Dad
July 1, 2004
—MOSeptember 1974DFO No.312b
Copyright © September 1974 by The Children of God
P.O. Box 31‚ London WC2E 7LX England or GPO Box 3141 San Juan Puerto Rico 00936
MWWFL NO. 10—DFO July 9, 1974
Dear Family Greetings in Jesus' Precious Name!
1. THANK YOU AGAIN FOR YOUR GOOD LETTERS AND REPORTS. Most of you are reporting very faithfully, but we would like to hear from some of you a little more often. We know you're all very busy‚ but it is important that we hear from you regularly, if not once a week at least once a month and not only just your logs and formal reports to the council, but some little personal word about how you feel and what you're thinking and planning and how you're doing and both your prayers and praises. Amen?—Thanks!
2. PLEASE DON'T MAKE THEM TOO LONG HOWEVER—just a note or little one-pager regularly is more quickly and easily read as well as written, and keeps us more currently up to date on things than a big sudden flood of material all at once after you just happen to remember that you haven't written us for quite a while. It would be far better for you to set aside a regular hour once week whenever most convenient during some quiet time to drop us even just a little note more often than some of these big batches which cost a fortune all in one package, particularly when you don't use airmail paper!
3. WE COULD PROBABLY SAVE HALF THE POSTAGE OF THE ENTIRE REVOLUTION IF WE'D FORBID THE USE OF ANYTHING BUT AIRMAIL PAPER for airmail communications! We do it and we don't see why you can't too. It's also cheaper to buy and makes better carbons, so why not? Maybe some of you are just trying to show off your letterheads or how affluent you are, but this really doesn't impress us to show us how economical you can be would impress us a great deal more! For example‚ in our returning of approval materials for printing we no longer return the entire copies unless every page is loaded with corrections, but we now usually only return the pages or even parts of pages which need correcting, and sometimes I simply take the front cover and a little extra time and list all the corrections to be made instead of sending the actual pages.
4. THIS SAVES A GREAT DEAL OF POSTAGE AND ALSO ATTRACTS A LOT LESS ATTENTION than these big bulky packages. I realise that you may not always be able to Xerox on thin paper things such as charts‚ copies, etc., but if you can, please do so. As it is, we got more mail than all the other guests in the hotel combined, until one day the manager asked me slyly as he fingered one of our envelopes, "How are you doing on your lectures?"—with a knowing smile! There's not much you can get away with here without everybody knowing it particularly certain officials whom we've nick–named "the dark-eyed brethren" and who seem to comprise about half the population and are always very curious about everything.
5. A GOOD SECURE STABLE GOVERNMENT HAS ITS ADVANTAGES, but they also know everything that's going on, and in some countries writers and journalists are required to register and are subject even to censorship‚ so we do not want to cause any problems or do anything that's not according to Hoyle, as they have been very good to us and lenient with us thus far. So if you could somehow cut down the size of these packages or the number of them in some way if possible it would be duly appreciated, and one sure way you can do it immediately and very economically is to use only very thin airmail or onion skin paper after this. Thanks!
6. WE DON'T EVEN WASTE MUCH PAPER OR SPACE IN OUR MARGINING or paragraphing in order to save space and paper and your costs. So why not try it?—You might even like it! We sure would! Thanks! Now please don't let this discourage you from writing us whatever you need to write, but if you can't cut down the copy‚ why not spread it out more and closer together on thinner paper and save on both paper, postage and conspicuousness? It would really be a great help to us and I think to you also. Amen?
7. I'M GLAD YOU LIKED MY LITTLE "HAND-BEATEN" LETTERS and were able to decipher them, but as you can see our dear Maria is back on the job again and things are moving along much faster and more readable, for which I'm sure you're very thankful.—I certainly am! God bless her! She's growing in grace and knowledge every day, praise the Lord! She's sitting here very enticingly in front of me in a cute little black bikini, very glamorous, attractive, and more voluptuous every day, so that I frequently have to stop and kiss her! Over her typewriter through our huge double door I can look across the house tops with their washes flying like flags in the breeze under a sunny blue sky full of fleecy white clouds: an inspiring view, thank the Lord!
8. BUT OF COURSE, SOME OF YOU ARE LIKE ME‚ AND ONCE YOU GET ROLLING YOU CAN'T STOP until you've done five or six pages, and if it takes you as long to do one page as it does me, some of you must be taking all day to write some of these letters, time which both you and your secretary might need for other things, and it does take us a little time to read them too which we might need to write you more. So please do try to cut them down a little if you can if you want it read right away and answered soon. Otherwise we're prone to put off the long ones till later, which may never come! So a word of warning to the wise should be a sufficient! We do enjoy them and appreciate all the juicy gory details, even if it only helps you to unload your problems and sort them out in your own head.
9. BUT IF YOU WANT AN IMMEDIATE READING AND A QUICKER ANSWER, YOU'D BETTER TRY TO CUT THEM DOWN A LITTLE‚ PLEASE!—Thanks! I don't know that it's really necessary for us to know all these little details of all of your problems or to be burdened with them too much, since most of them can be handled by you and the Lord and are probably already solved before we get the letter. But if it is something which is so very important and of such magnitude that you cannot possibly make a decision on it without knowing our opinion‚ by all means tell us all about it and we'll do our best.—God bless you!
10 NOW PLEASE DON'T GO TO THE OPPOSITE EXTREME and get involved in a huge programme and take a great deal of time and the effort of a lot of important personnel without telling us anything about what's involved or explaining what you're trying to do or doing or how it's coming.
11. IT'S A GOOD THING WE GET REPORTS FROM ALL SIDES on some of these controversial issues. or we really would be in the dark about some things which some of you are afraid to tell us because you didn't ask us about it in the first place! We realise that you are considering some of these projects and experimenting a little with some of them, but for you to go into a complete and important new field without fully explaining it to us and what the procedures and prospects are and without getting our opinion on it would be somewhat of an under-reporting on your part!
12. FOR EXAMPLE, OUR NEW BOOKS OF LETTERS: Having already gotten all of the Letters into print into good readable illustrated and easily reprintable form which we've been working on constantly for the past to years, it seems ridiculous to me to start all over again on a new, totally different‚ longer, more difficult and even more time–consuming reprinting of all the Letters at this late date when the books of them were needed yesterday!
13. I AM ALL FOR THROWING THEM TOGETHER RIGHT NOW in any way we can from the negs or plates we now have in the form and size they're now in illustrated or not, in a few separate books according to classifications which could be easily figured out from the index—and which is the man reason we compiled the index-and do it now, not wait for many more months of future labors in the hopes of future prospects of doing it more easily thereafter! We just haven't got the time or the personnel or even the money to waste on tomorrow when we can do with what we've got today! I want those books slapped together now!
14. THE KIDS ALL OVER THE WORLD ARE CRYING FOR THEM! They can't keep their Letters together or in proper order or easily readable form or even easily transportable form, and they're begging for books in which to keep them, even notebooks which are much more expensive than printing them. Now is the time to do our paperbacks if we have to do them ourselves! If the system can do them easier cheaper and/or better, then let them do them for us, but the time is Now and not tomorrow!—Certainly not many more months of arduous, back breaking, eye–straining, nerve-wrecking, personnel-destroying additional and unnecessarily expensive time‚ labour and duplicated effort on an uncertain process with unknown results! On anything that big, it seems you folks would have explained it to us more fully first before you got in that deep without consultation. Of course I realise that apparently you didn't understand it too well yourself nor what it was going to actually take or how it was going to do or the time it would take until you tested it. But having tested it experimentally on at least one Letter, which shouldn't have been a new one‚ you should have reported to me the results and problems and procedures for my opinion before going any further, lest you go in a totally different direction from that which we think best. I can see how the computer could be of help to us in the future with future projects, as you say, if it will do what you say. But I think it's proving more of a hindrance than a help to us at present and is actually slowing down production of current Letters as well as preventing the reprinting of past ones, and postponed our book production to such a distant date that much of its present urgent necessity will be lost if we take MO Letter staff to work on future computer projects instead of getting the books together with the materials we already have right now.
15. I WANT TO SEE A MOCK-UP COPY of the Letters we now have printed in this one size, even if made by hand from the Letters we now have on hand‚ in the first book of a series on specific subjects. NOW!—And I don't mean tomorrow! Put someone on this project immediately and hold them responsible for it until it's done! If I had the glue and the binder and the know-how with those materials you used before, I could do it myself with the Letters I now have! Why can't you?
16. THIS OF COURSE, MEANS THEY MUST BE SEPARATED AT LEAST INTO TOW GENERAL CLASSIFICATIONS, THE ONE GP AND THE OTHER DFO. Then they should be broken down into several books or more, particularly along the lines of general subjects with their particular use in mind, such as: One book of the more inspirational and deeper Christian life Letters; one of the Letters of the political and economic nature; perhaps one on the more mystical Letters and subjects pertaining to the spirit world and spirit trips; certainly one on sexual subjects‚ marriage and love life; and possibly even one on the more devotional, poetic and poetically prophetic Letters, etc. You might even add to that list a book of children's Letters—and you may even have some better ideas!
17. FROM WHAT I CAN SEE OF THE NEED, I WOULD SAY THAT A BOOK OF DFO LETTERS for our own kids and friends is probably one of the most needed and could be one of the first and would be a good one to experiment on since it's only for us. The I would say that probably one of the most needed and useful for the General Public would be the Political and economic Letters, including those of politically prophetic content and some with strong political implications although strongly religious also. But that would be a fairly large book of about 70 Letters or more‚ according to my estimate and actual count.
18. HOWEVER, SOMETHING LIKE THE SEX AND MARRIAGE BOOK INCLUDING LOVE POETRY, ETC., IS MORE NEEDED by our own kids, would be smaller and easier and cheaper to make up and might even sell faster with the general public at a lower price, and of course be printed sooner at less cost.—Or maybe even the children's book, which would be fairly small. I think that would be my personal opinion land selection as far as priorities are concerned as well as costs and speed.
19. IN FACT, WE MIGHT EVEN TRY THE SEX BOOK FIRST, since that might be much smaller than the DFO book and is much needed by both our kids and the public and should sell well. Perhaps the DFO book could come next as an experiment on a larger volume. We could start taking orders now from our own kids, Colonies and friends to help start financing the cost of printing this first edition if necessary.
20. PROBABLY THE NEXT MOST SALEABLE BOOK WOULD BE THE POLITICAL volume, although it would be fairly large. By this time we should be ready for those on more spiritual subjects such as the devotional, inspirational, mystical, poetical, prophecies‚ etc.—the deeper stuff largely for the spiritually minded such as our own kids, outside kids and hippies, and even deeper-minded Christians and friends. What do you think?
21. BUT WE'LL NEVER GET THIS DONE IF WE WAIT! Get these books out from the printing we've already done!—As I said, I want to see the first experimental mock-up of our first book before the end of this month, and that means somebody's got to start working on it today!—Now!—Thanks! ILY!
22. LET'S START WITH THE SEX BOOK WHADDAYASAY? As I said, this would be one of the easiest‚ cheapest quickest most needed and most saleable. This should include at least the following, but not necessarily in this order‚ as I'm merely reading them off numerically from our published GP list: P, Q, 113‚ 154B, 159, 235, 236, 237, 238, 240‚ 250, 258, 259, 292, 304, etc. Why don't you arrange them in what you think would be the best order and put it together and let me see it, and then I'll tell you what I think about it. How's that? Or would you rather tackle the children's book first? But I think the sex book is already more complete. The kids' book needs more work.
23. AND DEARLY BELOVED, HOW ABOUT SOME OF YOU CONSULTING WITH OTHERS GREATLY CONCERNED and affected before you make any more changes in somebody else's Colony? I think maybe some of you need a Colony or a Region of your own where you can do more as you please without revamping somebody else's Region! You're supposed to be working with each other not against!
24. UNDERMINING CONFIDENCE IN OTHER'S LEADERSHIP BEFORE THEIR OWN FOLLOWERS IS ABSOLUTELY FORBIDDEN in this outfit and almost the unpardonable sin, unless absolutely necessary in the most extreme of emergency situations where the leaders are totally out of line and their followers need to know it, as Paul did to Peter when he got off the beam doctrinally publicly concerning grace and works!
25. YOU SHOULD ALWAYS CONSULT FIRST ON ANY MAJOR CHANGES OF PERSONNEL, RULES‚ PROGRAMMES AND OTHERWISE, and you should even consult Jeth first before making any major decisions in matters of business which could seriously affect other Regions or even the International Work! Please don't ever do that, or we might send you to the front lines, like maybe India where they need a lot of help right now!
26. SOMETIMES WE'VE HAD TO TAKE A VERY INEXPERIENCED LEADER that had really not been with us very long and yielded against our better judgment and let him go to what we consider one of the toughest fields in the whole world! Often he desperately needs help both spiritually‚ financially and organisationally, and he's begging for your help, and maybe you're the one who should help him temporarily instead of blaming him for his mistakes!
27. HOWEVER, SOME STAR TALENT WE NEED FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT WORLD, which we're now breaking into on records, TV, radio‚ and stage, would be somewhat lost in the vastness of some continents and their several hundred millions whose languages they know nothing of, much less their religions and customs! So, perhaps you or one of our International Ambassadors and/or trouble-shooters in the realms of the foreign ministry will have to make a quick trip down to where there are problems to help get them back on their feet!
28. WHEN YOU'RE DOWN IN ALL SPHERES AND BEING BLESSED IN ALMOST NONE, SOMETHING MUST BE WRONG!—It may be the fact that your new leader was not fully prepared and strong enough to pioneer such a tough field. Maybe your original idea was to send him there merely to scout out the land and try to make preparations and prepare a place for better leadership to follow. But perhaps some of his initial successes or his absolute authority there may have gone a little to his head so that he has been refusing to use even the good leadership you have sent him to their full capacities.
29. SO SOMEONE WITH A GREAT DEAL OF AUTHORITY AND OFFICIAL WEIGHT MAY HAVE TO GO DOWN quickly and get them straightened out lovingly, patiently, spiritually, financially and organisationally before it's too late, as they sometimes seem to be in a helluva mess, without even enough money to live on, finance teams or print literature!—Any volunteers? London and Paris need to work together right now especially!
30. MOTHER DEAR, YOU MUST LEARN HOW TO WORK WITH PEOPLE, AS A QUEEN MOTHER of any kingdom should, under the authority of the duly constituted kings and queens or other officers of the area. It is your duty to counsel and advise, suggest and help and work with your queens and kings in any way you can as queen mothers should. But it is not your place to usurp their authority and their thrones and start trying to run things yourself, either without them or against them! So your recent shakeup in Paris may have been needed, but it was not your place to make those changes without consent or consultation.
31. I AGAIN URGE YOU THAT YOU COULD DO A LOT MORE GOOD AND HELP THE WHOLE WORLD A LOT MORE IF YOU'D WRITE MORE of those wonderful and desperately needed Mother Letters on Childcare, Motherhood, Marriage, etc. It's unlikely you'll ever be remembered nor appreciated for your Paris shakeup or even your sex revolution; but the world will love you forever and the Revolution last a lot longer and better if you'd write those letters! Where'd you like to do it? Do we have to banish you to get it done? Or would you like to exile yourself to the Ark awhile down in the boonies of Italy or Timbuktu where you'd be more appreciated and needed? Please pray about it!—And do it! We love you all!—Dad.
MWWFL NO. 11—DFOJuly 30, 1974
Dear Family:
Greetings in Jesus' Precious Name! Well, praise the Lord! This is more or less a continuation of our last Letters‚ but after several pages I figured you'd probably had all you could take for one day, and we certainly had, as Maria was quite tired after five hours of typing. Frankly‚ we both get pretty sick sometimes of some subjects as we feel that whoever's there oughtta either get with it or get out!
33. I PRESUME BY THIS TIME, AFTER THE BLAST I JUST GAVE, THE BOMB THERE HAS EXPLODED one way or the other, we hope, so you guys can get down to business and do God's Work instead of spending most of your time scrapping amongst yourselves and writing us about you scraps—real rubbish!—And all unnecessary, because if you'd done what we told you to do in many Letters months ago and let the officer in charge be the boss‚ very little if any of this would have happened!
34. BUT WHEN YOU WON'T LISTEN AND DO WHAT WE TELL YOU TO DO, THEN I HAVE TO FINALLY LOWER THE BOOM!—And when I finally do, like God and His judgments, it finally comes with lightning speed and tremendous force to scatter the chips where they may and let you pick up the pieces if you can—and we hope you can!
35. WE'RE VERY SORRY THAT WE'VE HAD TO SOCK IT TO YOU SOMETIMES, but some of you deserve it for keeping everything in a state of confusion by your rebelliousness against duly constituted authority!—And again, at the root of the whole trouble, it looks to us here like it's often another case of unauthorised intimate fraternisation with a novice of the rank and file exalting them to instant power and a position of too much authority and influence‚ again ignoring the Scriptural warning, "Not a novice‚ lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the Devil"—1Tim.3:6.
36. LITTLE NEW ONES WE HAVE KNOWN, WHEN SO EXALTED, HAVE SELDOM BEEN ABLE TO WITHSTAND THE TEMPTATION or resist the influence of the Enemy to be used to subvert in a time of weakness. This is why I've warned all of you officers to resist the temptation to fraternise too closely or intimately with the novices and even your own personal staff, "Familiarity breeds contempt" and a lust for power and influence even unwittingly, and I have written you before a Letter of warning on this subject against too much and too intimate "Fraternisation" as you may recall—but which you apparently didn't or you wouldn't have done it. Now may God help you to undo the damage!
37. SOME OF YOU HAVE BECOME SOME OF THE RING LEADERS IN THESE AFFAIRS and in this policy of intimate fraternisation and the encouragement of other to so fraternise, so I'm afraid you bear a large share of the responsibility for their mistakes and failures in this respect, for you're the ones who encouraged them to get together which was sometimes a great mistake and where the trouble all seems to have begun.
38. SO NOW MAYBE YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE TO BE THE ONES WHO WILL HAVE TO TRY TO UNDO SOME OF THESE MESSES and get things back on an even keel before the whole ship capsizes there, if it has not already done so! I certainly don't blame some for leaving and I hope they don't come back until you guys get yourselves straightened out!
39. MEANWHILE, AS I'VE SAID BEFORE, I THINK YOU SHOULD STEW IN YOUR OWN JUICE UNTIL YOU LEARN YOUR LESSON, without the help that was so graciously sent you and so sacrificially given. If you make it, fine!—But if you don't you have only yourselves to blame for your stupidity, disobedience and downright flagrant insubordination and mutiny!
40. GOD IS GOING TO DEAL WITH YOU ALL ON THIS, but just how I don't know. But if you can take this tongue lashing and admit your faults confess your wrong–doings and meekly and humbly apologise and ask for forgiveness, the Lord may give us the grace to forgive you for making such a mess out of things and stirring up so much trouble and causing everyone so much grief until it literally makes me sick as well as a few others! I know some couldn't handle it and others are sick of it and I believe we're about fed up, too! So that makes quite a few of us!
41. YOUR WORK THERE IS MORE OR LESS YOUR BABY, so if you now want to let another novice baby interfere with its growth and progress through nothing but plain simple jealousy, then maybe that's your funeral, although I'd hate to think so!
42. LET'S HOPE THERE'S STILL TIME TO SAVE IT and still space for you guilty ones to repent are it's too late and you've lost your kings and your chance to spread the Word of God to millions of new bottles throughout the world! Let's hope you haven't completely muffed it over this jealousy feud between you! God help us!
43. LONDON IS IMPORTANT AS OUR VITAL NERVE CENTRE AND BRAIN OF THE WHOLE BODY, without which it could die!—Better to lose a leg or an arm, like yours, than the head! so when we volunteer to give you a hand and really have the burden and are willing to make the sacrifice of this very arduous task under extremely difficult conditions and separated from home and loved ones and you promise that you can work together and will work together, then you must let the one we send be the administrator, organiser and the boss, as some of you are more inspirational than practical!
44. BUT I HAVE NEVER SEEN SOME OF YOU WORK WELL TOGETHER be cause there's always been some feeling of jealousy between you, but we agreed to give it a try. But it has not worked, as the jealousy between you still seems to persist which we all deeply regret as it can cause God's Work a great deal of damage which we are not sure can be repaired.
45. YOU MAY BOTH BE TO BLAME TO SOME EXTENT, but from all I've heard some have learned their lessons in the past, and have taken a very good attitude about it all. In fact, I'm amazed at how well they've taken it, especially considering you defiance of their authority! Some are doing so well with your kings and the whole task and it is really producing good fruit and least one or two successes. It's too bad your fellows have to rise up in their God-damned pride and jealousy and defy you even though you may have been wrong in some cases.
46. "THE BOSS MAY NOT ALWAYS BE RIGHT‚ BUT HE STILL HAS TO BE THE BOSS!" Every job of any kind has to have a boss or you have chaos!—And that's exactly what some of you have there right now from all we hear from you: absolute chaos! May God have mercy on you guilty ones for helping bring this about!
47. WE'RE VERY SORRY FOR YOU ALL, BUT WE'RE MOST SORRY FOR GOD'S WORK‚ which is being delayed and perhaps even partly destroyed by your foolishness! But we're sorriest of all for the poor kids who may never get the message because of this fighting and feuding amongst yourselves, for which you will have to answer both here and hereafter!
48. I HOPE I'VE THROWN A LITTLE OF THE FEAR OF GOD INTO YOU and you can just be thankful I'm not here in person or might be tempted to do it with my own hands and apply and rod with the force with which you need it!—All of you!—Except some of whom I think have done your very best to try to handle the situation the best you could, but others of you have made it impossible! So if they never want to work with you again I wouldn't blame them!
49. GOD BLESS AND KEEP YOU AND REWARD SOME OF YOU FOR A JOB WELL DONE the best you could and give you a good rest and build up your health and strength so that you may be a blessing again there or wherever God leads! God bless you and thanks so much for trying!—And I'm sure you did your best!—And you have accomplished a great deal of good there which we hope to reap! We love you!
50. YOU SHOULD HAVE KNOWN THAT SOMETHING WAS WRONG WITH YOU FROM THE WAY YOUR LIT DISTRIBUTION WAS OFF and your new disciples down and your finances in a mess! God was merciful to you in giving you a building and favour with your kings and the public but it seems to have gone to your heads!
51. FEW PEOPLE SEEM TO BE ABLE TO TAKE ANY OF THE "THREE P's" WITHOUT BEING CORRUPTED BY THEM: POWER, PROSPERITY OR POPULARITY! I've seen them corrupt many a great man and woman of God, which brought about their downfall!—Even some of the greatest, sad to say!
52. THIS SEEMS TO BE WHY GOD ALWAYS HAS TO BRING US PERSECUTION, POVERTY AND PAIN‚ THE OTHER THREE P's to humble us and counteract the poisons of the other three! He seldom seems to be able to trust His Children with much of the first three without giving them a lot of the other three along with them to counter balance some of their bad side effects! So maybe that's what you're in for now. since you rejected God's offer of the other through your rebelliousness!
53. MAY GOD HAVE MERCY ON YOU ALL AND TEACH YOU THROUGH ALL OF THIS THE LESSONS YOU NEED TO LEARN, but seem never coming to a knowledge of!—May God help us all and we hope this is amongst the "All Things" which God will work out for good in some way! God bless you for the good you have done and forgive you for the mistakes you have made! And may you somehow make amends and undo at least some of the damage and still accomplish at least part of the great work god has for you there‚ if you still can. I suggest you stop worrying about you and start worrying about others! I still believe in husbands and wives myself, believe in or not! Love, DAD.
MWWNL NO. 12—DFO August 30, 1974
DEAR FAMILY:
Greetings in Jesus' precious Name! Well, here we are again, and I hope I don't have to sock it to you as hard this time as I did in the last one, but that seems to be my job!
55. YOU GUYS BETTER GET THINGS STRAIGHTENED OUT IN PARIS OR THE WHOLE THING'S GONNA GO CRASH, NOT JUST DEB! We can't keep operating a colony of that size that's nothing but a drain! I'm really fed up with those kings and if they don't pay up now when Paris needs it and take a little responsibility for their housing and other needs‚ I suggest the kids go on strike!
56. YOU'RE AN OLD SOFTIE, JETH, AND I THINK THEY'VE PLAYED YOU FOR A SUCKER PAYING THEIR BILLS! What the hell were you doing in Paris going to a movie while Ho and faith had a meeting with the kings? I told you before, if they didn't want to deal with you and start paying up at least the kids' expenses then let's call it quits with them!
57. WE'VE GOTTEN WHAT WE NEEDED MOST OUT OF THOSE KINGS‚ NATIONWIDE PUBLICITY, AND IT'S TIME THE KIDS HIT THE STREETS and the procurers started hitting the contacts to capitalise on it!" Muzzle not the ox that treadeth out the corn!" the Scripture says and if those kings don't take off that muzzle fast, the kids better quit beating their feet to that corny stuff!—And that's that!—Amen? Get with it!
58. I HOPE YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING ABOUT GETTING SO DEEP INTO THAT COMPUTER with keypunch machines and whatnot—Whaddaya gonna do when the lights go out?—And how come that thing can do all that and not even give us a world total on our lit income on page four of those readouts?—As well as world total lit expense as well as the world total averages in the lit distribution break down on Page Five?
59. THANK GOD FOR THE WAY THE LORD'S BEEN BLESSING LONDON FINANCIALLY so that at least your income is keeping neck and neck with your expenses! If London can do that well why the hell can't Paris?—Maybe we need a good business crew there!
60. WE STILL HAVEN'T RECEIVED AN EXPLANATION OF YOUR MAILING LISTS, what each is, who they are, how they got there and what's the difference in their handling, but I'm glad the situation is improving on outside mail. But the charts still don't show the total number of letters being answered each week or how.
61. I THINK SOME OF YOUR OTHER CHARTS, BY THE WAY, COULD BE SIMPLIFIED AND ABBREVIATED and waste less space if you'd combine the weeklies with the monthlies into single charts showing both with a smaller spread. One thing they show me is that you're getting careless on your phone calls: Tell some of those guys to start writing postcards, particularly Paris—the mails are a hell of a lot cheaper!
62. AND JUST REMEMBER THAT SHIPPING OUT THE GRAIN IS ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT JOBS in your whole office, as we're being pennywise and pound foolish if we sow all that seed and harvest all those orders but don't fill 'em!—Get somebody in there to sack that grain if you have to shanghai 'em!—Or sack them
63. THANKS, ELIZABETH‚ FOR YOUR FREQUENT SPECIAL REPORTS. We certainly appreciate your help!—You're one backslider who really made good, but it was sure a hard road working your way back to the top when you could have started there with us at that truck stop!—Think where you might have been now!—Ha! But you're still one of my pets and I love you! Thanks for taking good care of Jeth and his office there. You've gotta lotta spunk and spark yourself, and whoever marries you has got his hands full!—But I like you that way!—I'm a fighter too!—God bless you! Tks for the nudie cutie!
64. JOEL'S TOO DEEP FOR ME, so if I can't understand him, I don't see how anybody else can, so I wouldn't worry too much about his complicated missives—it's like trying to decipher coded messages! I still believe in their love for the Revolution despite differences of opinion but I think he's happier operating independently on his own. He always was a contrary rascal, but "My family, my family!"
65. THANKS TO JERED FOR HIS EXPLANATION OF THOSE WORLD POPULATION STATISTICS computer readouts—I savvy! Did your accountants get you straightened out, Jeth? I like Ho's idea of compiling a history of our pioneering of each country, but I don't how he has time to do it. It would take a full-time researcher and writer, but it could sure be a best-seller with the kids, especially if illustrated with a lot of our old photos and some funny cartoons!
66. ZADOK‚ AS I REMEMBER FROM AS FAR BACK AS TSC, that girl never did have too much burden for office work but at least she's been willing to continue to do it—But maybe she would be happier elsewhere, although she's been a lot of elsewhere's!—Why's Cedar going to Hawaii? Love you all! I think Josh would like to help on that history too with Ho: He was there and it's in his education department!
67. MAYBE I'M A LITTLE COLOURBLIND, but when you London provisioners use two greens on the same graph I can't tell 'em apart!—And London, when one of your shiners is only getting out 200 copies of lit a week how bad can the shamers be? I like your idea, Shushan‚ of collecting Poorboy Club News and info from around the world. Maybe we could condense it into a monthly Poorboy Mag? Also your idea of compiling a worldwide shiners list is great and I think the World Top Ten or 40 oughta be published every week in the NNN!—And let me see those world distribution maps and graphs!
68. ZADOK, IT'S NICE OF YOU TO LET US KNOW WE HAVE MANY TYPISTS in our office but I'd like to know how many on that statistical report under "personnel": If you can't name 'em at least number 'em—And how come 2/3 of the Southern U.S. reports are delinquent whereas only one out of 40 South American reports was delinquent?—And I'd like to know that if out of 750 pieces of mail read, only 50 were answered and 100 unanswered‚ whatever happened to the other 600?
69. JUSTUS WHY CAN'T PARIS TYPE MARY MAG'S ENGLISH TRANSLATION instead of our overloaded office? We still haven't heard much about that book—can you give us a rundown of the contents? Sal we returned the cover of "Builders Beware!" What happened?—And we told everybody to cancel that "Anti-God War" thing after the first publication! That was strictly a dated one-time thing and I don't know what the hell they're still publishing it for! For God's sake take it off of "Ask Any Communist"
70. I DON'T THINK THE PHOTOS OF THE KIDS WHO WROTE THE POEMS in the kids' poem book would mean a thing to most people except the kids themselves who want to see their pictures in the paper. I think a little cartoon here and there to get across the message of the poems would be far more effective and saleable. It should also include all good poetry sent in that has a message, whether from kids, parents, or associates or whoever—Maybe we could use both?—But, as you say, it would take a lotta time to collect all those photos!
71. HOW COME SO MANY KIDS ARE EXCUSED FROM WITNESSING in London and why are there so many who can't make their quota?—They look like a fourth of your staff!—And who makes out that list and its chart on distribution?
72. IT'S AMAZING HOW MANY REPORTS WE GET WHICH STILL DO NOT BEAR THE NAME OF THE AUTHOR AND ARE UNSIGNED! Does that "Letter to a Loved One" still bear my name?—I told someone a long time ago to change that!—Why not sign it "From a New Disciple"—because that's who wrote it!
73. I NOTICE THE ENGLISH REGION CONTRIBUTES ALMOST AS MUCH TO THE SUPPORT OF THE INTERNATIONAL OFFICE AS ALL THE REST OF THE WORLD COMBINED!—We need to get that WWF Letter out jacking them up on this lack! Justus, at the top of your report I wish you'd please put you production and shipping statistics in two separate columns instead of spread across the page—to avoid confusion—Thanks! I'd also like to know what the tape department tapes: We never get a list of their productions‚ titles or who they go to, much less copies even for ourselves!
74. HOPE YOU GOT YOUR DEPARTMENTS TOGETHER NOW, and glad you got your new press and trust you're catching up on orders. Glad you girls are so inspired!—I'd love to inspire you myself‚ and I hope I do! But Jeth‚ your circulation in London is pretty low compared to some places in the world: We hope you're not sacrificing litnessing for too much show-biz. We like the bold headlines and type face on the new computerised Letters. Hope you're getting someone in that mail answering department with a real burden for souls!
75. JUS, I THINK PHOEBE'S IDEA AND BURDEN AT OOTA TO TRANSCRIBE GRANDMA'S TAPES for publication might be really good for everybody and a popular item with our friends as well—what do you think? Josh, Samson and Apollos your idea of a topical condensed MO Quote book on different subjects sounds great!—How about sample?—They could act as your condensed classes like the one on Salvation. Thanks for your good letter and reports Ho: Good to hear from you again!
76. LET'S ALL REMEMBER TO PRAY FOR OUR FRIEND DOWN SOUTH, and we trust your journey there will be profitable. God bless you, Becky and Arthur, for your good letters and faithfulness in His service!—the yokes are beautiful, but I'd still like to see some message stamped on them if possible. I just wish you'd stop using red ink, Kids!—I guess you didn't get the word that it makes it hard for me to mark your letters for answering.
77. THE MO TITLES CHOSEN FOR YOUR BASIC CLASS BOOK SOUND GOOD, Josh. However let's be a little cautious and go slow about indoctrinating these new babes with the sex revolution! Congratulations on your new little Maria, Esther!—Thank God for such a beautiful family! What happened to the Algerian trip? So glad you're better, Deb—Stay away from Paris if you want to stay that way! Glad you're still a hit, Faith!—Love, DAD.
78. P.S. WELL, I GUESS THESE SHOW YOU I'M INTERESTED IN EVERY LITTLE THING AND EVERYBODY THAT'S GOING ON if nothing else!—And I hope everybody is going on! Hallelujah! It's still a Revolution and we're still changing everyday so keep on movin' for the Lord!—Amen?—PTL! God bless every one of you!—I love you all!—Even you naughty ones!
79. SORRY I HAVE TO SPANK YOU SOMETIMES, BUT THAT'S PART OF A FATHER'S JOB!—Hope it helps! Just cry a little, be sorry and try again! If you fall‚ don't just lie there!—Do something!—Get up and try again! You may do better next time!
80. WHATEVER YOU DO, JUST KEEP ON GOING FOR GOD!—Amen?—You're bound to make it sometimes if you try often enough!—PTL?—God bless you! I really do love and pray for you!—I tried all my life but didn't start making it till I was 50!—Why not you?
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family