Peter
February 4, 2005
GN 1111 FM Year-end GN
A Review of 2004!
By Peter A. FM 3520 12/04
Notes: Unless otherwise indicated, the news and stats in this GN are from the time period beginning November 2003 and going through October 2004. Also, every mention of "this year" refers to 2004, and every mention of "last year" refers to 2003—unless otherwise noted.
Dear Family,
1. Happy Family Birthday! We all made it through another year, and what a year it was! Mama and I are so proud of you. 2004 was a milestone year in our Family's history, and you have played a major part in the tremendous progress that has been made.
2. 2004, our year of restructuring, has been a difficult but very successful year. The Lord put the pressure on us to recommit ourselves to His service, to rid ourselves of compromise, to determine our level of commitment, and to break the shackles of worldliness that were holding us back from being the disciples and followers we were meant to be.
3. Our Husband asked us to go through a period of renewal, forsaking all worldly input in order to free us from the strong hold the world had on our minds and hearts and spirits. This not only set us free from these addictions, but provided more time for fellowship together, bringing about more unity. It also allowed us to focus more on an extremely important part of our Family‚ our children and JETTs and teens, as they became more of a focus in each Home.
4. Jesus reached deep into our hearts to root out our bad habits and attitudes and mindsets through the "Shooting Straight" GN series. He clearly stated His views on the subjects‚ gave us a great deal of background on the matters through the Letter links‚ and challenged us to accept His truth while jettisoning our negative and wrong mindsets.
5. Our Coach also challenged us to be winners—to choose our place of service and to excel in it. Whether FD, MM‚ or FM‚ He insists that we be winners. He won't stand for less, as less would mean defeat‚ and He won't be defeated.
6. As we entered 2004, the Lord put the pressure on. He demanded a lot, He expected a lot, He insisted that we rise to the occasion, and He gave us the means to do so through His Word. It's been tough; we've had to change, to stretch our faith. As individuals we've each had to make decisions of commitment. We've had to make choices in regards to our lifestyles and habits. We've had to take stock of our personal beliefs.
7. As a Family we've had to collectively decide if we were going to lose the fight for our survival as a movement, or if we are going to do whatever is necessary to make the Family the fighting, victorious force it's meant to be—no matter what the cost, no matter what the sacrifice.
8. None of this has been easy. 2004 was certainly the year of restructuring. The Lord has not only restructured the Family as a whole, but He's done restructuring work on each one of us—on each heart, each mind, each attitude.
9. But it's made a difference! Each of us is different. We've grown. We've gone through the tests, we've made the right decisions, both as individuals and as a Family, and we're determined to stand and fight through to complete victory!
10. The Family of 2005 is different than the Family of 2004. It's more dedicated, less compromised, more determined than ever to be winners. We've shed those things that have held us back for years. We're more united. We're getting ready to fight the battles that are ahead—battles that will help us to win the overall war.
11. It's been a tough year, but a good year—a year with many victories, both individually and collectively. And Mama and I know that 2005‚ the year of strengthening, will build on the foundation of 2004's victories. That's how wars are won. The army wins battles, and building on those victories, goes on to win more battles‚ and eventually wins the overall war.
12. We are on the way to winning that war! The victories of 2004 are paving the way for the victories of 2005, which are leading the way to our becoming the victorious army the Lord has called us to be.
13. We are becoming winners, and as we continue on, fighting and winning each battle, we will, by God's grace, become the victorious conquerors the Lord has destined us to be. We're not there yet, by any means, but we are making the tough decisions today that will make us the victors of tomorrow.
14. Mama and I are so proud of you for fighting through the battles of 2004 and for winning victories! And we're not the only ones proud of you; here is what our loving Husband said about you:
15. (Jesus:) I have asked a great deal of you this year, and I'm proud of you for the good choices you've made. It hasn't been easy. I'm the first to admit that, because I can see the big picture, and I know exactly what I've asked of each one of you. But that means I can also say with more certainty and conviction than anyone else: Well done!
16. "Restructuring" is a simple-sounding word, but it literally means constructing a completely new structure, doing away with the old and bringing in the new. It means completely altering the makeup of something, or creating a completely new pattern or way of doing things. So when you look at the word restructuring in light of the kinds of changes I've been bringing about within your heart and spirit—beginning to construct a completely new you, or asking you to forsake everything from the past and take on the new, or asking you to totally revamp your mindsets and ways of thinking, and asking you to be a new creature—you realize now what I meant all along.
17. The reality is that the year of restructuring has been anything but easy, and the biggest restructuring has happened in your heart‚ life, spirit, and Home. I'm very proud of you for accepting and yielding to the big changes I've brought your way. I'm proud of you for letting Me into the different rooms of your heart and life to show you what is wrong, or off, or what should be completely forsaken. I'm proud of you for saying yes to Me, even when you didn't completely understand what you were saying yes to. I'm proud of you for letting Me shake you down to the foundation of your faith, to completely restructure you, in order to begin rebuilding something new and better and more useful to Me. I'm proud of you for letting Me chip away at the old and bring in the new.
18. I know this year hasn't been easy, but it's been a good year, because much progress has been made on many fronts. The most important victories have been the decisions you've made to obey, to yield, to submit, to learn once again what it means to truly forsake all that you have and follow Me. You haven't "arrived" yet, and you still have decisions to make‚ changes to implement, and goals you're working to reach, but you're on the right track and you're headed for even greater victories. You may not have the greatest stats ever this year—at least not high stats in everything—but you sure have high stats when it comes to the things that I was seeking most for this year.
19. In addition to the increase in some of the most important areas of your witness—such as personal witnessing, souls‚ and Activated mags—you have high obedience stats, high yieldedness stats‚ and high forsake–all stats! And you have high discipleship stats, since you're each better disciples today than you were a year ago. Overall, you have the stats that count, the stats that I was desperately hoping you'd be able to present Me with at the end of the year. You have made good decisions, and these good decisions are going to translate into you growing stronger in the year to come‚ and to becoming greater Endtime witnesses as a result.
20. I had a plan for the year of restructuring, and that plan has been accomplished—thanks to your help‚ yieldedness, obedience, and good decisions. The year of restructuring was a success! This part of the war has been won, thanks to each of you and the part you played. I'm proud of you, and the victories of this year give Me great hope that the goals of next year will also be reached, because you have the determination to make the grade! Thank you, My loves, for helping Me to make My dreams and visions for you come true. (End of message.)
21. (Peter:) Isn't that wonderful?! Doesn't that encourage you to keep up the fight until we win the war? Praise the Lord!
22. Before I get into the stats and highlights of the year, I'd like to mention something very important: There are a lot of vital stats and key happenings within the Family that I wasn't able to include in this GN. Usually, with the year-end GNs‚ I like to be able to cover A-Z as much as possible, and I especially aim to highlight as much as possible of what you, dear Family, are doing. I also try to get as much news from the boards as possible, to show you what's happening in each board pillar worldwide.
23. For example, last year there was a whole GN dedicated to the board highlights—which was inspiring to read. But unfortunately this year, mainly due to lack of time to work on this GN, since at the time of writing it I'm involved with a lot of restructuring work and getting other GNs prepared and to you, and the international boards are extremely busy as well—with their criteria, handbooks, etc.—I was only able to include brief highlights from the international board chairpersons (IBCs), the overall Family stats analysis, and some news from WS. That's not because there wasn't other terrific Family and board news that I could and would have liked to include‚ but simply because it was all we had the time to generate, edit, and get out to you.
24. So, although we can't publish all of the details, we want to tell you that this year the boards have been more active than ever before. There has been great progress in the FED, CP‚ CS (VS)‚ PR, CGO, and JT pillars in every region. Mama and I receive monthly summaries from the IBCs, and they are packed with news and victories. It's a huge amount of material to read, because the boards are as busy as can be—and I'm sure you are all benefiting as a result. So, as you're reading this GN, please remember that I'm by no means presenting all the news and victories there are to celebrate. If I had time, and I wish I did‚ I'd be able to put together at least six more year-end GNs for 2004—at least one to highlight the Family victories in each of the board pillars.
25. God bless each of you who play a part in the board vision—either by being a board member yourself, or supporting others who are, or participating in and helping with board initiatives in your area. There's great progress being made, even though most of it won't be published in this GN. Again‚ the absence of a lot of news about the boards in this GN doesn't mean that the boards were doing less this year than last year. They were doing much more. We just didn't have time to gather and compile all of the information. We're sorry we couldn't put more into this GN‚ or cover important happenings more extensively, but we pray that it will still be a blessing to you, in giving you a general overview of the "state of our nation."
26. Besides the tremendous spiritual progress made in 2004‚ we've also moved forward on a number of other fronts.
27. This year the Family personally witnessed 6.2 million times! That's up from 2003's 5.8 million by 336,000 times, meaning we personally witnessed about 1,000 times a day more this year than last year. That's the fourth highest personal witness we've had in the last 15 years.
28. Our average times personal witnessing per adult was 1,052 for the year, or about 88 times a month. This is an increase over our last two years' personal witnessing per adult stats of 953 times in 2003 and 967 times in 2002. So even though we've been fighting on many fronts this past year‚ we've made some headway in our personal witness.
29. We've also had a slight increase in our souls won to the Lord this year. This year's salvations reached 1,110,493, an increase of 10,753 souls over last year. While not a huge increase, it's definitely forward movement in a year when there were a variety of major battles to fight, so overall a really good job!
30. And just to put this stat in perspective, winning over 1.1 million souls is approximately equivalent to the Family descending upon Ottawa, Canada, and winning the whole city to Jesus. Or, Bern, Switzerland; Nice, France; Guatemala City, Guatemala; San Francisco, California; Dublin‚ Ireland; Perm, Russia; Hanoi, Vietnam; Hiroshima, Japan; or equal to the population of Guyana and Suriname combined. It's a lot of people!
31. It also means we averaged 92‚500 souls a month this year! That comes out to over 3,000 a day, or 2 souls a minute!
32. The Family has now won over a million souls in a one–year period 14 times. 2004 was the eighth year in a row that we've won over a million! The most souls we've ever won in any single year was 1.5 million in 1983. Let's see if we can beat that in 2005!
[Box]
• Personal witness: 270 million
• Souls: 29 million
• Holy Spirit baptisms: 13 million
• Pieces of lit distributed: 925 million
• Posters distributed: 123 million
• Tapes and CDs distributed: 11 million
• Videos distributed: 2 million
[End of box]
33. We've made major headway in our overall literature and tools distribution. For the last three years prior to 2004, the Family distributed pieces in the 13 million mark for each of those years. In 2004 it jumped up to 17.3 million, an increase of 4.3 million pieces! That's tremendous! This ranks as our fifth highest year of distribution in the last 20 years, and is well above our 20-year average of 14.7 million pieces per year! Praise the Lord!
34. We also did quite well as a Family in distributing Activated mags and getting Activated subscriptions in 2004. At this time, we have 22,809 current subscribers to the Activated magazine. At the time of writing last year's year-end GN‚ we had 19,391 subscribers. So we have over 3,000 more subscribers now than we had at this same time last year. On top of this, many people are regularly receiving the Activated magazine through our Homes' personal mail ministries or through personal monthly delivery.
35. 21,845 Activated subscriptions were sold this year (this includes re-subscriptions), compared to the 17‚132 subscriptions sold in 2003‚ an increase of 4,713. The figures increase each year, and this is the most sold for any single year thus far.
36. 879,469 Activated mags were distributed by the Homes this year, which is an increase of over 100‚000 from last year—and this, when added to the mags sent to subscribers this year, takes our total Activated mag distribution this year over the 1 million mark. Those are impressive stats, and show that we're making wonderful progress in obeying the Lord's commission to "activate" the world!
37. Most of our traditional tools were down in distribution from last year: Posters were 1.7 million compared to 2.0 million the year before; Tapes and CDs were 560,000 compared to 605‚000; Videos were 90,000 compared to 104,000. But "other" pieces distributed, which includes Activated mags and books, were up to 15 million pieces as compared to only 10 million for each of the three years previous to 2004. This reflects the fact that you are getting out new tools such as Activated mags, books (both books for children, and ones for adults), CD cards, etc., as well as becoming better "instant witnesses" by getting out tracts wherever you go. Praise the Lord!
38. 2004 brought some major changes that affected our Homes. The creation of the Missionary membership category and the change to the minimum FD Home size have both had a huge effect on the Family. Since the cutoff date for the minimum Home size of six voting members 18 and older is the January TRF, we don't know, at the time of writing this GN, what the full repercussions of these changes are.
39. Based on the stats at the end of October 2004, we have 395 FD Homes, 149 MM Homes, and 728 FM Homes. However, these October stats list 147 FD Homes that have less than the required minimum of six members 18 and over, so the stats may look very different when you are reading this GN. Once we have the up-to-date stats, we'll post them on the MO site.
40. We expect that the number of our MM Homes will increase, as some of the present FD Homes won't find the needed personnel to bring their Homes above the minimum size by the January deadline and will become MM. Also, throughout the first part of the year, some of our FM Homes will be received into Missionary membership.
41. The October 2004 stats show that we have 56 FD Homes with just 6 adults 18 and over‚ and 40 with 7 adults 18 and over. We have 117 Homes with 8 to 12 adults 18 and over, and we have 32 Homes with 13 or more adults 18 and over.
42. As of October 2004 we have 21 MM Homes with one adult 18 and over; 57 with 2; 24 with 3; 18 with 4; 12 with 5; and 17 with 6 or more.
43. Our FM Homes are made up of 190 Homes with just one person 18 or older; 280 Homes with 2; 110 Homes with 3; 69 with 4; 44 with 5; and 35 with 6 or more.
44. Of course, all of these numbers are somewhat fluid, and will be throughout the first half of 2005 as the Homes' demographics will change. Some who became MM due to low Home size will get their numbers up and will become FD. Others will move into FD after making whatever changes were needed. All in all, our Homes are in somewhat of a state of flux due to the restructuring; however, in the end we know the Family will be stronger overall‚ as everyone in each category will be striving to do their very best in their service to the Lord and the Family.
45. Our total Family population (FD/MM/FM) at the time of writing this GN is 10,231 (this stat last year was 10,653), which includes 37% first generation members (3,807), 58% second generation members (5,903), and 5% third generation members (521). This is broken down into 5,657 FD members, 1,015 MM members, and 3‚559 FM members.
46. Our highest concentration of total members is in North America (14%), Western Europe (13%), and Brazil (12%). That accounts for 39% of the Family's total population. Our highest concentration of FD members, as of October 2004‚ is Eastern Eurasia (12%)‚ then North America and Mexico/Central America (tied at 11%).
47. Our other membership has been on the rise. We have 3,304 Active members. (These don't reflect the new definition of Active members‚ as explained in "The Family Membership Expands‚" but rather our previous method of classifying Active members, which included live-outs and catacombers, which was basically our Active membership of the past.)
48. Our Homes are also currently reporting an outside population of 92,151. This number includes outside witnessers, active supporters, mail members, etc. (This reflects our previous method of reporting these stats.) This number skyrocketed 18% this year from last year's 78‚000, which is far above our 15-year average of about 35,000 outside population. These stats will of course change next year with the implementation of the new categories of membership.
49. Although you didn't receive as many regular pubs as usual during the renewal, the GNs kept flowing in a steady stream, with wonderful counsel from our Husband on a variety of subjects. This year we sent out 53 GNs (50 printed and 3 online) totaling 1,130 pages. GNs ranged from 4 pages to a massive 60 pages (the CGO criteria)—although the average was 21.3 pages per GN.
50. Since this year was the year of restructuring for the Family, it's not surprising that 9 GNs (a total of 230 pages) were related directly to this topic. We were also blessed with 4 Feast GNs, which began teaching us more about how to make our most underused weapon of praise our most-used weapon, and gave us more insight into the mysteries of the keys.
51. Other important series of GNs include: 3 "Choices and Consequences" GNs, which emphasized the importance of obedience and being our brother's keeper. Then 3 "Get Up and Get Over It" GNs opened our eyes to the dangers of sensitivity, and gave us more insight and counsel on how we can learn to shepherd and help one another in love.
52. The renewal brought with it 10 GNs (11 separate Letters, making a total of 178 pages—even though the last renewal GN came out after the cutoff time for the stats in this year-end GN), helping us to know the Lord's mind and have His perspective and counsel on the renewal from start to finish, during those important months of our history. (You also received the "Renewal CD" with ideas, suggestions, stories, activities, and much more for the renewal.)
53. In the second half of the year, we sent out 8 "Shooting Straight" GNs (180 pages), which have set the record straight on a number of issues and brought about revolutions in our mindsets and attitudes.
54. Then‚ to bring the GN year to a close, at the end of 2004 we began sending out the board criteria (starting with CGO)‚ preceded by "God's Trampolines," to help us "bounce" even higher in 2005.
55. Other miscellaneous GN subjects included: Christmas, year–end and board news‚ the Family birthday celebration, commendation for parents/teachers/shepherds, how to handle stress and pressure‚ Mama's visit to Central America, being faithful unto death‚ offerings, alcohol, intellectuality, the connection between revelations and artwork, how to take changes professionally‚ lethargy, Loving Jesus.
56. Lord willing, here are some of the GNs coming your way in 2005: "From Jesus—With Love!" messages in short GNs; messages on fighting battles; "From Jesus—With Love!" messages for prisoners; a "Leaping the Hurdles" GN, etc. Mama also has a number of other exciting projects up her sleeve, which she will be working hard to get to you‚ such as new persecution testimonies from the past and future, and faith-building persecution quotes, which she will read and record for you, dear Family, God willing. (Please keep this project in your prayers, and especially pray that the Lord will protect her eyes from pain or strain as she works on it.)
57. Please also stay tuned for more posted GNs in 2005—on the MO site. Since we have so much to get to you and we won't be able to print it all, we'll be posting more GNs that won't necessarily be printed right away (and in some cases, may never be printed, until they get put in a Lifelines book). So please check the MO site periodically, and ensure that your Home has the ability to download, or else some other way to get ahold of them, such as from another Home in your area. (Reminder: See "Charter Amendments 2003," GN 1033, point 36, regarding circulating downloaded pubs.)
58. You can also expect a number of new "Shooting Straight" GNs on such hot topics as: churchianity and churchy books; racism; Jesus babies; having faith; promoting our meaty doctrines; family reunions; favoritism; "hanging out" in the Family; retirement; the fountain of youth; true beauty; intergenerational dating and marriage; pornography; being punctual; perseverance and long-term commitment; knowing your helpers and hinderers; the spirit of weariness; anger; wastefulness; the "poor-me's," and a whole lot more!
59. Of course, even though the Lord keeps pouring out His riches from Heaven in abundance, it takes quite a bit of hard work to "pipe it to you." There's a lot that goes into "that banana there" of the GNs—and all of the WS pubs and services, for that matter. It takes our WS workers real time and effort and prayer and stick-to-it-iveness to get our Husband's jewels to you, and relatively quickly. So please continue to uphold Mama and me in prayer, as well as all of those who help us, because it's a big job that just keeps growing all the time.
60. In fact‚ everything in this GN that we're saying "you can expect‚" or that "should be coming your way in 2005‚" isn't guaranteed. All of these blessings aren't automatic or a "sure thing." All of the GNs and pubs and services require personnel—which we don't have enough of at the moment. It takes prayer—our prayers and your prayers. It takes finances—which is a result of your giving and our collective prayers for the Lord's supply, since we in WS pray for supply too.
61. We have a lot of pubs and GNs, GP tools, CDs, and all kinds of things that we want to get to you, dear Family. But if you're interested in receiving them, the Lord expects you to do your part‚ what you can, and that's to pray. No matter how much we or the Lord want to supply you with‚ if we don't have the personnel, for example, we just won't be able to do all that we hope to do.
62. All of our departments in WS need personnel, because of the increased work and projects generated over the last couple of years. The work isn't slowing down—just as it isn't slowing down for you‚ dear Family. If anything, the work is only going to increase. So please pray that the Lord will raise up those we need to help us—and if He's calling you, please don't hesitate to write and let us know!
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Mama's Helpers Trivia
63. • This department (which includes Mama's full-time secretaries and channels‚ and those who help her with her personal mail and her work on the GNs) makes up 13% of WS.
64. • The youngest person on the team is 26, and the oldest (but definitely young in spirit) is 54.
[End of box]
65. Mama and her secretaries have been busy this year, as usual, answering lots of letters from you‚ dear Family. This year Mama and her secretaries sent out over 1,800 personal letters to people who had written in, and over 630 of those included personal prophecies. That averages out to about five letters every day of the year and translates into a lot of work, which shows just how much Mama loves each and every one of you. She considers you and your questions very important, and appreciates everything you take the time to send her—your letters, words of love, prophecies, prayer requests, testimonies, reactions to the Word, etc. We love you very much!
66. As you know, regular mailings didn't continue as usual during the renewal. However, despite this "lull," you still received quite an abundance of pubs this year (2,472 pages of printed material, not counting GNs or any online-only pubs or supplements): 53 Reflections, 26 FARs, 15 MLKs, 12 Xns‚ 11 Grapevines (and 7 GV supplements), 11 HLs, 7 Gen-Ups, 6 FSMs, 6 Kidz Biz, 5 CLTPs (2 of which were online-only re-edits from FSMs)‚ 5 Eves, 5 FCPs (1 online), 2 ENDs‚ 3 new tracts‚ and a few other miscellaneous pubs. You also received several Heaven's Library books.
67. In spite of the renewal "break," those in the pubs departments kept plenty busy, using the time to work on a number of long–term projects and get ahead in their text and layout work. Some of the long–term projects included (but weren't limited to): Preparing new books for the second book printing; working with the international PR board and administration team to complete the revised Family statements; completing the "Word Curriculum 2004" for ages 0–11 and the "Word Course 2004" for JETTs/teens, in conjunction with the international CP and JT boards; finalizing the last 4 booklets in the Early Bird Readers series, etc. (If you haven't had a chance to read the announcement posted on the MO site regarding how you can order the Early Bird Readers, check it out today!)
68. The renewal also provided the pubs teams with time to counsel and seek the Lord for important pubs changes. Some of these changes are already in effect, such as the conclusion of Kidz Biz (at issue 85) and the Eve magazine (at issue 50; we'll include the last three issues of Eve, which have not yet been printed, in Eve, Book 2). Saying goodbye to these two pubs is due mainly to a lack of personnel to help with them—but thank the Lord we had them as long as we did. Any Eve-related material that you send in will possibly be included in the Grapevine or posted on the MO site.
69. Another important change is that Heaven's Library books will no longer be printed as before. Instead, new titles will continue to be released, as they become available, as updates to the InfoStore library. They will also be posted in the "Pubs" section of the Members Only website. ("Unofficial" online-only titles will also continue to be released on the MO website.) There will most likely be less Heaven's Library books coming your way, due to the fact that our faithful editor moved to the field this year. GBH!
70. Another pubs change is that the FAR will now become an online pub, rather than a printed one. Each region's CGO board will then have the opportunity to modify and regionalize the FAR for their area‚ by including area-specific testimonies and photos if they have them, so as to best fit the need in their area. These region-specific FARs will then be posted online in PDF format for you to print out and photocopy, or in some cases made available to order locally (copies that you can distribute). An international version will also be available as a PDF online for you to print out and photocopy if you choose, or if your region doesn't create a localized version. It's our hope that with this change the FAR will become even more of a blessing and get greater use, by being tailored to the specialized needs within those regions that need it.
71. On the printing front: By January 2004, our WS pubs teams had completed the books for the first book printing. This consisted of 15 books (a total of 4,629 A5 pages). Every Home should have received them by now, and Mama and I have already begun to hear that they're a blessing to you and your children. Praise the Lord!
72. The second book printing is underway, with a tentative lineup of 15 books, including Kidland, Book 1; Eve, Book 1; 2 Heaven's Library mag books for ages seven on up; 4 Heaven's Library books (these will be the last HL books printed, making a grand total of 30); Lifelines, volumes 25-29. Lord willing, these will be shipped to you sometime during 2005. Please continue to keep this printing in your prayers, and uphold all of those who are playing a part—big or small.
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Pubs Trivia
73. • Those who work on pubs, other than the GNs and GP pubs (which includes all of those who work full-time on text, layout, art, and proofreading) make up 15% of WS. 73% of them are SGAs and 27% are FGAs.
74. • This year the pubs team said goodbye to two of their longtime and faithful workers who went to the field.
75. • 75% of the children born in WS in the last two years have a parent who works in pubs.
[End of box]
76. The Family administration department has been very involved in the details of the restructuring of the Family, making this an exceptionally busy and full year. Aside from the regular work and communications with the RSs (formerly the COs) and offices, members of the administration team worked closely with the CS board to formulate the policies and legislation for the many changes taking place in the Family.
77. There were a number of significant changes in the Family administration department itself this year, with two of its members (who were also IB chairpersons) stepping off the administration team to focus their time and energies more fully on their respective boards.
78. Administration's work was further clarified with the creation of two WS committees to deal with Charter and board legislation. These committees are responsible for the writing and explanation of board and Charter changes—of which there are many as a result of the Family restructuring. Members of the administration department, along with others, sit on both of these committees.
79. The updated Charter was very close to completion early this year. However, with all of the changes in the Family's structure, it is "back to the drawing board" once again, and the Charter will be going through a major update. The Charter committee will take this project up in early 2005. Please pray for them, that the updating of the Charter will accurately reflect all the changes that are taking place in the Family. It's an enormous undertaking.
80. Aside from this, administration has also been involved with setting up the 12 new regional desks, and working closely with the offices, which included two visits by an administration member to the EURCRO office this year.
81. 19 of the 20 Family statements that the administration team was working on with the PR board over the last year or more have now been finalized and will be posted on the MO site soon.
82. The focus of the TeleTRF team this year has been on the back-end office processing of your TeleTRF information. They have been developing a new TRF processing system in conjunction with your reporting offices to simplify the collecting, processing, and reporting of your TRF information. We pray that this new system will help your offices, boards, and WS serve you better by providing information from your TRFs in a timely and efficient manner.
83. We plan on releasing an updated TeleTRF program in 2005 so that you can begin reporting the new categories of Family membership as laid out in "The Family Membership Expands" (ML #3507).
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Board and Administration Trivia
84. • Those who are on international boards (including the international board chairpersons)‚ those who are in administration, and their secretaries, make up 16% of WS.
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85. In 2004, incoming gifts to WS increased by 20%. We're very thankful for your increased giving in obedience to the "Show Me the Money" series. We know the Lord has been blessing you for giving your full tithes as well as gifts and offerings. Tithes themselves increased 16% last year and offerings to WS doubled. Though offerings doubled, they began to wane in the last half of the year. Please keep them up, as they make a huge difference in the projects WS can finance.
86. Mama and I want to thank each of you who have given to WS, as your giving makes so much possible. We'd also like to thank those of you who gave gifts to us personally. We greatly appreciate it. Funds that are designated for Mama and me make it possible for us to fund projects and to help others. We have tried to send a thank you to each one who has given to us. We got off to a slow start at the beginning of 2004‚ but are now trying to do so more regularly. If we somehow missed thanking you‚ please forgive us. We are truly thankful for your giving and financial help.
87. Because of your increased tithes and gifts to WS, it was possible to:
88. —Hold the six international board meetings. The international boards were able to meet to determine the criteria, work on their Home review questionnaires and handbooks‚ as well as to make their battle plans for 2005. The CS board (formerly the VS board) meeting included additional RS and VS attendees who spent five weeks together to brainstorm, pray about, and map out the Coach Program as well as the Home Shepherd Training Program.
89. —Give each international board funds to help board projects.
90. —Establish nine regional desks in order to regionalize much of the regions' administration, with three more to be established in January 2005.
91. —Have WS take back the payment of all the 70+ Missions Gifts that it had previously shifted over to the FAF in 2003. They were all funded by WS again in 2004.
92. The book printing for the year was completely funded by offerings from the Homes. You should have already received your books, and more will be coming‚ as the next book printing has already started. Thanks for so faithfully helping with this through your book printing fundraising during the Christmas season. GBY!
93. 35% of WS' expenses went to WS publications. This covers the creation, production‚ and shipping of all the mailings sent to the Homes.
94. 30% went to Missions. This is an increase over last year as WS took back the mission grants‚ which had been temporarily shifted to the FAF during 2003. WS gives mission aid to over 90 Homes and ministries.
95. 21% went to the Boards and the Summit. This is up from last year's 15%, as besides regular regional board support, WS financed the six international board meetings. Each board also received a gift to cover board projects for the year. Although the Summit was held at the end of 2003, it fell under the 2004 fiscal year.
96. 9% went to Administration costs. This covers the support and costs of the reporting offices, and WS administration expenses.
97. 2% went to GP productions, 1% to Audio/Visual‚ and 2% to Legal/Educational/Other. These categories include part of the cost of the creation of GP tools (though most is funded by Aurora and the PCs), and Family CDs (TCDs, kids CDs, etc.), as well as WS travel, educational, and legal and media expenses.
98. Our GP department has been busy this year, as usual, helping to produce witnessing tools galore! Those who work in this department would love to be witnessing with you, side by side, but instead they're dedicating their lives, energies and time behind the scenes, in order to help give you what you need to do the job.
99. Here are the pubs they completed and produced in 2004, some of which you may already be using in your outreach.
*STEPS: A big thanks for their many labors of love to Amber, Agnes, and each of those on the field who contributed to make this mammoth project possible over several years! STEPS is a two-part training course—the "Foundations of Faith" kit and the "Character building" kit. Each kit contains 20 booklets with illustrated stories and other reading material, discussion questions, and activities; an accompanying handbook for teachers with additional activities; and a music CD. Check out the STEPS website for more information [www.thestepsprogram.org]. This product is great for distribution in schools and other institutions. It's specifically well suited for Africa (as far as the stories go and some other content), but good for other places as well. It's also a very good tool to use in teaching and training the children of Active and General members, and other Family children as well.
*From Jesus with Love: Success with People. The latest addition to the FJWL gift book lineup!
*Glimpses of Heaven, upgraded and redesigned in gift book format.
*Upgraded Jesus and Me. All three booklets combined into one hardback with all new artwork and a new size!
*Mottos #2, first international printing in English, Spanish, Romanian, Chinese, and Thai.
*The Family International Project Highlights: 126-page book featuring selected articles from the Family Activity Reports of 2001–2003, with color photos on each spread. Great for presenting the Family's work in your outreach and provisioning!
*A Christmas Long Ago bilingual booklet with read-along drama CD.
*Grandpa Jake stories in hardback format—3 books‚ each featuring one series (Insects Galore, Ocean Treasures, Crew and Co.)
*2 Treasure Attic episodes—"Fantastic Journey" and "Forever Friend"—in DVD format (English, Spanish, and Portuguese‚ 2 programs on one DVD).
*Countdown to Armageddon and Beyond Armageddon in DVD format (English‚ Spanish, and Portuguese).
*12 new CD cards: 6 for Christmas, 4 "Cherub Wings" cards (created by SSU) for different occasions, and 2 cards for children.
*12 new Activated monthly mags: November 2003 through October 2004 issues.
*Instrumental CD (piano instrumentals recorded by Michael Piano; the CD itself has not yet been officially released‚ but will be packaged together with FJWL and/or other gift books in the future.)
100. If you're curious to know how many of our newer GP products we're distributing, here are some stats to give you an idea. These are the highlights of the pubs produced and shipped to the PCs, and from there to Family Homes worldwide. God bless all of you who are playing a part in getting out these wonderful tools.
*Over 66,000 "Mottos for Success."
*Over 24,000 From Jesus with Love gift books.
*Over 58,000 adult devotional books (Get Activated, Mountain Streams, Discovering Truth‚ etc.)
*Over 35,000 children's devotional books (Feed My Lambs/Jesus and Me/Start Early, etc.)
*Over 35,000 other children's books (Grandpa Jake/Stories to Grow By, etc.)
*Over 219‚000 CD cards.
*Over 4,500 DVDs.
*Over 3,000 STEPS sets.
101. In addition to these stats, the Aurora marketing team, mostly as a result of the international book fairs attended, made a number of sales through commercial companies in 2004. Those stats are as follows:
*4,500 "Mottos for Success."
*Over 9,000 From Jesus with Love gift books.
*Over 43,000 adult devotional books (most of these were the Discovering Truth books).
*Over 5,000 children's devotional books.
*Over 4,000 other children's books.
*Over 20,000 CD cards.
*1,000 Early Bird Readers.
102. Even though we now have more and better GP tools than we've ever had before, it doesn't stop here. There are great plans and new products in the works for 2005‚ and lots to look forward to. Here's a peek at what's to come:
*A second interactive CD: Treasure Attic: Bible Explorers. (Nearly done!)
*Two new booklets on the Endtime: The Rise and Fall of the Antichrist, and The Rise and Reign of the Kingdom of God, covering the entire spectrum of Endtime and future events from the rise of the AC until the New Heaven and New Earth. (Nearly done!)
*Two new Mountain Streams books: book #6, "Ambassadors of Love," with witnessing Letters, and book #7, "In Service to the King" (working title), on the topic of service.
*From Jesus with Love: on afflictions/healing.
*More FJWL gift books on other topics.
*Get Activated booklets: The Book of Daniel (chapter by chapter); Marriage.
*Grandpa Jake: Dino Tales series and accompanying activity book.
*Activity booklets for each of the previous 3 Grandpa Jake series.
*Start Early upgrade: Divided into 2 sets of 25 posters each, one featuring "Christian principles" and one "Morals," expanding from the original set of 40.
*Read-along dramas for some of our children's storybooks (by Uganda Radio team).
*More Treasure Attic episodes in DVD format (Next up: "Our Beautiful World/Around the World" in Spanish/English/Portuguese).
*A new series of "thinking of you" CD cards.
*A new CD card addition to the romantic collection.
*Two GP CDs with Loving Jesus songs suitable for the GP.
*Evolution comicbook tract (by David Komic).
*Endtime teen poster(s) (based on Activated articles; for example, Daniel 7, etc.).
*FJWL posters (based on back pages of Activated; larger, laminated style).
*New children's posters (based on Heaven's Library stories).
*More Activated mags for kids—not a monthly mag, but a series of "special issues" for distribution.
*Continued progress on the 12 Bridges course (which is being posted in increments on the MO site so you can start using them any time you're ready).
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GP Trivia
103. • Those in the GP department make up 8% of WS. Within this department 37% are female and 63% are male.
104. • 1 new member joined the GP department in 2004—and they desperately need more.
105. We also count it a privilege to work with the Aurora production team in Southeast Asia, the Aurora marketing team in Europe, many dedicated translators, and contributing artists and writers and contributors of good ideas and input on the field around the world. Thank you for working with us to make our GP products available to all "nations and kindreds and peoples and tongues"—we could never do it without you! We pray we can continue to be of service to the whole Family this coming year!
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106. 2004 was a big year for the web team, who have been busy with their fingers in a number of different pies. They spent some time working on "in house" WS and administrational sites, which have been a big blessing.
107. Other than that, they've continued to devote time to creating the new Members Only site (or MOv3), and preparing all of the data for it. This site has been in the works for a long time, but God bless the web team, who continue to persevere with this long-term project that is sure to greatly benefit each of you, and be a major improvement on the old MO site. Hopefully you've been able to get a little taste of it, with the mid-year launch of the Pubs and Renewal sections, and it has begun to be a blessing to you, even though it's not yet complete.
108. There's a lot more to do‚ and a lot more coming up on this site. In addition to the existing sections from the old MO site, there will also be a lot of new material and features and sections added for the first time ever. In addition to organizing and preparing all of the Family pubs‚ photos‚ music, children's materials, board sections, prayer requests‚ ads, etc.‚ for your use, a site of this size requires an immense amount of programming to keep it all straight. God bless our faithful programmers!
109. This has been a major undertaking for the web team, as this project is by far the most massive they've ever tackled. They're doing so with limited personnel, and while also at the same time maintaining the other websites they run, host, and manage. So please keep them in your prayers—and that the Lord will supply the personnel they need, as well as the personnel needs of other WS departments.
110. Here are some of the main site stats for 2004:
http://www.familymembers.com
Total visits: 776,405 (22% increase over last year).
Daily average: 2,121
Total downloaded: 1.65TB (terabytes) (75% increase over last year).
Total pubs e-mails sent: 91,679 (44% increase over last year).
Current site content (top 5 sections): 26,610, Pictures; 7,477, MP3s; 6,922‚ Pubs; 2,590, Special interest articles; 1,947, Newswire articles.
http://www.thefamily.org
Total visits: 604,105 (3.5% increase over last year).
Daily average: 1‚650
Total downloaded: 246GB (51.5% increase over last year).
Total e-mails sent: 321,022 (12% increase over last year).
http://www.auroraproduction.com
Total visits: 104,929 (2% increase over last year).
Total downloaded: 13.71GB (49% increase over last year).
http://www.activated.org
Total visits: 69,430 (56.5% increase over last year).
Total downloaded: 12.50GB (12% increase over last year).
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Web Trivia:
111. • The web department is an all SGA/YA department, and it is comprised of mostly males and one female. The oldest is 27 and the youngest is 18.
112. • This department makes up 7% of WS.
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113. Thanks to our Husband's supply of finances, and our anointed musicians, producers, and songwriters, the Family has been blessed, once again, with new music this year. God bless all of you who had a hand in these musical masterpieces.—And if you're interested in who some of these people are, you can check out most of the credits for the new CDs on the MO site.
114. Barry and Windy report that a milestone recording in 2004 was the first GP instrumental CD‚ "Christmas Moments." This CD included 14 songs divided between arrangers and musicians Michael Fogarty, John Listen, Michael Piano, and Jono. This CD features in several of the new Christmas CD cards which you probably distributed during Christmas 2004.
115. The other CDs you received this year are: Reap (TCD#31—witnessing songs), The Return of the Rhythm (TCD#32—dance songs), Take a Stand (TCD#33—discipleship songs), The Beacon (NF#9), Stay By Me (LJCD#7), Safe In the Night (KAT#8).
116. For 2005, you can expect that Family music will continue flowing your way, if your prayers support this ministry. CDs that you can keep in your prayers, which are in the works for this year, are:
*GP CDs: A CD of Christmas songs sung by children, a narrative/song CD derived from the Get Activated book "Obstacles Are for Overcoming," a CD of comfort songs, a narrative/song CD derived from the "Glimpses of Heaven" book‚ and a new lullaby CD for GP distribution compiled from already recorded lullaby songs.
*A new Loving Jesus CD of devotional-type songs.
*TCDs: An album of upbeat songs on the topics of Loving Jesus‚ discipleship and dedication; another witnessing songs compilation; and another discipleship songs compilation.
*A new KAT CD for the young and young at heart!
117. There wasn't a dull moment in WS this year, and we were blessed with lots of changes to keep us hopping. There were a number of departmental and structural changes‚ so WS has been learning a lot about "taking changes as professionals" and being adaptable and flexible.
118. One of the main changes this year was relieving the international board chairpersons who were previously WS department heads from their department head positions so that they could focus more fully on their important board work—and thus serve the Family more effectively. These department head vacancies were then filled by others‚ who have since been able to begin receiving training in managing the work of our WS departments. We also appointed some assistant department heads in order to share the load of the responsibilities on the work front and train more managers. This change took place in April 2004.
119. We said farewell to six of our faithful WS friends and co-workers (3 males and 3 females), who headed to various parts of the world. But at the same time our generous Husband blessed us with a couple of new members‚ including 1 new baby girl‚ born to one of our SGA couples. We're so thankful for these wonderful individuals and their willingness to join WS, learn new skills, and be a blessing to you, dear Family, through their labors behind the scenes—and we're very thankful for any of you that the Lord might send our way in the future.
120. I'd also like to say a few words about some of the WS "unseen heroes"—those in WS who don't necessarily work on pubs, or GP tools, or the web, etc., but who keep our Homes' fires burning. These guys are real heroes. They are faithful ones that we depend on greatly—the saints who take care of the children‚ stay on top of our handyman needs, keep us well fed, and help on other staff duties. Without these people, WS wouldn't be able to function nearly as smoothly or get nearly as much done as we do. Of course, the Lord gets all the glory for anything good that comes out of WS, but much credit goes to those in our WS units who fill these important ministries!
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121. • Our faithful, dependable, important, and couldn't-live-without childcare workers, staff, and handymen make up 17% of WS. (Some of these folks also help with part-time pubs work, or are involved with other ministries on the side.)
122. • 41% of WS' population are FGAs, and 46% are SGAs.
123. • Our wonderful teens and children make up 13% of WS, and they're almost exactly half male and half female.
124. • Within our adult population (SGAs and FGAs) we have a nearly even amount of males and females.
125. • Our computer guys, and computer tech support teams, who help to make all of our work possible, make up 5% of WS.
126. • 32% of WS department heads and assistants are males‚ 68% are females. 44% are parents of young children.
127. • Our WS Home shepherds and teamworkers, who Mama and I greatly depend on to take care of the spiritual shepherding of the WS units, make up 6% of WS.
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128. A milestone happening this year was the international board meetings. All of the six boards met with their international board members sometime between the months of July and October 2004. Thanks to all of you who helped to make it possible for those from your area to attend, either through allowing your loved one to be away for those weeks, or filling in the gaps while they were away. These meetings were a success, many decisions were reached, and great progress was made.
129. I'm including a little bit of information on each of the board meetings, for your interest. Some of the boards have also supplied some of their main accomplishments in 2004, and goals and initiatives for 2005.
130. The CP and FED boards met together from August 6 to 21. The Lord said that combining these two board meetings would not only serve to unite those two pillars together to build a winning team, but also provide a larger pool of talented people from all over the world and from all kinds of situations, and that this diversity would make the meeting more fruitful.
131. There were 23 attendees—the FED and CP attendees, and Dawn and Julie from WS as the co-chairs. Women were in the majority by far; there were only two men in attendance—Tiago from ASCRO and Paul Theophilus from WS. (The CP and FED boards are praying that more men will get the burden for CP and FED work, ha! Is the Lord calling you?!)
132. The FED board attendees were: Elise (SACRO); Joy D. and Stacie (PACRO); Amber, Meekness, Mimi, and Joi C (EURCRO); Leah, Tiago, Promise, and Fiona (ASCRO); Sara D. (NACRO); Paul and Tina (WS). The CP board attendees were: Kanah (NACRO); Hannah (PACRO); Kitty and Jan (EURCRO); Sara I., Dove‚ and Daniella (ASCRO).
133. Some of the highlights/discussion points of the meeting were:
*Putting together the FED and CP criteria questionnaires and handbooks.
*Working on a "Step-by-Step Guide to Homeschooling" class to give our Homes a boost to get their homeschooling program going.
*Discussing plans for how to print more color Word-based game sets for our children.
*Training seminars for CVC supervisors.
*CVC registration‚ resources, and upgrading of the courses.
*Local language learning.
*High school diploma requirements—both at the general and senior level.
*How to help our large families. Each subcommittee presented the body with a plan for proactive initiatives to take home and present to their boards as an immediate goal.
134. Here are some 2004 victories from the CP and FED boards:
*The completion of the "Word Curriculum 2004," which you can find on the MO site—if you haven't already.
*The creation of the HEF—Home Ed Flyer. This is a new pub that is sent out monthly‚ and contains updates‚ testimonies, and info from the FED and CP boards. It replaced the previous "Homeschooling Corner" in the Grapevine.
*The printing of 10 children's color board games.
*The Lord supplied the funds for the purchase of an ID card machine to issue CVC teacher ID cards and student cards. (See GV Sup #63 for more information, if you're interested in obtaining such cards.)
*The production of a CD full of print-ready color flannelgraphs and games, for the renewal. (See Home Ed Flyer #5 for more information on this.)
135. Thanks for your prayers for our CP and FED boards, because their focus is an extremely important one: the shepherding and education of our children. They are doing a wonderful job, and will be able to make even greater progress and push forward on more fronts as we do our part to uphold them in prayer.
136. The CS board has been busy this past year‚ and you've already read about many of the changes that have resulted from the CS international board meetings (held in Mexico in July/August 2004) via the "Getting Stronger" GN series. This has been a pretty major revamp on all fronts of the previous VS board‚ and we believe we'll be the stronger for it, as a Family.
137. The main focuses of the CS board this past year have been the following:
*Analyzing and assessing the previous VS program.
*Brainstorming and pulling down the Lord's new answers and direction for the shepherding needs of the Family.
*Building the new Coach Program.
138. There's a lot on the CS board agenda for 2005, including the following:
*Creating the Coach Training Program/training and appointing coaches.
*Creating the Home Shepherds Training Program.
*Exploring proactive ways to raise up and train new shepherds and leaders.
139. Please keep the CS board in your prayers, as they adjust to the changes within their pillar‚ and help all of us to do our best to live the standard of the Word through loving and faithful shepherding!
140. The PR board meetings were held from September 1 to 14. The attendees were: Stephen J. and Paul from PACRO; Steven and Ruth from ASCRO; Juan, Jon, and Ben, from SACRO; Marc and Claire from NACRO; Oli, Abi, Hannah, and Gallio from EURCRO; Matthew, Luke‚ and Andrew, from WS; and Gina (secretary from Marc and Claire's Home).
141. Some of what was accomplished during the PR board meetings was: Finalizing the PR board criteria; putting together the PR board grading system for the Home reviews; creating the PR board Feast workshop plan, and going over the PR handbook. Other topics discussed were: Charter legal clauses; registration; legal entities; proactive measures; developing proactive PR tools; info sharing; website monitoring, etc.
142. As you keep the PR board in your prayers, here are some specifics you can pray for. These are projects that they'll be working on over the coming year:
*The production of a color PR brochure for each region.
*The production of an updated presentation video of the Family (partially international, and partially regional).
*The finalization of a PR Training Handbook.
*Updating the CVC PR course.
*The creation of Family ID cards.
*The creation of forms for résumés/recommendation letters, etc., for those leaving the Family.
143. The JT board meetings were held from July 21 to August 3. Those in attendance were: Ado from NACRO; Ariane and Mark from ASCRO; Paloma, Peter BP, and Phoebe from EURCRO; Sam from SACRO; Sweetie from PACRO; Nathaniel (chairperson) and Sonia (secretary) from WS.
144. Some of the main projects completed during the JT board meeting were: Finalizing the JT criteria and explanation, as well as the Home review questionnaire, and coming up with a balanced and unified system to grade the Homes in this pillar at Home review time. They also spent time working on the JT Handbook.
145. Some of the goals, projects, and initiatives in the works are:
*A course for our JTs that will cover in detail our foundation beliefs as outlined in the statement of faith. This will be a 30-class course which will include not only Word, but will come with multimedia clips, skits, power points, and anything else that might help to make these classes alive and fun for our JTs, as well as help them to understand our beliefs more fully and become proud of our Family heritage.
*An incentive program that will reward our JTs for selling Activated subscriptions and other Activated-related witnessing as determined by the regional boards.
*Creating "spirit posters" for our young people.
*A training course for our senior teens.
146. It sounds like the JT board has a lot of inspiring ideas cooking, so please keep them in your prayers. They're focusing on an important mission field: our upcoming disciples, the hope of our future. So let's support them with as much prayer power as we can possibly muster up.
147. The CGO board met from October 18 to 30. Those who attended the meetings were: Adam, Andrew and Tim from ASCRO; Magda, Andreas and Andrew from EURCRO; Cassie from NACRO; Pedro and Jonathan Nubes from SACRO; Rachel from PACRO; Francis (chairperson), Lorie, and Carol (secretary), from WS. (Just for fun: Out of the 14 attendees‚ 10 different nationalities were represented—very multinational!)
148. The main work done and agenda points covered were:
*The CGO Home review questionnaire and establishing the guidelines for how the questionnaire results will be evaluated and scored.
*Various points regarding the new categories of membership.
*Goals and areas of focus for the CGO IB and RBCs for the coming year.
*Outlining in more detail the role‚ responsibilities and requirements for CGO national and regional board members and chairpersons.
*How to provide more help and assistance to the national boards.
*Discussion of ideas for new GP products, as well as prioritizing and getting further input on pubs projects currently in the works or planned.
*Details regarding the new Family Magazine (working title), which will be a new monthly magazine for all levels of Family membership.
*Plans for several video projects which would provide inspiration‚ instruction‚ and assistance for the Homes in CGO-related matters.
*Setting up an international CGO resource center.
*The possible creation of an Active member website‚ or a section on the Activated website for Active members.
*Creating/condensing more MLs for the Family to use to feed their General and Active members (in addition to the 12 Foundation Stones and 12 Bridges).
*Ways to assist our Family SGAs in making a career out of witnessing, including a video project related to this (D.V.).
*Training of new disciples during their first year in the Family.
149. God bless our CGO board‚ and all that they're doing to help us with our important job: "Going into all the world and preaching the Gospel to every creature." Please uphold them and support them through your prayers.
150. Mama and I have also been extremely busy. This year has probably been one of our busiest yet, as the Lord brought many new adventures our way. Mama and I attended the CS IB meetings in Mexico‚ from July to August. Then, as you read in "Mama's Visit to Central America," Mama visited the Homes in Guatemala with a small team in September. It was an inspiration to both her and the brethren.
151. This year Mama and I also held a number of meetings within WS—restructuring meetings, meetings with the international board chairpersons, with the WS department heads, etc. And all of this—the traveling‚ the meetings within WS, as well as the many GNs and restructuring pubs we've been working on with our teams in WS—has made for a very busy year. 2005—the year of strengthening—promises to be another busy one.
152. We've accomplished a lot, and we have great victories to praise our Husband for, but we continue to need and depend desperately on your prayers for us. We know that your prayers are what make it possible for us to continue to do the job the Lord has given us to do—especially when there's so much to do, and we feel weak and incapable on our own. Your key-empowered prayers are instrumental in keeping us from attacks of the Enemy, fortifying our strength and health, and anointing us for all that we have to do during these important times in our history. Thank you!
153. And speaking of the power of prayer, I'd like to share with you a short excerpt of a message the Lord recently gave about the importance of prayer and fighting the battles in the spirit, and upholding our fellow disciples in prayer. This is instruction that we will all need in this coming year.
154. (Jesus:) I want to make each of you a greater prayer warrior than ever before! There are many battles to fight, and a lot of them are personal battles. But the battles that you fight for others are very special and have special rewards. You are now being trained for greater battles ahead, and more and more you will have to uphold each other in order to be a great team, and the army I have called you to be. (End of message.)
155. (Peter:) In closing, I'd like to include a message that the Lord gave to one of you. It's encouraging, strengthening, faith-building, and filled with beautiful promises that you can claim as your own, as you continue fighting for Jesus and giving Him your all.
156. (Jesus: ) In 2005 I wish to give you even greater faith, greater belief, greater determination. The way seems fuzzy for now, but as you stay close and seek to follow the steps My Word has outlined, I will continue to lead you through to your destiny. I will continue to use you in ways you have not yet dreamed of. I will continue to give you your heart's desires. I will continue to give you the strength you need. I will not be limited by the circumstances or obstacles that are around you.
157. You have yet to see the days of greater miracles. You have yet to see the power that I have spoken of. You have yet to see what I can accomplish through you, because now you will walk a different walk. No longer will you use the methods of the past, but you will embrace the new. You will embrace My Spirit‚ My power, My new wisdom, My new strength. The Word that I give unto you—both that you read and that you hear from Me—will speak of this new way and will fill you with the understanding that you need.
158. You will not need to worry whether you have the strength within you. You will not need to worry about where your provision, protection, supply‚ and needs will come from‚ for I will bless you with the faith that I have been speaking of. All that I have promised will begin to flourish within you, if you believe My Word‚ claim My Word, have faith in My Word, and step out with blind obedience.
159. I no longer want you to hesitate. I no longer want you to stop and consider the possibilities. I no longer want you to use the logic that you have depended on all these years. I want you to take on My mind. I want you to walk by faith and not by sight. I want you to seek the impossible. I want you to dare to dream, and have the faith that I can make your dreams come true.
160. I am eager that My Word gets practiced. I am eager to perform all that I have spoken of. I am eager to show you your destiny‚ but I need for you to desire it, to show Me that you believe all that I have said‚ and to take that leap of faith.
161. Set aside your carnal mind, your carnal ways, and walk in the glory of My light. Fill your mind with My mind‚ your heart with My heart. Let your hands become My hands. Let your feet walk with My walk.
162. This road I have for you this coming year is a humble one and there will be many humble moments for you. But rejoice, for these humble moments will turn into your greatest victories. They will be your greatest delights. They will shine on you with a brilliance you have not yet seen, and you will then know that the secret and strength lies not in your own arm, your own strength or wisdom, but you will find the secret to the Source. You will become truly wise, truly strong, and truly able.
163. Do you believe Me? Do you believe that I am able to do all this through you? If you believe, that is a great start! Then we are off to fulfilling the dreams that both you and I have had, and that you will find yourself having. The beautiful thing about "tomorrow" is that there is hope. Some people spend their whole lives worrying about tomorrow, but not My brides.
164. You should not worry about tomorrow. You have so much to look forward to. You have continuous hope, life, joy, peace, happiness, endurance, resilience, and fortitude—so much—waiting for you in the tomorrow. I stack up all your tomorrows with precious and rare gifts. I place treasures here and there, and all you have to do is take care of today and look forward to tomorrow. Look forward to what tomorrow will bring.
165. Ask yourself what miracle I will do for you. Ask yourself how I will manifest My love for you. Ask yourself what change will take place in your heart and in the hearts of those around you. Because as you continue to grow in your use of prayer, in your use of prophecy, in your use of the keys and of faith, you will need to get used to seeing these grand miracles happen that I have been speaking of—the miracles that you, in your heart, have believed I will do for you.
166. Stand guard and keep your mind from dwelling in the negative valleys of this life. I ask that you walk into 2005 with a new, positive outlook. If you don't feel you have that positive outlook, then ask Me for it‚ and I will more than freely give. For it is My gift of love for you. Ask that I give you the glasses of My faith, so that you will only see what's possible and have a real hard time finding the impossible.
167. I will change your outlook and your perspective. As you believe, as you step out in faith‚ as you take in more of My Word to let it wash you and cleanse you of the old, you will notice a significant difference. You will receive all the characteristics and personality traits that you have asked for or have envied. You will see that the new you I will give you will match the new responsibilities that I will place before you. You will see that the attitude and spirit you have will be a heavenly one and not an earthly one.
168. I give you a set of wings. These wings are yours in spirit and will help you to soar above the valleys of despair, negativity, and discouragement. They will take you up to the heavenlies. They will help you to fly over obstacles. They will also help you to fly right here into My arms where I will hold you, love you‚ caress you, stroke your face, and fill you with My seeds. The moment you need Me, the moment you are in despair, you can call out for these wings to activate your flight and direct you to Me, or direct you over an obstacle you meet, or "high above the clouds" where My Spirit abides. They will deliver you. But you must be quick to use them. You must activate them with the keys, with your faith‚ and with your belief in My gifts of love to you.
169. There's no more room for doubt, no more room for discouragement. These are words that dwell in the past and will die with it. What you are looking forward to now is the new, the everlasting‚ the promises, the miracles, faith, hope, love‚ peace, understanding, full contentment—all that is good‚ pure, and just. For you now enter the life of the spirit. All My children must enter and all must walk in this new day with the new garments I give to them. None must enter with their old garments, for they will find themselves stuck and going nowhere.
170. Are you ready to face all that I have for you? Are you ready to receive all that I give you and trust in Me with all your heart? Are you ready to look both good and bad in the face and know that I work all things together for good to those who love Me? Are you willing to become a new creature? Are you willing to face greater challenges and meet with even greater hurdles? This will be an exciting, beautiful, challenging, yet thrilling year. The only way you won't see 2005 the way I have shown it to you now is if you believe your doubts, and if you let discouragement overcome you. But then all you need to do is call on the wings of deliverance that I have given to you‚ and ask for Lucerne to light the way, and you will then see things through My eyes.
171. I love you with an everlasting love. This love does not die out; it does not carry an expiry date. This love does not diminish. It isn't hinged on your love or service to Me. This love is My love—strong, firm, never moving, and like a rock. All you need to do is fall on this love and let it become one with you. If you leave this place, then it is you who comes in and out of My love. But I am always here, always ready to love you, to hold you, to wash away your tears, to take away your worries, to carry your burdens, to lift your heavy load.
On the wings, on the wings of prayer,
My love will get you there.
On the wings, on the wings of flight,
I hear each and every plight.
On the wings, on the wings of faith,
You will gain a deeper strength.
On the wings, on the wings of praise,
You needn't doubt your place.
On the wings, on the wings of trust‚
On these wings‚ your heart will rest.
On My wings, these promising wings,
Your body, mind, heart, and soul clings. (End of message.)
(Note: Please see "Wartime" in GN 1112 for more on what's to come in 2005!)
Copyright © 2005 by The Family International.
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