A Look at 1999!

By Peter A. CM 3291 1/2000

Dear Family,

1. We love you and pray that you're enjoying the start of a very happy New Year! We trust you had a wonderful Feast period and were greatly encouraged by all the wonderful things the Lord said we have ahead of us. In an upcoming GN‚ we'll be sharing with you what the Lord has shown us about the new "era of action" that we've now entered. But before finding out where we're headed, we want to talk about where we've been and what we've accomplished!

2. 1999 was another phenomenal year with great accomplishments by the Family! The victories won, the goals reached, and the progress made are simply the sum of all that each of you did throughout the past year. We could never report on all that happened—every tool distributed, soul saved, person counseled, CTP activity, letter written and song sung, witnessing activity, road trip‚ child taught, prayers prayed, and more—all of which has changed lives and brought victories. Only when we get to Heaven will we be able to fully grasp the tremendous effects of our collective actions.

3. In this Letter, though, we can touch on some of the exciting highlights! As you read these accomplishments and marvel at all the Lord is doing, remember that it's only an iota of all that we as a Family have accomplished this past year. God bless you for a job well done!

4. Since this is not just the end of the year, but the end of the century and the end of a millennium, we'll share some cumulative stats from our 31-year history, which should encourage you as to the effectiveness of your witness. Special thanks to all who helped to make this GN possible by sending in your stats and reports. (Unless otherwise indicated, the stats in this GN cover the period beginning December 1998 through November 1999.)

Effects of "Shakeup 2000!"

(Note: These stats range from September to December 1999.)

5. The most major milestone this year has been the Lord's call to commitment, put forth in the "Shakeup 2000" GNs. This has caused no small stir in the Family, and we're only beginning to see the changes that it's bringing about. We've received numerous letters from Family members expressing their thanks and gratitude to the Lord for this move of the spirit. We know that as each Family member searches his or her heart and strives to wholeheartedly fulfill the requirements of their chosen discipleship level, the Family will improve. The Lord will give us greater anointing to win the world for Him, and will bless us by meeting our every need because we're doing the job.

6. I'm sure everyone is wondering what the results of the October contract signing have been, and how it has changed the makeup of the Family. Many of you probably know someone who chose to not sign the CM contract and either go FM or leave the Family. Though we don't have completely accurate stats to report on status changes (that will come with the new TeleTRF! Keep it in your prayers!), here are the stats that we have so far.

7. Though it's too early to gauge the long-range population results of S2K, it has begun to show its effects on the stats as people are mak­­ing decisions about their service for the Lord. Most have chosen to remain Charter Members, though some have chosen to become ­Fellow Members or leave the Family altogether. Since September, when the S2K GNs first came out, the CM population has gone down by 439 members, or about 4.3%. While CM population has decreased during the three months since the S2K Letters, FM population increased by 143 over that same three-month period, a 5% ­increase.

8. The areas that saw the greatest drop in CM population and shift to FM were EURCRO (not including Africa), which accounted for 50% of the decrease, and NACRO‚ which accounted for 45%. SACRO accounted for the other 5%, while ASCRO and PACRO remained within 1% of their pre-S2K population.

9. The total number of Family Homes has also been affected by S2K. Since the Charter, CM Homes had been on a steady rise, peaking at 869 Homes (the most since January 1985) in September‚ but dropped to 827 in December 1999—a 4.8% decrease (42 Homes) over three months. This is quite notable for a stat that has on the average increased by 1% to 2% each month since March 1995. FM Homes‚ on the other hand, have increased during that same period, by 8 Homes. In conclusion, it seems that about 296 people or 34 Homes, decided to leave the Family, while 143 people and 8 Homes decided to move to Fellow Member status.

10. Of course‚ the effects of S2K are not finished. The Shakeup had quite an impact on the Family, causing each of us to re-evaluate our commitment to the Lord, and that's not just a one-time thing. It's a continuing process‚ as we ask ourselves each day, "Am I doing my best for Jesus?" In the months to come, even some who signed the CM contract with the good intention of doing their best, following the Charter, and being the kind of disciples they need to be‚ may decide they can't do it; they can't make the necessary changes and sacrifices. When it comes to actually putting feet to their good intentions, some of these people may find it difficult to live the CM contract and may either decide on their own, or with their Home Council, CRO or VS, that at their level of discipleship they are better suited for FM membership.

11. In any case‚ the results of S2K so far are that an estimated 296 people (about 2.9% of the pre-S2K CM Family), who did not want to be in the Family at all, made the decision to leave; 143 others (1.4% of the pre-S2K CM Family) decided that Fellow Membership status was the best place for them right now.

12. While some might look at this as a loss, for the Family as a whole it is a victory. Those choosing to become FM will no longer be struggling to live the CM standard, and will be more content living as Fellow Members. Those who chose to leave the Family altogether have moved on to other things, taking with them any problems they had generated within the Homes. This is a victory for us all, as trying to live the Charter‚ give your full time to the Lord, and dedicate yourself to a high degree of discipleship is difficult enough without having to contend with ­others who are not pulling wholeheartedly in the same direction.

13. We're headed to new heights, we're moving in new directions‚ and those who are moving with us must be sold out to the Lord and His service. We need those who are 110% disciples, those who have the vision to forge ahead, to win the world at any cost, a Gideon's band of those who have faith for the impossible—and we trust that you're one of those! God bless you!

Family Stats Analysis for 1999

n Population Stats

14. 1999 has been a year of change for both the CM and FM population. CM population since the Charter had been rising each year. It grew from 8,646 to 10‚167 from 1994 through 1998, a 17.6% increase. This increase was due to new disciples won, babies born‚ and Fellow Members becoming Charter Members. But 1999 saw a drop, mostly caused by S2K.

15. On the other hand, FM population was on the decline in the years following the Charter. This was in part due to some members leaving the Family completely, but the majority of this loss was a shift from Fellow membership to Charter membership. This year has seen its first increase, again because of S2K.

•Combined CM/FM Family in Nov. '99 was 12,940, which is basically unchanged from Nov. '98's 12,943.

•CM population is at 9,918, down 249 (2.4%) from 10,167 in 1998.

•FM population is at 3‚022, up 246 (8.9%) from 2,776 in 1998.

•Our CM/FM population is made up of 77% CM and 23% FM, compared to last year when it was 79% CM and 21% FM.

(Please note that these stats cover all of 1999, whereas the previous stats on the effects of the Shakeup cover only the last 3 months of 1999.)

n Makeup of Family Population

16. The makeup of our CM/FM population is: 6‚456 adults (16 and up) and 6,484 children. The adult population in the Family has been steadily rising in proportion to the child population since the early 1990s and is now at 50%, whereas in 1991 CM/FM adults only made up 38% of our total Family population. This is probably due to the decline in our birth rate in the '90s and the fact that many of the children born into the Family at the height of our "baby boom" are now over the age of 16.

17. There are 4,854 males and 5,064 females in the CM Family. Of the adults (16 and over) in the CM Family, there are 2,492 people who are mated and 2,437 who are single. Of the CM single adults, 1,069 are men and 1,368 are women—300 more women than men. We need more men for you dear women! Let's pray them in—or win them!

n Homes

18. In September of 1999‚ CM Family Homes were at their highest in 15 years at 869. By the end of the year the numbers had declined, but there are still 831 CM Homes compared to 808 in 1998. That's up 23 Homes, or an average of two new CM Homes opened each month this year. This means that since the Charter in March of 1995, when we had 308 CM Homes, 523 new CM Homes have opened—a 170% increase! That averages out to about 10 new CM Homes opened each month from March 1995 to November 1999.

19. The average CM Home size is 11.9, down from 12.6 in 1998 and 29.5 in March of 1995! So, while the number of CM Homes has nearly tripled since the Charter, our CM Home size has gone down to one-third of its pre–Charter size.

20. We now have 570 FM Homes, 42 more than last year's 528. That's an 8% jump in FM Homes. The current average FM Home size is 5.3, the same as 1998.

21. Combined, there are 1,401 CM/FM Homes. That's the highest since the post-RNR years of 1979-1983! Today CM Homes make up 59% of the combined total, whereas before the Charter, because of their larger size‚ CM Homes only accounted for 35% of all Family Homes.

n New Disciples

22. The Family won a total of 257 new disciples in 1999 (this does not include babies born). Of those 257 new disciples, 174 (68%) joined the CM Family and 83 (32%) joined the FM Family. New disciples won this year is at its lowest since the Charter began and is down 121 from last year's 378 new CM/FM disciples. It is 16% lower than the '90s average (307 each year), 72% lower than our 31-year average (926 yearly) and is the 5th lowest in our Family's history. Folks, this is a very sad stat, and one we need to change! We're supposed to be making disciples of all nations. Why aren't we? What's stopping us?

23. The Family has won a total of at least 28,700 disciples since its inception in 1968! That is an average of 926 a year, 77 a month, or nearly three a day over our 31-year history! The biggest disciple-winning boom came in the '70s when we won on average 1,880 disciples a year, or over five a day! In the '80s the average was 832 a year, and in the '90s it was an average of 307 a year. There's been a steady decline over the years, and this is a trend that needs to be changed. This is an issue which the Lord is concerned about, and we'll be telling you what the Lord wants us to do about it in an upcoming GN, so stay tuned!

n Other Members

24. With the advent of the Activated ministry, our other membership (those who are not Charter or Fellow Members) has the potential to increase dramatically. Our present overall outside membership stands at 33‚379. That's up 13.3% from 1998's 29‚455. As we all get more behind the Activated! program‚ this number is bound to grow—and it needs to! It's imperative that we build a broader base of membership so we can do the job the Lord has called us to do. We'll be talking more about this in an upcoming GN as well. Here's a table of our folds:

1998	1999	Difference
Live-outs	714	778	+9.0%
Catacombers	275	312	+13.5%
DF Members	6933	8021	+15.7%
Outside Witnessers	910	1090	+19.8%
Active Supporters	9774	10856	+11.1%
Mail Members	10798	12285	+13.8%
GP Members	51	37	-27.5%
TOTAL	29,455	33,379	+13.3%

25. This is the highest outside membership we've ever had, with the exception of 1983 when we had a high number of MWM Radio Members.

n Births

26. There were 272 CM/FM births in 1999, down 21 from 1998's 293. That's an average of 23 births a month (21 CM and 2 FM). This is the lowest number of births in the Family since 1975. With many of our adult members in the over-40 bracket (37%)‚ our birth rate is bound to slow down a bit, but with more young couples getting together, our birth rate should continue at a healthy rate.

27. Total Family births to date comes to 13,093—that's an average of 422 births a year, 35.2 a month, or 1.17 a day for our Family's 31-year history! Our peak year was 1983, when many Family members were living in the tropics (not surprising‚ especially with so little clothing needed in such hot weather)! At that time we had 746 babies, or more than two born a day!

n Betrothals

28. We had 56 betrothals as compared to 48 last year, so our betrothals have gone back up from 1998's low. All betrothals this year were between Charter Members. To date we have had 2,410 betrothals reported, or an average of 78 a year—over one a week since the Family began.

n Nationalities

29. Currently the Family is made up of 91 nationalities, unchanged from last year at this time. That means that we've got nationals from half of all the nations and principalities of the world!

n Pioneering

30. Pioneering in the Family never stops, and we pioneered or repioneered works in 14 countries in 1999, while having to pull out of one! We went from 89 countries with Family Homes in 1998 to 102 countries with CM/FM Homes in 1999—an increase of 13! At the beginning of this decade we had Homes in only 46 countries, so in the last 10 years the Family has pioneered or repioneered 56 new countries, a 122% increase!

Countries pioneered/repioneered in 1999

Equatorial Guinea1 CM Home

Fiji Islands1 FM Home

Guinea1 CM Home

Honduras1 CM Home

Kampuchea1 CM Home

Liberia1 CM Home

Malawi1 CM Home

Mozambique1 CM Home

Senegal1 CM Home

Swaziland1 CM Home

Tanzania2 CM Homes

Uganda1 CM Home

Yugoslavia1 CM Home

Zambia1 CM Home

Estonia (left)Minus 1 CM Home

Countries pioneered/repioneered 14

Countries pulled out of1

Increase over 199813

31. Of these 14 new countries‚ it's inspiring to note that 10 were in Africa! The Family certainly is heeding the call to reach Africa!

n Where We Are

32. 63% of our CM Homes are in third world mission fields, which is up from 1998's 60%, 1997's 57% and has more than doubled 1995's 30%.

33. While 63% of our CM Family Homes are in the third world, it's interesting to note that 63% of our FM Family is in the first world‚ living in the Western nations (including Japan). When looking at our combined CM/FM population we see that 52% of our CM/FM Homes are on third world mission fields. The rest are in the U.S. and Canada, Western Europe, ­Australia and New Zealand‚ and Japan.

Breaking it down by area, here's a chart of our current Home distribution throughout the world:

CM Homes	FM Homes	Total Homes	% of CM	% of Total
South America	170	100	270	20.46%	19.27%
USA and Canada	124	158	282	14.92%	20.13%
Western Europe	104	155	259	12.52%	18.49%
Eastern Europe	93	22	115	11.19%	8.21%
Australia, NZ, Japan	77	48	125	9.27%	8.92%
Pacific (minus Japan)	66	17	83	7.94%	5.92%
Mexico & Central America	55	44	99	6.62%	7.07%
Indian Subcontinent	49	8	57	5.90%	4.07%
Africa	48	3	51	5.78%	3.64%
Mideast	10	1	11	1.20%	0.79%
S.E. Asia	35	14	49	4.21%	3.50%
TOTAL	831	570	1401	100%	100%

Here's our population distribution by area:

CM Pop	FM Pop	Total Pop	% of CM	% of Total
South America	2,132	594	2,726	21.50%	21.07%
USA and Canada	1,348	851	2‚199	13.59%	16.99%
Western Europe	989	783	1‚772	9.97%	13.69%
Eastern Europe	911	69	980	9.19%	7.57%
Aus, NZ, Japan	1,134	218	1,352	11.43%	10.45%
Pacific (minus Japan)	670	110	780	6.76%	6.03%
Mexico & Central America	746	281	1,027	7.52%	7.94%
Indian Subcontinent	723	38	761	7.29%	5.88%
Africa	541	9	550	5.45%	4.25%
Mideast	140	9	149	1.41%	1.15%
S.E. Asia	584	60	644	5.89%	4.98%
TOTAL	9918	3022	12940	100%	100%

Witnessing Stats
Analysis for 1999

n Souls Won

34. In 1999 we won a total of 1‚196,147 souls, which is a 6% decrease from 1998's 1,270,830. This is still a monthly average of almost 100,000 souls, well above our 31-year average of 63,000 souls a month. 1999 was the 9th highest in our 31 years of soul winning! Thank You Jesus! There are still many getting saved! Lord help us to continue doing our best to win as many as we can into the Kingdom.

35. Many of those souls were won in Mexico (27%), India (14%)‚ and Brazil (10%), with those three countries accounting for 51% of 1999's total souls won, while only having 24% of the CM/FM Family population!

36. Of the 317,000 souls won in Mexico in 1999, 183,000 of those were won by the FM Family! 7% of our CM/FM Family lives in Mexico and less than one–third of those are FM. Yet the Mexican FM Family won more souls than the CM Family in Mexico, and accounted for 55% of the 1999 world total of souls won by the FM Family! India also has only 6% of our CM/FM population, and yet they accounted for 14% of the total souls won for 1999. That's terrific for soul winning in a non-Christian country!

37. On the low end of the spectrum is Western Europe, which has 14% of the CM/FM Family but only accounted for 4% of the Family's total soul winning efforts for 1999. With the CM/FM Family in half of the countries of Western Europe and only managing an average of five souls per adult for the entire year of 1999, it's not hard to see that Western Europe is definitely a hard witnessing field. If you there aren't winning more than one soul every two months, you need to pray and ask the Lord to either make you a much better witness or help you get to a more receptive field!

38. To date over our 31-year history, the Family has won a grand total of over 23.3 million souls. That's an average of about 753,000 a year, 63,000 a month, 2,100 a day, 87 an hour, or 1.45 for every minute over the last 31 years! Comparatively speaking‚ that 23.3 million is more than the population of all five Scandinavian nations combined—Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland. The Family has certainly lived up to its calling in soul winning!

n Distribution

39. Tool distribution didn't change much this past year‚ although it dropped in some categories of tools distributed. We distributed 16.7 million Family tools this past year, broken down as follows:

4.5 million posters.—A 1.3 million drop from 1998's 5.8 million. This drop is mainly due to Russia tightening up considerably in 1999, meaning that poster distribution could not be done there en masse as it used to.

416,000 tapes (up from 1998's 414‚000)

116,614 videos (compared to 122,000 last year)

11.8 million pieces of other lit—tracts, Living Waters, books, etc. (equal to 1998's 11.8 million)

40. Overall, tool distribution dropped 8% from 1998, mainly due to fewer posters out, down from 1998's 18 million tools distributed.

n Witness

41. The Family personally witnessed 7.2 million times in 1999, down from 1998's 7.7 million. 7.2 million personal witnesses means that each CM/FM adult witnessed 1,115 times for the year, averaging three times each day of 1999. The ratio of souls won (1,196,147) to personal witness (7,167,420) comes out to 16.7%, which means an average one out of every six people personally witnessed to got led to the Lord. The Family sure knows how to witness and win!

42. Mass witness for 1999 was nearly two billion, which is double 1998's one billion. The world is still talking about us on radio and TV and writing about us in newspapers and magazines. In the past, we've had high mass witness stats‚ which were often due to negative publicity. This past year we've had very little negative press, but rather a major increase of positive articles and shows about the wonderful work we're doing. We make news!—Especially on the mission field where our work is well received, appreciated, and broadcast far and wide by the news media and many governments.

n To–date Stats

43. As we end the 20th century and look back at what the Lord has accomplished through the Family in our 31-year history, we see the following: The Family has now won 23.3 million souls, personally witnessed about 237 million times, distributed 850 million pieces of lit, 110 million posters, 8 million tapes and CDs‚ 1.4 million videos, and 2.1 million Daily Foods and Living Waters! Altogether, counting all the tools and lit the Family has distributed, it comes to nearly one billion! That is an incredible amount! Praise the Lord! And we're talking about pieces distributed here, not pages.

44. Below you'll see a table of the to-date totals and averages for each of the last three decades.

Totals & Averages 1968-1999	To-date totals	Avg. per year	Avg. per month	Avg. per day	1970's yearly avg.	1980's yearly avg.	1990's yearly avg.
Souls Won	23,327,700	753,000	62‚700	2,060	371,500	1,031,100	967,300
New Disciples Won	28,700	926	77	3	1,879	832	307
Pieces of Lit Distributed*	849,715,000	27‚410,000	2,284,200	75,000	46,620,000	32,050‚000	15,620‚000
Personal Witness	237,152,000	7,650,000	638,000	21,300	8,230,000	9,230,000	7‚100,000
Total Witness	69,439,068,000	2,240,000,000	186,700,000	6,000,000	2,494,000,000	3,180,000,000	1,519,000,000
Posters Distributed (since '85)	109‚994,000	7,300‚000	608,300	20,280	NA	5,400‚000	8,300,000
Tapes Distributed (since '85)	8,046,600	519,100	43,300	1,440	NA	872,000	369,000
Videos Distributed (since '89)	1‚438,600	130‚800	10,900	360	NA	NA	137,000
DFs Distributed (since '89)	2,098,100	190,700	15,900	530	NA	NA	190,700

*From 1971 to 1984, Lit Distributed included lit printed in newspapers.

45. What a way to end the 20th century! We got out quite a witness in the last century, and it's going to be absolutely tremendous to see what the Lord has in store for us this century! You can certainly see why the Lord said in "A New Era of Greater Works," that "this new century is not going to be a day of crowning glory for the world, but this new century is herald­ing your day—the day that you will shine!" (ML #3267:27). Praise the Lord!

Activated Progress and Status

46. As explained in previous GNs, the Lord has impressed upon us the importance of following up on the millions of souls that we in the Family have won and continue to win regularly. It has been apparent that we've needed to upgrade our follow-up efforts‚ and consequently the Lord led us to create the Activated program. After a great deal of prayer and prophecy, and the effort of WS and other Family members around the world‚ 1999 saw the launching of the Activated program and establishment of five Activated desks! PTL! The five desks are companies or nonprofit foundations made up of Family members who have volunteered to handle the subscriptions, mailings, orders, and the myriad of business details that this ministry entails. It's a big job and they need all the prayer power you can give them.

47. In its inception and fledgling stage, we knew it would be a costly venture‚ and weren't exactly sure we'd have enough finances to follow through with it. However, the Lord told us clearly that we were to go ahead and that He would supply the funds. And, of course, He came through! The funds came in miraculously through unexpected sources, which enabled us to get this exciting new program off the ground.

48. In order to make the Activated program really work, we're going to need your help! You out there on the front lines witnessing and winning the world for Jesus are the only ones that can make it happen now! We're happy to see that subscriptions to Activated are starting to come in; some people have even offered their entire mailing list of sheep the opportunity to subscribe. However, as you'll see from the following statistics, we are only at the infant stages of what the Lord has said the Activated program will become. We're just beginning, and the Lord needs you to make it grow!

Subscriptions received to date by area

India183

Brazil167

US167

Europe and Africa145

Mexico and South America111

Addresses received for the three free mags

Brazil1,415

US604

Mexico and South America180

India138

Europe and Africa73

49. The Activated magazines, books and booklets are ideal tools for feeding those who have recently come to know the Lord. They are designed to feed and strengthen new converts, as well as other hungry Christians. They are tremendous outreach and follow-up tools to feed your sheep.

50. Now that the framework for the Activated program is in place, all that is needed is for you, our faithful witnessers, to generate subscriptions to the magazine, and/or send in the addresses of those you lead to the Lord so they can receive three free mailings and have the opportunity to subscribe.

51. Some folks have reported that they haven't sent in addresses or collected subscriptions because they don't have the time to "go out selling subscriptions." Selling subscriptions is not meant to be a new form of outreach that takes the place of other forms of outreach. Getting out the Activated magazine and collecting addresses and subscriptions is something that you can do no matter what other kind of witnessing you're doing! Every time you sell a video or a tape, show someone the Activated magazine and offer them the opportunity to subscribe. Every time you lead someone to the Lord, ask if they'd like to receive three free issues‚ or sign them up for a subscription right then.

52. Don't wait until you have time to go out and collect addresses or sell subscriptions; instead make it a part of all the other witnessing you do‚ whether personal witnessing, DTD, STS, tapenessing‚ etc. In fact, you can even make it one of your mainstays of tool distribution by purchasing copies of the Activated magazine and distributing them for donations just as you do with the posters, tapes, and videos.

53. Folks, we must feed the sheep! Not just once through a tool or a personal witness, but again and again through regular feeding. That's what Activated is all about—feeding the ­hungry, helping the newly saved grow in the Lord, bringing people along to membership and discipleship. It's our duty to our wonderful Husband‚ who said, "Lovest thou Me? Feed My sheep" (John 21:16).

54. On average, every Family adult personally wit­nessed to three people each day during 1999. How many of those did you offer a magazine subscription to? You need to offer them to every one! We must feed the sheep, nurture the newly saved and teach our converts until they're strong enough to become one of us! Don't fail in this! It's the future of the Family! It's where the Lord has called us, the Family, to go—and we're going! If you don't want to miss the boat, jump on board the follow–up revolution!

55. We desperately need your help to fulfill Jesus' commandment: "Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you" (Matthew 28:20). The Lord has commanded, and has promised to abundantly provide and be with us every step of the way in this new witnessing adventure, so ask Him for the faith to grab hold of this new vision, and let's move forward into the light of a brighter day all together!

New GP Books and Tools

56. To launch the Activated program, this year WS printed the greatest number of new GP books and booklet titles it has ever published in any year. These powerful GP tools are available for you to order for your personal follow-up and witnessing ministries via your Activated desk (or in some cases, your SC). We in WS are doing our best to provide you with new feeding material for the GP‚ but in order for them to make a difference, you have to order them and get them out, both through regular outreach, follow-up, and getting people to subscribe to Activated.

57. Here's a listing of all the new books/tools that were printed in 1999:

Activated magazines

•Activated issues #1-12

Adult devotional books

•"Discovering Truth—Bible Basics" (hardback)

•"Discovering Truth—Keys to Happier Living" (hardback)

•"Dare to Be Different"

•"From Jesus With Love"

•"My King and I"

•"Key Bible Verses"

•"Mottos for Success" (desktop calendar/quote book)

Children's books

•"Christmas to Remember" (hardback)

•"Farmyard Heroes" (hardback)

•"Trudge and Zippy" (hardback)

•"Tug of War" (hardback)

•"Feed My Lambs" booklets 1–7 (color version)

•"Praisin' U" booklets 1-3 (color version)

Get Activated series

•"Hearing from Heaven"

•"Obstacles Are for Overcoming"

•"Prayer Power"

•"Understanding God's Word"

Heaven's Library novels (for the GP)

(Some of these were originally printed for the Family, but then reprinted for the GP.)

•"Abraham—Two Tests and a Wish"

•"Amaris"

•"Amaris II"

•"Apocalyne"

•"In Armageddon's Wake"

•"The Saga of Cormac"

•"The Mountain Calls"

•"The Perfect Ones"

The Keys to Parenting series

•"Parenteening"

Preview of GP Books for 2000

58. Besides the GP material that has already been published, there are a number of other books and booklets scheduled for printing during the first half of 2000. Please pray for the production of GP materials, as they require considerable time, prayer, research and ­financing.

The Keys to Parenting series

(The first book in this series was "Parenteening," printed in 1999. These are short booklets, similar in format to the Get Activated series, on the topic of childcare. They're full of practical tips and activities, fundamental spiritual principles on raising children in a Godly manner and helping them to establish a relationship with God, pointers on discipline, and much more. Since so many of those that we witness and minister to have children, these will be a great blessing in your outreach and follow-up!)

•"Keys to Babies"

•"Keys to Toddlers and Preschoolers"

•"Keys to Kids"

•"Parenting Keys"

Get Activated series

•"God's Gifts" (salvation‚ Holy Spirit, gifts of the Spirit)

•"Faces of Love" (practical ways of showing love)

•"Reaching Out" (witnessing)

•"Secrets to a Happy Marriage"

The Jesus and Me series (a hardback color version of "Jesus for Tots" that went out to the Family):

•Book 1: "Best Friends"

(Books 2 and 3 are yet untitled)

Stories to Grow By series (hardback story­books for small children, similar to "Trudge and Zippy" and others that were printed in 1999):

•"Greedy and Needy"

•"The Little Clown with a Big Heart" (­working title)

•"Good Morning, Grandpa Grumpy"

Adult devotional books

•"God on God" (a unique, exciting and fast-paced "interview with God" on a myriad of topics, ranging from the workings of the spirit world, to what God looks like, angels, abortion, success in life, the Endtime, astrology, and much more! Unlike any GP book we've put out before!)

•"Heaven's Secrets" (300-page book, compilation of prophecies covering numerous aspects of life in Heaven. See Grapevine #70 for more details.)

•"Online With God" (Mountain Streams collection)

•Another "Mountain Streams" collection book (still untitled)

•GP "Daily Might" (reprinted‚ illustrations re­worked, and text edited)

59. When added to the 26 GP books and booklets published in 1999, these 19 new ones will give you 45 new GP/follow–up tools to use to do the job of feeding the sheep. We're doing our part to make the follow-up and feeding of the sheep possible. Will you do yours by using them?

60. Most of these books are not just follow-up tools for those you're already ministering to; they're also designed as outreach tools that you can sell by the thousands and get the mess­age out while raising support for your Home. If you haven't tried them already, please do!

New GNs!

61. While working fast and furiously to produce GP material for outreach and follow-up, our WS pubs teams kept up the pace in preparing feeding pubs for the Family as well. 58 GNs were published this year‚ totaling 952 pages. This gave us slightly more than one GN a week to read, ranging from four pages to 48 pages, with an average length of about 16 pages.

62. Most Family members would probably rate the two "Shakeup" GNs as the ones which had the biggest effect on them, but there were 13 other GNs which issued a challenge to change and grow in our spiritual lives and service for the Lord, including "Citizens of the Kingdom," "Worldly?—Or Free," "The Remaking of a Man" and ten Letters from the new "Keys to Victory" series that will be continuing this year.

63. Witnessing was also a major theme this year, and eight GNs covered the need for witnessing and follow-up, focusing on various mission fields as well: Four on Africa, one on China, one on "Witnessing and Follow-up Pitfalls," the Lord's beautiful "Christmas Heartcry," and the very important Activated! GN. Please keep taking out those address cards so the sheep can be followed up on and fed!

64. There were six Feast GNs, containing many inspiring messages and promises from the Lord about the new era of greater works we've entered.

65. We also published five GNs on prophecy, including the "Ask Me Everything" series and the "Understanding Prophecy" GNs.

66. Five "World Currents" covered subjects such as Dr. Jack Kevorkian‚ the U.S. bombing of Baghdad, King Hussein's Homegoing, the war in Kosovo, and the Columbine High School massacre.

67. Four GNs covered the need to raise our children right with loving discipline: "Hold on to the Reins," "Dad's Challenge to Change," "Drawing the Line" and "Start Early!"

68. There were also four issues full of "Mama's Memos" that covered a variety of different topics, including manners, nutrition, sickness, shepherding, accidents, hearing from the Lord, applying yourself, eating disorders, and a host of other subjects.

69. Another three GNs gave more insight into living the Law of Love: "Leaping the Hurdles‚" "My Jealousy Battles—and Victories" and "Living the Lord's Law of Love, Part 12."

70. We learned more about Mama in two "Ask Mama" issues, and there were also two issues dedicated to explaining the Y2K problem and offering counsel on how to prepare for it.

71. There were a variety of other issues as well, including an overview of our Family pro­gress ("Year-end Review of 1998"), some mess­ages from the Lord on suicide ("When Is It Your Time to Go?"), the touching "Plea from the Cathars" and the first of the new "Endtime ­Series!"

72. Hang on to your hats, 'cause there's lots in the pipeline for the year 2000!—Coming to your mailbox soon!

New Magazines and
Other Family Pubs

73. Amid the steady stream of GNs and other publications you received in 1999, three new Family pubs were also born—Blade, Eve and Kidland! We hope you've benefited from these and all of the other magazines published for you and your children's benefit. Our pubs staff sends a hearty thank-you to all who have contributed articles, poems, photos‚ artwork, spirit stories, testimonies and books. Please keep them coming! We can only publish what you send in.

74. Following are the publications you received in 1999: 58 GNs, 29 Grapevines, 14 FSMs, 12 Zines, 27 Heaven's Library mags, 7 linkUPs, 14 ENDs‚ 7 Blades, 28 Reflections, 32 FARs, 11 Prayer Lists, 4 Kidlands, 3 Eves, 2 Power and Protections, 2 CLTPs‚ and 32 miscellaneous pubs/notices—as well as dozens of pubs from FC, which are listed in the next section.

75. Along with these magazines you also received 14 Heaven's Library books: "Perfect Ones," "Amaris I," "Return of the Seven Keys," "Journey to Tricon," "Called to Love," "Overcomers," "Cry of the Harvest," "Blood and Freedom‚" "The Mountain Calls‚" "Two Tests and a Wish—Abraham," "Another Kind of Courage—Arielle/The Writer," "Apocalyne," "In Arma­geddon's Wake‚" "Amaris II."

76. We began sending these out monthly, beginning in November of 1998, and our Heaven's Library team has just sent #18 to the printers, with more in the works! The first four titles you'll be receiving in 2000 include:

77. "Hellbreak." There are those who will never give in. There are those who will laugh in the face of death and Big Brother. There are those who so cherish their faith that they're willing to risk everything for its preservation.

The stakes are rising. The flames are licking higher and higher. As the heroes of "Blood and Freedom" continue their quest for freedom, the unseen powers will do anything to see them silenced—even pitting them against the horrors of Hell itself.

78. "The Saga of Cormac." It was a land rife with petty quarrels amongst its own people, and a time that would define the future of Erin's Isle for centuries to come. It was a time that saw many unremembered heroes, and the villains they fought against.

"The Saga of Cormac" tells of the struggles of the Irish in the days when their land was beset by Viking marauders, and of a man who would be called upon to rally his people and lead them into battle against these invaders.

79. "Warriors of the End." It was a vision that threatened to drive Lenny insane. It was a decision that would rip Gypsy's heart in two. It was a search that would leave Don empty and dissatisfied. It was a dream that would enslave Will's heart.

On the game board of their lives, and of the world's future‚ these four and their counterculture friends found themselves polarized to opposing forces—forces that would soon be involved in a life-and-death struggle for the future of all mankind.

80. "Betrayal." "So it was that the only true love I would ever know came to me like a gift sent from God, and I betrayed it. It is no secret that I betrayed him. That is a story that has gone down through the ages. But a secret that has been left untold is that I did truly love this creature of strength and majesty, my Samson. And now I tell this secret."

In Delilah's own words, the story of Samson's betrayal is vividly brought to life, and the hidden emotions behind what was to grow into one of history's most unforgettable dramas between a man and a woman are openly laid bare.

FC Pubs Production Report

81. While the magazine production teams were working away on mostly adult mags‚ Family Care was pumping out the children's pubs at an unprecedented rate! They report:

82. MLKs: 1999 was an explosion as far as the number of MLKs produced. We produced 48 MLKs this year, which is a 140% increase over 1998's 20 MLKs! That comes to four MLKs a month for 1999. The number of pages these MLKs totaled was 507, which is equal to the total number of MLK pages FC produced from 1995 to 1998 (509 pages)!

83. HTKs: This past year we published 24 HTKs (two a month), one more than last year, for a total of 308 pages of comics for our young people. This year was equal to last year in HTK production, and a very good year!

84. Kidz Biz: Our children's response to the Kidz Biz has been tremendous! We have received so much material from Family kids that this year we decided to quadruple the size of each issue. So‚ even though we got out 19 ­issues (compared with 1998's 21 issues) the number of pages nearly doubled from 92 in '98 to 172 in '99. PTL!

85. Kidz and Endtime Power Mags: In addition to the MLKs, we also got out five ETPs and two KMs totaling 66 pages (not counting the pages for MLKs included in these mags). That's 31% less this year than in '98, due to our artists concentrating on putting the GNs into kiddo form in the MLKs.

86. Other FC pubs: We also produced 306 pages of other material‚ which is nearly double our 1998 total. Some of these include colored games and coloring pages that went directly to the MO site.

87. Other FC pubs are broken down as follows:

Flannelgraphs5

Games4

(one game "Catch the Monkey" put on MO site in color)

Be the Artist!2

Coloring pages3 sets

(MLK #76 put on MO site in A4 format as coloring pages)

Activity book1

Other3

88. In 1999 we produced 1,359 pages of children's material, compared to 1998's 874 pages. That's 485 (56%) more pages published this year. That comes to 113 pages a month of children's material published for the Family in 1999. Thank the Lord for all the Word He has been pouring out!

89. We sure had a fun year of production, and because of all that the Lord accomplished, we are now working on a second HTK book and two new MLK books! The revised Techi Book should also be done in the first quarter of this year, as should the updated Memory Book. And of course, there are a lot more MLKs, HTKs, and other pubs from us in the works. (End of report from FC.)

Credit to our NPC Teams‚
LIMs and Lit-Pics

90. Our four NPCs have been hard at work this year, diligently duplicating and mailing you the New Wine in abundance. During 1999 they printed, collated, stapled and packaged close to 14 million pages of everything from one-page LNFs to multi-page GNs, to hefty Free Zines. To give you an illustration of what that huge number means, if those pieces of paper were spread out one at a time, edge to edge, the combined area would more than cover the nation of Israel or Slovenia! No matter how hard we in WS work to publish and package the New Wine for you, it would not get anywhere without the tireless ­labors of the precious individuals who work at the NPCs.

91. Likewise, we are very thankful for the faithful translators at our LIMs and Lit-Pics, who make the Word available to the Family in Spanish‚ Portuguese‚ Japanese, Thai, and many other languages. Their faithfulness to pore over every word, sentence‚ and paragraph of so many Family publications makes it possible for hundreds of Family missionaries to absorb the New Wine in their own language, and for the estimated 4.8 billion non-English speakers of the world to be reached with the Gospel via our GP publications in their language.

1999 Audio Output
—2000 Overview

92. Our Family music studios had an incredibly busy 1999, producing 12 audio tapes and recording numerous other songs for a number of new soon-to-be–released tapes. Let's take a look at their accomplishments for last year and then we'll talk about what's coming.

93. On the CM/FM front, seven releases reached the Homes in 1999. Thanks to the dedication and faithfulness of the RAD, the first of what we hope to be more KATs (Kids Audio Tapes) were released: "Unbeatable" (KAT #1—ML character and story songs), and "Bible Bonanza" (KAT #2—Bible story and Scripture songs). In the New Feature (NF) category, "Face the Wind" and "Winding Mountain Trail" were released. The beautiful "Oasis of Love," our 5th Loving Jesus tape, along with two FTTs‚ "Heartbeat" (FTT #15) and "Big Change Coming" (FTT #16), were released in 1999.

94. Besides these seven Family-oriented tapes, five GP tapes were released:

4 Famine for Love (new adult audio tape in the slow pop genre; includes some top FTT hits like "Famine for Love," as well as some power­ful new songs never before released for the Family!)

4 Sweet Dreams Tonight (new version of the original tape for mass marketing, with a new cover)

4 Be So Happy (compiled of songs from "Time to Be Happy," "Magic of Love" and "Little Things," for mass marketing, with a new cover)

4 Fear Not (new version of the original tape; four songs were dropped due to copyright issues, and four new songs recorded and added. A new cover was also added.)

4 I Like to Dance (new children's tape, compiled of Treasure Attic songs)

95. A great deal of the studios' work in 1999 will not be released until this year, so let's take a look at what's ahead and what the studios have been up to:

4 "I Like to Sing" (a.k.a. Treasure Attic song CD#2), was compiled from the second series of Treasure Attic videos‚ and then mastered by the JAS. They also re-recorded hits from the Heaven's Magic DTD series for a beautiful new love songs CD, entitled "Always," to be completed in the first few months of 2000.

4 A 2-CD compilation of GP Loving Jesus songs is also in the works for 2000. This double CD series will contain the best songs from the Loving Jesus tapes that are lyrically suitable for the GP (includes making lyric changes to a few songs). Still untitled, this series promises to be a moving and spiritually enriching production‚ along the lines of the popular Fear Not tape. The JAS is also involved in both song­writing and recording for some of the audio needs of the IVM (now called SSU—Sunny-Side Up), as the IVM continues to pioneer current and future video projects.

4 The JAS (adding Barry and Windy to their studio production team) has also taken on the revamping of "Great Adventures." Since the original of this 32-song tool contained 15 songs that are not Family-owned, 15 replacement songs were written‚ and most of those were recorded in 1999. The first few months of 2000 will see the completion of this renewed GP tool, complete with new CD cover art by Zeb.

4 The DCS captured the classic and contemporary sounds of Simon Black's songs, a CD soon available in 2000. They also put together a local GP CD, "Christmas Tour '98."

4 The RAD gave birth to the acoustic busk­ing CD "Traveling" (most songs of which were released on CM/FM NF#3).

4 Revised Memory Book tapes: These are being made suitable for mass marketing. A number of songs were dropped, new covers made, and the tapes recompiled into three CDs (titles subject to change): Fortress of Faith, Comfort and Care, and Boundless and Free!

4 In Europe‚ the EAS produced a beautiful collection of songs written and sung by Jonas, a new CD which should be available soon.

4 Another project the JAS undertook and completed was that of editing, mastering‚ and sending to the Family Web team Simon Peter's recording of "From Jesus With Love, Vol.1," which will be made available for downloading on the Members Only site‚ as well as possibly released on CD in MP3 format.

4 Other studios not mentioned above who also contributed recordings on 1999 releases are: the BLAST (Brazil), the OAS (Middle East), the PAS (Peru), the SSU (USA), and the OHS (Tokyo, Japan).

96. Dear Family, thanks for your prayers for our precious, hard-working and dedicated musicians who are so few compared to the harvest which is so vast and needy. There are so many bases to cover—GP‚ FTTs, NFs, KATs‚ Loving Jesus tapes, local language tools, etc., and we really want to get out as much music as possible in all these categories. Our loving Husband has been faithfully raining down new compositions as He promised He would, and we'd love to receive even more of them! But please also pray that the Lord will raise up more qualified contributors, the finances, and needed equipment and personnel to help record and get these songs to you‚ our wonderful Family! We love you!

1999 GP Web Site Report

97. Another ministry which is gaining new ground has been the Family Web ministry. They are presently operating four sites, with more to come. As you can see from the comparative stats below, our Family GP site stats have grown by leaps and bounds this past year! PTL! It's been thrilling to see the Word go out far and wide in this new way, and the responses we've received from the GP have been phenomenal!

GP SITE STATS
Distinct Visits in 1998: 49,365	Average Visits Daily in 1998: 135	Total Downloaded in 1998: 12.5 gigabytes
Distinct Visits in 1999: 174,079	Average Visits Daily in 1999: 476	Total Downloaded in 1999: 33.3 gigabytes

98. Here's a brief outline of some of the main things that were accomplished on the Web front this past year:

New GP site: The GP site was completely re­designed in 1999. It was recently uploaded and is still being worked on. Here's a peek at some of the new things that have gone up this past year:

• Endtime News: These are all the news clips from the END mag divided into their various categories.

• MP3 Downloads: With over 90 songs (and lyrics) available for downloading. There's also a complete Pictorial History of Music in the Family in this section containing 70 photos.

• E-cards: For Christmas the Lord showed us to make some e-cards available on our site. So we got all the Christmas cards that were done by FCF, about 10 of them, and made them into little cards with a short message, and they proved to be a "hot item"! TTL! We plan on making this a regular feature.

• Maintenance: We continue to update the Word‚ Family News, MP3, Endtime News and photos on the site regularly, generally twice a week.

New Aurora Site: As Aurora Production Inc. is the copyright holder of many of the Family's outreach tools‚ the Family Web team was asked to design their Web site with a complete listing of all the Aurora products, samples and downloads, and information about the company. An online store for Aurora, where our products can be ordered via credit card, was also created and is up and running. (www.auroraproduction.com)

New Activated Site: This site explains what Activated is and has a complete listing of the products available. You can subscribe to receive the Activated mailings from there as well. (www.activated.org)

P.S. Special thanks to Trust, Promise, Bonnie and all the others who faithfully respond to all the GP feedback we receive; without them the Web ministry would be sorely incomplete. We love you!

It's Your Site—
Members Only News!

99. If you aren't using the MO site, we strongly recommend you check it out! There is a tremendous amount of material posted on it, and lots available for downloading. Aside from the regular Family pubs that are posted, most of the other features are not "WS sponsored"—meaning they come from you or are simply ­"extras" that we pray will benefit you. They aren't prepared, however, like Family pubs or given as much scrutiny, so please bear that in mind. There's a lot of material‚ though, which we hope you'll find interesting and helpful. It's your site, so send in your news, art, photos‚ and other tidbits! As you can see from the stats, lots of you access the site. If you haven't, and are able to, you might want to take a look, as there's lots that's inspiring.

MO SITE STATS:
Distinct Visits in 1998: 15,798	Average Visits Daily in 1998: 43	Total Downloaded in 1998: 6.4 gigabytes
Distinct Visits in 1999: 108‚105	Average Visits Daily in 1999: 296	Total Downloaded in 1999: 37.4 gigabytes

100. Here's a list of some of the "new features" that have gone up on the MO site this past year:

• Art Overflow: Here you'll find art sent in by Family artists from around the world which can be printed or used as wallpaper [the background pattern for a computer screen, composed of graphics] for your computer.

• Jesus Scrawlathon: Pictures of Jesus sent in by artists from around the world, which can be printed or used as wallpaper for your computer.

• Now It Can Be Downloaded: All the ­photos of Dad from the "Now It Can Be Shown" books in high resolution, which can be printed or used as wallpaper for your computer.

• Family Photo Gallery: Photos of our Family around the world! We now have over 800 photos up there! And again we'd like to thank all those who contributed; you've made this section what it is today! Keep'm coming! And to all those who haven't yet—please do!

• MP3 Downloads: This section has the most recent FTT tapes available for downloading in MP3 format and occasionally some other "goodies" (e.g., dramas‚ oldie goldies, etc.)

• Pubs Downloads: Though this is not a "New Feature," we thought we'd mention here, for those who aren't already aware, that all the CM/FM pubs (minus the GNs) are now available for downloading (in PDF format) from the site, including CM/FM FSMs (which have only recently been made available).

• Computer Section: Though this is also not a "New Feature" on the site, we wanted to let you know that this section is regularly updated and has some cool computer tips and tricks, links‚ virus information, etc., that you may benefit from. And for all you computer whizzes out there, feel free to send in anything you have that you feel would benefit others.

• Maintenance: As with the GP site, we also continue to update the MO site regularly (two or three times a week, in fact). So new things are always going up. If you haven't checked the sites recently, the chances that you're "missing out" on something are high!

101. Lots more is planned for both the GP and Members Only Web sites‚ so stay tuned for more and better features and service! And keep the Web team in your prayers!

Family Aid Fund

102. The Family Aid Fund, to which each Home donates 1% and WS donates 10% of its income, has proven to be a highly successful way to aid our Family, ranging from new HERs, interest-free Home loans, pioneer gifts for new Homes, tool funds, baby bonuses, passed-on gifts, and a means of making sure each Home has funds on hand to use in case of medical and other emergencies.

103. In 1999 we gave out 121 HERs to new Homes, 177 Pioneer Gifts, 225 Home Loans, 444 Tool Fund Gifts‚ 250 Baby Bonuses, 81 reimbursements to Homes for legitimate emergency expenses from their HERs, as well as 21 gifts to special situations. That's a total of 1,319 gifts for 1999.

104. The need for new HERs has steadily gone down each year since the implementation of the Charter, as fewer new Homes opened. Pioneer gifts started to go down in 1997/98, but picked up in '99 due to so many moving to the mission field and the expansion of the work in China and Africa.

105. The FAF has been in existence for four years and eight months. During that time it has given out: 876 HERs to new Homes, 1,026 Pioneer Gifts, 1,054 Home Loans, 2,750 Tool Fund Gifts‚ 1,194 Baby Bonuses and Passed-on Gifts, 319 reimbursements, and 92 other gifts to needy situations. That totals 7,311 gifts over that 56-month period, or 130 gifts a month, 1,500 gifts a year. We know it's a sacrifice for you to give this extra percentage‚ as it is for WS to give 10%, but the results have been worth it, as virtually every CM Home has partaken of FAF benefits in one way or another.

Appreciation for Special Gifts

106. On behalf of WS and all the ministries and missionaries that we help to serve and support, Mama and I would like to thank each of you who responded so willingly to our plea for special offerings (LNF 277).

107. With the increase in our publication output for the Family, creating a large number of new booklets, books and other items for the GP, along with the pioneering of Activated, we simply would not have been able to make the headway we did with these projects‚ nor would we have been able to continue WS' giving to missionaries on very poor or sensitive fields (where fundraising is very difficult or imposs­ible, but the need very great) without the help of your special gifts!

108. A number of Family members have shared inheritances and other windfalls with WS. We thank you, and we know that the Lord will bless you a hundredfold for your giving. Others have given smaller gifts as a Home or from their personal money. God bless you! We couldn't have done it without you. We know it's a sacrifice to give above your tithe, but we trust that the Lord is repaying you in ways you need most.

109. And to those who weren't able to give a financial gift but sent fervent prayers‚ we know the Lord has answered them. We love you very much, and continue to need your prayers for increased WS finances. Thank you for giving and praying!

Family Giving to Missionaries

110. In addition to your tithe and FAF contributions, it's very encouraging to note that on average, Family Homes collectively give another 1% of their income as gifts to other Family missionaries through funds donated to other Homes via your CRO offices.—Not funds that you send directly to other Homes by other means, so the real figure could be much higher!

111. Your extra giving makes a major difference to the missionaries you donate to, and it's something that shows the true spirit of the Family. God bless all of you who give this extra. The Lord will give you extra blessings for sharing of your abundance with others in need. In many cases, you may not even be sharing of your abundance‚ but sharing what little you have in order to help some other family or Home who needs it even more! That will result in even more blessings from the Lord! "Whatsoever thou spendest, I will repay" (Luke 10:35). While we don't always see that right away, we can rest assured that He will make true His promise! God bless you for giving! We're really proud of you.

112. Many of the gifts you send to other Family Homes come through your TRF to your CRO Office, which takes care of forwarding it. We realize this can sometimes delay your gift reaching its intended destination, particularly if the recipient is in a distant country. We're sorry, but there are many steps for your gift to get from your Home in the U.S., for example, to a pioneer Home in Vietnam. It involves a lot of communications, transfers and banking, as well as many obstacles.

113. Sometimes one obstacle is that the donor doesn't provide complete information about the recipient of the gift. Unfortunately, this is a common occurrence‚ as in, "Here's $200 for John and Home in Thailand." "Hmmm, which John was that? Oh, that John. It seems he moved to Indonesia last month. We're still trying to figure out how to get the money to him because he doesn't have a bank account and can't cash a check, plus he'd like the funds in US dollars cash, which we can't exactly send through the mail. We've written and received two or three mess­ages from him trying to work this out," and on it goes. This or some similar type of scenario happens on a regular basis, particularly in third world countries which have banking restrictions or regulations‚ which can make it difficult to get the gifts to our missionaries there. Your CRO office teams try to speed up the process as best they can, but it's not always easy.

114. We understand that this can result in some frustration on your part. But what you must understand is that WS is providing you a free service which a bank or financial institution would charge a substantial fee for. WS also pays for the exchange rate losses and the transfer of funds. It costs WS thousands of dollars a month in banking fees and exchange rate losses to pass on gifts between Family members. Exchange rate losses can sometimes be particularly high. Why? Because you in Brazil might send in 200 reals with your TRF for Mary in Taiwan. You report it as being worth $110. However, it turns out that when the office actually converts it to US ­dollars, it's only worth $100. And then exchanging the US dollars into Taiwanese dollars incurs another loss, so it's only worth $95. But rather than give Mary the $95 that's left, we pass on the full $110, and WS chips in the extra $15. Multiply that hundreds of times over and you can see how it adds up.

115. So we'd like to ask for your understanding for the hard-working CRO office personnel doing their very best to help you. God bless them! They have a lot of information to process in order for your gift to be sent on. If it is important to you that the funds arrive right away, please send the money by some other means than your TRF, such as by telex‚ online bank transfer, international money order, etc. True, this will cost you in bank fees, just as it does WS, but it will probably get there quicker.

116. We're very happy to continue to provide this free service in order to encourage you to give to Family missionaries on other fields. We know they appreciate it, and in some cases their ministry wouldn't be possible without it, so please keep it up. We simply wanted to explain that it does take time for the gifts to reach their destination, though the offices try to minimize that time as much as possible. Thanks both for your giving and your understanding!

Revised Charter
And Amendments

117. This year you all received copies of the revised A5 Charter with all amendments highlighted. The Charter was also accompanied by FSM 344, containing all 99 amendments to date. We pray that having our CM beliefs and rules codified and outlined so simply in this compact book will make keeping the standard clear and uncomplicated for you, our precious Family.

More Family Leadership

118. In an effort to provide each of your Homes with more leadership and visitation, we've appointed a number of new CROs and VSs over the past year or two. Some have also stepped down or been relieved of their shepherd­ing responsibilities.

119. Below is a current listing of each area's CRO and VS teamworks. We've also included the names of the VS trainees‚ as though they do not act with full VS authority, we thought you'd be encouraged to know that we are doing our part to raise up more shepherds, many of whom are from our second generation. Please bear in mind that these lists may vary or change over the coming year. Your CRO office will keep you updated as to any CRO/VS/VS trainee changes in your area. Please pray for your shepherds. They have a big job and they work hard daily to serve you!

ASCRO CRO teamwork: Joan, Stephen, Cephas, Dawn, Anne (SGA).

ASCRO VS teamworks: (Thailand: ) Ammi, Philip, Sharon, Angelina (SGA), Jon B. (SGA); (India: ) Crystal, Crystal Dear, Indian Andrew, Mark (SGA)‚ Carina (SGA); (Indonesia:) John D. (SGA), Sharon (SGA); (Mideast:) Andrew‚ Tina, Emmy (SGA), Samir (SGA).

EURCRO CRO teamwork: Dawn, Gallio, Lisa‚ Philip, Magda, Naomi (SGA), Joy (SGA), Steven (SGA).

EURCRO VS teamworks: (Southern ­Africa:) Andrew, Phoebe, Ben (SGA), Tirzah (SGA); (Northern Africa: ) Aaron, Josh (SGA), Oli (SGA); (SEEC: ) Rosemarie, Aaron, Maresha (SGA), Rosa (Bulgarian)‚ Genai (SGA); (Poland:) Abe (SGA), Love; (Belgium/France/England:) Mary, Peter, Rose; (Italy/Greece:) Andreas, Kitty; (CIS:) Adam‚ Laura‚ Daniel M.‚ Masha, Virginia, Celia (SGA), Christia (SGA). (Spain/Portugal:) Miguel‚ Ester.

NACRO CRO teamwork: Abi, Abner, ­Andrew, Simon, Jason (SGA), Cedar (SGA).

NACRO VS teamworks: (East Coast:) Ahlai, Charity‚ Miguel (SGA), Ester (trainee); (West Coast:) Frank (SGA)‚ Sara (SGA), Sharon (SGA), Eva (SGA), Ginny, Ado, Nic (SGA‚ trainee), Sherry (SGA, trainee); (Central: ) Claire (SGA), Darren (SGA), Juan (SGA, trainee), ­Angela (SGA, trainee); (Mexico:) Seek, Morning­star (SGA), Robin (SGA); (Central America:) ­Jordan‚ Praise.

PACRO CRO teamwork: Sweetie, Jeff, Margie‚ Phoenix, Marie Claire (SGA), Stephen, Rachel (trainee).

PACRO VS teamworks: (Japan: ) Alf, Jay, Paul, Rejoice‚ Sam (SGA); (Taiwan/China:) Abner, Endureth, Hannah, Titus; (Australia:) Charity, Christie, Paul Silver.

SACRO CRO teamwork: Juan, Pedro‚ Victoria, Mark, Samuel (SGA), Carmen (SGA).

SACRO VS teamworks: (Peru/Ecuador/Bolivia:) Miguel, Sharon G. (SGA); (Brazil:) Jere, Mariane, Jonathan, Phil B., Celeste (SGA), Lei­lani (SGA); (Chile/Argentina/Paraguay:) Jane, Jose; (Colombia/Venezuela:) Miguel Colombia.

Family Shift to Mission Fields

120. In June of '98, the Letter "Trash Your Trinkets and Head for the Hills" was published, along with a few others, encouraging our Family in Western, first world countries to head to more fertile mission fields. Although we don't have precise stats on this Family shift, the changes in area populations indicate that approximately 1,400 Family members took up the challenge and made the move to fertile fields! Approximately 500 of you from Western Europe and 900 from North America have moved to other fields since this Letter was published! What a mission-minded Family! We're proud of you!

Reaching Africa the Right Way

121. This year has certainly been a year of pioneering for Africa. The "Reaching Africa the Right Way" GNs came out in January 1999, and from looking at the stats, you can certainly tell that the Family has followed its call!

122. At the end of 1998 there were Family Homes in 13 African countries. By the end of 1999 we had Homes in 23 African countries! Of the 14 new countries that the Family pioneered in 1999, 10 were in Africa (Equatorial Guinea‚ Guinea, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Senegal, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia)! God bless you brave African pioneers!

123. The number of Homes in Africa increased from 32 in 1998 to 48 in 1999. In 1998 there were 377 Family members in Africa and in 1999 there were 541—164 additional members, or 44% more than 1998.

124. As for witnessing stats for Africa, while poster and video distribution was lower in 1999 than in 1998, the other stats showed a marked increase. Souls were up from 57‚300 in 1998 to 88,700 in 1999. That's 31‚400, or 55% more souls won in Africa this year! Personal witness increased by 20%—333,000 in '98; 397,000 in '99. Tracts, DFs, and books nearly doubled, from 583,200 in 1998 to 1,151,800 in 1999! Tapes were up by 6% over 1998's figures.

125. (From Lisa CRO:) Two million of the redesigned Africa posters (with blacks instead of whites) have been printed and are available in English and French. This has resulted in an explosion of road teams to exciting places, especially in West ­Africa. One of them is Burkina Faso‚ where a Home will soon open as a result of the many fruitful trips there. Mali was also visited‚ as well as Ethiopia. The Lord opened doors to go to Sierra Leone as well. Malawi now has a Family Home‚ as well as Mozam­bique. Tanzania opened this year and has two Homes, soon to be four. Uganda has two Homes and Guinea and Senegal now have Family Homes also.

126. We want to say a special thank-you to the French teams that have come to help us reach the many French-speaking countries in Africa! We need you, they need you, and we pray the coming year will be fruitful beyond your wildest dreams! French tools are being worked on, and we pray a good variety will be available in quantities where you can really rock out!

127. The Lord has also answered our prayers for more labor leaders to help us head up teams and establish works here in Africa. We still need many prayers for this, as there are now more people ­wanting to come than there are Homes able to take them in! Please pray with us that this will be well coordinated and that each loved one will find a fruitful place of service in the Lord's perfect time!

128. Over the last year, part of our faithful FED team has been working on what we've termed the "Africa GP project." We are finally coming to the last stages of a one-year "Word and Character Building cur­riculum" to be used in schools, ­orphanages, refugee camps, and wherever else the Lord opens doors to use it—Sunday schools‚ "open the door for the children" ministries, etc. The Lord took us to Africa to try out the curriculum firsthand, which resulted in many helpful and more user-friendly changes. It's giving us the millen­nial vision to be teaching and explaining the Word from scratch to people of such a different culture—very challenging and exciting!

129. Our prayer for the coming year is that we will be able to flood Africa with the Word and the message as never before. Besides the posters, the Activated program is catching on fast in the English-speaking countries. We're seeing how the time of liberty we've enjoyed to do our job freely is short. It seems Africa is a new target for the AC forces' plans and schemes, coming in like wolves in sheep's clothing! Please pray that we will get there first! WLY! (End of excerpt from Lisa.)

African Radio Ministry

130. (Peter:) While there has been an influx of Family members to Africa, there is still no way so few will be able to reach such a vast continent through normal outreach methods. The following report from Simon Peter and team in Africa explains the very inspiring, fledgling work that the Lord is cultivating in order to reach the African people with the Gospel en masse. Please pray for the success of this ministry and for great and effectual open doors!

131. From Simon Peter (Happy), for the African Radio Ministry Home: Mama and Peter passed on to us a request from some of the African pioneers who had seen the huge potential of radio to reach this vast continent‚ as radio is still the main medium of entertainment here. The Lord confirmed in prophecy that a Family radio program would have a far-reaching impact here and He directed us to produce not one, but three different radio shows‚ geared to three different audiences:

Ü"NuBeat"—an upbeat music show featuring our latest Family FTT-style music.

Ü"Reflections"—a program that will give leadership training to the many Christians here, sharing with them the deeper truths of the Words of David. It will be similar in style to the "How To Win" and "How to Be Happy Anyhow" format, also including an occasional song.

Ü"KidzWorld"—a children's show, with Heaven's Library dramas and songs. Although primarily focused on Africa, these programs will have an international theme, so that they can be used anywhere around the world. Message–wise, these shows will be on the same level as the Treasure ­Attics and other GP children's material, having as broad an appeal as possible and being acceptable to all religions and categories of children.

132. These shows will be duplicated on CDs and sent out to the Homes in Africa who will book them, D.V., on hundreds of radio stations in all the English-speaking countries. Once the show is rolling in ­English, a Family studio in France has volunteered to translate the shows into French for the French-speaking countries.

Booking the Christmas Radio Show

133. While still in Japan, we put together a one-hour Christmas Special specifically for African radio called "A Christmas to Re­member." This was made as a stand-alone special to test the waters of African radio, and to test run the logistics of duping and mailing out CDs. The show features our wonderful Christmas music, interviews with several African diplomats and their wives about Christmas in their ­country, plus a new children's drama of "The Tailor's Secret."

134. At this point we don't know exactly how many stations broadcast the show, but various Family Homes around Africa ordered 80 CDs of the program.

135. Here in Uganda‚ we easily booked "A Christmas to Remember" on four different FM radio stations in Kampala—Radio One, Power FM (a Christian station), ­Radio Simba and Radio Uganda. It played on December 25 and 26. Since it has been 17 years since the end of the "Music With Meaning" radio ministry‚ it was quite a nostalgic moment to once again hear our ­Family music and message beaming out over the airwaves! (End of note from Simon Peter.)

China's Hour!

136. (From Jeff, PACRO:) I wish we could tell you all the stats about how many teams we currently have in China, where they are‚ as well as all the wonderful open doors and witnessing opportunities the Lord has raised up for the Family there. But because publishing this information could put our Chinese Family in grave danger, we will need to speak in generalities rather than specifics.

137. A number of new Homes opened this year‚ which has raised the Family population within the country. All stats have seen a rise, which means more tools out and more souls won than last year, so progress is being made on every front.

138. There is a tremendous vacuum from the sheep there. In our travels we met some of the precious sheep that the ­Family has been feeding and faithfully bringing along, and it was so rewarding to see the vacuum and hunger that these sheep have for the Words of David. One sheep said, pointing to the Bible, "This book is very hard to understand." But pointing to one of our books, he said‚ "This book is so easy to under­­stand, and explains everything so clearly." Other sheep were asking how they could be disciples and what discipleship meant.

139. We met some from the underground church, and just as it says in the GN‚ you could feel their zeal and fire to want to spread the Gospel to their countrymen; they just need the materials to do it. One young pastor we met had only been a Christian for three years, and already had a group of 100 people he was responsible to feed and shepherd. His girlfriend, who hadn't been a Christian as long, was also praying about starting her own group. We also met a 17-year-old girl who had been led to the Lord by a road team earlier in the year, and was so happy to meet us. She wanted to be with us every minute we were in the city and didn't want us to leave. She was so hungry to know everything we had to share with her, and devoured every Letter she received.

140. We're trying to consolidate our gains and do everything we can to get a countrywide follow-up program going. A lot of the Family teams are doing what they can to learn the language, but because many are not fluent yet, there's a great need for fluent Chinese speakers to go in and strengthen these sheep, and take them to a higher level of understanding the Word. So this is one of our goals for the new year, to do all we can to feed and strengthen this valuable fruit. If you are a fluent Chinese speaker, please write us today, as the Lord may just have an enormous, rewarding job waiting for you—feeding His sheep!

141. If you like personal witnessing and making long-term investments, this is the field for you! If you don't mind faithfully hearing from the Lord each day over every move; the hard work of learning the language; being farmers in the spirit; having little or no fellowship with your peers or friends; being willing to work in close unity with your shepherds and others on the field; keeping strict security guidelines; letting go of Western influences in order to become one, etc., then China is for you!

142. There are hundreds of opportunities still open if you're willing to completely change your lifestyle and the way you've been used to living. Cities of millions of people with no Family teams are just waiting for you! "The harvest truly is great but the laborers are few" is the verse for China (Matthew 9:37)! And as the Lord said in the new GN‚ "China's Hour," "Truly this is a land where a man shall labor and see the fruit of his labors!"

143. One of the greatest needs of the China teams is for financial support. Many of the teams could do a lot more personal witnessing and be freer to feed and follow up on their sheep, as well as meet new sheep by going on road trips, if they didn't have to spend as much time raising their own support. Some of the teams' monthly budget is only around US $1‚500, so anything you can do to help will go a long way in setting these teams free to witness and bear more fruit. God bless those of you who have already been sending support, which has helped make it possible to send out road trips, produce more tools, and also to help make fellowships, meetings, youth camps and witnessing excursions poss­ible.

144. As the Lord says in "China's Hour," if you don't feel led to go, and can't afford to send any support‚ please send your prayers, as they will do mighty things and help to sustain our precious Family there. "I need your love for them, translated into your prayers—fervent, desperate, unceasing. Through your prayers, those who are able to go will be strengthened. They will be protected. They will be led by Me. They will fulfill the mission that I have called them to. And you will fulfill your mission through them" (ML #3273:13, GN 877). Thanks for praying! (End of excerpt from Jeff, PACRO.)

Tour of Latin America

145. (Peter: ) In mid-March of 1999, I‚ along with a team from WS‚ visited the Latin American Family for six weeks, holding meetings in nine cities‚ in six countries. It was very inspiring to meet a large portion of our wonderful Latin Family (80% of the voting CM population in South America), who have faithfully stuck to their mission fields, won a tremendous harvest of souls, and have done a terrific job of getting out the tools—very often world shiners! The Lord poured out an abundance of stirring words and challenges to unity‚ which were prepared in GN format, and presented in meetings as well as via video for those who weren't able to attend personally.

146. Besides the spiritual counsel and call to unity that the Lord gave for the Latin American continent, another aspect of my visit included explaining the Activated program, which the Lord indicated Latin America would be the pioneers of, as they yield and obey the Lord's call and join forces with their fellow laborers to reach the needy world, and to follow up and feed them the Word. And they're doing it, God bless them!

FCF's Mission Support and Humanitarian Services

147. FCF has been able to help an ever-increasing number of our missionary communities and their local CTP projects and other endeavors. Here is an excerpt from a recent FCF newsletter:

148. One of Family Care Foundation's objectives is to find ways to help those engaged in worthy projects around the world to raise funds for their missions. To this end‚ FCF established the Mission Support and Humanitarian Services Program (MSHSP), commonly referred to as our Um­brella Program. This program makes it poss­ible for a local ministry whose activities further FCF's exempt purposes, whe­ther in the United States or abroad, to become an FCF charitable project.

149. In 1999, Family Care Foundation facilitated funding of many of these projects with a total of approximately half a million dollars. This amount of humanitarian and mission aid reflects an 85% increase from the previous year, and an even more astounding sixfold increase as compared to 1997‚ our first year of operation! This was possible because the number of donors to Family Care Foundation more than doubled in 1999, as compared to 1998. By the same token, our net income in 1999 increased dramatically so as to virtually equal our combined income from the previous two years. Cash contributions were almost twice what they were for 1998, with noncash contributions also up by a similar amount over the previous year. We're so thankful to the Lord for how He has blessed the MSHSP, and as a result, all the lives being touched worldwide through the efforts of these projects.

150. Family Care Foundation approved and undertook 47 new projects in 1999. The 146 total projects presently operating under the MSHSP have effectively developed and implemented a range of ­programs and services worldwide in 1999‚ including:

ÜMobilizing resources for disaster and humanitarian relief in developing countries

ÜObtaining equipment and supplies for needy hospitals, orphanages, prisons‚ and other institutions

ÜSupplying humanitarian aid in developing nations, including food and clothing for the poor

ÜVocational programs for children and youth

ÜEducational programs for persons with special needs‚ including the physically or developmentally disabled

ÜMissionary activity, training and support

151. One primary goal for the year 2000 is to increase the scope and effectiveness of our Mission Support and Humanitarian Services Program‚ and we're thankful to all of you who play a part in making this poss­ible.

152. A summary of the good work that each of FCF's projects have undertaken in their respective countries can be found on our Web site at www.familycare.org, where each project has a designated Web page that is updated regularly. (End of excerpt from FCF newsletter.)

Television Broadcasting
And Video Marketing

153. Family Care Foundation has continued to pursue avenues to get Treasure Attic broadcast and various videos commercially marketed. To quote excerpts from recent FCF newsletters:

154. Another of FCF's objectives is investing in today's children through ­character-building materials. To help achieve this goal, agreements were reached with various television networks to broadcast Treasure Attic, a children's TV series that FCF licensed. Treasure Attic is presently broadcast regularly on three US channels, two in English and one in Spanish.

155. Family Care also completed the paperwork to allow Treasure Attic to be aired on the main government station of Myanmar (formerly Burma), one of the few Western programs being aired in that formerly closed country.

156. Another video, Countdown to Armageddon, a stand-alone 55-minute documentary‚ continues to sell on the shelves of five major nationwide chains throughout the States and Canada, as well as via amazon.com and various other Internet distributors. (End of excerpt from FCF newsletter.)

157. Please continue to keep FCF in your prayers, that the Lord will bless the services that they provide.

News from Sunny-Side Up

158. Below is a report from Sunny-Side Up (our former IVM team) on what they've been up to the past year. God bless them, as they've worked hard to change gears and readjust their presentation toward marketing and creating several new series‚ many of which are in the works. Please keep them in your prayers!

159. (From Sunny-Side Up team:) Our move to the States was no small task. The filming, editing and audio studios had to be shut down and packed, archive ma­terial had to be stored and equipment prepared for shipping.

160. Once in the US, there was much to be done in the way of setting up our company and performing all the legalities necessary. We are still in the process of researching all the legal work involved in running a company and continue to learn as we go, but Sunny-Side Up was established officially in June of 1999.

161. Besides our move to the USA and setting up our company, along with attending various fairs, book shows, and making other trips, below are some of the projects that were completed last year, while others are presently in production:

Completed projects in 1999

Millennium Dawn

162. After being asked to create a sequel to Countdown, we began production on Millennium Dawn early this year. A small filming crew went to Israel for two weeks of filming‚ while the production team did pre-production work in the US. Editing and ­final cover work was completed in a little more than a month.

163. Screeners (short demos) have been sent out to many broadcasters and distributors, with an agent actively representing it.

164. Translation into Spanish and Portuguese is being worked on by SACRO.

Treasure Attic Interactive CD

165. During the first part of the year we were able to complete our part in helping produce the Treasure Attic Interactive CD. (A CD of educational games and activities based on the Treasure Attic show. See "1998 Midyear News and Progress," ML #3198:41.)

Web Site (www.sunny-sideup.com)

166. The Sunny-Side Up Web site was completed and has been on–line for the last four months. This has proven to be a big help to us in the form of representation and explanation of our work and goals. We plan to link it to several search engines in the future, which should result in more traffic.

"Sunny-Side Up Entertainment" ID video intro

167. This has been created as an animation to be placed as an ID logo at the beginning of any of our video productions.

SSU projects currently in production

BugTown

168. The concept of this project was more fully developed close to the end of the year, but at the beginning of 1999 the principal characters were created both visu­ally as well as conceptually—giving each one a background and personality. The first two scripts of the series were also written, giving BugTown a greater dimension than just the concept, which we had been pitching. This quickly led to the creation of the BugTown jingle as well as four songs.

169. Pre-production work for a fully animated, five–minute pilot was completed last month by SSU and sent to our first official co-production partner, a Korean animation company run by a Christian man. Pre-production included character designs for all principal characters as well as concept sketches for the backgrounds and color schemes. All this material has been sent, along with final audio work, which will be used to create the final animation. Final animation will be completed in early 2000 and presented to several interested companies.

170. BugTown is one of the projects that has received the most attention. We are thankful that the Lord has provided us with an animation company as a co-production partner for this as well as other animation possibilities.

171. We have received definite interest from many people in this show, both broadcasters and distributors. We plan to pre­sent the pilot show to many of these people at NAPTE (a TV and video trade fair in the US). Once pre-sales are secured, work will begin on the entire series.

Kid's Quotes (a compass for little hearts)

172. Currently in production in the form of a video series (a Biblical and a non-Biblical version)‚ with accompanying books and potential for a CD game, Kid's Quotes was created this year and has further developed into an adventure video that will teach kids the Word and character–building quotes.

173. Prior to MIP '99 (the premier international TV/video trade fair, held in France), a six-minute promo was created for this show‚ which proved to be a very big help in explaining the project. Since initial conception, this show has evolved a great deal, as we've continued to come up with new ideas and presentation possibilities. We're very excited with the end result and feel it will be a unique program and a won­der­ful tool to help children hide the Word in their heart.

174. We're now in the final stages of creating the 3D graphic work for the 25-minute pilot show. We'll be producing one show for the Biblical series first. This will be shown to possible investors to gain funding for the entire series.

175. Scripting is now underway for the first two episodes of the nonreligious version, and we plan to begin full production on those shows in the new year.

176. This show has had a very good response both among the religious and secular circles. Many see this show as something new and different, and because of this, they're very interested. The fact that we'll be translating the shows into ­Spanish and Portuguese has great appeal to both the North and South American markets. We are working on detailed budget packages and marketing plans for the ­series.

177. We've also received a significant investment in this project which is helping us upgrade our present equipment.

Great Adventures

178. The same company that is doing the final animation for BugTown has offered to do the Great Adventures series in animation as well. This will be a series of four to six shows initially. In January we'll begin pre-production work for the animated pilot show.

Other Possibilities

179. We have several other projects that we've developed the ideas for, and in some cases have written some scripts for during 1999. We're in the process of presenting these to potential distributors and ­investors in order to see if there are any buyers ­before we begin any actual production on them.

The Listeners

180. This is a documentary that explores the various aspects of listening to God. It explores subjects that were touched on by well-known Christians and has as its goal to teach people the principles of hearing from the Lord themselves. A script was written for this program‚ which was taken to MIP and shown to possible investors and distributors. The feedback we received was very positive and we will be following up on these leads in the new year.

181. Research has been done on people who can be interviewed for this show, and we have a number of experts on board who are willing to participate.

Daniel—The Unsealed Prophecies

182. This documentary explores Daniel as a man of conviction from his youth to his ascendance to a prominent place in Babylon. It also covers the prophecies received by Daniel regarding the Endtime. The idea for this project has been presented to an interested company here in the U.S.

Little Boy King

183. Based on songs already recorded in some of our current Christmas CDs, Little Boy King also has narration that fits perfectly into the musical breaks. It tells the story of Jesus from birth to resurrection. A full script has been written as well as a rough audio of the project. We received interest in this series at MIP '99. We will be pursuing these possibilities with possible investors, and hope to be able to push it more this next year.

Arabic "Treasure Attic"

184. A project that we're pursuing at present is taking half of the already produced TA songs that are relatable to children in the Middle East‚ and replacing the dialogue section of the TAs with local ­actors to make them more cultural friendly.

The Guardians

185. Based on an uncompleted series entitled "Space Prince" that we had worked on (see "What Is Jesus," ML #2618, Lifelines 19), this series has been revamped and re-scripted into more of an up-to-date series. Three new scripts have been created as well as a jingle.

The Bible Series

186. We might embark on the very large project of providing the creative material for a series of 500 animated episodes‚ which the Korean animation company we're in co-production with wants to produce. This series will cover all the books of the Bible and will be geared to teach children as much as possible about the Bible in greater detail than has been done before. We will be looking into the details of this production this year. (End of report from Sunny-Side Up team.)

Focusing on the Lost
And Needy World

187. (Peter:) Praise the Lord! A tremendous amount has been accomplished this year, and there's even more to come! Mama and I want to thank each of you dear ones for your many labors of love on behalf of the Lord and the Family over the past year. You've done wonderfully! You've rolled with the changes the Lord has sent our way, and you've become stronger for it. Despite the many tests and trials and personal difficulties, you've hung on and have not let the Enemy steal your crown. On top of it, you've done a terrific job of getting the Gospel out, and have given the Lord the gifts that make Him the happiest—precious souls!

188. You may wonder what the Lord has in store for us this year. The year 2000 marks a significant turning point, not only for the world, but for the Family as well. It's a new era and the Lord has lots to pour out, and a definite challenge for us all‚ which you'll be reading more about in an upcoming GN. There's certainly lots to do!

189. Aside from your daily missionary work, training your children, deeply feeding on the New Wine and being your brothers' keeper, the Lord is calling us to focus outward—on the lost and needy world! He's providing us with more tools to do the job‚ and a cohesive course whereby we can follow up and feed the souls that we win—Activated. It's taken some time to get each part of the machinery in place, but we're now set up and ready to roll! It's clear that the Lord wants us to use Activated to the full, and now we have to do our part to make this witnessing and follow-up explosion that He's promised become a reality.

190. Will you do it? Will you take up the challenge? Make winning the lost and feeding His sheep part of your daily goals for the year 2000. If you're a witnesser, promote Activated! Collect subscriptions. When you pray with people, sign them up for the three free mags! If you're at home, pray for the witnessers‚ pray for the Activated desks—do your part through prayer. It's going to take a revolution on our parts in order for this vision to come to pass, but that's what the Lord is asking of us. Launching Activated is a pretty daunting task, but we've got the Lord and His promises on our side‚ and all we have to do is follow Him step by step. He's already told us what we need to do to begin: Get people turned on to the magazine. Get them to subscribe! Sign newly saved sheep up to re­ceive their three free issues!

191. As we do our part, we know that the Lord will do His! So Family, let's look forward to the coming year with excitement‚ because as we stay close to the Lord and obey His Word, we have our wonderful Husband's word and guarantee that it's going to be a thrilling, terrific year, with tremendous fruit borne and a tremendous harvest reaped through our witnessing! Amen? Let's do it!

Love‚ Peter

192. P.S. This GN would not be complete without sharing with you some thrilling news regarding Mama's health. I don't want to steal her thunder, so I'll let Mama tell you this news herself:

193. (Mama:) Words fail me to express, dear Family, how thankful I am for your continued prayers for me. Over and over again you've expended your time and energy and pleaded for me in your desperate prayers. Now all that effort has paid off! A wonderful miracle has happened!

194. I want to testify that in direct answer to your prayers, this past year the condition of my eyes has improved immensely. It's a tremendous miracle! I now rarely get headaches due to my eyes. I am able to use my eyes considerably more; they are not nearly as sensitive to the light as they used to be. In fact, my eye condition has improved so much that I no longer have to wear extremely dark glasses all the time‚ and I can keep my eyes open a lot more. I still can't use my eyes to read or work, nor can I watch movies, but my eyes have improved greatly!

195. Sometimes we don't see the answer to our prayers right away; we don't always see them working immediately. But if we're patient and we keep trusting, our prayers always come to fruition, as is the case now with my eyes. And that's not all. In addition to the miracle with my eyes, due to your prayers‚ my hair is no longer falling out and I have new hair growing in. The condition with my cysts has also improved, so much so that I have not had any bleeding in over a year. I feel considerably stronger and am in much better health all around.

196. I'm so thankful to each and every one of you, because I know it's purely due to your prayers that this wonderful miracle has happened! Our loving Husband has honored your faith. He's answered you and worked this miracle in direct answer to your prayers! Thank you, dear loves! I couldn't ask for a better Family. I'm so thankful to Jesus for this healing, and I'm so very thankful to Him for each of you, on whom I depend so greatly. I appreciate each of you so much! I love you dearly and continue to keep you in my daily prayers as well.

Much love, Mama