FSM 412

May 2004

FD/MM/FM

Special Action FSM #28

Cover caption: Brother and sister Isamu (24) and Tomoko (20), of the Blades Home, Japan

Entering the Era of Obedience

(From "Forward, Always Forward!" ML #3479, GN 1067)

(Jesus:) The era that you stand on the brink of is the era of obedience. You have had the Word for many years. You are both accountable and responsible; thus I now move you as a Family into the era of obedience, for that is the only step that lies between you and the reaping of great victories and seeing the mighty and marvelous manifestations of the promises I have given you as My Endtime Bride.

Never have so many blessings and rewards been available to you as will be available in this era of obedience. As you obey, the storehouses of Heaven will be opened to you. As you live the Word in full, the blessings of the spirit will be tangible within your Homes. As a result of this restructuring and the many changes that will come as a result, you will fulfill your commission more effectively and will reap a mighty harvest. All things are truly possible through the keys of the Kingdom, and you will believe and understand the reality of this promise more clearly as you step into the era of obedience and learn how to live in My complete care, with all your needs provided and your happiness guaranteed—as you manifest your faith by full obedience.

Those who look forward with eyes of faith will see that the changes are for their good, and that they will benefit from them. Those who call on the keys of trust, faith, stability, courage, and determination will rise above and will see that I have a clear path prepared for them to follow. Those who yield and trust will find great joy and peace in their hearts, knowing that these changes must come in order to move the Family into this new era. Those who determine to obey and cling tightly to the Word will find themselves on a strong foundation of faith, unmovable in the face of the Enemy's attacks. (pars. 11,15,17)

New Moves, New Grooves

Results of following "Show Me the Money," "Conviction vs. Compromise," and Other Challenges from the Lord

By Tomoko (20) for the Blades Home, Japan (written February 2004)

Currently we are a Home of 21 nationals, with 13 voting members and 8 children ages 5-14. Of these, seven are FGAs (Paul, Dorcas, Steven, Rejoice, Sunny, Noel, and June), one an SGA (Isamu), and four are YAs (Leika, Kibou, Hikaru, and Tomoko). One is a senior teen (Yoko), one a junior teen (Yasushi), and one a JETT (Eiko). Two are OCs (Yuriko, Ai), two are MCs (Yuya, Akari), and two are YCs (Nozomi, Masaki).

We have many ministries that the Lord has blessed us with: numerous weekly Bible classes; a youth ministry (True Colors), a "reach the rich" clown ministry, a club for Down syndrome children and their mothers, and a weekly ministry for the homeless. We also house four board members, two VSs, and one CO.

Although you could say our Home is larger than average, we have found that our size has been a key to our success, as we are then able to give each ministry more attention.

Our team's background

When our team first started out in 1998, all our kids were still very young, and we young people were pretty young too. Until that time we had mainly been involved in Service Homes, and had been working with Johane and Lydia for seven years. During that time we did not have to fundraise to the extent that we were faced with when we struck out on our own. Thank the Lord for His mercy and for Johane and Lydia, who gave us a year's worth of rent as a parting gift, which helped take a bit of the edge off as we got ourselves established. But we still needed money for the rest of our living expenses.

We tried many different witnessing/fundraising methods, but since none of us had had much experience in fundraising with tools, we didn't know what to do. Our year of "mercy" quickly passed, with us still not having established any long-lasting substantial means of support.

The "God factor"

One of the options that came up numerous times during this period was for Paul to start a wedding ministry. This seemed to be an easy solution to our financial straits. But when we prayed about the direction of our Home, the Lord stated that He wanted us to focus our time and attention on our children, our young people and the sheep we had, and that if we were to take these System jobs we would fail in giving them the education and spiritual training they needed to become His warriors of the End. As we made that our focus, He did His part. He has supplied all our needs!

This of course took a lot of faith to put into action. There were countless times that we could not see how just taking care of His children, both spiritual and physical, could pay the rent, gas, electricity, and water—our bills! In the beginning, we did have some regular Bible class attendees, and each of these precious sheep would give what they could, but it was still nowhere near enough to cover our monthly budget.

The first year we tried some ballooning, but after some bad experiences and it generally just not bearing fruit spiritually or financially, we knew the Lord had to have some other plan for us. And He did, just not what we wanted in our carnal minds!

We wanted something very regular and stable, something we could count on, rain or shine. In one word—we wanted security. But the Lord had other plans, as He wanted desperation coupled with obedience! This is something I'm sure that you all know has never failed. Countless times we went to the Lord, each new month, each week, asking what He wanted us to do right then. And the Lord would give us His plan.

One time when we were particularly desperate in seeking the Lord about our financial situation, the Lord told us to hit the road with the kids—to just up and go! He said that He had a plan for us. He also very specifically told us where to go, which was to a prefecture on the other side of Japan. This was during the Sakura (Cherry blossom) season. We went by faith with most of the kids, and while singing to some sheep, we met a very influential Buddhist priest. He got saved on the spot, has since been turned on to Christianity, and has become a regular supporter.

Things like this have happened numerous times: As we have followed the Lord's perfect leading, He would send down the needed cash, most of the time through outright miracles.

Another time it was nearing the end of the month (desperation time), and we didn't have enough for the next month's budget. Out of the blue, a lady, an alcoholic who we had witnessed to years before with Lydia, called and said she would like to give us a 100,000-yen (about US$900) donation!

It seems too simple to be true, but we have learned the importance of being flexible enough to do the Lord's will, and not getting stuck on any one ministry or one way of doing things if it's the Lord's will for us to do something different. This has been our recipe for success.

Confirmation

If our success is due to anything, it's that we have done our best to follow the New Wine for the day, and pass that New Wine on to our children and sheep. It's also been a matter of being faithful with the sheep the Lord does bring, even if it's only one person.

We clearly see the benefits of not getting involved in System jobs, even though it was a big temptation at first. At times we'd go through rough spots near the month's end, when we'd all have to get down on our prayer bones. But because we did not have System involvement, we have been able to concentrate more of our time and efforts into training our children and young people.

We also realized that if Paul had gone to do weddings, our children and young people wouldn't have received the hands-on witnessing training they got on the weekends. Just having the extra manpower enabled us to go further and have more one-on-one training of our young people, which is very needed.

We can also confirm the "Show Me the Money" truth that if you work hard for the Lord in your Bible classes, follow-up, mail ministry, and preaching of the Gospel to your children and to the lost, and make that your profession, the Lord will generously supply all your material needs, and even add some extra blessings too.

We were able to use the extra time when we were not giving Bible classes to prepare what we would be feeding the attendees next. This has been a key in their spiritual growth, which then resulted in them giving of their material wealth. Through this we have also been blessed with two new disciples, Sunny and Noel. PTL! (See their testimonies in FSMs 407 and 409.)

Our Home's progress since "Show Me the Money"

Since the "Show Me the Money" series has come out, we have experienced tremendous progress on all outreach fronts. This is definitely the Lord's plan for success!

Last year (2003), over the January-February period, our income from our sheep and supporters was only one-fifth of our total income, while we would get about half from our birthday party ministry. The rest would come from various other sources, including a little gift monthly for being a Service Home. (I assure you, this is very small.)

But when the "Show Me the Money" series came out, the Lord told us to put a special priority on obeying and doing the assignments listed. Every week we would concentrate on a new assignment, which we printed out for the Home along with corresponding dates, so everyone would know what meeting we were having when. Everyone would get together with the prophecies they had received prior to the meeting, and we would pray and discuss the needed changes in our Home.

The Lord spoke to us very specifically, and after implementing the assignments in pillar two of "Show Me the Money," and dividing our Home into the pertinent witnessing-related committees, the Lord showed the newsletter committee to make a special monthly newsletter solely for our sheep. As a result of this and the corresponding reactions to the newsletter, we were able to miraculously cover our January/February budget, in what is usually the toughest time of year for us.

Last year, in January/February of 2003, our income from the clown/party ministry made up almost half of our Home's total income. But as we have taken steps away from this, even though the income from the parties went down to 31% this year, during those same months this year, it's amazing how the Lord more than compensated. Since seeking the Lord about "Show Me the Money" and how it applies to our Home's situation and implementing the assignments, our income from our sheep and supporters shot up to 47% of our total income for the months of January/February 2004, a 27% increase, or more than double the amount received from Bible classes and sheep for the same months in the year 2003!

Sheep and scheduling

We have found that to try to get our sheep and Bible class attendees to come on certain days to attend a group Bible class has been particularly difficult. So we have learned to adjust accordingly. We visit those unable to come to our Home and give them Bible classes at their homes. Over time it has gotten to the point that on any day of the week, there's some kind of study going on, two to three a day, so we just ask newcomers if they would like to join such-and-such a Bible class.

Since the "Show Me the Money" series came out, we have learned to seek the Lord daily about what He wants us to do right now. It's easy to get into a rut of "what works," and an "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" mentality. But the Lord has been showing us more and more through these GNs to attack on all fronts. Most of the time that has meant a general upheaval of our old set patterns and mindsets of scheduling ("but we always have personal time after dinner!"). This has been great for us and we are relearning the art of being new bottles and going with the Lord's Spirit.

So no matter how much it initially seems to go against the grain of how "we've always done things," as we put "Show Me the Money" and the other New Wine into action, it always pays off and brings fruit that lasts.

True Colors: reaching the labor leaders of Japan

When our Home started, dear Robin (now in Uganda) had a true burden for the Japanese youth, and through a pretty miraculous meeting we were able to start our youth ministry right at the top, with the president of the English-Speaking Society University League. We met this man while on get-out—he had skates on and looked like a real punk! This shows how important it is to be a good sample, witness wherever you go, and never pass up an opportunity the Lord shows you, as it just might be the key to a mighty ministry.

In our case this young man was the key to us getting behind the closed doors of the universities here in Japan and winning thousands of souls plus a new disciple to the Lord. This young man organized English events for all the universities in the area. Together we formed our True Colors club as a place to share your true thoughts and feelings on a variety of topics. Every week we would invite university students to come to our Home for an English discussion. We'd pick topics that they could relate to, and then we'd give them a witness through it, and get them saved then and there. It has been a blast!

Besides the weekly discussions, we have also organized large attention-getting events with the goal of finding more interested students and either hooking them up with our weekly English club or taking them straight to Bible classes and deeper feeding. In recent years we have become more widely known among the universities, and have been invited to attend their English clubs as English-speaking representatives and native speakers. The universities have hosted huge events where they do all the footwork of getting the attendees, renting the hall, organizing staff, advertising, and then they would ask us to pick the theme, questions, and provide a commentary. As a bonus from us, we would add skits and live music provided by Strange Truths (a Family band from another Home). This has been wonderful, as they do all the hard work and we just have to show up—desperately prayed up, of course!

There have been trials and tears, as well as burnout—where we've felt like we were not making any progress with the regular students who'd been coming for some time. There have been lots of times when we desperately sought the Lord to confirm if it was His will to continue with this ministry. But each time, He would show us specifically that we were part of Japan's last chance: We were it! He kept us faithful, and the Lord led us to a bright young student who would join the Family and serve the Lord full time—Sunny!

God bless Sam (Isamu) for his faithful feeding of Sunny, as it took a lot of patience, but all throughout the Lord emphasized our faithfulness, and it paid off! Sunny has been instrumental in the inside contacts she has with different members of the university scene, being able to get in where we could not.

More recently we have been able to host a summer Bible camp, two large seminars, and a Holy Ghost sample for these students. The Lord has taught us priceless lessons of perseverance and patience. And remember—if it's only one person who shows up at your door, it's not a fluke! The Lord does have a plan, so you should give that one person all you've got. That's how we won Sunny.

Training our youth in reaching the youth

The Lord has emphasized the spiritual training of our teens, and the True Colors club has been the answer on how to train our young people to be witnesses. As our teens meet with these students time and again, they have learned how to pour out all the wealth of wisdom that has been poured so abundantly into them. This has been an amazing confidence booster, as our young people see how much training they have had compared to their contemporaries. They are truly looked up to and admired by the university students that come over.

We soon realized that having a youth ministry like this can have so many benefits, and the Lord led us to share the ministry with other Homes in our area, not only in order to share the invaluable training and inspiration that came with feeding these students, but also to accommodate the sheer numbers we were having to follow up on. It has been wonderful working with the Homes in our area to accomplish this, and we know that the Lord has more in store for us.

Angel Bell—witnessing through childcare

Angel Bell is a group of moms and families who have Down syndrome children. This club was first started 10 years ago by one of our sheep, as a childcare and parenting workshop for the mothers of Down syndrome children. Since one of our live-out's friend's children had Down syndrome, every week one Family member and our live-out would attend the workshop and counsel the mothers on how to train their children. All the moms really liked the Family material that we used, such as Raise 'em Right. So during this time we basically only counseled them on childcare and parenting, although our live-out sheep would from time to time give one-on-one Bible classes.

After two years, instead of our attending the original group, we started bringing the moms to our Home, and it became a weekly counseling class on childcare, with an accompanying Bible study. Along with that we gave a class for the Down syndrome children so the parents could see how we did the teaching. Around this time, although the group had started off with 20 families, it went down to 5 families. These workshops would take one very full day, and we did one every week for the next two years.

During this time these parents learned about the Word, the Bible, and how to train their kids according to the standard in the Word. At first we would just give them direct Word classes, but as their faith grew, we began to teach them how to hear from the Lord for themselves and receive direct shepherding from the Lord.

From CC counseling to Word study

In 1999 we had to move to a different area, and the Lord used our move to force these mommies to be stronger disciples in their own right. Before they would pay a "counseling fee" for the weekly classes we gave them, but after we moved, they paid our traveling expenses to go and give them Bible class. So from that time on, they started to give money to the Lord and His work.

This was a turning point in their spiritual lives, as we were able to escape from being simply childcare counselors and became full-time teachers of the Word. We then started giving them more meaty Word, such as Wine Press material.

During this time they also learned how to teach their kids the Word by themselves, as before we would be the ones giving the children Word classes. This was a big step of faith for them, as they all decided to have their children skip one day of school weekly, so that they could teach their kids the Word. But the Lord spoke to the hearts of these precious mommies and gave them the faith for it, and this has borne lots of fruit in their lives.

Strong sheep—a key to winning more sheep

When we first started giving them Bible classes, one of our dedicated sheep would go with us weekly to help in the care of these mommies. She was a key in winning them, as she was able to invest a lot of time in prayer and counseling of these spiritual babies, time that we did not have. So these mothers' growth is a result of a lot of people's tender loving care and teamworking. At first they needed someone "outside" to link them to us, and be a bridge for them to the Word, as digesting it on their own was quite difficult. They are now hooked on the Word and have learned to feed themselves.

As they grew in the Word and in discipleship, their desire to witness also grew, and they began to witness to families in their school and neighborhood. They organized a kids club where, once a month, the children from the school their kids attend and neighborhood kids would gather, and these mommies would give Word classes to them. They also started a once-a-month class for the mothers, where they would read Activate mags (Japanese Activated) and give them counseling. Thus they are reaching and feeding their own circle of mommies and reaching more people than we could on our own.

Last Christmas they hosted a big Christmas party for their sheep and gave them a solid witness. They sold our tools for us, and then gave us all the income for those tools.

Family pubs = Family training for our sheep's children

There are a total of 13 children in the Angel Bell club, five of whom have Down syndrome. Since their mothers use all of the Family publications that are geared for kids, the kids are turning into disciples with a hunger for the Word. They read the Japanese MLKs, Life with Grandpa, the MOP, and especially love Heaven's Library. They have started to get spirit stories on their own. They are reading most of the same material that we give to our own kids, so it's wonderful to hear the children talk about spirit helpers and other things that Family kids talk about. The children are also learning to witness and hear from the Lord. TYJ!

A "reach the rich" clown/party ministry

We have a clown/birthday party ministry that has provided good support, in which we perform as clowns at birthday parties, school festivals, company events, and weddings, mostly for the foreign community here in the Tokyo area. (During Christmas we have been asked twice to perform at the children's Christmas party of an embassy here.)

We have been fairly able to regulate the number of shows we do, as people need to call to get reservations. We have anywhere from one to four bookings on Saturday and Sunday of every week, and we keep the rest of the week free from parties as much as possible.

Before accepting a reservation, we counsel with the Home concerning our schedule for that week, and then hear from the Lord about whether we should take it. The Lord usually gives us practical counsel about how to approach the parents afterwards, or if it's a school festival whether we could also display our tools, so there's lots of counseling involved.

The show itself consists of games, simple magic, balloons, and a skit—which is where our witness comes in. We have done renditions of "The Three Empty Sacks" (a smash hit, with knight costumes and puppets!), "Mrs. Farmer Friendly" (puppets again), "Wolf! Wolf!", "The Wind and the Sun," and "The Ant and the Grasshopper."

Since we are a Service Home, and help to support a CO, a CGO RB chairperson, two VSs, two FED board people, and more recently a JT board member, we have found that having this clown/party ministry has enabled us to use the rest of the week to do the necessary and vital work for our area, as well as take care of the many ministries that our Home has.

However, when the "Conviction vs. Compromise" series came out, those involved in the clown/party ministry (then Isamu, 22; Tomo, 18; Hikaru, 17; and Kibou, 17) got very desperate with the Lord as to what His will was concerning this ministry and our Home. Our Home did have several thriving ministries, and there was the thought that by doing these parties we were freeing the others to concentrate on their other jobs, but we wanted to make sure that this was His highest will for us.

The Lord in His mercy announced a time of transition for us. Like it said in the GN, this was a time when we needed to work twice as hard to do these jobs, while at the same time diversifying our sources of income so we could build a church that would support us. More specifically with the clown/birthday party ministry, He said we would need to have the vision of reaching the rich through this ministry, and only then would this be His highest will for us.

The people that make up the foreign community here in Tokyo are just about the richest people in Japan. We knew for sure that we were at least meeting the "rich"; so the question was how to reach them.

Over and over our Home and those directly involved went to the Lord about this clown/party ministry, as even though this may have been His will for us yesterday, we needed to be sure it was His will for us right now. Many times we would seek the Lord just because we were tired of it (the clown shows, entertaining at parties, bratty children, getting drained of all our spiritual energy, etc.), to where we really did not want to continue no matter how financially stable things were looking. But each time we sought the Lord, He would confirm that it was His will for the time being. This is what He said:

How much are you willing to give to see the success of your clown ministry in contacts and regular supporters? Because if you are just in it for the money, for the regular easy support, then it is time to stop so that I can teach you to once again live by faith. But if you are willing to die to self and make each time count, to give it all you've got, then I will continue to lead and guide you and prosper this ministry and help it bear the right kind of fruit that will be long-lasting and yield a solid church for Me. Do what you can while it is still day, for the night is coming when no man can work.

The Lord used that counsel to keep us desperate with Him and to cause us to walk the fine line between His will and the area where it would become a System job.

One of the first things we started doing was following up on each family we did a party for. After every party where we would entertain as clowns, we tried to make sure that we gave them an in-depth explanation of our work, explaining that we are missionaries, and we would then offer tools for them to buy. During Christmas, CD cards were very popular and during the other seasons we have offered Mottos, not only to the host parents but also to the other parents attending. (We would ask the host parents beforehand if it was okay to promote our work and tools to the other parents at the party. Most of the time the parents were very happy to accommodate our requests.) We would then send a thank-you letter and a newsletter of our work to those giving the party, and we would put those who bought tools on our mailing list so they would receive regular updates of our work.

During this transition period we had to change our mindset, so that we used each opportunity and party we had to meet sheep, find potential supporters, and feed those we came in contact with. The Lord had made it clear that this ministry would not last forever, so knowing that, we have been desperate to find those who would be willing to support us regularly. This has been a great incentive to keep us active and progressing on all fronts—newsletters, e-mails, phone calls, visits, and getting out the tools through this clown/party ministry.

Follow-up tips we have learned

Having attractive projects that the affluent can give to in some way is an important point that we have learned in reaching these top people. It has to be something very visible so that it will appeal to them. We have organized drives, where on a certain day we go around and collect toys and presents that these people donate to orphanages that we visit. This has become one of our regular appeal projects, as through it we are able to get in contact with those we would otherwise be unable to meet, and give them a more in-depth explanation of our work. Usually after hearing more about the missionary work we do, they are more willing to help us in greater ways and buy our tools. So we have learned to use these CTP projects as an opportunity to meet with people, and then use that meeting to feed them more deeply.

Using the name of the Family on all our newsletters, photo albums, and e-mails is another important point we've learned. With the e-mails that we send, we add a link to the Family GP site, so that they are able to get connected right away and see our worldwide work. We also use the FARs in feeding these sheep.

We make our missionary work clear at all times—not just harping on the CTPs, which is easy to do, but explaining in depth our work in changing hearts and lives for the better. Basically we've learned we need to obey all that it says in the "Show Me the Money" series about being professional, working hard, and having a wide ministry that covers all the points mentioned.

Good quality photo albums with clear captions have been a key, as people can see what we are doing, and within a very short time can get a rundown of all the various kinds of work that we do.

We have a party contact file, with a list of all the names on our mailing list and all the information we have on that person, gained from parties. This includes telephone number, fax, e-mail addresses, home address, children's names and ages. On the same chart there is a section for the history of each contact, what they have helped us with (amount of goods or financial donations) and when, and what Word or feeding material we have given them, and which one of us is in charge of mailing each particular person and visiting them. This has been very helpful in keeping track of all the people we meet. For example, in that file Sam's contacts are in brown, and mine are in pink. Little things like that keep us organized.

Regular newsletters and e-mails are very important and have borne lots of unexpected fruit. One couple that we had been regularly e-mailing over the year, but who did not particularly respond in any way to our e-mails, suddenly said during Christmas that they would like to sponsor 50,000 yen (about US$450) worth of Treasure Attics! Also, one company president who was on our mailing list but from whom we never received a response sent us a big donation last Christmas and again this Christmas. So we consider faithfulness in these written communications (newsletters and e-mails) a priority. If you have been slack in your feeding and only manage to send off a letter every three months or so, it becomes all that much more difficult to ask for help when the time comes; whereas if you have been regular in your follow-up through the mail or e-mail, your faith for asking is increased.

Asking for prayer and regularly getting counsel from the FGAs in the Home is one thing Sam and I have learned in our follow-up. This whole ministry of following up on the contacts that we meet through our clown/party ministry largely rests on the younger generation's shoulders, and we've learned to seek and search out the Lord's leading and guidance each step of the way. There's no one (as in FGA/adult) breathing down our necks to make sure we make the calls or bring forth fruit, but we know that the buck stops with us, and the fruitfulness of this ministry rests on whether we hear from the Lord for His present leading and guidance, so we seek the FGAs' help, prayer, and counsel.

Whenever we have gotten desperate, asked the Lord, and obeyed His leading in the follow-up of these contacts, the fruit always comes in ways both large and small. We'd get a much-needed financial donation or some other material goods that were needed at the time. Desperation and obedience to what the Lord shows has always equaled success for us.

Reaching the rich for protection from persecution

Here is a testimony about one of our party contacts and how faithful feeding and visiting can be the key in influential people standing up for you when rumors roll or persecution hits.

We have one party contact, D., who has been our main friend and contact from the clown/party ministry. She has helped us with numerous gifts in the past, including a very large donation for a much-needed vehicle! We subscribed her to Activated, which she liked, and whenever we met we'd give her that month's FARs and Reflections. She has also organized toy and present drop-offs for us and our CTPs. It's been great to see how the Lord has led us step by step in the follow-up of this very potential rich and influential person, whose husband holds a high position in a foreign business here in Japan.

A few weeks before the Christmas season started, when Sam was making a follow-up call, one of the "party ladies" who had been very sweet, receptive, subscribed to Activated, and regularly received our newsletters, suddenly said that she would like to be taken off our mailing list. We knew that she was a church person, so we concluded from her sudden change of attitude that she must have heard something about us at her church. We got very desperate and asked the Lord to take control of the situation and help it to turn into a Romans 8:28.

After that incident occurred, when coming back from a visit to an orphanage that we have had a ten-year relationship with, we had dropped by D.'s place. She had had a Christmas party the night before and wanted to give us some turkey and cakes that were left over. She mentioned to us that there was a rumor going around a Christian international school that we were part of a cult. Right away she said that she thought it was "phooey," and that she had read all the Activated mags, FARs, and different material that we had been regularly sending her, and she couldn't see how that was possible.

We were, of course, very encouraged that she had such faith in us as a result of all the Family material and Word that we had been sending her over the two years we had known her, so that she was able to say that with such conviction. But we were also very desperate and shook up about the rumors going around, number 1, because we did not want any of the people we had been following up on to get stumbled, and number 2, because of the potential loss of income.

Needless to say, Sam and I got very desperate with the Lord, and after lots of prayer and hearing from the Lord, we called our main supporter up again and asked if we could visit and explain to her our (ahem!) more "radical beliefs." Yikes! Up until this time, although we had been giving her Word regularly and she would receive Activated mags monthly, it had been very difficult to get into any deep discussions about the Family and our spiritual beliefs. Over the few months leading up to this incident, the Lord had been laying it on our hearts to pray that something would happen in her life to make her desperate for the truth. So when this occurred we were excited and felt that this was a Romans 8:28 in that we would now be able to give her a deep witness.

So we went—very prayed up! We were able to get into an in-depth discussion about our beliefs, such as the Endtime, prophecy, homeschooling, and past rumors of child abuse. All throughout she was very receptive, and it must have been the Word and the Activated mags that paved the way to her believing us and the Word over whatever rumor was going around. While we were talking, she started trying to formulate answers that would allay her friends' suspicions. God bless her for deciding to stand up for us.

On this visit we still had not been able to say anything about our beliefs on sexual issues, and we realized that as she was a church Christian, this was something we would have to tackle as soon as possible. So about a month after this we went by faith and did so! Believe me—this took a lot of faith, hearing from the Lord, and studying up on it ourselves! One thing that helped us not delay in giving her this meaty Word, besides the fact that all the recent GNs have been talking about not compromising for gain, was that we knew that we had to explain it to her before her churchy friends told her about it in a negative light.

We weren't able to hand our sex statement to her in person, but we left it at her door, along with a batch of cookies that Eiko (13) had made. Sam then called and talked to her a bit about it. After that we didn't hear from her for about a month, but we prayed daily for her receptivity. Then just recently she e-mailed us, saying she'd like to help us with our Children's Day projects that we had sent her information about. We were able to visit again, this time presenting her with our pledge program. Please keep this in your prayers as we are still waiting for a reply.

We have learned many lessons through the above-mentioned experiences and the clown/party ministry as a whole—mainly to be faithful and to keep sending out the newsletters, even when things don't seem to be happening, and to be plodders for Christ. When the time comes, it's just the Lord's Word that separates the sheep from the goats and nothing that we do ourselves. All He asks us to be is faithful and obedient, and He does the rest.

In conclusion

We hope these testimonies have been an encouragement to you—that if we can do it, then you can too. The Lord has blessed us as a Home in entrusting these ministries to us. Of course, at first they did not seem to be so great or potential in any way. And this article hasn't expressed the days and days of doing the little things that made the end result possible.

None of the above is thanks to us, but is a direct result of Mama and Peter's faithfulness to give us the Words of David. We are not super-duper talented at anything in particular; we need Jesus very much. We are guilty of making messes in the kitchen and have days when we wake up grumpy in the morning … and the list goes on! But as we have put "Show Me the Money" (and before that, the CvsC) into action, the blessings have been pouring down, so this is all a direct result of the Word and GNs and doing our best to live them.

May you also be blessed by following the new moves of His Spirit. We love you!

Photo captions:

Blades Home

(L–R:) Yuriko (11), Yoko (16), Eiko (13)—our dance troupe

Angel Bell club: Active members and their kids

A Bible class at a pension one of our friends lent us for a Bible camp retreat

Visiting an orphanage with toys and games are Yoko and Yuriko with new friends.

This article was published in The Tokyo Weekender. We helped with a performance for abandoned and abused children that some well-known volunteer organizations hosted.

Our clown/party team

An international school donated the proceeds from their annual charity fundraiser to us, enabling us to donate 11 bicycles and numerous toys to this orphanage.

Holy Ghost Sample and barbeque we hosted for university students

Nozomi (5) with a new friend, after performing at a retirement home

English discussions at Waseda University

Pull quotes:

Although you could say our Home is larger than average, we have found that our size has been a key to our success, as we are then able to give each ministry more attention.

In one word—we wanted security. But the Lord had other plans, as He wanted desperation coupled with obedience!

As we have followed the Lord's perfect leading, He would send down the needed cash, most of the time through outright miracles.

No matter how much it initially seems to go against the grain of how "we've always done things," as we put "Show Me the Money" and the other New Wine into action, it always pays off and brings fruit that lasts.

When the "Show Me the Money" series came out, the Lord told us to put a special priority on obeying and doing the assignments listed.

Desperation and obedience to what the Lord shows has always equaled success for us.

How the Lord Shows Us the Money—Our Home and Its Support

By Daniel, Angela, and Hope, Romania

To be a professional in your field of choice, you have to study; that is true in any job. We found this very important—to study the Word on outreach and follow-up, and pray often about our sheep, what to read with them, how to bring them closer, and so on.

The GN that had the biggest impact on our Home in this aspect was "The Family's Future and Expansion Program!" (ML #3308, GN908). We read it many times together and individually. This GN has been the footpath that we've followed! In there it says:

You must study My Word, both old and new, so that you know the principles of faith and truth. I'm calling you to be priests and ministers of My Word, My love and My truth to those who seek to have Me play a more important role in their lives. You must prepare yourself in heart and spirit, and strengthen yourself in the faith, so that you can be these priests, ministers, and teachers of the Gospel. (ML #3308:26)

While building a follow-up work, what worked for us and what might work for others is to have different ways of fundraising, so if one fails one month, you still have another way as a back up that the Lord can use to supply your needs. To support the Home we use the mail ministry a lot, to contacts both outside and inside the country. That has given us time to invest in the sheep, and has helped to relieve the feeling of pressure of meeting the monthly budget.

We also see each one of our supporters, parents, contacts, and friends as sheep. Our investing in them prayer, the Word, and time spent together has been paid back many times over. This is where the "God factor" comes in that Mama talked about in the Conviction vs. Compromise GNs. As we have put the sheep first and trusted the Lord to support us, He has never failed.

The Lord has tested us more than once on this. Many times we have had a visitor come to spend a few days with us, and while we had big financial needs, we just trusted the Lord and poured into that one person. And then that person did shopping for us, or became a supporter later on, etc.

The Lord showed us that we can't depend only on tooling. We do go out witnessing with tools, but the emphasis is on witnessing, whatever we do. Without going fundraising to the West or having big fundraising pushes, but just by doing His will every day and praying it in, the Lord has supplied funds for the following things these last three years:

* a round trip to Peru for three of us adults with our two children to visit Daniel's family

* an upgraded computer for the Home

* a car

* a washing machine

* a camera.

And these are just the bigger things, as Jesus showers us with so many blessings every day and gives us all our needs and the desires of our hearts.

Recently another miracle happened: All this time we've been using the help of friends to do our scanning, photocopies, and printing in color, but it was becoming time-consuming, as the number of people we feed is growing, and we felt rather limited at times. So the Lord led us to a color printer/copy machine, which we felt was a real need for us for translating and preparing follow-up materials.

We didn't have the funds to buy it, but brought it to the Lord in prayer, and asked Him to supply. Two days later a friend from high school who lives in Canada and helps us once in a while wrote that the Lord showed her to send us some money to buy computer equipment. Right away we wrote her back and explained what we needed and how much it would cost. She sent us the funds! This is the "God factor."

The GNs about tithing and "Show Me the Money!" were a great inspiration and motivated us to continue to change and improve. It's not like we have arrived in any way, as we continue to learn and grow every day, but because of the time and Word invested in our friends, many of them now tithe or give monthly donations. Slowly but surely we are building a group of followers, a church that is supporting us.

One month last winter we all got sick, one after another, with a strong flu. We weren't able to go out the whole month, and we had no income. But it was our sheep and friends who helped us. One by one they showed up, saying, "The Lord told me to come and give you this [a donation]," or "The Lord showed me to do shopping for you," and they brought a bag with chicken, fruits, and veggies, exactly what we needed for that day to make dinner. It was very touching, and we were able to pay all our bills and have enough food.

We can truly say that our friends are not just sheep or believers, but they are our brothers and sisters and part of our "extended Family"!

Another lesson that we learned is not to compare with others, but to be realistic and see what applies to our country, city, and Home. Even though we tried to gather all our closest friends on a certain day of the week to have Activated meetings, it didn't happen. They have different schedules, various levels of faith and so on, so we feed them individually when they are able to come. But we still have Saturday afternoon open for classes and fellowship for whoever is able to come, and we have groups of three to six people together then.

To bring people to visit us and get them used to it, we used different approaches. We celebrate their birthdays together, which is a wonderful time of fellowship and prayer. Sometimes we have given out provisioning and clothes, and when they come to pick it up, we have a class with them. Some needed help with Spanish translations in their business, and Daniel has helped them with this. In each situation the Lord used something different to bring them along. As we were there for them and became involved in their lives, they drew closer. But even when they don't seem to progress or they are too busy and don't come for a while, we found it important to keep in touch and not give up on them. Never give up on a sheep.

We learned this with a girl that we met a while ago while personal witnessing. She prayed at that time with us to receive Jesus and afterwards we gave her a New Testament. For one year we kept calling her and trying to meet her, but she was always busy. When we called her for her birthday she was very touched, but it was still a few more months before she came over. A few weeks ago I called her, and she did come that afternoon. As it turned out, she was very disappointed with her studies and everything in her life, to the point that she's very turned on to our work and is considering serving Jesus too.

When we know that visitors will come, we take time to pray ahead of time and plan who's going to give the class, who will be with the children, who will serve some refreshments, and the role each one will play in the visit. We pray about what we will read, and we talk about every detail and commit it to the Lord. That is very important to ensure a good sample and success when having people over. If you are disorganized and the children are rowdy and running around, it can look like you need more help than they do! But when people come unexpectedly, we organize ourselves quickly and change our plans to accommodate them and give them our best.

Having the children involved really touches their hearts and makes them feel at home. The children (Nadia, 5½, and Leiana, 3½) serve refreshments, make little cards and drawings, sing songs, show them their books and read stories with them, and if our visitor is not saved, they pray with them. From the time they were very small, the girls have been involved in ministering to our friends, so they are very bold, natural, and warm around people, which makes a big impression. Many people have told us how much they admire the education we have given them, and how impressed they are with the children. The ones who have kids come often, so their children can learn from ours.

We opened the Home five years ago, and as we look back we can clearly see that any of the fruit that has been brought forth wouldn't have been possible without us sticking together as a team and having a long-term vision. The follow-up revolution and building a church are not possible without this. Peter said in "The Family's Future and Expansion Program!":

To bring this about will require dedication and stick-to-itiveness. He's calling you to become stable pioneers, meaning that you should find out where the Lord wants you to be for the long haul, and then remain there and build a work—a following of people that you teach, shepherd and minister to. He's asking you to become pastors of these flocks, caring for them day after day, laying down your lives in new ways for those who are part of us even though they don't live within our Homes. (ML #3308:46, GN 908)

We've fought many battles—discouragement at times when things seemed to be too slow, financial difficulties, lack of personnel, ups and downs in our relations with each other, and more than once we felt like giving up. But we just couldn't fail the sheep. We would think, "Who would minister to them if we pack up and leave?" They are the ones the ones who've helped us to give it one more try—and then the Lord would come through and work things out. It would have been easy to find another Home and try there, but we learned to lay down our lives in new ways, as the Lord said earlier in the same Letter:

I'm asking you to become teachers, pastors, and shepherds—no longer the roving pioneers, but now stable pioneers, building a work, building a following, building a church of believers who will work with you and be part of you, new members of My Endtime army and Family. This will require dedication and stick-to-itiveness. It will require laying down your lives in new ways. (par. 23)

It is a very exciting time, and it's only getting better!

Photo captions:

Angela (of Daniel) with our sheep, Ms. Estera, reading the latest Reflections at her work place

The Basics of Why We Are Here

By Jesse Youngblood and Susanna, U.S.

When we began asking the Lord over the last year about what we should be doing, His answers in prophecy sort of surprised us, as they were not what we were expecting. He kept telling us to "think outside the norm," and that He would ask us to do things a bit differently than before. As we followed Him, we have seen His blessings fall left and right.

First, the Lord told us to get out of the expensive city we were in and lower our overhead so that we could spend less time fundraising and more time witnessing.

He also told us to phase out any fundraising methods that were not a witness, such as ballooning and face painting. (Susanna had been doing a lot of face painting.) The Lord told us that if we would just go out with the tools and present ourselves as missionaries, He would more than bless us.

He also told us to bite the bullet on the cost of the Activated mags [which cost more than posters] and hand out more of these with our fundraising, and He would more than compensate.

Well, we have been doing all of the above and the Lord has blessed our income so that it is triple what it was before. He has given us a cozy little place out in the country that is also close to fairly good-sized towns in all directions. From there we do weekly witnessing and outreach, but it also serves as a base for missionaries going to the field. All Home members go out as missionaries and witnesses, and the finances are much better than any ballooning teams we have ever heard about.

We believe that this is a direct result of putting ourselves in a position of getting back to the basics of why we are here and getting away from non-witnessing methods of outreach. It is so fulfilling, as we meet lots of sheep who either want to be fed the Word or receive more tools or both.

We have also started a "Fax of Life" ministry to feed the people we meet and our provisioning contacts. [Editor's note: This series of faxes is put together by Anthony and is available on the MO site, under "Activated," "Contributions."] It is so refreshing to get back to the beginnings of what we have been trained to do. We feel that we should strive to just be what we are—dropped-out Christians who live full time for Jesus. When people ask us what we do as missionaries, we tell them that we do a lot of things, but the bottom line is that we preach the Gospel!

We all still feel like we have a long way to go to build a proper missionary work, especially in light of the new Letters on discipleship, but we feel that through the Lord's leading we are now a step closer and much happier about what we do.

Witnessing Our Controversial Beliefs

By Shine (of Tim), Detroit Home, U.S.

There is no need to compromise in witnessing! None! In our Home's witnessing and follow-up, we have seen again and again the good fruits of not compromising. Here are some examples that prove it to be true:

Two years ago we met a man out witnessing named Tony. At first we corresponded by phone and mail, but then we started to meet with him weekly to read the Word. This went on for quite a while, and he liked it. We started to bring him along and the Lord showed us to start reading some of the meatier Letters with him. Sometimes it was a bit difficult for him to swallow, as he also attends church, but he still wanted to meet with us.

After a while he would make comments like, "Why don't you guys like the churches?" "Why do we have to read these Letters?" "Tonight can we just read the Bible?" So it came to the point where we had to lay it out for him, and explain to him that he can come to us and read the Bible and the New Wine for today, or he can stick it out at his church, which has plenty of Bible studies. Slowly, he stopped meeting with us. We knew, though, that we were doing the right thing, because we want those who hunger for the Words of David.

We hadn't heard from him until very recently, when he called. He said that he has quite a bit of money saved up and has been thinking about buying a nice big new house and renting it to us for a cheaper price than we are paying for the one we live in now. He is a very nice man, so he would be a nice landlord.

He invited us over to his house. We went, of course, but we were unsure about how the visit would go. We were all kind of praying, and thinking, I hope this won't be a waste of time. I hope we'll actually be able to witness to him somehow.

On the way one of the girls was hearing from the Lord, and she got that our sample would be the witness for him. So, eight of us went to his big, fancy house. In the past he always has wanted to be with as many of us as possible and have our whole Home of 30 people over.

We chitchatted with him and then sat down for dinner. We talked about different possibilities with getting a new house. Then he was quiet for a little while. All at once he started going on and on about how since he met us, he's been amazed at how different we are. It was cold and pouring rain that evening and traffic was very bad, and he said, "Anyone else in the world that would have come over to my house this evening would have spent the first 45 minutes complaining about the horrible weather, how it's been raining all day, how they got stuck in traffic on the way here, how the people they worked with all day were so awful. … But instead you come in here, each one of you gives me a big hug and is smiling a big bright smile. For all I know, it could be a beautiful sunny day out there and 72 degrees!"

He went on to talk about the other differences he sees between us and the rest of the world, and he said, "Sometimes I think I should join the Family."

One of us had met with him the week before and given him the two latest Activated mags. That evening he told us he had already read both of them and was happy to get another. Now he is excited to come over for fellowship on Sunday.

Now that we are back in touch with him, it's good to know that he really does know what we are all about and that we are serious about it. I think that in itself causes people to grow—if they want to stay close.

Another example is two friends of ours, Kathleen and Malissa. For a long time they were meeting with us regularly. They love the Word and get really turned on to how we are 100% sold out to Jesus. We read with them on many different subjects as the months went by. At one point, Kathleen received a large inheritance. She started to get really inspired about giving us money. We didn't know how much she was thinking of giving us, but she started talking about it a lot.

Right away we knew what our options were. Either we could just accept the money and hope that she would never find out about some of our meatier doctrines (she comes from a very churchy background), or we could tell her upfront at least an overview of what exactly we are talking about when we say that we are "so different" from the churches. A couple of us prayed about it and the Lord spoke clearly. He said to bring them along to the meat of the Word and tell them the truth, especially before choosing to give a big donation.

So we read "Amazing Grace" with them, and they were shocked. They had never heard such a doctrine. They met with us a few more times around then, and all they wanted to talk about was the Law of Love. They got kind of upset and then didn't come over for quite a few weeks.

It was a test of faith for us. They had been really sheepy and we started to question, "Should we have waited? Did we go too fast?" We knew what the Lord had shown us to do, though.

Then one day we got a phone call from Kathleen. She was having some sort of trouble and asked if one of the women here could please go and be with her. After that, she and Malissa started to come over again all the time. At first they didn't say much about the controversial subjects, but soon they just stated that we were their church, and they were just going to take our beliefs and trust God, because they have faith in the Word and they really like to be with us.

Ever since then they are much more desperate for the Word. They read it every day. They tithe to us regularly and come over a lot. They introduce us to their family and friends, saying that we are their church. Even some of their relatives have given us their tithes from time to time! We are happy to feed them the Word and we are happy that we have nothing to hide.

We have some friends who are wealthy and/or highly educated, and we have seen the same with them. They respect us because we are different and because we are proud of our beliefs. We believe them strongly, so why shouldn't we be? With one man in particular, who is a very well-known lawyer and has vowed to help us in any time of trouble, we seriously think that if we had held anything back from him he would have gotten bored with us by now, as we would be "just another group of Christian missionaries," of which he knows many. But instead, he comes over regularly and is always on the edge of his seat to hear what new wild thing we are going to teach him. It's fun!

(End of File.)