By Peter A.CM/FM 3382A 12/01

Dear Family,

1. God bless you! Mama and I love you very much, and we're so proud of you! After you've read all the Lord has done through the Family collectively this past year, you will be super proud of the Family as well! We've been moving forward like never before, both in our work for the Lord and in our spiritual lives. It's truly phenomenal to see how much can be accomplished by so few when those few are instruments in the hands of God. You're just wonderful! We admire you for the sacrifices that you've made to remain part of the Lord's Endtime army and to do the job He's called you to do. The Lord is stacking up the rewards for you in Heaven. He will more than repay!

2. This has been a monumental year. On top of all the day-to-day victories and progress of each Family Home, there have been major internal changes within the Family as a whole, as well as a number of new pushes and efforts in our commission to reach the world with the Gospel and feed the sheep.

3. Let's review some of the highlights that have taken place in the Family and in the spirit this past year:

4. Era of action. Many Family members have written Mama and me, commenting on how the era of action is materializing before their very eyes. It's becoming clearer to everyone just how exciting this era is! Things are heating up. There are more miracles‚ greater protection, and abundant supply. The open doors are getting bigger and more outstanding. The message is getting out in new and greater ways—and it's only the beginning!

5. Activated. While Activated was slow in taking off, it's now gaining momentum. Family members are becoming convinced by the Lord's plan to use Activated to consistently feed the sheep, to follow up via subscription, and to use the Activated mags as a meaty outreach tool. Activated has made good progress this year‚ and by God's grace it will continue to do so. Are you on board with Activated?

6. Follow-up and Active member revolution. This last year saw the official birth of Active members as part of our Family membership. Follow-up and the Active member ministry has taken off and hit new heights, as Family members all over the world are beginning to more deeply feed their sheep and contacts, teaching them about the Family, giving them the meat of the Word‚ and pulling them into various levels of discipleship. This has resulted in the beginnings of numerous national churches and bodies of believers growing in many countries around the globe.

7. Board vision. This is a major change in our Family's leadership, policy-making and decision–making, introduced last year. While it will be implemented in 2002, the groundwork was completed in 2001, and is paving the way for further advancement and positive change within the Family in every sphere. By God's grace the boards will go into effect March 1.

8. "Conviction versus Compromise" ­series. This new series shook the Family and is setting us all back on the radical, dropped-out, revolutionary path that the Lord wants us on. This major spiritual shakeup of last year was vital in order to prepare the Family for the job ahead of us this year.

9. Fast 2001. Another milestone spiritual cleansing—going hand in hand with "Conviction vs. Compromise"—to root out the compromise, lethargy‚ and evil presence of the Selvegion, Pan and Bacchus in our Family members and Homes. The Lord said: "The worldwide fast and prayer day was a tremendous victory and a great deliverance for the Family. This cleansing will enable the Family to claim the full power that I have available for them. As My children remain clean in heart and spirit, and stay willing to do My bidding and follow the new direction that I am leading them in, they will see great, marvelous, and fantastic things in the year to come!"

10. Keys of the Kingdom. These are a wonderful spiritual treasure that the Lord gave the Family last year. Though we received the keys at Feast 2001, we didn't fully understand their significance and power or put them into daily use until later in the year. Now they've caught on in full force, and the far-out testimonies of mir­acles and healings wrought—credit to the keys of the Kingdom—are starting to pour in.

11. Feast 2002. The Lord's gifts aren't showing signs of slowing down this year! The Family had a wonderful feast, delving into the New Wine and treasures that our Husband poured out to us in great abundance. It certainly was a feast of revelations, insight, and spiritual power—Heavenly thought power—to be harnessed and used this year!

12. This year-end report clearly reflects the effects of the era of action. The Lord has done tremendous things through you, dear Family‚ this past year. It was very inspiring for me personally to work on preparing this report for you‚ and I hope it inspires you to see the tremendous impact we are having around the world. For such a relatively small group of 11‚851 members, these accomplishments are extraordinary. You're doing a wonderful job, and the Lord has promised that it's only the beginning. The momentum is picking up!

13. There's so much going on in the Family that we in WS are not able to keep tabs on all of it. In order to compile this year-end report for you, we asked the COs to write up an overview of what's going on in each area, focusing primarily on witnessing news, follow–up pro­gress, and Activated advancements. They couldn't cover everything either, as every Home has tremendous testimonies, good CTPs, loyal friends, supporters, potential disciples, and Active members worthy of reporting about. Your COs did their best to select excerpts from reports they had on hand and the news they could gather. These reports aren't compre­hensive, as we couldn't feature every Family Home and inspiring work, but I'm sure you'll find it inspiring and thrilling to see what our worldwide Family has accomplished this past year.

14. Special thanks to all of you who contributed to this Letter by sending in your year-end reports‚ stats, news, and photos. (Unless otherwise indicated, the news and stats in this Letter are from the time period beginning November 2000 and going through October 2001.)

Overall Activated Progress
Worldwide

nActivated subscriptions
continue to rise!

15. In the one-year period from November 2000 to October 2001, 9,711 people subscribed to Activated worldwide. To date we have had a total of 13,970 people subscribe to Activated worldwide. There were 714 subscribers in the last four months of 1999, 6‚108 in 2000, and 7,148 so far in 2001 (as of the end of October). (Update: In November we had 1,455 new subscribers—our best month ever! That brings the total number of people who have subscribed, as of December 1, to 15,425!)

16. As you'll see in the "Monthly Subscriptions" chart, subscriptions overall peaked last year around Christmas, then declined for several months, and in the last three months of 2001 they've been steadily climbing again! ­India continues to hold the lead in Activated subscriptions with 7,519 so far (as of November 1). The Europe/Africa and Brazil subscrip­tions have taken some giant leaps in the past few months, and now both desks have over 2,000 subscribers.

17. We need to keep this number climbing, folks! The Lord has promised a tremendous Activated harvest, and in order to make that happen, we have to get the Activated mags in everyone's hands! We're up to nearly 15,500 subscriptions worldwide right now (end of November). How about making it a worldwide goal to hit 50,000 subscriptions by the end of 2002? That sounds like a big number, but when you consider that there are 6,281 adults in the Family (over 16), that means that if each Family member over 16 got only six more subscriptions from today until the end of 2002, we would shoot over our goal! What do you think? Can we do it? Make the success of Activated your personal goal this year!

nNew desks and languages!

18. This last year new desks were set up in South America to facilitate the growth of the Activated program there. Previously Mexico had taken care of all Latin America's Activated subscriptions‚ but due to the mail system and other logistical factors in this part of the world, it wasn't working so well. It's also our hope that having more local desks will be a help in promoting and encouraging the Homes to get activated. We're seeing the fruit of this already‚ particularly in Chile, where the Activated desk has been very active in helping the Homes get on board with the Activated vision!

19. Desks are also being set up in Japan and Taiwan, and they are on the verge of having the Activated program in Japanese and Chinese as a one-year course.

20. The first 15 Activated mags have been translated into French, primarily for the French-speaking countries of Africa. The magazine, called ActiV, will be printed soon as a one-year course available from the Europe/Africa Activated desk!

21. Eastern Europe and Russia have had a fruitful mail ministry program for many years, in many ways a precursor of the Activated program worldwide, God bless them! The MM team in the EE is working on changing their mail ministry program over to the Activated format, or translating it into those languages where it is not. This is a huge project since it involves so many different languages, so please keep it in your prayers.

nActivated as a monthly magazine

22. Originally Activated started off as a magazine with consecutively numbered issues‚ basically like a course. Since the program was a venture into uncharted territory, we weren't sure whether it would continue that way or become a "regular" monthly magazine (where each magazine has a certain month and is sent to all subscribers on that month regardless of when they started subscribing). This year we've adopted a program that's a combination of the two.

23. New subscribers will first get issues 1-9 to ground them in certain basics—salvation, Holy Spirit, faith, prayer, prophecy, etc. Then, each month we will continue to publish a new issue that will go to all our subscribers who have already received the first nine issues. So once they've received issue 9‚ then whether they've been subscribing for 9 months or 3 years‚ they will get the same monthly magazine.

24. However, there will probably still be a small stock of back issues on hand at the Activated desks which those who like can order, and we'll be including all of the material from all the Activated mags on the completely revamped and expanded Activated Web site, soon to be launched!

n"Mag of the Month" program

25. The US Activated desk pioneered a "Mag of the Month" program, and other desks are following suit. As explained in Grapevine #120, when a Home signs up for the "Mag of the Month" program, they automatically receive a set quantity of the latest Activated magazine each month‚ which they can then use in trying to sign people up as subscribers, as well as use for distribution, for witnessing outings, on the street or at stoplights in the place of posters or tracts, in their personal mail ministry, or to share with friends that they are in touch with regularly (though it's best to get people signed up so that you're sure they're getting a regular feeding from the Activated desk, even if you don't see them that month).

26. The Home pays for those magazines just as they would buy posters or tracts or tapes, and they are free to give or sell the Activated magazines to anyone‚ just as they would any other witnessing material. The difference with the "Mag of the Month" program is that the Home commits to ordering a certain amount of each magazine in advance, so that we can print enough of that month's issue to cover the Homes' orders. So order from your Activated desk ­today, so that along with getting subscriptions you can incorporate the Activated magazine in other aspects of your tool distribution and follow-up. Remember, each Activated mag contains a lot of Word and is a great witness. As a distribution tool it's hard to beat, so if you aren't ­distributing it yet, give it a try!

nUpgrade in the making

27. We're working on making the initial Activated course of mags 1-9 as complete as possible, and at the same time we'll be upgrading the covers of mags 2-9 (in some cases borrowing from past "monthly" issues, as new subscribers won't be getting those), as we've already done with mag 1. We're now in the process of going through mags 2-9 and will modify or improve some of the content in parts, when necessary‚ using material from other Activated magazines that those getting the basic course won't have already gotten. So these great feeding mags will be getting even better!

nThe Activated  Training Course

28. A milestone this year was the completion and posting on the MO site of the 12 Foundation Stones set of classes! We've heard wonderful reactions from those who have used these classes in their follow-up and feeding of the sheep, and if you haven't tried them yet, you'll want to check them out! Now in the works is a printed version of the classes, in a book, accompanied by a "Study Notes" book for students taking the course, and also a teachers' supplement with a variety of teaching aids and useful reference material. All of this material will also be made available on CD.

29. The next installment of the Activated Training Course is a second set of classes, a training program which will prepare your sheep for discipleship! Please pray for Abi (at the European Media Desk), who is doing the main coordinating of this project and working on the classes, with help from Tommy (in Brazil) and others experienced in follow-up, and our WS GP team.

30. Also in the works is a follow-up handbook—a compilation of tried and proven tips and suggestions from those who have established successful follow-up ministries. It's a great activation tool!

Activated Desks Report

nBrazil‚ by Matt and Amendoa

31. Brazil is getting activated! The year 2001 marked a turning point in the Contato (Activated) ministry in Brazil. Our yearlong campaign to promote this exciting new ministry culminated in the wonderful (and unexpected) participation of Peter and his team in our National Retreat. His inspired keynote address challenged all those present—CM, FM and Active members alike—to take up the gauntlet and get this country activated!

32. By the end of 2001, the Homes were selling subscriptions at the rate of 200 per month‚ a 500% increase over last year's rate. In October 2001 we received over 300 new subscriptions! We have now received over 2,000 subscriptions. The desk's sales of tools to readers and the public in general has also climbed steadily to an average of almost 100 individual sales per month, helping to cover part of the costs of the Contato ministry here, thank the Lord!

33. Our current goal is to reach an average of 10 subscriptions per month per Home. At that rate we will be writing the testimony of our 10,000th subscriber in our year 2002 progress report! Please pray for this! Brazil is a country of continental proportions and deserves an Activated ministry worthy of its size!

nChile, by Jonathan Nubes

34. This year we made a major move from being a little liaison office between the subscribers in our area and the Conéctate desk in Mexico to becoming the full-fledged localized desk for Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Chile. In ­order to be closer to the Homes and to the people we're serving, we moved our operation into town and set up a bigger office. During the months of May and June, we started to send out the mailings from our desk and to follow up on the people who were nearing the end of their first year's subscription. We've also been able to iron out problems that the subscribers and the Homes were having with their mailings, wrong addresses, difficulties in communication, etc., thus making the program more efficient and successful, and boosting the faith of the local Family in the program.

35. We've held three Conéctate meetings with the Homes in the area, and slowly but surely the brethren have been catching the Conéctate vision. We have launched the "Mag of the Month" program, offering the beautiful new editions of the mags to our subscribers and also to the brethren, who can also sell them separately.

36. We've been getting in touch with our subscribers as they finish their first 15 mags to see if they would like to renew their subscription. It's wonderful to see how much they have grown after a year of steady feeding. Many want not only a new subscription for themselves, but also one for a friend. Most of the subscribers we've followed up on have been sweet and generous. Quite a few of them have given donations and contributed goods and materials of different sorts. This is proof that in the mid- and long–term, Activated is a good source of income and provisioning. For example, a contact who used to donate chicken renewed his subscription, and he was so enthused to be in close touch with us again that he came with a load of chickens for a big BBQ at our house. Another lady who owns a shop has given us pajamas, blankets, towels, etc., for all the members of our Home. Many of our Activated friends have been attending our Bible classes and Sunday fellowships and are growing rapidly in the faith.

37. During the past few months we have been focusing on Paraguay‚ providing them with the mags to handle their own subscriptions due to difficulties with the mail there. God bless the brethren in Paraguay, who are so on fire!

38. We received our first shipments of Spanish books and calendars from Thailand, and the Family is starting to purchase and distribute them for the first time in our area. The Conéctate subscribers have also been buying the new materials both for their own feeding and to give as gifts to their friends and relatives. In a word, we could say that this year marked the birth of Activated in our area!

nColombia, by Miguel

39. It's been almost four months since we started the Colombia/Venezuela/Caribbean Conéctate desk. This short period of time since July 2001 has already presented many marvelous miracles, and there are more on the horizon. One of the greatest victories was that we held Conéctate meetings with the brethren from almost every CM/FM Home in Colombia. This helped to refresh everyone with the vision and need to get out more Conéctate mags‚ and to promote the magazines, books, and Activated materials. This was the first time for many of the brethren here to see the magazines, the books, and Mottos for Success.

40. Our desk has sent out three monthly mailings so far, and with every mailing the number of subscribers grow! Looking at quickly gathered stats, this area averaged roughly 11 paid subscriptions per month during the 20 months before the local desk here was established. Since our desk sent out its first mailing, we're averaging 23 paid subscriptions per month—more than double the previous amount! We know we still have a long way to go, but it's encouraging to see how Conéctate is progressing.

41. Several of the Homes in Colombia have held Conéctate seminars with their friends to help them better understand the program‚ thus motivating them to subscribe and get out subscriptions as well.

nEurope/Africa, by the EAD team

42. The past year has been a year of steady growth. The European Activated Desk (EAD) mailing has grown to over 2,000 mags sent out a month, with 75% of the mail going to subscribers in African countries.

43. The EAD took on the handling of subscriptions to countries around the world that don't have a local Activated desk, and we now send magazines to subscribers in over 85 countries. We have 46 people who are now on their second year. Since the EAD was set up, we have sent out 22,633 magazines, of which 2,148 were the three free issues. We have also sent out 720 magazines in Portuguese to subscribers in ­Africa and Portugal. This month (October 2001) has seen our greatest monthly increase in subscriptions so far; we received over 350 new subscriptions!

44. Much of the credit for so many mailings being sent to sheep in Africa goes to the many Family members who sent donations to cover the cost of subscriptions‚ enabling those who cannot afford it to receive Activated magazines. Thank you so very much for helping us feed the African sheep who are begging to be fed. We have received hundreds of letters from African sheep expressing their thanks for the magazine and sharing the benefits it has brought in their lives. On average we answer 35 letters a month, and received over 400 letters this past year.

45. We've been on the road this year promoting Activated and have held seminars/workshops for Homes in Southern Africa, Italy, France, Spain, England, and Reunion Island. The result is that more brethren are getting on board with activating their part of the world. Some of our Activated team were able to attend book fairs in London and Zimbabwe‚ which opened new marketing opportunities for Aurora products.

46. Orders for the books and other productions have also increased, as the Homes are distributing more tools and ordering larger amounts more frequently. It's possible that we might be able to help mail out the EE MM mailings‚ as they are changing over to EE-language Activated magazines. Activated is now going to be available in Hungarian, Croatian, Romanian and Russian‚ and the French magazines are being prepared for printing.

47. So far we've been based in England, but we're experimenting with posting the mailings for Africa from South Africa to determine whether it would be better to move the African part of the desk there in order to cut costs.

48. We also recently launched our own Web site. God bless Dan (of Paloma), who put a lot of time and effort into it. You can place orders or subscriptions through it and receive updated price lists, etc., all online. Please come and visit us at www.getactivated.co.uk

nEE Activated, by Angelina

49. Day by day, stone by stone … that's what setting up EE Activated has been like for the past year—page by page‚ word by word. Our dream/goal/vision has been to get Activated into as many of the EE languages as possible‚ and our "small beginnings" are showing signs of snowballing into dimensions that have never before been explored!

50. We recently set up an EE Activated committee to oversee the various aspects of pro­duc­tion and preparation of the Activated course‚ from translation of the mags to subscription ­details and legalities, which vary from country to ­country.

51. On October 1, 2001, 28 representatives from the Homes in Hungary and our Activated committee met to christen the Hungarian Activated program. We discussed procedures for subscribing, payment for subscriptions, read excerpts from the latest GNs that challenge us to make witnessing and follow-up a priority, had a Q&A session, and committed this new phase of the work into our Love's capable hands. Each representative walked away with a sample of mags 1-6 and a handful of subscription cards to commence distribution as soon as the meeting was over. Here's a comment from Phillip after hearing reports of the fruit of that meeting and our Activated activities in Hungary:

52. Already we've begun hearing lots of very inspiring testimonies of how different ones are expanding their faith and seeing how quickly the Activated mags are going out here in Hungary. We heard this past week that one couple went door-to–door with the mags and sold 20 subscriptions in one hour! Then just yesterday another sister went to meet with some of her friends and sold five subscriptions in a short time. God bless these dear ones for putting the Lord on the spot and helping to "publish His glad tidings!"

53. Yes, the Activated mags are in real live print in Hungarian! Mags 1-6, that is, with 7-9 soon to be printed. That's not all: We have mags 1-6 printed in Romanian as well. Mags 1-6 in Ukrainian and Russian have also just come off the press! Please continue to keep EE Activated in your prayers, as we now need to sort out and finalize the details for subscribing in Romania‚ Russia and Ukraine. We hope to print mags 1-6 in Croatian and Albanian next, with Polish and Bulgarian following. We'll then continue with mag 7 and up in each of these languages, as well as producing the 12 Foundation Stones course to feed members of the Mail Ministry who are already past the level of the Activated course and wish to subscribe to more in-depth feeding.

54. The EE Mail Ministry has been going on now for 11 years‚ and in this time we've sent out mailings to over 145,000 sheep in 13 countries! The MM course is now switching to Activated. Since the beginning of 2001 we've sent out about 9,000 letters in seven languages in response to about 3,000 letters that came in! Our main accomplishment for the year is getting Activated rolling in Romanian and Hungarian. We already have 134 paid subscriptions!

55. All in all it's been a fruitful year, with A5–size glossy-paper color–cover black-and-white-inside mags to prove it! Please also keep in your prayers the transition of the former Mail Ministry in Eastern Europe to full–fledged Activated.

Text box:

Can You Help?

We expect that some of our EE sheep will not be able to afford a subscription, although we've aimed to make the price as low as possible, covering only the basic production and mailing costs (around $6.00). If you would like to sponsor subscriptions‚ for details on how to do so, please contact us at: eedesk@bluebirdfoundation.org

Or if you would like to help by subsidizing subscriptions, please use the same e-mail address to find out how it can be done!

nIndia‚ by Beth

56. Our total subscribers for this year (from October last year to September of this year) was 5,616. Our highest subscriber month yet was November 2000, with 1,238 subscribers! Our total subscribers to date are 7‚049 as of the September TRF (Update: 8,281 as of the November TRF).

57. Our top three shiner Homes in India for 2001 (up through September) are: The Bangalore Service Home with a total of 1,166 subscribers; the Rose Garden Home with a total of 946 subscribers; the Bombay DF Home with a total of 740 subscribers.

58. Each month we receive an average of 50 e-mails or letters from the GP. These are people who have seen an Activated magazine somewhere, perhaps from a friend or in an office, and have been inspired to write in and subscribe too. We either write to them ourselves, or if they are from a city where there are Homes, we pass on their letter to one of the Homes so they can meet them and sign them up. The same goes for our different products such as the Mottos for Success—a lot of e-mails come in from people who have seen one somewhere and would love to have their own copy.

59. Mottos for Success continues to be a big hit in India, and orders are still coming in. It is a hit with the public, and especially around the end of the year many of the Homes get bulk orders from companies who give them as gifts to clients.

60. We were able to produce two new local products here in India:

61. A Mottos for Success Weekly Planner for 2002, with a beautiful quote for each week of the year. To date we have sold almost 10,000 of these and are doing a reprinting of another 10,000! (Update: By the end of December, over 30‚000 were printed and sold!) Two of our Active members did most of the design and graphic work for us, and another Active member did the photography for the cover and inside pages.

62. Two Diwali CD Cards. Diwali is the ­Indian "festival of lights," celebrated like Christmas or New Year's in the West. Again, the same Active members helped us with the graphics and design work on these. The CD was a teamwork effort of John Listen, Peter A. (in Delhi), Simon (who did the narration), and many of our talented Family musicians (see Grapevine #122 for the full story). The music was given an ­Indian flavor, and to date we have sold almost 10,000 of these CD cards!

nMexico‚ by Rose-Marie

63. In light of steady increases in subscriptions and orders from many countries in South America, February 2001 saw the Conéctate work split off to form desks in Chile, Colombia and Peru to handle the growing number of South American subscriptions. Along with passing on the addresses to the respective areas, we boxed and shipped 129‚100 Conéctate magazines (1-12) to the three new desks.

64. Over this past year (since November 2000) the Mexico Homes have ordered 15,000 magazines, besides the 8,602 magazines that were sent to subscribers and freebie addresses.

65. A short testimony: A director of a hotel in this city donated a room for a Family couple for their rest day‚ and after witnessing to her, the couple left a copy of a Conéctate magazine for her to read. She later left a message saying that she wanted to subscribe. When they went to pick up the payment ($15 yearly subscription) and deliver the next mag, she was so pleased to receive it and said as she paged through it, "So colorful, so concise, so much to delve into … do I give you $15 for next month's magazine as well?" Sometimes we underestimate the true value of our tools!

66. This year we received four new Spanish Activated booklets—Obstacles Are for Overcoming, From Jesus With Love, Dare to Be Different, and Bible Basics—plus items for children‚ including the three Praisin' U booklets and the Start Early posters with a coloring book included. All of these tools are proving to be very popular with the Mexican public.

67. The most popular booklets are Key Bible Verses and From Jesus With Love. We have received a lot of responses from people who have bought FJWL. A close friend who helps us from time to time says it moves him to tears every time he reads it, and makes him feel so close to Jesus. He recently bought a large order of magazines and books to sell in a bazaar he has across the border‚ where Mexicans in the USA shop.

68. In March of 2001 we created and locally produced four new children's CD cards specifically for Children's Day (April 30)‚ which is a big event here in Mexico. The Homes in Mexico continue to order these each month; so far over 11,600 have been ordered.

69. We also produced a poster calendar for the year 2001 which has a picture of Jesus praying on it. There was a tremendous response from the public for this tool, and many businesses have asked to have their logo printed on the bottom of the calendar so they can give these to their clients. We have just produced two new calendar posters for the year 2002. The Mottos for Success calendar has also been a hit and we were sold out halfway through the year, having sold over 2,200 this past year.

nJapan, by Japan PPC

70. In November 2001 we launched Activated in Japanese. We produced what we thought would be a three-month supply, and it was all gone within the first month! We also held a seminar with about 90 people in attendance on getting Activated rolling here in Japan. We had been watching a steady decline in orders over the last year‚ but with the new Letters there has been a surge, which is absolutely great. (The Japanese Activated program will be a 12-mag course, and includes two introductory magazines. The translation and printing of some of the 12 mags is still in the works.) Ten thousand pre-Activated mags have been printed, and in the three weeks following the Activated meetings, the number of subscribers shot up to 150! Additionally‚ Christian bookstores throughout the country now sell some of the Activated products.

nUSA, by Cassie

71. This has been a landmark year for our work and witness in the US and Canada, and especially after the recent terrorist attacks, we've begun to see the fulfillment of many of the Lord's promises for our witness here during the Last Days. So many hungry people are searching for answers, and we pray that we will do all we can to help them find Jesus!

72. Activated distribution. This year we launched the "Mag of the Month" program for the Homes in the US and Canada, whereby the Homes sign up to receive a certain amount of the beautiful new Activated magazines each month to use for the Home's follow-up, mail ministries, Activated meetings, and for distribution. We have now reached our initial goal of 5,000 magazines being distributed each month through the MOTM program, and have set a new goal that we hope to reach by early 2002 of 10,000 magazines per month. Our monthly subscriptions have continued to climb as well.

73. Here's an inspiring testimony from the NA Media Home:

74. Last Christmas push, we decided to go street lighting with the Christmas Activated magazines instead of the posters. We were excited by the end of the month to find out that we had distributed nearly 3,000 of them, besides all our CDs and CD cards. From there, the Lord showed us to start giving Activated mags out as much as possible during our weekly street lighting outings. Since that time, we have been distributing over 1,000 Activated magazines at the streetlights each month. We are so inspired about being able to give such a complete message to the public. At first we were tempted to distribute them sparingly as they're more expensive, but when praying about it, Dad showed us that the Lord would bless us financially if we poured out His Word. He promised that He isn't limited to supply, much less if we are faithful to obey and put His Word and His sheep first. Thank the Lord for His precious promises, which we certainly saw come to pass in our Home and lives as we obeyed the call to plaster the world around us with Activated and give people the chance to receive a magazine chock-full of the mess­age! After our first year of pushing Activated, we calculated that we were able to distribute over 15,000 Activated magazines.

75. Monthly area Activated meetings. We launched monthly Activated area meetings this year, starting with the Homes from Southern California and Baja, Mexico (about 12). Homes have been sending representatives to our "First Tuesday" meeting where we discuss outreach, Activated follow-up‚ and tool distribution. We've united forces on a number of witnessing and CTP pushes, and we've found great strength and encouragement in helping each other to get our follow-up and feeding ministries rolling. We also invite visitors to the late afternoon and evening portion of the meeting, which is a BBQ/fellowship, inspiration, Bible study, etc. The Activated area meetings have also been initiated in other local areas around the US and Canada, helping our Homes to work together to activate our part of the world!

76. Distributor program. We launched the Distributor program this year to make it easier for our Family missionaries to distribute our beautiful books, tapes‚ videos and CD cards to individuals, stores and businesses. We've developed a variety of sales materials, brochures, flyers, displays for CD cards, etc., to help our Family "salesmen" get out the tools. This year we also started sending out "Activated Online"—an e-mail newsletter for our Family Homes to share testimonies and tips for Activated progress, news about new products, etc.

New GP Tools!

77. Our WS GP department has continued to rock out this year, producing over 30 new GP pubs and tools, along with keeping the Activated program going, and a host of other accomplishments. The Lord instructed us to focus outward, to reach the lost, to set up our follow-up program, and we've been working hard on all these fronts this past year.

78. The following new GP pubs and tools were produced and made available to the Family and the public this year in English. Many were also done in Spanish, Portuguese, and some in other languages as well.

8 new CD cards for Christmas 2001. Over 100,000 have already been printed and snapped up by the Service Centers worldwide and by other distribution companies—and that's just in English! (Hot infobit: To date the Family has sold over half a million CD cards!)

4 new Love CD cards for Valentine's Day‚ friends, mates and lovers.

8 new Activated mags.

Start Early. A set of 40 colorful quote posters for young children, printed in 6 languages: English, Spanish, Portuguese, Swahili, Tamil and French!

A Christmas Secret. The latest in the Stories to Grow By series. This is "The Tailor's Secret" from the Christmas to Remember book, fully illustrated and in a large hardback format.

Keys to Parenting series. Just printed, 4 new books—Keys to Baby, Keys to Toddlers and Preschoolers, Keys to Kids and Power for Parenting. These, together with the previously produced Parenteen­ing booklet, combine to make a series of 5 books that provide well-rounded practical and spiritual counsel for parents of children of any age. These five books are available separately or as a set in a colorful box.

2 new Get Activated books: Love's Many Faces (practical tips on showing love) and One Heart at a Time (excellent how–to class on witnessing).

2 new Mountain Streams books. God Online (10 MO Letters, including "Stop, Look and Listen," "Diamonds of Dust‚" and "Faith"), and More Like Jesus (12 MO Letters‚ including "Flesh or Spirit," "Lovelight," and "Count Your Blessings").

Feed My Lambs. A completely revamped version of the previously published Feed My Lambs for Family children, with all-new art! The verses have been further simplified and the old English dropped, and nicely packaged into 6 handy-sized booklets, with a fun‚ brand-new illustration for each verse. The package also includes an instruction booklet for parents/teachers, bookmarks, a sticker for each verse (for when the child memorizes it), all put together in a beautiful box! (While already created in Eng­lish, this series won't be printed until 2002, so it's something to look forward to! We'll be producing it in English, Spanish, Portuguese and probably several other languages at the same time.)

Diwali CD cards and Mottos for Success 2002 Planner by the Family in India.

4 Children's CD cards and 2002 calendar poster by the Family in Mexico.

79. Our print team members in Thailand, who formerly lived at the ASCRO office, have now merged with the Thai SC team to avail themselves of the expertise of those on the SC team and their contacts‚ and help make our tools better. Many thanks to Caleb (Sam), Greg, Marie, James, and Phillip, who have been and are an integral part of our GP pubs production staff. It wouldn't be possible to get all these tools out without them!

Preview of GP Tools
in the Works

80. Here's a peek at what's to come in the GP tool department—lots of exciting and feeding new tools to reach the world with! Please pray for the creation, production, and printing of each item.

More CD cards for several occasions!

Heaven's Secrets. Clips taken from thousands of prophecies received by Family members, both in WS and around the world‚ describing details of the beauties of Heaven. Also finalized and soon to be printed.

God on God. A unique book—13 interview sessions with God, received in prophecy. This is already finalized and soon to be printed.

A second interactive CD. This will take a bit of time as it's presently only in the "concept" stage; a lot of art, scripting, and animation goes into a project like this. Please keep it in your prayers!

3 more Mountain Streams books with lots more MO to feed your sheep!

More Get Activated books: On the topics of marriage, making decisions, giving, and freedom from fear.

New posters.

Glimpses of Heaven in a full-color "gift-book" format.

From Jesus With Love in "gift-book" format.

Updated version of the GP Daily Might.

STEPS—a terrific GP Christian character-building program created by the Family in Africa especially for schools in Africa, but which we hope to make available worldwide as well.—And hopefully more!

Witnessing Stats for 2001!

nSoul Winning

81. The Family won 1,085‚958 souls in 2001! That's the fifth straight year that the Family has won over one million souls in a year (and the 12th time in our Family history). The number of souls won this year is up slightly (846 souls) from last year, which makes 2001 the 9th-highest soul-winning year of our 33-year history. That's fantastic and shows we are still doing the job and reaching the lost!

82. In 2001 we won, on average, 90,500 souls a month—about 41% higher than our monthly 33–year average! That comes out to nearly 92 souls won last year for each man, woman and child in the CM/FM Family. Of the total number of souls won in 2001, 715,000 (66%) were won by the CM Family and 371,000 (34%) were won by the FM Family.

83. Our country soul shiners for total number of souls won are once again Mexico at 277,462 (25% of souls won and 29 souls per adult per month), India at 155,631 (14% of souls won and 36 souls per adult per month), and Brazil at 123,170 (11% of souls won and 11 souls per adult per month). Mozambique is again the country with the most souls per adult over the last 12 months—139 a month!

84. To date over our 33-year history, the Family has won a grand total of over 25 million souls—or more specifically, 25,416,872. That means the Family has won approximately 770,000 souls a year, 64,200 a month, 2,110 a day‚ 87 an hour, or 1.5 for every minute nonstop 24 hours a day, over the last 33 years!

nWitness

85. The Family had a personal witness of 7.2 million in 2001. Although that's down a bit from 2000's 7.9 million, it still ranks among the top half in our Family's history. Personally witnessing 7.2 million times in 2001 comes out to 611 per Family member for the year‚ or 51 per month, ranging from adult to child! It also means that 15% (one out of seven) of those personally witnessed to by the Family got saved. That's a very good average!

86. For total witness stats—adding up all the personal witness‚ mass witness, distribution, news­papers, TV and radio, and other means of getting out the message—the Family had a grand total witness of over 4.4 billion (4,408,389,229)! Wow! That beats 2000's 1.6 billion by far and is our highest total witness since 1993, the year of the Argentine persecution, when the Family was all over the news. In 2001 the high total witness was due to many TV, radio‚ and news articles about the Family being spread far and wide in pretty much every continent. "And the Gospel shall be preached in all the world!"

nLiterature and Tool Distribution

87. In some areas the Family's distribution has gone down, while in other areas distribution has increased. In 2001 the trend continues to move away from tools that we've had for some time, such as posters, videos and tapes, in favor of the newer tools such as Activated magazines and books, CD cards‚ and other literature.

88. The top tool distributed (in terms of increase over the previous year) was audio CDs and tapes, most of these being CD cards. We distributed a total of 641,063 audio materials! That's an increase of 150,000 (30%) over 2000, and is the most audio material distributed since 1989 when all the Family had was posters and tapes! The CD cards are a hit! And with this Christmas season coming up (Christmas 2001 will be counted in the 2002 stats), the number of audio materials distributed by the Family is sure to rise to new and greater heights!

89. While audio materials distributed continue to rise, poster distribution is declining. The Family distributed 2.9 million (2,885‚401) posters in 2001—a 25% drop from 2000's 3.85 million. Video distribution has also declined dramatically, and is 20% down from 2000 at 90,781. That's the lowest in our Family's history.

90. Distribution of other lit—like tracts‚ books, Mottos for Success, Activated mags, etc.—was down consider­ably, dropping from 2000's total by about 4.5 million to 10.3 million in 2001. What's happened, folks? Let's work to see these stats and our witness spiral upwards again in the coming year! Don't leave home without tracts or Activated mags—and get them out! That's preaching the Gospel!

91. In 2001 the Family distributed 13,915‚838 total pieces of lit and tools. That is about 28% lower than 2000's 19.3 million tools and pieces of lit distributed. The main decrease is in tracts and posters (4.5 million and 1 million less this year, respectively). Even though some tools are being distributed less, we are still getting out a phenomenal amount of lit. 2001 has been a good year of witnessing, but not a highlight year in our distribution of tools. That gives us a lot of room for improvement in 2002, and with the promises the Lord has given the Family, we expect that the stats for 2002 will rise dramatically. Distribution of our tools is still one of the best ways to get out the message and to obey the Lord's call to revolutionary discipleship.

nGet Out the Tools!

92. Here's a stirring message the Lord gave about getting out the message, specifically concerning tool distribution:

93. (Jesus speaking: ) My call to you, My disciples, since the beginning‚ has been to‚ "Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to ­every creature!" That's step one. Step two of My call is to "Go and make disciples of all nations." Both of those are pretty tall orders, but that's what I expect of you as My disciples. One of the most effective ways to make progress ­toward both of these goals is by getting out the Word far and wide. What's the best way to do this? Well, it's pretty obvious—by getting out the Word-based tools that you've been provided with.

94. You have within your cupboards the means to meet every need of the human heart! You have within your storerooms the answers to the world's problems and questions. Are you doing all you can to disseminate those? Are you sharing the wealth? These treasures have not been given to you just for your own benefit or for you to use to reach and touch a select few. No, they are meant to be spread far and wide—to the world, to the masses!

95. There are many ways and avenues through which you can be a part of flooding the world with My Word seeds, whether in person, door to door and store to store‚ or whether in a more massive and widespread manner. Are you doing it? If not, why not? What are you waiting for? The harvest fields are white, ripe and ready! They need My Words, My truth.

96. Some of you have come to feel that distribution of My wonderful tools is not so effective, that it's just "scattering seed" or is only a means of making a living. Let's examine those arguments. For starters, I've called you to reap a great harvest, right? As any farmer can tell you, the first step toward a harvest must be planting! Sowing seeds on its own is not enough to guarantee a harvest‚ but if you don't sow the seeds to begin with, you're never going to have a harvest!

97. Getting out the Word via the tools is the primary method I've given you of sowing seed. It's the first step toward any harvest. If you want a harvest of sheep, of disciples, of Activated members, of soul winners, the first step is to get out and meet those people and get them attracted, drawn, and hooked on My Words. People start at different levels and have particular needs, but everyone needs My Words, and within the treasures I've given you there's something for each of My sheep.

98. Some of you already have flocks that you're feeding and ministering to, but you should still be getting out there to meet more people‚ new people. Better yet, get your flocks out there‚ in addition to getting out yourself, and get them sowing seed, distributing tools, and gathering more into your fold! And if you don't yet have a flock, well, the odds are that you haven't been doing enough of the first step—getting out and getting the Words into people's hands.

99. That step takes effort‚ although it's relatively easy compared to some of the later steps—the follow-up, the phone calls, the personal visits‚ preparing Bible classes, shepherd­ing your sheep through their problems‚ etc. Maybe some of you aren't too enthusiastic about tool distribution; you just do it because you don't know what else to do‚ or you think it's just falling back on the way you've always done things.

100. Well, don't fall back on the way you've always done things if what you've always done is get out and scatter seed, raise funds, and leave it at that! That's certainly not the way of the future, the way of Activated. But don't throw the baby out with the bath water either. Don't say that because in the past you've fallen into a dead-end routine of just selling tools and not feeding the sheep, that tool distribution is of the past, wrong, or unnecessary. It's very necessary‚ and it's very much for today. And it's very much for you to do!

101. Heed My call to you now! Take up arms to join in this battle to flood the world with My truth. Fill your arms, your bags, and your cupboards with the life-giving Words that work wonders! Feed the sheep. Attract them to the truth of My Words. Use whatever means I show you in your situation—whether it's to hit the streets with Activated mags, to hit the schools with children's books, or to hit the stores with CDs and cards. There are no limits! There are no fences! There are simply open doors everywhere, just begging to be walked through.

102. If you feel like your city is "burnt out" and nobody is buying the tools, get down on your prayer bones and ask Me to show you who doesn't have them yet and what part of the community to focus on. Or if everybody really does have them, are you calling or visiting them all to see how they like them and if they want more, and if they want to come join your Bible studies? Come on, Family! The world is a huge place. There is no city or area or country that is so "burned out" that you won't find an opening or market somewhere to get out My Words via the tools—and certainly nowhere so glutted that you won't find people who are hungry for more, and ready for deeper feeding.

103. Remember what your Father David used to say: "The world, brother! Let's take the world!" What happened to that vision? Are you content to just get yourself a little flock of a few that you feed and who "feed" or support you? Well, that's better than what some people are doing, that's for sure. But the world vision goes so much further than that! You should pray for the spirit of your Father David, who said he would not rest until everyone on Earth was saved! That may never happen in this era‚ but the least you can fight for is to not rest until everyone on Earth has heard My Words! That should be your vision. That is the spirit of a disciple. That is the fire of conviction that I want to see burning in your hearts!

104. I've called you to leave behind the world and worldly pursuits, including the serving of Mammon for financial gain. But I haven't called you away from that to make you paupers, to leave you destitute. True, there are times in My service when you must "abase" as well as "abound," but for the most part I want you to abound‚ to have all you need and more, so that this wealth might facilitate the preaching of My Gospel! And I haven't left you without a means. I've told you in the "Conviction vs. Compromise" GNs of My plan for your future support—the plan of building churches whose members will be willing to provide for you and support you. That's the end goal.

105. But you can't get from reliance on System support to reliance on your home church in one jump. There's a point B in between, and that's how you get from point A to point C. Point B is supporting yourself through the sale of My Word tools. They're not only providers of the water of My Word, but they're providers for your physical supply. There's no shame in that! It says right in My Word that "they which preach the Gospel shall live of the Gospel." That's the way I planned and ordained it.

106. I want you to use the means at your disposal to provide for yourselves and your families, especially while many of you are making the transition from dependence on the System to building a work and establishing a church. It's going to take time, but the time to start is now. You can't expect it to happen overnight‚ but you have to start taking steps toward making it happen today if you want it to happen at all. Focusing on distributing tools is one of the steps along the way; it's one of the means by which you will both meet those who will become your solid flock and church, and by which you will support My work as you establish a solid follow-up work. It's all a part of My plan. It can work together so beautifully if you will just follow, believe, and obey. Will you? Please do‚ because if you do you will be on the path of My highest will, moving toward greater dependence on Me and greater fulfillment of My desires, moving away from the world and dependence on its System.

107. I have called you to come out from among them. My cry for disciples and laborers resounds throughout the ages, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men!" Get out and fish for those souls, and I will see to it that you reel in a bountiful catch—a bountiful catch of souls as well as bountiful supply of your own needs. It's hard work saving souls‚ and it's hard work feeding them. It's hard work getting out and meeting them. It's not easy street. But in the long run, it will turn out to be well worth it. You may have to put in some long‚ hard hours to have a successful distribution ministry, as well as a successful follow-up ministry, but it's no less than you would have to do for the System if you were working for them! It's not worth giving your all for the sake of gaining mere sustenance, but it is worth giving your all for Me, and for the goal of reaching the world for Me! (End of message from Jesus)

nOur "Church" Membership

108. Our Active member and friends population has continued to grow and grow, which is a sign that the Family is not only embracing the Activated vision, but practicing it as well! Our "church" currently stands at 64‚466 as compared to last year's 55,128—up 9,338 members or 17%!

109. Our Family church includes 40,774 mail members (Activated subscribers are reported as mail members), which has seen a 25% rise (8,072 members) in 2001 and accounts for most of the increase of our overall church. Active members (live–outs and catacombers) total 1,770—up 502 members (40%) from 1,268 in 2000. Friends and supporters have risen by 52% over 2000 and presently stand at 21,922.

110. The CO area with the biggest combined membership is ASCRO with 23,419 members (36%)—17,575 of which are mail members. The Family in India continues to lead the way in the Activated era with 11‚445 mail members and one-fifth of the Family's "church!" India is the country with the highest number of Active members at 487 (27% of total Active members). ­Brazil takes second place at 360.

111. Our church membership is the highest it's ever been in the Family's 33-year history, and this is just the beginning. With the exception of 1993 (the year of the Argentine persecution), our church population has risen every year since 1985‚ so we can safely project more lasting fruit for the coming year!

nTo-Date Stats

112. To date, in our 33-year history, we've had a total witness by all means possible of 75.3 billion. We've personally witnessed to 252 million‚ and have led 25.4 million of them to the Lord (one out of 10 we witness to gets saved). We've had 11.7 million receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit (nearly half of those we've led to the Lord), we've distributed 881 million pieces of lit (tapes and videos and other tools are included in this total), and we've won a total of at least 29,134 disciples to the Family! There have been 13,503 Family births and 2,520 Family betrothals. There have also been 299 Family members who have passed on to their Heavenly reward.

113. Broken down into yearly averages, this gives us a total witness of 2.3 billion a year, personal witness of 7.6 million a year, souls won of 770,000 a year, 355,000 Holy Spirit baptisms a year, 883 new disciples‚ 409 births, and 76 betrothals a year—on average. We're still going strong!

Mark 16:15—
The Family's Renewed Focus

114. With the advent of the "Conviction vs. Compromise" series, the Lord has clearly renewed our focus as a Family. In keeping with the Activated revolution and the era of action, the Lord's instruction to the Family is to "look outward rather than inward," to become "teachers of all nations," and to "dedicate our full time to witnessing and follow-up" (ML #3298:97-125, GN 895). The Lord has said that witnessing, disciple-winning, and teaching and training our new sheep and members will again be the primary activity, ministry, and profession of the children of David!

115. We're very proud of those of you who are letting go of your System jobs and are launching out once again by faith, with your bag full of Activated magazines and subscription cards‚ Family tools, and Word–filled books to hit the streets, offices, shops and apartments, doing mass marketing and reaching the world for Jesus!—And are then following up, feeding, teaching and training your converts. You're doing the job! Keep at it!

116. As each Family member does their part to fulfill the Activated vision by getting back to the basics of daily witnessing, faithfully feeding the sheep‚ and getting out the wonderful tools available for distribution, our stats for 2002 will reflect our obedience to the Lord's commission to reach the world with His message!

GN Stats, Summary and Preview!

117. This last year was a bountiful one for New Wine, with 50 GNs produced and sent to you, an average of one every 7 days or so. These GNs contained some 892 pages, or an average of 18 pages each—although 9 of our GNs were much shorter, at only 4 or 8 pages.

118. This year marked the milestone beginning of posting GNs on the MO site on a regu­lar basis, starting with "The Board ­Vision" Letters in August. We hope you've made regular use of this feature to get you the GNs speedily. Why wait weeks on the postal service when you can get the new GNs by e-mail as quickly as they're available? (If you're not an authenticated MO site member, we suggest you review LNF 284 and sign up for this service soon!)

119. Another milestone this year, as mentioned earlier, was the "Conviction vs. Compromise" series‚ containing red-hot counsel from the Lord, Dad and Mama on how to rid ourselves of compromise. This series is import­ant preparation for the implementation of the boards. This major upcoming change for the Family was introduced in "The Board Vision!—Parts 1 and 2."

120. With the 5 GNs in the "More on the Keys" series and Part 4 of the Endtime series, the Lord gave us a look ahead into the future and what role the keys will play in the Endtime, as well as some counsel and promises we can claim to "Call on the Keys" in the GN by that name.

121. In "World Currents 100" we compiled a series of excerpts from messages about the bombing of the World Trade Center and Pentagon. (Other "Currents" messages have been a regular feature of the END, to get them to you on a monthly basis.) There've also been 3 other GNs with current news about the Family and changes therein, contained in "That Banana There," "A Look at 2000," and "Report on Summit 2001."

122. We continued the "Issues" series (4 GNs) as well as starting and nearly finishing the "Action Through Prayer" series (4 GNs) and "Activate the World" (3 GNs). Another set of Letters majored on leadership lessons which are applicable to all of us: "Leadership Lessons, Part 1," "New Era Humility," "A Changed Man," and "Being Re–created."

123. There were more spiritual lessons—and practical counsel and how-tos—in such Letters as "Communication Keys, Part 1 and 2," "Changing Deeply Ingrained Habits and Mind­sets," "Jewels on Comparing," "Victory Over Comparing‚ Part 1," and "Leaping the Hurdles, Part 2," not to mention the 5 Feast Letters.

124. There was the Lord's "Comfort in Affliction" in part 1 of that series, His counsel on prophecy in "Understanding Prophecy, Part 4" and "Teaching Children to Hear from the Lord," and His commendation to the Family in "Happy Birthday Family 2001!"

125. So last year featured quite a variety of New Wine, and there's quite a bit more in the vats for this year—more "Issues," "Leadership Lessons," "Comfort in Affliction," "Action Through Prayer," "Activate the World‚" "Victory Over Comparing, Part 2," a new series on anorexia, and much, much more!

"Conviction vs. Compromise" Series

126. In October and November of last year, the Lord and Mama delivered this hot GN ­series which we hope shook up and radically changed every Family member! This series was a milestone event for the Family, as the problems and compromises were spelled out in no uncertain terms, and the Lord's challenge and warnings were presented to all.

127. Since publishing this series‚ Mama and I have received a flood of mail from Family members around the world, commenting on these GNs, sharing heartfelt lessons, and declaring their wholehearted support for the Family and the New Wine.

128. It has been very encouraging to hear that the great majority of Family members are very happy, thankful, relieved, and grateful for this shakeup and revolution in the spirit. And we're also glad that those who have not been in agreement with our Family beliefs, policies, and goals are moving on and finding a place where they'll be happy.

129. Here are just a few of the supportive reactions and comments we've received from you:

130. Thank you for the "Conviction vs. Com­pro­­mise" series. It's tremendous what the Lord is doing—very needed, sobering‚ scary‚ exciting, thrilling‚ WONDERFUL!

131. These GNs hit home and made us very desperate to seek the Lord for needed changes in our lives. We were guilty of compromise in many areas and we're very thank­ful for this timely correction as we don't want our sheep to turn out churchy in any way.

132. Even though this series of Letters is very sobering, it is also exciting and reassuring.—Exciting because the End is getting closer and the Lord is going to use us in greater ways. And reassuring because we can see that the Lord doesn't let us or anybody in the Family get away with things that we were quite concerned about. We admire you for not compromising.

133. "Conviction vs. Compromise" was exactly what I needed. I want to be a 110%er. I never have been before, but it is my heart's desire to give my all to the Lord and the Family. I've always been considered a pretty good girl, but lately I've been realizing that there is a lot more to being in the Family.

134. It will be so cool when the day comes that everyone who is in the CM Family—especially young people my age—will be happy about being here and really want to uphold the standard. I guess we'll be a Gideon's band of diehards, and that's ­going to be radical. Wow! I can't wait! It will ­almost be the same as when people first joined way back in the '60s and '70s‚ except better!

135. My reaction to the new series is a complete awakening to the truths that the Lord is speaking to us. I like it so much! It has woken me up and reminded me of why I decided to serve the Lord 29 years ago.

136. God bless Mama for obeying the Lord and giving us this message. It was one of the best, most on-fire Letters she has ever written. Bravo!

137. We pray that you are all keeping the Lord's counsel and call to total and complete discipleship close to heart, and not sliding back in your commitments to the Lord, or allowing the evil Selvegion back into your Homes and lives, nor allowing Pan and Bacchus to influence your mind and actions. The Lord means for this change to stick!

138. In order for us to do the job the Lord has given us, it's imperative that we keep our hearts clean and free from the Enemy's division and from System entanglements. If you want to have a happy Home, a successful Activated ministry, a local body of believers, a group of Active members who support you financially and help your Home's ministries to progress, and the Lord's full blessing in your lives, then you need to strive with all that is in you to maintain the discipleship standard the Lord laid down in the "Conviction vs. Compromise" Letters. Don't let those GNs sit on the shelf. Reading them once or even twice is not enough. You need to continue to review them, remind yourself of the Lord's instruction and counsel, and keep yourself stirred up!

139. Each Family member has to continue doing his or her part in order for the Family to make and maintain the long-term changes that are needed. The Lord has outlined the problems and has given the solutions. Now each of you has to do the day–to-day hard work of making the right choices, abiding by your commitments, living in unity and humility with your bro­thers and sisters, putting the Lord first, preaching the meat of the Word, training and disciplining your children‚ and doing all that goes into being a revolutionary 110% Family disciple.

140. How are you doing?

The Family in 2001!

nPopulation

141. Our Family population has steadily decreased over the last few years, as the Lord has seen fit to prune the tree of those who weren't wholeheartedly in the CM/FM Family. Since the publishing of S2K in September of 1999‚ with the Lord's challenge to all Family members to reevaluate their place of service, each individual has chosen what level of service they felt called to. This has resulted in a 10% decrease in CM/FM members since S2K in September of 1999.

142. We expected this drop in Family membership, as the Lord had told us that there were those who needed to move out of the Family to go where they would be happy, and that in turn, this would strengthen the remaining CM/FM members.

143. In 2001, though the Family is once again a smaller "Gideon's band," our Family population has begun to level off. Undoubtedly there will be more fluctuation in Family population as a result of the "Conviction vs. Compromise" series and the Lord and Mama's repeated challenge to move on to another place of service if you're not a fully committed disciple and follower of the teachings.

144. Combined CM/FM Population: At the end of 2000, there were 12,044 Family members. Our CM and FM population is currently at 11,851. This is a 1.6% decrease, which in comparison with the past trends in Family population since S2K is very slight. This doesn't reflect any movement after "Conviction vs. Compro­mise," which will cause some change in our population over the months to come.

145. CM Population: During the year 2000, in the aftermath of S2K‚ CM population dropped approxi­mately 1% a month, for a total of 10%. This past year in 2001, the CM population dropped only 1.7% during the full year, from 8,951 CM members to our current 8‚789 CM members—a loss of 162 members.

146. FM Population: Throughout 1999 and 2000 the FM Family population increased due to CM members changing status as a result of S2K. In 2001 this trend has changed, with the FM population decreasing by about 2% from 3,156 to 3,062 current FM members. This is the first decrease in the FM Family since 1998. This is mostly due to some FMers becoming former members and fewer CMers becoming FMers in 2001 than in the months after S2K.

nCM/FM Homes

147. In 2001, new Family Homes have been opening at a rate of at least 4 a month. We have 29 more CM Homes and 16 more FM Homes than we did at the end of 2000. There are currently 819 CM Homes and 652 FM Homes worldwide. This brings the total number of Family Homes to 1,471! That's the most Family Homes since November of 1983! Though there was a slight decline in the number of Family Homes in the year and a half following S2K‚ on average since the Charter there has been an increase of 8 Homes a month, with 85% of that increase being in CM Homes. Since we only count the increase in Homes, the actual number of Homes opened each month is substantially greater.

148. The CM to FM Home ratio has changed a lot since the Charter as well. At the time of the Charter there were 264 more FM Homes than CM Homes, whereas now there are 167 more CM Homes than FM Homes. Currently 56% of the total number of Family Homes are CM‚ 44% are FM.

149. With the increase in Homes but the decrease in members, the average Home size has dropped this year for both CM and FM Homes. The average CM Home size is 10.7 people per Home‚ down slightly from 11 in 2000. This is the lowest since December of 1984 and is way lower than the 42 members per CM Home 10 years ago! FM average Home size is 4.7 people per Home, which is also a little less than the average of 5 members per Home in 2000.

nNew Laborers

150. The Family won a total of 171 new disciples this year, down 107 (38%) from last year's 278. Of 2001's new disciples, 102 (60%) joined the CM Family and 69 (40%) joined the FM Family. The 102 new CM disciples won in 2001 is the second lowest in our Family's history (in 1991 there were only 66 new CM disciples), and is a decrease of 35% from 2000. FM new disciples were down by 43%. Folks, we need to do better than this, and we will, if we will feed the sheep the Word on a regular basis through follow-up, Activated, Bible classes, etc., as well as challenge them to live the Word they read!

151. In total, the Family has won at least 29,134 new disciples since we began keeping stats at the end of 1971. Of those who joined in the past 32 years (including children with their parents)‚ 3,328 (11.5%) remain in the CM Family.

nBirths

152. We had 202 births in 2001, which is an average of 17 a month, 12% lower than the 229 births in 2000. The birthrate in the Family has been declining for several years now (the last time there was an increase in births over the previous year was in 1997), and the number of births has dropped dramatically. In 1991, 10 years ago, there were 442 births (119% more than this year), while the average CM/FM population in 1991 and 2001 was the same. The difference is that in 1991 71% of Family adults were between the ages of 19 to 39, whereas at present only 43% of adults are in that age bracket, and more than half of them (55%) are single.

153. To date there have been 13‚503 births in the Family, or an average of 409 a year for 33 years! Of the 13,503 children born in the Family, 6,084 (45%) remain in the CM Family.

nBetrothals

154. We had 58 betrothals in 2001, or an average of 5 a month—over one a week, and three more than in 2000. To date we've had 2,520 betrothals reported‚ or an average of 76 a year.

nNationalities

155. The Family is made up of 93 nationalities—unchanged from last year at this time. Active members and those being ministered to on a regular basis add an additional 23 nationalities. This brings the total number of nationalities that the Family either has members of, or is feeding and following up on, to 116! This is up by 29 nationalities from 1990, when we only had nationals from 87 countries.

156. Family members from the US make up 26% of CM/FM members. Included in the top 5 are Brazilians, who make up 10% of the CM/FM Family; Japanese, who make up 7%; and both Canadians and British, each totaling 5% of the Family.

157. In 1990, 64% of the CM Family were from the west and 36% were from other countries. Today those figures are 58% westerners and 42% other nationalities, which shows that we've won and are making disciples of all nations rather than just staying in and being mostly comprised of the nations where the Family began. Since three-fourths of our CM Homes are on the mission field and we've put a renewed emphasis on winning disciples and Active members, we expect that in the years to come this ratio will change drastically, with members from non–western nations becoming the vast majority of the Family! It can happen if you will lead them to the Lord‚ feed them‚ and bring them to discipleship or Active membership.

nWhere We Are

158. The Family is all over the world! We have Homes in 102 countries on six continents, meaning that we expanded to one more country in 2001. We've had Homes close down in three countries this year and open in four new ones—Bulgaria, Estonia, Jamaica and Nicaragua. God bless you brave pioneers!

159. We are a missionary-minded Family‚ with most of those who have dedicated their lives to full-time service to the Lord doing what the Lord has told us to do—going into all the world! 75% of our CM Homes are on mission fields and 77% of our CM members live in those Homes.

160. When the Charter was implemented in 1995‚ only 30% of CM Homes (which housed 64% of CM members) were on the field. That has changed in the past six years, and many more of the CM Family are now on needy mission fields that are ready to harvest. These fields include the countries of Africa, where our CM Family population has increased by 2100% since the Charter's implementation, when there were only three Homes and 27 CM members in Africa. We now have 597 CM members in Africa—an increase of 23% over the previous year and 7% of our total CM population! The country with the most CM members is still Brazil with 1,145 CMers‚ which is 13% of all CM Family members. The US has the most FM Family, with 720 FMers (23.5% of the FM Family).

161. While 75% of CM members are on the field, FM members are almost evenly split between the western nations of the US and Canada, Western Europe and Australia‚ and mission fields. 52% of FM members are in the west, with 48% on mission fields.

nMakeup of Our Members

162. Ages/Sex/Generations: The number of voting members in the Family is now greater than the number of children for the first time since the mid-seventies. There are 6,281 (53% of CM/FM members) voting members (16+), and 5‚570 (47% of CM/FM members) children. 6% of the combined Family is 50 and over, 22% are between the ages of 30 to 49, 19% are 18- to 29-year-olds, a combined 20% are JETTs through senior teens, and 33% are children under 12.

163. In the CM Family there are 8,789 members. Broken down‚ there are 2,882 first generation members (defined for stats purposes as having joined the Family being older than 16 or without their parents), and 5,907 second or third generationers. So 67% of the CM Family today was born or raised in the Family, which means 33% of current Family members joined the Family as adults. 63% of CM voting members over 16 joined the Family and 37% of CM voting members over 16 are from the second generation.

164. The second generation is broken down into 4,195 (71%) second/third generation children, and 1,712 (29%) second generationers over 16.

165. CM male and female demographics (age 0-76) are pretty evenly split, with 51% being female and 49% being male. In the second generation there are 2,950 boys/men to the 2‚957 girls/women—7 more females than males. In the first generation there are 1,363 men and 1,519 women—about 11% more females than males.

166. Sun Signs: Have you ever wondered what the breakdown of sun signs in the Family is? It's amazing to note that it's pretty well balanced‚ with all the sun signs almost equally represented. Our largest group in the CM Family is the Leos, with a total of 804 (444 adults, 360 kids).

167. Marital Status: There are 2,323 adults in the CM Family who are married. That's 50% of CM adults. Of those that are married, 1,963 are from the first generation and 360 are from the second generation. Of the 2,882 first generation, 68% are married, whereas of the 1,712 second generation over 16, just 21% are married. This is most likely due to the fact that 59% of the second generation over 16 are between the ages of 16 to 20.

168. If you are single (16+) and are wondering about other singles, well‚ there are 2,270 singles in the CM Family. 919 (40%) of those are from the first generation and 1,351 (60%) are from the second generation. Of the first generation singles, 537 (58%) are women and 382 (42%) are men. Of the second generation singles (16+), 706 (52%) are women and 645 (48%) are men—just 61 more second generation single women than men.

169. Now you're probably wondering where all the singles are! The CO area with the most singles is EURCRO (25%)! The CO area with the most single women is again EURCRO (26%), but it's also the CO area with the most single men (25%).

170. Time in the Family (CM – FGA): There are presently 2,882 voting members over 16 in the CM Family who joined as adults and were not born or raised in the Family. Of these CM voting members, 4% (121) joined in the last couple of years, 23% (651) joined in the '90s, 26% (745) joined in the '80s, 46% (1,340) joined in the '70s, and 1% (25) have been around since 1969. That means that nearly half of all those who joined the CM Family as adults joined before 1981 and have been in the CM Family for at least 21 years. Of the other half, half of those have been in the CM Family for at least 11 years, and 25% of CMers (16+) who joined the Family have joined over the last 10 years!

Mama's Personal Mail

By Ashley

171. Mama is so thankful for each one of you, and appreciates receiving your notes, letters‚ questions, pro­ph­ecies, prayer requests, testimonies, reactions to the New Wine, as well as your words of love and encour­age­ment.

172. During the last twelve months, with the help of her secretaries, Mama replied to 1,025 letters, an average of 85 per month—a 10% increase from last year. 13.5% of Mama's replies were to male SGAs; 26.7% to female SGAs; 27.4% to male FGAs; 32.4% to female FGAs. 16.4% of Mama's replies went to ASCRO; 28% to EURCRO; 20.8% to NACRO; 10% to PACRO; 24.8% to SACRO.

173. Mama receives an abundance of mail and likes to be able to respond to as many people as possible. We try to reply as promptly as we can to any letters that need answers—with the exception of birthday notes, thank-you letters and the like—so if you haven't received a response and you're waiting to hear back, please resend your letter. It could be that we missed receiving it or that you missed receiving our reply. We love you!

News from Mama and Peter

174. Mama and I would like to thank you for your prayers for us this past year. They've kept us going and we've certainly felt them. It's been a big year, with a lot of import­ant issues to pray and counsel about, including the summit, the Activated push‚ planning the board structure and working on the GNs to present the vision to you, and the "Conviction vs. Compromise" series, to name just a few. Mama and I spent countless hours discussing and praying about each of the above matters‚ counseling with the COs and the administration team, and seeking the Lord for His answers. With so much going on this past year, we've been very grateful for good health and the Lord's protection.

175. The Lord has continued to keep Mama healthy, enabling her to attend Summit 2001 with me, which was a personal milestone and big event for her—and a blessing to all the COs, who she spent a lot of time personally shepherd­ing and talking with. Her eyes have been doing quite well, and she's been able to use them a considerable amount without headaches or too much pain. She can't use them for reading, but thanks to your faithful intercession for her, she is now able to keep them open most of the time, which is such a change from years ago when she could barely keep them open at all.

176. Thank you also for your prayers for my heart, which did act up once or twice this year. Each time the Lord was faithful to heal me‚ though it does cause me to slow down for a month or so, to take it easy and get more rest. I do appreciate and need your prayers. Please also pray for all those in our Family who have heart trouble or experience mild heart attacks from time to time.

177. I made three trips this year. The first was to Summit 2001, held in Thailand in January through February, which Mama also attended. The second was to Switzerland, where, along with some of the administration team, I met with the Aurora folks and with others about other Family business. Midyear, I attended the 5th Brazil National Retreat, and it was a tremendous inspiration and blessing to see our Family there in action with the fruit of their faithful and long-term follow-up ministries.

178. We also had three of our COs visit our Home this past year: Sweetie, who stayed for four months; Dawn (EURCRO), for two months; and Dawn (ASCRO, who stepped down as a CO after the summit and was with us for seven months, after which she paid a visit to ASCRO and has since returned to help in our Home). Each was able to get some much needed rest and refilling, and also receive personal shep­herding from Mama.

Highlighting Our Kids

179. Our children (ages 0-15) make up 47% of our worldwide Family. Each one is so very important to us! While much of the work of the Family can be shown in statistics, it's imposs­ible to tally all of the love, sacrifice, teaching, training‚ desperate prayer and all the rest that goes into the care of our precious children. You parents‚ teachers, and childcare workers have put so much of yourselves into caring for them, teaching them school‚ giving them inspired and feeding Word classes, helping them to memorize, to learn how to care for themselves, to learn to be good witnesses, etc.‚ and we want to highly commend you for your labors of love.

180. Those of you who care for our children are molding and shaping our future! The time you invest in helping our little ones to be happy, content, secure, and to know the Lord in a personal way is time well spent. In fact, there's no greater influence you could have! So, folks, please encourage and show your appreciation to those who are raising our future generation.—And help them by doing your part with the kids and keeping them in your prayers.

181. Here's a recent message the Lord gave for our wonderful childcare workers‚ parents, and teachers:

182. (Jesus:) My precious teachers and trainers, how I love you for the care, love, and training that you give to the precious souls that I have entrusted to your care. Each of you has a hand in the sculpting of the lives of My precious children. You are given the living raw material, and through your love, care, discipline, teaching, training, and patience‚ you sculpt this living material—these hearts—into those who grow to love and serve Me. You teach My precious ones not just the wisdom of the world, but the wisdom of God.

183. Through your love, patience, and tender care they learn to know Me and become aware of My miracle-working power, My tender love for them, and the care that I give them both now and will give them throughout their life. You are as the jewelers who receive the raw unfinished gems and who cut and polish them into the most valuable stones. It is a slow, painstaking, patient work that you do, but the lives of these precious gems develop into good, Godly‚ loving human beings who will go forth and do good in this world.

184. Thank you, My darlings, for the sacrifice, the labor‚ and the love that goes into the care of My precious children. Thank you for your willingness to give day in and day out. Thank you for coming to Me about each one and hearing from Me on how to best help these little ones grow. Thank you for recognizing that each one is a unique child, a unique person, a unique personality. Thank you for understanding and being flexible enough to care for each one individually, helping to fill each one's needs, ­helping each one to grow at his or her pace. This takes patience, love, and a strong connection with Me. Thank you for doing your best to have that connection, to have that patience, to have that love.

185. The work you do and the sacrifices you make are so very important to Me and to My overall work and plan. I know from time to time you compare with those who do other things, other jobs, other ministries, and you think that theirs are more important or more widespread. But I say to you: You are sculpting the hearts and lives of some of My most precious creations, and to Me that is extremely important.

186. You also make it possible for others to do their work‚ which is needful for the Kingdom in order to reach the world. I say that you receive a portion of the blessings of their work because you make their work possible. You are as they who stand by the stuff, who receive equal in return.

187. I thank you‚ My loves, and I honor you for your willingness to follow the calling that I have given to you—a calling of servants, teachers‚ parents, guides and friends to My children. You are all of these things to these, My precious jewels. It is difficult for you to know the full impact you have had and will have on their tiny little lives, and even throughout your lifetime it will be unclear how much you have affected them. But know that in the days to come‚ in your life in Heaven, you will understand the great impact that you have had, and how the sculpting of their lives in these early years has made them into the people that they will become. You will see that the goodness and the love and the Godliness that they have throughout their lives is in part because of the sculpting that you have wrought in their lives during these early years.

188. Thank you, My loves. Thank you for your giving, for your love‚ for your sacrifice. Great is your reward in Heaven, and great is your reward on Earth as you see these little ones grow in the nurture and admonition of their God. (End of message from Jesus.)

Text box:

(Jesus:) Your children are the hope of the future! They are the little beacons of the End. They're soaking up the light now and taking it all in through the training that you're giving them, but when their time comes, their little lights will turn on and they will shine brightly for the whole world. So pour into them with all your hearts now‚ because the light they absorb now is the same light they'll shine upon the world in the days soon to come.

Continued in GN 979

(End of file.)