CONTINGENCY PLANS!--Eternal Vigilance: The Price of Freedom!     DO 1104  11/78

         1. It is very serious & we're fighting a WAR, Lord, & winning battle after battle! We need to look at the sober side of things sometimes, & not be ignorant of the Devil, the Enemy, & his devices, but always be prepared, Lord, to give an ANSWER, have an answer & to have a PLAN if possible. We don't know WHAT the future holds, but we know WHO holds the future! Hallelujah!
         2. You can get a false sense of security & suddenly--boom!--Then you wish you had PLANNED or counted on something ELSE & had kept some OTHER options open & had some OTHER alternatives planned. I think that's what you all need to always remember.
         3. We have always tried to do that regarding our housing & our locations everywhere we have been. We've always thought, "Well, now, if we had to leave here, where would we go?"--And we studied travel books & tours & places & countries & their rules & regulations & all kinds of things, always trying to keep in mind that if we had to flee at a moment's notice we would have some idea of where would be a good place to go to next. WE'VE ALWAYS had to go sooner or later.--Why not YOU?
         4. So just in case something comes along to upset YOUR nice little status quo, what are YOUR plans? What do you have planned as your next move?--And where?--And how?
         5. And there'll probably be some reason why you'll have to move. That's not at all unlikely or improbable. It's not only POSSIBLE, but it's quite probable, because you are aliens & foreigners & non-citizens, etc. Sooner or later you are going to find that it's getting a bit HOT!
         6. What I would like you to do is make out a list of suggestions & plans, what they commonly call CONTINGENCY PLANS. In other words, in case something doesn't work, what else would you try? It's better to have it & not need it than need it & not have it, so you'd better be prepared!
         7. I want to shake you out of any false sense of security & remind you we have no security except in the Lord & we cannot trust Man whose breath is in his nostrils!--Isa.2:22. We are in a dangerous business! We are probably hated almost worse than any religious group on the face of the Earth!
         8. Beloved, you've really got to conform to the way they do things & the way they want you to live or else! When they don't like you, don't want you, they will pick any kind of little speck of anything as an excuse to get rid of you! It often takes but only ONE person who is mad enough & ornery enough to do it!--One person who goes & complains to the authorities, & they have to act on the complaint. A lot of times the authorities will overlook situations, if nobody complains, but it only takes ONE complaint, then they have to do their job & carry it out & enforce the law. It only takes one complaint.
         9. So to stay free, as I've always said, requires ETERNAL VIGILANCE--the price of freedom! Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom! Thank the Lord we HAVE eternal security, spiritually, but on this Earth, physically, we have eternal INsecurity, & you'd better remember it!--And not get TOO settled down & let the roots grow down too deep where you can't tear them out in a hurry if you have to, or cut them off & leave them behind!
         10. I'd rather be a LIVE FUGITIVE than a DEAD HERO! I've left houses & lands & goods behind many times to save my LIFE! I never unpack my fleebag! It's always there & I live out of it, believe it or not! I have myself packed up & my papers where I could throw things in my suitcase, in my briefcase in a few minutes, & be gone! I can do it real fast--could you? Maybe you ought to practice a few times! I hope the Lord doesn't have to give you some test runs! See how many pieces of luggage you can get your flee stuff into, how fast you can get it together & how quickly you can be out of the house & gone!
         11. Well, maybe you might be already gone downtown or somewhere & phone up & find out, like we did. Would you have your stuff so organised that you would be able to tell THEM what to do with it & how to get it to you so you could stay away & go on your way?
         12. You'd better have decided ahead of time what's expendable & what isn't, & you'd better keep them apart, keep them separate, so that you can, at a moment's notice, [forsake] all expendables & have the others that you cannot do without. Frankly, as far as our own family is concerned, I told them, don't keep any files two months old!--Just CURRENT files only, just to keep tab on what you're doing currently.
         13. Over the years of handling the mail, we learned certain systems of security. Even if we lost pieces, we'd make sure we didn't lose either originals or copies or didn't lose track of something. We keep a strict mail log of every piece & each one is numbered & the contents of each listed, so if we lose anything we know what we lost & we are able to replace it.
         14. That's an important thing to remember in handling your mail, that it's something really EXTREMELY vital & you don't want to lose track of it or lose a whole lot of work. Always remember to keep plenty of COPIES & always keep track of how MANY pieces you are sending & NUMBER them. We'd number them on the outside & stick our list on the inside, so the people receiving them can know that they are getting all of them.
         15. Our authorities in our Family ought to be concerned about every area & every country & ought to be reading everything they can get on the local situation. Let me tell you, when I was in Malta, I read every word in those Maltese papers--the government paper & the opposition's paper. I wanted to know exactly what the situation was there.
         16. I comb the newspapers nearly every day. You can catch a lot of new things, you can catch ideas about which way the wind's blowing, how the government's going & what they are doing about this or that & the other & what the attitude is, & atmosphere in that country, its attitude toward strangers, & a lot of times you will find things in there about what they are going to do. We got a lot of tips & hints out of how the courts were dealing with cases & visas & all kinds of things.
         17. Small towns in the country are the worst places in the World to try to [be unnoticed]!--Because out in the country in small towns, they know everything that is going on. The best place in the World to get lost is a big, big, city, where nobody knows anybody & couldn't care less, that's the place to get lost!
         18. We were real cautious about how we [left] places. The whole mob of us didn't disappear over night. We went out in easy stages. We just [left] one by one, two by two, until finally there were only two people left!
         19. Beloved, you had better be prepared to answer all possible questions. How ready are you, how packed up, & how sorted out have you got your goods & papers so that if you men had to pick up & leave in a hurry--it's the MEN they are really after, & you usually have the least luggage--you can just pick up & vamoose!
         20. As you noticed, when we get [persecuted] it's the MEN they harass & the MEN that they beat, it's the MEN they jail, & the men had better be ready to take off faster than the women! They usually figure it's not the women's fault, thank God, & the women can get by with more than the men can, they can do a little FFing.
         21. Would your wife be able to carry on after you & pack up, & bring the rest & be your rear-guard with the children & follow you later? Where would you go & how would you carry on your business? How would you carry on your job & where do you think would be the best place for you to go temporarily if you ALL had to move?
         22. Could you suddenly inform your constituents of a new phone number or postal address if you were in a hurry? How fast could you do it? How quickly would you reach them & how much mail would you lose in the meantime?
         23. Next question, & this one is going to hurt, what NATIONAL do you have ready in training to take over that job if it were an emergency? Who could possibly pick up the MAIL for you or handle the BANKING for you?--Even if he didn't do anything but carry the cheques & cash the cheques & buy the cheques, even if the accounts & all are still in your name. What do you think you could do about it & how fast, before we lost any mail or money or any PERSONNEL?--Which is more precious than ANYTHING!
         24. I guess there will still always be places to go. You may not be able to STAY very long, but there is always SOME place to go, especially if you are just going as a TOURIST & you STAY only as a tourist & you LEAVE as a tourist. sBecause if you're going to SURVIVE, you're going to have to learn to live with a lot LESS, & keep MOVING!
         25. I've done a lot of moving lately & I've come to the point where I believe it is possible that I might have to move again. But at least, I hope, I'm ready for it now & more than we WERE. "They confessed that they were PILGRIMS & STRANGERS on the Earth. For they sought a city whose builder & maker is God. Therefore, God was not ashamed to be called their God."--Heb.11:13,10,16.
         26. That's almost the only time in the whole Bible where it almost as good as says God is PROUD of you! Because you are willing, in other words, to be PILGRIMS & STRANGERS & KEEP MOVING for His Work's sake & His Message, move whenever He says move, stop when He says stop, & go when He says go. We're mobile messengers!--And we wouldn't have reached the World with the Message if we hadn't been. Take this warning seriously & heed it, to prepare & be always prepared, to move at a moment's notice & never get settled down too much & let our roots grow down too deep.
         27. We are vagabonds & pilgrims & strangers & Gypsies, but those people have lasted the longest when many other securer nations & empires have been completely wiped out!
         28. Help them, Lord, to be faithful today, not to worry but trust You! You don't have to WORRY about tomorrow, but He didn't say not to make PLANS for tomorrow.--Amen? So make the plans! In fact, maybe if you PLAN enough you WON'T worry about it, you wouldn't have to worry as much. I'd be a lot MORE worried if you DON'T plan, God bless you! TYL!--Plan NOW!--TODAY!--TOMORROW will be TOO LATE!--GHU!--Amen?


Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family