DO 1725(a) 1/84—More on Clubber Visitation—Compiled by Peter A.

1. DAD HAS RECENTLY GIVEN FURTHER COUNSEL ON THE SUBJECT OF THE VISITATION OF RADIO CLUB MEMBERS. First of all he has recommended that the term "minstrel" be changed to "Radio Reaper" or RRs for short, as this sort of follow-up ministry doesn't always necessitate your being a musician‚ as the term "minstrel" suggests. Secondly Dad has suggested that it is no longer necessary for RRs to wait until Clubbers are saved in order to pay them a personal visit. Here it is in his own words:

2. "JAPAN IS A HARD NUT TO CRACK & IT MAY TAKE A PERSONAL VISIT TO GET THOSE PEOPLE SAVED. I think maybe it'll pay to personally visit people who have been on the Mailing List faithfully for awhile & ask the Lord to lead you to who is responsive. If they have written in several times, I'd say they are interested. And you Radio Reapers can go on out there & visit them at least, & love them up & try to get them saved.

3. "WE COULD MAKE IT APPLY TO EVERYWHERE if they feel led. Visiting only saved Club Members shouldn't be a hard & fast rule. For example, if you're in an area where you're already visiting the saved‚ like Latin America & India‚ while you're there it's not going to cost you much more to drop in on a few regular correspondents who may not have yet signed the Salvation Card but have shown enough interest to write several times. They may just be on the border line or the brink of being able to pull through. That may be just what it takes to persuade them, to really see you & meet you in the power of the Spirit & get them saved.

4. "WE NEVER USED TO WAIT TILL PEOPLE GOT SAVED TO WITNESS TO THEM PERSONALLY. That's the way we got them saved—personal witnessing. We even used to drag people to our Homes before they got saved. A lot of them didn't get saved until they did make a few visits, either to the Homes or through personal contact. So I wouldn't make that a hard & fast rule. I'm sorry if that was understood as a hard rule. I think we're kind of pulling out of it right now from all that former waste of time, but we don't want to go to the opposite extreme.

5. "I DIDN'T WANT YOU GOING AROUND VISITING 9-NAMERS OR SOMEONE LIKE THAT THAT NEVER RESPONDED ANOTHER TIME. But I'd say while you're in an area, while you're visiting the saved, it would certainly pay to visit a few others that have shown a lot of interest & written several times, it might pull them through. I wouldn't say it would pay off to visit somebody that just wrote in once, but if there are Clubbers that have written in several times—even though they haven't signed the Salvation Card yet—I'd say it would be worth visiting them while you're there.

6. "AND IN TOTALLY NON-CHRISTIAN COUNTRIES LIKE THE ORIENT & VERY DIFFICULT COUNTRIES LIKE JAPAN & CHINA, IF ANYBODY WRITES OR RESPONDS AT ALL‚ especially if they responded more than once, having once received lit at all & seen what it is & they respond again, I'd say they're nibbling, they're nibbling at the bait. If they get the lit once & they don't respond any more, it shows they're not interested in something religious at all & "they don't want the books". But having once seen the lit & seen what it's about‚ if they keep writing in & still want more, I'd say they're hungry, especially in areas like Japan or China or even India & Latin America.

7. "I'D SAY AS LONG AS YOU RADIO REAPERS ARE THERE, IT'S NOT GOING TO HURT YOU TO VISIT A FEW MORE PEOPLE THAT ARE HUNGRY & HAVE BEEN WRITING IN & getting the lit. Maybe your visit will be the weight that tips the scale, & you RRs can lead them to the Lord. It's not going to cost you any more except a little time & effort, & maybe it'll really pay. I'd say it would probably be really fruitful.

8. "PEOPLE WHO HAVE WRITTEN IN & RECEIVED THE LITERATURE EVEN ONCE & WRITE IN FOR MORE, I'D SAY THEY'RE PRETTY HUNGRY LEADS. They may not be sold, they may not have signed the Salvation Card but I'd say it's like sales: The guy who signs the Salvation Card is making an order, that's a firm & fast order, but the guys who have written in more than once & have gotten lit more than once & still want more, I'd say those are hot hungry leads who ought to be followed up personally with a personal visit.

9. "SO THAT'S WHY WE ARE RAISING THE SUPPORT OF THE IHCS, ESPECIALLY THESE DIFFICULT ONES LIKE JAPAN & CHINA. Especially trips to China will be pretty costly & they can't stay very long. I would say the Japanese particularly ought to start visiting people who have written in more than once. I'd say they're hungry if they've gotten the lit even once & they've written in for more, they're hungry.

10. "THE JAPANESE ARE PRETTY SMART & THEY REMIND ME A LITTLE OF JEWS, THEY'RE NOT EASY TO SELL, they sell other people. They're producers & salesmen & they're selling the whole World. It's pretty hard to sell them, so they're probably the same way in relation to religion. After all, they've had a totally different religion, & suddenly being sold on Christianity & expecting them to sign a Salvation Card, that's really expecting a lot!

11. "SOME OF THOSE MISSIONARIES WORKED FOR YEARS & YEARS ON THOSE PEOPLE IN THOSE FIELDS. I remember a missionary who worked with Pima Indians for nine years in Arizona before he got one Salvation! He just kept working away & finally his love & his faithfulness & his persistence paid off. So you can imagine that some persistence is needed in totally heathen or pagan countries of other religions, Oriental religions especially like Japan, China, India‚ Indonesia, etc., any of these that are other than Christian religions.

12. "IF HAVING ONCE RECEIVED THE LITERATURE THEY WRITE IN FOR MORE AGAIN, I'D SAY THEY'RE NIBBLING. You always have hopes for a fish that keeps nibbling at the bait, & I've watched fish while I was fishing lying on my stomach on the pier where I could see straight down. There would be some smart big ones that would just come look at it & they were so smart they knew better & they'd just swim away. Some would nibble at it once just to see what it was & still be fearful & swim away. But some, especially usually the smaller ones, the young ones that hadn't had any experience‚ they'd come up & they'd go nibbling away & pretty soon they'd take the whole thing, hook & all, & you had them hooked!

13. SO I'D SAY THAT IN THESE ORIENTAL COUNTRIES ESPECIALLY OF OTHER RELIGIONS, PEOPLE WHO WRITE IN MORE THAN ONCE ARE REALLY INTERESTED & nibbling. If they've had the literature once & liked it enough to ask for more, I'd say they're nibbling at the bait & there is a pretty good chancing once received lit at all & seen what it is & they respond again, I'd say they're nibbling, they're nibbling at the bait & there is a pretty good chance of hooking them if we go after them.

14. "INDIA IS ONE OF THOSE COUNTRIES THAT'S HAD A LOT OF CHRISTIANITY & A LOT OF GOSPEL, so they have pretty much heard & know what it's about, especially the upper classes‚ so I think they're not totally ignorant of the Gospel & of Jesus etc. Whereas in Japan & China, they've heard some but they've not been saturated like India, so they're not quite as easy to win as the Indian disciples. Indians in some ways are much more agreeable people. They're very hospitable, but it's obvious that the Japanese & Chinese are a little bit more hard to sell, a little bit more conservative & not quite as easy to be persuaded. I'd say personal contacts with some of those really pay off, so I want to give as much as possible to help the IHCs make it. C'mon! Let's Reap Radio with Radio Reapers!—Amen? GBAKY reaping, in Jesus' name, amen!—ILY!—D.

Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family