Dad
April 4, 2003
—If You Can't Be a Missionary, Support One!29/11/81DFO1087
—By Father David
1. YOU DON'T ALL NORMALLY OR NECESSARILY EASILY LEARN FOREIGN LANGUAGES, which is one of the main obstacles right away, since our job is talking, witnessing‚ singing & teaching. Missionaries have to learn new languages & some are not all that able, capable or good at learning new languages. So those who can pick up new languages easily & learn to sing them & so on will probably make it, along with faith in the Lord, & they obey & really get out there & push.
2. WHAT ARE THEY DOING IN NORTH AMERICA ANYHOW? They already weren't making it as missionaries even in fields where they could use their own languages or other languages or whatever‚ & they went home.—Either that or they never went!—Although most of our folks have been to the field, I believe.
3. IT WOULD BE INTERESTING TO GET A SURVEY ON THAT, of the people in North America & Europe who have actually been to some foreign field with a foreign language & returned to their home country, & those who have never left their home country while in the Family. In other words, they're just home folks who are helping, God bless'm, to support the missionaries. They're TRFers, God bless'm, but not missionaries & never have been & maybe never can be!
4. ALTHOUGH I WOULD DARE TO ESTIMATE THAT MOST OF OUR PRESENT HOME FOLKS WHO ARE NOW HOME, HAVE BEEN TO THE MISSION FIELD at some time or other, & I would almost say that the majority of them probably spent several years on the field. But why are they home now? Well‚ they couldn't make it where they were, & if they couldn't make it there, it's quite possible that they're not going to make it down South either.
5. BUT I'M A RECRUITER, I MUST SAY, & I PUSH & MAKE PEOPLE MOVE WITH THE LORD'S HELP, & God bless them, they're obeying! They're going & they're going to try, & some of them are going to make it but some of them aren't. Some just haven't got what it takes, you might say in some ways intellectually, to learn a language. Although if they had been real good at home in their own language, they could have raised enough home support to at least go & live on a foreign field even if they can't speak the language, if nothing else.
6. BUT OF COURSE IF THEY DIDN'T LEARN A LANGUAGE & THEY DIDN'T RAISE HOME SUPPORT & they land in some poor country down there, they're not apt to make it, because they didn't obey in the first place. I told them not to even go unless they had good home support. I even tired to set a minimum limit, but dear Maria here is more merciful than I am & she didn't want me to set a minimum limit.
7. SOME PEOPLE ALREADY KNOW THE LANGUAGE WELL, have been there before & go back & do real well provisioning & FFing‚ busking etc., & they still know how to make their way on the field without an awful lot of home support. But the real dummies & deadheads & the guys who never made any attempt to learn the language where they went & never made any attempt to get much home support, they're not going to get very far.
8. OF COURSE‚ THEY'D HAVE TO BE GENIUSES TO BE PROVISIONERS IN ENGLISH, busk in English or FF in English, as we found was very difficult on a foreign field‚ even at a popular tourist resort where a lot of people spoke English! They're not going to get very far if they made no attempt to learn the language before they left & they were not of top linguistic ability to pick it up quickly when they got there, didn't work at it for one thing, or just haven't got that natural bent for languages. Some people have & some people don't, & some people just don't work at it, period.
9. AND OF COURSE IF THEY DIDN'T WORK AT HOME SUPPORT BEFORE THEY LEFT EITHER, THEY PROBABLY DIDN'T WORK AT THE LANGUAGE. If they didn't work at it before they left home, they probably won't work much at the language on the field, neither will they work much on field support, when they didn't even work much when it was easy at home! So there are going to be plenty of people who‚ I'm sorry to say, don't & won't make it.
10. I KEPT PRESSING DOWN & GETTING TOUGH ABOUT BEING SURE YOU'VE GOT GOOD HOME SUPPORT & you arrive with a minimum of at least $1500-2000 to pay you expenses for the first three months, room & board & rent & everything until you get a foothold. I wonder how many people are keeping that rule? A lot of people have leaped without even looking to begin with before we even told them to look! And in spite of everything there are going to be people who say, "Oh, I can make it!"
11. LIKE THE GUY WHO WE WENT TO SO MUCH EXPENSE TO SEND TO THE BAHAMAS, when he got back he said, "Well, at least I've had a nice vacation in the Tropics!"—After we'd spent thousands of dollars on him, equipping & the renting of a place & gave him a car & sending furniture & monthly support & everything! He finally got kicked out by the governor for not paying duty on his car—which was confiscated—& they deported him. I don't know whether be thought he could get by or what!
12. YOU'RE ALLOWED SIX MONTHS, but then you either had to pay duty on the car or you had to get it out. And the fare wasn't very much, the car ferries ran all the time, he could have taken the trouble to come home & renewed his visa & the car & everything else. But no, he was going to "trust the Lord"! He already had nine children‚ well, that takes a lot of faith!
13. I'M SURE THAT'S WHY FRED SENT HIM TO US ALL THE WAY FROM LOS ANGELES, because he didn't want him, & he certainly didn't want to send him to Japan. He figured it was cheaper for us to send him 35 miles to Grand Bahamas if he wasn't going to make it, & apparently he figured he probably wouldn't make it. In fact, he never even sold his farm or anything, he just rented it out to somebody else while he was gone, he didn't burn his bridges behind him.
14. HE CAME BACK JUST GRINNING FROM EAR TO EAR: "Well, anyhow, we had nice several months vacation in the Tropics!"—laughed & got in another car he picked up with what money he apparently had saved from what we gave him, & luggage trailer, & took his wife & nine kids & took off back for Oregon & his farm! The fact of the matter was, he probably never should have left the farm. he was just an old farmer—although farmers, they say, make the best missionaries if their heart's really in it & & they try.
15. I CAN'T SAY THE BAHAMAS WAS THE EASIEST FIELD IN THE WORLD, BUT AT LEAST HE DIDN'T HAVE TO LEARN A LANGUAGE, most of them at least spoke English. You can't hardly understand that Negro mumbo–jumbo they speak down there! It sounds like Chinese but it's actually Pidgin English & Creole & a conglomeration of all the languages of all 15 or 16 different nations that ruled them off & on; they picked up a little from each one & their language down there is really a mess now, it's pitiful!—Even worse than Yiddish which is only about 40% Hebrew & 60% German & Eastern European languages, German next & then Russian next, all the places where they lived.
16. SO I'M JUST EXPLAINING TO YOU FOLKS, DON'T GET ANY HIGH EXPECTATIONS TOO MUCH THAT EVERYBODY'S GOING TO LEAVE THE NORTH. Not everybody's got the faith & the desire to leave to begin with, & probably a lot of them have reason why maybe they can't leave, maybe divided mates or financial reasons or they're living off the government or something. A widow with five or six children, you can't much blame her for not leaving unless she gets somebody to help her, when she can live off the food stamps & welfare on U.S. territory. That's probably one reason there's so many of them in Puerto Rico.
17. SO NOT EVERYBODY'S GOING TO LEAVE, BUT EVEN OF THOSE WHO DO‚ NOT EVERYBODY'S GOING TO MAKE IT. But while everybody right now is scrambling to go down there, of course they're going to need a lot of money to make it & I don't know if all of them are going to be all that honest regarding how much income they've got to raise their fare & everything else to make sure they give their 10% anyhow.
18. THEN OF COURSE, AS SOON AS THEY MOVE DOWN TO THOSE POOR COUNTRIES, maybe for awhile they're not going to have much income unless they're mighty good missionaries & really pump the home support well & really keep after it, because except in a few of those richer cities, it's really the only place they can get their support.
19. BUT WE'VE JUST ABOUT PACKED THE RICHER CITIES ALREADY, they're loaded with about as much Family as they can stand or put up with or support. And now as they go out in the boonies & the other towns, the people are poorer yet, so they're going to have to get more home support or learn more how to live off the land provisioning, picking fruit or whatever!
20. SO THERE ARE QUITE A FEW OF THESE SOLDIERS GOING DOWN THERE—recruits at least‚ we don't know if they're soldiers yet or not—who probably are not going to make it. Well, that has its losses & regrets in some ways, but we found out when those folks do go home—if they don't backslide too far‚ if they stick with the Family or at least fellowship & still tithe—that their tithing & giving to missionaries & so on probably is even ore than ever‚ because they really have been there & they know the need.
21. I REMEMBER IN THE SOUL CLINIC, RICH AMERICAN VISITORS WHO WENT DOWN & VISITED MISSIONARIES IN VARIOUS FIELDS, those are the ones, let me tell you, when they came back they really gave because they saw the conditions, how hard it is & how the missionaries really lived sacrificially. They've seen the need they've seen the people & they like to give to certain people & specific needs, etc. They make some of the best givers, those who actually visit the field & have seen the people seen the need.
22. SO THOSE WHO DO STAY HOME & HAVE STAYED HOME, THEY'VE TURNED OUT TO BE VERY GOOD GIVERS, heavy givers, thank God, faithful TRFers & good givers to the missionaries & various projects on top of it. God bless'm! So the people who don't make it in this present second great Exodus—the first one was from West to East now it's from North to South—I have this much confidence. I believe that most of them will go back & stick to the Family as TRFers & even better givers than before, having been to the field & tried it.
23. SOME OF THE SIMPLEST EASIEST FIELDS OF LATIN AMERICA & THE CARIBBEAN, THEY'RE USED TO AMERICANS & a lot of them even speak English. There are even a few English-speaking fields in the Caribbean & Central America; Belize is one, of course. They're virtually all Black‚ but it's one of the former British colonies & they do speak English there. Including a lot of former English islands where they don't even have to learn the language, but where they'd not be too popular nevertheless, with the local authorities trying to live off the land & the people if they're already poor.
24. THEY EXPECT YOU TO BRING DOWN ENOUGH MONEY THAT THEY CAN LIVE OFF OF YOU‚ & I THINK THEY'RE RIGHT! I've said that before, I don't think they should go down to those countries from rich countries of either North America or Europe & expect those poor countries to support'm. I really don't. I think they should have raised their support, they should have gotten out & really deputated & invaded the churches & made friends & influenced people & gotten pledges & raised their support before they went.
25. AND FRANKLY, I FEEL IF THEY CAN'T EVEN RAISE THEIR SUPPORT IN THEIR OWN COUNTRY, if they can't strike out fulltime by faith 100%, & live by faith in their own country, in their own language & raise their own support then, plus raise pledges for their support & regular givers to support them before they leave, they're not going to do it down there either. As Fred used to say‚ If you can't be a missionary at home, you'll never be a missionary on a foreign field either.
26. IF YOU CAN'T WIN SOULS AT HOME, YOU'RE NOT GOING TO WIN SOULS ON THE FIELD! If you can't live by faith at home, you're not going to live by faith on the field. And if they didn't quit their jobs & strike out & live by faith at home, plus raise up givers for steady income of living by faith at home, & learned how to write prayer letters & keep up correspondence & send thank-yous & receipts & whatnot in order to prove that they can make it in the home field, as well as win souls & get results but support themselves, you might say, they're certainly not going to do it in a foreign language on a foreign field.
27. SO ANYBODY WHO WASN'T MAKING IT AT HOME & thought that somehow crossing the Caribbean or the Atlantic was going to make'm a missionary & somehow magically give them their support just because they had obeyed & they'd gone to the foreign field‚ if they didn't obey before they left home, if they didn't forsake-all before they left home, if they didn't raise their own income & their own support 100% by faith in their home country & their own language before they left home, regardless if whether they feel they're obeying or not going South‚ I doubt very much if they're going to make it on a foreign field.
28. AND THEY'LL SOON FIND OUT—we've had quite a few of them already find out—they fluked out & got down to where they were nearly starving & the other Homes had to help them—& they're poor enough as it is—& we had not help ship some of them home ourselves or recommend that they be shipped home. There's one nice thing about it, if they're absolutely poverty-stricken & they wind up helpless in a foreign country down there, all they have to do is go to the American Embassy or Consulate & they'll ship'm home at the cost of the U.S. Government, for example, & a lot of the European countries will do the same thing.
29. OF COURSE, THE PRICE IS THAT THEY USUALLY FORFEIT THEIR PASSPORT because they became destitute in a foreign country & they don't want them travelling anymore. And also, before they'll give'm money or their tickets home, they make them cough up the names & addresses of all their close relatives—mothers, fathers, brothers‚ sister, aunts, uncles, whatever‚ whoever's got money & who could possibly be dunned by the government to send them money to get home. And then, if nobody's got it & nobody will send it, then the government will send them home. But from what I've heard, they take away the passports so you can't leave the country anymore because they don't want you going & doing the same trick again & be an expense to get home again.
30. BUT ANYHOW‚ THE GUYS WHO DON'T MAKE IT, they might as well let Mom & Dad or somebody foot the bill to go home, or even the government & they might as well forget their passport, because if they didn't make it this time, they never will make it. They might as well stay home & go to work & get a good job that makes lots of money so they can support the missionaries & God's Work, which is one thing they can do in a rich country.
31. OR‚ MAYBE THEY'VE GOT ENOUGH FAITH TO STRIKE OUT AGAIN BY FAITH ON THE ROAD AT HOME & witness & provision & FF & busk & all those things in their own languages at home. Maybe it was the language that was the problem. Maybe they were making it at home living by faith in their own language, but they just can't make it on the foreign field in another language. Well fine‚ OK, let'm go home & be home missionaries, live by faith, litness & witness & FF & provision & whatnot fulltime & live 100% fulltime for the Lord, become 110%ers, & send that tithe & those gifts to the Lord's work in the field & be supporters.
32. IF THEY CAN'T BE SOLDIERS ON THE FRONTLINES OF THE BATTLE & ON THE FIELD, then they can be the back-up crew that helps them stay there. And if anybody knows their needs, they should. If anybody should have a heart for them & want to really work & sacrifice for & support the missionaries who are making it on the field, it should be our ex-missionaries & those who tried but washed out.
33. AND I WOULDN'T ALWAYS NECESSARILY BLAME IT ON THEM, people that can't make it, it might be they're just not cut out for the job of being a missionary. Maybe they're just very poor at learning a language. You've got to be pretty fluent in a language in order to witness & sing & busk & even FF, as dear Maria found out. She could talk to them about God, she even had four years of Spanish & was pretty good at it‚ but it was still difficult. Right? (Maria: Amen.) She'd come back to bed with me & say, "Well, I hope he understood what I was talking about, I'm not sure!"—Ha!
34. AT LEAST SHE TALKED ABOUT GOD & LOVE & THEY GOT THE POINT that they were being loved because God love'm, & that's why she loved'm & so on. Well‚ that's one way to put it into practice & give'm a sample so they get the point, FFing is one way you really can do it. (Maria: But you can't go very far...) No, you can't really teach'm much, if you can even get across the simple plan of salvation you're doing pretty well if you don't know the language well.
35. SO I WOULDN'T ENTIRELY BLAME IT ON SOME OF THESE PEOPLE WHO CAN'T MAKE IT ON THE FIELD, maybe they just weren't good at learning a language. Of course, as I say, if they'd been good at living by faith & home missionaries & winning souls & raising support on the home field‚ if they had really raised home support & pledges & everything else, they could have gone to the foreign field & at least lived there in style & lived on the foreign field & at least be out of the U.S. & the holocaust; if they were smart they could have even done that.
36. BUT THERE ARE SOME PEOPLE WHO AREN'T GOOD AT PROMOTING, EITHER, they're not good at recruiting funds & raising their own support by faith & getting people to give to them & pledge to them & support them. There are some people who just don't know how to do it. In spite of everything we've gold them how to do, every way we've told them, they're just not good at it. for one thing, some people just aren't good at asking for money, some are too proud.
37. I'LL TELL YOU, THERE'S ONE THING YOU'VE GOT TO LEARN IF YOU'RE LIVING BY FAITH, you've got to learn how to be humble enough to ask‚ seek, knock or "ye have not because ye ask not." (Mt.7:7; Ja.4:2.) You've got to let them know you need it & ask'm for it. There are lots of our FFers who haven't been too good at that even & they don't get too good support, but the smart ones who how to ask for it & say "we need this & we need that"‚ then the guys give! They like to give to specific needs when they know you need it.
38. SO ANYHOW‚ ALL THAT TO SAY THIS, that there will probably be—as I have predicted before—a temporary slump in our finances as we move South to poorer fields, & particularly while people who have jobs & were making money of even could live for the Lord by faith in the home field, then they find that they can't make it & their income is almost nil on the foreign field. That may last for several months before they either starve to death or go home! One way or the other, they leave the foreign field. We trust they won't starve to death & that they'll be able to make it home so they can once again have some kind of an income that they can once again tithe & give & revive their support to the mission field & the work until the holocaust at least.
39. OF COURSE, THE HOLOCAUST IS GOING TO PRETTY WELL PUT AN END FOR A LITTLE WHILE TO A LOT OF THINGS. We don't know just what the total effect of that's going to be, but it's going to be devastating, for awhile, & of course very devastating in the U.S. & probably Europe & Russia, but they're going to feel the effects of it on the field too. Even if they're out of reach of the atom bombs & the fallout & those things, there are going to be other repercussions. There will be financial repercussions, & of course, the total collapse of the dollar—dollars won't be worth the paper they're printed on—a complete loss of home support.
40. THERE WILL BE ALL KINDS OF POLITICAL TURMOIL & MILITARY TURMOIL REPERCUSSIONS even on the distant fields of the South as the new World Empire takes over. Having obliterated its enemies, then it will consolidate its gains by occupation & assuming total control of all these countries & eventually the World, & under which system it's going to be a little bit difficult to operate as it will be very anti–God, anti-Christ, anti–religious.
41. IF YOU'VE READ ANYTHING ABOUT CONDITIONS IN RUSSIA regarding religion or proselytising as they call it there, or religious propagandising, etc., as soon as they have enough control they're gonna put an end to that as much as possible. That will be‚ you might say, the last Roman persecution of the Christians in which they'll be driven to the catacombs & only the strongest will be able to survive.
42. DANIEL SAYS, "THEY THAT DO KNOW THEIR GOD SHALL BE STRONG & DO EXPLOITS!" (Da.11:32.)—But the weak ones aren't going to make it. First of all the ones in the U.S. are going to be wiped out, & the ones in Europe, Northern Europe, are probably going to be pretty well wiped out, those who didn't make it on the field, & all that home support will be done so it will be tough on the missionaries on the foreign field without home support.
43. PROVIDENTIALLY & HOPEFULLY, EXPECTANTLY‚ WE EXPECT TO BE GONE OURSELVES, all of our units out of the North to the South where we hope they'll still be able to operate for a little while, providing the postal system intact & some semblance of monetary system or whatever. We don't know just how hard that's going to hit us, but I imagine it's probably going to hit us pretty hard!
44. THAT'S WHY WE'RE WORKING LIKE MAD TO GET EVERYTHING OUT RIGHT NOW while we can to get the tools in their hands, both publications & music & tapes & everything so they'll have it before the bombs begin to drop & the postal system may collapse for awhile. Maybe the planes will run out of oil & the boats too & there won't be any transportation or communication. I don't know how long the telephones will hold up, but it will probably knock the bottom out of some mail services, & we are a mail–order firm & we pretty much depend on the mails both for the distribution of our products as well as our income.
45. THERE WILL BE A PERIOD OF GREAT TURMOIL & CHANGE & TRANSITION BEFORE THINGS GET ORGANISED AGAIN, & of course all of this will be re-organised & transportation will be resumed & communications & the mails etc., but of course then under a total strict control of a total new World regime that will be very anti-religious—except for a little while it will favour the major religions whom it will probably encourage to persecute the cults & the sects even more & eliminate all those it can't control. And once it's got them out of the way, then of course it'll go to work on the big ones.
46. BUT SINCE IT FINDS A GLADLY WILLING HELPER IN MOST OF THESE MAJOR FAITHS TO CRUSH THE SECTS & the cults & the small religious groups, they will use those big religions—the Whore—to help the World Government to crush the little religions that are a little kind of out of hand, you can't sort of keep track of them like the Irishman's flea, and are a little hard to control, can't quite bring them under complete government control. And so those they can't, they'll probably encourage the major religions the persecute & crush, to their joy, because that's what they've been trying to do all the time anyhow, to eliminate the competition.
47. DON'T THINK FOR A MINUTE LIKE SOME OF THOSE STUDIO IDIOTS DOWN SOUTH THOUGHT that the first 3-1/2 years was going to be an era of perfect freedom & open litnessing & we could just go great guns. They're really labouring under some kind of delusion because Sam taught them that there will be an era of supposed freedom. Just like in Russia & places like that today, Israel, they're supposed to have religious freedom‚ & their Constitution guarantees it‚ but it practice they don't. They crush it‚ they suppress it, repress it & there's no such thing. You have religious freedom at the price of your head, or persecution or prison.
48. SO WE CAN EXPECT PRETTY STRONG OPPOSITION, NOT ONLY FROM THE GOVERNMENT, BUT ALSO FROM THE CHURCHES & whom the government favours after they take over, & as governments & empires always have, using the prevailing established religions to help them control the people until they need them no longer. A few of them got to the point where they figured they didn't need the churches or the established religions & priesthood any longer, & when they got powerful enough like one in Egypt, they abolished the old religion & set up one of their own worshipping themselves.
49. THERE HAVE BEEN LOTS PREDECESSORS & PROTOTYPES OF THE ANTICHRIST DOWN THROUGH HISTORY, men who tried to abolish the established religion once they thought they had enough dictatorial control that they didn't any longer have to even consider the priesthood or the established religion any more, they could wipe that out too & then they could really be the boss & not have those damned priests in the churches & religious organisations constantly a thorn in their flesh & telling them what to do.
50. AND THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT THE ANTICHRIST IS GOING TO DO! Of course, that's when his troubles really begin, because those religionists, they never give up!—Ha! Right or wrong they never give up! That's when his troubles really begin. But he uses them in the meantime, the first half of his reign‚ to help him eliminate all the fringe religions & get rid of all that as much as possible.
51. SO HE'LL HAVE THE COOPERATION OF THE CHURCHES BECAUSE HE'LL FAVOUR THE ESTABLISHED RELIGIOUS SYSTEMS because they'll cooperate with him to put him in power, & as long as they play ball with him, he'll play ball with them & give them the false impression that they're going to have this freedom & power forever. But he breaks the Covenant in the middle of the seven years & he destroys them. He destroys the Whore & burns her with fire, it says‚ completely!
52. HE DOES AWAY THEN WITH THE FALSE RELIGIONS WHO PERSECUTED THE POOR & THE LITTLE SECTS & CULTS, then the big boys get what's coming to them, those big churches & big religions that persecuted us. I mean, it's been the religious people who have hounded us more & persecuted us more & have brought us before judges & governments‚ etc., when the governments didn't even want to have anything to do with us! Like Pilate, they'd just as soon wash their hands of the whole affair & have nothing to do with it.
53. BUT IT'S BEEN THESE GOD-DAMNED SO–CALLED CHRISTIANS & JEWS & RELIGIONISTS WHO HAVE NEEDLED THE GOVERNMENT & FORCED THEM TO PERSECUTE US, jail us or run us out or deport us—just like the Scribes & the Pharisees did Jesus! The government didn't want to have anything to do with it, but the religionists made them. They made them enforce the law, they made them get rid of these guys, these threats to the State‚ blah blah! But then, of course, when this is accomplished & the Antichrist has everything going his way, he doesn't need the churches either, or he thinks so, & he abolishes all religion & makes up his own, which starts the final troubles.
54. BUT IT'S NOT GOING TO GET ANY EASIER, IT'S GOING TO GET HARDER! So thank God for this little time of peace & freedom to work like mad & accomplish all we can while we can, because after the war things are going to be much harder, worse & tighter. Then missionaries on the field will lose home support, probably a great deal of it, if not all of it. Then the mails will be tighter, there'll be more censorship‚ litnessing or witnessing will be more difficult & the government control tighter, travel tighter, everything will be tighter.
55. THEY MAY NOT TAKE TOTAL COMPLETE CONTROL IMMEDIATELY, for it takes any government a little time to get organised. And even if the Russians win the war it's going to take a little while to get things organised. Getting organised will have some advantages, at least there'll be something to eat again & maybe the mails again & maybe telephones again & a little transportation & you might be able to at least live & survive.
56. BUT SINCE EVERYTHING WILL BE CONTROLLED‚ EVEN EMPLOYMENT, SUCH AS IN RUSSIA‚ you can't just run around living by faith & getting your support by provisioning & all that sort of thing. Although there are a few who have got the faith for it & have got the courage & the guts to try it & do it & to live underground & who manage to still be supported by a few Christians who are there. But it's going to be plenty tough, just about like it is in Russia today when they finally get full control, even with the churches still in existence.
57. SO THE WAR COULD PRETTY EFFECTUALLY PUT AN END TO OUR PRESENT TYPE OF MINISTRY, including our finances, including our mail ministry, including our witnessing, litnessing, provisioning & almost everything that the government can control. If we survive then, it will really be survival, that's for sure‚ miracles of God, manna from Heaven! Just like, of course, the Children of Israel did survive in the wilderness & the Early Church survived under the Roman Empire in spite of all the persecution & the slaughter‚ & as Christians have survived down through the ages under countless persecutions & slaughter & control & suppression & repression & oppression & all the rest.
58. SO NOW'S THE TIME WHEN WE'VE REALLY GOT TO WORK LIKE MAD to try to put all the tools in their hands that we possibly can, & that's why I'm willing to go back & be where we can be of more help & try to help get it out faster. Because the days are evil, time is short & the night cometh when no man can work. So we must work the works of Him that sent us while it's yet day & get everything we can accomplished now. (Eph.5:16; Jn.9:4.)
59. THE FELLOW WHO SUGGESTED THAT DUE TO THE "WATCH" PROPHECY (No.186A) it seemed to indicate that '81 was our noon, our heyday, the height of our sun's brilliance & the zenith of our shining, & it could be that it may get tighter & harder from here on, of which I wouldn't be surprised.
60. WELL ANYWAY, ALL THAT TO SAY THIS, that a lot of those folks who are going now to the field are not going to make it & they're going to go home, & I think then, probably, for awhile things will pick up again financially. But we have accomplished our purpose, we have given everybody a chance, we've warned everybody‚ we've gotten everybody out that we could, & if they don't make it, well, I'm sorry.
61. WITH SOME OF THEM IT WILL BE THEIR OWN FAULT because they didn't raise home support or didn't learn the language. With others, maybe it will not be their fault, they just couldn't, they just don't know how. Some people just haven't got the ability either to learn a language or raise support, & they'll just have to go home & get a job or live off the government or whatever, but then they'll be able to give again.
62. BUT WE'RE TAKING THE BRUNT OF THE DROP IN INCOME NOW WHILE WE'RE GIVING THEM A CHANCE to try to see if they can make it on the field. And it's worth it! I think it's worth it, I'm willing to take it‚ I'm willing to sacrifice it & lose it if we can at least harvest or even glean a few more missionaries for the field that can make it. If nine out of ten of them go back again home, at least we've gotten one out of the ten that we didn't have there before. Praise God? Is that worth it? You bet it is!
63. WELL, I'M EXPECTING MORE TO TAKE IT THAN THAT! I hope at least 50% of them make it, maybe it's gonna be a better percentage than that, who knows? Well, we'll know by the stats one of these days before long. I don't think it will take much more than this next year to find out, because the guys who can't make it, they usually wash out within a few months or a year or two at the most. If they `63 can't learn the language & they just can't raise their support, one way or the other‚ either home support or field support, then they'll have to go home.
64. AND WITH SO MANY OF US IN SOME OF THESE COUNTRIES, WE JUST ALSO MIGHT WEAR OUT OUR WELCOME. Some of them may help us to wear out welcome in some of those countries where the government just leans on us & presses down & deport'm & gets rid of us because they get tired of seeing us on every single street corner & passing out all kinds of lit & everything all the time & asking for donations.
65. IT'S HAPPENED BEFORE & IT WILL HAPPEN AGAIN if people are unwise or too numerous in a town & too high level of exposure & don't really scatter out like they should. So we'll probably lose a few countries that way too, but let's hope by that time they've got enough nationals who'll be able to carry on underground for awhile till it blows over, & it nearly always blows over.
66. ONCE THEY THINK THEY'VE GOTTEN RID OF YOU & CRUSHED YOU, then the Lord gives them enough other things to worry about that they haven't got time to worry about you anymore & all the little bugs can come out of their holes & come to the surfaces again, just like ants! Did you ever see what happens when you accidentally step on an anthill or an ant line or something, how they just go wild for awhile & they go to picking up all their eggs & moving & everything else? It's amazing! Or they go underground & hide out until the trouble goes past & then they start coming out again.
67. SO I HOPE WE'RE AS NUMEROUS AS THE ANTS BY THAT TIME & ESPECIALLY THE NATIONALS! They've got no right to kick them out‚ they can't kick'm out, they've got to take care of them. Of course, they can't put'm in jail‚ fine'm & do a few other things‚ or make it very tough for them to raise their support or live by faith. But even then, if they have to go to work & get a job under a totalitarian government, well, you can still witness! Christians even witnessed in the very house of Nero‚ Caesar himself, until they had the whole house converted, & eventually the Roman Empire converted.
68. THEY CAN'T STOP OUR REIGN! They just can't stop us, there's no way they're ever going to be able to stop us. They can make it tougher & on certain types of ministries they can make it tougher & rougher on some of us, & on means & methods & things like that‚ but there will always be some of us, & on means & methods & things like that, but there will always be some of us to keep on going right till the Lord comes, obviously, or there wouldn't be any Rapture! Well, that's the way I see it!
69. SO MY WORD & MESSAGE TO US & THE WHOLE FAMILY TODAY IS THEY HAD BETTER GO TO THE FIELD LIKE MAD WHILE THEY CAN & do all they can & everybody try to see if they can, & those who can't, hurry up & go home & make some money so you can support the rest of the missionaries on the field & keep them going as quick & as hard as you can & as fast as you can & keep us going so we can keep supplying'm with the tools as fast as we can, until they no longer can.
70. I'D SAY THAT WOULD BE A WORTHY CAUSE TO GO HOME FOR & DIE FOR IN THE ATOMIC HOLOCAUST! I mean, if they can't make it, they can't make it! So they'll have to do the next best thing they can & that's to support it. And I'm not saying that that may not be the best that some of them can do for the Lord. Maybe it's their calling, to make money for the Lord If that's the best thing they know how to do.
71. IF THEY CAN'T LEARN A LANGUAGE EASILY‚ they're not a very good witness or missionary, can't sing, can't play‚ can't FF, don't know how to provision or whatever, well, then they've got to do the best they can. If they can't do those things, they ought to do the best they can, the things they can do, & that's maybe to go home.
72. AND IF THEY CANT LIVE BY FAITH THERE & raise money & still serve the Lord fulltime & still raise money for the missionaries‚ then go get a job & make enough money to give & tithe, or go on welfare & get enough support they can do something & go ahead & die with the rest of the country. That's a pretty worthy cause to die for: If they can't make it as a missionary on the field, to go home to raise money for missions & raise friends for missions & provisions for missions. That's the back-up crew at home, home supporters.
73. WHERE WOULD WE BE TODAY IF IT WERE NOT FOR OUR HOME SUPPORTERS? We get an awful lot of home support, in fact, most of our support comes from the rich North, from the people who are still there. Thank God‚ I think most of them are working fulltime for the Lord, or at least part time, & not just working at a job or for the System, but they are serving the Lord, lots of them, fulltime by faith & still giving. And the others who can't make it that way are working & earning money & they're still giving to the Family. So that's about the way I see it from here. PTL! GBY! I hope you make it!—In Jesus' name, amen!
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family