THE FUTURE IS HERE!--And Needs Leaders!  DO1200   18/2/82
--Are You one? OK, C'mon, Let's Get Aboard & GO!

         1. MY VISION FOR THE COMBO, some of them are just maybe dreams of the future, but definitely it should be the Home Base for the NASs & VSs. I don't care if the NASs & the VSs are the same couple or not. The NAS/VS two-couple combination would be perfect. This would be a fulfilment of my original idea of the National Base with one couple taking care of things at Home Base & the other couple troubleshooting out in the field.
         2. THE VS IS OUR PERSONAL APPOINTED REPRESENTATIVE WHO IS APPOINTED FROM THE TOP. They are not elected, they're appointed. They are our eyes on the World to give us their slant without necessarily being too responsible to the people. They are responsible to us! The NAS is responsible to the people, & they are also responsible to us, of course.
         3. BUT MAYBE WE DON'T NEED VSs & NASs. In fact, I noticed in some cases already they either elected co-ones or they elected their VSs to be their NASs. If they're really on the ball & really top-notch buzzsaws, maybe they can handle both jobs! We probably have a few who're really on the job & can buzz around, & while they're out supervising Fellowships & in the local area, what more visitation do those people need than that? They don't have to go around to every single house as long as they get to see the people there & they get to talk to them & hear some complaints & watch them in action, watch how their children behave etc.
         4. WHAT IT BOILS BACK DOWN TO IS IN A SENSE WE'RE REPLACING THE VSs WITH NASs, & this is what I hope to do. The Reception Center operators who actually stay home can man the Home Base, take care of the people coming & going, & the NAS himself can become not only their representative but we pay him also to represent us, both ways. We're too short of good leadership & personnel to be so extravagant with it that we can afford two couples of outstanding leadership in each country. So it's my idea to roll those two into one right now!
         5. WELL, I SAID IN THIS LATEST LETTER THAT SOME OF THE LEADERSHIP COULD BE TWO SEPARATE COUPLES, that's ideal, that's fine. But since we're so short of leadership we may have to roll some of these jobs into one couple, several jobs into one where that couple can be the VS for us, the NAS for the country & run the NVL & the Reception Center, the four primary needs, & the other three, one of which was a school idea if there are enough teenagers to make up a school in that country or Area. We're getting teenagers now & they need a place to meet & get to know each other, live together, work together, go to school together & learn to know each other & who they want to hitch up with for the rest of their lives.
         6. BUT THAT IS ONE OF THE NEEDS OF THE NATIONAL CENTER, THE COMBO CENTER, & WE DON'T NEED IT TOMORROW, WE NEEDED IT YESTERDAY, NOW! It can serve this general purpose for all of these things: Headquarters for the country & its officers & its NVL & its Reception Center & everything, as well as Fellowship facilities for National Fellowships, if possible, even maybe some Regional Fellowships, & even further down the line for those that are nearby. It could be in constant use all the time, every weekend!--Cooking facilities & housing facilities & everything they need it for.
         7. YOU CAN SAY IT'S A SECURITY HAZARD, you've got too many eggs in one basket. Well, if they get affluent enough & if these persnickerty security freaks, the NAS, & VSs want to live separately, fine. But I think the Fellowship Center, Reception Center, High School & all the rest will be fairly safe.
         8. IT'S A FUNNY THING, WHEN YOU START HAVING BUILDINGS & a thing like I'm talking about, all of a sudden you're no longer some kind of a crazy freaky cult! You're becoming kind of settled down. If you've got something they can see, they can understand better. Well, we went underground when it was necessary, & we're still trying to survive & some will still have to stay underground & be selah. But I think we need to start a few feelers in some countries where we think we could get away with it & where we could try & have a fairly respectable-looking camp or old hotel or whatever where we'd have our meetings & school & offices & all this sort of thing.
         9. AND IT'S GOING TO DEVELOP MORE LEADERSHIP & WE'RE GOING TO FIND OUT WHO THE LEADERS ARE. The people know, they're going to elect those they have confidence in, who are really servants of the people & good spiritual leaders, let's hope. But we are in the process of not only developing fellowship, but we're developing leadership because those Fellowships need leaders. They're going to have meetings, Fellowships & business to attend to & organisation & people to take care of & they are going to have to learn leadership.
         10. I HAVE RECOMMENDED EITHER AN OLD HOTEL THAT HAS THE FACILITIES FOR THE HOUSING, FEEDING & SCHOOL & everything, or even better yet a campground maybe way out in the country somewhere. Make it look nice & neat & clean & respectable & something that the local community would be proud of! We had a few blobs in those early days that the local communities were proud of, & when we made the headlines & television & reporters came out, the local people had nothing but good to say, believe it or not, even the cowboys! Even the local villagers in Tenerife & the rest.
         11. SO I THINK GOD'S GOING TO HELP US TO WIN, IN AT LEAST SOME PLACES, IN SOME CASES, THE RESPECT OF THE LOCAL COMMUNITIES & even have them sticking up for us! They come & they find out, "Well, for goodness sake, you know, they're not as crazy as I heard!" So that is just one of the advantages, I hope, & I think some places it will be.
         12. AND WE'VE GOT TO HAVE PEOPLE IN THE FIELD WHO ARE GOOD LEADERS & who can assess people's personalities & their abilities & report to us & also help to place those people.--Receive them, place them or kick them out, whatever needs to be done so that all of these people can be properly supervised. You just cannot have everybody running loose or you're going to have some very bad conduct on the part of some people that's going to reflect on, you might say, the Church & cause trouble with the government & the local community & a lot of other things.
         13. WE'VE GOT TO START CRACKING DOWN ON ORGANISATION, LEADERSHIP & DISCIPLINE where we've got strict rules on behaviour & all the rest so that we will be able to operate safely & securely & respectably in these communities as much as possible! We've got to clamp down on some of these people who claim to be Family Members & are very poor examples, both their appearance & their Homes & their litnessing manners & a lot of other things!--Some even openly confessing they're Sodomites or drugsters or hippies, etc. It's time we all grew up & not let some of these stupid idiots get away with some of their shenanigans! We need to ex-communicate them!
         14. WE'RE STILL YOUNG & WE'RE STILL GROWING, but we are growing & we are maturing & we are getting better organised all the time. I mean, I haven't lost sight of our goal to evangelise the World, to "go into all the World & preach the Gospel to every creature!" I'm not about to build churches, don't get the wrong idea! Whenever we stop sending out missionaries & helping missionaries & evangelising the World, litnessing, witnessing, winning souls, then you can start telling me I'm getting churchy. OK? But not until then.
         15. WELL, THIS IS NO NEW DOCTRINE, I'VE BEEN PREACHING THIS ALL THE TIME--INDIGENUITY! We've got to separate the upper levels of command in order to cause the lower to be more independent, more decentralised, even if they have Reception Centers & National Centers. You've got to always have some leadership somewhere & in view of the World situation, the safest is local leadership. That's the only kind that's going to survive what's coming.
         16. SO WE HAVE TO GET BETTER ORGANISED ON THE LOCAL LEVEL with the Fellowships & the ASs & the VSs or whoever & the local situation, so even if cut off from each other or from us they can continue to operate on a local basis. The idea of the Fellowship is working & helping & they're cooperating & in unity. In unity there's power & strength & fellowship & wisdom & cooperative effort & all the rest. It's working & we need to do everything we can to encourage it, PTL?
         17. ARE YOU WITH ME?--OK! Let's roll! All aboard with the Lord & Word to win the World! Amen? GBY! WLY! KGFG!--We're with you all the way, & He'll never leave nor forsake us, He's with us to the End!--& Beyond!--Forever! ROLL!--In Jesus' name, amen!


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