DO 169612/83

—More Austerity Measures!

1. GBY! I'M SICK & I DON'T FEEL VERY GOOD & I JUST HAD THE RUNS. Usually I run off at the mouth & that's usually inspiring, but this is a little more weakening. Can you hear me all right? I'm a little weak so I'm not talking as loud as usual, but these are pretty important things we need to agree on & I thought it would be a good experience for you‚ Keda, to be in on one of these top-level conferences. You certainly know your field & your people & conditions & needs & whatnot & you can add a good deal to what we have to deliberate.

2. I'M SURE PUBS CONCERN YOU AS MUCH AS ANYBODY, so I felt you might benefit by being here & benefit us as well. I don't know how much I'm going to be able to talk, as weak as I am, but the Lord's work must go on, sick or no! That's one thing about this sickness, thank the Lord‚ I've been able to keep working. We're still pouring out, almost faster than you can receive it. PTL!

3. SO ANYHOW, THIS IS SORT OF A GET-ACQUAINTED BUSINESS CONFERENCE FOR YOU‚ KEDA, & OLD-HAT, OLD BORE FOR THE OTHERS! (Maria: Oh no! Nothing's ever boring around here!) But at least we've gotten a few things out of these conferences sometimes that have turned out to be major policy decisions & guidelines for the whole Family. So let's pray, shall we? Lord, most of all we want to hear from You‚ we need to hear from You, Lord. Give us wisdom. Give us strength‚ Lord.

4. LORD, WITHOUT THEE WE'RE NOTHING & WE CAN DO NOTHING. You're everything, Lord, we're worthy of nothing. All we need to do, Lord, is just hear from You, hear from Heaven, & just do whatever You say, Lord, & we know it will work. So give us wisdom & give us Thy revelations. Give us Thy Word, Lord, on these things. Give us consensus of opinion, Lord, & agreement together that we might all feel that it is a good thing to do. As Thy Word says, "It seemed good to all of them. They were all filled with the Holy Ghost & agreed with one accord. In the multitude of counsellors there lacketh not wisdom. That every word may be established in the mouth of two or three witnesses." (Ac.15:25; 2:1; Pr.11:14; Mt.18:16.)

5. SO WE BRING THESE MATTERS OF BUSINESS, LORD‚ BEFORE THY ELDERS here to agree on what we feel You have already led us to & to check with them to see if they think it's right, & to share any opinions & any ideas‚ Lord‚ which You can give them to enlarge on what You've already given. TYL! Do bless & keep us & give us strength & help us, in Jesus' name. Amen!

6. YOU CAN INSPECT MY ART GALLERY WHEN WE'RE DONE! You've only seen half of it, the other half is over here.—My inspiration! Every time I get a fresh batch of pix I change them & keep passing them along to the others. I get so many of'm I just have to keep'm moving. And dear Keda always makes sure that I get lots of them, God bless her‚ she knows what I like. She & I like the same thing!—And God must like'm too or He wouldn't have made so many of them! PTL?

7. I MEAN, IT'S SO CRAZY HOW THE CHURCHES GOT SCREWED UP, BANNING & PROHIBITING THE VERY THING THAT GOD INTENDED FOR US TO ENJOY & ALL THE PLEASURES HE CREATED FOR OUR PLEASURE! They get so up tight about "pornography" & "smut‚" & of course what they mean by that is any kind of nudity or sex. The Devil has totally perverted the Church! Look at the Catholics & their celibacy & all that slop! It's made a bunch of Sodomites out of the priests! I don't see how they manage to survive, frankly. I guess they're just coasting on past profits—p-r-o-f-i-t-s—because they're losing priests all the time & they can't get enough priests. They're going downhill like mad, losing members too, I'll bet, but they won't confess it. When they count up their members‚ they just count whole countries that are supposed to be Catholic & take the total national population! God help us!

8. WELL ANYHOW, PTL! I HOPE THESE AREN'T DISTRACTIONS FROM THE SERIOUS BUSINESS WE HAVE AT HAND, but once in awhile I like to give you a little distraction to cheer you up & relieve the tension. PTL! TYL! We have lots to be thankful for, first of all, & we can thank the Lord for all His blessings & how much we have accomplished & how much we're getting out. It's not only amazed you, but it's amazed me at how much the Lord's been pouring out & how much we have gotten published!

9. SOMEBODY JUST RECENTLY FIGURED OUT THAT I'VE ALREADY WRITTEN HALF AS MUCH AS IN THE WHOLE ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA! (Maria: You're starting on the second half now!) And that I've written more books faster than any other man who's ever lived. He got it from the Guinness Book of Records—not me, of course, but the guys they have in there as the records—& he figured up our production & it outstrips theirs by far! So PTL! Of course, I don't suppose Guinness would ever be interested in us & I couldn't give a damn whether Guinness is interested or not! That's the stupidest, most idiotic book‚ & the people who do those things & risk their lives & everything to get in that book are absolute idiots! Well, there may be a few sensible things in there.

10. ANYWAY, WE HAVE REALLY ACCOMPLISHED QUITE A BIT, THANK THE LORD! I believe we've done a good job & faithful, & as I've been telling the folks, I've accomplished most of my major projects that I wanted to make sure & get done before I go. But then about the time I run out of major projects, I get another one, & dear Maria, she always makes sure that I never run out! So PTL! TYL!

11. I'VE HAD A LITTLE MORE TIME NOW TO STUDY OUR OTHER PROJECTS & MINISTRIES & TO EVALUATE THINGS, assess things & sort of sit down & count the cost & keep books to see where we can improve our ministries & where we can save on costs & work & time & money & personnel. You've read "Austerity" & "Wind-Down" & all that, so you know that we're getting ready for the crunch‚ which I believe is coming very soon.

12. I ALWAYS LIKE TO TELL YOU THE GOOD NEWS BEFORE I TELL YOU THE BAD NEWS!—Ha! I don't wanna be like the guy whose leg they cut off, you know that sick joke? I hope I cut off the right leg! Well, in this case, as in his case, no leg has to be cut off at all, so don't let me cut off any by mistake. We don't want to cut off any ministries by mistake, we don't want to cut down any personnel or cut off any personnel by mistake. We don't want to cut off any support by mistake. We don't want to cut out any pubs by mistake. We want to make sure that what we cut off is justifiable & who we cut off & what we stop doing.

13. WE WANT TO MAKE SURE WE PRUNE THE DEAD BRANCHES & NOT GET THE LIVE ONES! We want to make sure that if something has been unproductive & unfruitful, we give it a little time & a little chance, we dig about it & dung it, & as the servant said to his Lord, leave it till next year & give it another chance. Then if it still doesn't produce‚ we'll hew it down, chop it down, lay the axe to the root of the tree! (Lk.13:8‚9.)

14. SO SOME THINGS WE'RE GOING TO GIVE A LITTLE MORE TIME & some obviously dead branches we're going to chop off right now. We're looking around for dead branches to chop off‚ dead leaves to pull off, because dead branches & dead leaves, as you know‚ are just a drag on a plant or on a tree. They just are a dead weight & are using up space, shutting off sunlight, wasting sap or whatever, so we need to get rid of'm & we're doing it.

15. WE HAVE JUST GOTTEN THROUGH TAKING EVEN TWO VERY PRODUCTIVE UNITS & VERY FRUITFUL UNITS, EFFECTIVE UNITS, two of our greatest & best Units—& most expensive too by the way—our two big Musical Units, MWM & MCV‚ & we've cut'm down from a total of about 200 people to about two dozen, & they're still putting out shows just as beautiful, if not better! Well, we had to have a lot of people for awhile to do all that recording, but now we've got'm in the can & we can dish up the canned goods & make it sound live & real, & they're doing a good job of it, God bless'm! And a lot of these radio stations that have kept too much in the can & they're not producing, we're going to chop them off. And any Units that are not really producing, we're going to chop them off & send their people out in the field where they can produce.

16. AND THE SUBJECT OF TODAY'S BUSINESS DISCUSSION, ANY PUBS THAT ARE NOT PRODUCING OR ARE NOT ESSENTIAL OR WE CAN REVAMP IN ANY WAY OR REVISE‚ WE'RE EITHER GOING TO IMPROVE'M OR CHOP'M OFF! And actually, the thing which gave rise to this conference today is that I got so inspired by reading the FNs as well as the Specials Book, that I wanted to give you a few ideas that I have about it that I think we should do.

17. THIS IS ANOTHER AUSTERITY MEASURE, THIS IS A PART OF THE WIND-DOWN. We're combining Units, we're cutting down expenses, we're cutting down stations, musical productions, trimming everything to the bone which is going to really produce & be effective & efficient & fruitful. We're going to save time, work, personnel, money‚ everything we can to prepare for what's coming & be able to survive it.

18. THIS IS SURVIVAL, THAT'S WHAT IT IS, & WE NEED TO DO IT NOW! We've already been running month after month over our budgets & frequently going in the hole, spending more money than we're receiving, living beyond our income, & we cannot afford to do that. Our resources have been dwindling & most of our Units have spent all their reserves so that if they don't get their checks on time now, they will really have to trust the Lord for sure, because most of them don't have anything left. We used to try to build up their reserves where they've had at least a month or two to draw on in case something happened to us & they didn't get their check.

19. AS I SAY, WHAT BROUGHT ON THIS CONFERENCE WAS I WAS THRILLED WITH THE FNs‚ & I WAS SO THRILLED WITH THEM I WANT TO SEE MORE PEOPLE GET'M! I've decided my brother & sister are about to die, I might as well sock it to'm! They're both old & decrepit & older than I am & worse off than I am, so I'd better deliver my soul while I still have a chance & they can still receive it or reject it. And if they don't receive it, well, that's their worry. I'm not going to try to push some things on them I know they couldn't receive, impossible, but I think they ought to get the FNs to see what a marvellous Worldwide work our folks are doing. But to do that we need to comb the little FNs.

20. I'M TALKING ABOUT THE NEWS MAGAZINE, THE ONLY FN LEFT NOW! We no longer have any FN Specials Mag, that is a Book & it's not just FN. It contains a lot of Family News‚ I'll grant you‚ but it's an instruction book, it's a reference book & it's got a lot of stuff they're going to want to keep. That's why it's in book form & book-like. You guys can discuss it & decide on what name you want to call it, whether you want to call it the Specials Book or the Family Specials Book or the Specials Family Book, but don't forget to call it a Book! From now on it's classified as one of our Books‚ which also affects who it goes to. Because I think the [private] matters & the strong stuff should be put only in that Book & should be taken out of the run-of-the-mill FN News Magazines.

21. THE FNs SHOULD BE COMBED FREE OF … VERY CONTROVERSIAL SUBJECTS that might offend some people, anything that might be offensive, negative & just not worth putting in a Mag that we would like to use with our friends, supporters & families. For example‚ I was thinking about my brother & sister, how I'd sure like them to get this little Magazine so they could see what a marvellous work our kids are doing, that not all is lost, there's some hopes for the World‚ there are some people in the World that are getting the job done.

22. I DON'T THINK THEY HAVE THE FAINTEST CONCEPTION OF WHAT I'M DOING & HOW MUCH! My brother has to an extent, & my sister—we finally won'm over with a little help from our friends—but I don't think they really know because I don't send them anything stronger than a Kidz & a LIN. So far we haven't at least. In the days of yore when I did, it didn't set very well & it only caused difficulties, because they're old bottles & they just can't take it. Forget it! You can't pour new wine into old bottles, you just lose the whole thing, both the wine & the bottle. So the Lord Himself said don't try it. He said put your new wine in new bottles, & that's what we've been doing, thank the Lord! Thank God for the new bottles! Even a few old ones like me & some of you! (Mt.9:17.)

23. I OFTEN TELL MARIA SHE'S OF MY GENERATION. Like that cartoon they used to have, "Born 30 Years Too Soon," about the old-fashioned days. She was brought up in a community & by parents & in a church which are a generation behind‚ I mean even behind other churches, much less to speak of us! So she's just about as old-fashioned as I am & raised like I was, knows the same songs & the same customs & the same everything just like I do. She stepped right out of the past so that she could understand me, & yet she is of this younger generation & able to take it & be a new bottle that could receive it in spite of having a background just like mine. TTL!

24. BUT NOT EVERYBODY CAN STAND THE NEW WINE, so I'd like to see that Family News Magazine be stuff that you can hand to good friends & supporters, people you can really trust. You're going to be getting lots of them, & thank God for that! They're going to be in just 32-page signatures, just little magazines that you can afford to read & pass on. Don't you think that's a good thing?—Something that's needed?

25. WE HAVEN'T REALLY HAD MUCH IN THE WAY OF SO-CALLED PR MATERIAL‚ & AS I SAY, THIS IS NOT GOING TO BE PUBLIC RELATIONS BUT FRIENDLY RELATIONS MATERIAL THAT WE CAN REALLY ALLOW THEM TO READ! It's hard to find stuff to give to our friends which they could receive & be able to take, because they're not exactly new bottles yet & they're not all the way in, but they're not out either. They're about halfway in & we'd like to pull'm in the rest of the way if we can, but we've gotta kinda play'm in like you do the fish, until they're ready to be scooped out of the water. We've gotta kinda play'm in & not try to jerk'm in & lose'm altogether. That's what happens in big game fishing, if you try to reel'm in too fast while they're still kicking too hard & too strong, they'll just break the line or pull you in with'm, one or the other!

26. SO WE NEED SOMETHING LIKE THAT & I THINK THIS IS GOING TO DO THE TRICK! I read those two FNs through & I think they'll be terrific, even for my brother & sister who are a couple of real old bottles! They don't hardly understand what I'm doing. My brother used to say I belong to the underworld of religion. Well, he's about right & we have to stay pretty much underground. Thank God we belong to the underworld of religion! That was one of the first visions I got about our work‚ "The Drugstore!" (No.266.) So praise God!

27. SO I THINK WE REALLY SHOULD DESIGN THE FN AS A GOOD TOOL. Potential disciples, for example, even people you're witnessing to could leaf through this Magazine.—Not let'm have it & keep it & read every word maybe, but show'm: "Look at what we're doing! We've got something to show you here, that we're not just nobody, we're somebody & accomplishing something! We're all over the World! Look how many of us there are, look what we're doing!" Right?

28. THEY COULD EVEN TAKE THAT PROVISIONING & SAY: "LOOK AT OUR MISSIONARIES EVERYWHERE! We're doing this & that & the other!" Wouldn't that be a good tool, Keda? You've lived close to the missionaries, you've been out on the front lines, you know what they have to suffer & go through & how they have to live, don't you think it would be good if we kept that little FN small like that?—Which was my idea, by the way‚ to put those out now instead of those big thick magazines that take forever to read! I have a few good ideas!

29. YOU FIGURE‚ "OH WELL, THAT'S SHORT, I CAN JUST PICK IT UP & READ IT RIGHT NOW!"—AND YOU DO! Whereas the big thick ones‚ you say, "Well, I'll put that aside until I have time." And I've had some of those sitting on my shelf here for months that I never got around to reading because I just never had time. But these little tiny 32-page signatures, half-pictures, I pick'm up, grab'm, look clear through at all the pictures & stop to read the articles I'm interested in & that's it! And that's all credit due to dear Maria there & her editorial staff. She's the Editor of the FN, I never have anything to do with it any more, really, except for reading it‚ seeing what a good Magazine it is & what a wonderful tool it can be!

30. WE NEED TO KEEP IT CLEAN, SO TO SPEAK, OF THESE THINGS THAT STICK IN PEOPLE'S CRAWS! Then we can at least show or loan it even, & maybe in some cases where you can really trust'm & they're really coming in, give it to'm & hope for the best‚ that they won't give it to somebody they shouldn't. At least loan it to'm. Even out witnessing you can show those to University students & say, "Look, we're not just nothing & nobody, we're everywhere!" I think we're now 130-some nationalities. Talk about integration, we're integrated! We're in about 100 countries. We're all over, we're everywhere, all over the World & we're doing something! We know what we're doing & we know where we're going & we're determined to get there & we're gonna get there! Praise God! We're getting there right now! We've already gotten there lots of places, thank the Lord‚ amen?

31. SO THAT'S THE NEWS I HAVE FOR YOU, THAT I WANT TO SEE THAT FN REALLY PUT TO WORK NOW SO IT CAN REALLY BE USED! And all the DO stuff & private stuff & stuff that only the Family should read should be in the Specials Book. Therefore I want to make a few changes which I wanted to discuss with you & get your approval of before I made them, but it's an emergency & we had to stop some mailings to some people, so I just railroaded it through. So if you don't like it‚ I've already passed the bill! You can always veto it now if you want to, but I want to read you a few changes I've made & we need to probably get a notice out on this, of course.

32. I WANT TO MAKE SOME NEW ALTERATIONS WHICH CONFORM TO OUR NEWEST AUSTERITY MEASURES, OUR WIND-DOWN, OUR SAVING MONEY, ETC. I don't mind listening to what you think about it‚ & if you have any objections, tell me. If you don't like my way, well, I'll go my way & you can go my way. This is a democracy—as long as you do what I say!—Ha! Because I believe I'm on the right track & I believe this is what the Lord wants us to do.

33. I'VE BEEN PRAYING & STUDYING ABOUT THIS SINCE ABOUT SIX O'CLOCK THIS MORNING! This is not a usual conference day, usually we have our conferences on your day off, on Sunday, so we don't have to take any of your valuable work time & we can use your spare time‚ your rest day profitably! But this is urgent! I want to stop Sprint from making any more mailings that they shouldn't!

34. WHAT COUNTRIES & AREAS DO WE CALL THE RICH AREAS OF THE WORLD? Do you want to name them since you've already been briefed? (Peter: North America, Japan‚ Australia & Europe.) Right. That's not alphabetical but it doesn't matter, one way or the other. We start with North America because it's the richest‚ Japan, next richest. Some people say Europe, but anyhow, that doesn't matter, we are going to start clampin' down the rules on those four major rich areas of the World & "raising the ante" if you know what I mean!—An old gambling expression. I was reared part of my life by my gambling uncle so I learned a lot of gambling terms from him. I didn't know what he was talking about & I had to ask him all the time when I was a kid what he meant & he'd try to explain it.

35. WE'RE GOING TO MAKE IT A LITTLE TOUGHER TO GET SOME OF THESE THINGS THAT WE CAN'T AFFORD TO SEND'M ANY MORE, so in those four rich areas of the World we're going to really raise the stakes a little higher now. In some ways I think we're going to be a little bit more liberal on some, since we're going to make the FN a little more general & we won't be so afraid to send it to some people as we have been before. Of course, it's full of classified people & classified Colonies & classified a lot of things, but nevertheless we've got to take some risks. If they're in public & out witnessing, why shouldn't we publicise it? (Maria: If they don't want their article to go out to others, they shouldn't send it in.) Right, just don't send it to us if they don't want it published.

36. WE'VE HAD SPECIFIC LIMITS & RULES FOR GIVING‚ HOW MUCH WE CAN AFFORD TO SEND THEM FOR WHAT THEY GIVE. That's just flat-out what it amounts to. I hated to have to do that, but we had to do it because we just can't afford to send a lot of luxurious, extravagant publications to people who can't afford to pay for'm or don't deserve'm or don't appreciate'm enough to give enough.

37. FRANKLY, WE'LL SEND A LIN TO ANYBODY THAT WILL GIVE ANY KIND OF A GIFT. It's milk-&–water & nothing offensive, something that even old bottles can read & Church people & anybody should be able to take. And the Kidz, that's good, we'll send that to anybody as long as they give enough so we can afford to send it to'm. And we'll send'm the FN too if they give enough a month that we can afford to send'm these FNs. We're going to be turning out these FNs so fast, we're probably going to be putting out 3 or 4 a month, close to one a week! It'll be like a News Weekly on the Family, think of that! So that's all the more reason we can't afford to send'm to people who can't afford to pay for'm. Savvy?

38. WELL, OKAY‚ TO ALL THESE RICH COUNTRIES, IF THEY SEND US AT LEAST $20 A WEEK, WE'RE GOING TO CONTINUE TO SEND THEM FNS‚ LINS & KIDZ. How's that? They don't get GNs, they don't get Books for that amount. After all, people who are not serving the Lord enough or not working hard enough for an entire Home to make any more than about $200 a month & can only tithe $20‚ I don't think they can really afford'm & we can't afford to send'm to'm. I don't really know of anybody that can live on that little except some of the natives & the peons & the peasants, & we don't have too many of them in the Family. The average Family Home couldn't even survive on $200 a month! They ought to have enough workers in that Family that can get out & do something & exercise the Seven Supporters & get enough support.

39. I DON'T SEE WHY ANY OF OUR FAMILIES OR HOMES, EVEN IF THEY COULD LIVE ON THAT, SHOULD MAKE LESS THAN $300 A MONTH, WHICH MEANS THEY SHOULD BE ABLE TO TITHE $30 A MONTH! So in all cases & areas, if they are able to tithe at least $30 a month—& I think that's a pretty low minimum—they will get everything—GNs, FNs, Books, LINs, Kidz, Posters, Maps, the works! I think that's pretty lenient & pretty generous, don't you?—Whether the area be rich or poor. (Maria: Even money-wise, it's worth a lot more than $30, & in value it's priceless!) Most of what we send out, even $30 most times wouldn't pay for!

40. SO THAT WILL BE THE GENERAL RULE FROM NOW ON, GOD WILLING: ANYBODY WHO CAN AT LEAST GIVE A MINIMUM OF $30 A MONTH IS GOING TO GET EVERYTHING! I don't see how any Family can survive on less than $300 a month, do you? So in these rich countries as well as otherwise, that's going to be the rule. And if in the poor countries there are some Homes that can't afford to give that much‚ I'm sorry, we just can't afford to send it to'm‚ that's all. We're in a tight financial situation right now & we can't afford to luxuriate in extravagant publications for people who can't afford to pay for them. (Maria: For people that they aren't being a help to anyway, obviously the pubs aren't helping them to accomplish anything.) Obviously God's not blessing them financially or they'd be making a whole lot more than that.

41. WELL‚ I WANT TO GIVE YOU SOME VERY GOOD NEWS, FOLKS, & ENCOURAGE YOU TO KNOW THAT THERE ARE VERY FEW HOMES IN THE FAMILY WHO GIVE SO LITTLE, BELIEVE IT OR NOT! Would you like the exact figure? There are slightly more than 100 Homes in the entire World who give that little! Well actually, there are only 66 Homes in the whole World who give less than $20 a month. That's a pretty good record‚ huh? So when we talk about cutting off some of these people, not very many Homes are going to lose anything when there are only 66 Homes in the whole World that give less than $20 a month. And there're only 56 more Homes, believe it or not, which give less than $30 a month! Only about 100 out of some 1500 Homes don't get everything. That's a pretty good record, I think, for our folks. There are very few that God isn't blessing & that aren't working & don't earn it & don't deserve it & therefore won't get it. PTL? I think we should be thankful! So don't worry about too many people missing too much stuff.

42. (KEDA: I'LL BET A LOT OF THOSE HOMES ARE INDIVIDUALS TOO & NOT CO–OP FAMILIES.) Very possible. Well, I'm sorry about that, but we can't help it. They shouldn't really be in individual Homes on the field, they need Co-ops & Combos. Most of those singles are back in rich countries & on jobs where they ought to be making enough money that they can send more than that! So it's their own fault, not ours.

43. SO THIS IS GOING TO CHANGE THE STATUS OF EUROPE IN ONLY ONE WAY. We lowered the minimum for Europe because a lot of people were still there, good missionary folks who were trying to get out, but how long have we had these minimums in effect now?—For over a year‚ haven't we? So I think we've given those people a lot of time to get out, haven't we? And a lot of them have gotten out, thank the Lord!—Lots of them, oodles of them!

44. NOT COUNTING ALL THOSE CLUBBERS & ALL THOSE FOLKS, GOD BLESS'M, BUT COUNTING JUST THE TRF FAMILIES ALONE, TWO-THIRDS OF OUR POPULATION ARE NOW LIVING IN THE SOUTH & HAVE GOTTEN OUT OF THE NORTH! Isn't that wonderful? And they're almost evenly divided East & West‚ except that now the Eastern Family is growing a little bit. It used to be there were about 60-some-percent in the West & only about 40% in the East. Now it's the other way around with about 55% of our Family in the East & 45% in the West, something close to that. But anyhow, thank the Lord, they're moving, & they're moving East, out of the dying Lands of the Setting Sun into the living Lands of the Rising Sun! PTL?

45. GOD BLESS YOU, KEDA‚ YOU HAD THE RIGHT IDEA IN THE FIRST PLACE! God sent you East as the pioneer to get things rolling, all we're doing is coming in now & riding on your band wagon! You already had the thing rolling & the band playing when we arrived & we're just enjoying "that on which we bestowed little or no labour." We've entered into your labours & other men's labours. (Jn.4:38.)

46. SO I FEEL, & I HOPE YOU DO TOO, THAT WE OUGHT TO RAISE THE ANTE ON EUROPE A LITTLE BIT TOO & no longer give GNs to people who are only giving $20 a month, raise the ante on them to the same minimum of everybody Worldwide, $30 a month! The rules & minimums are going to be the same for Europe now as all those other rich countries, so that they're going to have to give at least $30 to get GNs & Books & all the other stuff we give'm. If they give less‚ they're only going to get LINs, Kidz & FNs‚ but none of the [private] materials. That applies to all the rich countries.

47. THAT HAS BEEN TRUE FOR OVER A YEAR NOW WITH ALL THE RICH COUNTRIES OF NORTH AMERICA‚ AUSTRALIA & JAPAN, BUT NOW WE'RE GOING TO APPLY IT TO EUROPE TOO. Do you think that's fair? I think we've given those people enough time to get out & if they're still there, they must have a good job & be making money, or they should be. That's the only excuse for staying. If you can't be a missionary, then you ought to be supporting missionaries! If God's called you to make money, you ought to make a lot of money & be giving a lot to the missionaries. If a job & making money is your excuse for staying back in those countries, then you ought to be working at a good job that makes lots of money so that you can give a lot to missionaries! And that should be your only excuse for living back there‚ otherwise you ought to be out in the mission field.—Amen?

48. BUT MAYBE THERE ARE SOME PEOPLE THAT CAN DO BETTER THERE THAN THEY CAN ON THE MISSION FIELD. After all, the mission field has to have some supporters, there have to be support troops, there have to be ground forces. They say in the military that you've got to have ten support people for every active soldier in the field, there's got to be ten behind him. Well‚ we've got a lot less than that, it's almost the other way around in our outfit! We've got about one support person in the home field trying to help support the other nine missionaries! But if they're going to stay home & they're not going to get out of those rich countries, then they ought to go to work & make money to support us missionaries in the field.

49. SO WE'RE GOING TO RAISE THE ANTE ON THE GN—THEY SHOULD BE ABLE TO PAY AS MUCH FOR IT IN EUROPE AS THEY DO IN ANY OTHER RICH COUNTRY. Is that clear now? Agreed? Okay, that bill passed real easy, thank the Lord! I didn't have to have a roll call or a show of hands. Passed by unanimous agreement!

50. NOW ON THE REST OF THE WORLD, which is mostly the poor mission fields of the World like South America, Africa...but even Africa's not all poor. South Africa where we have quite a few people is quite rich, but of course it's quite tight too & they can't openly litness & that sort of thing. But it's an FFer's Paradise, praise the Lord, so they can do a lot of other things. If you can't do some things, do something else!

51. SO SOUTH AMERICA, LET'S SAY AFRICA IN CASE ANYBODY'S ANYWHERE ELSE, THE MIDEAST—of course a lot of those countries in the Mideast are rich too‚ but they're still hard fields for missionaries—India, Far East, Pacific & all, we've tried to be extra lenient to them. But even in some of the poorest countries of the East, particularly since so many of them are co-oping now & combining, do you really think that any Family Home in the East could live on less than $300 a month? If they're not making at least $300 a month‚ then they're not really working & not really accomplishing anything when they've got a dozen, two dozen, maybe three dozen people in a Home. I don't see how they could live on it, even in some poor countries like India. I don't see how they can pay their rent & eat unless they're getting that much. And if they are making that much‚ then that means they've got $30 to tithe, & you know God's going to bless'm if they do, even if they have to take it out of the $300.

52. SO OUR RULE IS STILL THE SAME FOR GETTING ALL PUBS, EVEN FOR THE OTHER COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD & THAT'S NOT CHANGED, THAT'S STILL THE SAME. We just can't afford to send it to missionaries that are so poor & accomplishing so little that they have so little income. I hardly think they deserve it & they certainly can't afford to get all these extravagant publications that we've been sending, big Books & Posters & all kinds of things, sending them everything. We just can't afford to send it to people who can't afford to send at least $30 tithe a month!

53. HOWEVER‚ WE WERE VERY LENIENT ON THEM & WE PITIED THEM & WE WERE SORRY FOR THEM & SAID, "WELL, WE'LL KNOCK THE MINIMUM FOR THE GNs CLEAR DOWN TO $10! I was real sorry for the poor missionaries. We got in quite a few laments & sad-sack hard-luck stories & everything about, "Oh‚ we just can't send more than $10 a month!" But I've come to the point now after a year of that that I feel like giving them my hard-luck story with a sad–sack & say, "Well I'm so sorry, but we can't afford to send you so much either if that's all you can afford!"

54. I DON'T KNOW WHETHER I COULD EVEN TRUST A FAMILY WITH A GN THAT'S ONLY TITHING $10 A MONTH! That's [private] material! If they're not making more than $100 a month, then they're not in the will of God, they're not being blessed by the Lord, therefore they're not trustworthy & it's not safe to send'm [private] material like the GN. I don't think we should, do you?

55. IN FACT‚ THE GN IS SUCH [PRIVATE], I'M BEGINNING TO THINK THEY OUGHT TO BE PUT UNDER THE $30 RULE JUST LIKE ALL THE REST OF THE WORLD! You know‚ they don't have to make $300 a month to tithe $30 a month, they can still give it, & I'm sure if they did, God would bless'm & they'd get $300 a month! (Maria: Well, they're supposed to get out of Latin America anyway. It's not as fruitful a field & they're supposed to come East.) (Fam: Yes, but the point has also been that the Latin people should stay in Latin America.) Son‚ not all of them. Haven't you read that latest Letter? (Maria: He said the Latin people that speak only Spanish, only they need to stay there.)

56. SO WHAT? WHAT HOME IN LATIN AMERICA CAN LIVE ON LESS THAN $300 A MONTH? (Fam: 73 of them!) You mean if they simply aren't tithing, it doesn't mean they're living on that little. I don't believe it! (Fam: It means that when they transfer their local currency which has devalued 100‚ 200, 300% in the last year, that when they transfer it into dollars it's very hard, it's a lot of pesos or cruzeiros or whatever they have to get their $30.) All right. See, I go to the opposite extreme so that maybe I'll compromise with you. I agree‚ that is a problem.

57. SO I'LL TELL YOU WHAT, I'LL COME HALFWAY & WE'LL MAKE THE MINIMUM $20, BECAUSE I DON'T SEE HOW THEY CAN LIVE EVEN THERE ON LESS THAN THE EQUIVALENT OF $200 A MONTH! (Maria: Why not just say that just for Latin America since they've got that particular financial problem?) (Fam: In all the other areas, in Southeast Asia there's only 17 Homes that give below $30. In India there's only 7.) How about below $20? (Fam: 44 below $20 in Latin America.) Those who give less than $30 add to that 29 & you get 73. (Maria: It's more important to save the whole work, our publications, than it is if a few families go by the wayside. We're trying to save the whole Worldwide Work, & keep our publications going.)

58. I'LL TELL YOU ALSO ABOUT SOME OF THOSE LATIN AMERICAN OUTFITS‚ THAT'S ONE OF THE POOREST FIELDS WE'VE GOT RIGHT NOW. Some of them are pretty good but a lot of them are pretty bad, a lot of them are a bunch of backsliders who came back & didn't want to have to go too far from the U.S.A. We're glutted with people who all they had to do was drive down into Mexico. What do you wanna bet a lot of those people are just people who came down there, didn't get home support‚ didn't really work to raise their support & aren't working now. It's gotten to be a very bad problem field.

59. ALL CREDIT TO THE EAST & TO YOUR FIELD, KEDA! Did you know that yours is the best field in the World today?—The top field that is accomplishing the most & therefore God is blessing the most financially‚ & therefore they are giving the most & the most prosperous, because they're the hardest-working in the World's hardest fields & give twice as much as Latin America!

60. BUT THERE IN LATIN AMERICA WHERE IT'S ALMOST A SOLID OFFICIALLY CHRISTIAN AREA & Christianity is supposed to be the official religion & with freedom of religion & where they have a lot of freedom of distribution & witnessing & litnessing & much more religious freedom than in a lot of countries in the East, they're doing worse there! I think one reason is God's trying to get them out. They're old, worn-out, over-worked, worked-out fields! We've been there 10 or 12 years, we've saturated the place! We've had two big sweeping harvests—the first one, & now under MCV—so I think Latin America's day is almost done, frankly. (Maria: Well‚ as you pointed out in that Letter, if it's really the Lord's will for people to stay there, whoever is to stay there the Lord will help & the Lord will supply for them if they really need to stay there.)

61. JUST LOOK AT THE MEMBERS, THE POPULATION! I gave'm stats in a recent Letter. Latin America's only got 350 million people, the East has got about three billion, ten times as many people! And yet we've got seven times as many missionaries in Latin America per capita than we have in the East where there are billions of people that need to be reached!

62. I THINK GOD IS DISPLEASED! If I'm angry about it, I think God must be angry about it that so many people have gone to so little trouble to go only so far to Latin America from places like the U.S. & perhaps even Europe instead of going East where the need is the greatest & there are the most people & the hardest fields! But in spite of all that, look how God is blessing the people in the East financially, even blessing the countries financially so that they can give more & the Family can be better off & more prosperous than they are anywhere else in the World except the richer countries. In fact, they're giving even better in the East than they are in the rich countries!

63. WHAT GOOD ARE THOSE 73 HOMES IN LATIN AMERICA THAT CAN'T EVEN MAKE $300 A MONTH? What good are they? Maybe they ought to go back home & make some money to support the missionaries! Well all right, you pled for them last time, I'll meet you halfway. What do you folks think about it? Let's raise it maybe not all in one big jump, but let's raise it to $20. It's been $10 & even if they gave $10 a month they could get GNs. I'm talking about [private] material that is dangerous to fall in the wrong hands!

64. ONLY PEOPLE WHO CAN BE TRUSTED OUGHT TO GET THE GNs, THAT'S THE WAY I FEEL ABOUT IT! Well‚ we thought a lot of people on the mission field could be trusted, but I'll tell you, we've got some real rotters in Latin America & some real backsliders & old bottles! They're full of old-hat who probably would be better off if they'd go back home & earn enough money to help support the people left behind! So think about that. What do you think about it, Keda? (Keda: I know in places like India, the only Homes we've got that are earning under $300 are the ones who are really not obeying the Word & not witnessing much.) In one of the poorest countries in the World, think of that! (Fam: I agree, I think we could make it $20, I just wanted to bring the point up because there are 73 Homes there in Latin America who earn less than $300 a month as opposed to a handful here, there & someplace else. As far as I'm concerned, they should be able to give at least $20.)

65. EVEN IF YOU BRING IT UP TO $20, YOU'RE STILL GOING TO HAVE 44 OF YOUR 73 HOMES BELOW THE MINIMUM. (Fam: Maybe there's a big difference between $20 & $30 in dollars.) Okay, I'll try. I'll have mercy. We've had mercy on'm for a year, I'll have mercy on'm awhile longer. I'll meet you halfway, I'll come down to $20 if you'll come up to $20. (Fam: I'll go up to $30 if you want, it's okay with me!) (Maria: Just for Latin America?) No, I'm talking about Worldwide. Why not? The other countries are mostly the poor countries of the World.

66. (MARIA: BUT YOU'VE GIVEN A PRETTY CONVINCING ARGUMENT, I THINK IT'S MORE IMPORTANT TO HAVE THE HEAD SURVIVE! Those pubs aren't helping them anyway. Why are we giving them to them?—Just to tickle their ears & entertain them?) (Keda: It would really help to know what countries they are.) I'll just give you the stats. In the Pacific there are no Homes who give less than $20 a month! In India‚ there are only six Homes who give less than $20 a month. Think of that! There are only three in all Europe that give less than $20 a month, but look at those stats in Latin America!—73 who give less!

67. WELL ALL RIGHT, SON‚ FOR THE TIME BEING, MAYBE FOR THE COMING NEW YEAR I'LL BE WILLING TO JUST BRING IT UP TO $20 AS A COMPROMISE. What are you going to do when Latin America goes broke? It's already broke! (Maria: For the whole Family's survival we must have the money to produce the pubs. We need to prune the unfruitful tree, pruning some branches off so that the whole tree can grow & be even more fruitful.)

68. I'M GOING TO SHOCK YOU EVEN MORE, I'VE GOT SOME MORE AUSTERITY MEASURES! I'm willing to compromise for the time being if you're willing to agree. I feel led to let'm off on $20 for the time being & we'll see what happens. We may only have to do it a month or two to just find out what happens to these Homes. Let's see if that doesn't jerk up some of them to where they'll really go to work! If we keep running short of funds‚ well all right, we'll have to cut'm off, but let's see if we can get by on these cuts first & do like the guy with the tree: Wait till next year & if it still won't produce we'll cut'm off. Agreed? All right!

69. THEN FOR THE WHOLE REST OF THE WORLD, WHAT AMOUNTS TO THE MISSION FIELDS, WE'LL MAKE THE MINIMUM TITHE FOR GNs $20. Those who gave even as little as $10 a month have been getting GNs in the Missionary World, but not FNs, but I don't think they deserve the GNs, I'm going to take those away from them, & I'm going to give'm the little FNs in their place. All I'm planning to do is switcheroo‚ we're raising it to $20, taking away the $10 tithers' GNs & giving them FNs instead. $20 & above they'll get GNs‚ FNs, everything but Books. Everybody in the whole World's gotta give over $30 a month if they're going to get all these Books & extra publications.

70. SO IN THE MISSIONARY WORLD SO TO SPEAK, OUTSIDE OF THE RICH COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD, WE'RE RAISING THE MINIMUM FOR GNs TO $20 FROM $10. We were agreed on that as a compromise, right?

71. THEY OUGHT TO BE TICKLED PINK ABOUT THESE FNs, READING ALL THE FAMILY NEWS! We'll give'm FNs & that'll be sort of a compensation, a little something to help them forgive us for taking away their GNs. What do you think?

72. ARE YOU THINKING & PRAYING ABOUT IT? I mean it! If you don't want to make that decision now, we can wait till later & you can discuss it‚ but that's my proposal. It doesn't have to be settled right this minute, but I propose for those lower-income people who tithe so little that we take away their GNs & give'm FNs instead.—Especially now that we're going to sort of water-down that FN & take out all the strong [private] stuff, it's not as much of a … risk to give it to such poor givers which are poor risks.

73. AS FAR AS I'M CONCERNED, POOR GIVERS ARE POOR RISKS! Anybody that's making that little money is about to become a backslider, because I don't think they can live on that little for very long or they're going to quit & go home. That's how I feel about it. It's risky giving them GNs.

74. SO THEN THOSE WHO GIVE AT LEAST $20 & ABOVE BUT NOT $30 WILL GET GNs, FNs, KIDz & LINs, but no books, no extra-curricular publications, no big expensive colour Posters & things like that, & I want that to start now with the mailing of the multiple Posters. We've sent these big colour Posters to everybody, every Home in the World, even the Latin, Spanish-speaking Homes, everybody‚ so they can have at least one picture of Heaven if they never get another one! But we're not going to send'm the other 6 to 15 posters for giving special gifts to supporters, friends & people they can trust outside of the Home or that they can use several in a Home, sticking one up in each bedroom like we have here! PTL! Homes that can't make any more money than that & can't afford to give any more than that, we can't really afford to send them any more than that. That's the way I feel about it. If you don't like it‚ I'm sorry, but that's the way I feel.

75. NOW FOR THE OTHER DETAILS THAT I WAS GOING TO MENTION THAT MAY BE SHOCKERS—DID YOU KNOW THAT IT COSTS US MORE AIRMAIL POSTAGE TO SEND OUT MOST OF OUR PUBLICATIONS THAN IT COSTS US TO PRINT'M? Postage is our greatest expense in publications, besides Creations, etc. When you try to really estimate the cost of publications, you've got to add the entire cost of all the Creations Homes, the Printing Units, the cost of printing, the cost of postage, & that raises the cost of each piece a great deal, let me tell you! So that little bit of tithe they're giving is in some cases almost minimal & inconsequential compared to what they're getting & what it's actually costing. So you can't just go by the actual cost of the mere printing & the postage, but between printing & postage, postage is a bigger expense than the printing!

76. SO I SUGGEST THIS, & THIS I THINK IS MY LAST ITEM FOR THIS BUSINESS CONFERENCE. Lord help me & give me wisdom. Where all they get is LINs, Kidz & FNs, I wouldn't consider that those people are very fruitful or very active—people who are giving less than $20 a month throughout the whole World—so I want to propose this to you: I don't think they need to get'm in a hurry! I don't think they need to get'm airmailed at a greater cost than it costs us to print'm! I think we ought to send'm surface mail!

77. ACTUALLY, THEY'RE ONLY GOING TO HAVE TO WAIT THE FIRST MONTH OR TWO FOR THEIR NEXT ONE, BECAUSE ONCE THEY'RE IN THE PIPELINE THEY'LL BE COMING REGULARLY EVERY MONTH, OR EVEN MORE OFTEN THAN THAT. There's going to be a mailing almost every week of FNs. So if they put them in the pipe on the slow boats to China & the boats leave every week & arrive every week on the other side maybe two or three months later‚ well, they'll still be getting them every week, but they'll be a little old.

78. BUT I DON'T THINK THEY REALLY DESERVE TO GET THE HOTTEST STUFF, I don't think we can afford to send it to them airmail, so I think we ought to cut out the airmail postage on everybody who gets nothing but FNs, LINs & Kidz. What do you think?

79. ACTUALLY, IN THE EAST IT ONLY TAKES ABOUT A MONTH, their shipping transportation is so prolific & numerous & the distances are not all that great, it's only Europe & the Americas that are going to have to wait awhile. And of course most of Latin America gets theirs from Latin America in Spanish, so that's not going to affect them all that much‚ only the bilingual Homes that get English publications. What do you think of that? Fair enough?

80. ALL RIGHT, DID WE GET ANYWHERE & MAKE ANY PROGRESS? I think we've arrived at a few new austerity measures & I think you guys ought to be thinking about these things. Somebody really should have thought of these things before me. When those Special Magazines got to be the size of Books, they ought to be classified as Books & under the same minimums as Books! Instead of that, I bet Sprint's been sending them all out all the time to everybody that gets FNs. But once they reach that size, they're Books! I'm going to call anything over 64 pages like the GN a Book from here on.

81. WE NEED TO GET OUT A NOTICE ABOUT ALL THESE NEW CHANGES, SOMETHING THEY'LL GET RIGHT AWAY so they won't be pestering us with a whole bunch of complaints: "We didn't get this or we didn't get that, blah blah" & they'll know why they're not going to get'm!

82. WELL, WE'VE GOT TO DO IT‚ BELOVED, WE HAVE TO CUT DOWN! We can't spend more money than we've got, that's all there is to it, & I don't believe in operating on a basis beyond our income. We don't believe in borrowed money either like the countries & the corporations & governments do. They've been living on borrowed money for years & it's finally catching up with them. Pretty soon they're going to have to pay the fiddlers, & nearly all the fiddlers are anti-Christs!

83. THEY'VE GOT'M RIGHT WHERE THEY WANT'M, JUST WHAT THE PROTOCOLS PREDICTED, where they're all selling themselves to the anti-Christ controllers of the World, just like they did to Joseph in Egypt when there was famine. That was a precedent for it. First they sold everything they had to buy grain from Egypt & finally sold their own bodies into slavery to get grain from Egypt, from … Joseph!—And Joseph … was running Egypt! … [Gen.41:55-57.]

84. THE WORLD'S GOING TO HAVE TO SELL THEMSELVES & THEIR COUNTRIES & THEIR INDUSTRIES, THE WORKS, IN ORDER TO SURVIVE, to meet their terms, the dictates of the World Bank & the dictates of the International Monetary Fund & the dictates of the International Settlements Bank & the dictates of the EEC & the dictates of whatever. Even the EEC & the Americas & everything are going to have to knuckle down to the anti–Christs! But I don't want that to happen to us! I want us to stay liquid & fluid in liquidity‚ solvent & survive! PTL? Amen!

85. AMEN, LORD, WE HAVE TRIED TO DELIVER OUR SOULS TO THESE THIS AFTERNOON & TO GIVE THEM THE REASON WHY WE HAD TO DO THESE THINGS, reminding them again & to remind the Family again why we're having to do these things. So Lord, we ask Thee in Jesus' name to give us wisdom, give us mercy, & we believe we're having mercy. We're trying to be as lenient as we can & yet survive‚ Lord, & have enough in order to be able to continue to operate & publish. We can't do it for less. We can't keep on running over our budgets & spending more than we're getting in. We have to live within our income, & therefore we have to do these wind-down austerity measures. And we believe that these are legitimate, Lord, we believe they are justifiable, we believe they're fairly lenient, & we know, Lord, that they are necessary. They're imperative, Lord, we have to do it whether we like'm or not, in order to live within our income & not spend more than we receive.

86. IF THESE PEOPLE WANT TO GET MORE‚ THEY'RE GOING TO HAVE TO GIVE MORE! And if they're going to be able to give more, they're going to have to work harder & produce more so You can bless them more & prosper them more so they can give more. It all gets back down to the basics‚ Lord, that they cannot eat unless they work, & he that shall not work shall not eat, not even the spiritual food that You'd like to send them. (2Th.3:10.) If they're not working hard enough, Lord, to produce & to earn it & to be blessed & prospered by You, then they don't deserve it. They probably wouldn't use it right anyhow so it wouldn't do'm any good, so we'll have to cut it off. We've given some of them a year already & been more than lenient, now we're going to have to crack down because You are cracking down on us & preparing us for what's ahead. So help us, Lord, in Jesus' name.

87. THANK YOU LORD FOR HELPING US SEE THE WAYS TO DO IT & THE MEASURES TO TAKE‚ THE DECISIONS TO MAKE. Thank You Jesus for helping us in all these things, giving us wisdom & giving us love & mercy at the same time, & giving us the firmness of a father to do that which has to be done. Whether we like it or not, we have to do it just the same. So bless & help us to put these things into effect. Give Sprint wisdom in how to do it & these here wisdom in how to work it out with all the other details. Continue, Lord, to keep us & bless us & help us to continue to be fruitful & productive to feed Thy sheep well‚ Lord, & to continue to be a blessing to them & an encouragement & an inspiration as long as we both shall live, in Jesus' name. Amen! PTL! TYL! Amen?

88. WELL, THEY WERE ALL FILLED WITH THE HOLY GHOST & IT SEEMED GOOD TO ALL OF THEM, SO I GUESS THAT MAKES IT UNANIMOUS! PTL!

89. (LATER:) ON THE MATTER OF POSTAGE AGAIN—ONE OF OUR GREATEST EXPENSES, DON'T FORGET THAT—I THINK WE NEED TO REALLY BEAR DOWN NOW & THINK SERIOUSLY ABOUT WHAT DO THEY REALLY HAVE TO GET AIRMAIL. Frankly‚ about the only things that really have to go airmail are the GNs & WNDs.

90. REMEMBER, ONCE THEY START GETTING THESE THERE'LL BE A CONSTANT FLOW, THERE WON'T SEEM TO BE ANY INTERRUPTION OR DELAY. It's only getting started. The boats leave every week & they arrive every week, but 2 or 3 months later. (Maria: It's just that because of the precariousness of the World situation, if we send it out now, we don't even know what's going to happen in 2 or 3 months so we don't even know if they'd get it or not.) We have to go ahead by faith, Honey, to save money, & a lot of money! If you want to know where we can really make a cut, that'll save a lot of money! The little GNs & WNDs airmail hardly cost anything compared to these other big heavy things.

91. THEY'LL STILL GET'M, WE'RE FULFILLING OUR PROMISE, they will get'm, but slower. Right? We're not giving them any less, we're just not giving them so fast. These heavy Books are the most expensive of all, we could cut out half of those expenses or more by sending those heavy items surface mail.

92. NOW I HAVE ARGUED ABOUT THIS BEFORE, BUT I'M TELLING YOU NOW WE HAVE COME TO THE POINT WHERE WE HAVE GOT TO DO IT, LIKE IT OR NOT! I would say there are only about four Books in the works right now that are important enough that we want to make sure they get'm before whatever happens, & I guess you could name those. (Maria: Index, BOF, Quotebook & Kids Quotebook.) Well‚ I was going to say the Kids Komix‚ but that's been sent, hasn't it? Well, I consider it pretty important. The Flannelgraph Book has gone off already too. So since they've got those which are the most urgent & the most important kids' materials, the Kids Komix & the Flannelgraph, I'd say after those the Index, which is a constant tool they'll use & need, as well as the BOF & your Quotebook.

93. WELL, FRANKLY I DON'T THINK THEY NECESSARILY ALL NEED TO GO AIRMAIL, I THINK WE COULD SPLIT IT. If you have the faith that the World's going to last another month, for example‚ from the time they get ready to mail it, everybody except Europe & the Americas will get it within a month surface. So the only people that would need to be sent these urgent items airmail that I'm speaking of is Europe & the Americas.

94. (MARIA: SPRINT HAD A GOOD IDEA ABOUT THAT, THEY THOUGHT WE COULD SEND AT LEAST ONE-PER-HOME AIRMAIL OF THESE ITEMS & THEN SEND ALL THE REST SURFACE.) That sounds like a very good idea! I'll agree with that. That's a fair compromise, like we did with the Poster. If it's an important enough Book, send one-per–Home airmail & all the rest surface. But I would say with some of the Books it's maybe not that important, we'll see. But those we have mentioned & we have already agreed on now, we'll see that they are sent at least one-per–Home airmail & the rest surface.

95. AND ANOTHER SUGGESTION I MADE—YOU DON'T HAVE TO DO THIS WITH THE FNs BECAUSE THEY'RE SO SMALL & THEY CAN EASILY LOOK THROUGH THEM—BUT YOUR SPECIALS BOOK NOW NEEDS AN INDEX IN EACH ONE. I suggest you have a numerical index according to pages in the sequence order, & because you've got the computers that can do it quickly, I suggest you have also an alphabetical index, so that when people are looking back to try to find an article they've read, they can find it.

96. EACH OF THOSE BOOKS NEEDS A TABLE OF CONTENTS & AN INDEX!—A Table of Contents of everything in it in the order in which the articles appear, & I mean with the title of every article in the Table of Contents. If you want to then list the groups according to subjects alphabetically, then that'll be the Subject Index so to speak. It needs it. I think that is absolutely essential! Amen? GBAKY fruitful & fed!—In Jesus' name, amen.

Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family

Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family