COMMUNICATIONS!                   DO 130                   8/71
        
INSTRUCTIONS ON THE PROPER USE OF THE MAIL INSTEAD OF PHONES

         1. WE HAVE ABANDONED ALL DIRECT TELEPHONE CONTACT AS BEING UNWISE, UNSAFE & FAR TOO EXPENSIVE. We hope to set you all an example of how to communicate by mail, rather than by telephone, which, if followed, could immediately save us all enough to help pioneer several new Homes! I'm convinced that most of our long distance phone calls are a wasteful & unnecessary luxury, when a letter would have done just as well, if not better, except in cases of the most dire emergency, when the news cannot wait a day or two for the delivery of a letter!
         2. ASK YOURSELF THE QUESTION BEFORE PHONING, "Is this really an emergency that I & the LORD can't handle; & can it wait at least two days to be delivered in a letter?" The phoning rules should be:
                 1) DON'T PHONE UNLESS YOU HAVE TO & it cannot be handled any other way;
                 2) IF YOU MUST PHONE, SAY ONLY WHAT YOU HAVE TO SAY--no visiting. We'll read the latest news in your reports--you don't have to tell it all to us on the telephone! This is absolutely ridiculous, a sinful extravagance. LET'S STOP IT & NOW! It's God's money & could be better used for other things, such as new Homes, new literature etc. Think it over! TELEPHONES ARE A LUXURY, ESPECIALLY THE WAY WE'VE BEEN USING THEM. Let's trim them back down to the size of a necessity.
         3. AND EVERY TIME YOU GO TO MAKE ANOTHER LONG DISTANCE CALL, ASK YOURSELF THE QUESTIONS, "Do I really need to make this call or don't we need a new Home or new literature MORE?" May God help us!--Or these phones are going to bankrupt us! I cured the problem once by having only pay phones put in, where we had to have the change to put the money in on the spot--& when you see those coins going down the hole, & those little bells playing their doleful tunes, like a cash register eating up your cash, you think twice about that phone call!--And I'll tell you, it immediately made a vast difference in our phone bill!

Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family