"COMBOS!"        DFO1115  2/82
--The 7-Purpose National Centers!

         1. IT HAS BEEN OUR DREAM TO HAVE ESTABLISHED MISSIONARY RECEPTION CENTRES in each of the major national capital cities of our major missionary target countries such as the principal countries of South America & the Golden Triangle of the East.--Large Homes which could receive incoming Families & act as personnel placement centers where newcomers could stop over a few days & be assessed by supervisory Shepherds there as to their qualifications & financial capabilities & type of ministry, & a decision then be made by these Supervisors as to where they would best fit in what city or what part of the country & then help them find their way there & attempt to get them located there if possible.
         2. IT WAS ALSO OUR HOPE THAT A FAIRLY LARGE HOME COULD BE FOUND in each of these cities & that the Supervisory Personnel could be in either the hands of or under the supervision of the VS's of the country working with the NAS's of the country &, if necessary, a Reception Centre Shepherd who would actually operate the Home.
         3. WE HOPED TO HAVE COMBINED THE OFFICES OF VS's & NAS's either into one couple or two couples working together, so that their combined income, including the income of gifts for temporary room & board of the missionaries passing through, would help to finance the local Reception Centre. However, some of these countries are not yet completely organised to the NAS level & some of the VS's are perhaps slow to give up their own housing, so it seems to have somewhat slowed down our progress along this line of establishing Reception Centres & we're a bit disappointed in this.
         4. WE HAD HOPED ALSO TO COMBINE THE NVL, THE NATIONAL VIDEO LIBRARY IN EACH COUNTRY, WITH THIS SAME RECEPTION CENTRE OPERATION under this Supervisory Personnel for the distribution of videos & perhaps even printing & distribution of GP lit & a number of cooperative endeavours which are best done together rather than individually by individual Homes & individual cities, at least sometimes so. Well, that's still my dream.
         5. MAYBE WE'RE BARKING UP THE WRONG TREE, MAYBE WE'RE LOOKING FOR THE WRONG KIND OF HOUSING. Maybe you've just been looking for large homes, large villas designed for one large wealthy family originally. But these homes were actually not designed for multiple families or multiple guests! And the average large home usually does not have more than four or five bedrooms. If it has six or seven it's the exception & rare, yet that's what you actually need or even more!--Perhaps you should have been looking for a small hostelry, pension or small hotel of the third, fourth, fifth rate class. (Or a Campground near the Capital or International Airport!)
         6. SO I THINK MAYBE YOU'VE BEEN LOOKING FOR THE WRONG KIND OF HOUSING. YOU'VE BEEN LOOKING UNDER HOUSES FOR RENT OR LEASE RATHER THAN SMALL HOTELS, PENSIONS OR ROOMING HOUSES. You may find these listed under "Business Opportunities" in the newspapers or with the estate agents. They, thinking you're looking just for a home for yourself or your large family & never dreaming that you would even be interested in a small hotel or pension or hostelry, would not even think of suggesting such a place or you might be insulted!--We have found them in our experience in past years to be extremely reasonable, much cheaper to rent than a large old richly-furnished mansion or estate.
         7. ALL YOU NEED IS A VERY SMALL HOTEL with a lot of individual rooms to pack in families & their children. A whole family of four to six, a couple with two or three or four or half a dozen children can even scream--I meant to say cram & squeeze & I got'm mixed up & said scream--into one room for a few days! Well, they might be screaming before they left, but it is possible. Just for two or three days you can put up with almost anything until you get them on their way, & the quicker you get them on their way the better.
         8. MAYBE WE SHOULD HAVE SAID RECEPTION HOTELS! Because that's really what they'll amount to, each family only spending just a few days until you can ship them out to their chosen or recommended city. Perhaps while they're there with you, you could have the families in their proposed eventual destination city of the interior looking for housing for them even before they arrive so they can look at the places they have located when they get there, or hopefully a Home in that city would have sufficient room there to house them for a few days until they do locate a place.
         9. YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO HAVE ENOUGH MONEY WITH YOU WHEN YOU ARRIVE, AT LEAST $1500 TO $2,000, to pay for such temporary accommodations & furnish your own transportation to the city of your final destination & to rent yourself a house there & to live for a couple of months on those landing funds until you start receiving your Mail Ministry support in pledges from the Home Bases of the richer countries of the North or wherever.
         10. SO WHY DON'T YOU TRY TO LOOK FOR THAT TYPE OF HOTEL, MOTEL OR CAMP FOR YOUR RECEPTION CENTRES? If you don't start looking pretty quick though, it's going to be too late, our emigrants are all going to be out of the States & Europe & no more coming, & the need will be almost pass'e except as a Headquarters for the families of the VS's & NAS's, the Supervisory Personnel & the National Video Library etc. & their children, which could still be very accommodating & useful.
         11. BUT IF YOU DON'T FIND THEM PRETTY QUICK THEY'RE NOT GOING TO HAVE MUCH USE FOR INCOMING MISSIONARIES when there will be no more coming because their countries are gone! Just as the Border Bases which we first recommended 10 years ago when we were first pioneering Europe & South America. But you folks who are still looking for Border Bases in places like Los Angeles & some of the places which are going to be the first to be hit in the first strike within a few months, I'm sorry, but it seems to me that you're a bit late--about ten years too late!
         12. SO WHAT WE NEED RIGHT NOW IS RECEPTION CENTRES, & WE NEED'M YESTERDAY! So you'd better hurry up! It's already too late for Border Bases, & it's almost too late for Reception Centres, so if you want to have one in your country, you'd better do it now! Because it'll probably only be in operation for the next few months before the War, for Northern refugees.
         13. RECEPTION CENTRES COULD STILL BE VERY USEFUL FOR SOUTHERN TRAVELLING PERSONNEL, visiting personnel such as visiting leaders or missionaries changing fields, & National Supervisory Personnel & their families. So I would not say they're not needed or will not be needed, but they will not be as needed as desperately as they are today for the incoming missionaries of the countries & the continents that are about to be destroyed! So if you want them to be useful for migrating missionaries from the North, you'd better hurry up & get them established in a hurry!
         14. SO DO IT NOW! WE NEED'M YESTERDAY! GBY! But I believe they will still be useful tomorrow! Of course, if you, as Maria just pointed out, want to operate such a Combo Centre separate from your National Headquarters of the VSs & the NASs, it would probably be better security. The operating or National personnel of the Reception Centres could still be trained to assess the quality & talents & finances of the incoming missionaries & help in their placement in locations where best suited & needed.
         15. SO AN OLD HOTEL OR CAMPGROUND IS WHAT YOU NEED TO LOOK FOR, & God help you to find it if it's His will. You could even use it then for your National Area Fellowships if it has enough rooms & you don't have too many people living in it already. Perhaps even some of the Greater Area Fellowships could think about that too.
         16. CAMPGROUNDS WITH CABINS OR COTTAGES & PARKING FOR MOBILES & TENT SITES, TOILETS & FEEDING FACILITIES COULD BE IDEAL TOO!--With more room for kids & recreation & Fellowships & lower costs!--& outside the dirty noisy cities near the airport if possible, in God's fresh clean beautiful countryside creation! So look for one that's maybe not doing so good commercially but you could rent or buy cheap on terms for your COMBO!--Or just rent the cabins &/or spaces as needed from the owner. That's what MCV did!
         17. THERE'S NO END OF POSSIBILITIES & USES FOR A COMBO CENTER! GBY & help you find one TODAY!--Amen?--A campground could also serve as a refuge in time of trouble, as well as the other uses & thereby make it worth maintaining for constant use, not just some hole in the mountains for some rainy day only & no other use or witness! It could also be a good vacation spot for an R, R & RC (Rest, Recuperation & Recreation Center!) for God's willing but weary workers!
         18. COMBO CENTERS WOULD ALSO BE WORTHY OF YOUR & WS SUPPORT FOR THESE MANY CONSTANT URGENT NEEDS & USES!--7 MAJOR NEEDS RIGHT NOW!--COUNT'M!:
         1) A National HQ for your VSs, NASs & staffs!
         2) Your National Video Library!
         3) Your National Reception Center for visitors & moving missionaries!
         4) Your NAF Conventions or Camp Meetings!
         5) Your National Childcare Center & School!
         6) Your National Rest, Recuperation, Recreation & Holiday Playground!
         7) --And finally a Refuge in Time of Trouble!--Amen?
         19. I BELIEVE SUCH CONSTANTLY-NEEDED & MULTI-USEFUL COMBOS WOULD BE WORTHY OF CONSTANT SUPPORT & MAINTENANCE & STAFF in most major Southern countries, don't you? By sharing the same facilities, funds & staff for all these uses, Combos could be very economical & worth the time, trouble & investment!--Not just in hopes of a someday-need for a Refuge only!--How about it!--Are you with me? Let's GO COMBO!--TODAY!--Amen? GBY! ILY!


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