July 15, 2003
FSM 371
CM/FM 6/01
Special Action FSM #7
Cover pic: Lisa and Activated disciple Fatu, in Sierra Leone
Fruit of the Magazine!
It is wonderful how the Family has responded to the Activated challenge, and has done so much to bring in My dear ones, the ones I bring across their path, the ones who reach out to them, the ones who they feel a burden for from Me.
I send dear and priceless souls to them, and then it is their place to gently and tenderly nurture them and care for them and see them along. They must ask Me for My desire and My calling for each person-how I see them, what I desire for them, how I can become a greater part of their lives.
They can ask Me how to approach them about the Word, about subscribing to Activated if they haven’t already, about when to invite them to their meeting or to the Home. All these are steps in the progress of My sheep, but most of all I can give a glimpse into the heart of each one-and this will give the burden and motivation and desire to give My love in a deep and lasting way to them.
My dear ones, as you tune into Me for each sheep, this will in turn cause you to experience great love for each one-love that won’t give up, that won’t let go, that will perform miracles for Me, miracles of the heart. Each one has special needs. Each one deserves kindness and gentleness and tender shepherding. So look to Me and I will lead, instruct, and anoint you to shepherd My little ones. (End of message.)
December 2000
From Aaron (VS), Lisa (SGA), and Marc
It was wonderful to see the difference the Activated magazines had made in the lives of the students in Sierra Leone that we won to the Lord a year ago. Since then, the message of the Activated magazine have taken hold in their lives and changed them so much. God bless our Africa Activated Desk in England. The folks there have taken these precious sheep under their wing and cared for them as if they were the only ones, even though we know they have so many other sheep that they are caring for at the same time. Peter and Rose and others at the Activated Desk in England have become their personal friends. Though they have never seen them, they have communicated with them on the phone and by e-mail. We could see the results of their love and care, and it was obvious that the disciples felt their interest and concern, even from such a distance.
Discipleship Camp
In order to develop the work in Sierra Leone, the Lord told us to invest in the disciples that we had met and who had been fed by the Activated materials. So we held a camp that included ten days of classes (two hours in the morning and two hours in the evening), and then witnessing in the middle of the day. The classes that seemed to be most effective were ones that required action on the part of the attendees, such as those on witnessing and memory work. We asked each student to memorize two verses a day.
A key in the progress they made at the camp was taking them witnessing every day. They were able to see and understand what witnessing is all about, and tell from the beginning what made us different from other churches and Christian groups. Many of the disciples are taking the classes they received and sharing them in the provinces and other smaller cities across Sierra Leone, many of which have been much more affected by the war than the main cities.
The class on our relationship with the Lord was a giant hit as well. Some of them that had known the Lord for a while had never realized they could hear from Him directly, so this was revolutionary and a milestone in some of their lives.
One of the teams even went provisioning and they were able to see how that can be done in their home country. One of our YAs needed a pair of shoes and his partner did, too. So they prayed and then approached one man who approached said, Sure!-and gave them two brand-new pairs of shoes! The Sierra Leoneans had never experienced getting something for free that God provided so miraculously! To see God work and supply spoke to them so loudly.
Hitching a ride from one end of town to the other (where we had the class) was very difficult, as our class location wasn’t on the main road but off the beaten track. But every time we needed a lift, we prayed and people would come and take us exactly where we were going. Many times there were quite a few of us, so it was nothing short of a miracle. At times the Sierra Leonean disciples wanted to try to find some other means of transport, but the Lord always seemed to supply, showing them how they can live by faith and the Lord can supply miraculously.
The Future!
Teams will be making regular trips into Sierra Leone every few weeks. On the next trip our team will be setting up a leadership framework amongst the laborers there, so they can continue to meet regularly with some structure. The Lord has started raising up different bellwethers through the classes and the witnessing. Please keep these in your prayers. They are special jewels that the Lord has handpicked from Sierra Leone to reach her with the words of David and to get that country activated.
How you can help? Some Homes in Japan have sponsored Activated mailings for some of the Africans we are reaching. If you would like to do the same, that would probably be one of the biggest contributions you could make to the work in Sierra Leone at this time. Please feel free to write the Africa Activated Desk about your desire to help activate Sierra Leone and let them know how many you are willing to sponsor.
We love you lots and keep you all in our prayers.
PHOTO CAPTIONS:
Here are pictures of our Activated members in Sierra Leone. Not all of them have P.O. boxes, but they’ve set up one P.O. box where they receive the magazines, and then they share them all together in their weekly meetings.
1. Aaron giving Bible class
2. Marc giving a Bible class on the Endtime, with Elias leading everyone in finding the verses.
3. Matthew and Virginia enjoying inspiration before a class.
4. Jason and Elias with Nigerian UN soldiers who gave us a lift.
5. Marc illustrating a Daniel 2 Bible study for the evening class.
6. Elias (8 years old) with a Muslim Nigerian UN soldier just after praying with him to receive Jesus.
7. Matthew and Aaron
8. Marc and Aaron with several of the Sierra Leonean disciples.
9. Jason fishing for tuna.
More readers respond, grow, and get closer to the Lord through the Activated materials
From Daniel, Dove, and Victor, India
The people we know that have subscribed really love the magazine. For some it was love at first sight-they took one look and said, Wow, this is beautiful! One man, when we first showed him the Activated, subscribed for two years on the spot! Others weren’t too sure about it at first, but subscribed, and are now totally hooked!
One man who subscribed is a staunch Hindu, but really loves the magazines and the Word. He wants to get more involved in helping us and wants us to work in some orphanages with him. When we went to see him, he told us, You know, we are all like one family-us, me and you. We were very touched by this man’s reaction and we know it’s a result of the feeding he’s had.
In another city, a man who really loves both the Activated and our letters and Word we send him said, Please, keep sending these to me. They’re what keep me going, so don’t ever stop.
Another man subscribed last year and told us how much he loves the Activated magazine. He says that he shares the Prayer for the Day with all his friends. Just recently, he subscribed for the second year.
A lady we met in Sri Lanka was very sweet, and had also met the Family in China while she was on a trip there. She took the Activated mag and a few books. She really loved Discovering Truth: Bible Basics and said it was just what she needed, as she witnesses to others and this book would help her a lot.
Since we started getting people activated in ‘99, we had a few who were almost at the end of their first year and needed to subscribe again soon. Even though these people aren’t on their last issue, they have renewed their subscriptions for another year, and told us how much they love the Word.
One man we know in another city here in South India has a large school and takes our tools regularly. When we went there, after he took some material for his school, we talked to him about Activated. He’d subscribed a while back and it will be time for him to renew it soon. He told us, I like the Activated magazine. I have found some really good articles and tips in there, and said he would renew it when the time comes.
Another sweet Christian lady we know in a big city in central Tamil Nadu also runs a school, and got activated last year. When we met her this year, she renewed her subscription, telling us how much she loves Activated; she also got her sister to subscribe. She shares the Activated mags with all her friends, be they Christian or Hindu. When we met her, she told us that she didn’t have her copy of the latest mag because she had shown it to one of her friends, who is a Hindu. Her friend glanced through it, not very interested, and said, I’m putting it back. However, she slipped it into her purse instead! Our sweet friend not only took a set of all the books we had with us, but paid us in advance for a copy of the From Jesus-With Love book and the Countdown to Armageddon VCD, as we didn’t have these with us. God bless her!
All in all, we’ve been so inspired with the Activated mags and books, and we’ve seen how much they’ve helped our friends who’ve taken them. We know that as they keep getting fed, they’ll continue to grow even more. We’re so excited with the possibilities and potential our sheep and friends have and want to continue to do what we can to turn people on to the Word and growing in the Lord!
From Hannah, Tina, Almond and Ben, Zimbabwe
Here in Zimbabwe it is truly a spiritual battle this year with economic and political turmoil. We followed up on a newly saved friend who was going through extreme battles about everything. He confessed he was about to give up on his faith. We gave him Obstacles Are for Overcoming and it changed his outlook on his Christian life. Since then he has been visiting the Activated Web site daily and is receiving the magazines. It has been inspiring to see what a difference the Word has made in his life.
From Mary Dear Fighter, India
One of the people who first got activated about ten months ago, a young man, is now a catacomber and has himself gotten out thirteen subscriptions to date! Talk about the Activated vision bearing more fruit! Another sheep, a businessman who got activated around the same time, has decided to accept Jesus wholly in his life, along with his wife and little daughter. He recently partially sponsored about 57 subscriptions for people such as students, who wanted the mag but couldn’t afford the whole subscriptions. God bless him! (Editor’s note: In India they have been selling subscriptions at half price to people such as students who can’t afford the full price, by enlisting the help of businesses who sponsor the other half of the subscription cost.)
From Michelle (of Michael), Pune, India
At 12 p.m. one day, Mrs. Rao came over to get some tapes and videos for her school. We spent a delightful hour together, fellowshipping, reading the Word, and looking over the different Family materials. In addition to the kids’ tapes and videos Mrs. Rao took for her school, she also took two of the new Activated booklets, Overcoming Obstacles and Hearing from Heaven.
At 8 p.m. she came back with her 80-year-old father and 20-year-old daughter. During the afternoon she had left her stack of books at home while she had tended to some business. Meanwhile her father, an avid reader despite his age, had read the two books and just loved them, saying they were excellent!
A week later, after Mrs. Rao had returned to the city where she works, we got a letter from her. Here are some excerpts:
My dearest Michelle and all, In the train I read your book on how to overcome obstacles. It’s such a lovely book-I plan to read it again. At the moment I am reading Hearing from Heaven, which is also lovely. Thanks a lot for them!
These books are so inspiring, feeding our friends with the true milk of the Word in a wonderful way, causing them to grow like never before. It’s wonderful to give them out! Praise the Lord!
From Paul and Beth, Mexico
We have been giving Bible classes on a biweekly basis to a friend who’s in her late 60s. We started by reading the first Activated magazine on salvation with her, and at the end of the class it was so beautiful to see her, her daughter, and her husband holding hands together and praying to receive the Lord. In our last meeting with her, she pulled out the Activated mag we had given her and we could see that she had used it very well. She showed us all the Bible verses that she had looked up and written all over the pages of the mag.
From Paul (of Praise), India
A business contact of one of our very close friends was on the verge of committing suicide due to many business problems and pressures. After reading one of the quotes from the Mottos for Success, he was encouraged and found renewed strength to keep going. When Paul and this close friend of the Family went to meet him he got saved and changed miraculously. Now he is a new man and has taken 20 Mottos for his friends and wants to take more. He firmly believes in Jesus.
From Dawn (of Dan), USA
As we were encouraged by the Activated vision to find and minister to those we can teach to teach others eventually, I was quite eager to see who of our friends would fit in that category. We were pleasantly surprised to find that many we have on the line are ready! We are seeing more and more how the anointing that the Lord has promised is there and also how He’s been working in their lives!
One Mexican leather shop owner who has lived in the States for many years was thrilled that we want to have classes with him, and asked if there was anything we had in Spanish to prepare his wife for this vision. He picked up his Bible and said, Since I met you all months ago, I have been realizing the real calling I have in life, and that is to learn as much of this that I can, so I can help others to have the truth also! He’s so ripe! We had no idea he felt like this!
Another Spanish woman we know owns one of the busiest seafood restaurants in one of the Mexican areas where we go table to table. She sat us down recently and had so many questions about our beliefs, our doctrines, our children, schooling, how we make enough money for our work, etc. She said she always watches us, but never had a chance to talk to us before, as we always come when they are so busy. That night it was late, but on our way home, we had had a strong check to stop by. We were so glad we obeyed the check, as she ended up buying an Activated subscription and also started telling all her waitresses about Activated! She ran out as we were driving away and asked for another subscription card, giving us a donation just to help. Thank the Lord!
Family Homes and Ministries Transformed By Using the Activated Magazine
From Leyland and Spring, James and Charity, Cape Town, South Africa
We had been doing what we could to follow up on the sheep we’d been meeting while out going factory to factory, or doing tabling and tracting in the malls (as explained later in this article). We designed a name sheet on Treasure Attic letterhead, taking down the names and addresses of all those who purchased our tools, as well as noting which tools they got. We began sending the most potential Living Waters and our newsletters. We also did some personal visitations and Bible studies.
Inspired by Mama and Peter’s testimonies of tracting, we had printed tracts to distribute with our address and phone number on the back. Road teams took these tracts all over South Africa and to the neighboring countries of Malawi, Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Botswana, and we started receiving enthusiastic mail responses to these tracts from each of these countries. Many of those who wrote in were students asking if they could have more tracts to hand out. Over 30 of the faithful ones became outside witnessers in their countries. We ministered to them through the mail, sending them thousands of tracts monthly, free of charge, to distribute.
Over a period of three years, we’d accumulated hundreds of names, but were at a loss as to how to properly follow up on all of them and give them the care they needed. It involved typing a mountain of names and info, categorizing, etc.; it was just too big a job. We also had regular follow-up to do, as people call in with questions, asking for prayer, for more tracts, for visitation, etc. So we started getting desperate about a better way of following up-and that’s when the Lord presented the Activated program to the Family. It was a welcome solution!
Introducing all of our closest friends, contacts, and potentials to the Activated program was easy, since they were already sold on the Family and our tools. The Lord inspired us to ask some of our contacts to sponsor Activated subscriptions for some of the poor though worthy students and other outside witnessers. We explained that their receiving subscriptions would help them grow in their spiritual walk with the Lord and enable them to be better witnessers. Almost everyone we approached regarding sponsorship was glad to help in this way.
Within the first two months of beginning our Activated ministry, we already had 30 subscriptions. We wrote those who were being sponsored, requesting that they send a letter of thanks to their sponsor. When our contacts received their letters of thanks, they were very touched and thrilled. Even now that their year’s subscriptions are expiring, these contacts gladly volunteer to continue sponsoring the needy students and outside witnessers by renewing another year’s subscription.
We’ve noted that our contacts that subscribed to Activated have grown spiritually and have a greater understanding and respect for our work. We also sent Activated mags to all of our provisioning contacts, and it has had a tremendous impact on their lives. We can see a change in their attitudes, and they seem to be helping us more and giving more cheerfully.
Comparing this year with Activated to the previous years without it, we can see that this magazine has been a tremendous boost to our ministry. We have not only had faithful follow-up from our Activated Desk, but the whole Activated vision has resulted in our doing more follow-up. We now have regular Bible studies with the potentials both at their homes and ours.
Many comment that the Activated mags contain key quotes that solve the problems or trials they may be experiencing, or that they contain just the inspiration or encouragement they need at the time. One friend we met going factory to factory over a year ago became an Activated member and sponsored five other people for subscriptions. He was killed a few months ago in an automobile accident, and his wife, who previously didn’t have the vacuum that he’d had, continued to receive the magazine. We recently went to visit her, and she praised the mags, saying they were just what she needed to pull her through the difficult months. She took out the latest mag she’d just received, pointing to various key phrases, and marveled that God had put those things in there just for her. We were so relieved and happy that she had been receiving this vital feeding.
The Activated tools: Our main outreach has been tabling in some of the larger malls and places where families frequent. Some people have found tabling to be too slow, but we’ve found it to be very fruitful and less rigorous on us older soldiers. Near our table, we hand out tracts and ask for donations for our work. We give everyone a tract whether they donate or not, and the Lord’s really blessed it, as the donations from tracting usually constitute over half our income. Then we invite them over to see our table.
In addition to our videos, tapes, CDs and posters, we’ve now added an additional table with the Activated materials, and the reactions have been tremendous. Especially as we frequent some of the same places, we have regular friends and outside witnessers that come to collect their tracts, receive prayer and encouragement. The Activated books are ideal for their feeding. The Feed My Lambs series and children’s books are going very well and are beautiful samples and testimony.
Meetings: We had our first Activated members meeting recently, attended by 10 members who live nearby. The kids and teens performed. We read the Mountain Streams Change the World, and the attending members shared testimonies about their witnessing and the lessons the Lord taught them. Then they, as well as some of us, got prophecies encouraging us to be faithful witnesses-reaching out to others with the Words of David. It was inspiring to see how these members are growing in the Lord and are convicted about outreach. We’ll be having a second meeting next week.
To end, we are so happy and thankful for Mama and Peter and all their staff who are working on the Activated program. We know the WWWs are having a great impact on thousands of people’s lives-even beyond what we can imagine. So, thank you, Mama and Peter, and everyone who has a part in helping us to do the most important thing: feed God’s sheep.
PHOTO CAPTIONS:
1. Here are Spring and Leyland (left to right), with Jesus (middle), the wonderful Founder and driving force behind the Activated ministry. Leyland and James Servant teach the Bible classes. Spring is our secretary and does most of the communication with the sheep through the mail. In addition to those who write us from around South Africa, we have Activated members writing us from the neighboring countries of Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Botswana. They originally received tracts with our address on them from brethren in their area, began writing us asking to receive a Bible course, and then got sponsored for Activated subscriptions.
2. This is a recent Activated meeting at our Home, held for our sponsors, translators, and close friends. In this picture, they are watching our dynamic teens and children perform. Although in South Africa you will find some of the strongest missionary-minded Christians, there is a great spiritual need among the majority of the population-especially among the poorest of the poor, the Blacks, whose tradition is ancestral worship, as well as those of mixed heritage. We also have a weekly Bible study in the mixed community, generally taught by James, which is faithfully attended by four college students who have already begun witnessing to others with our tracts. As these two groups (the Blacks and those of mixed heritage) find it difficult to afford to pay for an Activated subscription, our friends and supporters, as well as the Japan Family, help by sponsoring subscriptions for them. They are especially very thankful and encouraged to receive the Activated Magazine.
3. After an eye-opening Daniel 9 class, these Activated members have a lot to share with their friends and family. On the far left is Angel, 15, (of James and Charity) and far right is Spring, who attend our Activated Bible class weekly in a local township. The townships largely consist of shacks that the people build with their own hands from scraps of material. Nothemba (next to Angel) lets us use her beauty parlor as a gathering place for the youth to be fed God’s Word. Although poor, the youth are high school and college students and speak good English. We are going through the 12 Foundation Stones Bible Course with them.
4. Far right is Julia, YA, who joined us from Burma, and in the back row, Francis, 17, and Spring, with Activated members. To the left of Julia, Mxiwolo and Mthetheleli are lifeguards. They were the first Activated members from this group. Boy, you should hear these guys sing!-Beautiful harmonies, blends and rhythm! They are translating our Family songs into their language, Xhosa, and they are ON FIRE!! (Incidentally, Xhosa is a clicking language, and when you see the letter x, you make a clicking sound with your tongue.)
The Activated Anointing!
From Mark, Mexico
The Conéctate (Activated) vision puts into words all I’d been hoping for in living a missionary’s life, as well as defining where and how we’ve been missing the mark or falling short-along with giving solutions, TTL!
I went directly from the meetings [held in Mexico last summer] into a two-week road trip with three YA girls, and we had a blast! Everywhere we went the Lord used us to inspire the sheep we met, as well as the different brethren we visited along the way-and I knew it was just the Lord’s Activated Anointing spirit!
At first I got hit with, Well, I know it’s the truth, and others can do it and will go on for the Lord with it, but I may be too out of it or weak or behind or whatever, to get it myself.
Well, first of all, the Lord told me in a quiet, soft whisper, Your anointing has been activated! Then during those first couple of weeks it was pretty obvious that that was true and it didn’t ever have to be taken so much by faith again.
One fruit I saw-and this shows me how the Activated Anointing goes so much deeper than merely a new witnessing push or groovy new tool for outreach-was that the YA girls on our road team and I were unified and enjoying working together like never before. Whereas before we had become pretty familiar and cold and lifeless with each other, we now were laughing together, counseling on an equal level, praying together, and receiving things from the Lord together. It was so much fun, which also encouraged me that I’m not too much of an old bottle to still relate to and work with our young folks.
Other fruit I saw was all the sheep the Lord was bringing across our path-being able to see firsthand how true it is that they’re hungering and in need of getting connected. Whereas before it seemed I wasn’t meeting that many, now that I have the vision it seems they’re everywhere! Like the shoe salesman in Africa, Everybody needs shoes!
The anointing is real and people can feel it! Like the manager of a restaurant who donated a meal-when we went to thank her, she grabbed me and gave me a big hug! (She was beautiful, too! Oh my!) Like a young man in a different restaurant who signed up right away for a year’s subscription. Or like the small group of mechanics and their beer-drinking friends who stopped respectfully to pray with us for one of their mothers in a coma-then acknowledged the prayer as being what pulled her out of the coma that same day! Like the sweet Palestinian woman, discouraged and with sadness in her eyes over the condition of her homeland, who then found comfort and encouragement in our work and in the testimonies and lit we left with her.
And the list goes on and on! Thankfully, all these people now have a channel and opportunity through the Conéctate/Activated program to go on and grow in the Lord, as we’re not just scattering seed any more. I know these are tiny beginnings, but they are beginnings. And thank the Lord, when God’s Spirit is in something, it’s just as exciting as something huge!
Activating in Madagascar!
From Pedro and Lily, Madagascar, April 2001
Some latest news from here in Madagascar is that we’re regularly sharing with several close friends the very anointed and inspiring Activated Training Program Bible classes, which we downloaded from the MO site. On a regular basis we are sending new addresses of English-speaking sheep to the Activated desk for sponsored subscriptions. At the same time we’re receiving very positive, good reactions from many of these sheep about the life-changing Activated magazines.
The fold here is growing in number and quality, and we’re starting to see the fruits of all our labors to the point that our hearts are planted in this mission field, and we want to stay here as long as we can. It’s really worth it! In just these last couple of months the Lord has considerably increased the number of our follow-up members, and we’re very thrilled to see what is going to happen as time passes, especially when the Activated material will be translated into French*. What an explosion there will be! We can hardly wait! [*French is one of the official languages of Madagascar, along with Malagasy.]
Recently we met a very sweet family whose e-mail address was sent to us by Celeste from the Family FID (GBH!). After meeting in the city, we invited them to our house. They were very happy and excited to meet us, as they were looking for some special people like us with vision and faith in the Word, who would be able to help them in their decision-making and from whom they could receive counsel. The wife has been working at a travel agency and the husband has been receiving Bible classes from a missionary school for three years. They shared that they’re having some differences with the pastor of their church-community. It turns out that many people of this community are coming to see them for counsel, prayer, and comfort-something they don’t get from their pastor. The pastor, however, heard about this, got quite jealous, and has tried to discredit them.
This dear couple wants to serve the Lord with all their hearts, in simplicity and truth, and they said that that’s why Jesus has brought them our way. They were also very happy to hear that they can have weekly Activated Bible classes with us, and that they will be receiving a sponsored subscription to Activated (the wife knows enough English to understand and read it). From time to time we’ve been sending Word files of Reflections and Mountain Streams to her at her office by e-mail, some in French and some in English. She said that she prints the files, brings them home and devours this very inspiring reading material along with her husband.
We have an e-mail list of our potential sheep that we are feeding regularly once or twice a month. We’ve seen much good fruit and heard very good reactions to our sending them the Word to them via e-mail.
Even though the Activated program is in English, we haven’t had any problem in using it here, since we give simultaneous translations for those who don’t understand or speak English.
As time passes, it’s wonderful to see the positive changes in the lives of our friends. This is a confirmation of the wonderful promises about the era of action, and the emphasis on follow-up in order to strengthen the sheep, so that with time they will be able to help us with the harvest of this fertile field. For instance, our neighbor Mme. Marta and even Jean, our private guard, are starting to grow to the point that they are already sharing Bible classes in Malagasy from their notes with people in our neighborhood.
In conclusion, we would like to add that even if we feel we don’t have very showy ministries, deep inside our hearts we have the peace and trust that we are trying to do our best to be faithful to obey the written and living Word for today. Taking good care of the precious sheep the Lord entrusted to us with the Activated follow-up vision, as well as caring for our own kids are our priorities. It gives us the assurance that He will bless us somehow and take care of us in return-and do it well!
PHOTO CAPTIONS:
Lily and Pedro with a Malagasy couple (center), right after they got saved. They invited us and all our kids to be with them for one week during the Easter holidays at their beach resort house, on the exotic section of the east coast of Madagascar. God bless them!
From Jewel, Stephen and Rejoice, India
The most wonderful thing is the unity it has brought in our Home, in the area, in the nation, and probably in the worldwide Family as we activate ourselves and start doing our first works. To see us as bold witnesses again spreading the Word is so wonderfully inspiring. To have our young people saying Send me out!!! To have them coming home saying, It was so inspiring!-I haven’t witnessed like this before [or in so long]. I’m rusty, but I don’t want to stop! Who can I go with tomorrow? It is nothing short of WOW! -A miracle we have all been praying for.
From Italian Victory Fighter, India
The Activated revolution has affected my life personally. After I moved to a new situation, the Lord started speaking to me about the need to go out and get people activated. I always consider myself a childcare person as I have worked with children for many years, so this was quite a revolution for me. I stepped out by faith and started going DTD every afternoon with a teen and a child. It’s been so inspiring to see how the Lord has led us to some very sweet and receptive people and quite a few of them got activated.
The Lord said in prophecy to be faithful with the little people He puts in our path and He will give us more. After two months, we now have a little church of catacombers who in turn have already started witnessing and are getting others activated. We are planning to have Bible classes every week, as well as going out witnessing with them, and they are all very excited about it.
I just want to encourage anyone who feels that maybe outreach is not your calling. Step out by faith to get people activated and see what the Lord will do! You don’t have to be good or talented; just be out there where the need is.
I want to end this testimony with a little quote from ‘Instant’ Witnessing, where Jesus says: In that day you will look upon these blessings and you will know that it is not because of your own doing, your own striving in the flesh, your own trying to make things happen, to reach the top, to go through the big doors, to meet the big contacts, but it will be because you are My faithful messengers and you cared for My little lambs. You saw the sheep and you tended to their needs, as I would (ML #3137:133).
From Samuel, Mamta, Joy, Jonathan, David, and Kathryn, India
With a lot of desperate prayer and a good measure of the Lord’s grace we were able to reach our Activated goal this month, with 63 subscriptions sold, an all-time high for us! Praise the Lord! Due to various pushes our Home was going through, such as annual CTPs and big programs being organized for our friends, it was soon brought out to us by our ever faithful shepherds that the Activated fever had been all but pushed aside in our frantic buzz of Home activity and good intentions. Lord help us! We soon realized that we needed a drastic change of modus operandi as well as a switch in priorities, which led us to focus the remaining part of the week (or however long it would take us to reach our goal) solely on Activated-despite seemingly desperate deadlines to meet and budgets to raise! But as always, the Lord pulled through, and in no usual way at that!
On the first day of our Activated push, the Lord brought in an amazing 50 Activated subscriptions!! Thank the Lord! A big part of this was due to a sweet lady whom we met quite out of the blue, who willingly accepted our proposal and came through with a sizable sponsorship specifically for those who have written in and requested the Activated material but are unable to afford it! We know it was definitely nothing of ourselves, but just had to be the Lord as we felt totally incapable. But it was so inspiring to see Him pull us through! It also showed us that putting the Lord and His work first never fails!
From Mary Dear Fighter, India
Our Home finally started popping as far as getting Activated subscriptions! The last three days before the TRF are often devoted to pushes for finances to make the big-B, the budget, and desperate prayer for that. This particular month was no different. Still, as we shot for the subscription target, the Lord supplied two-thirds of our budget miraculously through just three sheep. He helped us get the rest, too-and that’s just the beginning of the story!
The following month, our target was 50 Activated subscriptions. The Lord helped us to overshoot it by 20! We’ve had teams going out to get out subscriptions, and they usually get out a good amount of tools in the process. It’s sure helped the finances too! This month we’re shooting for 100 and, D.V., getting there.
The Activated push has pretty much been kidnapped by the YAs, senior teens, and new disciple in our Home. It’s their baby now-the rest of us have almost been reduced to cheering them on! They’re the ones who’ve gotten a large chunk of the subscriptions!
Overcoming Barriers
From Matthew Love, India
Initially we thought that it would be very difficult to implement the Activated vision here in India in the way we were expected to, but having dived into this new follow-up push wholeheartedly, we are finding out that all things are possible to him that believeth. Our initial reluctance stemmed from the fact that India is predominantly a non-Christian nation, to put it mildly. The current trend in this part of the country is quite anti-Christian, which makes promoting the Activated ministry even more challenging. There was this huge mental block that we couldn’t push Activated in our area of the country as effectively as, say, the Homes in the south of India, which is a more Christian area. It has also been a tremendous fight as we were often tempted to put other ministries, which bring in the funds for the Home, before the Activated ministry.
In spite of all these factors, the Lord has done marvelous things for our Home by helping us get almost 200 subscriptions over the past two months. We are really thrilled with what the Lord is doing in our Home with the Activated ministry. The amazing thing about this new type of follow-up in the Family is that we can be assured of our sheep being followed up on with very solid Word, which they desperately need.
From Andrew, India
A Sikh businessman we met out witnessing was really turned on with our tools and took nine audiocassettes. Then we showed him the Activated magazine and told him that it was Christian-oriented. His response was, I love Christ and will subscribe to your magazine. This has given me more faith to reach non-Christians, as before I had a mental block that only Christians could be approached with the Activated. A real encouragement for me!
New Places, New Ways
From Marie, Mercy, and Phil, USA
Car-washing outreach has helped us to gain new Activated subscriptions. For variety, our Home does an occasional car wash in our local city, and each time we have we have met someone who has signed up as a subscriber. That’s exciting! As you know, when you’re washing someone’s car they sometimes just hang around to talk. Angela (SGA) does the talking and explaining about our work while the rest of us wash. Each time she finds an interested customer, she brings out the Activated mags and gives them the pitch! And, it works!
From Patrick, Christina, Lydia, and Meeka, USA
We have started to set up downtown a table with all the Activated tools we have. As we witness, people come to see what’s happening and we talk to them about Activated and the work we do with the youth in the city. We are able to get people on Activated this way. We now have permission to set up our table at the weekly Saturday market!
When going DTD, whenever people asked me for info about the work we raise funds for, I used to give them a little intro letter about our work with the youth in the city. Now I give them the same letter, along with an invitation to help us by subscribing to Activated using the appeal on the Activated Web site homepage.
From Mary Dear Fighter, India
It helps sometimes to ask the proprietors of companies to sponsor subscriptions for their secretaries, whether they themselves want one or not. The secretaries are often Christian, and their bosses seem to like doing them this simple favor!
From Peter and Mesha, Mexico
If I meet a Christian who is trying to be an active witness, I sell them all twelve Activated mags for a package price and tell them what a great follow-up tool it is to use with new Christians. I also give them a bunch of subscription cards with my distributor number on it. The reason for the package sale is because, being non-Family Christians, they will want to know where the mag is at doctrinally before telling their converts to subscribe, and you don’t want them to take a whole year to decide whether or not they’re going to sell subscriptions for you.
From Aaron, Joy and Angie, Brazil
One of the mental blocks that the Enemy tries to hit us with in regards to getting subscribers for the Contato (Activated) magazine is: It’s not possible for a person that you just met to subscribe. C’mon, he doesn’t even know you, etc. This past week Katrina was going DTD and met a man to whom she intended to sell CD cards. For some reason or other he didn’t buy, so she proceeded by faith to witness to him, explaining more about our work, and he ended up getting saved and signing up for a subscription right then and there! She came back home really inspired because it was the first time she had offered a subscription to someone she had just met, and the Lord showed her how it was really easy to get him to sign up. It’s just a matter of praying and being there at the right time with the right person.
From John and Sunny, China
When praying about what we could do in a closed country to make the Activated ministry prosper, we got that besides praying for those in a position to make it really happen, we could also send in our mailing list. Many of the people on the list are saved and helped us to get to the field. The problem is that we haven’t been able to really feed them spiritually in our situation. Now the Activated can do it for us.
From Steven, Angela, Maggie, Paolo, Croatia
We have been really convicted by the GNs on Activated, and have made it a priority to try to get as many people activated as possible! We also decided to offer as personal funds the $2 per subscription that would normally go to our Home, to help encourage individual incentive. And do you know what? It works!
From Faith, Caroline, and Chris, S. Africa
We have been doing a lot of provisioning lately and we have been concerned about expressing our thankfulness to our newly established contacts and also giving them enough of an idea of what we are all about. We have found that a nice solution was to put together a parcel of our stapled color newsletter with a couple of A5 posters along with a tape, book, or a CD. We’ve also included an Activated magazine with a subscription card. This is to create interest in subscribing for more. It also shows them that we have a substantial feeding scheme for furthering the Gospel in our community.
The Blessings Generator
From Mark, Faithy, and Premika, India
We are a small team of two adults, one senior teen, and our eight other children. After reading the prophecies about the Activated vision for India, we were quite convicted and made a push on subscriptions, but we only got out very few books, about six books to be precise. So this month we made a goal to get out 50 books. We felt that getting the books out is the same as getting the Word out.
A few days after making our goals we received an area newsletter where there was a testimony of a larger Home that had gotten out over 200 books. We felt so convicted and felt that the Lord wanted us to strive to reach that as a goal. So we had desperate prayer. We knew it was going to take a miracle to reach it, and sure enough the Lord did so many miracles for us.
We had a couple of open doors for setting up stalls to get the books out, but it was not as we had expected and we only got out about 20 books there. The Lord showed us to send a one-day road team to a nearby town to follow up on some people we knew there. That was a super good day and we got out 45 books. It was only Jesus, as everything just flowed so smoothly.
The Lord led us to make a list of all the people we felt would like to take the books, similar to what we had done for the Activated subscriptions. Then we started following up on them. And the Lord started doing it.
Thank the Lord, this month with His help we were able to get out 218 books and 10 Mottos! It was so, so encouraging. Outreach and getting out the books has becoming a rallying point for our Home. The kids are praying for it daily; they themselves are helping to get these materials out, and we are having a blast. Even though getting the books out is not a very good fundraiser, it has been a tremendous blessing generator, and as we have been faithful to get the Word out, the Lord has been supplying through so many unexpected sources. This month our income was very good, in fact the second highest for the last year. Wow! He never fails if we obey! We are all so flipped out and awed by what the Lord is able to do, if we are faithful to pray and just go out day by day.
From Prem, Ruth, Simon, Sharon, India
The Lord showed us to start tithing for Activated. In other words, whenever our Home got some income, we would put aside a certain amount right away to sponsor Activated for those who really want them but can’t afford them. The incredible thing was-the more we tithed our income, the more openings we started getting to do shows, seminars, or programs, the more income the Lord would bring in and subsequently the more Activated we could sponsor.
The wonderful thing about it is that things like rent, electricity bills, transport bills, etc., no longer take priority in our consciousness-at least not to the point of getting us under pressure! Sure, we think about them, but now it’s not like, Oh, my! Another month! Here we go again. -How are we going to raise our funds??!! Now it’s more like, Oh, wow! Another month! How many Activated subscriptions can we get out this month? And as long we keep that as the center of everything, the rent bills, budget, etc., are taken care of! Cool!
Gifts That Keep On Giving
From Daniel, Dove, and Victor, JTC Home, India
The state we have a Home in here in South India has a large Christian population, and a lot of our friends are Christians, although some are also Hindus and Muslims. The people here have been very receptive and open, but since we are a road team Home and our contacts are spread out over a very large area, we hadn’t been able to get as many people to subscribe as we wanted. We write these people on a monthly basis and send them Word, but we really wanted to get them subscribing.
One day, when going over our mailing lists, we started selecting people we knew would love and benefit from the Activated mag. We came up with almost 200 names. (Some people on our mailing list are rather strong Hindus. These people we didn’t choose, just mostly Christians and some Hindu friends we’ve known for a long time that are more open to Christianity.) We had an idea: Our Activated Desk was offering a special subscription price that month-why not sponsor their subscriptions? These people usually help with donations every time we visit, more than the subscription price, and they would benefit from the Activated mags.
We took time to pray about this idea, and the Lord gave us many wonderful promises, such as, Cast thy bread upon the waters And, If you give, I will repay, saying that if we put His sheep first, He would mightily bless us. So by faith, we sent these addresses in to the Activated Desk, and the Lord did His part! We have enough funds to pay for these subscriptions, and the people who started receiving the mags have been so thankful and appreciative! Only the Lord knows how much they will grow and benefit once they get more mags and Word.
From Crystal of Luke, Senegal
This is an idea of a nice way to get more people activated. How about if sending your sponsors an Activated gift subscription as a present? It would be a very nice gift to someone needing feeding. You could buy them a year subscription for a birthday present or for any other special occasion. It’s only $15 and it’s a priceless gift to someone you want to feed eternally.
From James Paul Messenger, Philippines
I found that with friends or people who have been helping in some way before, or who have the potential of continuing to help your work, it’s good to give them some of our materials as a gift once in awhile instead of making another sale. It really touches their hearts and they know that you are sincere in your appreciation for their help.
Recently I went to visit a sweet lady who has been helping the Home before by buying some of our books, videos, CDs, or sometimes just by giving donations. This time I gave her Keys to Happier Living, and then she asked how much it cost, ready to pull out her money and pay for the book. To her surprise I told her that the book was a gift from the Lord and a token of our appreciation for her continued help. She was very touched, and when we were leaving, she insisted on giving us a donation anyway, which was many times over what the book costs. I have been doing this often, and the Lord never fails but more than repays our giving.
From Gideon and Lamb Newheart, Norway
The exciting vision and promises made by the Lord in the Activated GNs are so thrilling. We have had a little experience in implementing the Activated program here and are awed by the possibilities.
Let me backtrack a little to the beginning of last year, January 2000. Celebrating the New Year in a renewed spirit of dedication and commitment was a special occasion for Lamb and me. We ended by asking the Lord what goals He wanted to set in our lives, rather than our setting any for ourselves. We have a burden to go East to Asia, but weren’t sure if we should go to China or Vietnam, and we thought He would indicate which place to go. We were a little surprised when He told us to get 100% behind the Activated push and do all we could to make it happen. If we did that, He told us, everything else would fall into place. He would give us the home support we need, open the doors, show us which field, etc.—all in His good time.
Lord help us, we were a little slow to start. There had already been three advisories about the Activated program and one GN, but we weren’t clear about how to begin. We waited a little while until I had reread the GN and the advisories. I somehow had the impression that it was complicated. (It’s not.) It wasn’t until last February that we got started. We began by ordering some of the Activated magazines and a few of the booklets we saw advertised in the brochure we got with the advisory.
(I want to mention that I am one who has always been sold on the value of follow-up. Eighty percent of our outreach is actually follow-up and it is the mainstay of our support. Still, for some reason I was hesitant to get started. I believe it was just the Enemy of our souls trying to discourage this new push of the Spirit.)
We began by taking the Activated mag out witnessing and shop to shop. Right away we could see the benefits, as it opens the doors for a deeper, more spiritual witness right away. I really love our videos and CDs, but when you bring out the Activated materials you get to talking about God right away. To tell you the truth, it revolutionized our witnessing. We were inspired to be soul-winners again!
We have a large mailing list of several hundred businessmen and women, and in each issue we feature a different Activated tool. Usually I scan in the cover of one of the booklets and copy the text off the back of the book. We also put in the address for the Activated Desk for Europe as well as our own. (After all, the Lord did say to get behind it 100%.)
We found that the best way was to introduce the magazine to our contacts personally; for most of those we do usually pay for their subscription right away. It has helped us to get on a deeper level with many of our contacts.
Now, from the sound of this you might think, Wow, great, they’re really signing’m up! Well, we could certainly do a lot more. Even after getting started, we slowed down a bit. Then the Lord used a financial emergency to get us on the ball again.
At the beginning of the summer we had a lot of big bills come due, some rather unexpectedly. We were in such a serious financial state that I actually went to the employment office to look into getting a summer job to meet these expenses. There were lots of jobs available and the pay was something like $13-15 dollars an hour.
We took the time to really pray about it, as it would have meant having to work eight hours a day and being too tired to do anything else at the end of the day. Looking at our outreach, we also saw that we usually do at least that well on outreach. The key was to get out and put in the hours. (Granted, there are some days on occasion when we get out nothing for the whole day; thankfully those are not so frequent and are more like a test.)
When we asked the Lord what to do, He told us, Get Activated! So we made a promise to the Lord: We would get out as much as we could, and do so faithfully, if He would do a miracle to help us with our bills. (Our bills were about $2,500.) To make a short story even shorter, He did it! We got out about four days a week, and during that time the Lord raised up new contacts and means of support.
One testimony was especially inspiring. We have been sending our newsletter to a friend in Canada for many years and he would help on occasion. This time he helped with a check for $400. A few days later we got another check for $300 from someone who had never met us, but had gotten our newsletter from someone else. This man is a Christian and was particularly inspired by what he called the soul-winning aspect of your ministry-the fruits of getting Activated! We got another check from him two weeks later for even more and he has now made a monthly pledge!
The Lord just seemed to raise up the support from our friends as we began to feed them more spiritually. To make sure we continue to do so, we have started putting a plan into effect. In the past we used to buy some little handcrafted items in Russia and Eastern Europe that we gave to some of our bigger sponsors as a token of appreciation. These would usually cost $5-10. Now we are paying for a year’s subscription to Activated in their name.
Many of these men and women are heads of companies living across the country and some we have never met, so it is hard for us to ask them to pay for a subscription. Their help is often worth hundreds or even thousands of dollars. We look at our paying for their subscriptions as an investment not only in the future but for eternity, and we have the satisfaction of knowing that they are getting fed and have the possibility to get more either from us or the Activated Desk.
It is really inspiring to see the reactions of people after having just received two or three issues of the Activated magazine. We now have several businessmen and women asking us to start a Bible study or afternoon luncheon, to provide an event that they can invite others to and where they can be fed more spiritually! How about that! The sheep now know where to come for feeding and are even asking us, instead of our going out and looking for them. Again, the fruits of getting Activated.
All of this has really put a fire in our souls to get out more. Miracles are happening and we have a renewed love and joy for witnessing-and, yes, to win disciples! With the new vision of increasing the circle of discipleship, I believe we are going to see and experience great things.
So if you’re wondering where to start, how to start, or even if to start, we would encourage you to just do it! Whether you start with the Activated magazine, the booklets, the calendars, or whatever-just get out with the idea of spiritually feeding people and you’ll get results. There is a great spiritual vacuum out there, and people want what we have. Not only will it bring down God’s material blessings, but it will also kindle a renewed fire in your own spiritual life as well.
God bless you! We love you and thank God for the honor of working together with you.
PHOTO CAPTION:
Gideon Newheart (of Lamb), Norway
Copyright © 2001 by The Family
(End of File)