this practice, they are gaining more confidence & learning how to witness to the people they will be encountering as they go out.
They also discovered that the Teens especially were lacking in enough knowledge about the Endtime, so that they didn't have confidence to give simple Endtime classes or pull out their Bibles & use Endtime verses to witness to the sheep. A lot of our JETTs & Teens have memorised these verses by heart, but it seems that it has become head knowledge, & though they're strong in the knowledge of the Word, they're quite weak in the wisdom of how to use it as a tool to witness.
Recently when an adult went out with some of them & tried to give a Matthew 24 class, even she stumbled around trying to find & explain the verses.
So they've started going over the Endtime classes such as Mat. 24 for morning devotions for the JETTs, Teens & the whole Home, & will also be going over Dan. 2, 7, 8, 9 & 11.
The idea is to help the JETTs & Teens get turned on to the power of these Endtime classes, & how they can use them as an effective tool to convince folks they witness to of the power of the Bible & the Word. Not only will it bear a lot of fruit in souls of sheep & disciples won, but it will also give our young people a lot of confidence & faith in the Word & the Bible, when they see how powerful & radical the Truth it contains is.
Just like many of us when we were Babes--it was the Word & in particular the Endtime prophecy classes that really sold us out to the Family & the Bible & Grandpa. It was our burning desire to communicate this Truth to outsiders that gave us an unshakable foundation in the Word & the Family! It's no wonder that our Teens & JETTs lack in conviction, faith & fire when they're out there in the World witnessing to worldly teens, if they themselves haven't really realised how radical & powerful the Word is.
Grounding them in these Endtime classes seems to be a real key in strengthening them, so they can quote with conviction & show the sheep they witness to where it's at & how much more we have in the Family than there is out there in the System.
I was very turned on by the fire, inspiration & enthusiasm that the Teens & JETTs have. They are quite progressive & really want to get out there & do something for the Lord!
Taking the Plunge & Learning by Doing!--From Stephen & Teamwork, Europe
This month has been a very inspiring one for our JETTs & Teens, as they've won over 200 souls to the Lord while out witnessing! We started out going to a big shopping center in the town center, where scores of young people come. In the nice weather, lots of them would just sit around on the steps & walls outside, & our teams of one or two JETTs & Teens & one adult would approach the people & witness to them. We found it much easier than the busy walking streets with all the confusion & busyness there.
We tried different approaches, such as just going up & saying, "Hi!" But after experimentation, we began to approach them by handing them a black & white Poster tract to get their interest & break the ice. The Teens & JETTs prefer the Endtime tracts, as they like witnessing about the Endtime & have found most young people have heard of 666 & the AC.
Sometimes the adults & JETTs would approach the people together & the adult witnessed first to help them along; but now they've caught the "fever", & it's mainly the Teens & JETTs who witness, with the adults standing by! We critiqued their witnessing as we went along & they've progressed a lot in just a few excursions.
At first they would just ask them, "Do you want to go to Heaven?" And if the answer was "Yes," they'd show them the prayer on the tract & say, "Bye-bye! See you in Heaven!" If the answer was "No," they'd just leave. GBT, they've since learned a lot about relating to people, giving their testimony, witnessing more deeply with their Bibles & not taking "no" for an answer. Of course, the personal witnessing pubs, especially Sarah's Pow-wow "You've Got It All" (HOPE 24), have really helped! They've also begun to collect more names & addresses. In the colder wetter weather we moved inside the shopping center. There's an open ice-rink where lots of kids gather & also an open caf.
Security has been easier with strictly personal witnessing; we aren't offering big Posters to people passing by, but only showing them to sheep who want to see what Heaven is like! All in all, it's been a real inspiration to the Home, & especially to the JETTs & Teens. We often go out in the van & take the guitar & sing during the trip & back, or read the Word--just like the "old days"! It's quite a Revolution! PTL!
Especially in the beginning we tried to send an older, bolder JETT or Teen with a younger, quieter one. Also we rotate the teams every hour or so, so they go with different partners & different adults. Within each team, they take turns being the one to choose who to witness to & to do the initial witness. They are writing their own follow-up letters to those whose addresses they've gotten & we hope to get some disciples, catacombers & lasting fruit from it. PTL!
DTR LESSONS: THE DANGERS OF NOT PUTTING PERSONAL WITNESSING FIRST!
From European Shepherds
We recently learned a lesson on the importance of lifting up Jesus in our distribution, & we pray our sharing it will help others also. When starting their outreach in a small, conservative European mountain town recently, a team of two adults & two Teens were stopped by the police. Their passports were photocopied, tools confiscated & the police were quite rough & rude, especially when they saw that the team was very nervous, which caused them to be suspected of lying.
Following is a testimony & lessons learned by the Teen & by the Home Teamwork in better preparing for this type of situation in the future.
From the Training Center:
We felt this incident brought out the fact that the Lord was displeased that we were not fully implementing the DTR in personal witnessing, nor fully revising our whole approach according to the counsel in the Personal Witnessing Hope & FSM.
Our Home Teamwork Shepherdess spent time with the adult outreachers before they went on the road, to pow-wow these Pubs & share counsel about how to implement them with the Teen partners they were taking on the road. She also asked them to re-read the FSM "Are You a Joyful Witness or a Tired Salesman" (FSM 106), & emphasised the point of just preaching Jesus & to let the tools sell themselves.
She tried to give them the vision for helping the Teens see & witness the power of our tools & to get away from a "social work" PR type of approach, which some had been previously using. (Some were asking for donations for a "social work", without mentioning the Lord or our missionary work or how our Videos themselves can change people's lives.)
Although it seems that the Lord has allowed some people to use this social work angle in the past, & He winked at it up till now, we feel the Lord must have been displeased with the fact that we didn't stop using this approach after the Word came out about it concerning Teens' witnessing.
In addition to this, the other members of the outreach team felt the social work explanation wasn't honest & they didn't want to use it, but they had no alternative presentation prepared. Therefore they had no conviction when the police started questioning & threatening them. We are very thankful this is all coming out so we can revise our whole witnessing approach as a Home. LHUs!
From Peter (Teen):
I had never been through anything like this before, so I got too nervous & I also didn't pray enough through the whole thing. I was praying pretty desperately, but I wasn't praying between each question. I let myself get put under pressure by their questions. They threatened to stick Uncle Mark in jail if he didn't comply & asked him to give the address of the head office of the group (which Uncle Mark didn't understand, TTL, as he doesn't speak the language well) & they also said I was "possibly a neglected child".
I thought maybe they would lock him up & take me into their custody or something. I think overall if we had prepared our presentation & had discussed the fine details better, it would have been much easier & we wouldn't have been so nervous. They were even more suspicious, seeing it was obvious we were nervous. I thought of other answers I could have given afterwards, but at the time I was so nervous I didn't think of them.
Also I didn't have so much conviction because the day before this happened, I was having a battle about saying we were "helping drug-addicted youth & alcoholics." That gave me battles because I myself wasn't actually doing that. I was afraid to share the battle right away & the next day I was going to write about it, but we left for the road before I could & then we got taken in by the police. Since I didn't get it straightened out, I didn't have the conviction that what we were saying was 100% right. I should have shared it earlier & gotten it taken care of. (Editor's note: Although we do help drug addicts & alcoholics, & it is not a lie to say we do, still our main ministry is simply to help people know Jesus.--We feel God's Love in Jesus is the answer to the problems of both the entire World & each individual in it, & we use many tools to get out this Message.
(Although your explanation of our Work may vary from place to place or situation to situation, Peter's reaction does show the importance of having discussed & agreed upon your approach & presentation, so that when questioned, you do not feel unsure or lack conviction as to how to explain our purposes & goals--which are the best in the World, & not illegal in any way!)
I see now that most of their threats were bluffs to make us nervous. They accused us or inferred lots of things that they weren't really serious about, like saying Uncle Mark was lying that he was previously in India, inferring that we stole the van & the Tapes & Videos & all that.
This experience has been humbling for me because I always thought I would answer boldly if I got questioned etc. But I didn't realise what it was really like & that it just can't be a work of the flesh. It has to be a total work of the Lord in the Spirit. It was a tremendous help when we were alone & we started quoting Scripture together. The Word really gave me much more peace.
From the Teen Combo:
The Teens have spent lots of time on Word studies & most of our classes were on personal witnessing, with skits covering different situations, etc. However, this incident in which the team was unsure of what to say when questioned indicated that they were still leaning a lot on a PR approach, promoting social work rather than simply presenting Jesus & emphasising the power of our tools to help children. That could be why the Lord allowed all our tools to be confiscated for a while!--To really make us desperate & show us we needed to revise our whole approach.
It was quite sobering to see that the Lord would not let us get away with it & that He really means what He says through His Word & through His latest counsel. When going over these points with our Teens, sharing with them how to answer questions, etc., it turned out that some were having battles in learning a "new" approach.
It seems that they have gotten really used to the "social work" idea & really lean on that to the point that they feel that preaching Jesus & talking about the power of our tools is not exactly enough to win someone. So it seems that they need a total re-wiring, which the Lord is giving! TYL for valuable lessons learned!
(For a good explanation of talking about the power of our tools, see Mama's Letter, "Salesmanship!--If You Believe in It You Can Sell It!" in FSM 45.)
THE LORD BLESSES WHEN WITNESSING COMES FIRST!
Go Back & Try to Win Their Souls!--From Susanna, a Video Shiner in South America:
We found that the Lord really blesses when we push soul-winning. On two different occasions, we'd been showing the Videos to someone, & after we left them we realised we hadn't really witnessed to that person about receiving Jesus. Both times we got a check to go back & try to win their souls.
It really broke our bottles to go back to see them again, as we weren't even sure if these people would be receptive, but we felt that it was important to obey no matter what.--And when we did, these people turned out to be very sheepy & readily prayed with us to receive Jesus!
At the same time, we got set free & filled with the joy of the Lord, & it inspired our whole day! We found ourselves witnessing to everyone we came in contact with!
Later in the day, on both of these occasions, the Lord did unexpected miracles for us to help us get out entire Video sets of six Videos. Since then, our whole approach to getting out the materials has changed, as we put witnessing & soul-winning first, & the Lord is really blessing it!
The Lord Opens Doors When We Are Witnessing!--From Manases Renacimiento & Jerry Newman, Latin America:
We went on a four-day road trip to a nearby city with the vision of personal witnessing & winning souls, without the worry of finances, & the Lord really blessed it. First of all, He opened the door for us to stay with a sweet couple in their home. They received Jesus & the Holy Ghost, & every night we witnessed to them & shared the Word for two or three hours. They fed us breakfast & dinner every day! Their two children really love the Videos & watch them every morning, first thing.
We also met a precious lady who is the director of a school. She already had two of our Videos & was very impressed with them. In fact, a few days before we came, parents of children in her school had had a meeting & were discussing how they could get the Kiddie Viddies! PTL! He knows! If we acknowledge Him, He will direct our path! (Prov.3:6)
She bought the whole collection of Videos & children's Tapes. She then invited some parents to see us & she explained to them how our Videos changed the attitudes of the children, encouraging them to get Videos as well! The whole trip was a real testimony to us of "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God & His righteousness, & all these things shall be added unto you." (Mat.6:33) Hallelujah!
Faithful Follow-up Rewarded!--From Stephen & Teamwork, Europe:
We were able to spend a lot more time ministering to some of our already-established contacts recently! One lady who faithfully helps us each week was so touched by the witness that she took four Videos for her mongoloid son. She said that he never laughed before very much, but that since seeing the KVs, he's constantly smiling & laughing & so happy! Now he just wants to see them over & over again! TYL! This lady, as well as other contacts, are starting to get really close to us, & we are praying about having them over for a special evening to draw them in even more. Our DFing is bearing fruit, as we've been feeding these people each week & now the results are showing! TYL!
Following His Lead, Pouring Out His Love!--From Steve (17), Europe:
It was our first day in this city, & Liberty & I had our little area to distribute Videos in. We didn't really know where to start & were praying for the Lord to lead & guide us as we walked along. We felt led to go into a factory, where the owner didn't want a KV but bought a Tape. We started witnessing to him & shared our testimonies with him. After a while he said, "I really like you people & what you are doing! I want to help you!" He picked up the phone & started calling his friends in nearby factories, telling them he was sending us over & that they should help us!
We then went to see his friends, & the first one was the owner of a different factory. He took a set of Videos & asked his partner if he'd like a set too! He said he would! It was all we could do to keep ourselves from shouting, "Hallelujah!" The next man he sent us to took another six, & so on, until we only had two Videos left. We went back to thank our friend, but he had gone home. His right-hand man was there, though, so we started talking with him & he took the remaining two Videos! TYJ! The Lord got out 22 Videos that day!--And it all started with our witnessing to one man who didn't even want a Video! PTL!
The Joy of a Newly-Saved Soul!--There's Nothing Like It!--From Faith, Asia:
Going DTD in an apartment block, we met a Muslim man named Javed, who really liked our Videos but couldn't afford them. He suggested that we come to his office & meet his boss, saying he felt his boss would take a set. The next day we went to the office but his boss was in a special meeting & Javed didn't want to disturb him, so we spent some time witnessing to Javed.
He was very hungry & interested in the Future & the Bible etc. We then prayed with him to receive Jesus & the Holy Spirit, & immediately upon opening his eyes he exclaimed, "Now I am one of you!" His eyes beamed with light, GBH!
Being "full of the Holy Ghost & power," Javed stood up & said, "You just wait here! I will go in & arrange your meeting!" He went into his director's office & when he returned he told us, "I just barged right in & told him you were here. You can go see him now!!" Ha! The director turned out to be very sweet & agreed to take a full set of KVs--even giving us an extra donation on top of it. PTL!
CARING FOR OUR OUTREACHERS!--From Shepherds in South America
Ezekiel & Sunny have reported major victories in the shepherding of our witnessers who for many years have had little training, being out of the Home so much on faith trips & distribution. Putting the DTR first in their lives has caused the Homes to lean more on provisioning, which frees the witnessers to be home more to get the feeding, refilling & shepherding that they need. It takes the financial pressure off so that more personal witnessing can be done.
Rotating Ministries in the Home--By Shepherds of a South American School
The Lord showed us that our witnessers don't necessarily have to go out every day, all week, or all month long on the road or on the street, but we could switch them with our people in the Home, like the childcare personnel. Our witnessers were really encouraged by some of the teachers going along with them on their faith trips, as they have a fresh vision, seeing it as a real chance to pour out to the sheep. As some of the childcare people went out, some of our witnessers began to stay back & take the teachers' places in Childcare!
We've shared with the witnessers that they do not have to go out witnessing. If they would like to have a change of ministry, we're open to it, & that we know the Lord wants us all to do whatever is best for us & the Work. One witnesser, Ruth, requested to pull out of her fulltime Outreach ministry, as she felt a real need for a change in her life, & she's blossoming now in the Childcare department! This change is also helping her to become a much better mommy for her children, as a result of concentrating more on their care.
Another witnesser got a burden from the Lord to do provisioning, which is a real big need in our Home. Putting more emphasis on provisioning now allows us to not be so dependent on finances from Videos, which is part of the reason the witnessers get so burned out, as they feel that pressure of having to support the Home through selling Videos.
Now we have started provisioning all the different staple foods we need! We're really going on the attack! It's teaching us how we're really living by faith, & how the Lord supplies our food. We went to the fish market, the first time in eight months, & the Lord supplied 340 kilos of fresh fish! We also provisioned 45 kilos of chicken & 20 kilos of meat, plus a bakery contact which will bake all the bread we need for the whole month, PTL!
Since the schedule for going out on outreach is now rotating, the witnessers don't miss out on the DTR & what's happening. They have a chance to stay home & partake of the DTR revolution, which is a real victory!
Pioneering New Witnessing Methods--From Ezekiel & Sunny, South America
In our witnessing meetings, we realised we have been a bit set in our ways, following one certain method of witnessing. For instance, witnessers use recommendations & visit friends of those who have bought Videos, who might want to buy Videos also. This method has borne good fruit, & we continue to use it regularly, but we do need to pray & hear from Him about His instructions for each day. We saw that we also need to pioneer other methods as well.
A faith trip revival has really helped us shake out of our ruts! One witnesser commented that he even prefers to go without a car, as the buses are good in our area, & it helps him to expect miracles from the Lord & not feel so comfortable. We saw that we can be like Systemites within the Family, so set in our ways that we do all our activities without the power of the Lord, just going through the motions. The Teens really like it when we get stirred up, do things in a different way than we usually do, & expect miracles to happen!
Provisioning is also such a wonderful way of witnessing, not for the sake of getting what we can, but for witnessing & follow-up & raising up kings & supporters as well.
We've been taking the children, JETTs & Teens on some of our provisioning & follow-up visits, & they've had great success in touching people's hearts. It's so true that the Teens need that exposure to the System, to see how bad it is, how rotten & hopeless, by going out & seeing for themselves. Our Homes are so beautiful & heavenly, a real refuge from this mad World today, & our Teens become more & more convinced of that as they go out personal witnessing!
Applying DTR Lessons While on the Road
From Marcos Fiel, Latin America
How can we apply the lessons or standards of the DTR while out on the road, sometimes for two weeks, without direct supervision? One of the things that the Lord has been showing us while on the road is the importance of counselling together & applying the Prayerfulness Revolution to every situation we are in.--From where to go, to where to stop, or what kind of schedule to keep, etc. Just the fact that we're trying to stay tuned to the Lord's channel & are sharing the load & responsibilities & helping each other has brought down the Lord's blessings & supply. PTL!
At first, while trying to apply the Teamwork concept while out, it was clear to us all how much we needed to put our pride away & see the Lord in each other. Some of us are learning not to be pushy. Others are having to learn the conviction to speak up when the Lord shows His Will, & others not to be sensitive if our idea or plan didn't go through, or when someone shares an admonition with us.
Another step that was necessary for us who are on the road often was to overcome familiarity in our relationships with one another, & to not just see each other as equals or comrades, but to see the Lord in each other & respect that. For me as a national, it was a big test to see if I wanted to grow & if I wanted to work on helping the Work in this country to grow. If so, I have to do my part by being the sample that God wants me to be, & to let the Lord take away any loyalty to nationality or groups of people or Shepherds. I needed to see that it's the Lord Who is in charge & that He knows what He's doing. PTL! He's teaching us all so much through the DTR!
From Clay (Kohath) Quickly, Latin America:
One of the pitfalls that I've learned to really fight since the DTR is the feeling of, "Well, I'm out of the Home now, so I have a different set of rules called `the rules of the road'." I know from experience that the Lord won't bless that attitude, as really there's only one set of rules for all of us, wherever we are!--The Family standard doesn't change with our location or ministry!
As an American who doesn't know the local language well, there is the tendency to let the nationals do most of the talking, provisioning, & witnessing. But I've learned it's much more inspiring to pitch in on everything, & the Lord blesses it. Plus I learned more Spanish in two months of road trips than I did in three years in this Latin country, & I've been much more inspired.
Above all, I think the main theme for my road trips has been, "Keep fighting." Even when it seems like there's not much you feel you can do, I've found that as long as I just keep at it, the Lord will do the miracles!
A funny experience happened on the road which encouraged us, We had just pulled into town & went to offer the Videos at a transportation office. We were immediately ushered in by the secretary, who rolled out the red carpet & asked us if we wanted some coffee or something else to drink. We politely declined, but wondered what was going on!
Then she got the boss on the phone & the sister I was with talked to him. Since he was busy, she offered to come back later, but he said, "Oh, no, no, no. I'll be there in five minutes. Please wait!" She hung up the phone, & the suspense mounted as we waited to see why we were being given such royal treatment! When we were ushered into the boss' office, & he again offered us coffee or a drink, we found out that his trucking company had gotten into an accident with some Americans in the same city that we had said we were from. He thought the sister with me was my lawyer & that I had come to sue him for thousands of dollars!
When we assured him that we weren't there for that reason, but that we simply wanted to tell him about our missionary Work & share some Videos with him, he was so relieved that he laughed & bought the whole set for his children! He said, "Maybe these will help me not to worry about what's going to happen!" I sure pray they do. TYL!
Personal Witnessing Brings Back the Fire!--Spiritual & Financial Blessings Result from In-Depth Personal Witnessing!
From Cush & Zara, South America:
The most wonderful thing happened these past weeks! In an attempt to get away from the rut of "accomplishments", & also in an effort to try to help our JETTs have the right motive & approach in witnessing, we had a good talk with all the adults, sharing from the notes taken at the Enterprise Training Center. Everyone seemed encouraged by the vision of letting love for lost souls be our guide in witnessing.
The results were so inspiring, as we saw the Lord bless with real inspiration & fire, with many many souls won! And the funny part is that after we started this emphasis on one-on-one personal witnessing, the Video distribution was double that of the month before! It is so faith-building to hear the witnessers tell of the miraculous ways the Lord got out the Videos, seeing their radiant faces as they give beautiful testimonies of souls won. It reminded us of that picture on the cover of "Flesh or Spirit", & of our early witnessing days--that joy & fire! PTL! It's only Jesus! We greatly rejoice in Him!
From Joanie, SEA:
Although it's going to be a little difficult to break out of our rut of mainly "selling" the tools & bringing in finances this way, we need to have faith in this counsel & the Letters Dad & Mama have written on this subject, & launch out & invest our time in following up & finding new kings & supporters. I wanted to convey that we are very much behind this new counsel & are very excited by the changes it's bringing. In my first week of witnessing since this counsel, I noticed that the Lord seems to be leading us to new, very sweet & precious sheep. He is now probably entrusting them into our care as a result of this new emphasis, which is very inspiring, as well as a real sobering responsibility for us not to fail them.
From Peter Posterer, SEA:
I've been on outreach for a long time & getting out the tools had become more of a business to me.--I had lost the fire that comes from going out there to win souls, & as a result, whenever I had a slow day, I'd get real discouraged. My inspiration was dependent on how many tools I'd get out, rather than seeing how many people I'd personally witnessed to & led to the Lord. This attitude caused me to neglect follow-up as well.
Then I began putting more emphasis on personal witnessing & it's really helping me! Now I really like to go out & witness. I truly enjoy it, & am so thankful that we are happy witnesses & not just businessmen! TYJ!
From Michael, North America:
We've found that personal witnessing goes hand-in-hand with helping to implement the DTR. When the kids' inspirational level is the highest, it's not just because of their Word classes, scholastic standard, or anything else, but because of the inspiration of seeing the Word & the values of our life come alive when personal witnessing through their singing team, DTD, STS, follow-up, seeing the fruits of follow-up, etc. Personal witnessing is the ingredient that makes the DTR come alive. TYJ!
We found that our JETTs were just thrilled to pieces that Dad & Mama loved them enough to have a major Revolution centered around them! It gave them the faith to want to get out & obey because of Jesus' faith in them that they could & would do it.
"Lord help their parents to enflame them! Help their parents to set them on fire like I did them! If our young people see that flame in their parents they will catch it! My Lord, Jesus, please help them to set them on fire so people will come out to see them burn! Jesus, Jesus, please help us to set Thy children on fire, set their hearts aflame, set the World on fire, Lord, to win them to You & Your Love!--In Jesus' name, amen!" (ML#2703, GN 474.)
Copyright 1996 The Family