Dad
April 24, 2003
DO 25073/89
—More Counsel for Families Returning to Home Fields!
1. We've trained up our children in the way that they should go so that when they're older they'll not depart therefrom.—Pro.22:6. They might depart a little bit to get a taste of the System, like I did, in a way. (Maria: Or they might stray a little simply because their parents don't have much time to give them. They also won't necessarily have teachers with them all the time like many of them did at the schools. Without continued strict supervision, they may lose some of the gains they've made. But when the crisis comes, & they're "older," I think they'll pull through.)
2. Why shouldn't they have the same training when they go back home? They could still have Area Fellowships & Area Schools. I don't see why there should be any difference. (Maria: Well‚ they may be able to for a little while.) They should continue the same training at home, providing they don't go & get into the System or into the public schools.—If we can continue to have our own schools & stay separate, "Come out from among them & be ye separate. Touch not the unclean thing!"—2Cor.6:17.
3. (Maria: Well, with the possibility of the AC in November & things tightening up, we're going to start tightening up even more drastically & more quickly.) The Lord will make a way. He said, "Will I not care for My Own?" (See ML #900.) So they don't have to look ahead thinking it's going to be a hopeless task & a total defeat & getting sucked back into the System. I don't believe it!
4. I think the worse things get, the more separate we're going to have to be. If they start requiring your kids to go to public school, you'll just have to [move]! I had the same problem in the United States. [Note: When Dad was raising his first family.] When we were in Florida, even California, they didn't require your children to register in the public school or any school for three whole months!
5. And when we had to stay so long in Florida, I put them in Christian schools. Now Christian schools are legal, & until the AC reveals himself or stops all other worship & tries to blot out all religion‚ they'll still be able to have some kind of Christian schools.
7. I think they're going to have to go mobile again when they get back to those countries. That's one of the smartest things they can do. If they possibly can, their schools can go mobile as well, they could go mobile in small groups of 4-5 trailers.—Like the Gypsies do!
8. Look how we used to travel with cars, trucks & trailers. That's the way the Family began, with caravans. Good night! We travelled with about 120 people on the road in almost 50 different vehicles! That's how we managed to survive.
9. Let me tell you, they were just as down on hippies—just about as mean & just as brutal in those days on hippies as the Antichrist & his agents will be in the coming Future! Of course, it will be worse, but I still believe we have learned certain skills & talents that can keep us alive. We can keep moving!
10. I think our advice about going mobile is going to be more of a necessity now than it ever was! When they go back to their home countries‚ I don't think they're going to be able to settle down too much.
11. We found out in our early days that the safest thing was to keep moving.—Right? (Maria: Yes!) And we kept moving, even in groups. We had cars & vans pulling various kinds of trailers. And we travelled together & we moved from place to place.
12. Sometimes some of us lived in a house & some of us lived in a trailer. We would rent houses for just short periods of time & park some of the trailers in the yard & others at nearby trailer parks.
13. We went mobile! That's almost one of the first things we did as soon as we had to disband the Light Club at Huntington Beach, we all went mobile. A lot of our hippies in those days had campers & vans & stuff that they lived in anyhow. So we finally just went mobile with several campers & vehicles, etc. Remember that? When they chased us out of Huntington Beach we went to Tucson for about a month or two. And we held fort there at Brother Ware's Gospel Lighthouse for a month or two.
14. We always had scout teams to go before & explore the possibilities & find a place to land next. And we landed there & had his churchyard just full of campers & trailers & stuff. And when they finally chased us out of there, we hit the road & went all over the United States! We just kept moving. We'd settle down for awhile‚ as long as we could get away with it, & when they didn't like us or chased us out or told us to move on, we'd just move on.
EVADING THE AC SYSTEM!
15. Especially if you are camping out or in trailer parks, they expect you to be travelling‚ & it's a general rule in nearly all States, in the United States, at least—I don't know about other countries—that you had to be in the State for at least three months, 90 days, before they required you to put your kids in school. Until then‚ you were counted as a visitor or a tourist, a temporary resident. You were not required to put your kids in school for at least three months.
16. We learned that three months was the rule in nearly all the States. It was a rule in Florida & California, & they're two of the most particular States. In a trailer park or a campsite, all of your neighbours are temporary anyway. They don't give a damn about whether your kids go to school or not.—Their kids aren't going to school either, they're travelling!
17. (Maria: Do you think that the AC is going to try to insist, like they do in Russia today, that everybody has a permanent dwelling & nobody is just free to wander around & travel from place to place?) They'll try, but they can't even enforce it completely.
18. Honey, remember, the people of those big democratic countries of the West are used to a lot of freedom, & I think it's going to take a little while before he can really enforce his rules. In fact, it looks like it's going to take about the whole 3-&–1/2 years of the Tribulation—& he finally fails!
19. So don't expect everything to be strictly totally under control even when he takes over after his Revelation. No dictator has ever completely gotten total control immediately, & some have never gotten full control! (Maria: As evidenced by Marcos & Pinochet & a whole bunch of other ones!)
20. All of the tyrants eventually have to give up, & some of the rebels always manage to stay free. Some of the people always manage to stay free, especially the guerrillas & rebels who head for the hills & stay out there. Take Peru, for example: Most of the rural areas are totally controlled by the rebels out in the peon & peasant areas, particularly up in the Andes. The government has never been able to enforce total control. The farmers & villages even help the rebels!
21. The governments do about like the Philistines used to do with the Jews: They'd make temporary forays into the mountains to this or that village & try to chase out the rebels, & they'd only chase them out into the mountains temporarily. As soon as they'd leave, they'd come right back in.
22. There are going to be rebels everywhere with all of these Christians who will refuse to recognise the Antichrist. They're not going to give up. I don't believe they're going to give up without a struggle, without a fight.
23. Just consider some of those Western countries: There are oodles of mountains & inaccessible & difficult places to get into, even if you have to hike up them. That's how the Jews managed to survive all those years, through one empire after another. They'd just chase them back up into the hills, & that's about all they did.—Then the government would give up.
24. Look at the Afghans!—They have survived attacks by empire after empire!—Superpowers! Everything from Britain to Russia, & now the U.S.A. has virtually taken over sponsoring the rebels, & they're soon going to find out they can't control them either! Wherever you've got mountains & difficult places to get into, big armies & sizeable police forces have a very difficult time getting in.
25. In fact, even with the early Russian Communists, they used to ship the rebels off to Siberia or chase them up into the Urals & the mountains & places like that beyond the Urals, & then just leave them alone. Let them have their own towns & their own work, whatever it was. They'd work them in mines & all kinds of things. But they were allowed to live out there without too much interference.
26. The more remote the place is‚ the better! Usually up in the mountains is where the Lord's Word advises time & again. "Flee to the mountains.—Flee the cities!"—Psa.11:1; 55:6-11. They're going to have to get out of the cities where there is more control.
27. In the cities is where there's going to be the tightest control, because they're easily accessible to the police & military forces, & the people are concentrated & already registered, & you have to have permanent residence. But if you're in a camper or you've got nothing but a tent & a backpack, you can travel & get away.—And the kids love it more than anybody! They just love that camping out & moving & the outdoor life! The more kids‚ the more backpacks they can carry.
OUR TRIBULATION MOUNTAIN MINISTRY!
28. (Maria: I have two questions: If we're out in the remote parts, in some caves or up in the mountains or somewhere, how can we support ourselves & witness‚ two things which the Bible says we're supposed to do? That's why the Christians are going to survive through the Tribulation, so they can be witnesses & a testimony. What if we're stuck up in the mountains?)
29. Not all of us will be bold open witnesses, just some of us.—Only outstanding prophetesses & prophets like Heaven's Girl, they are going to be the rare martyrs whom God is going to always have as His mouthpieces somewhere. But the vast majority of the people may have to just go out into hiding up in the mountains somehow‚ living off the land with other rebels.
30. There are going to be thousands of rebels! Think of all the church people & all the good strong evangelical fundamentalist people who really love the Lord & will know that that's the Antichrist. They're never going to take the Mark of the Beast! They're going to have to flee somewhere!
31. I don't doubt that the mountainous areas will be places of refuge.—Just like they've been throughout all history, in every civilisation in every case in history & right now, the rebels are still surviving out in the wilds of the mountains, where the System has not been able to get rid of them. They're no longer a thorn in their flesh down in their cities. They've chased them out, they've gotten rid of them, they control the cities & they control the people‚ the schools, the minds, the children, everything, & they've got what they want, the vast majority. So they don't let this little bunch of rebels up in the hills or mountains worry them too much as long as they stay put & don't bother the city folk.
32. I think there will still be a postal system, & that [people] will still be able to come down to mail letters, etc. And there will probably be little country mountain post offices where they can even get mail. And up in the mountains, how do they live?—The same way a lot of our people who have learned how to camp out already have lived in the past. I think there is somebody in almost every Home & every School who has had some camping experience, & who has had trailer-travelling experience & camper–travelling experience.
33. That's the way we started, & that's the way we kept going in the U.S. We went mobile & just kept moving. We never settled down until we got to TSC‚ & that was for our last big testimony & a witness in the U.S. before we went to Europe.—And when we had TSC, thousands came to see it, & it was on television & several big shows publicised us & kids came by the thousands to see us, & got saved!
34. But then when God was through with us there, we'd done all we could there, we got chased out, & what did we do then?—We moved to Europe! And in Europe we were something new. They liked us at first. We were great! We were on television & big news in England & France! And we got along fine. Then when persecution began in England we moved to France. And when it got too tough there, we moved on. We just kept going like the Gypsies. The Lord told us we were going to have to be like Gypsies.
35. (Maria: But how can we witness? Don't you think the Lord would take the Christians out before the Tribulation if they're just going to have to be holed up & not be a witness to anybody? What are they going to be able to do except hide out? That seems like a waste of their witnessing abilities & their purpose.)
36. Honey, that's when the church people are finally going to be willing to listen! The Lord said they were going to come to us for the answers of what's going on & what's happening‚ & we're just about the only ones who have it straight according to Bible Prophecy.
37. Up there in the mountains I think we're going to be busy teaching the Christians & the church people. At last they're going to be willing to tolerate us & won't give a damn about our sex doctrines! They may still not like it, but we'll have the answers.—And we'll have the leadership. We'll also have the people who really know how to travel, to [survive] & be refugees, fugitives, to live off the land, keep moving.
38. We don't have to know everything we're going to do, but the Lord has given us enough experience, enough knowledge & enough leadership to know what to do when we get back up in the mountains amongst the rebels, all the Christian rebels. In the Christian countries they'll be nearly all Christians & former church people.
39. It doesn't mean we're not going to have any trouble or we're not going to have enemies, but the Lord is going to use us, & I believe that's going to be our time to witness to the Christians. That's what I've said before. When the church people finally get desperate & are in dire straits & really being persecuted, they're going to come to us.—God's Word says so!: "And they that be wise shall instruct many!"—Dan.11:33. Who is that? That's not the World, that's not the Antichrist-Mark-of-the-Beast people, that's the Christians!
40. Finally, when we get up in those hills with the rebels, the rebel Christians‚ or even the rebels of other religions—whatever they are—that's our chance to help them & to minister to those who are rebelling against the Antichrist. And they're going to be up in the hills or the mountains, exactly where all the rebels are today!
41. How did Castro manage to survive for several years with a small army? He was up in the Sierra Madre Mountains in Cuba with them. He was living up there. Batista had control of the nation with his army & lived down in the city, & the System lived in the valley & had their army down there, & he chased Castro's rebels up there time & again. So as long as they stayed up there, he didn't mind. Well, he minded, but he didn't bother them too much.
42. The rebels managed to keep shifting around & hiding in the woods in the mountains. And Batista with a whole army & the whole System & most of the guns & everything was never able to chase them out or defeat them! And finally, Castro himself came down with his army when Batista's government was going to pieces, & Batista fled & Castro took over.
43. [W]e'll be able to stay up there & stave them off. It's going to be rough times, dangerous times‚ but there is only one reason why the Lord would not have taken the Church before, & that is because they need to learn some lessons.—Right? (Maria:—Right!) And I wouldn't be surprised that they're going to learn a lot of them from us!
44. Most of the Church has no experience at that sort of life, of [survival], being refugees & fugitives from injustice. But who has had the experience?—We have! I mean we have had the experience in every kind of way ! And we've had the experience of keeping mobile, camping out, living in campers & trailers & tents. Right? We've had the experience.
45. And we know what's happening because we know Bible Prophecy in detail! We can tell them exactly what's happening. They have almost no knowledge whatsoever about Bible Prophecy. They're expecting the Lord to take them out before the Antichrist comes. They think that God is going to take all of the Christians & saved Jews & just leave the other Jews behind to be leaders of the Tribulation.—Ha!
46. Oh boy! They've got a lot to learn!—And I think we're going to be very busy teaching those rebel & fugitive Christians what's going on. The Lord said so! He said some will be martyrs, but He also said that they that be wise will instruct many.—And it will help to purify & make white. Who needs to be purified & made white?—The World? Is He talking about the wicked Antichrist Mark-of–the-Beast people? Of course not! He's talking about His Own Church! He's talking about the church folks! He's talking about the real Christians! They still need to be purified & made white.—Dan.11:35.
47. We've had persecution & suffering & [moving] for years! We've had 20 years of it. Right? (Maria: Right!)—And knowledge of the Future, Bible Prophecy, etc. The church people, how much suffering have they been going through?—Persecution? Fleeing?—Having to travel to stay safe? Ha! How much do they know about what's going on?—Almost nothing! They've had almost no experience at it except for some vacations, pleasure camping trips! Thank God! The more they've had of that, the better, the better they'll be able to survive.
48. But I can see them swarming up into the mountains, into the remote places, difficult places to go, & managing to survive away from the System, out of the System. The Lord said, "Come out from among them & be ye separate. Touch not the unclean thing."—2Cor.6:17. How many church people have done that? They think they've done it because they don't do this & they don't do that & blah blah blah!
49. But they live right there in the System with System jobs! They conform to the System & they send their kids to System schools! They have hardly come out from among them & been separate in any way!—They're even some of the politicians!
50. They have completely compromised with the System, right? They have virtually joined the System! It's like that old poem my brother used to quote: "At first the Church & the World walked far apart." (See page 499 of Thots.) But then, by & by, the poem goes on that the Church joins the World & they walk hand in hand, & that's exactly what they're doing right now & that's exactly what the Bible predicts for the Last Church, the Laodicean Church!—Read it! (Rev.3:14-22.)
51. We're the Philadelphian Church, but that Last Church will be the one that really has to undergo persecution & suffering in order to be purified & made white, & those of us who are wise will instruct many! Who are going to be the wisest ones? (Maria: Us!) We will be the wisest ones, because we will know more about what is happening than they do. They're not familiar with the Scriptures, the interpretation of Bible Prophecy, they're all expecting to get taken out before the Tribulation comes!—Ha!
52. And they're going to be so shocked & so surprised & so confused & in almost trauma when they discover that the Antichrist has been revealed & they are not yet Raptured! But we've known this for a long time & we've been preparing for it & God has prepared us for it. While there was still time, He sent us out into the whole World to preach the Gospel to every creature we could possibly preach it to. And we've gone to over 100 different countries, thousands of us‚ think of it! And we have won millions of souls! Praise the Lord!
OUR PRESENT RETURN TO HOME FIELDS!
53. All right! Now things are tightening up & we've been forced out of country after country, especially in the East with their heathen religions, etc., non–Christian countries.—Even one Christian country, the Philippines, which turned out to be not so Christian, & they'll be sorry some day. But anyway, the situation is tightening up & we've had to leave a lot of those countries already.
54. For awhile persecution got so hot in America that the Family left America for Europe.—And then persecution got so hot in Europe we left Europe for Asia. Then the persecution got so hot there we left for the Far East. Then because they wouldn't renew our visas, we're having to close down a lot of our works there.
55. So with Southeast Asia & India & many of those countries there closed, even the so-called Christian Philippines, & even self-righteous Japan closing, where are they going to go? There may be a few that are going to be able to stay to help the local natives & the Nationals to carry on, thank the Lord! But a lot of people—I said this years ago—a lot of the Westerners are going to be forced to go home.—Just by law & the impossibility of the situation of a foreigner on the foreign mission field. They're going to be finally forced out & have no place to go but home, where they have a right to be as national citizens of those Western countries.
56. So what are they going to do when they have to go home? They are going to witness & witness up a storm & carry on just as they used to as long as they can until the real serious persecution begins & the Antichrist is revealed & he begins his reign of terror.
57. Remember, at first the Antichrist gets all the various religions to cooperate until the real final Revelation. Then he breaks the Covenant with them & he starts insisting that they worship him, sets up his Image & insists that they worship him, & begins the persecution & the economic control & all of that. Well, that's when it's going to get rough!
AVOID GETTING TOO TIED DOWN—STAY ON THE MOVE!
58. So I would advise our folks when they go home‚ don't sign a big long contract for the rental of some house & expect to survive on welfare until you get a System job. I think the smartest thing you could possibly do is stay on the move! Don't get settled down anywhere! Preferably get either camping equipment, anything from backpacks & a tent to a trailer or camper or van or whatever you can get, & just move from camp to camp & trailer park to trailer park & place to place!
59. Stay in one place as long as you can. ... And most of the laws allow you to stay in one State for at least 90 days without putting your kids in school.
60. (Maria: What about these Combo Homes & Schools they've been starting? They've already started some Combo Schools in the West.) Temporarily keep'm going as long as you can.—You've had to land some place.
61. Honey, we kept little schools going for our children, travelling around with cars & trailers & even parking in trailer parks all over, even as a whole Home‚ meeting together for classes, fellowship & devotions!
62. I think the Family is going to get pretty adept at it again. And I would certainly suggest to our families who go home that the advice about being mobile definitely applies to them!
63. Once you're in your own country & you don't have to travel or fly thousands of miles to get to the mission field anymore, you can get a backpack & a sleeping bag or a tent or a camper or a trailer or something so you don't have to settle down too long & you can just keep moving!
64. (Maria: Or somebody suggested that you might rent a house & then put trailers out in the yard.) Yes, temporarily you could do that if it's out far enough in the rural areas of the country. You can rent a little farm or something like that & maybe put one or two trailers in the backyard. Even the neighbours will usually put up with that in home countries where they're fairly well off—almost everybody has a camper or a trailer parked in their yard for their summer vacation.
65. (Maria: And then those people‚ when they wear out their three-months' welcome, or whatever, they could leave, & maybe some of the other Family members in their trailers could come & park in the same place?) Yes, if the landlord will allow it. They'd just better be sure they don't sign too permanent of a lease, too long of a lease, or contracts that are too binding that will keep them from moving on whenever they feel they need to.
LET YOUR RELATIVES & FRIENDS HELP YOU GO MOBILE!
66. You know what I think?—I think if they've landed with their folks, a lot of their relatives & parents, etc., are going to be just tickled pink to give them a down payment on a trailer or a camper just to get them out of the house so they can be on their own! They can ask their parents & relatives, they've got plenty, compared to us they've got plenty of money.—And they can at least ask them for the down payment!
67. They did it before when we went mobile, parents did it almost wholesale!—Parents & friends. They can get the down payments, the payment on good used campers or trailers or a van or whatever, just like they did before. The whole Family went mobile for awhile there & it was excellent experience! It was really good for them, & that's one way we survived the European persecution. Nearly everybody went mobile & started travelling, & it was great! They did well!
68. And now they've had that experience & know what to do, & there's a whole series of Letters on what to do & how to do it—it doesn't even have to be written again! There's instruction on everything in the World about campers & trailers & what kind to get & what kind not to get. Even a whole chapter on hitches & all kinds of things—about what kind of trailers to buy & not buy. They'll have to go back & read that over again so they'll know what's best to get.
69. But even the poorest family can afford sleeping bags & backpacks! (Maria: You can provision or buy those in secondhand stores with used camping goods.) Thank God most of our people are probably going to be going home this Summer before the big news, or whatever it is, that's coming in November! And you can survive with a backpack & a sleeping bag in Summer!—And of course‚ preferably a small tent, even a pup tent, or a few pup tents.
70. And of course‚ if you can persuade your folks or friends to help you‚ sometimes they'll do it just to get rid of you! If you can get some kind of camper or trailer, why, all the better! PTL! Of course, you're going to have to buy some kind of car or vehicle. A lot of our families have just slept out in their vehicles before.
71. It's nothing unusual today! It's nationwide in the U.S., for example. They call it the "homeless‚" whole families sleeping in their cars! So people are used to the sight‚ & won't be shocked.—That here's a whole family sleeping in the car!—Though I'd only advise it in an emergency. (Maria: Some of them even have jobs, but don't make enough to rent a house or get an apartment.) So they have to sleep in their car. So that's nothing unusual now in some places.
72. I think they claim there are something like two million homeless in the United States! (Maria: And also they have shelters for the homeless that end up being sort of like communes. )
73. These missions that house the homeless & feed them, they're doing a great work!—And more & more poor System families are moving into them that have no place to live, no jobs & nothing to eat. So it's nothing unusual. We might even be considered a benefit to communities who have homeless!
ADVERTISING & PROVISIONING YOUR NEEDS!
75. But I advise you, by all means, if at all possible, to go mobile ! (Maria: You know, you might even put ads in a paper. One missionary family several years ago put an ad in the paper when they were going overseas. They said, "We need household supplies, clothes & a vehicle," & the help just poured in! Maybe by the same token you could put ads in,
76. ("Returning furloughing missionaries with kids. Have nothing & need a camper."—Or vehicle. Or clothing. And you might be able to do pretty good like that.) Yes—"Need temporary housing." (Maria: So you could advertise. You'd have to [explain] what missionary group you were with before !) "Independent missionaries‚" that's what most of our people have [explained].
77. If they want to know why you're independent, just say, "The Lord said to go into all the World & preach the Gospel to every creature‚ & lo, I will be with you always."—Mk.16:15; Mat.28:20. He didn't say first find a missionary organisation that will send you. You just went independently by faith, & the Lord was with you. "He took care of us. And now we're coming back home & we need help. We need housing. We need a camper, a vehicle, a tent, trailer‚ clothing, whatever."
ECONOMIC, SAFETY & WITNESSING ADVANTAGES OF GOING MOBILE!
78. The nice thing about trailers & campers is that they're already furnished! You don't know what trouble it is to go & furnish a house! Campers are already furnished! And you can get a good camper, mobile home, or car & trailer, whatever‚ or, as I said, if you can't have faith for anything else, temporarily you could camp out in a tent & backpack it!
79. Those home countries, they're just loaded with government & national campgrounds, state parks & all kinds of places‚ many free! The U.S. has National Parks. The fee used to be only $3 a car per family & trailer to go in & camp in free campsites. We even camped free at Cheesequake Park in New York. I think it was free of charge or wasn't more than a Dollar a night, or something like that, for a campsite. And even if you've got a Home of several families you could each go in & qualify & just rent a campsite.
80. Of course, as long as you can witness, you can go ahead & keep doing what you've been doing on the mission field!—Selling Posters & Tapes & Videos & witnessing‚ & distributing Videos & even selling on the street if you can get away with it. They'll know we've come home.—The same Posters, same message, same style, same people. Just do it as long as you can in one community & get away with it, fine!
81. But the nice thing about having camping equipment is that if they start giving you too much trouble, forbid it, tell you you can't do it, you can just pick up, pull up stakes & move on to the next place or the next county, or the next state‚ whatever! I am for mobility! Absolutely! Because we never stay any place very long, even in freer days. Even in houses, one or two years is usually the limit. So, praise the Lord!
82. (Maria: Well, how will this jive with the Letter we just put out about "Churches in the Home" & fitting into the society & their homes?) It jives perfectly, as long as you can! If you get a house, fine! If you don't have to pay too much & sign too binding a contract, fine!—If you can get one & can stay awhile. As long as you're free & you can still witness & sell Posters & Tapes & Videos & whatnot, just keep going like you've always gone‚ just like you used to do when you were in your home country before, until things close down or you get driven out.—Then you need your mobility to go on some place else!
83. (Maria: But for people who are going home & don't have much money, they probably have to make a choice, whether they're going to get a house or get their trailers.) I would say by all means, if you possibly can, get mobility, get some kind of mobility!—Anything from a sleeping bag & a tent to trailers & campers. And you can have a group of several families living in the same trailer park, operating Combo-style. Then you can go into the nearby town & witness.
WITNESSING FORAYS FROM CAMPGROUND TO TOWN!
84. I've explained all of this in those Letters about going mobile. (See ML#s 812-1 to 812-25; Volume 7.) I said you could park out in a free campground outside the big city somewhere up in the hills or mountains. So if you have to drive into town a few miles, you can drive in & sell Posters‚ Tapes & Videos & earn your living by that kind of witnessing. Then drive back at night.
85. Or like we did at TSC Ranch‚ we used to take whole groups, 25 or 30 people, into the city on three-day weekends. We'd sleep them all on the floor of a home we'd rented, or one that someone had opened to us. They all took their sleeping bags & slept on the floor in one house, & then they'd go out & spend the whole weekend witnessing! They'd get in town by Friday evening, spend all day Saturday & Sunday witnessing, & go back to the Ranch either Sunday night or Monday morning, so that they had about two or three full days of witnessing in the city. And we all managed to survive by faith, the whole camp there!
86. (Maria: They could just do it on the weekend, & then concentrate more on teaching their kids the rest of the week!) Yes, just go into the cities even on the weekends, & then go back up to your beautiful mountain campgrounds & forest & fresh air & sunshine, pure water, etc.! (Maria: Do a lot of praying in the meantime‚ & then your weekend will be so successful that it will more than make up for what you'd otherwise have done all week long.)
87. Besides, then you're out there out of the city, out of the mess & all the crime & government regulations & everything, & you're halfway into the wilderness, halfway into the mountains already, so that if the time comes when you've really got to [move] & go higher up, you're on the way!
DIFFERENT KINDS OF CAMPGROUNDS!
88. I explained all about the different kinds of campgrounds & different kinds of trailer parks in my "Mobile Ministry Letters." Commercial trailer parks are the most expensive‚ of course, & in those days they were at least a Dollar a day or $30 a month. They had gone up to $50 a month before we left the U.S., so I wouldn't be surprised if they're $100 a month or more now for a nice campsite with water, electricity, sewage disposal & everything.
89. They also had all those free government campgrounds, state campgrounds, national parks, etc. National forests particularly were the cheapest because they were free! You just pay your initial fee to get in, which was only $3 then, & you could choose any of the free campgrounds. The campgrounds were not fancy. The sites were sort of rough camping.
90. (Maria: Did they have electricity?) No, most of them didn't give you electricity. Only a few had electricity, & they were marked, but cost more, of course. Most of the freebies only had water & toilets, but weren't so crowded‚ & were more out in the wilds. But they were beautiful!—More freedom, & further into the wilderness.
91. You could get one of those camping books from Sears in the U.S., & no‚ it's not free! You'd pay about $5 or $10 for it now, even $15, for this big thick book at Sears, which lists all of the various trailer parks, campgrounds & their facilities, exactly what they've got, what they charge, everything, including national parks, state parks, county parks. That used to be our camping bible when our caravan was on the road!—Our travel bible that told us exactly where to go next.
92. We'd send an advance team to explore it to see what the situation was, & then we would usually move late at night when everyone was asleep, move into the next campground quietly before anybody objected, or could object. And by the time the authorities got there in the morning we were all in & settled down & there wasn't much they could do about it. Besides, what could they do? We were perfectly legitimate, had a right to camp & park free in most state parks, or even in those that charged a small fee.
93. We couldn't have lived on the road without our Sears book of campgrounds! Europe had its big books also. We had one called the Michelin Camping Guide—or something like that—at least that's what we had in France, & so the other countries probably have them‚ too. Any of those civilised Western countries have got some kind of guidebook. (Maria: Or sometimes each state or country or province will have maps, if you call the tourist office or the municipality, & you can find out the information.)
94. Even some cities have campgrounds outside the city. Virtually all states, provinces & countries of the civilised World have lists of their campgrounds. So that's one of the first things you should get so you can find out what the situation is. Go out in your car, if you have one‚ & visit them & see what they look like, & see if you want to move your trailer there or pitch your tent there or whatever.
95. I was starting to tell you about the cheapest & freest, but of course they're the roughest campgrounds. They're usually more remote, 'way up in the national & state forests. And they provide a campsite, water & toilet facilities, which are the three things you need the most. You've got to have a campsite, water & you've got to have toilets.
96. A few of them even provide electricity for a fee, but the free ones usually don't provide electricity. But you have various other kinds of lighting—battery, kerosene & gasoline lanterns, all kinds of things. Of course, in places that don't have electricity you're not going to be able to operate many appliances!
97. In the Ark, our 26-foot Dodge Motor home, we even had a little 12-volt portable television that we wired up to the battery. Our battery was up front—in fact, we had two batteries. In case one of them went flat, we could operate on the other one. But I wired the little 10- or 12–inch portable TV on a shelf at the foot of our bed. I wired it all the way to the battery up front & it worked just fine. We had a little rabbit-ears antenna on it, & we got television & news & everything, battery operated!
98. So cheap little black-&-white battery-operated TVs are plentiful! They even have them for cars now & certainly for campers & trailers. (Maria: Well‚ that's taxing, though, on your battery. Isn't it? It takes a lot of electricity to run things for very long.) If you don't watch anything more than half-an-hour to an hour of news every night, which is about all we watched, it didn't run the battery down too much.
99. Of course, if we could, we usually parked in a place that had electricity. But in the times when we were just parked in a parking lot or campsite‚ we would use the battery; otherwise, the same TV could also be switched over to ordinary electricity. (Maria: Well, for our Family, they'd opt for radios pretty much instead, since they're less expensive.)—Amen!
100. Yes‚ you don't have to have TV.—Battery-operated radios are all you really need for getting the news. Especially if you're hiking! On some of them they've got short-wave, so that if local news fails, or even national news fails‚ you can get your news from far away, some other country, like BBC or something. When we were travelling in Europe we depended entirely on a little tiny battery-operated radio to get BBC all the time in English all over Europe, & clear to Israel! We got BBC relayed from Cyprus when we were in Israel, on a little battery-operated radio that wasn't much bigger than some of these mini cassette tape recorders!—About the size of my hand!
DISADVANTAGES OF STATIONARY HOMES!—ADVANTAGES OF GOING MOBILE!
101. So I would certainly advise you returnees to go mobile if you possibly can‚ & continue to operate in the cities & the towns openly as long as you can until you get stopped or chased out, & then you're ready to easily move on. Then you don't have to have a big job of having to unload a bunch of furniture! Otherwise, when you get home, you have the big problem of finding a house that will accommodate your large family, or maybe two or three families.
102. And then you've usually got to furnish it. To get the rent cheap enough, you've usually got to get something unfurnished, & then you've got to go to all the expense of furnishing it, even shabbily from the secondhand stores & Salvation Army & whatnot.—And by all means, that's the only way you can usually afford to furnish it! You're probably not going to get anything cheap enough to rent furnished, & they often require a lot more references, etc. if they're going to rent you a place full of good furniture‚ for fear you might move out with it all.
103. So if you try to get a house‚ it's going to mean a big advance payment of several months, plus a security deposit. It's going to mean trying to scrape up enough for furniture, it means you'll have to sign a contract for several months, at least. And then you're tied down, & if you have to move you've got to figure out how to sell all of the furniture & where to move to or how to move.
104. But campers & trailers & tents & sleeping bags & backpacks solve all those problems! If you're travelling with a tent & a sleeping bag with backpacks, you don't have to worry about furniture! You just sleep on the ground in a sleeping bag & you cook your meals over an open wood fire that you scrounge the wood for.
105. That's the wonderful thing about camping out & being mobile, it's so cheap to live that way! You don't need a fortune of thousands of Dollars to put down on a house & more thousands to buy enough furniture & all your other luxuries that you usually go for.—All kinds of linens & kitchen equipment & dishes & silverware & pots & pans & appliances, etc. You might have to buy a stove & refrigerator & a washer & who knows, maybe a drier, all kinds of stuff! And it costs thousands of Dollars, even secondhand from thrift stores & Salvation Army, Goodwill, etc.!
106. Whereas when you buy a camper or a trailer‚ it's already furnished with all appliances included!—Stove & refrigerator at least. You may not get a washer, most likely you won't! And certainly not a drier! (Maria: But you might even get a microwave! And sometimes you get an oven.) Yes, you can pick up cheap microwaves yourself‚ if you want one. You can set it on top of the refrigerator in your trailer.
107. It's the cheapest way in the World to live! I know! I lived 20 years that way! And it's the safest way to live, because you can move at a moment's notice.
108. Trailer parks‚ of course, are more expensive, if you want the luxury of both running water & sewage & electricity. But in national & state park campgrounds, if you don't have to have electricity, you can camp in many of them free of charge! All you do is pay an initial fee. Now some of them have a time limit of 30 days. Some of them have 60 days‚ & some of them have no limit in the more remote ones, in the rougher ones.
109. Some campgrounds don't have much, but usually they have at least one toilet & a faucet of running water where you can get your water at a campsite. Some of them have a picnic table, which is a help. And if you've got an awning you can throw out over the picnic table, that gives you another room, a dining room & sometimes a place to sleep.
110. I've said all of this before! I have explained this all in great detail before. You just need to go back & read the Letters on mobility, all about camping out—everything from backpacks to sleeping bags to tents, campers, trailers & whatnot.—Even the early Letters on tips for mobile road teams.
111. So I think the safest thing for our Family to do as you go back home is to go mobile! You can get a little used trailer or a little secondhand camper for a fraction of the price it would cost you to rent a house on several months contract & to furnish it. Forget it! I'd say you could get a camper for no more than it's going to take you to rent a house on a contract & furnish it with thousands of Dollars' worth of equipment! The average rent on a large house back in the West is about a thousand Dollars a month or more, & then all the furniture expense as well!
112. It's going to take several thousand Dollars to just furnish it‚ & you're going to have to pay several months' rent in advance—at least three months. The first & last month & a month's security, that's about the best you can get on a contract. And it's going to cost at least two or three thousand Dollars to furnish it, even with secondhand materials.
113. OK, you've got five or six thousand Dollars right there! You could go buy a little cheap camper or something for that much, or not much more. So if you're going to have to raise that much money anyway‚ you might as well buy a camper or a trailer!
114. (Maria: Of course, you have to get a car to go with the trailer.) If you get a camper you've got your car & your house. In a lot of these vans we had, a lot of our families were living in vans & campers, where you've got your vehicle & your living quarters all in one! That has an advantage of being all together & cheaper than having to buy a car & a trailer. But you're more mobile if you have a car & a trailer, if you can.
115. My recommendation would be, if you possibly can, get a car & a trailer. Then you can park your family or families up in the mountains in the trailer while others run back & forth to town to do your business. (Maria: And to witness.) Well‚ yes‚ of course!—That is our business! That's what I'm talking about, your business!—Witnessing, selling Posters & Tapes, etc.—And scrounging or provisioning, you could still do that.
116. We used to immediately send out teams, the minute our caravan of 40–some vehicles hit town & got settled in a campground. We had two or three teams that went out provisioning immediately before we even got settled, & they'd be back with enough for dinner that night!
GOING MOBILE—THE SAFEST WAY FOR HOMEGOERS!
117. So it works! We've done it! We know it! And it's the safest way in the World for you to go back to your home country.—Get housing that's mobile so that you can move when you have to—& we usually do have to! We don't ever last very long in any one location. But as long as there is still freedom in those Western countries‚ in those democracies, as long as there is still freedom of speech, press & religion, you can still go out & do it!—Just like we did before, before we left for the mission field!
118. So when they persecute you in one city, then flee to another!—Mat.10:23. Just pick up & [go] like the Gypsies do‚ like the Jews used to do, & like the Rechabites did, if you've got mobility! That's your safest way, I'd say—especially with the Antichrist & the Tribulation coming! That is the only way to live that is going to be safe at all. Then at least you can [go] into the mountains & live with the rebels, which in the Western Christian countries will mostly be Christians.
119. And it will be the real Christians who are willing to risk their lives to refuse the Mark of the Beast! Of all the people who may hate you & not like you now, they're going to be the ones who are going to need you the most then. They're not all going to accept you, but there are going to be those desperate enough then to want to know what's happening. "What happened? How did we misguess the situation? How come the Antichrist is here & the Lord hasn't come?" —And we'll be able to tell them—we'll have the exact time & the days & almost the dates! So praise the Lord! That's my advice!
120. When you have to go home to your home countries, go mobile! I think a good title for this would be, "Going Home?—Go Mobile!" (Maria: We just published a Letter about finding a house & having Church in the Home‚ etc. Now with this Letter we are giving them a choice, to choose whatever situation they feel will work best for them, right?) Yes, of course. But for most, I think the best situation will be to be mobile.
CAMP WITNESSING!
121. You can still witness in trailer parks, they have a lot of camaraderie‚ campers do. I remember when I was a little boy out camping with a tent with our whole family, Mom‚ Dad & the three kids & a governess, six people, an average-size little family. At night my Dad would build a campfire out in front of our tent where we did our cooking. And then after our meal we would sit around on campstools or rocks or logs or whatever we could, & he'd play his guitar & sing‚ & we kids would sing. Just sing hymns & things like that.
122. And because there was no other entertainment in the whole campground or anything, quite a few people would gather around, you know‚ just to join in on the fellowship & the fun. There wasn't anything else going on. Dad was a good singer & good guitarist. He even played the harmonica, so we could put on quite a little show, our little family! He would play & sing & we children would sing together, just about like our folks do nowadays‚ right there in the campground!
123. I can't remember us taking an offering then, although later I remember my Mother, in one place where we were camped out on a dump beside a bar, when we were broke & needed money, she sent one of the children in with a tin cup & a handful of tracts, & she sort of watched from afar. She instructed one of my kids to go down the line of the bar & hold out the tin cup to all the cowboys & give'm a tract.
124. And those old cowboys, they really gave generously!—She came back with 20-some Dollars! Hardly any of them put in coins‚ they all put in at least a Dollar, some of them five! So there's nothing like a good drunk cowboy to be generous! We never had any trouble with them either. They just loved kids! They wouldn't bother the kids. They'd take the tract, give'm a little gift, & it was obvious what we were doing, going along with the tin cup & a handful of tracts. So it can be done! I've done it!
125. So I would advise any families or groups that are at all able‚ to go mobile! If you're going home, go mobile!—And God bless & keep you & make you a blessing, in Jesus' name, amen!
126. P.S. Start reading all of the Mobile Letters about how we went mobile in the early '80s! (ML#s 812-1 to 812-25, Vol.7). Start reading'm now so you'll be prepared! (Maria: What about the Winter?) How do you think those explorers do? What do you think those hunters do? What do you think those scientists do?—Even down in Antarctica, the first thing they did down there when Admiral Richard Byrd went down there, all they had were tents & campfires in Antarctica! The same with the explorers that explored the Arctic, all those that went to the North Pole! All they had were tents & campfires!—Campfires to cook on & keep them warm, & only tents with sleeping bags to sleep in, & dog sleds to travel with!
127. We're well off! We can go to prepared campgrounds! We can have campers & trailers or even tents & sleeping bags, backpacks. Compared to those explorers that went to the Arctic & Antarctica we'll be in luxury!
128. (Maria: And in some places, at the end of the Winter they'll probably be able to find thrift stores where they can get ski suits & big snow pants & things that will outfit them for the next Winter.)—Yes! All kinds of Winter clothing is sometimes dirt cheap in the thrift stores for only a Dollar a garment! At least it was like that several years ago.
129. Some of them will even give you a whole bundle or a whole bagful for something like $5, as much as you can stuff in a garbage bag!—And you could say you're returning missionaries, you need clothing‚ you've come back from a warm climate & you need clothing for the cold climate, & they may give it to you even cheaper!
130. It can be done! I know it! We've done it & you can do it, too! In Jesus' name, amen! (Maria: We've read that in the States there are thousands more campers living permanently year-round in campers than there ever were before. So that's encouraging, too!)
131. And if things get too tough in the States or in your home country, or wherever it is, you can even [move] to another country! There are oodles of places you can [go] to in Europe. There are oodles of even warm countries along the Mediterranean. I wouldn't advise North Africa, it's too Muslim & they're getting more bitter against Christians all the time. But in North America, you can [move] to Southern states if you want to keep warm, or even into Mexico & Latin America! And you can drive all the way to Mexico & Central America!
132. (Maria: If you already have a Home, or you can temporarily land with your parents, or your parents insist on giving you a house instead of a camper or whatever, you'll have to take what the Lord provides. And maybe some of your houses in the city can be the bases for campers who on the weekend could come into town & stay with you who live in the city.)
133. Sure! That's exactly what we did in Fort Worth, Texas! We went into town & rented a big house so that the missionaries from TSC, from the Ranch, could drive in the 70 miles on Friday afternoon & stay over Saturday & Sunday & go out witnessing. So if some of you want to establish Base Homes that the campers can come & stay in overnight or for the weekend, fine, whatever the Lord supplies, however the Lord leads! Some may be led to establish bases, & some may be led to get homes & even jobs.
134. But I certainly wouldn't send my kids to public school no matter what you do! "Come out from among them & be ye separate! Touch not the unclean thing that ye be not partakers of her sins & judgements!"—2Cor.6:17; Rev.18:4. We've learned to educate our kids at home. And many States now allow home schooling. Many countries now allow home schooling. And if they don't, then you'd better get yourself some kind of mobility & move. In places where they're more liberal & more free & allow more freedom & home schooling & don't make you put your kids in school‚ well, fine‚ you may be able to settle down more.
135. (Maria: Could I just ask one more question? How many people did you have at TSC when you had rented that house for them to go in on weekends? How many people were there together at TSC at that time?) At that time there were only about 50 people. That was when we were with the Soul Clinic.
136. (Maria: How many people went witnessing on weekends?) Anywhere from a dozen to two dozen people. And they were able to raise enough money, provision enough, witness enough to come back loaded!—With enough money & food & whatnot to last the Camp all week long!—The others stayed home with the babies.
137. (Maria: So they didn't work at jobs on the weekend?—They just provisioned & witnessed‚ right?) Yes! (Maria: And they got enough money to keep the whole camp going?) Yes, that was my idea. I got sick & fed up with them trying to live off of the land & that stupid little farm & garden & a herd of 50 goats & goat milk from which they weren't hardly making enough to exist!
138. I said, "This is crazy! What are we here for? We're supposed to be training to be missionaries! We're supposed to be witnessing‚ not just working our buns off here on this farm trying to grow vegetables in a desert & raise enough goats to supply us goat's milk & goat burgers! This is crazy! We ought to go into town! If we go into town & do what the Lord told us to do, He'll supply our needs!"
139. And so finally, that old farmer that Fred had left in charge of TSC, he let us go & take a group into town to see if we could do it.—At first, without even the house in town, we didn't have one yet. But they had some friends in town where they'd go. Some would stay here & some would stay there, & throw their sleeping bags on the floor or whatever, & then get out & witness & provision & everything else. And they just got support hand-over-fist, & they had tremendous openings, even in churches then‚ for their testimonies & stories, taking them out witnessing & all kinds of things!
140. So it was a huge success! Of course, that old farmer would hardly ever admit it‚ he complained & griped that it was too much trouble, cost too much gasoline, took too many people away from the farming. But I just insisted. I said, "Well, I'm going to go, & whoever wants to go with me, you can go!" And we did! And we made it! We did well!
141. We had to go 70 miles into town! (Maria: How much of your support was raised by the farming & how much support did you get by the weekend witnessing?) Oh goodness! What we got on the farm was almost nothing!—A few little vegetables off of that hard desert ground & some goats' milk, & that's about all we got off of the farm. It wasn't enough to feed us at all. But when we went to town & obeyed the Lord & went witnessing, we got more than enough! (Maria: To last the whole week?) Oh goodness, yes!—Enough to live the whole week!
142. We'd go in on Friday afternoon & go into wherever our houses were‚ whatever, & dump our stuff & then get out witnessing. Usually we left about Friday noon so we had time to get in & witness all afternoon & evening, & sometimes we'd already have church services booked at night & meetings booked here & there. A lot of them had bookings to speak at church services on Sunday. They'd take all day Saturday for witnessing, & then on Sunday they'd have church services booked. They got good offerings, sometimes hundreds of Dollars!
143. What they got off the farm was just ridiculous! It was nothing compared to going into town & witnessing. We went in & obeyed the Lord & witnessed, & the Lord supplied bountifully! (Maria: And then you all went home Sunday night‚ right?) We went home Sunday night or Monday morning, depending on the situation.
144. (Maria: They wouldn't likely be going into churches much now, but maybe they could establish little Church in the Home situations, where they could have the meeting in the home when they come in on the weekend.) Yes, as you get converts & establish little Fellowships in the cities, or even in your trailer park.—Although it might be better to kind of keep your ministry separate from your residence in some ways, if you can. But you can't always do that. So if the authorities get on to you‚ you can [move]!
145. It's all in the Letters on going mobile! You just need to go back to those Letters & read them‚ all kinds of good ideas & suggestions!—OK?—Tx! GBAKY!—AMYAB!—In Jesus' name, amen!
146. P.P.S. Interpretation of Pro.6:10-11: "Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep, so shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth & thy want as an armed man." The Family is going to travel in poverty. And our want is going to be caused by armed men. "So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, & thy want as an armed man."—Like a robber. (Maria: Shall come in the form of an armed man.) Yes, thy want like an armed man. People that travel don't make much money. (Maria: Well, probably since we don't have much, they won't be able to take much away.)
147. There's nothing new about it. That sort of life has occurred for ages, thousands of years, like the Gypsies & the Jews having to travel & be persecuted, chased by armed men. That's Pro.6:10‚11. Oh‚ & there was another one too. It's almost exact repetition. "Yet a little sleep, a little slumber. A little more folding of the hands to sleep."—Pro.24:33-34. The Lord has given the Family this time to rest‚ in a sense. Many of them are going to go home & have a little chance to rest for awhile before the real trouble happens.
148. "So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth." It's like then shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth & thy want as an armed man. In other words, thy want as though armed men were robbing you—our enemies. But first we're gonna have a little rest, TTL! GBAKY all! WLY!
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family