FAMILY UPDATE NEWS #4--July, 1993 DO
BARCELONA, Spain (FNN--Family News Network)--VICTORY IN BARCELONA! On July 1st, the court in Barcelona declared the brethren innocent of all charges! PTL! After studying the verdict (42 pages!), our lawyer said that "although the wording is not as `spectacular' as Fernandez' (judge who previously cleared The Family of CA-related charges) was in the children's court, it seems that it's as convincing or even more so!" TYJ!
The media reported the outcome quite accurately. They highlighted the court's findings, that The Family is not a threat to the state and therefore cannot be declared illegal, and that Family Members were not guilty of fraudulent behaviour when provisioning.
AIX-EN-PROVENCE, France (FNN)--The French Family reports:
There is no further conclusive news on when the children in Aix will be released. Apparently the adults' judge was quite embarrassed because he has no evidence for the case against the adults. The medical reports on the children are positive. The minors' judge ordered that the younger children be separated from the older ones, so the older ones would not have too much influence on the younger ones! The social worker assigned to our case was surprised at how "socialised" our children were when he saw photos of the children's excursions, their families, as well as letters from grandparents etc.
The prophecies that we've been receiving from different Areas have been very strengthening, especially about how the Lord will anoint the children to speak and be a witness. We're already seeing this happening.
The Family has also learned of a possible plan by the authorities to try to systematically destroy The Family! It is entitled "Operation Moses: Crush the Structure In Europe"! Many of the brethren who were detained report being harangued by police for hours in an attempt to get them to give information on other Homes in Europe. So it seems that this present persecution could be part of a bigger plan.
In every respect, the brethren were real soldiers while in custody, refusing to make false confessions, even in the face of police intimidation, being screamed at, slapped, etc.
The hardened French media is not giving us much space to rebut the lies promoted by ADFI (Association for the Defense of the Family and the Individual, an anti-cult group), nor share our side of the story. However, there have been a few good articles in local papers, one of which quoted paragraphs from the tract we had passed out, demanding the release of our children.
Ane Mourgues of TV2 was really two-faced! She had told us that she would give us a fair presentation, and asked that we hold off on contacting major magazines, as she would "help" us to meet them. Her intent was actually to clobber us, with both her show, "Envoye Special", as well as a negative article in Paris Match news magazine. Lord help us, an expensive lesson, but hopefully one that others can benefit from!
TOKYO, Japan (FNN)--Family Members report:
We were shocked and incensed at the way the police handled the raids in France! We feel we need to go on the attack and get out the truth about the situation. Although it is not such big news here, we are seeing more and more that any attack on The Family in one country is a direct attack on us all. The more we can show our solidarity with our worldwide Family, the better. One of our strengths has always been our unity, and we feel we need to go on the attack to show that unity and make the French persecution an issue here in Japan. The horrific actions of the authorities in France serve as a dandy bad example to point to, and to praise Japan for avoiding!
SAN FRANCISCO, USA (FNN)--A Family Member met Eric Pryor, the ex-Wicca priest whose testimony is in Outlook #3. They report:
Poor Eric is virtually a drunk on the streets. Family Members spent about three hours with him, trying to help him. Eric is totally disillusioned with the church that he claims "used him" to get popular and then stole his royalties from the books they helped him write. Eric seemed to have really connected with The Family and called us "the real disciples". However, he still has some pretty severe problems and is a desperate man. Please pray for him! ("The Lord must love Eric Pryor. We've prayed for him & we're concerned about him & wanted to reach out to him. So there's hope for everybody.--D.")
LOS ANGELES, USA (FNN)--A Family Member on the media team sent in the following observation:
We believe one of the main factors contributing greatly to our success and anointing in meeting with the media is all the prayer power that The Family throughout North America is focusing on us. Having good relations with the media has been a specific prayer request on several of our Continental Prayer Days, and beyond that, the Homes in one area agreed amongst themselves to have daily prayer vigils for our media spokespersons! God bless them! They will share equally in the fruits and the rewards!
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (FNN)--Family Members report:
Not only have the raids in France been widely publicised here, but the Barcelona case has been closely followed by the media here in South America. The coverage was carefully edited to show the "worst". It seems like our enemies could be preparing a well-orchestrated attack against us.
* The Family went on one of Argentina's (and Latin America's) most famous TV talk shows--Grondona's Show! One of our main enemies, Silleta, was also on, as well as some backsliders. Although the programme was quite rigged against us, the Family representatives did very well in contending for the faith. They were able to show excerpts of "Jesus the Light" and refute many lies that Silleta was spouting off.
Some of our friends stood up for The Family when they spoke privately to Grondona. He confessed that he hadn't even considered there would be people who would have favourable reactions to our group without being live-in Members. He promised to include such a viewpoint in any future programmes.
Thank the Lord, Grondona ended the show by really taking a stand for upholding freedom of religion, reminding the viewers that when Protestantism first arose, the Catholic Church also called it a sect. There's no doubt that we favourably impressed him, especially considering how rude and hateful Silleta was, as well as the many enemies in the audience.
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Please continue to keep all these situations in your prayers! "Moreover as for me, God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you" (1Sam.12:23a). GBY! WLY!
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family