July 19, 2003
FSM 224 (FN 333) © Oct., 1992
By Family Services, Zurich, Switzerland DO
By Peruvian Francis, SEA
Thank God for our true dear friends!—Our most faithful & loyal kings, supporters & live-out disciples, those who choose God & His ways & His Family over the temptations of this World, who are rooted in the Word themselves & endure in time of persecution. They are few & far between, like Jesus' seventy, but they are such a precious special part of our Family.
Sometimes their progress, like our own, is so gradual that it's not until we stop & recount all of the tests & trials that the Lord has brought them through that we fully appreciate them or all that the Lord has done for them. This certainly has been the case with C., a dear friend & supporter we first met over seven years ago, who is now a live-out disciple & a real brother.
Because the Lord led us to go to some rather extreme measures at a couple of points in our ministry to him, we wanted to begin by clarifying that this is not necessarily meant to be any sort of how-to" on follow-up. Our deep involvement with C. was the Lord, as evidenced by the eventual fruit that it bore. But we certainly can't do the same with all of our contacts in order to help bring them in, nor is it even necessary in most cases. It's just a matter of following God in each situation. Would you like to hear how the Lord led us with C.?
C. is 50 years old, a Capricorn, & was born in Europe. His parents were farmers & he grew up on a farm. His father was an alcoholic & died in his forties. The Lord used this more than anything else in C.'s childhood to get him thinking about the Lord, about life, & death.
Later on he went to vocational school & became a chef. He began working for a European airline & was in charge of their food catering at various European airports, & eventually in Pakistan.
Twenty years ago when he was working in Pakistan, he took a holiday to SEA. There he had a chance meeting with the managing director of a hotel which is rated among the top hotels in the World. On the spot, this man hired C. as a chef.
C. worked at that hotel for a number of years until he had enough money to start a small restaurant business of his own, & business was good. Later he was able to open a very large, beautiful, high-class restaurant which became known as one of the best in this city.
Several years after coming to SEA, he was married for a short while to a local girl. After a divorce, C. married a Vietnamese girl, who already had two very young children, & C. cared for & raised those children as if they were his own. During this time his restaurant was most successful, & it was also during this time, in 1983, that he first met the Family.
We were holding Area Fellowship Meetings at the time, & when approached on a provisioning basis, he gave very generously. The Family followed up on him from time to time, but as he was very much enjoying his success, he didn't have a great vacuum, so they mainly just kept him as a friend & contact.
One particular brother was quite faithful to visit him & keep up a friendship with him, & C. later said that he was quite impressed with this brother's faithfulness to just come by & show love & concern. Still C. wouldn't pray with us to receive Jesus.
Every time we would visit him in his restaurant, he would give us the menu—a very, very expensive menu—for us to choose anything we wanted to eat or drink. But we made it a policy from the start to never order from the menu. We'd always order the simplest thing, or whatever he or his staff were eating that day.
This little ritual has gone on for years now!—Every visit he still offers us the menu, & every time we order something very simple! Recently he told us that that was another thing that impressed him & really convinced him that we were genuine, the way we never took advantage of his generosity. Our simplicity impressed him & played a part in our eventually winning him.
Around this time, his wife became very greedy & ambitious & convinced him to expand & open two more very luxurious restaurants. To do this, they had to mortgage the one they had & take out a big loan from a bank. Sad to say, because of poor management & greed on the part of his wife, those two restaurants were total failures. C. went broke, lost the two new restaurants, & ended up greatly in debt. His wife divorced him.
C. is, by nature, a very good fellow, very kind-hearted & generous. But suddenly he became very bitter against his wife, who had abandoned him with this big debt. He was very bitter about life in general, about his failure in business & about people. Before our very eyes, he changed into a very hard person, & started drinking heavily. He was so very discouraged & frustrated about his life & business. He felt that having a good heart hadn't done anything for him & felt like giving up.
His motivation for keeping in touch with the Family at that time in his life could only have been desperation. That's when he began to realise that his friends in the Family were the only people he could talk to & really trust.
At that particular time we were looking for a place to hold our COL, & his restaurant was an ideal location, being very large & centrally located. C. agreed to let us use his place, so every Sunday for months we held our meetings there & he also attended. Later we started visiting him during the week. We introduced him to the DFs & had personal weekly classes with him.
Looking back, we remember that the first six or eight appointments we had with him he basically did all the talking.—And it was all bitter laments, complaints & murmurs, & sad stories about his life, his failures & disappointments. It was quite a trial to sit there & hear him spout all these negative things, & something we wouldn't normally do, but in this case he obviously needed someone to pour out to. At last, we could start feeding him the Word, & that was when he finally got saved.
Because of the nature of his work, C. is very used to talking—he needs to—& he's a good talker. In the beginning, he didn't have much hunger for the Word. He would read the Word with us & he liked it, but we were quite limited in feeding him by his capacity to receive. What the Lord really used to win him was his loneliness. After his wife left him, living alone, the Word became his only companion & real comfort in the midst of his loneliness & all his troubles.
While C. was still on the DF course & we continued to use his place for COLs, he decided to close his big restaurant which was losing money & move to a smaller one, hoping to be able to make enough money to pay back his debts & still support himself. Before he could make the changeover, he still had to keep his big place open for two or three more months.
The main chef, someone C. had trained for many years, left him & C. had to go into the kitchen himself to cook. That is when he asked the Family if we would please come & help him, doing what he normally did—managing the restaurant, keeping the customers happy & taken care of, & making sure the waiters were doing their jobs—so he could be at peace cooking in the kitchen.
After counselling with our leadership, we felt led to help him. For the next two months, four of us pitched in to help two nights every weekend. One of us would do his PR job talking with the customers, two were hostesses attending to the customers, & one brother played the piano. Sometimes we also had a sister come to sing. We also helped him close down that restaurant, get settled into his new one & move to his new apartment.
During this time, we not only ministered to his spiritual needs but we also responded to his need for physical, practical help with his business. He was very, very thankful for that & later exclaimed repeatedly about what a sample of real unselfish love & sacrifice we had been to him. Throughout his life, he has had many people from various groups & churches talk to him & try to convince him about their particular religious beliefs, but he said that it was our sample of love—our willingness to even come work with him & help him—that finally won his heart.
What made this testimony even more powerful is the fact that during this time he couldn't even pay us for our time. He knew we were doing this out of pure, unselfish love, not because we wanted anything from him. That convinced him that our love was real—and he is forever grateful for the time that we helped him. Through this period we were the only people who were there to help him. All of his friends & business associates, everybody else pretty much deserted him, & only the Family stood by him in this time of crisis. He still remembers this as the greatest sample of love he has ever seen.
(Editor's note: Giving up two nights every weekend for two months was quite a sacrifice for these Family Members, yet it wasn't so much & didn't last so long—and this sample had a profound effect in the life of this dear man! Often the Lord doesn't lead us to get so involved in our friends' businesses, & such a rare situation would have to be very clearly indicated by the Lord as being His Will. However, even if our involvement doesn't go so far, even through our showing concern & sincerely praying for their business problems, our friends & contacts can feel ours & the Lord's Love for them, & see His hand in their lives through answers to prayer.
(If after prayer & counsel you do feel led of the Lord to help a friend with his business, as the Family did with C., one caution would be to not get so involved that you couldn't pull out if the Lord so leads. If you haven't committed yourself or obligated yourself in a long-term or permanent arrangement, then it won't last too long & you can get back to the Lord's Work, & no harm is done even if you have made a mistake. In this case, the short-term involvement certainly paid off. So if you are led of the Lord in this direction, a good tip is to offer to help on a short-term basis only, in order to leave your options open & not be drawn away from your main work for the Lord, while at the same time being a blessing to your friend.)
He wanted so badly to repay us in some way! He didn't have any money & only God knew if he ever would again, but he did have some beautiful furniture, his part of the divorce settlement. We were in the process of setting up a sample Home to help reach the top in this country, so in spite of his huge debt, sweet C. gave us this furniture, which was one of his last remaining assets, to furnish the new Home! GBH!
Over these last three years, he's grown from being just another contact to being a true friend, a real close king & brother. He has really found his place in the Family. He's graduated from the Daily Foods" & Treasure Hunt" courses & now he's studying Good Thots", other Family materials, & the Bible. He's become a real student of the Word! How he's grown! We're so thankful now that we didn't give up when he didn't seem to respond to those first DF classes! When we look back at our own lives & realise what patience the Lord has had with us, the patience we had to have with C. doesn't seem like very much at all!
C. is very well-known within the foreign community here, & most of his friends are Westerners. Nearly all of his friends are real Systemites, so when he got saved & had this major change in his life, he faced some immediate opposition from his friends. One of his closest friends, though not an outright enemy, is a confirmed atheist & has presented quite a bit of opposition to C.'s involvement with us, which has been a real test for C.
He must constantly stand up for the Family & for the Lord in front of his friends, particularly to this one old & close friend. But instead of getting discouraged or losing his conviction, C. has faith that one day he's going to be able to win this man's soul for the Lord, so he faithfully prays for him & has asked us to pray for him.
Things were going well between C. & the Family, & at this time we suffered persecution here. As the persecution was in the English-language papers & magazines, & not so much in the local papers, it mainly affected our outreach in the foreign community & we had to stop holding the COL in his restaurant. Not only was this for the sake of our own security, but it was also getting a bit too touchy for him.
This became a time of testing for C., as he was confronted by all of his friends regarding his involvement with us. There was a month or two when he was a little bit in limbo" & didn't want to see us much. In the restaurant business, success depends a lot on your reputation. If you have a good reputation, you have a good clientele. If not, you don't. So this was a time of decision for him & he was praying about his relationship with us.
TTL, eventually he made the right choice & decided to get back to the Family. That's when he told us, You know, all of these people who talk bad about you—when I was in a big mess, none of them came to help me. You were the only people who helped me when I was down. So even if they say all these bad things about you," he said, I don't care. I know you are my only true friends."
Last year, C. started a new business which is going very well, TTL! His restaurant business was going OK, thanks to the Lord & prayer, but it wasn't really making enough money to be able to pay off the tremendous debts that he still had. Still in partnership with his ex-wife, he wanted to begin importing items from a neighbouring, formerly closed country—potentially quite a profitable business.
They had the opening they needed—someone who wanted to sell these items there, & someone who wanted to buy them here. All they needed to start their business was some capital & a letter of guarantee from a bank. But not one bank in town wanted to help C. because of his large debt.
Without this letter of guarantee, he wouldn't be able to make his first shipment, & his trading business would never get off the ground. He phoned us & asked us to please pray for him, that the Lord would do a miracle. His financial future depended on a miracle which could only be brought about by prayer.
His deadline was Wednesday & he had tried every door possible to get this letter of guarantee, without success. Tuesday evening he phoned us again & said, PTL! I guess the Lord doesn't want me to start this business. I didn't get the letter of guarantee that I needed, so I guess it's not going to work out the way we had planned. Still, I know that the Lord will have His perfect way in my life & work out His perfect plan for me."
We didn't know what to tell C. except, All things work together for good!" We certainly admired his good attitude towards this setback! He wasn't murmuring or talking against the Lord for not answering his prayers, but was still praising the Lord in spite of his problems & trusting that the Lord might have another plan, GBH!
Then the next morning, he got a check from the Lord to go to a certain bank & try one last time. This was a smaller bank that he'd never been to & he didn't have any connections there or referrals. He just wanted to give it one more try, by faith.
As he entered the bank, a gentleman approached him & said, Hey, C.! How are you doing! Long time no see!" C. didn't even recognise this man, who introduced himself as one of C.'s customers in his old restaurant which had closed a few months previously. This man was very sweet & spoke very highly of the restaurant & the food there.
Then the man asked him, What are you doing here in this bank?" C. said, Well, I'm trying to get a letter of guarantee for a business I'm trying to start. I'm hoping I can meet the boss." The man smiled & said, I'm the boss!" This old customer of C.'s who had approached him & started up a conversation was actually the top man in this bank! Within one hour C. had the letter of guarantee that he so desperately needed!
With that letter of guarantee, C. was able to complete the first deal, & from that moment on, the Lord has really blessed his trading business! When C. started this venture, he didn't know the first thing about the import/export business or shipping ports. He knew very little about this new country & didn't know the language. He had to start from scratch. Before he made his first trip there, he asked us to come & give him a Word class, & he asked for prayer. He's gone step by step, really praying about what to do & what not to do, & the Lord has miraculously showed him exactly how to run this business. The Lord has supernaturally led him to make the right decisions & the right business deals, & has helped him to win people's hearts & their trust.
This is a miracle in itself, as the people there, after years of Communism, are usually very hard people to work with. The Lord has helped him to succeed in spite of tremendous odds!
He's now been able to pay off about 80% of all his debts. PTL! He's very thrilled about this. He knows it's just the Lord & continually gives the Lord the glory. As things took a turn for the better, C. became one of our most faithful monthly supporters. He is always so willing to help, in whatever way he can. GBH!
As soon as his debts are completely paid off, he wants to buy out his partner as he feels he will be freer to do more for the Lord & the Family. He said recently, Tithing ten per cent of one's income is for the GP (meaning general public), but now that I'm DO (meaning a real disciple), I want to give at least half of my income to the Lord's Work!" He's very serious & sincere about this. We just need to pray for him, that he will be able to see this plan through. It certainly shows where his heart is!
He refers constantly to the times when he was broken & down & how much we helped him. He wants so badly to repay in some way all the love that we have shown him. GBH!
For C., witnessing has certain limitations that most of us don't face. Most of the people he meets locally are his customers, with whom he cannot usually be very direct or deep, lest he offend some. In the neighbouring country where he does business there is a language problem, of course, & he is dealing mostly with people who are very money-hungry. But he does manage to witness in spite of these handicaps, & the Lord is always faithful to send someone to him for counsel. He's been able to pray with people & win them to the Lord.
He has a shepherd's heart & gets very concerned about different people the Lord lays on his heart. Actually, another of our very close DFers is one of C.'s friends. We first met this man three years ago, & he was the first soul that C. led to the Lord together with us. This other man has grown to be a very good friend of the Family also, & C. is very excited about that. GBH!
C. now has a girlfriend whom he sees on his business trips. When he first met her, he was afraid to witness too much to her as he felt she might think he was too religious" & he would lose her. But we explained to him that a good relationship has to be based on the Lord & the Word, otherwise it won't last. Encouraged by that, he witnessed to her & led her to the Lord!
From his reports, she's growing up to be a very sweet, precious soul, & is eager to learn the Bible & everything C. is teaching her. She reads the Basic MOP & other Family pubs with him, & they pray together every day. It encourages him very much to have such a Jesus-centred relationship, especially after his two previous failed marriages.
One of his regular customers recently went to America due to personal problems. She wrote him a lengthy letter pouring out her heart, & C. responded with a beautiful letter of encouragement & included some Family material for her to read. So he has another sheep in America.
In spite of these & other witnessing victories, C. had to learn one very big lesson the hard way. Since he wasn't living with his children, he had never witnessed to them. Though he was concerned about them, the opportunity never seemed to present itself, & as we so often do, he always thought he would have another chance.
But tragedy struck suddenly! His 18-yr.-old son died in an accident while in the States. When he heard the news, C. was devastated, because he hadn't witnessed to him. He was crying on the phone when he called us with the news, & asked the Family to please pray for the soul of his son, as he wasn't sure if his son was going to Heaven or not.
We had a beautiful, beautiful prayer meeting with the teens in our Home for his son. That evening C. also spent the whole evening crying out to God for forgiveness, in desperate prayer for the Lord to save his son's soul. We received some very encouraging Scriptures & prophecies confirming that the Lord had had mercy & heard our cries & was giving this boy another chance in the Spirit World. Of course, this was very, very encouraging for C..
Right away he started witnessing to his second child, a 17-yr.-old daughter. He gave her Family literature to read, & the Keep on Loving" Video to watch. He brought her to the Home three times, & on one of those visits she got saved. At present, she is in school in Switzerland, but C. continues to feed her through the mail & makes sure he's a good sample to her. Thank God for His mercy!
As dearly as we love him, we had sometimes considered C. to be a bit of a weak sheep—spiritually weak, a bit wishy-washy & lacking in conviction. Sometimes he would do very well, but not so well at other times. A while back, he returned from a business trip abroad quite dry & weakened, as he hadn't spent much time in the Word or in prayer, & we prepared ourselves that he might continue in this weak state, following afar off".
At that time we had our Delegates' Meetings & the pubs on prayerfulness came out, & miraculously, on another trip outside the country, C. learned much of the same lessons, & had a real spiritual change! He started to learn how to really pray & become very dependent on the Lord through prayer. He discovered a whole new relationship with Jesus.
Before, C. was often dependent on our channel with the Lord for his feeding, encouragement & inspiration, but he discovered how to strengthen his own relationship & his own channel with Jesus through prayer & study of the Bible. When he came back from his trip that time, he was a totally changed man! His face was glowing with light & his whole spirit & attitude were very precious. It was actually quite convicting to see how sweet & loving he was. He told us he'd made a choice in his life to really serve the Lord & love the Lord & put Him first in his life.
The change has been amazing! C. found the conviction to keep his relationship with the Lord strong & not backslide, but continue to be a real disciple of Jesus, even if the Family wasn't around to support him. This conversion" in C.'s life was done strictly by the Lord through His Word, while he was away on this trip! PTL! Prayer has become a real key in his life. He prays for every business decision & every business deal. At one point, he was having a very big problem with a particular deal. He asked his partner & the other people involved for counsel & everyone said he should do a certain thing. But then he prayed & the Lord showed him to do something that was completely contrary to what his partners & co-workers had suggested. He went ahead & obeyed the Lord—and it worked! He was so excited!—And his colleagues were all amazed!
In another situation, a ship was supposed to be loaded, but it would take one or two more days to arrange to get enough cargo to complete the shipment. Every day that a ship is delayed in port costs him US$3,000. Only if the loading is delayed because of natural causes", such as heavy rains or port-related delays, is he not held responsible for these dock charges.
C. was reminded of the Bible verse about praying in faith, which also recounts the story of Elijah praying for rain (James 5:17), & dear C., as he went to bed, prayed earnestly that it might rain". He woke up to blue skies! The Lord hadn't sent rain. But He hadn't failed either! Instead, He allowed two of the cranes needed to load the ship to break down, & the loading was delayed one day!
The next day, the cranes were fixed & he still didn't have all the cargo he needed, so he prayed again for the Lord to send rain, & lo & behold, suddenly out of a beautiful blue sky it started raining!—And it continued raining the whole day. Again the loading was delayed, & again he didn't have to pay the charge.
The third day his cargo arrived, the cranes were working, the weather cleared & off his shipment went—without him having to pay any fines at the shipyard. What a thrilling answer to prayer! PTL!
Another wonderful thing about C. is that because of his breakings—his failures in business & marriage & the loss of his son—he has a healthy fear of the Lord. The Lord has done so much for him, but he knows that if he doesn't obey & do what the Lord wants him to, it could all be taken away again. He's learning to keep himself on best behaviour".
Now when things go wrong, he always asks the Lord why it happened, & tries to see what lessons the Lord has for him. He has a very positive attitude about his trials & sees them as the hand of God in his life. He is developing such a beautiful relationship with the Lord, where love, fear, respect & reverence for the Lord all seem to balance out so well. GBH!
It has been thrilling for us to realise how much C. has been growing over the past few months. His victories are truly our victories! Seeing everything that we have poured into him throughout these years finally becoming so real to him & bearing such beautiful fruit in his life has been the payoff for us, & we're so very thankful! PTL!
(Editor's note: This is a beautiful example of real teamwork & the lengths the Lord will go to bring someone into a close intimate relationship with Him. C.'s testimony shows how precious each individual is to the Lord & how much time, effort & energy on the part of His people He is willing to put into one person's life.)
Seeing a life deeply changed, someone finding the solution to his problems in the Word, the Lord answering prayer & moving in our friends' lives—these miracles are some of the greatest rewards that we experience in serving the Lord!—Knowing that we have helped someone come closer to Him is a wonderful blessing, & often is the result of patiently & faithfully following up on the sheep in our care.
In the following stories & lessons, you will see the inspiring results of follow-up throughout our Family! We pray these testimonies are a help to you as you feed & minister to the sheep in your care! GBY with lots of beautiful follow-up fruit! WLY & P4U!
From Marie Claire, Asia:
It is exciting to see how the Lord is changing so many of our friends' & sheep's lives! Mr. P., a friend & big plastics manufacturer, said on his last visit that he was thrilled to be receiving the DFs. He has also offered us his plastic plates & other products. Mr. M., a large textiles manufacturer & exporter, loves our times together discussing God & His Love, & just recently sponsored a whole set of KVs for a needy school for the handicapped. GBH!
Maj. S. receives the mailings regularly & loves them & the KVs, & on our last visit he took two Videos he didn't have, gave a good donation, plus he was witnessing for us to top political figures & industrialist friends in his office, telling them that we were changing the World with Love. He also encouraged them to donate to our efforts. GBH!
On our last visit with Mr. N., a king & helper, he was sharing how his son had gotten beaten up by a Mafia-type gang. His son didn't understand why his father wasn't pursuing the case against them, as he seemed to really want to get even with these men. Our friend, Mr. N., said he was trusting the Lord for the situation, to work it out.
We shared 1Cor.13 with him & then Romans 12, which says that God will avenge, & to overcome evil with good. Mr. N. was so thrilled with the Word & how it had the exact answer for him to give his son & he kept saying, Thank you! Thank you! This is just what I needed!" We also prayed with him & committed his son & other different situations that really needed solutions to the Lord. He really has faith in prayer & our prayers for him are very important to him.
Another inspiring visit was to see Mrs. M. A few months back, her father-in-law, who was 81, started acting very strangely & even filed a police complaint against his son, her husband. She was in tears & together we committed the father-in-law to the Lord to do what He needed to turn him to the Lord &/or to take care of this situation.
Then, some time later, when I phoned, she said that her father-in-law had passed away! On our visit she explained how both she & her husband had been very upset over this & she opened up the Treasures" & what she read spoke directly to her heart, comforting them that they had done what they could. She had been a bit under condemnation, as they hadn't made up before he passed away. So we read from Romans 8 where it says there is no condemnation to those who walk in the Lord. We also committed the father-in-law to the Lord in this next life, claiming his soul & that he would learn his lessons. After this she had a real peace & was very happy.
We are realising how very much these sweet friends & sheep need us & how much the Lord changes them through the Word & prayer! It is very exciting & rewarding to see! TYJ!
From Hannah, Europe:
It has been very inspiring to see the Lord blessing our follow-up push, which is going hand in hand with the personal witnessing push. We have been phoning up people who have received our Videos before, asking them if they would be interested in having another one, & also telling them we'd like to get to know them better. A large percentage of them have been touched by our interest in knowing how they liked the Videos and in our personal concern for them and their children. Most of these people have taken another Video or two!
When visiting people for the second time, we've been able to spend more time with them. We are seeking not just to sell them another Video, but really sharing with them about our Work and making good personal contact with them—finding out about them, their lives, their families, their problems, and quite a few of them have gotten saved! We have now started them on the DFs, and we feel like we're at the beginning of a tremendously rewarding ministry! We've just scratched the surface of the many provisioning contacts and Video recipients that we have!
It is also good training for our teens as they can really take a part in this follow-up ministry and learn how to personal witness and win souls! In spending time with these people, the key has really been conviction and sincerity, as well as sharing with them how we are concerned about the future and what is being poured into the children and youth today.
From Marie Claire & John Willing, Asia:
While out on follow-up, we visited a sweet lady who likes the Kiddie Viddies for her children and who has also been reading the DFs. Her husband came to the door and asked if we were the Kiddie Viddie people. We said yes. He then said that they already have the Videos and looked at us to see what we would say next, & it seemed like he was testing us to see our intent, reason for being there, & what we wanted from them.
I really prayed and said, We came to visit you!"—Which broke the ice and he said, Come on in!" We ended up getting to know him, sharing about our Work and our lives of helping others, plus discussing our common ideas about children and raising them. His wife also took the new Treasure Attic" Video for her children and then proceeded to give us a good list of refer-ences of her friends.
Overall it was a very good lesson that when we do follow-up, we need to not come across as salesmen", but be sure that people know and see our genuine interest in them and their children. It really bears lots of good fruit! TYJ!
From Ted & Zech, North America:
While we were at the market recently, a good contact of ours looked a little sad & discouraged. She pulled us aside & said she wanted to talk with us, explaining that she was having a problem with her teenage son & daughter, who were being disrespectful, & she didn't know how to handle them. She was really desperate & almost in tears. She'd heard us talk about our kids & felt that we could help her, so we prayed with her & gave her some counsel from the Word.
This incident made us realise how nice it would be if we had some kind of meeting place, like a coffeehouse, where we could really pour into these people. We decided to check with our contacts to see if someone might be able to help us find a place.
The next day, we followed up on a man we had known for only two weeks. He is very receptive & thankful for our sharing the DFs with his son, as he's seeing a change in him & he's starting to come back to the Lord. We shared with him about our need for a place to meet with people to give Bible studies, etc.
When Zech mentioned maybe getting something like a coffeehouse, our friend said, Come on. Let's take a walk!" We went upstairs to an art gallery where there were some tables. He said we could use that place & move things around as needed & that he would take care of the rent!
We felt it was really significant that one day this lady was pouring out her problems about her teens, then the Lord inspired us to do something to reach the various people we'd been ministering to, then the very next day this contact we barely knew offered to pay the rent on a place where we could have little meetings! It was really inspiring & we felt the Lord was trying to encourage us that we are going in the right direction in wanting to minister more deeply to our friends & contacts!
From Luke & Joy, Europe:
We are still in the pioneering stages of following up on our provisioning contacts, but as we go ahead by faith, the Lord is really blessing. We are sending them personal thank-you cards, Posters, MOLs, DFs, newsletters, & also giving them Tapes or Videos, depending on their age or whether or not they have children. Then we are following up on them by phone, thanking them & letting them know how much we appreciate them, & also asking them if they received our letters.
We have received beautiful responses back from these friends & contacts. Some have even written us personal letters, thanking us for the beautiful Videos & Tapes. We feel that to establish & cultivate these precious contacts, we have to really go the extra mile. (Mat.5:41.) We have been sending out a weekly two-man follow-up team, which visits the contacts who are more potential, spends time with them, finds out more about them, & really makes friends with them, presenting our work on a more personal level.
Our follow-up team reported that these contacts, some of whom had never even seen us personally, were just so amazed by the sample! Personal visitation seems to be a real key in establishing long-term contacts.
From Kasia, Klara & Luke, Eastern Europe:
When we phoned our previously friendly meat contact whom we had somehow sadly neglected, we found him to be not so friendly. We desperately prayed & asked the Lord for His forgiveness & immediately sent our friend an apology letter with some DFs.
When we next phoned him he was completely changed & turned on for Jesus! TYJ! He told us that all his workers are reading the DFs, & he firmly believes that the Lord is expecting him to share this Word & Love with others—that it's his responsibility to pass on this beautiful Message! He told us that the DFs are the Light in his life & that they are helping him to do his job better. Now, he & all his workers are very friendly & they really want to help us all they can. We are so thankful for the Lord's forgiveness & mercy, & that He brought a big victory out of this seeming defeat.
From Shalem & Sara, SEA:
Our friend who helps regularly with shoes was so happy when she received our thank-you letter last year that she shared it with her husband. Then when we met him for the first time recently, he greeted me as if he knew me, referring to the letter I sent last year. He said they went to sleep so happy that night after receiving a letter from a friend".
Later while talking with them, he poured out his heart about all they had gone through, their ups & downs, & how after all this they both got saved & filled with the Spirit. It's amazing how far just a short little thank-you letter can go!—It really makes us want to be more faithful with our mail follow-up!
From James & Anna, Europe:
While going DTD, we met a lady who was very broken, having just been recently separated from her husband. She started opening her heart to us & confessing that she desperately needs a relationship with the Lord. When we shared with her that we would like to see her more & teach her about Jesus & Bible prophecy, she immediately asked us for Word classes & to be put on the DF course.
The next time we went to visit her, she told us she has a house in the centre of our city that we can invite people to & use for Word classes.—A real miracle as we had just prayed for the Lord to open a door for us in this area!
We felt the Lord wanted us to have a revolution in the area of follow-up & to really feed the sheep with Word classes & fellowship.—And as we obeyed & followed, the Lord started doing miracles & our Video output has really gone up!
From Maria Fiel, Latin America:
We went to visit a DF member & he started asking us questions about the pubs we sent him. He's the owner of a toy factory and he's always very busy. Nevertheless, whenever I call him, even if he's in a meeting, he talks to me and thanks me for sending him the DFs. One day we visited him and he asked me how many people I send DFs to & I said, About 100 people." He then said, Well, I have a computer that could be a help to you to use for your mail ministry. Come next week to pick it up." He gave the computer, a monitor, a printer, diskettes and even a few computer programs! It was a miracle we didn't expect. He also told me Whenever you need something, call me." A little love and care for people can bring forth lots of fruit.
(Editor's note: As this testimony shows, the Lord did a miracle of provision for us, & at the same time did the miracle of meeting this precious man's need to be fed & ministered to. It's a good example of how we are not just loving & caring for people because of what they will give us, but as we minister the Word & the Lord's Love to them simply because they need it & the Lord has told us to, He brings forth fruit both in their lives & in ours, both spiritually & materially, & He will bless all concerned in every way they need!)
From a School Home, SEA:
Dear C., a member on Treasures, came to us two months ago desperately asking for prayer for his business, as he had gone bankrupt. He promised the Lord he would faithfully support the Family in the future. The Lord did a miracle in a seemingly impossible situation, saving this friend's business. He kept faithful to his promise & this month gave a record large donation, & also invited us to stay at his house & minister to him!
Another DFer has committed himself to pay the rent of our new flat in town, which will be used for provisioning & an outreach base. More & more DFers are becoming supporters! PTL!
From Maria Fiel, Latin America:
I had gotten a little concerned about some of the people we send DFs to, but who we don't hear much from. But we recently went to visit one of these, & this young girl's life had been completely changed!
During our conversation she kept saying, Like it says in the Daily Food...", or Like it says in `Growing in Love'..." She told us that her family & friends had implied that she had changed her religion, but she told them, No, what has happened is that Jesus changed my life & He is a God of miracles!" TYL! His Word never returns void!
From Lily, SEA:
In the past, our friend Peter had been very difficult to minister the Word to, having to be spoon-fed at every meeting. Though he loved the Word Tapes, he wouldn't read anything on his own, & showed little interest in the DFs. But we kept reading a little something with him, or gave him a highlighted DF each time we saw him.
Then the Mideast crisis brought to life various things we had shared, & all of a sudden, he had a real hunger to know more. He was totally different! We pulled out the DF Do You Want to Know the Future?", & after taking the first few bites of his lunch, he set his plate aside & excused himself to finish reading the entire DF! We then gave him a Daniel 2 class. We had never seen him so hungry!
This was a real encouragement to us to keep faithfully feeding the sheep the Word & the Lord will use it to work in their lives!
From John Trust, SEA:
We recently visited one of our DFers, a top European scientist here, & gave him a Daniel 2 class, & I've hardly ever seen anyone hungrier or more impressed by this class! This man analyses everything, being the scientist that he is, & this class gave him such proof that the Bible is real & the Truth!
After the class he got out his encyclopedia & saw that Daniel had indeed lived when the Bible said he had. He said that many people in the scientific community today are turning more to God & faith! Although Muslims, his wife & children have all gotten saved! PTL!
From Thai Charity, SEA:
The lady we wanted to follow-up on was not home, but instead her husband, whom we had never met before, asked us in. When we started talking to him & getting to know him, he poured out his heart about his many problems. We read Freedom from Fear" with him, & after the class, he was so happy & surprised that the class gave him the answers to his problems.
He said, This is the answer to all the problems I've been having for so long! Even the doctors can't tell me what's wrong with me. I went to see the doctor & he tells me everything is fine! But now I know why I have those problems, because I have a lot of fear in my heart." He asked if he could keep the Letter as he wanted to enlarge it & keep copies of it in his desk, & in his room, & on the wall, to encourage him & remind him when he starts to worry again.
From Anna & Mary Dear, Asia:
One of our closest kings, Mr. R., who has been a big help to the Family for many years, is going through a very difficult time with his family business due to internal fighting. It has caused quite a breakthrough with him in that he is just clinging to the Word & prayer. In all the years we have known him, this is the first desperate situation we have seen him in, & he is constantly asking for prayer & for more visits.
He is seeing now who his true friends are & is always remarking how much of a strength we are to him! Now that he sees the need in his life for help, it is amazing how he is drinking in the Word!
From Thai Dawn, DF Home, SEA:
One of our long-time DFers likes our Work & has helped us in many different ways when we come to his city, but when we walked into his shop on this trip, he did not welcome us as he usually does. Instead he began spitting out all his murmurs & fears, even raising his voice at us real bitterly, saying, No, no, I don't want to have anything to do with your good Work any more, leave me alone!"
My partner & I both got a check that we should stick it out with him & encourage & pray for him, which we did. As it turned out, he was having trials in his relationship with his wife, & was very discouraged. As the days passed, we continued praying for him with our whole team daily & then we dropped in to see him again.
This time he was totally changed! As we walked in, he gave us a big smile, was very happy & said that now he had separated from his wife & things were much better. He was really giving God the glory & praising Him, mentioning the prayer we had prayed with him on our previous visit a few days before. He sponsored our hotel bill for our stay there, which we really needed! It was a real confirmation of what love can do & how patience takes faith, but what good fruit it bears! PTL!
From Luz Siervo Del Seor, Latin America:
I met Rolando several years ago while provisioning, & as a dermatologist he has willingly helped us since then with medical checkups & care. On one of our first visits he prayed with us, & later we found out that he is the pastor of a Seventh-day Adventist Church.
During the following years, we visited him every so often when we needed his services but never really ministered to him, as he didn't seem to have much of a vacuum. Then last year he had a problem with his bank, which was accusing him of fraud! At that time, the Lord laid a real burden on my heart to call him, & he shared with me about this problem.
He was really touched by the fact I called him right at that time he was having this problem, & he told me that it gave him more faith in God, as he was really in need of help at that moment. So I began reading DMs to him & feeding & encouraging him with different counsel from the Word.
We started doing regular follow-up with him, visiting him every week, sharing classes & leaving him copies of the DFs. He now really likes the classes & eagerly awaits us each week. It is really quite amazing that a doctor, as well as a church pastor, would have the humility to even listen to classes from some uneducated" women, so we know it is just the Lord.
As he opened up more & more of his heart to us, he told us how when he first met us he couldn't understand how anyone who wasn't part of his religion could be a real Christian, but the sample he saw in us convinced him otherwise. He said that as time went on, he saw that he had had a very limited concept of Christianity & that you couldn't put God in a box. Now he uses many of the classes we give him for his sermons in church on Saturday.
One day when we went for our weekly visit, his wife was there & we spent quite a while talking with her. She was so receptive that we prayed for the opportunity to be able to minister to both of them together. Shortly thereafter Rolando invited us to his house to meet his family. As we shared with them & our children sang them songs, they were very deeply touched & asked us so many questions about our way of life & our convictions & dedication.
His wife later shared with us that after we left, their children asked them why they couldn't go with us & live with us & do what we do. On one of our visits Rolando told us, You are like Angels for me! I don't think I ever gave my heart to the Lord until I met you; you have given me so much & I have gotten to know the Lord in a more intimate way. The Lord is getting me out of the mould the church had put me in!"
We also had been praying about how we could ask him to support our Work. When he finished reading DF #15 (on giving & tithing), we specifically prayed that the Lord would touch his heart to help us on a monthly basis, but that we wouldn't even have to ask, but he would just offer. It turned out that he was so impressed by the DFs that he gave his church a sermon on tithing right from the DF! He told us, You & the Lord are giving me so much, I want to help you every month!" TYJ! That was the answer to our prayer!
The Lord is really changing him & his family through the Word & they are buying Tapes from us to give away to people who need them. He even takes his DFs to read to people he is ministering to; for example, when he visits people in the hospital, he reads to them on the subjects they need. Both he & his wife are really turned on about doing something for Jesus & we are so inspired to see this beautiful fruit of follow-up!
From Joan, Asia:
People here in this Muslim country are like tiny babies spiritually, whom we are trying to feed their first bites of spiritual nourishment. Even though we have so much spiritual food we can give them, they can only handle a tiny amount at a time. So the Lord showed us to try giving them smaller amounts of Word to start with, & we put together a few quote sheets on different subjects with some quotes from the Good Thots & the MOP. We had these laser-composed with big lettering, & then provisioned the printing.
We have found them to be a real hit! Everyone reads them & some have highlighted them & put them up in their office. We also plan to have some framed to give as special presents to our friends. They have been a real blessing to help us give our sheep short, on-the-spot classes in their offices by reading through them together.
Also they really help us to steer the conversation & be able to witness more, & this is a real blessing, especially for the provisioners, for whom visits can tend to be dry & business-like.
From Michael, Mercy & Ira, North America:
This month we laid out several classes from the Treasures" in a full-page format to give or mail to people we are following up on & we've had good reactions to them! We've found this helpful in feeding people who might not want to be on a regular DF list, but respond to more personalised feeding such as this.
Also these sheets are something we've used as a supplement to those on our DF list who need a particular class from Treasures", but aren't yet ready to receive the whole book. It has proven helpful in ministering to some churchy contacts we have who would react suspiciously if we gave them a book, but receive it when we say, These are photocopies of some classes which we thought might be an inspiration for you."
From Joshua Fearless, Europe:
The Lord gave me an idea for following up on DFers. I have a couple of little photo albums with all the DFs in English, & I keep a record of the last DF each contact received. With the little album, it's easy to quickly find any one of the DFs, so when I call the people on the phone, I can glance at the English copy of their last DF & ask them questions about different parts of it that are special to me or might be of special importance to them. The system is working well!
From Isaac, Mercy & Happy, Pacific:
We have been able to follow-up on some of our night singing contacts, which has really borne lots of fruit! Sometimes it's a bit of a battle for the night singers to do follow-up, as they are on the front lines night after night! We have found it helpful to have a team geared to follow-up to help take care of the contacts & make appointments with people met by the singing team. We visited one young businessman who was met over a year ago during night singing, who has offered to help our youth ministry by giving us a room to use in his building, which is directly outside the gates of the major university of our city! It's exciting as we feel like we have discovered a gold mine of new contacts!—And seeing the fruits of their labours has been a big encouragement to the night singers. It's really effective to work as a witnessing Teamwork in this way! PTL!
From Angela & Joy, SEA:
We organised a curriculum/study plan for new contacts & especially for old-time friends who have completed the DFs & Treasures". It's very convenient, & in this way we can make sure they get good balanced feeding & we avoid last minute decisions as to what to read with them.
From Isaiah & Lily, SEA:
Reading over Love 'Em & Leave 'Em" we were convicted about feeding our live-outs, & felt they should be more organised. We got the vision to help them be more united so they could help each other, should we foreigners have to leave.
They were all visiting us regularly & making progress, but we felt there was more the Lord wanted to do in their lives. It worked out that they were all able to be free on the same evening, & this gathering, at a set time each week, has become a real special time. We can feel a real bond & unity growing between all of them.
We have been using the Word Basics" book, which has made it so easy to give the classes! Another benefit of these Bible studies, besides the Word training it provides our live-outs, is the principle of iron sharpeneth iron" (Pro.27:17). Some of them have been getting convicted by the soul-winning stats of one who is particularly shining in that area!
Handling them as a group is easier for us as a Home as far as planning & scheduling the time to feed them, & results in better planned Word classes for all of them.
Pouring Out at Christmas!
(Editor's note: Christmas will be here before we know it, & in these inspiring testimonies from last year you will see how touched our friends & contacts have been when we take time to show them our appreciation & minister the Word to them at Christmas. The increased receptivity & the mood of the season make it a perfect time for follow-up, as the following testimonies show.)
From Stephen & Sharon, North America:
Our Christmas banquet was a success & the Lord did many miracles in not only providing all the food through provisioning, but even the timing of having Chris Mountain & John Listen here on a visa trip from Asia. They were able to do the videoing, the sound equipment & lights!—Real professional help!
We had about 40 visitors & all were very thankful to be part of our wonderful Work! The teens, JETTs & younger children did a beautiful show, & included a slide show of different clips from our missionaries around the World, while Gentle & Christian sang, We Are Troubled on Every Side" from the Memory Book Tape, a very moving part of the programme! The last clips showed the big American city where we live!—Our new mission field!
A few days after the banquet, one of the contacts who attended called & had 200 boxes of children's clothing for us! As a result, we had to provision some warehouse storage as our present one could not contain it! Mal.3:10! We also provisioned a large truck which services the warehouse to pick it up, & they will also help us with shipping to other Homes across the States. Praise the Lord!
From Crystal, North America
We prayed with the hotel manager we provisioned a room from for the night, to receive Jesus. We got to show her our photo album & explain about our Work. She was really happy & inspired! We called back & asked her if she wanted our kids to do a Christmas show for her hotel & she invited us to perform at their Christmas party for the employees. Everyone there loved the kids & 35 people prayed the Special Christmas Prayer" together at the end of our Christmas Klepto" skit. Also the hotel manager gave us 6 free tickets for Complimentary Nights" in the hotel. She invited us to do a special luncheon they plan to have in the Spring for important people who stay at the hotel throughout the year. She said, I knew the kids would be good, but I never knew they'd be that good! Tell the kids they made our Christmas party special!"
From Arthur, Maria Arroya, & Dan Fisher, Latin America:
While out singing one day, the teens met a man who really liked the Videos (he bought a six pack) & introduced us to his father-in-law, who is the director of the big planetarium here in our city. The director invited us to sing & do a show at the planetarium, as they were having a special program for children.
We took the OCs & MCs, who did a beautiful Christmas pageant, & the teens sang. They met a lot of people who were really interested in us & the Videos. The kids were taken on a tour around the planetarium & talked & witnessed to the people who headed the tour. Auntie Maria also talked with the public relations manager & he was very impressed about our schooling & invited us to come back any time.
Another of our kings invited us to go to a party the highway police were having for the poor children in our city! We met the police chief of staff for our city, & one of the top officials who had already received our Tapes said he really liked them!
Afterwards, we went to eat lunch with this king's son who got saved. We also were invited to our king's private Christmas party with his entire family & met & witnessed to all his relatives.
We also were kept very busy visiting all of our doctor & market contacts, & our neighbours. The kids made cards & homemade baskets with cookies which we were able to give to all the contacts, along with our Christmas newsletter explaining more about our Work. On our visits to these people the children sang, & all the contacts were very touched! We won a lot of souls from these personal witnessing visits, & the little children had a chance to be involved in our Christmas outreach & they were thrilled.
Another team ministered to provisioning contacts who live further away, also singing for them & giving them homemade cookie baskets, cards & our Christmas Newsletter. They provisioned lots of clothes, food, etc., & best of all, really ministered to our precious contacts, drawing them closer to the Lord & us. They were able to get especially close to the manager at a large supermarket who allowed them to sing at the store for about 20 minutes, right in the main entrance, which was quite a crowd stopper!
From Bigheart & Spring, Latin America:
We compiled a Christmas letter which we were able to take to all of our contacts & friends, for which they were all really thankful & happy. Some of them mentioned that they still have all the letters & tracts we gave them at previous Christmases! One showed us his collection, saying, Look, I have them all in here & read them whenever I have a chance." PTL!
From Malachi & Rebecca, North America:
We went Christmas carolling for a lot of our contacts, and had the JETT girls make little verses which we framed as gifts. Our contacts loved this personal touch & many hung them up as a witness & thanked us profusely! The Lord also blessed us financially as well and we were able to raise nearly $1,000 through ministering to our contacts this way.
From Tim, Joy, Paul & Susanna, North America:
After shows our JETTs did at two senior citizens' homes for Christmas, we stopped for our lunch that had previously been provisioned. The hostess & the waitress were so sweet & they both prayed with the JETTs & received a Poster & a Tape. After the meal, the JETTs got inspired to stack the dishes neatly for the sweet waitress, who was so touched by their loving sample!
Then on our way home, we stopped to visit two of our provisioning contacts who are DF members. We asked them if they would like the kids to sing to them. The first contact, who is the manager of a garage & has helped in fixing our different vehicles, was so touched & so surprised! He called in all his employees & brought in a tape recorder to record the JETTs. Three customers came in & enjoyed it too! Three of the men prayed with the JETTs & took Tapes.
The manager said it was the best Christmas gift he'd received in many years! Then, as we were leaving, he handed us an envelope with $100 in it & said it was his Christmas gift to us.
Next we stopped at our meat contacts, a couple of sweet Italian men. They fell in love with the JETTs & they called all their employees to watch the singing. Five of them prayed with the JETTs & we got three more Tapes out there! The sweet woman said she wanted to know more about us because they get asked so many times throughout the year for donations & she wanted to help someone worthwhile, like us. They gave us lots of snacks & want us to come back again.
We got out a total of 253 Posters, 21 Tapes, & won about 95 souls that day! The JETTs could have continued all night! One of the JETTs commented after she had prayed with a few people, I love to look at their faces after they pray!" TTL!
By James Fisher, SEA
The country we live in is the scene of much labour unrest, wildcat strikes & union manipulation of workers. The president & part owner of a prominent large business is one of our good friends & supporters, helping our Work & introducing us to his peers.
Recently, an attempt was made by a labour union to gain more control within our friend's establishment & manoeuvre another already duly-elected union out. It was quite obvious from the start that this intruding union was merely interested in increasing its own clout, presence & power, with little concern for the labourers they were seeking to represent".
The demands that were being made would increase their own officers' treasury, yet would provide minimal compensation to its members. It was especially shocking to see the unscrupulous means they were willing to use to reach their goals—using force, hired thugs, coercion & threats!
As these people blocked the main gates of entry to the property & made it impossible for people to come & go, our friend, Mr. P., was forced to close his business down. He telephoned us & asked for prayer, & for any counsel & advice we could offer. Our main message to him was Pro.3:5,6 & that perhaps the Lord was using these problems to draw Mr. P. closer to Him. We assured him that we would keep the situation in our prayers. We got together as a Home on several occasions for united desperate prayer. We also instituted a prayer chain during the most intense negotiations. This strike affected not only our friend, but the 1,000 labourers & their families who were not able to work! During the intense negotiations, Mr. P. would call regularly, telling us of specific events & people to pray for.
We felt inspired to write him a letter, including several Bible passages, as well as promises we had received in prayer for him & his situation, like I will bless them that bless thee" (Gen.12:3). We explained how he'd shown his love for the Lord by helping our Work & being good to us, & that the Lord would likewise help & bless him now.
We also got the verse, When a man's ways please the Lord, He maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him" (Prov.16:7). This verse was a big comfort to him in all his troubles! Our letter really touched his heart, & strengthened his faith—so much so that he began circulating it amongst some of his top management! GBH!
We visited his home often, where the company leaders met often during the strike, & we shared the Word with them there, particularly the Salvation & Endtime messages! Several prayed & received Jesus, TYL! Others commented how since talking with us, they could see the labour problem in a better perspective! They were so ready for a meatier message, as a result of these sobering events, & all were touched by our sincere concern for them during this time.
Mr. P. had specifically asked us to pray for the personnel manager, who was receiving death threats. We shared Psa.91 with the personnel manager, & although he had been previously rather apprehensive & sceptical of us, he now listened intently & appreciatively, as we shared that although he had bodyguards, Jesus was the best bodyguard he could have!
In direct answer to our specific prayers, the Lord raised up a prominent member of the Supreme Court to side with Mr. P.'s case, which resulted in the issuance of a back to work" order. The workers who refused to comply lost their right to remain with the company, making it possible to weed out the disgruntled, divisive elements within the company.
The union in question was exposed for its illegal practices & selfish motives! This defeat was a direct blow to their nation-wide credibility amongst other unions. In fact, a prominent attorney friend of ours mentioned that he had never seen a labour dispute resolved so thoroughly & with such a clear victory for the management & the original union—and such a devastating defeat for the union attempting to bully its way in. He said that there was something special to that settlement"!
Incidentally, afterwards Mr. P. felt led to take special initiatives in increasing many of the already existing benefits which his company offers its workers. PTL! The Lord won a big victory for our friend, through prayer! TYJ!
[end]
Copyright 1996 The Family