FSM 156

(FN 265) DO

Copyright: January 1990

By Family Services, Zurich, Switzerland

ARTICLES WRITTEN & CONTRIBUTED DIRECTLY BY MISSIONARIES ON THE FIELD!

—Victories & Guidelines!

By Juan, LACRO

It was very inspiring for us while visiting the States to realise that, although the Gospel has been preached there for many years & they've probably received more Gospel than anywhere else in the World, there are still many people who are hungry & seeking the Truth. The American public continue to write beautiful reactions to our Posters & Tapes which shows that there is great potential for distributing these tools in the U.S. PTL!

There's a whole new generation to reach right now that feels quite disillusioned with all that is happening in the U.S.A. Many who may have rejected our message when the Revolution for Jesus started, are NOW looking for the answer, because they have not found peace or fulfillment in riches or whatever they have been involved in for the last 15 or 20 years. Not only that, but now they're raising children or teenagers & there's such a hunger for good material for children!

All the people we talked to, System people & Family members alike, said people are actually SCARED of what is happening to the youth in the U.S.A.!—The television programmes & the different magazines that are produced for children & teens are creating a very evil society! So if we come along with our Tapes, Posters & Videos, knowing that we have what can HELP these people, then I'm sure that they'll receive us—& they have the money to help with good donations too!

The brethren whom we talked to in the States explained that when they present our Posters or Tapes to the general public, very very few people relate them to the COG or FOL. There are many areas of the States, such as some of the northern States, that have hardly been touched & the people could hardly even remember our name or who we were. There are many Christians who gladly receive our message—they GLADLY take our tools & like them very much! PTL!

So it is very encouraging that, although we do have long-standing enemies in the States who are trying to disrupt our Work & cause problems to the Family, the Lord has kept & protected us.—And our main witnessing tools, our Posters, Tapes & Videos, have NOT been very exposed to the public yet & therefore the potential for the distribution of these tools is practically limitless! PTL!

A testimony from Mexico clearly demonstrates how very fruitful the U.S. can also be to help raise support for OTHER fields. This testimony was a case of "necessity is the mother of invention", as the saying goes, because it came about as the Mexican leadership was praying about how to put the School Vision into effect. Finances had been one of the main obstacles to setting up Schools in Latin America as it requires large sums of money to secure a large property to house the students & to get set up, be it a boarding School, a daytime School or whatever type of School.

So after praying about it, the Mexican leadership proposed that each GAS area in the Mexico-Central American area donate their two best witnessers to go on a faith trip to the States for about a month's time to witness & press-in to generate funds to open the Schools needed in Mexico & Central America.

When carrying through this plan, they were very pleasantly surprised to find the people in the States are SO receptive to our message & READILY accept our Posters! In five weeks, these road teams distributed over 50,000 Posters which generated such a large amount of funds that they were able to pay all their expenses, pay for their Posters & open all the Schools!—Plus they were able to send a large donation to WS! PTL!

All this to say, our Family in the States not only has the opportunity to distribute the message to the hungry sheep there, but they also can generate funds to not only support themselves, but to support the FIELD that they came from as well. Like the example of Sophie the Washerwoman: Although many families have had to return to their Home Field, they can STILL be helping to win souls in the field from whence they came through their support!—As well as help by sending funds to WS for the publication & the production of the tools which are so desperately needed.

While thinking about the tremendous potential of this Home Field & looking at the history of our Family there, I came to the conclusion that perhaps the only thing that could hinder our Family from distributing our Posters, Tapes & Videos in the States or any of our Home Fields for that matter, would be our own state of mind or ATTITUDE. It seems like many of the families who returned from the mission field to the States first took a needed rest. Of course, these returning missionary families DESERVE this time of rest & recuperation after having spent many years on the mission field, & to facilitate this the Lord has supplied a means of support through welfare or food stamps. But what often happened is that they LOST their missionary's heart & attitude, & didn't really get back on the attack after their time of rest & recuperation.

So although government aid can really be a blessing at first to help those who are returning get set up & re-established in their new Home Field, it seems that this can also have its drawbacks.—On one hand, it is a real benefit & helps them get started; but on the other hand, if abused & if they don't keep the attitude of pressing-in & being a part of the most missionary-minded group in the whole World, it is easy to become lazy because they don't have to fight for their daily bread.

While evaluating the past tendencies of returning missionaries it became apparent that some took too much of a "relaxed" attitude or else they put the cart before the horse by being so involved with getting set up & doing things for themselves, that they forgot our main commission, which is to preach the Gospel to every creature. So it seems it is easy for our brethren, even those who are accustomed to the rigorous life-style of foreign missionaries, to settle down in the States if they don't make a CONSCIENTIOUS EFFORT to keep on the ATTACK! So, although with the new "Tighten the Family Rules" many of these problems have now been remedied, it seems this could still serve as a good warning for returnees to the Home Field.

In closing I would like to mention again that it is very encouraging to see that the Lord has blinded the eyes of our enemies in the U.S. in that our tools have not been too high profile, so these tools are ready to hit the streets & people are readily accepting them & liking them.—All we have to do is be willing to do it, & the Lord is blessing it! PTL!

"A lot of your Home Fields now have become real mission fields! We were there once & saturated them, but we've been gone a long time while we reached the rest of the World!...You haven't yet reached this NEXT generation back home! We've got to do it! You're going back to an entirely NEW GENERATION! We reaped ONE generation & YOU'RE IT! Now you've gotta go back & reap the generation that never knew us! They may have heard about us, mostly bad, but they haven't SEEN us & MET the SAMPLES & been really given the Word or had a real opportunity of DECISION...GBAKY WITNESSING, WINNING SOULS & MAKING DISCIPLES WHEREVER you are!" (ML #2387, "It's Almost Over!")

Much love, Juan

The Lord's Supply for a Teen Bus Team to the U.S.!

Written by Gallio, Latin America

This testimony is coming to you from one of the Latin American Teen Homes which has really been exploding with teen power! The Lord provided a beautiful Home for the teens out in the countryside with lots of physical projects to keep everyone moving & inspired. We also have lots of fruitful witnessing spots in the surrounding area which our teens hit on the weekends.

However, with so many on-fire teens, we were feeling the need to do more, not only to keep the teens envisioned & growing, but also to get out & witness more. During the visit of one of our dear Shepherds, the idea came up of getting a bus & invading the U.S. with a road team faith trip. We were all excited about the idea, & when we shared this vision with the teens everyone was wholeheartedly behind it! We really felt it was the Lord's plan...& this is where our testimony begins. PTL!

As the quote goes, "The longest journey begins with the first step", & our first step was to get down in desperate prayer, crying out to the Lord for His help, leading & provision. Then after counselling together with the leadership of the Home, it was decided that Arthur, Luke (of Comfort) & I would drive up to the border & see if we could locate a bus in the southern U.S.A. which we could purchase & fix up. Arthur & Luke are both excellent handymen & mechanics, & they had the faith to find a bus & outfit it as a mobile home for the teens.

The night before our departure, we got the whole Home together & the teens laid hands on us & prayed that the Lord would anoint us to find the right bus to fix up, & that He would supply all of our needs. We got several prophecies about the Lord's provision which were very encouraging for us all. The next morning, the three of us headed for the U.S.

After a safe journey, we arrived on a Friday afternoon. As soon as we got into town, we began looking at all the used car lots for the bus that we felt the Lord had waiting for us. After an afternoon of checking on buses throughout the city & the surrounding area, we found many possibilities, although none of them seemed to be JUST the RIGHT ONE. We spent the night in the Home & went to bed feeling very encouraged that the Lord was going to do it.

The next morning we got up with the sun & had real good prayer that the Lord would lead & guide us. We had very definite ideas of what we wanted, & we didn't intend to take second best. However, after a full morning of searching & driving up & down the highway, we seemed to have exhausted all the possibilities in that area.

At this point, Arthur suggested we drive off the main highway & down a small side street, which he had a witness from the Lord to look down. I have to admit, at this point Luke & I were not quite so enthusiastic about this idea, as it didn't really look like the kind of road where you would come across a bus. Anyway, we went ahead as Arthur felt so strongly about it. But after driving for 10 or 15 minutes (which is quite a long time when you're poking along looking for a bus), we had seen ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, not even one used car lot. Then Luke commented, "Well, there's really nothing along this road...except for...that BUS over there!"

Just at that moment we came across a lawnmower repair shop, & there parked in the lot was an ugly, old bus. It certainly had "no form nor comeliness that we should desire it", but it was the body type & model of bus that we were looking for. So we decided to at least have a look at it to make our trip down this road worthwhile.

As Arthur & I began to look around the bus, Luke went over to ask if the owner was around. We met a sweet country fellow named Ben who mentioned that the bus was not for sale, that he had only just gotten it himself & was intending to fix it up for his own personal use. On the surface the bus was not at all good looking, it had all sorts of stickers all over it & peeled paint. The windshield had a big hole in it, & the bus was painted an awful red & white colour. The inside had been fixed up as a camper, but was very old, dark, musty & unappealing.

I noticed that Arthur was not around, & soon I found him lying underneath the bus checking everything out. When he came out from under the bus, his face was beaming. He said, "Wow, this is in EXCELLENT condition underneath & it's just the kind of suspension that we were looking for!" This gave us more faith to ask the man to start it up. So he turned over the engine which started right away & just purred like a kitten. So suddenly this huge, ugly monster began to look a little more promising. We all started to see the potential of it & looked beyond the mere physical appearance.

Right away Luke, who is a real faithful witness, began to explain to the man why we were needing a bus. He explained that we are Christian missionaries & that we were planning on taking a group of teenagers touring around the United States witnessing & telling people about Jesus. At this point, the owner just completely changed & said, "Well, you know, that's the same business I'm in. I've got a bus that I take down into Mexico & I just park it & get my PA system & give the people the Gospel." He wasn't affiliated with any church, he just did this mission work on his own with a few other Christian friends.

He then confessed that he really had no intentions of selling the bus, but if we wanted it he would give it to us at his rock-bottom cost, exactly what he paid for it, which was quite a bit less than what we were expecting to have to pay. He then began to be real honest & tell us all the good points & bad points of the bus. It seemed that the bus was in very good mechanical condition but just needed a face-lift, so to speak. We then took a test drive down the highway in the bus, & it drove like a dream.

Although we all felt the real witness of the Spirit that this was the bus the Lord had for us, we decided to take a little time to pray about it to be really certain that this was the one. Then after about an hour of prayer, counsel & discussion, going over all the good points & bad points etc, we came to the conclusion that this was it!

We then raced back to the place, told the man we wanted it, & bought it right on the spot. We went with the owner over to a friend of his (one of his Christian friends who went with him on his outreaches in Mexico), & asked if he would please notarise the papers. His friend, Lonnie, looked at him in shocked amazement & asked in his long Southern drawl, "Why Ben, why did you sell this bus to these fellers?" To which Ben replied, "I don't know! I just felt like the Lord wanted me to!"

The days to follow were nothing short of miraculous as we saw the Lord supply our every need. Frequently Arthur would stay to work on the bus while Luke & I went running around looking for provisionments & picking up parts & needs, etc. Sometimes we would all three go together if it was something that we needed to counsel on, like the purchase of a camper refrigerator or other items. We usually worked on the bus until 9:00 or 10:00 p.m. each day.

Although we had hoped to complete the bus within a week, we found things took a little longer than we expected, & it was quite a project to outfit a bus to accommodate a fulltime mobile team living on the road. To help us meet our deadline, Andreas & Victory, who would be accompanying the teen road team, drove up in their van from the Teen Home with the teen girls. They worked on provisioning the foam mattresses & the material for the covers & the curtains that we needed for the bus. The Lord miraculously led them & they were able to not only get the foam mattresses, but provision the help of a sweet man who sewed all the covers for the mattresses. This was actually quite a big job & saved us not only a lot of the Lord's money, but also lots of valuable time.

The Lord did it, & after about 2-1/2 weeks of work it was finished! PTL! Bunks & sleeping places for 14 people had been installed, along with three dining tables, travelling seats, a toilet, stove, refrigerator, sink, curtains & even tinted windows—all the luxuries of home! This even included a complete spray paint job on the outside which completely changed the whole spirit of the bus. Our motto throughout this project was "Speed, not perfection", & although we did have to cut a lot of corners & sacrifice a little style, etc. the Lord still helped the bus to turn out quite well.

A day or two before the bus team pulled out to hit the road, Arthur & Luke took the bus by Ben's to pick up a spare tire & also let him see the work done on the bus. When they drove up, Ben hardly even recognised the bus, it was so completely changed. His eyes were popping out & his jaw dropped when he looked at the inside & what a beautiful job had been done in outfitting the bus, & he just shook his head & said, "I just don't understand it! I had no intention of selling this bus! This is what I wanted to do—I wanted to fix this bus up like this! I don't know why in the world I sold you this bus!" Then Arthur jumped in & said, "Well, you were the answer to about 50 teenagers' prayers, who had all been desperately praying for the Lord to supply the right bus so that they could get out on the road & witness for Jesus! You were the answer to their prayers!" This really touched Ben's heart & he just praised the Lord & said how thankful he was to have helped to be the answer to their prayers.

So this bus was really a miracle, as from start to finish—finding the bus, making repairs, getting the supplies needed, fixing it up to pass State inspection, getting insurance, etc.—it all took less than three weeks. Luke, who has had a lot of experience in locating, purchasing & fixing up buses like this, said he had never seen anything happen so fast before. So we wanted to really give the Lord all the glory & testify what a complete miracle this whole operation was. So now the bus is on the road & rolling & we've received lots of inspiring testimonies from the teens we hope to share with you soon. GBY! WLY!

(EDITOR'S NOTE: LET'S HEAR THOSE TESTIMONIES, TEENS! PLEASE WRITE IN SO WE CAN SHARE THE GOOD NEWS OF ALL THE LORD IS DOING IN YOUR PART OF THE WORLD! PTL! WLY!)

LIFE BEGINS AT 40!—As He Increases & I Decrease!

From Sam Newman (Singin' Sam), Latin America

I wanted to testify of a miracle the Lord has recently done in my life concerning my problem with being overweight. Maybe this will be a help to someone else since many Family members are now in their late 30's or early 40's & experiencing what is commonly know as "the middle-aged spread"!

From the time I became "my own boss" & had access to my own refrigerator & could pretty much eat whatever & whenever I wanted, I began to put on weight. By the time I was 25, I was very overweight & have been, on & off, ever since. At one point I tried a carbohydrate diet which lets you eat all the protein you want, but you can't eat many vegetables & fruit & hardly any starch. I lost quite a bit of weight, but ended up getting very sick, & in the end I gained it all back anyway.

I recently read in a magazine that in order to lose weight permanently, you have to change your eating HABITS! I loved cakes, cookies, ice cream & lots of starches like bread, french fries, fried foods & junk food!—So because of my perverted appetite, I couldn't keep my weight down no matter how hard I tried (or THOUGHT I tried).

As I got older it got harder & harder to lose the rapidly accumulating weight. And to make matters worse, I adopted the attitude of, "Well, I'm almost 40 & my body is deteriorating anyway, so what's the use of getting in shape or even trying to keep my weight down anyway?" As I was getting older I sort of gave up, like the Systemite who died at 30 & was buried at 60. I started to look at the teen boys with their young, strong, healthy bodies, & then I looked in the mirror at my aging, fat, weakening vessel, & I got tired just THINKING about doing something about my worsening condition.

Being overweight was a serious problem which was hindering my service for the Lord & causing me to be overly-concerned about my appearance & to fall under the condemnation of the Devil. In my case it was a physical manifestation of a spiritual problem, one that had become so serious that a decision had to be made, starting with desperate prayer & laying on of hands! I knew if I was going to change, it would take a miracle of God. And that's exactly what happened, God did a miracle in my life! PTL!

While at the HC School, the Lord was teaching me many lessons, one of which was to PRAY about everything. If there's anything I learned there, it was to pray over everything, & about everything & for everything, & I was able to witness miracle after miracle as a result. So I asked for DESPERATE PRAYER & a laying on of hands for my weight problem & some other serious spiritual problems that the Lord was trying to help me with as well. I prayed against a SPIRIT OF GLUTTONY & EXCESS as well as against pride, rebellion & many other things.

At the beginning of 1989 I had prayed that the Lord would help me to lose 30 kilos, but I didn't see how it was going to happen. However, after I had united prayer, I felt a lot better & had HOPE, but knew it was still going to be a FIGHT! A couple of months later in the Video Department devotions, I asked for desperate prayer AGAIN, & asked the brethren there to really help me to take a stand against this NAGGING PROBLEM OF BEING FAT. I knew for sure that I couldn't do it, because I had been trying for almost 10 years to lose the 30 extra kilos I had accumulated from bad eating habits & having a sedentary job & hardly getting any Get Out to boot.

Right around this time, I WAS ABLE TO CONFESS SOME VERY SERIOUS SINS that I had been harbouring for years, & I felt so free!—It was like being born again! It was like a heavy burden had been lifted off my shoulders, & I felt so close to Jesus, like never before.

I stopped eating ice cream, birthday cake, SECONDS & started drinking lots of water, getting at least one hour of vigorous exercise daily, & almost immediately the pounds started to shed. I took one whole day to read everything Dad had said about health & losing weight, & went over the back WNDs, reading about food, exercise & anything that had to do with health which had been the subject that I had been the LEAST CONCERNED ABOUT up until that point. THE WORD REALLY HELPED ME as I knew so little about what it had to say about health, & I discovered that so much has been written about it! So it really helped me to continue on.

It was also a blessing to have people around me who were constantly encouraging me to keep going. God bless the dear kitchen folks who many times would give me my portion of the protein separate (like the pregnant & nursing girls), so as to avoid the yummy & rich sauces that we have in our one-pot meals. I know the one-pot meals are really good for us, & under normal circumstances it is good to just eat what is set before you—moderately & as much as your body needs. But my situation had gotten to the point where I had to declare war on my obesity & get pretty radical about it or I knew I would start excusing myself & letting myself get away with a little here & there until I was back to my old habits again.

I also studied books about how many calories are in foods & tried to stay away from big "no-no's" like peanut butter, fried foods, cheese, granola & lots of bread, butter, mayonnaise etc. Another thing that really helped was weighing in every week & noting my weight on a little graph in my notebook that I kept to follow my progress & see how I was doing.

It wasn't easy at first! I even went overboard with the exercise & got a mild hernia at one point from doing too many sit-ups & then riding a bike up & down 25 kilometers of hills! But the Lord healed me of that, & I learned a good lesson on moderation & just obeying what it says in the Letters. I didn't have to go overboard, I just had to FOLLOW A GOOD, HEALTHY DIET & get my ONE HOUR OF VIGOROUS GET OUT EVERY DAY & depend on the LORD to answer my prayers!

All my effort would have done nothing at all if the Lord hadn't been right there helping me & giving me the strength to do it. I know for sure that it was only the Lord Who helped me lose weight & is helping me still to CHANGE MY EATING HABITS, & stay away from things that I know are not good for me. He's taken away the perverted appetite that I once had, & has given me a desire for normal, healthy food & good exercise to keep my body in shape & ready to serve Him.

So far, I HAVE LOST 22 KILOS IN FIVE MONTHS, & by God's grace I will be down to 90 kilos by the end of the year, which will be a total loss of 31 kilos! The reason I wanted to share this testimony now was so I could give the Lord the glory & step out by faith & talk about what miracles He has already done, so He will continue it until the end & help me to always maintain a good, healthy body weight.

Thank the Lord for a new life at 40! God's on the throne & prayer changes things!—Even EATING & GET OUT HABITS! TYJ!

Love, Sam

All Through the House, Not a Creature Was Stirring...Except Two Robbers!

—Security Lessons from India

Two burglars broke into our Home in the middle of the night!—And we didn't discover them until they had been through the whole downstairs area. The Lord protected us, but we learned a lot of lessons which we hope will be helpful to you.

To give you an idea of our set-up, we live in a nice, quiet residential section of our city. Our house has a high wall around it. We live on the edge of our neighbourhood & there is a school directly across the street & another school to the right side of our house so there are large, open playing fields beside & directly in front of our house. There are only a couple of houses & virtually no traffic in this corner of the neighbourhood, so it's very quiet.

We have quite an extensive security checklist which is filled out each night by a team of two boys. The security check had been done faithfully this night, but in spite of this, around 3:00 a.m. two burglars forcibly entered our house, & from what we can gather, they must have done so in the following manner:

We have security lights on the outside of the house & it is quite well lit. But most of the SWITCHES for these security lights were originally designed so that they are on the OUTSIDE of the house! So it seems the burglars climbed over the wall, & simply turned off the lights & went to work trying to break open one of the main entrance doors which is on the side of the house. TTL our landlord had installed some strong, foreign-made deadbolts, so even though they chiselled away at the solid wood door with a steel bar & jabbed holes almost all the way through the door frame, they couldn't break open this door.

At this point, one brother heard the noise of the intruders hacking away at the door & got up to see what was going on. As soon as he arrived in the area, the noise stopped. Some brethren sleep in a separate room outside of the house, so this brother thought that it was possibly them trying to come in.—He didn't see them around, so he just went back to bed.

This was our FIRST MISTAKE! Later this brother realised that after he heard this noise he should have awakened another brother so they could have gone around & checked the house security again. Had they done so, they would have SEEN the damage that had already been done to the door & we would have been alerted & the break-in would have been prevented. This brother admitted later that had he been more in tune & not too proud to wake someone else up to ask for HELP, then the whole thing could have been averted.

After he went back to bed, the robbers decided to try to enter the sliding doors at the front of the house. These doors have a security light overhead which they couldn't turn off because the switch is INSIDE the house. Nevertheless, they boldly went ahead with breaking in the door—right under the light! They pulled these doors right off their runners, ripping the screw-held brackets out of the wood in order to pull the doors away from the wall to get behind them. They then cut the screen on the interior sliding screen doors to reach through to find the latch on their side. When they couldn't feel the latch, they literally pried the doors open with a steel bar, splitting the wooden door frames & making the lock useless.

All through this hacking & prying commotion, NO ONE WOKE UP! One possible reason no one was awakened by the noise is that we use "desert coolers" which are large fans which blow in filtered air from the outside. They are quite loud, so you really can't hear much when you're sleeping.

So these burglars entered the house, & although it seems that they weren't in the house very long, they managed to go into each bedroom on the ground floor. In one of the bedrooms they actually slid two suitcases out from under the bed without awakening the people who were sleeping in the bed! The robbers took the suitcases down the hall into the living room to go through them! As they walked past another bedroom, a sister woke up & saw two figures in the hallway, but just thought it was some of the boys working late—so she didn't think any more about it & went back to sleep. The intruders actually closed her door as they walked by!

As they entered a third bedroom, another sister woke up & saw them. She thought at first it was a brother, but then asked aloud who it was. When she didn't get an answer, she realised they were intruders, so she sat up in bed & rebuked them out loud in Jesus' name, at which point they fled! As soon as they ran out of her room, she ran to wake up some other brothers.

TTL as the thieves fled they only took a wristwatch, as everything else of value had been securely locked away, due to the Lord's MERCY & our being faithful to use a SECURITY CHECKLIST. We know it's only the Lord's protection that keeps us, & this experience helped us learn to not take any of our security measures for granted. We felt that some of us had been groaning in our hearts about the extent of our security rules & checklist, but it's clear to all of us now WHY we have such rules. Thank God for Dad's good counsel for us to never let our guard down—even when we sleep! LHUs!

The day after the break-in we discussed how we could improve our security, be more faithful & prevent a recurrence. Here are some of the points we came up with:

Put our security lights & switches out of the reach of intruders.

Put barbed wire along the top of our wall all the way around the property. Even though our wall is high, it can be climbed easily as there are built-in flower boxes on the outside which serve as little stepping stones to walk right up the wall. (EDITOR'S NOTE: IF SUCH FLOWER BOXES OR WHATEVER "STEPPING STONES" CAN BE DISMANTLED, WE WOULD RECOMMEND YOU DO SO.)

Add burglar alarms to each outside door that would serve to scare any intruders off, as well as WAKE US UP if anyone tries to get in again.

Further secure the main entrance doors, adding additional bolts & reinforcing the doors that they broke through.

Put thick rods in each bedroom in case we do have another break in. "A strong man armed keepeth his goods in peace."—Luke 11:21. (EDITOR'S NOTE: READ FSM 119, FOR MORE ADVICE ON HOW TO SECURITISE YOUR HOME!)

It was only the Lord's mercy that nothing worse happened & that they fled as they did without putting up any resistance or threatening anyone in any way or taking anything else of value. It certainly proves that we're His children & He does His part to protect us! TYJ! ALL glory to God & His protecting Angels. TTL, we learned lots of lessons which we hope will also be a blessing to you—and help you to AVOID such a break-in!

Previews of Millennial Training!

—Good Lessons on Reaching the Top in a Non-Christian Country

From the SEA DF Home

We wanted to share the testimony of our meetings with the Mayor of the capital city, a type of Mahatma Gandhi figure in our country! He is known for being a very strong Buddhist, so we went fairly slowly with our witness initially. We began by encouraging him in his work & sharing our vision of "Changing the World with Love", which really turned his key!

Sample of Prayer Power!

At the time of one of our first visits, this area was expecting a typhoon which could have done extensive damage. We told him that we were praying against it. He was very inspired when the typhoon did NOT hit our city, but instead actually swerved away to miss it! He was quite amazed by the power of prayer! TYJ!

"Change The World"—His New Theme!

He's really adopted our theme of changing the World, as that's what he wants to do also. He told us about the training programs that he hosts for teachers, a type of three-day "retreat" to upgrade their standard, stamp out corruption & encourage them to sacrifice & help the country. He said he goes to these meetings & gives a lot of speeches, so we showed him "Appreciation" & "Success with People" from the DFs, & he immediately said, "How many of these do you have? Can you bring the whole collection next week, & anything else you've got—all your materials. I'll get my men to read them & pick out the best parts for my speeches!"

We offered to help put the speech together for him & he responded with a positive, "Okay! Can you prepare the next speech for me to give to the teachers?" The following week we brought him the speech we had written & that same night he called our Home & said, "I have very good news for you! I want to begin a program for the teachers THIS WEEK! Are you able to come & give the speech to the teachers YOURSELVES?" He explained that he personally couldn't go this time but he would send his driver to pick us up.

The speech was mainly taken from the Word & also included the song, "Change the World," & so it was very inspiring to see him react so positively to it! He said, "I have been telling many groups & people about changing the World—it's because you came to me to ENCOURAGE ME to change the World!"

The Day of the Speech & the Location!

On the day of the speech his people picked us up at 8 a.m. & right away they were saying how much they loved the song, "Change the World"! They had transcribed the words off the Tape & printed them up so everyone at the retreat would be able to sing along.

We arrived & were very pleasantly surprised to find that the retreat was set in a modern complex in a beautiful rural area. It was a government training center where teachers & government workers have self-improvement courses. This seminar was attended by nurses & ex-teachers that the Mayor had chosen to work for him. Their place was immaculately clean, we didn't see one fly or bug—it reminded us of the Millennium. Their set-up was almost exactly like a YES, it really amazed us!

When we sat down one woman said, "The Mayor is really interested in what you believe, but he doesn't have time to read your little books, so he has assigned me to read them." She had read & highlighted the 10 DFs. Her job was to read them & compile the best parts for him.

At the retreat we didn't see any Buddha images or Temples or Buddhist symbols on the walls. They only had slogans posted like, "You can't take your things with you" or "Keep fighting!—If you keep fighting, you'll win." It was like an IMITATION of what we have, it seems they're looking for the Truth & trying to do their best with what they know. They said, "We have so many questions we want to ask you, we want to know your heart, what you believe."

Seeing our freedom, a few of the women commented, "You're so free & happy, you both look so alive!" We just gave God the credit & the glory. We kept telling them, "Jesus said, `You shall know the Truth, & the Truth will make you free.'"

They were all vegetarians, but the food was very delicious. They also use raw sugar & brown rice. I had a cold that day so I asked for a separate plate, explaining that we try to keep our dishes separate if we have a cold so we don't spread germs. One of the men pulled out his notebook & asked, "What do you do?" so we explained all about keeping our plates separate, using bleach etc., & he wrote everything down saying, "Oh this is good! This encourages us so much!"

Giving the Speech!

There were 80 guests there for the lecture, as well as about 20 of the Mayor's staff who work there fulltime. They asked us if I could read the speech in English & asked Nina, our sweet National, to translate directly. They said, "We don't want the teachers to look at their papers, we want them to look at YOU as you speak so they can see your inspiration & HOW you're saying it & how you really BELIEVE IT." We tried to keep the speech lively & get the people involved.

At the end they gave a beautiful speech of thanks & one man in the audience promised that they would all try to do their best to change the World. The real climax was when we sang "Change the World" together. They all had the words & sang along! They were so visibly moved by the song, we were almost in tears, it was so beautiful!

Our Next Meeting!

The next time we met with the Mayor he was so happy to see us & thanked us for giving the speech at his training center. Apparently they had evaluated the speech & it had a very good reaction from the audience & the staff. So that was a real victory!

During this meeting with the Mayor we talked about World leaders & the Millennium, about Jesus coming back to set up His Kingdom on Earth & about how we're going to train people then & it's going to be God's Kingdom. He really liked that! We then decided together that he would visit our Home the next week & that the FOLLOWING meeting he would take us to HIS home.

Our Special Visitor!

The day for the Mayor's visit finally arrived! PTL! He explained that he would only have a real brief time at our Home which he really regretted, but he asked if we could spend the rest of the day with him, going with him to an appointment & to meet his wife, & then on to a village together.

At our Home we introduced him to everyone by name & nationality. He didn't act shy or nervous, as he is quite used to being with people & being in the public eye. He loved the children! They were able to sing songs for him, which really touched his heart! Before he left he visited the studio where we played him the song "Golden Age", which he really enjoyed.

We showed him the kitchen & he just flipped that we have the same dishwashing set-up as him. That really turned his key! It was a very important point to him that things were clean & everything was so nicely set up!

We then travelled with him in his car to meet his wife. On the way we explained about our educational system worldwide, about our Family, our children & how important they are, how we try to pour a lot into them & make it exciting. We explained it quite extensively & he really liked it, because he wants to reform the educational system here.

As we went down the road, he had the car go very slowly & he put his head & hand out of the car & waved to all the people & talked to them, making sure the garbage was collected every second day & asking if they had any problems. He saw the garbage collectors & he started telling them how to pick up the garbage, & they did such a good job that he commended them! He is always trying to train people & made everyone feel like he was their friend. He has real sincerity too & is very sweet & natural.

Arriving at his appointment, he asked us to please come with him. We didn't know what to expect as it was supposed to be a clean-up day in a slummy area of the city—he was having an "attack day" with all the villagers, the kids & everyone cleaning the drains & the streets. There were many people lined up waiting for him, including many different government officials & television reporters with cameras. He was stopping & introducing us, "These people are volunteers, they do this & that", totally involving us right away like he was really proud of us!

We then were introduced to his wife. She also was very sweet, & happy to see us, & we were able to share a lot of what we had been sharing with the Mayor with her also, PTL! Michael got to share about why we don't believe in temples & churches because of what Jesus said in the Bible & he quoted verses. Then the Mayor turned around & said to his wife, "They're like us, they don't believe in temples & in this & that!" All day he'd introduce us to the villagers saying, "This is So-&-so, they don't believe in temples or churches but they believe in God, they teach from the Bible, & they have the same dishwashing set-up as us!"

Then we had a vegetarian lunch with him, & when we were about to eat he said, "Please do whatever you normally do, feel at home, if you pray for your food, please pray!" So we were able to hold hands & pray for the food & he really liked that. They were so sweet & meek, very precious.

The Village!

Then we headed out to the village which was quite an experience! There were about 100 huts in this village. It's quite primitive for lack of labour. Some people live there fulltime, some part-time. The Mayor said, "This village is built in case of a national emergency so we'll have a place where we can survive". It is as if they sense something is bound to happen the way the World is going now!

In the van on the way back, we pulled the guitar out & sang, "Change the World" & then "Golden Age". Then we sang "What is Your Life but a Vapour" because we had seen that verse written up on one of the hut's walls. We said, "This one is from the Bible!", & that was actually the song they liked the most!—They were clapping & rejoicing! PTL! We had a very beautiful close time, they were really drawing on the Spirit. It really was a special day, TTL!

The Mayor Gets Saved!

We continued our visits with the Mayor, & on one very special visit he got saved! We gave him a class about the Millennium from the MOP, the Bible & a few quotes from the DFs. We had chosen some quotes from the MOP on "Peace" & "The Future".

After reading different quotes he asked, "How will we be born into the Millennium?" We shared that anyone can be a part of the Millennium if they have Jesus in their heart, they can be of any religion, but if they just have Jesus in their heart & love God now, then they will be ready. We shared that everything in this life is preparation for the Millennium because other people will be there, & we who have Jesus in our hearts will be teaching them how to love God. We also talked about how everything he is going through now is not in vain, it's like a school & everything he's learning now will help him There & he'll be able to use all these lessons & help teach others. He was really interested.

The subject of "Peace" was the key with him. He read the Bible & then said, "Look, the Bible says there will be no more killing or destroying & the lion will lie down with the lamb. That means we're going to be vegetarians!"

We encouraged him not to get discouraged or give up with everything he was going through now, because one day it was going to be worth it all, & even though it is a big fight now against evil, in the end we're going to be the victors. He was so encouraged & said, "Thank you for this message about the Millennium!"

As we left we asked, "Before we go, can we pray for you?" & he said, "Of course!" so we explained, "This is a special prayer, a preparation for the Millennium, because it's a prayer to receive Jesus into your heart so that you can go to Heaven & you can go into the Millennium & He can help you & be your Friend. It's not a change of religion but it's just meeting Jesus like a Friend. Would you like to do that?" & he said, "Oh, yes!" So he prayed to receive Jesus into his heart! He was really touched & said thank you & shook our hands. Such a wonderful miracle, PTL!

Copyright 1996 The Family