The Family in Action!--#3 DFO
Comfort for the War-Weary!
Bosnian and Croatian Refugees Hear God's Message of Love!
From the Family in Eastern Europe
Copyrighted Jan., 1994, by Family Services, Zurich, Switzerland.
This magazine may be reproduced in full or in part for friends of the Family
There are a handful of refugee camps in our area, which we visit regularly. The conditions in the camps differ, but none have very high standards. The largest camp in our area has over 3,000 people and is run by the UN, but even it is quite run-down for lack of funding. The food is meagre at best. Some people still wear the clothes they arrived with months ago, having fled their homeland with just a small bag each.
The majority of these refugees are Muslims from Bosnia, but a few are Christians. Almost all have gone through incredible experiences. Although they have hard exteriors, their eyes betray tremendous pain and brokenness. Many used to be quite well-to-do, and some even had their own businesses. Now they have lost everything and each shares a large, bare room with ten, twenty or thirty other people.
Under most circumstances, they are not allowed to leave the camp or hold jobs outside. There are only a few jobs for them in the camps, so most have nothing to do but sit all day. The children are bored and restless. Many of these people have lost family members and there are many women without their husbands and children without their fathers. Most of the younger men were soldiers who deserted the army because they could no longer stand the atrocities that they witnessed. Now they suffer from terrible guilt, nightmares and sleeplessness. And there is no end in sight. Many can't even get passports, so it's impossible for them to leave this country or return to their own war-torn land.
Sometimes as we sing, people break down and weep, and afterwards crowd around to thank us for coming. Our songs help them forget what they've been through, and to remember that there is still joy in the World! It's a heartbreaking sight! When they find out that we live by faith and are not paid to visit and minister to them, but that we do it simply because we love them, they are even more impressed and touched.
At the very first camp we went to, people from Bosnia gathered around to hear us until the dining hall was filled. At first they didn't know what to think about us, but as different people asked questions and we gave them answers from the Word, the whole atmosphere in the room changed.
"If there is a God, why does He allow things like this to happen?" some asked.
"I have done some awful things," another said. "How can God ever forgive me?"
Clear, simple answers from God's Word gave such hope and encouragement to them! Many people prayed with us, and many begged us to please come back and tell them more!
The Lord has given us a friend at a nice hotel in a little town where the largest camp is located, and they put us up whenever we visit. Basically we just sleep there, eat breakfast, read some Word and pray for strength for the day. Then we are off to the camp for nonstop witnessing and follow-up. By that time, a small group of "faithfuls" are already gathered, awaiting our arrival. We usually meet in a little club where we sing songs, and then we share inspirational stories from the Word with them. Before long, the small group grows into a crowd. Stories, like the parables Jesus told, reach right down into their hearts, and often we see people on the verge of tears.
Each time, we make a special effort to get to know the new people who come in, listening as they share their hearts about all they've been through. Then we try to encourage them with positive stories of others who've learned beautiful lessons from the hardships and suffering they've experienced. When speaking to larger groups, the main message we share is that Somebody cares!--God and Jesus love them, we love them, and in His time something good is going to come to each of them if they will just trust in His Love. The more time they spend with us the more they comment about the peace they feel when we are there, and the harder it is for them to let us go when we must leave.
One 26-year-old woman has two three-year-olds to care for, hers and her sister's. She fled her village with the two children amid the bombing! She went first to Macedonia, then Bulgaria, then Romania, and then tried to return to her home. Finally she landed here, only to find out that her husband and sister's husband, who were soldiers, had both been killed.
"I feel so empty inside!" she said. "I've already cried all the tears that I possibly can!"
Meals served at her camp do not include any protein or any dairy products. The first day our team met her, we gave her children our lunch. Since then, we take milk for her little ones. On our second visit, she prayed with us to receive the Lord! Now she is much more encouraged, is beginning to read the Word, and the Lord is already using her to encourage others in her camp.
25-year-old Seth has been in a refugee camp for nine months. He was drafted into the Serbian army but didn't believe the war was just, so he escaped the country. He's heartbroken that he had to leave his wife and baby boy behind. When we met him, he had been crying every day for months.
"Evil is taking over the World and good is being defeated. What's the use?" he asked.
We told him about the Happy Ending that Jesus promises in the Bible, and this was a great encouragement to him.
"Since I've met you, everything has changed. I feel like God is real and I know everything will be okay," he said. "I feel such peace when I'm around you!"
Martha is a precious 23-year-old former Muslim from Bosnia. She is also a talented musician and artist. She spent six months in a concentration camp, from which few people came out alive. As she and her family fled from Bosnia, they stopped for the night in a small village. During the night hostile forces took over the village and put everyone under house arrest. Many people were tortured and abused, but by a miracle no harm came to her or her family! Throughout that harrowing night, she prayed that she would survive and find a place where she could be at peace. She said that she found that place when she met us!
She has written out the words to all of our songs in her native language so she can sing them to the children she works with in the camp as she teaches them about Jesus.
Alec, a Family team member who is also Croatian, gave her his Bible. She was very touched. She said, "I have never before owned my own Book about God!" Now she's growing in the Word and faith.
We also met a 20-year-old boy who had been a soldier and had been seriously wounded by a bomb. He had been scheduled to be moved to a different camp in another country, but the very day he was to leave he became quite ill. Our team met him in the hospital and he received the Lord. He came to our Bible study the next week and was thrilled by it. "I want to live like you," he told us.
The next day our team saw him out in the little town the camp is in. He had managed to get a pass and was out witnessing! Using the Bible we had given him the day before, he was already telling others the Good News!
Then there is Daniella, a 15-year-old girl who is deaf and dumb, who wants to be with us every minute! She is a little simple-minded, but understands the spirit of what we are saying. Daniella doesn't know how to read, but that's just because no one has ever taken the time to work with her, as she has the potential to learn. Robert took up the challenge of teaching her, and by the end of her first sitting, she had learned three letters and her first word!
Rachel is a native of Yugoslavia and is thrilled to be participating in this ministry to help her own people. Following are a few of her experiences in the camp:
"To be ministering full-time to the refugees is a privilege for me. All we meet, young and old, are eager to hear the Word. Hundreds of people have received the Lord as their Saviour. Old Muslim grandmothers call us `Ambassadors of God' and `God's Children' when they see us. One older Christian lady told us that she read in the Bible that in the Endtime, God's children were going to tell people the truth of God. `I know you were sent from the Lord,' she said. Children also flock around us.
"I can really relate to their heartache because I am almost in the same position that they are. My parents just left the war zone and I don't know what has happened to them or the rest of my relatives. When I share that with the refugees, and when they see how I trust the Lord no matter what, it helps them to trust also!"
PRAYER REQUEST: Refugee camp ministries: that the Lord will supply open doors, funding and local language literature for Family teams ministering at refugee camps in Eastern Europe and elsewhere in the World, and that their witness will bear fruit that remains.
Pioneering a Juvenile Home Ministry!
Excerpts from reports from Homes in the U.S.A.
Juvenile detention homes are a very needy mission field. Considering the backgrounds that most of these kids come from, their present state and the future they face without the Lord, the Family is honestly about the only hope for these poor kids who the System has given up on.
In the U.S., these juvenile correctional facilities cover a broad spectrum, from large, institutionalised "detention camps"--which actually amount to youth prisons housing hundreds--to small "group homes" where a dozen or so boys or girls live on a probationary basis in semi-closed houses with a few adult counsellors.
Although the situation is beginning to get some attention, most of the general public isn't aware of the serious problems of these juvenile correctional facilities. First of all, there aren't enough of them and they're insufficiently staffed. In those respects, the situation with the juvenile homes is worse than the problem with the adult prison system in the U.S. And what's worse, because most of the people who run these centres don't have the Lord themselves, they have no real solutions or alternatives to offer these poor kids, so of course they succeed in helping very few to change their ways. Most return to their gangs and lives of crime almost as soon as they are released.
Our first contact with the juvenile homes in our area took place when a team went to follow up on two boys that our young adults, Rebecca and Matt, had met and led to the Lord on the beach. They phoned after their first visit and the overseer of the home invited us out to discuss how we could get more involved. He said they usually have tight restrictions on phone calls or visits, but after seeing the effect our young adults had on these two boys, he told us we could call or visit any time. He also wanted the other boys in the home to meet us, and we were happy to oblige.
The other ten boys were as hard as nails when we arrived. All are there for felonies: auto theft, rape, arson, assault and battery, attempted murder, etc. After a few songs and a skit, we witnessed one-on-one and six of the boys prayed with us to ask Jesus into their hearts. Then we watched our Video "20 Minutes to Go!" and they were captivated! Two of the boys recognised our Videos right away as they had seen "SOS" while in "the Hall" (the tough reformatory where they had served most of their sentences). Then we answered questions and got to pour out our hearts to them. By the time we had to leave, they were all shining and the spirit of the home was completely changed from when we first walked in! PTL! One of the boys even asked if we could all pray together before we left.
The house supervisor, psychiatrist, and therapists all commended us, saying that our teens had made more progress with these boys in two hours than they had in a year! They said that most of the boys had never opened up like that to anyone else.--And of course the boys also wanted us to come back.
The supervisor was anxious to introduce us to the directors of other juvenile homes and detention camps for both boys and girls, and we visited quite a few in the weeks that followed. When we saw how the kids are being handled in most of these situations, our hearts went out to them. There is so little love being shown to them. They're basically just herded around, told to keep their mouths shut and given very little to do. This leaves them with a lot of idle time, which, of course, results in them getting into more trouble.
The problem with juvenile delinquency is enormous and there are far more of these juvenile detention centres in our area than we could possibly ever minister to regularly, so the Lord showed us very early on that we needed to invest our teens' time and energies where they can really accomplish something. To be effective, we have found that these institutions need to receive us on our terms and with our Family Posters, Tapes and Videos, or we can't help them.
We visited a juvenile detention camp where the boys are under a tight military-type programme--real rough and tough. One of the boys said that about 90% of them were former gang members and that few of them make a decision to change their ways until they've gone through the programme at least three times. We performed for 82 boys, and then showed them "20 Minutes to Go!" We then led most of them in prayer to receive the Lord. PTL! We couldn't get in there one-on-one with these boys, however, as the administrators were concerned about our safety and this visit lacked the personal touch that we were able to have in the smaller "group homes."
Actually, this is the part of our visits that the administrators of the smaller homes are always the most impressed with--the personal time that we take with the kids. As they see our teens and adults working side by side and their kids responding and talking and pouring out, it just amazes them! When it's time to go, we make a special effort to really show them individual attention, giving them all hugs and telling them how much Jesus and we love them.
Our music also plays a major part. Songs from the early days of the Family, like "Traditional Chains", "I'm So Glad He Set Me Free!", "Born Free", etc., are still the heartcry of the youth of today and really reach them. Skits are another means of giving these kids our Message in a simple, yet powerful way that catches and holds their attention. As Dad explains in the Letters about how to teach babes and new disciples the Word, to really get through to these kids we have to get excited about the Word ourselves, act it out, jump up and down! The training that our teens have had in teaching and working with children's groups in our Homes has been great preparation for this ministry.
The director of one juvenile home for girls said that the girls probably wouldn't sit still for more than 15 minutes and might even flatly refuse to attend or participate. But after 30 minutes of songs, they didn't want us to stop! We did a skit for another 15 minutes, showed them "20 Minutes to Go!" and then talked to the girls individually for another hour. The director came in and said, "I don't know what you did to them, but I've never seen them sit still like that before; you really have a way with these kids!" This same director wrote in her letter of reference, introducing us to other homes: "I wholeheartedly recommend the Family for any detention home or juvenile centre that needs a positive influence for their teens' lives."
Another director inquired, "Does your group believe in dancing?" and asked if we could return for a Halloween party. "The boys were wondering if they could have some real live girls come. It will be heavily guarded, we promise!" We agreed on the condition that our girls could go dressed as angels. They see that we are so different from the churches, and they are constantly trying to think up new ways to get us to come and be a good influence on the boys.
After a few visits to one home, the boys were getting a little less respectful and attentive to the Message, so we prayed about it and the Lord showed us that they needed something a bit heavier to sort of shake them up--something on the Endtime. So we made up a skit from one of our Posters and called it "Mary the Martyr", and it really turned their key. Many of the boys now keep the Endtime Posters in their rooms, right beside their beds.
The assistant director at one home was quite sceptical about us in the beginning and said of Salvation and our Endtime Message, "I don't believe any of that stuff!" He was also always the one to strictly enforce the "house rules". Now he's gotten saved (he prayed with 16-year-old Noah), and bends the rules by letting the boys stay up late when we're there, or lifting punishments in some cases, so boys can attend who normally wouldn't be allowed to. He knows what a benefit we are to the boys spiritually.
One counsellor told us that he got into drugs himself when he was 13. He managed to get off, but because he wasn't given any other alternative, he became addicted again at 18.
"That's why it's so important to reach them now," we told him. "We need to give them an alternative so that they don't go back to their crime and drugs."
This man kept saying, "Your kids are so pure! I've never seen anything like this before. It's like a dream! To see kids so sweet out here trying to reach these hardened types is amazing!"
To really appreciate how the Lord is able to use our teens and young adults to reach these kids, you have to see the results on an individual basis. Take Jos, for example. The first time we met him, he was completely withdrawn, and it was pretty obvious that he was being pestered by some bad spirits. From what the counsellors said, ever since he arrived there he had never entered in with the other boys. They were having lots of problems with him, and they just didn't know what to do with the poor boy. Our team member, Andrew, spent some time with him, and although he was quite withdrawn, Jos got saved. Andrew also prayed against any spirits that were oppressing him and gave him a little class on the power of the Name of Jesus. By the end of the evening, Jos was beaming and entering in to the fellowship.
The counsellors said he was a completely changed person. Rebecca even overheard one of them on the phone telling someone else about it.
"You won't believe this," he said, "but Jos is really joining in."
Praise the Lord! This was such a testimony to the counsellors and psychiatrists who were there and the boys followed us out to the van, asking us to please not forget to call.
Witnessing at juvenile homes gives the teens a wonderful opportunity to witness to other teens who desperately need their help. Our teens also see how miserably the System has failed to help them, and it's a constant reminder to them of the fact that we really do have the answers to the problems these kids face. As far as the kids from these centres having a bad influence on our kids, thus far the contact has only borne good fruit. Our teens are able to witness firsthand what the World is really like. Every one of the kids in these homes has a traumatic testimony and tells it like it is--quite a contrast to the fairy tale image that the World tries so hard to portray of itself. Working in this ministry has caused our teens to appreciate and love the Family more than ever. Now they can better understand the hypocrisy of the World, and know without a shadow of a doubt that we have so much to offer! PTL!
PRAYER REQUEST: Juvenile home ministries: for the Lord to keep the doors open for our Homes that are engaged in juvenile home ministries; for more open doors; for good relations with authorities; for lasting fruit.
An Act of Kindness!
From Claire and Dominique, Europe
A few months ago, the front pages of all the local newspapers recounted a horror story of a lunatic who entered a restaurant and killed seven people. Only one person in the restaurant lived through it unharmed. It was the sort of story we wished we'd never seen and could forget forever. But the whole story hadn't yet been told.
One night, Dominique and I were trying to provision a meal for four of us. In a restaurant we had never visited before, the manager immediately agreed to help us. He gave us a delicious meal and took a personal interest in making sure we had everything we wanted. He was very sweet and we felt he was such a kindred spirit.
After the meal, we went over to talk to him and thanked him, saying, "We believe that God will truly bless you for your thoughtfulness and help."
"God has already blessed me," he said. "Until a few months ago, I had a little restaurant of my own, and one evening I helped another couple from your group with a free meal. They told me God would bless me, and He did--in the greatest way imaginable! I'm living now for the second time! Just a couple of nights later, an insane man dashed into the restaurant with a machine gun and started shooting wildly. It was horrible! Seven people died in my restaurant. I was the only one that survived."
Immediately after telling us his story he prayed with us to receive Jesus, right there in the very busy restaurant. "And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward" (Matthew 10:42).
A Young Adult Answers Charges Against The Family!
(Editor's note: Family teens and young adults worldwide have been demonstrating and picketing in front of Argentine embassies and in other public places, to protest our Family Members being unjustly and cruelly held in detention in Argentina. Tim, a young adult in a Family Home in California, wrote the following in response to a very negative letter from someone at a university:)
Dear Brad,
Greetings! Thank you for your answer to my note. I would like to address a few of the things you brought up.
It seems you have a somewhat biased view of the group that I am a member of, based completely on what you have heard in the media. This is quite disappointing, as normally you can expect academics, of all people, to know that you can't believe everything you read in the papers.
Do you know The Family? Have you ever visited one of our Homes? Do you know what we believe? Can you say you've come to your conclusions fairly, based on research of your own, or are you just accepting the popular negative stereotypes of small religious groups?
I am 20 years old. I have been a member of The Family my whole life. I have lived in Family communities in Japan, India, the Philippines, Mexico and Brazil, as well as the U.S.A. I know quite a few of the ones who were arrested, and I have quite a few good friends down there.
The accusations being made against The Family right now are not new. Beginning about 1970, our group became the target for a group of mercenary faithbreakers, or deprogrammers. "C.A.N." or "Cult Awareness Network" had its roots in those early days of persecution. The charge in those days was being "Communist subversives", exercising so-called "brainwashing" and "mind control" (which has since been proven to be baseless cold-war propaganda, and has been rejected by the American Psychological Association, and countless other researchers).
Then as time went on and our group became international (we now are only 25% American), we became the brunt of a dizzying barrage of stereotyped accusations. In the Mideast and India our detractors called us "Fundamentalist Christian subversives". Then as The Family went to Christian countries, they said we were "New Age infiltrators". They told the Russians and the Chinese we were "CIA-supported", and so on.
Now "child abuse" is the big hysteria, the ultimate allegation, the automatic guilty-until-proven-innocent charge, and so what do you know, suddenly we find ourselves being falsely accused of that. Who knows what it'll be five years from now! Will we be "threats to the environment"?--Probably whatever is the scare at that time.
The point I'm trying to make is that these names are nothing but stereotypes, no different than the ones the Nazis used on the Jews, or that were used on the African-Americans, or for that matter, were used on the Branch Davidians! Take a look back through history.--Many of the worst tyrants this World has ever known were "anti-cultists", and their technique is always the same: Make up an incredible story, have it announced by the government, published by the media, and most of the average people will believe it.
To specifically answer some of the allegations, The Family does not believe that sex has anything to do with Salvation. We believe Salvation comes through receiving Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour (John 3:16). We believe in the Bible as the infallible Word of God. We believe in the divinity of Christ. We are Christians. To call us a "cult" is unfair, the same as calling an African-American a "nigger". It is a pejorative label, and has no place in a society that is supposed to grant religious liberty to all beliefs, no matter how large or small.
There is no child abuse in The Family! We have been investigated in Australia, Spain, France and many other places. Over 600 of our children have been examined by child protection agencies to date, and not one bit of evidence of any abuse whatsoever has been found. Despite the ridiculous statements by the corrupt Argentine Judge Marquevich*, the head of the team of doctors who examined the children in Argentina reported finding no evidence that would support the charges against us. (*Marquevich was under investigation for various ethical violations when he ordered the raids on our communities. Many in Argentina think he has pounced on us to distract attention from his legal troubles, and somehow become a "hero" through all this.)
In closing I would just like to urge you, regardless of religion, race or belief, to remain open-minded, investigate for yourself, and avoid the spirit of bigotry and hate that so many are now preaching. When the ones that are taking our children today come for you and yours tomorrow, you may wish you hadn't stood by and said nothing when they attacked us. Liberty and justice for all means exactly that, for A-L-L. As soon as you start subtracting from that, it's just a few short steps before it's liberty and justice for NONE!
Sincerely,
Timothy Richards
P.S.: By the way, Father David, the founder of our group, was never a Methodist preacher; he was a pastor with the Christian and Missionary Alliance, but that was many years before he founded our group. He is currently 74 and lives in seclusion, while continuing to write messages of comfort and instruction to his followers.
Family Education--A Lot to Be Proud Of!
Young Adult Gets One of Highest Scores in College-level Midwife Course!
From Sara (18), U.S.:
(When this was written, Sara had attended seven births, five with Rose, a Family Member who is a trained, professional midwife.)
After four years of wanting to be a midwife, I had received news that I would have the opportunity to be trained by Rose, and I was very excited! I was waiting to find out how and when I would be joining her, when I received a phone call from her telling me that she was enrolling me in a midwifery course. (Auntie Praise was going to take it as well, and therefore would be able to help me.) I had no idea what I was getting myself into!--It turned out that it was an intense college course jammed into one week--10 hours a day, with lots of homework.
I had just turned 18 and had completed my schooling within the Family, rather than in secular school, while everyone else in the course was either already a midwife, a nurse, or a college graduate, and all of them in their thirties or older. So I think a lot of them were quite surprised to see such a young girl taking the course.
After the first day, I must admit that I was a little discouraged, as there was just so much to learn, and they used a lot of medical terminology that I just didn't understand. When I got home, my sweet Shepherd, Steven Piper, really encouraged me, and told me to keep fighting and that the Lord was going to have His way. So I didn't have to worry about failing--which was my main fear, Lord help me--but I just needed to really pray and do my best.
So the course continued, and I studied and studied, about six hours a day on top of the 10 hours of class. I was so thankful for Auntie Praise's help and encouragement, as I don't think I would have made it without her. God bless her! It really made me thankful for the Family, as I was under a lot of pressure studying so much and not getting as much Word time as usual. But I was so thankful for such a heavenly Home to come home to, with people who I knew loved and cared about me, and most of all, people who I knew were praying for me. Thank the Lord for such a wonderful Family!
It made my heart go out to other teens who go through courses like this. I could see why teens commit suicide or take uppers*. They can be under so much pressure constantly, with often no one to turn to for help, encouragement, or prayer.--Plus other problems such as parents, relationships, or even getting things they need, like food, rent, or a job--and many don't have Jesus to turn to. I think that's why so many just give up and quit. I know I would have, if I didn't know the Lord, as it's just too much. Sometimes I don't think we realise how good we have it in the Family, but I'll tell you, this course really opened my eyes to all the blessings that the Lord has given me! (*uppers--drugs which speed up the body metabolism, which students sometimes take so they can stay awake and study)
Every day we would have classes on different subjects, and although I was behind on some, it was amazing to see how advanced I was in some of the most important things that they emphasised in the course, such as nutrition, exercise, baby care, etc. To us they are quite simple things that anyone in the Family knows, because of Grandpa being so faithful to teach us about how to keep healthy and take care of our bodies. I was amazed to see how little these women knew about these things; to me it was almost funny! They would ask questions like: "What's wrong with white sugar?"--or other junk foods, and they were really serious. They had just never been taught how to take care of themselves, and by looking at some of their overweight figures and rotten teeth you could really tell.Poor people! Thank the Lord for Grandpa!
(Editor's note: We often don't appreciate or even realise the advanced training we have in the Family--in things that the experts think are very important. To us it's part of everyday life, but to the outside World, it's college-level education!)
Our mommies in the Family are so beautiful and can have babies (often lots of them) and still be healthy and strong, even though they are getting older. Their good health is not only because they have Jesus and the Lord's Spirit, but I think it's also because of all that our women have learned about taking care of themselves.
So finally the day of the exam came and I was quite nervous, but I knew that I had done my best and that the rest was up to the Lord. I knew He would have His way. The Home laid hands on Auntie Praise and me and prayed desperately for us, God bless them! When we got there and the instructor handed out the exam, I was so nervous my knees were knocking and my hands were shaking. So I just prayed that the Lord would shake my hand to the right answer! Ha!
It was a two-hour exam and I did it in about 30 minutes. I was the second person out of the room. It wasn't that the questions were so easy for me, but I was just taking it by faith that because I had prayed, Jesus would speak first in my heart, before the Devil would come in with any doubts or wrong ideas, as Grandpa has taught us. (See "Stop! Look! Listen!" by Father David.) So I didn't want to go back and change any of my answers as I was trusting that the Lord had led me in what I wrote.
For the next few hours I waited for the exam results. I was so nervous it was funny, Lord help me! The Lord was really trying to teach me to trust Him. When the instructor finally finished grading the papers and called my name to come and get my paper, it was like everything went into slow motion. I looked at my paper and it was a 90%! I needed 80% to pass, so the Lord really answered prayer!
All the other women in the class were very interested in what grade I got, as I was so young. So they all shouted out, "Hey, Sara, what did you get?" I told them my score and they were very surprised as I had scored higher than some of them. It was such a miracle! It turned out that I had received one of the highest marks in the class, with a few people not even passing. So it was quite a testimony to the Lord's help. I told them all that my good grade was because I had lots of people praying for me.
To be honest, before taking this course I had a few doubts about not being "educated" and I didn't think I would do so well if I ever had to be tested to make sure I was up to par in my schooling. But after taking this course I could clearly see that just by being in the Family and reading the Letters I have learned a lot in many different areas.
(Editor's note: Our Family schooling goes way beyond the scholastic workbooks our students use. We learn from many other very valuable sources, such as the Letters, the volumes of Family literature, book reviews, documentaries, exposure to many cultures, experience in a wide range of activities and ministries, personal one-on-one training--the list goes on and on! Our Family education usually reaches college level in the subjects we learn about. Just as a doctor doesn't take courses in law, we don't have detailed study in areas that don't pertain to our work for the Lord. But in the fields of study we are involved in, we are experts, qualified to instruct others! The head of a home schooling organisation referred to our Family parents as "professional parents" because their care of their children is so professional and well done!)
In the Family we are also taught how to tune in and concentrate, and this really helped me with my studies. When I went to secular school when I was younger, I was a terrible student and didn't know anything about applying myself and putting my whole heart into things. The Family is a wonderful environment to learn in.
Now I'm travelling with Rose, helping Family mothers with their births, and I can really see how anointed and full of faith Rose is compared to midwives who don't have the Lord. It's so beautiful to see Family births, as the mommies are so full of faith. A birth is such a special time for the whole Home, because the baby is a new disciple and considered very special by everyone. In the System lots of mommies are all by themselves with no one to help them--either they are single or the husband is at work. A lot of them don't know anything about taking care of babies, or maybe they have other children to take care of on top of the new baby.
In the course I took, I saw a lot of birth videos and heard about several unfortunate birth experiences. Sometimes in the Family our mothers do run into a few complications during births, but we know that the Lord is in control and He can do miracles, and usually He is just testing our faith. If you're not depending on the Lord, a birth could be scary, because anything can happen, and if you haven't placed yourself in His hands, you wouldn't have the peace of knowing that He is going to keep and protect you. But when we've asked the Lord to take control, we can have faith that nothing can happen in a birth or in any situation that He doesn't allow and that He won't take care of, thank the Lord. That gives me a lot of faith! We have that peace and reassurance that only Jesus can give. "Casting all your care upon Him, for He careth for you" (1Pet.5:7). (Editor's note: For situations that require medical expertise, the Family does not hesitate to get help from qualified professionals. [See Quotations from Father David, section D.,2.])
Well, I learned a lot in this course about midwifery, but the main thing I learned was how much we have in the Family to be thankful for. We have a lot to be proud of!--A lot of Heaven on Earth, and I wouldn't give it up for anything! We've got it all!
With lots of love to my wonderful Family,
Sara
Disaster!
From the Benelux Family Witnessing at the Site of the El Al Plane Disaster in Amsterdam
At 6:30 p.m. on Sunday, October 4, 1992, an El Al (Israeli) Boeing 747 cargo plane crashed into an apartment building in the Bijlmer area of Amsterdam, killing nearly 250 people and injuring many more. Fuel spewing from the exploding plane caused a huge fire that destroyed more apartments than the crash itself. By a miracle, the airplane hit the building at a point where the structure was strongest. Had it hit only a few metres to either side, much more of the building would have crumbled and there would have been many more casualties. Even so, hundreds were left homeless and the entire area had to be evacuated. It was the worst land disaster caused by a plane crash in Europe's history. Several days later, a team from the Family arrived at the scene, comprised of Uncle Jonathan, Uncle Jahmai, and teens Lily (17), Marie(17), Michael (16) and Joshua (16). This is their story:
After setting up in a nearby apartment we went to the Sports Centre, which had been set up as a shelter for the people who had lost their homes in the crash. As it turned out, no one was allowed to enter the building without a pass from the City Office. We asked to see the head of the Red Cross, as we wanted to offer our services, but when he came to the door he told us that there were more "helpers" inside than there were victims. In light of this, we decided to witness in front of the Centre, as there were a lot of broken people there also. In the face of this disaster, many of them had begun to think more about life, death, and the Lord. This was a golden opportunity and many readily prayed with us to receive Jesus.
One man leaning against his car, and in the depths of despair, had lost his brother and sister in the crash. He was already a Christian but was very thankful for someone to pray with him, and for the reassurance that he would meet his brother and sister again on the Other Side. We also met other Christians, whom we were able to comfort and strengthen through the Word.
The manager of a nearby McDonald's fast-food restaurant, who donated our first dinner, turned out to be very sweet and helpful. As we explained our mission he told us, "I'm already giving food to the people at the shelter via the Salvation Army. Why don't you eat there?" When we explained that we were working outside the Centre he immediately phoned the man in charge of food distribution at the shelter and then gave us his name. "Go see Mr. So-and-so. He's expecting you for a meal!" Sure enough, when we arrived this man came out and ushered us past the security guards at the door. The Lord had answered our prayers to witness inside the shelter, but in a way we never would have guessed!
Once inside, he politely explained that this was quite an exception, so he could only do this once. He also asked that we sit together and leave as soon as we had eaten. We got our plates, found a strategic place to sit, and began eating very slowly. The Lord had done one miracle in getting us in, now we needed another to keep us there long enough to make the most of this special opportunity.
Almost immediately, we spotted quite a few pastors, psychiatrists, social workers, and other volunteers, but they weren't doing much. Most sat and talked among themselves, waiting for people to come to them. Even the Salvation Army volunteers, who were giving a lot of physical attention and help, didn't seem to be ministering to people spiritually, which was much more important. The several "Christian psychiatrists" weren't witnessing but simply seeking to help people "loose their emotions". They had no solutions to give these poor folks, sad to say.
We met a lot of precious people there and 14 souls got saved that night. One very sweet man who worked there said he had seen our Posters while in Romania. He was pleasantly surprised to see us witnessing, and he tried every way he could think of to get us official permission to be able to return, but to no avail. Despite this apparent closed door, we were thrilled to see how the Lord had led us thus far and took heart in the knowledge that He had a perfect plan for this endeavour. All we had to do was follow.
Before embarking on our second day of witnessing, we read Father David's Letters such as "Why Disasters?" and "The Victorious Graduation!" We had already witnessed firsthand how the Lord had used this disaster to turn many people to Him. Studying these explanations of the good that can come even out of tragedy helped us encourage others we met in the days that followed.
Close to the site of the accident, we soon found an ideal witnessing spot--a small walking bridge from which the blackened ruins could be clearly seen only a short distance away. As we witnessed to the many people who were staring at the building and taking pictures, we encountered different reactions.
Most said, "Yes, I know God is real and I want to receive Jesus!" but a few said, "There is no God!" or, "I don't want to hear about a God Who would allow such a terrible thing to happen!" or, "It's none of my business and I don't really care." Soon we learned to avoid the cynics while seeking out the sheep, who were so many. Twenty-one more people received Jesus with us that morning.
We decided to have one more try at getting into the shelter, but when we got there we found the controls even tighter than they had been the previous day. Fences had been put up and instead of the five policemen at the entrance, there must have been 20. (We found out later that this was due to a wave of abuse and crime inside.)
After counsel and earnest prayer together, we teens marched up with an official bearing and instead of asking "Would it be possible...?" or, "Could we...?" as we had the day before, we boldly pronounced, "We're going in to talk to the people, comfort them and sing them songs!"--And it worked! Once we teens were safely inside, our adult partners approached the same policeman and asked, "Did you just let four teens in here? Well we're overseeing them!" and with a bit more persuasion, they got in too!
We met a couple of men who had been involved in the rescue operation on the night the plane crashed.
"Yes, I do believe in Jesus," one of them testified. Then he went on to tell us how God had helped him rescue two people trapped in one of the apartments. He ran right through the flames, grabbed the two people, and escaped without a single burn. Later, while trying to enter a fourth floor apartment, he said he wasn't able to break the window, but that all of a sudden, and with no plausible explanation, a stone flew up from the street below, straight towards him. He caught it, broke the window, and was able to rescue the people inside. He then testified that he knew that without Jesus he would not have lived through that rescue mission.
"Not now," he told an official that tried to pull him away just as he was about to pray with us. "We're praying. The meeting will have to wait!" Everyone around us took notice.
We started seeing more and more that those who needed the most encouragement at that time were the volunteers. They had been giving of themselves for days with scarcely a word of thanks from the people they were helping, and they were very receptive and appreciative.
We spent the next day at the bridge, and again won lots of souls. Then the following day, the last day of our stay, there was a memorial procession from the shelter to the site of the crash. From a big stage that had been erected in front of the Sports Centre, a group sang songs such as "Just a Closer Walk" and "Amazing Grace". At least ten thousand people turned out for the procession, which was organised into different ethnic groups (of which there are many in Amsterdam), and each group was allowed to mourn in their own way. In the face of such numbers, we felt we could witness most effectively by simply giving out the Posters. (Editor's note: The Family's large colour Posters have beautiful artwork on topics such as Heaven, how to have peace in the midst of chaos, what happens when people die, and many other subjects, each one with a message of comfort and hope on the back.) They started going out like hot cakes! People took them left and right! Soon we realised that we hadn't brought nearly enough and a team had to return to our base for more.
After the lead members of one group of about 70 or 80 took Posters, other hands came from everywhere. By the time their line had passed and they all had Posters, the people in the front started waving theirs in the air and those behind them followed. The whole group was waving Posters as they passed before the big TV Luxembourg cameras!
Some people left their places in the procession to come back for more. Even a group of policemen taking part in the march got Posters. We distributed over 2,250 Posters during the procession! As it started to drizzle, people who were reading Posters carefully tucked them away in their coats or purses so they wouldn't get wet.
Later, we saw that someone had used a Poster to make a little shrine on the fence surrounding the devastated building. There, without any other piece of literature or picture in sight, was our Poster surrounded by flowers.
At the march, we met a very sweet nun from an international missionary society. She was happy to see young people like us preaching the Gospel, and was impressed when she heard that we had witnessed at the Sports Centre.
"I tried to get in myself," she said, "but they wouldn't let me, so I prayed that someone else would be able to get in there who could really help those people spiritually."
Well, the Lord answered her prayers, and all of ours as well, making this road trip tremendously fruitful and inspiring.--A truly unforgettable experience! God bless our brethren who stayed home and filled in for us and upheld us with their prayers. They made it possible for us to go, and we couldn't have done it without them!
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family