July 15, 2003
FSM 360 CM/FM
10/00
Copyright © 2000 by The Family
(Editor’s note: Like Follow-Up Rocks! Parts 1 and 2, much of this magazine was compiled from testimonies on follow-up written over the last few years, before the Family embarked on the Activated ministry, which is why they don’t refer to the Activated follow-up program. However, the lessons of follow-up apply whether you’re using the Activated course or not. We hope they’re a blessing to you in your follow-up.)
From Mercy D. and Tim, Indonesia Service Home: Amazed that I showed up one day after not seeing him for four months, an old friend related all that had been happening in his life. He’d been having trouble with a company that he’s in charge of, to the point that things were looking very unstable for its future.
I was thrilled to see the effect of the Word on him. He was now relaxed and had given everything to the Lord, and whatever the outcome, he believed it would be of the Lord. This man has been very helpful and quite receptive for years, but had not been a very spiritual person. I thanked the Lord, as I knew it was Him through the Word and various EC3 letters that I had sent, and so on.
I told him, I’m so happy to see the way you are reacting to this situation, because when I met you four months ago you were a lot more tense.
And he said, Yes, it’s thanks to all the input from you folks. It touched me a lot to see how much influence we have in people’s lives, even if they are busy and they can’t see you and they don’t show the need so much. But all the little calls, faxes, letters, and words of encouragement do work in their lives and change them.
I hadn’t asked for help, as I knew the difficult time he was facing in his own situation, but he said he would be happy to help us with sponsorship for something as well. GBH for his faith. In spite of having a very uncertain future, he was very happy to do anything he could towards our projects. It showed me how important being faithful to feed our friends the Word is, even when we can’t see them and we don’t see it doing anything.
From Philip, Thailand: Sue has known the Family for about 12 years, but this past year has gotten very close. She has become a live-out, visiting several times a week, being a big blessing, and supporting us heavily. This past month, though, she went through some big battles and began to reconsider her relationship with the Family. We took time to hear from the Lord for her and got some wonderful things, many practical tips on what and how to feed her from the Word.
One thing the Lord told us was to feed her the Words of David. She loves the Bible, but has not been so interested in reading the Letters. With that in mind, we decided to read New Life, New Love with her, looking up all the Bible verses and going slowly through it. When the night came, we had a nice dinner together, and then proceeded to the lounge for a rousing inspiration, singing a number of Thai songs and then watching some of the wonderful Praise Time video and other testimony clips. Then we shared testimony after testimony from our local witnessing.
After that we had the Word class with her, and when we came to the section where Dad explains why he needed to write the Letters, she just drank it in. She said enthusiastically, I like him! This is why the Lord brought me to the Family, because Father David is very straight-forward, just like I like to hear. It was beautiful to see-and convicting, too, to realize that if we had put a little more into her feeding and prayed more for and about her, she might have avoided these trials she has gone through recently.
The next day she called to invite us all out to dinner on the weekend. She was just bubbling over, saying she had taught her younger brother the things I had shared with her the night before, and that he understood. Then she said she had donated her business to the Lord, and had pledged that she would give all she earned above her actual expenses to the Lord’s work. We could see direct results in her joy and happiness and cheerful giving, just by our making a little effort to feed and inspire her.
From Phoebe, Conéctate! (Activated) desk, Mexico: We met Ruben a few months ago while out shopping at a nearby supermarket. He drove us home, and the same evening invited all our team (we were 11 at the time) to come for dinner in his Italian restaurant. There we met his French wife, Valerie, and we have been regularly following up on them ever since.
Ruben knows the Lord well, having spent a whole year in the seminary, and then belonging to evangelical churches. But somewhere along the line, he got discouraged, and backslid in his faith and witness. Valerie had never even read the Bible. Both of them, along with their three children, have completely fallen in love with the Spirit in all of us, calling us their angels, and asking ceaseless questions about our faith and way of life.
It took us a little time to get a feeding program going with them, Lord help us, but finally this month, we gave them their first official Bible class. We had a feeling Valerie was not saved, but were careful not to usurp Ruben’s role and shepherding responsibility with her. But when he reached out for our help in ministering to her, we led her to receive Jesus with Ruben present. It was a sweet and exciting experience-we were all weeping. Right after she prayed, Ruben humbly confessed to her, in front of us, how he had failed her in not leading her to the Lord, and feeding her more during their 15 years of marriage, when that was his very goal when he had first met her. Incidentally, they became our very first subscribers to the Spanish Activated program, even before our subscription cards were finalized!
A couple of days later Ruben called, asking if one of us could come to their restaurant in the evening, as they had invited a lady who was desperately reaching out for spiritual counseling and they wanted our help. He concluded saying, Maybe a little prayer would help her!
The lady, an older, refined and educated Mexican woman, poured out her heart for three hours. She has had some dark experiences, and overall quite a traumatic life! After listening to this woman, and trying to give her answers from the Word along the way, I felt quite emptied out. She was receptive to the witness, but so trapped in the suffering and bitterness that she kept going back to it, rehashing it, and describing it vividly.
I excused myself to go to the bathroom, and there had a sweet time with Jesus, asking Him to give me the power that would break through so that I could lead her to Jesus. I came back to the table recharged, and asked her if she had ever received Jesus. She hadn’t, and she prayed a sincere, desperate prayer to receive the Lord.
While talking to me earlier, she had cried on and off, when she hadn’t even been able to cry for years. And during the salvation prayer, she wept the whole time. When we finished praying, I was able to relax, knowing the battle was won. Right then she threw herself on me (she is a big woman), grabbed me, held me super tight, and sobbed, and sobbed, and sobbed, like all the hurt, bitterness and hardness was melting under Jesus’ tender love and gushing out in tears. Mind you, all of this was in the middle of the busy restaurant, with both Ruben and Valerie sitting at the table weeping away!
When she composed herself again, she said: I had never thought that Jesus died for me, that I was that important to Him. I always thought I was just another number. Now I understand.
It was a wonderful experience! We have so much, we know so much, and the world is so spiritually poor, and not just poor-starving. This lady, who is from a wealthy family in Mexico, has a spiritual counselor here, a pastor who is very well known all over the country, and regarded by all as a total saint. He spiritually took care of her for years, without ever leading her to the Lord! Lord help us to do our job well and reach those hungry, desperate people, and share our riches with them!
P.S.: She read her first Activated magazine, and is wanting more!
From Lily (23), Nepal: One of our longstanding upper-class friends has always been friendly and open, and he loves our work. But as often happens here, we had to wait for the Lord’s open door to actually get him saved, due to the sensitive nature of our field. Our friend runs a large hotel and is very well educated. Generally, he has always been very confident and together.
On our last visit to bring him our monthly newsletter, he was having a very bad day, and shared with us his business frustrations and resulting depression. When he started telling us about the guru that he looks to for help, we knew this was our chance, and said, Well, if you believe in spiritual help, here’s something that helps me , and shared the salvation prayer with him, which he was happy to pray. We shared various Bible verses on peace, and left him with a Why Worry poster. He thanked us repeatedly, saying, You guys came at just the right time-this is such a godsend!
Thinking about this afterwards, I realized that while I often feel so sorry for our friends who are having rough times, in retrospect these times are when we’ve been able to lead many of them to Jesus. During the other times, when business is going so well and they’re so jolly, it’s often difficult to bring the Lord in, but it’s so wonderful to be able to present Him as the Answer Man to whatever trouble they’re having.
I also find it amazing that the Lord perfectly engineers things to bring us along on just the day when they need to talk to us. It sure makes me want to tune into the whispers and follow our spirit helpers more, as it’s so rewarding to hit the Lord’s mark and help fulfil the plan they’ve set up for that needy person!
From Sarah Albanian, Albania: For many years the Lord has blessed us with lots of sheep, and every week we hold meetings with them. Most of them are very potential.
Lately, because our inspirationalist couldn’t come to the meetings, and it’s a bit difficult to start the classes without music, I had to make an extra effort to make the class inspiring so they would enjoy it. But for some reason it didn’t work out so well.
One day as I was praying and asking the Lord about the meetings, He gave me very good counsel on how to make the class more inspiring and at the same time have everyone participate. He told me that instead of giving the class, the sheep could choose a subject, and ask questions and discuss it.
In the next meeting I applied the Lord’s counsel, and it was a wonderful class. Everybody was participating, and the people who had been attending the meetings for quite a while were explaining what they had learned in the past about this subject, to the newer sheep. It was worth it to pray and hear from Jesus, because He always gives us the answers we need.
From Celeste SGA, Croatia: A handy thing we’ve found when ministering to contacts and supporters is to ask the Lord what their thoughts and feelings are. We may see one side of them, but the Lord sees their heart, and He’s more than willing to fill us in on their needs. It’s been exciting to try it out and find out that it works!-Not to mention the feeling of relief when you realize you don’t have to handle these people on your own, but instead you can have your own Private Investigator working in teamwork with you, filling you in on what should be your next step or approach.
From Paul, Tim, Anita, Christia, Eden, Romania: We have learned in our follow-up to use the From Jesus-With Love booklet. It seems that nearly all we have been reading this to, whether they be Muslims, Jews, Orthodox, or whatever, have the same question: Which chapter of the Bible does this come from? They cannot help but confess that this is God speaking to them. Of course, we generally don’t read this to just anyone we meet on the street, but we have included it as part of our follow-up program.
Taking the time to pray and ask which part is fitting for which person has helped us to hit the nail on the head. One of our Jewish friends from Israel, who we have been following up on for months, finally came over, as he said, Just to see! Ha! We read with him from the From Jesus-With Love and he was stunned. He said the words were just how he felt inside, and wondered how we could get such words. This is only one example among so many, as the reactions are nearly always the same.
Another of our friends, a Muslim, told us when visiting him: Please read to me from that book [From Jesus-With Love], as I am having a very difficult day! Of course, this opens the door for deeper witnessing when the opportunity arises, to explain that God speaks and so on.
We want to encourage everyone to study this book and share it with your friends. As we can testify, the verse is true, If I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men unto Me!
From Tim and Maria, Mexico: I received a letter from my sister [not in the Family] in Malta, about four months after she had written it. I cried as I read the contents because she was going through some rough times in her life. I also felt bad that the letter had taken so long to reach me. (It was because we had been moving.) In desperation, I cried out to Jesus on her behalf.
During the night, the Lord started speaking to me, so I wrote down what turned out to be a beautiful prophecy of encouragement to my sister.
I typed it out and that’s when I started having battles as to whether I should send it. What will she think, receiving a letter from Jesus? What if she thinks I’m weird? and so on. In the end I decided to go ahead by faith and send it.
About a month later I got a letter from her. It sent chills down my spine as I read it, and I would like to share excerpts of it with you.
Thank you for your letter. It came just in time for I was desperately lost. I was so miserable. I felt nothing would make me happy again. Then I came home from work and your letter with the words from Jesus was there. Thank God. I read His message over and over again and I prayed ... and since then I have been becoming more myself again. Things have been changing for the better. I can breathe again. I’ve read His letter every day for many days. Now I read it less often, for I remember most of it by heart and mentally. I pray whenever I can. Thank you. Now you know why the letter I wrote you arrived so late ... so your answer to it would reach me when I most needed it.
From Ruth (of Prem), New Delhi: We have been finding it very helpful to use the more GP/DFO kind of prophecies from the From Jesus-With Love book to feed our sheep and contacts. Being mostly from Hindu backgrounds, they can’t take too much Word at once, so we have found it very helpful to pull these prophecies from the HomeARC and print them out in A-4 format.
(Editor’s note: There is a GP version of From Jesus-With Love, containing the prophecies most appropriate for the GP/DFO. Homes in some countries have been distributing it with great success and have found it to be a very feeding tool. Available for order from your Activated desk or SC!)
We have made this into a series of single-sheet classes called Words from Jesus. We give each prophecy a catchy title. For example, we titled the prophecy about the cycles, The Wheel. Then the one about the waterfall of God’s love, The Waterfall, and so on. This catches their attention and they eagerly wait for the next Words from Jesus.
This helps us to lead into a little class on hearing from the Lord and prophecy and consequently we give them, as the Lord leads, a little prophecy for themselves. So far, every one that we have given a prophecy to has been touched and they treasure these Words from Heaven. They are fascinated with prophecy and it has opened the door for us to be able to do some deep witnessing.
From Christina, Taiwan: I’ve been teaching some of our friends to pray. Quite a few of them are tapping into His power, and are flipped over the Lord’s answer to prayer in their lives. It helps to increase their faith and trust in the Lord, and their belief in the Lord’s existence.
From Promise and Thai Maria, Thailand: We’ve been following up on Lian [alias] for many years. She’s a Chinese Christian, who was content with her way of life, and showed no signs of spiritual growth at all. However, she remained friendly and continued faithfully with her monthly pledge of 1000 baht (US$40).
At times in the past, we had considered dropping her from our active list of follow-up friends, to instead pursue more hungry people who we thought would be worthier of our investment and time. Recently, we asked the Lord what to do about her, and we were led to challenge her to increase her pledge, to sponsor posters that we could distribute monthly. She took this challenge and tripled her gift, and so we’ve continued to follow up on her monthly, although still there was no spiritual hunger apparent.
One month during our visit, she told us that one of her factory buildings had burned down. She asked us to pray for her and her husband, who was very discouraged. It seemed that the Lord was beginning to work, and we kept her in our prayers throughout this time of trial.
The following month, however, was a completely different story. She was sitting at the edge of her seat as we told her about the Endtime and soon-coming events as foretold in the Bible. She was very interested, tuned in and asking questions. After that she opened up to us and told us that she’s been battling with nightmares every night, and even though she prays in Jesus’ name, they keep coming back. We were able to talk with her about the importance of God’s Word in building faith in our lives. We explained that it seemed that the Lord was trying to wake her up to the realities of the spirit world, that He wanted to strengthen her faith and belief in Him and His Word.
We reminded her of the fire which had burned down her factory the month before, and how it seemed that the Lord in His love was allowing these things to happen because He loves her and wanted to bring her back closer to Him. She confessed that she had become a lukewarm, backslidden Christian, and agreed that the recent events were from His hand to remind her that without Him, none of the other pursuits that had taken up so much of her time mattered.
She then told us that on the night of the fire, at the last minute the Lord had changed the direction of the wind. The people who were watching the fire were amazed as they saw the hand of God turning the flames away. The whole factory of four buildings should have been burned to the ground, but instead three of the buildings remained unharmed.
As a further testimony to all of the miracle of protection, in the building that burned, the part of the wall where there was a picture of Jesus hanging was left untouched by the flames! This left a deep impression on Lian, as she realized that except for His love and mercy, everything would’ve been lost. She realized that the Lord was working in their lives to bring them back to a closer walk and relationship with Him.
This was also such an encouragement to us, to see that our prayers and visits and the Word had not returned void, but had finally taken root in this dear one’s life, in the Lord’s good time and according to His perfect plan.
From Paul, Maria, Samson, and Jan, in Nigeria: A few years ago, I met a young director of a supermarket, a Swiss man with strong Christian beliefs. He has a family of four kids and listened to my testimony with real interest. Even though, to me, he didn’t stand out too much, I kept writing him from the field and he helped us twice with small donations. While visiting Europe, I decided to call him one afternoon. He was quite excited about my call, and told me that he had a house-church meeting the same evening and was just planning to talk about us as we had written a newsletter including different needs we had. Right away he invited us to talk to the small gathering. It went very well and we spent a good one-and-a-half hours sharing our experience and challenging them.
Our friend was so excited. He told all his friends that he had been so touched by our sample of launching out by faith with our family of seven children to Africa, that it gave him the faith and courage to leave his church and trust God that He would take care of him and his little family spiritually. We won more supporters and he also gave us a large donation.
It was amazing to me to see the influence our sample can have on others. Nothing special impressed me about this man when I first met him, but somehow the few words I shared with him had a real impact on him, which I wasn’t even aware of, and helped him make some major decisions in his life which he is thankful for today. Only in Heaven will we find out the influence we have had on others.
From Mary (of Micah), Taiwan: About nine years ago, back in our home field, Micah and I ministered to a very precious woman from Southeast Asia. We gave her and her children weekly Bible studies, and knew her for over four years while we were in that area. Gradually, she became too busy for the Bible studies, and she drifted away from us, although we remained friends. Over three years ago when we came to this mission field, we put her on our mailing list. Sadly, we never heard from her, but still persevered in sending her our prayer letters, hoping and praying to hear from her one day. Just about despairing of ever hearing from her, we received the most beautiful, heartfelt letter along with family photos, and a substantial donation.
Here are some quotes from her letter: I thank and praise the Lord in using you as the vessel for my acceptance of Jesus Christ into my life, and for my personal relationship with Him. My heartfelt thanks to you for unselfishly sparing us the time to come to our home in sharing with us the Word of God. Did you know that during those times that you were ministering [to] us [with] the Bible, it didn’t sink into my understanding the significance of what you were accomplishing. Little did I know that it was your act of love for Jesus. It was your obedience to His Word and unimaginable reward you will receive from Heaven. My apology for taking this long to correspond to all the non-stop letters, news and cards you have been sending me ever since you left the country. All this time, I felt so bad and it makes me look so uncaring for doing that. In regards to my spiritual life, it’s a disgrace to let you know that for the past years it [has been like] going on a roller coaster ride. My spiritual priorities began to slowly diversify and dwindle. Sometimes I fall asleep without even thanking the Lord for all the day’s blessings. And I hardly spend time reading the Word of God. I love our Lord Jesus Christ. I trust my whole life to Him. I have faith in Him, but faith without action is dead. Please pray for me that my faith will be put into action.
What an encouragement to us for not giving up on our dear friends, and being faithful to pray for and feed them!
From Sharon SGA (VS, of Matthew and Mary), Thailand: Sharon, Naree’s on the phone for you.
I thought for a moment. The only Naree I knew was a precious sheep I had met four years before who used to come over for Word studies. We later lost touch with her because of her antagonistic boyfriend. Could it be her?
I picked up the phone and was overjoyed to hear her voice after two and a half years! She was so sweet, and said, I was praying this morning, thanking Jesus for everything He has done for me and how my life has changed. He told me that I should call and tell you about it, as you were the one who introduced me to Him!
It turns out that since the last time we met, things have been on the up and up for her. She has a new boyfriend, who-unlike her former one-is kind and tenderhearted, and all the fears she was once plagued with are completely gone! It’s all because of Jesus and the Bible, she said. I love Him so much and read the Bible, or the books you gave me, every day.
She went on to tell me that she is no longer Buddhist, but has given her heart completely over to Jesus! She has been witnessing to her friends, which is a real victory, as the Naree I once knew was so shy and self-conscious. Her boyfriend is saved, and when she reads at night before bed, he asks her to read out loud so he can hear it as well! Next week, she and her boyfriend will come over for a visit.
It greatly encouraged me to see that witnessing is never wasted, and that even if we lose track of our sheep, Jesus the Good Shepherd loves them and will not let them go astray.
From Leah, Thailand: We had to push on the outreach/follow-up front this month, as we’ve been running too low on finances. One blessing in disguise from this situation is that our financial need caused us to take the time to go over our lists of people we had met and make calls to hot leads that we hadn’t had time to follow up on. Most of these people haven’t been in contact with us for over two or three years, and they were very happy to be back in touch. One secretary had been through some serious health battles and almost died this past year. She said she knew our prayers and all the Word she’d been given helped to pull her through.
In just one morning of phoning, I was able to make 10 appointments. So far, I’ve been able to see six of them, and each one had a donation ready when I came. One even pledged to help monthly!
From Tim, Praise and Priscilla, Taiwan: In Mama’s Memos #6, the Lord says, If you are faithful to Me, faithful to spread My message and share My love, you will never lack. And, If you give forth freely-of yourself, your time, your strength, your energies, and invest it all into giving out My message to My sheep, then your reward and the return on your investment will be plentiful and bountiful.
Since our Home here has committed itself to go on the attack to put follow-up first, to put more seed corn into follow-up lit and more feeding mailings, and to take time to visit others instead of just tooling (of course, keeping the balance of both), the Lord has been doing miracles in bringing the same amount of monthly income-and more!
He’s giving us our needs more abundantly, with new provisioning contacts and almost anything that we need and ask Him for that we used to buy, plus a lot of wants and requested items to help us do a better and easier job for Him and others. All I can say is a hearty amen to the above Word from Him, and that it is a tried-and-proven, put-to-the-test prophecy and spiritual principle and promise of His Word.
From Sara, Rose, Joe, and Marie, Thailand: Matthew and I met a sweet elderly lady on a cruise ship two years ago, and she gave us a donation of $200 on the spot. We wrote a thank-you letter and sent her a photo we’d taken together. She wrote us a reply, but then we didn’t hear from her again. (We actually thought she’d probably died!)
The Lord told us to keep sending occasional mailings to her address, as surely someone would receive them. Then suddenly out of the blue, she sent us two donations within a couple of months, wrote us a letter which came via our bank and just today sent a Christmas card! She asked us to pray for her, as she’s now over 91 and suffers from arthritis. It sure pays to listen to Him!
From Timothy, Marie and Chris, Indonesia: Our family of eight had to take a visa trip to nearby Singapore for one month. We prayed for the Lord’s supply to help cover such a large expense, as well as the supply of a nice place for us to stay there. We also planned to follow up on our friends and shipping contacts.
We contacted one of our friends in Singapore a month before our trip, and asked if they could find an economical place with a kitchen where we could stay for a month. We have known this Chinese couple for a few years now, and have been visiting them and feeding them in the mail. They responded by offering to let us stay at their house to save our money for our missionary work. Our first reply to them was to decline, as we felt that eight of us moving into a Chinese home of four for one month would be quite a shock for them. We also weren’t so sure how well we would be able to operate with the children, giving them Word time and schooling, as well as our going in and out seeing friends, and so on.
Well, our dear friends called us a week later, again offering the use of their home. So we took it to the Lord and got that we should accept their offer. Upon arriving in Singapore, they put five of us up in their house, and housed our older boys nearby with the Catholic Brothers of Mercy. It was a miracle how the Lord touched the hearts of this Chinese couple, as they live in a very nice, private, single house in an exclusive area. The hostess prepared the majority of all of the meals for all eight of us. Their friends were shocked, and we found out later that most had tried to discourage them from doing such a thing.
The Lord had His plan for us to be a blessing in return, by feeding them the Words of David in a way that they could receive them. We taught them about the gifts of the Holy Spirit, such as tongues, prophecy and healing. We made it a point to join them when they attended weekly praise and devotional meetings held at their Catholic chapel. We also had Word classes with them at home, and helped answer the many questions they had regarding the Spirit of God and the Endtime. They are precious people, who have received the Lord and in many ways have given of themselves and their possessions to those in need.
Following up on our other friends and contacts also went well. All of them have been facing financial difficulties in their businesses, yet they continued to give what they could, and were appreciative of the lit they received, which shed some light on the reasons behind the problems, as well as more on the Endtime. In the end, the Lord had turned this fundraising-visa trip into one of the best ever in surplus funds, saving on expenses, and follow-up.
From Charity, Brazil: I met a lawyer three-and-a-half years ago while stop-lighting, who came back to talk to me at the light about our work and beliefs after he glanced over the poster I gave him. He turned out to be a sheep and I started to follow up on him and was giving him Bible and Word classes.
This was going on for a while and he seemed to be real inspired, when all of a sudden, when I called him one day, he said that he was not going to be able to see me again because of his job and the shortness of time.
I was disappointed because I was praying that the Lord would help me to feed this young sheep and even lead him to joining the Family. I called him every once in a while and sent him something to read, but that didn’t seem to change anything for the better in his life and relationship with the Lord and the Family.
Just recently, since we had a new project in hand we wanted to ask our friends to help us and I got a check to call him, even though he had never helped us in a big way before. When I did, he was so happy to hear from us and said he was touched by all the letters I had sent him and that they had helped him since he was going through tough times. I didn’t even get a chance to explain to him about our new project, when he suddenly asked if there was any way that he could help us. He was more than happy to help us out with more than what I had expected. He also wanted to come visit us to learn more about the Lord and prayer, and so on. PTL!
From Samaria Red (of Sam), Pakistan: An elderly man whom Sam and I met and witnessed to over 20 years ago when on the road in Italy, and to whom we had been sending newsletters all these years (although he hardly ever helped), sent a check for the equivalent of US$1,200!
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