By PeterCM 3321 12/00

Dear Family,

1. God bless you! Each one of you is so precious to Mama and me. Thank you for giving your all to the Lord this past year, for laying down your lives for your brethren and the lost sheep you minister to. We're incredibly proud of you! You've forsaken houses and lands and so many more things for His sake. We're just in awe at how much you give to Jesus every day of your lives.

2. With the era of action before us‚ we're climbing higher up the mountain than ever. There are places to go and there will be new flocks of sheep to care for and feed, and we're so thankful each of you has made the commitments necessary to brave the "wind and the cold" of the new challenges the Lord has for us in this exciting time of the Family's history. You're truly mountain men and women!

3. In the past two years there have been two major moves within the Family which have had a monumental effect on us all: the S2K and the Activated/follow-up vision. Together, these two moves of the Spirit have set us on a course that has us beginning to bear fruit like never before. Both were essential to the launch of the era of action. The S2K helped each Family member to assess his or her faith and place in the Family, causing them to make a personal choice as to their place of service, resulting in a much ­stronger Family than one year ago.

4. The Activated/follow-up vision has taken hold around the globe, with Family members doing more follow-up than ever before. The Activated program has begun to skyrocket, and in places where it's not yet available, the sheep are being fed God's Word in whatever form is available in the local language. A feeding revolution has begun! The sheep are being fed and nurtured, and it's having a wonderful effect around the world.

5. As you'll read later in this GN, the Lord likens the Family during this time period to a tidal wave that is gaining speed and momentum. Every day, when you get up in the morning and decide to give 100 percent to the new Activated vision that He's presented us with, you're adding speed and momentum to the tidal wave. Before long‚ Lord helping us, we're going to drench the world in a flood of Activated Word, resulting in more disciples, who can in turn bring others on board to help us fulfill the Great Commission. This is it! It's exciting, and it's beginning to snowball. You are making it happen, in your corner of the world.

6. It's happening, folks! The era of action is here—and this GN will give you an overview of the action‚ with news, victories, stats, and miracles from around the world! But the news shared here is just a minute part of what the Family is doing, and each Family member in each Home contributes to it. There's much more that we weren't able to compile or include‚ and if we would have asked each Home to submit a report for this GN, it would have been hundreds‚ if not thousands, of pages long! But we hope you'll enjoy these highlights, which represent only a part of the total of what the Family is accomplishing, and that includes you! You have a part in each accomplishment, each victory, each testimony, each advance, each bit of prog­ress, because you are the Family.

7. Each of you, doing the Lord's work in your part of the world, is what makes us what we are. So thank you for making it happen! Thank you for obeying His call to preach the Gospel to every creature and to make disciples of all nations. As you rise to the Lord's challenge‚ as you test His promises‚ as you get "activated" and put your faith into action, the Lord is fulfilling His promises to bless and prosper you and the Family at large in new and greater ways. He's begun to fulfill His era of action promises. He never fails!

8. Before launching into the news and victories of 2000, I'd like to give special thanks to all who helped to make this GN possible by sending in your news, stats, and reports. (Unless otherwise indicated, the stats in this GN cover the period beginning November 1999 and going through November 2000.)

Activated Desks Report In!

9. Let's start by taking a look at the pro­gress made in the Activated arena, beginning with reports and news from each Activated desk, to see how we're doing and what we've accomplished.

10. Establishing the present five Activated desks has been a great pioneer venture that, while begun in 1999, has continued to take root and grow throughout the past year. It's taken a lot of learning, prayer, hard work, and effort. God bless the members of each Activated desk, as they've done their best to provide their respective areas with the magazine subscription service, tools, etc., while at the same time learning the technical and legal ropes of operating their respective companies. There have been a number of hurdles to overcome, and the Enemy has fought each Activated desk and team. But they've stuck with it and have done wonderfully, God bless them! And they're committed to finding new and better ways of serving their subscribers and you, the front-line distributors and witnessers!

11. With the current Activated desks being fairly solidly established, we're able to expand the program‚ and new Activated desks will be established in 2001‚ D.V. These include desks in Colombia and Chile to service South America (the Mexico desk was originally set up to service South America, but logistically it's been quite difficult to do so). Taiwan and Japan are planning on establishing desks in Chinese and Japanese. The Europe/Africa desk might move to South Africa in order to be "closer to the action," since most of its subscribers come from Africa. We're also looking at ways to overcome logistical difficulties and better service English-speaking countries where we don't have an Activated desk, such as African countries where we have a number of Homes, the Philippines, etc.

12. The Activated mags are also being translated into a number of other languages, thanks to the hard work of Family members who have taken this on! Hopefully some Activated mags in these languages can be made available to the Homes for follow-up, though as far as actually setting up the Activated subscription program in those languages‚ that may not be something that can be implemented right away. Because of limited resources, we have to focus on the language areas where we have the most Homes first, though we hope to continue expanding in time.

13. Please keep the Activated desks in your prayers‚ as they are the structure that makes the Activated revolution possible.

nActivated India, by Penny

14. It's been a year of growth in more ways than one! Two somewhat novice souls joined ranks to man this new entity‚ and along the way, two senior teens joined our ranks, adding spice and variety.

15. In June 2000 the Homes rose to the challenge, and we jumped from receiving an average of 30 subscriptions every month for 9 months‚ to 144 that month. Testimonies came in on how the Lord blessed as they obeyed, and soon "activating" became so contagious we received over 700 subscriptions in October—and almost double that in November!

16. WS's top prize of a new computer was warmly received by the Rose Garden Home for the first six-month shiner prize, while the Bangalore Service Home and the Rose Garden Home were the recipients of $500 and $350 respectively for the second six-month period. As of the November TRF we have 3,383 subscriptions so far! To date, over 15,000 Activated magazines have gone out in 2000.

17. The Lord was faithful to remind us to keep the Activated desk very personal, and that "the customer is always right"—in our case, the Homes—should be our modus operandi. Thankfully things have gone quite well in spite of a few files being sent to the wrong destination or being lost totally in cyberspace. Another key to success was constant communication with the Homes via newsletters, all-Home mess­ages, and personal notes in every message that went out. This has paid off in many ways, as we keep the one big Family vision.

18. This year we were blessed with a visit from Francis [from WS], who painstakingly walked us through the new computer program we would be using. As you can see from the above-mentioned stats, things started popping after that. God bless our faithful VSs who took the era of action by the horns with hands-on "activating" during their visitation. We certainly see the results wherever they go!

19. As far as other Activated tools, we've gotten out all of the Mottos for Success we received! (In May 2000, we were originally going to order 5,000. Demand was increasing, but we were unsure by how much; by the end of the year we had ordered 30‚000!) Our complete stocks of Dare to Be Different, Key Bible Verses, and Bible Basics have all been distributed. From Jesus With Love is a very hot item, and Feed My Lambs was such a hit we sold all 300 sets months ago. (From WS: A new, revised version of Feed My Lambs is in the works.)

20. Just as we thought things were starting to settle down to a routine, we were offered a new product!—Christmas CD cards. "Christmas" CD cards?—In India, a non-Christian field? Well, hmmm. Maybe we could order 500 by faith. Ha! Before we knew it we were ordering 3,000, then our faith increased to 6,000, and before we knew it we went to 10,000. As our faith grew, so did the orders, and before we knew it‚ we were sold out!

nConéctate/MSC, Mexico Desk, by Rose-Marie

21. Since our first mailing was sent in October 1999, the number of addresses for both paid subscriptions and freebies (three free mags) has greatly increased. Our paid subscriptions last November numbered 100, while this month we were up to 510 and growing! Altogether we have collected over 2,000 addresses, these being both freebie and paid subscriptions.

22. We send Conéctate/Activated magazines to 34 different countries throughout the world.

23. At the beginning of January 2000, we began our merge with the MSC (Mexico Service Center). In July, as a merged entity, we launched into "same-day service" for the Homes we service in Mexico and Central America, which was something totally new for the SC, who were previously working on a biweekly ordering system. Orders for outreach tools started increasing immediately.

24. In September, as a result of the four different Conéctate meetings held in August, our Conéctate subscription/freebie stats and MSC [tools] sales stats skyrocketed to all-time highs. We processed over 90 different orders in that month alone, compared to the average of about 25 orders per month before that—a 260% increase! At the beginning of November‚ we sent a special CD Christmas card offer to the Homes‚ and in the first week, over 5,000 CD cards were ordered. To date, the Homes have ordered approximately 21,000 CD cards. So things are ­really moving as the Family here gets "activated" with the magazines and the tools!

nEurope/Africa Activated,
by the European Desk Team

25. This has been a very exciting and fulfilling year for us all at Activated Europe/­Africa! It was our first full year of Activated, plus our first full year of running a registered business.

26. Although we had a slow start, subscriptions are now picking up, and our monthly aver­age for the year Dec. 1999 to Nov. 2000 has been 62 paid subscriptions per month and 79 ­freebies per month. One phenomenon for us has been the support given by the Family for our "African Sheep Fund" appeal, whereby African people who are unable to pay for the subscriptions, but would definitely benefit from them, can be sponsored. Since the start of the sponsorship program, we have received donations for 521 subscriptions, 338 of which are now receiving their regular monthly magazine, the rest being in the works still. Those who receive these sponsored subscriptions are so grateful to all of you who have made it possible for them to get the Word in this manner. Thanks so much for helping to feed the sheep.

27. Since our desk began operating in mid-1999‚ we have distributed a total of 14,814 ­English Activated magazines both through the mailings and selling them directly to the Family. We also sent out 331 Portuguese mailings. We now mail to 71 countries. We presently have 823 Activated subscribers.

nActivated USA, by Trust

28. This was a year of change for our Activated desk‚ with many moves, new personnel, Homes, office and tools. Last November we closed our smaller Activated "annex" Home and moved back together with our original LAMB Home team in Los Angeles—combining forces for the big job ahead. In May of 2000 we moved once again, and we're now merged with the U.S. Service Center team‚ living in two Homes and working together in our combined office.

29. We held a U.S. Activated seminar at the end of September 2000, which helped us all to get on board with the Activated vision. (We've just completed a six-hour video of the meeting, which will be available to the Homes so that everyone can partake of the testimonies, instruction‚ and vision-increasing classes from the seminar.) Since the time of the seminar, our Activated subscriptions have tripled, and we've heard that many Homes have launched out with Bible studies and Activated groups for their sheep.

30. Over the past 12 months we've sent out 6,038 individual Activated mailings—2,933 of those were to subscribers and the rest were free magazines sent to those who got saved through our Family's witness.

31. We also had booths at two fairs this past year—one at the Christian Home Educators Convention, and another at the Latino Book and Family Fair. Plus we were able to send representatives to the largest book fair in the U.S.‚ where we had some of the Activated books on display. We learned a lot of firsthand information about marketing our tools, what changes would help increase distribution, needed catalogs and promotional tools, thank the Lord.

nContato‚ Brazil Desk, by Leila

32. This year 2000 marked the real inauguration of the Contato (Activated) ministry. We moved into our new headquarters, which enables us to operate as a formal legal entity. In the past twelve months we signed up 4,694 new readers (for the three free mags), of which 449 became paid subscribers. We mailed out almost 17‚000 individual magazine mailings, over 1‚000 CDs, over 800 interactive CD-ROMs, over 300 videos, and numerous books, calendars, posters, flyers and tracts, for a total of over 890‚000 pages.

33. A highlight of the year was our participation in the national live-out retreat‚ where we were able to promote Contato and sign up a number of new subscribers. We've just started printing the second year's magazines (mag #16 onward). Goals for 2001 include adding some localized content to the translated magazines (possibly an insert), offering the Portuguese Activated books to both the Homes and the GP readers‚ getting our website set up in Portuguese, and pioneering new ideas to increase our readership—especially our paid subscribers.

India: Making Activated
A Household Word

34. (Peter: ) Our Family in India has done a tremendous job of rallying around the Activated vision! The Indian Homes have consistently been our subscription shiners, and are getting out the Word and message in floods! God bless you, dear ones, who are making it happen! We're so proud of you, and of each Family member around the world who is getting subscriptions and feeding the sheep. Testimonies are pouring in, and we're thrilled with what the Lord is accomplishing through you.

35. Here's a little background on how ­India got on board with Activated, and some of their secrets to success!

36. (By Cephas, CRO:) In April 2000, the field of India received some prophecies that have literally turned the tide of service of each member on the field of India. Here are some excerpts:

37. (Jesus speaking: ) You think you've preached the Gospel? You think [India has] been saturated by the Word? Indeed, you've preached the Word to many‚ but you've barely scratched the surface of what's to come. … This land is ripe, it is ready, it is open and waiting for My plan of Activated to take off. It's a place where you'll see some of the greatest success with regards to this program. As the Family picks up this new torch and begins to hand out the light to different ones in this new way, hearts will be set ablaze and the fire will burn and catch on till there are literally millions of subscribers! (End of message from Jesus.)

38. (Cephas:) As of this publication, the field of India has over 3,000 subscribers to the Activated magazine, almost all of which came in during the last six months. It is simply phenomenal! The Homes have also gotten out 22,000 Mottos for Success, and it seems that the remaining 6,000 or so will go by January‚ if not earlier. Over 10,000 Activated books have also been distributed. More than 17‚000 Activated magazines have been given out through the Activated desk and the Homes.

39. Activated has brought unity between Homes and within cities and united the generations on this field. Activated has brought to life the fire and power of personal witnessing. This fruit has been a fulfillment of some amazing counsel and instruction from Dad in April 2000, that was part of the series of prophecies that were received for the field of India. Here are excerpts:

40. (Dad speaking:) The Lord really loves the Indian people. He loves their simple, yet passionate, desire for Him. They love the Lord with such a fervent desire and wholeheartedness that puts the West to shame. God bless them! … This land is going to sizzle with Activated till it becomes a household word, and I'm not kidding! … I wish I could impart to you how big this is going to be! But I'll make it as simple as I can: It's going to be bigger than anything the Family has ever been involved in! It's going to be even bigger than MWM or any of our radio ministries. This one is going to roll, and it's going to sweep the Earth like a tidal wave! It's going to be big, real big—so big that every house­hold in India and millions more around the world will have heard of the wonderful course called Activated!

41. What a good name—Activated, for the era of action! It's going to activate so many people that you're going to be shocked! You're going to be dumb­founded and looking at each other, saying, "What did we do? What did we say? Was it you?"—And you're going to know that it was the Lord. You're going to feel much like the apostles did after the Day of Pente­cost.…

42. But all this comes at a price, folks, and that price is coming to the Lord and allowing Him to become a part of your everyday lives. You're going to have to pick up the new weapons and really start using them if you want this to come to pass; otherwise you're going to miss the golden opportunities the Lord will place in your path, and you're not going to be listening when He says, "Now, right now‚" and He tells you to give that piece of lit to so-and-so, and He tells you to call that person. …

43. This is going to be the greatest ministry ever! This is really going to rock the world! This is going to be it, folks! Oh‚ Jesus, I'm so excited! This is really a dream come true. God bless you dear missionaries who are getting out the Word. You are my dream come true! (End of excerpts of message from Dad.)

44. (Cephas: ) God bless the brethren in India. Though some of the counsel was very inspiring and uplifting‚ encouraging and challenging, there were other warnings, instructions and reminders that exposed the overall spiritual condition of the work in India. The Lord specifically pinpointed what He called "fires of disunity, fires of laziness, fires of passiveness, fires of fear, fires of hurt feelings, fires of bitterness, fires of misunderstanding, fires of contention, fires of familiarity, fires of pride." The Family in India has rallied to unite and fight back against anything that would hinder all that the Lord has promised to do.

45. Our sacrificial VSs spent most of the entire year visiting the Homes, rallying them to take heed and follow the counsel in the S2K Letters. Their sample of getting "activated" themselves has helped the Homes to follow suit. They held Activated workshops in the cities they visited. They rallied the young people at special meetings and programs to promote Activated, and this was met with great enthusiasm. The young people have responded by setting themselves goals and getting very turned on to make Activated the coolest thing happening in India—and they have!

46. The brethren involved with the deaf ministry, together with our deaf brothers and sisters, cata­combers‚ live-outs and disciples‚ are also launching an all-out attack to do their part to promote the Activated push. We're all holding onto our seats, as when our deaf brethren get on the attack with Activated, this is going to take us to new heights! Our precious deaf disciples, catacombers, and live-outs have been instrumental in winning thousands upon thousands of souls, and distributing tens of thousands of our beautiful posters every year. They continue to be our shiners, and we're expecting that they will answer the call to make Activated a household word in the field of India.

47. Many of our live-outs and friends have grown tremendously as a result of Activated. They're now receiving more meat of the Word and are growing spiritually to the point where someone from another field who recently visited India and visited one of the Homes commented that she had never seen such depth and spiritual maturity as in our friends and contacts, praise the Lord!

48. We want to give all the glory and praise to our loving Husband, Savior and King. We truly couldn't have done it this past year without His life–giving Words and seeds. We're also most thankful for our queen and king and all their wonderful helpers who have provided the needed shepherding and counsel to help us all bring forth the fruit that the Lord wants us to bring.

49. (Peter:) God bless all of you around the world who have caught Activated fever! It's wonderful to see you feeding the sheep‚ giving them the truth and the Words that will change their lives forever. WS is working fast and furiously to supply you with more tools to do the job. The Activated Training Course class books, which you can use to teach your converts personally, are in the works, and should get to you around the middle of the year. In the meantime, we're posting the classes and materials on the MO site as they're finalized. Please pray for those working on them, as it's a huge undertaking.

WS Activated Department/
GP Pubs

50. God bless our hard-working Activated/GP department, who have put in the hours and done a tremendous job of helping the Activated vision to become a reality by producing the monthly Activated magazine as well as countless other tools. They are a small team and have a lot to do—more than they can ever get to—so please keep them in your daily prayers.

51. We're thrilled with how Activated is beginning to catch on, and during this era of action we can look forward to bigger and greater miracles and successes as we stay desperate to feed the sheep. Please continue to do your part to make Activated succeed by getting the monthly magazine and GP books into the hands of every person you meet! I think you'll be inspired to read what the GP team has accomplished, how the Lord is leading, and what's cooking for the coming year. It's only the beginning, folks!

52. (From the Activated/GP team:) Activated has taken off in India this year, and the fire is catching in other places as well. Meetings were organized by the leadership in Mexico and the USA, with representatives from nearly all Homes attending‚ which has helped promote the follow-up and feed-the-sheep vision in that part of the world! A lot of sponsored subscriptions are coming in to the Europe/Africa desk for Africa‚ which is a super blessing too!

53. The Family has sold a total of 5‚628 Activated subscriptions between November 1999 and November 2000. Most of these have been in the last few months, as evidenced by the preced­ing graphs. The upward trend is very ­inspiring!

54. As a result of input from the field, starting with issue #13 we've modified the look of the Activated covers and improved the quality of the paper in the mags to make them more attractive. We've also redone the cover and some of the layout on mag #1‚ which has been reprinted on better quality paper. As mags #2-12 come up for reprinting (when current stocks are depleted), we will also change their covers to the new design.

55. In order to receive more feedback on the GP tools we're producing, we've created an internal website where the members of the Activated desks and others can comment on new GP products while they're still in production. We pray that this exchange of ideas and input will help ensure that we hit the mark on current and future creations.

56. Twenty-seven new GP books, magazines, and audio tools were produced this year! Probably the biggest hit has been the Christmas CD cards, first produced last Christmas in Brazil, and distributed worldwide this year in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. Close to half a million cards have been produced so far this Christmas season‚ and it looks like these will all be sold! We're now working on expanding this successful product, with CD cards for various occasions and audiences. Stay tuned!

57. Another big hit has been the Mottos for Success desktop calendar, which has been a huge success in India. We printed 40‚000 calendars this year, most of which will be distributed by year's end, God willing. We're planning on adding to the Mottos product line, with a diary and possibly other items—particularly for ­India, where it's been very popular. Several new ­Stories to Grow By books have been produced, both in a small, soft-cover version and a large (A4) hardback version for commercial distribution. New titles produced this year include: "Needy and Greedy," "Jimmy's Lamp," and "Good Morning, Grandpa Grumpy."

58. The GP CD Always was released this year and has met with very good response so far! God bless the JAS, who did a wonderful job in recording that album—a real labor of love! And Great Adventures—already a bestseller—got a face-lift with a great new cover and some new songs (to replace those which weren't Family-owned on the old version).

59. The GP pubs production would have been impossible without the help of Sam and Greg, our print team in Thailand (among other responsibilities that they have). They've been intimately involved with the many details necessary to get the pubs from programs to print, and have had a hand in every English GP printed pub produced over the past couple of years—as well as the Interactive CD and the Christmas CD greeting cards—and have also printed the Spanish Activated mags and other books.

60. (From Sam and Greg‚ Thailand printing team:) We've certainly felt the reality of the era of action firsthand‚ especially during the last few months. During the past two years, the printing and shipping of GP pubs has steadily increased, and we've been gradually adapting to it, learning more efficient ways to get the pubs through all the steps—from receiving the files from the GP pubs team until we have the books printed and on their way to the desks and PPCs.

61. Around July or August of this last year we started to get an inkling that our workload would be increasing considerably toward the end of the year, and the Lord indicated that we should prepare for this by getting a larger storeroom. He led us to a considerably bigger building in a very good location, and provided a telephone, fax machine, a computer and e-mail‚ a local courier service, etc. In some ways it was a step of faith for us, as we didn't really know how much our workload was going to increase at that time. Looking back now‚ we see that we made the transition just in time.

62. At the time of writing this‚ our "big new store­room" is almost bursting at the seams with literally tons and tons of beautiful new publications. Our printer currently has 14 new or reprinted books and maga­zines in various stages of completion.

63. Between January and August of this year we shipped a total of 19 consignments of magazines and books to 12 countries, with a total weight of 21 tons and a volume of 45 cubic meters. During the last 3½-month period‚ from September through early December, we shipped 55 consignments of books, magazines, and CDs to 23 countries, weighing a total of 35 tons and occupying 68 cubic meters.

64. The total number of consignments shipped for the year is 74 (that's 113 cubic meters, or about 56 tons) of new GP books, magazines, and CDs being shipped throughout the world. The total of individual books, magazines and CDs shipped this year is over 650,000!

65. Thank you so much for your prayers for the printing and shipping. We really appreciate it. (End of comments from Sam and Greg.)

66. (Continuing from the Activated/GP team:) On the marketing side, the Aurora team set up booths at book fairs in London, ­Bologna, Harare‚ Frankfurt, Guadalajara, and Chicago (no booth there, just attended)‚ assisted by representatives from the local Activated desk and other Family members. Many people purchased our products, several commercial deals for marketing our products were secured, and many more potential deals are in the works. Please keep them in your prayers!

67. For more testimonies, stats, downloads of follow-up classes, the latest GP materials, and lots more, be sure to check out the new Activated section of the Members Only website! There's a lot being added all the time, so don't miss it!

68. Also in the works is a complete revamp of the Activated website (www.activated.org), expanding it into a "community" site for our Activated members (and other sheep) with lots of Word, testimonies‚ and other cool stuff! Please pray we can get this site up and running, as the Web team really has a lot on their plate.

Hot Item: Christmas CD Cards!

69. (Peter: ) Although Christmas tool distribu­tion is just cranking up now, we're already receiving reports about how the CD cards are selling out—all over the world! Here are a few reactions that have come in so far:

Sam, Ruth, Meekness and Ben, Botswana

70. The Christmas card CDs have been going out so well here in Botswana, Africa! They are certainly like the climate out here, very hot! (49°C—120°F—recorded the other day!)

71. After the Christmas push prayer day, things started happening. On the first day‚ 100 CD cards got out; on the second day, 105 went out, and they haven't stopped since. One of our contacts, a very sweet black Christian from Kenya who works in real estate‚ was so inspired by the Christmas card CDs that he took 100 on the spot. He wants to pass them on to clients‚ friends, relatives, and just about everybody. We hardly ever get a no for them, and if people don't have any funds, they always ask us to come back the next day, which we usually do, and they end up taking some. God bless the team who pioneered this—it sure is a hot hit.

72. To date we've distributed 3,000! The key we found was to ask everybody and keep asking. So far they've been distributed to hospitals, medical rescue centers‚ shops, hotels, industries, businessmen, secretaries, print shops, supermarkets, and in parking lots, day-care centers‚ malls, fast food joints‚ and so on. This is our most exciting Christmas, and the best is yet to come!

Joanna, USA

73. Christmas outreach is warming up, and already, during our first two days out, Claire (8) got out 50 Christmas card CDs—all by herself! Whenever I would come around to see if she needed help, she would shoo me away! Hmmm! Anyway, she was flipped. Mike (11) did great too, and has become a real go-getter!

Tito, Activated Europe/Africa

74. Of the 7,200 CD cards we ordered, we only have 240 left! The Homes ordered virtually our whole stock in less than a month.

75. There have been comments from cus­tomers who would willingly have bought large quantities for their shops had they been offered earlier. It seems most businesses start preparing their Christmas stock purchase as early as January. One airline would have liked to buy them to put as a gift in the back of each airplane seat for all of their first class passengers over the Christmas season. There is definitely a lot of potential for this unique product!

Sweetie, CRO, Taiwan

76. After hearing the exciting testimonies of how the Christmas CD cards were so popular in South America last year, our faithful Taiwan PPC team produced a Chinese Christmas CD card‚ and the Homes are now distributing them. At the time this article is being written‚ the Christmas season is only just beginning, but already it seems like the CD cards are a big hit! We're hoping this is only the beginning of a renewed attack on tool distribution in Taiwan!

Home in USA

77. We purchased Christmas card CDs from Activated to send to all the donors on our mailing list and are getting some sweet responses. Here's one:

78. "The last thing I expected was to receive a gift from you, but to my surprise I received my Christmas CD a couple days ago. Thank you so much. I am sure I will enjoy it; it has some of my favorite Christmas songs on it. Thank you again."

79. Two of our friends expressed surprise and thankfulness over the gift. It cost us very little, compared to what most people think of when they consider buying a CD. It's a gift they take seriously.

Abner, Taiwan

80. The new CD Christmas cards are going out very well from all we've heard. Many have ordered several times to replenish their stocks, and it's proving to be our hottest tool this Christmas. Our Home got out close to 700 of them this last month and are on our way to getting out more than that over December. We heard that Matthew and Mercy got out over 1,000 of them last month!

From Esther, Durban, African APC

81. We ordered 10,000 CD cards by faith, and within a couple of weeks they were all gone‚ so we prayed about reordering. Though it was closer to Christmas‚ the Lord showed us to go ahead. We ordered 4,800‚ and before they came they were gone!

82. We have approached all the major chain stores as well as smaller shops, and the feedback is really good. I got a call today from the buyer of SA greeting cards (they own the largest chain of card shops, "Cardies," and deliver to all the large chains in the country). He is coming to Durban next week and has made an appointment to see me about next Christmas and the distribution of any other cards we have.

Witnessing Stats for 2000!

83. (Peter: ) If you've been wondering whether we're doing the job or not as a Family, check out these stats! We're still moving, getting out the message, and using new tools and methods to do it! This is our heritage—the satisfaction of knowing that we're fulfilling our Husband's commission to "go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature!"

nWitnessing and Soul Winning

84. The Family continues to live up to its calling as a soul-winning, witnessing missionary organiza­tion by personally witnessing to nearly 8 million (7,867,097) people, and winning an incredible 1.1 million (1‚085,112) of them over the past year! That means that more than one out of eight people (12.5%) personally witnessed to this past year by Family members have been saved!

85. Comparing our personal witness stats and soul-winning stats for 2000 against 1999, there has been a 10% increase in our personal witnessing. That makes the year 2000 rank ninth best in our Family's history! Souls won for 2000 were slightly down (10%) in comparison to 1999‚ but the 1.1 million souls won this year are still among the top 10 in our 32-year history!

86. The countries in which the most souls were saved in 2000 were Mexico (271,595), India (160,066) and Brazil (131,562), which accounted for half of all souls won to the Lord. Leading the per-adult averages for souls were Mozambique (an average of 117 souls won per adult each month), Mexico (an average of 58 souls won per adult each month) and Albania (an average of 57 souls won per adult each month)—each one far surpassing the world aver­age of 12 souls won per adult.

87. Overall, each Family adult (16 and over) witnessed to an average of 96 people and won an average of 12 souls per month for the year 2000! That's each and every adult in the Family personally witnessing to over 3 people each day, and leading nearly one soul to the Lord every 2 days! How's that for an accomplishment?

88. Adding up all the personal and mass witnessing via radio, TV, news­papers, shows and other public ministries, with souls won, and the literature and other outreach tools distributed this last year, it comes out to a total witness of 1.6 billion! So a portion equal to one-fourth of the Earth's population was reached in some way with the Gospel through the Family in the year 2000! What a way to start the new millennium! Let's keep it up!

nLiterature and Tool Distribution

89. The Family is shifting to new methods of distribution, with a focus on getting out new tools such as the Activated magazines, along with GP books and other tools, which are going out by the tens of thousands, especially in India. CD cards have been a great hit in Latin America, and have caught on this Christmas season in other parts of the world as well!

90. Because of our changing methods and choice of tools‚ some categories of tools have been distributed less since 1999, while others have increased by a large margin. This is shown by the fact that in 2000 the Family distributed a phenomenal 19.3 million pieces of lit and other tools—15% more than in 1999‚ and the second highest in our Family's history!

91. Books and tracts grew from 11.4 million in 1999 to 14.8 million in 2000. That's a 30% jump in literature distributed, and is in large part a result of the Activated ministry and the faithfulness of those who are pushing it and getting out the new tools that the GP department has produced over the last few years. God bless all you "Activators"—you are the wave of the future!

92. Audio distribution increased dramatically in 2000, with 492,783 (nearly half a million!) CDs and tapes distributed this year. In 1999, 382,601 audio CDs and tapes were distributed, making this year's increase a 29% rise over last year. Our music is the top of the pops!

93. Other areas of distribution were down slightly: Posters were down to 3‚852,205, 15% less than in 1999‚ and video distribution dropped 5% from 1999's totals to 112,426. Despite decreases in a few areas‚ our overall stats for tools distributed are 15% higher than last year! This past year has been a tremendous year for ­getting out the message, and drops in a few areas of tool distribution only show that the Family is using new methods and tools for reaching the lost. Over­all‚ we're getting out more message than ever, and the "Gospel is being preached in all the world!"

nTo-date stats

94. Looking back over our Family's 32-year history and what the Lord has accomplished through us, we see the following:

95. The Family has now had a total witness of 71 billion since its founding; a personal witness of 244.5 million; 1 billion pieces of literature and witnessing tools distributed to-date; 24.3 million souls won; 11.3 million Holy Spirit baptisms; 13,301 Family births; 2,462 betrothals; and 293 deaths.

96. These totals average out over a 32-year period to: 2.2 billion a year total witness; 7.6 million a year personal witness; 31.2 million pieces of literature and witnessing tools distributed a year; 759,000 souls won a year, or 63,300 a month (or 2,100 a day, or 88 an hour, or 1.5 a minute!); 353‚000 Holy Spirit baptisms; 416 Family births a year; 77 betrothals a year; and only 9 deaths a year.

97. Dear Family, you have done a tremendous job! Year in and year out‚ you've flooded the world with the message. You've been faithful witnesses in season and out of season. You've won souls and disciples. You've given birth to and raised children. You've continued on for the Lord as His Endtime Family, remaining dropped out of the System. Now that we're living in the era of action, the Lord has promised that your faithfulness to Him through the years is going to be rewarded by a mighty harvest of laborers and co-workers who will reach the world alongside you. They'll be your sheep, friends, disciples, and helpers. It's time to bring them in, and the Lord has said that we're now at the point where, after all our years of sowing and planting, He will bring the increase.

98. It's going to be a revolution—a follow-up, disciple-winning revolution! Praise the Lord! And the way it's going to happen is by all of us following up on those we win to Jesus. We won 1.1 million souls this past year! These are people who the Lord has brought across your path to not only show the way to salvation, but to follow up and feed, to make disciples of. When you meet a sheep, when you win a soul, please get their address, get them Activated, follow up on them, feed them, teach them‚ train them, give them an opportunity to know the joy of serving the Lord in some form and winning others to the Kingdom! Amen?

nNew Disciples

99. The Family won a total of 278 new disciples this year. That's up 8% from the 257 disciples won in 1999! Of those 278 new disciples, 156 (56%) joined the CM Family and 122 (44%) joined the FM Family. The increase over last year can be attributed to the FM Family, because the number of CM new disciples won in 2000 actually went down 10% as compared to 1999, while the number of FM new disciples increased 42%!

100. New disciples won by the CM Family this year is 67% less than in 1996 (the highest year for disciple–winning in the 1990s) and is the fourth lowest number of disciples won to the CM Family in our 32-year history. When we asked the Lord why our numbers of new disciples are still dropping, He explained:

101. (Jesus speaking:) I see you, My dear Family‚ like a great tidal wave that is growing. If you're unfortunate enough to be on a beach just before a tidal wave hits, what do you see? The waters recede‚ and it looks like a massive and untimely low tide. This is what you're seeing now—the waters drawing back. But don't dwell on the receding waters. Instead, look far out to sea‚ and see that there is a massive wave that is growing in size and momentum.

102. This is what's happening in the Family now with Activated. It's My new vision, but it takes time for it to gather momentum. But just like that tidal wave, the more you, as My body, move forward, the faster you will go and the more momentum you will have. The more you progress‚ the greater your wave will be, until you will all crash upon the shore of the world. But instead of bringing destruction and despair, like a real tidal wave would, you, My Family, will deluge the world with My Activated Word. The Gospel will be preached as never before, and you will make disciples of all nations.

103. My Word will not return void‚ so you can trust that because you're getting on board to get out My Word like never before—through Activated—that your days of fruitfulness of disciple-winning are not over. No! To the contrary, when you look back five years from now, you will see that compared to the great harvest of new co-workers and fellow laborers who have come into the fold, the disciple–winning of former years was a mere drop in the bucket!

104. So keep putting your energy into ­Activated. Promote it, lift it up, tell others about it, and get out those subscription cards! Every little subscription card is as another drop of water to the great tidal wave. It may seem small, but as the wave moves forward, collecting drops of water by the thousands, there is no disputing the power of that wave! So don't be left behind, but join My wave of the Activated future! (End of message from Jesus.)

105. (Peter: ) All in all‚ the Family has won at least (our stats only go back to 1972) a total of 29,000 disciples since it began in September of 1968! (This stat does not include births.) That is an average of 906 a year, 75 a month, or 2.5 a day over our 32-year history! Add to that the 13,300 births there have been in the Family's history, and that comes to a total of more than 42,300 people who've given some part of their lives in service to the Lord in this Family. Praise the Lord!

S2K's Effect on
Family Population

[Note: This includes stats from the November 1999 to October 2000 TRFs.]

106. With the effects of S2K being fully felt this past year‚ there has been a noticeable decrease in Family population, both CM and FM. Our total Family population at the end of 1999 was 12,940. It now stands at 12‚107, which shows that there are 833 Family members—7% of the overall Family—less than in 1999. Actually 1,111 members‚ consisting of adults‚ teens and children, left the CM/FM ranks this past year. However, because of the 278 new disciples who joined, the net difference between last year and this year was 833. So not counting the new disciples, 8.5% of the Family chose to pursue another way of life.

107. Most of the population decrease and change between the Family circles has been on the CM side, with 1,123 of the CM Family ­either becoming FM or leaving the Family. During that same time period, 156 new disciples joined the CM Family‚ bringing our current CM population to 8,951, as compared to 9,918 in November of 1999, a 10% drop. Although that is a large drop for recent years, and CM population had been on a steady increase since the Charter, it's by no means the largest one-year drop in our Family's history. Both the RNR of the late '70s and the TRF Supporter program in the early '90s saw larger drops in Charter member­ship. Meanwhile‚ the FM Family has seen a modest 4% rise in the same time period, from 3,022 in November of 1999 to 3,156 in October of 2000.

108. Now that we've passed the one-year post-S2K mark, it appears that the effects of the Shakeup on the Family's population are slowing down. In recent months, our population stats have begun to level off.

109. I was curious to see how many full-time missionaries other Christian organizations have around the world, and my online search took me to the Christian and Missionary Alliance website. According to Dad, the Christian and Missionary Alliance was one of the most missionary-minded church organizations in the U.S. (ML #332A:30). They've been around for over 100 years, and at present have only 1,108 full-time missionaries in 49 countries around the world. That, compared to our Family's current 6,203 full-time adult missionaries in 101 countries around the globe, shows clearly that despite a drop in population, we've still got the most on-fire and dedicated missionary movement going! All that in just a little over 30 years!

Family Stats Analysis 2000

[Note: This includes stats from the November 1999 to October 2000 TRFs.]

110. Now we'll take a look at some of our Family statistics—where we are, how many of us there are, what nationalities we are‚ how many Homes we live in, how many babies we're ­having, and more!

nHomes

111. We have a total of 1,426 CM/FM Homes—the highest number of Family Homes since December of 1983! At present there are 944 more Homes than there were in November of 1990. That averages out to nearly eight new CM or FM Homes opening each month over the past 10 years! Since we are only counting the increase in Homes, the actual number of Homes opened over this last 10-year period is probably substantially higher. The CM to FM Home ratio is 55% CM, 45% FM—nearly as many FM Homes as CM Homes.

112. With the decline in Charter membership, there has also been a decline in the number of CM Homes. Currently there are 790 CM Homes, down 5% from November 1999's 831 and 10% lower than the '90s all-time high of 869 in September 1999. In August 2000, CM Homes had dropped to 782, which was the lowest since March of 1998; however, it seems that CM Homes are on the rise once more. CM Home size is at 11 members per Home‚ down from 12 in 1999 and 41 in 1990! So while the number of CM Homes has gone up by 221%, the average Home size has gone down 73% in the past 10 years.

113. Since the Charter, the number of FM Homes had stayed within 5% of the previous year's total. This year they have increased substantially. We now have 636 FM Homes—66 more than November 1999's 570. That's a 12% increase in FM Homes over the past year, or an average of five new FM Homes opening each month of 2000. That's the most FM Homes the Family has ever had. The current FM Home size is five members per Home, slightly less than in 1999.

nAges of Our Members

114. In our Charter membership we have 3‚329 adults over 21, 1,226 young people aged 16 to 20, an amazing 1,164 junior teens and JETTs‚ and 3,232 children 11 years old and under.

115. In our Fellow membership we have 1,172 adults, 462 young people, 541 junior teens and JETTs, and 981 children 11 and under. Combining our CM and FM young people, we have a total of 3,393 JETTs, teens, and young people under the age of 21 (not including children)! That's 28% of the Family!

116. Looking at the makeup of our Family population‚ there are more over 16 than under (51% vs. 49%), more females than males (51% vs. 49%), an equal number of mated and single adults, more single women than single men (56% vs. 44%), and when it comes to children, there are more boys than girls (51% vs. 49%).

n Time in the Family

117. Our Time in the Family stats (comparing only voting members, ages 16 and over, including those born in the Family) show that 17% of Family adults have been in the Family for less than 10 years‚ 34% have been in the Family for 11 to 20 years, 45% have been in the Family for 21 to 30 years, and 4% of Family adults have been around for over 30 years! That splits it pretty much down the middle between those who joined the Family or were born in the Family before 1980, and those who joined or were born into the Family after 1980.

nOutside Membership

118. With the Activated ministry exploding in many parts of the world, our outside membership is growing by leaps and bounds. It's now at 55,128! That's up 65% from 1999's 33,379. That's a very significant jump, because although our outside membership has increased steadily since the Charter, the average increase for the past five years has only been 20% a year!

119. Mail members, which include Activated sub­scribers, went up from 12,285 in November of 1999 to this year's 32,702. That's a 166% increase in one short year! Live-outs increased by 63%, from 778 in 1999 to 1,268 in 2000‚ and active supporters went up by 32% (currently at 14,382) as well!

120. The country with the highest number of outside members is India, with a total of 11,448‚ or 20% of all our Family's outside members. That's a 181% rise in outside member­ship in India over the past year. 10,370 (up 384% from 1999) of those are mail members, which isn't surprising, since India is by far the country with the most Activated members and new monthly Activated subscriptions! India also has the highest number of live–outs at 388. Brazil ranks ­second with 274 live-out disciples, and Japan is third with 90. Getting "activated" and getting subscriptions works in gaining live–out disciples, as is evidenced by the fact that in November of 1999 there were only 43 live-out members in ­India. A year, and about 4,000 Activated subscriptions later, the number of live-outs has gone up 800%!

121. The year 2000 marks the highest number of outside members and supporters ever in our Family's history—surpassing even the previous high of 46,010 in July of 1983 (mostly MWM Radio Members) by an out­stand­ing 20%! This is solid proof that the era of action is here!

nBirths

122. Our birthrate is slowing down. In 2000 there were 229 CM/FM births. That's 19% (or 43 births) lower than 1999's total. It's also the lowest number of births in one year since 1974, when there were only about 3,000 total Family members. Part of the drop can be attributed to the effect of the Law of Love GNs, which came out in October of 1998. Another reason for this continued drop could be due to the fact that 41% of adults in the Family are over 40 (compared to 14% in 1990) and only 32% of Family adults are aged 21 to 39 (compared to 77% in 1990). However‚ sometime over the next five years as our 21 to 39 age bracket becomes larger, the Family birthrate is likely to start rising again.

123. Total Family births come to 13,301. That's an average of 416 births a year, 35 a month‚ or 1.15 a day for our Family's 32-year history!

nWhat's Changed Since
the "Law of Love" GNs?

124. The milestone 12-part "Law of Love" GN series was published in October 1998. The primary purpose behind publishing that series was to re-emphasize the spiritual principles behind living the Law of Love, to explain the background of our sexual freedoms to our teens‚ young people, nationals, and new disciples, and to address the growing number of babies being born to single mothers within the Family. In these GNs, the Lord and we set down clear guidelines for responsible sexual sharing, and put into place minimum requirements for consenting adults to fulfill‚ should a baby result from their lovemaking.

125. Mama and I are very happy to see that the majority of you have taken this counsel to heart and are applying it in your lives. You'll be glad to hear that since the publishing of this series, overall you've been acting more seriously and taking responsi­bility for the precious babies the Lord is blessing us with. Let's take a look at some stats:

126. During the nine months prior to the publishing of the "Law of Love" series (­January 1998 to September 1998), there were 204 babies born—170 babies born to two parents, and 34 babies born to single mothers. That means 83% were born to couples and 17% to single ­mothers.

127. Then the "Law of Love" series was published. Let's move ahead nine months after the publishing of these GNs, to where the Law of Love counsel and 20-month minimum responsibility was in full effect, and look at the stats during the August 1999 to April 2000 period. During this nine-month period, 209 babies were born—197 were to couples and 12 were to single mothers. The stats show 94% of the babies ­being born to couples and 6% born to single mothers. That's a fairly substantial change!

128. So the rate of single mothers giving birth went from 17% in the nine months before the "Law of Love" GNs were published, to 6% in the nine to eighteen months after the GNs were printed. That means that one of the effects of the "Law of Love" series on the Family has been a 65% decrease in the number of babies born to single mothers.

129. An interesting stat since the "Law of Love" series is that our overall birthrate has declined by 22%. Before the "Law of Love" series‚ the average was 23 babies born each month. Since the "Law of Love" GNs, the birthrate has gone down to 18 per month. We don't know whether this stat is a result of the "Law of Love" series or if it's just a seasonal decline that will inch up over the next six months. However, in the six months since April (May 2000 to October 2000), we have had 74 births to mated couples and five to single mothers. This confirms the same reduced percentage of 6% of our knew disciples being born to single mothers, confirming that births to single mothers has solidly declined.

130. We're proud of those of you who have stepped up to your responsibility as fathers and mothers, and we're thankful for the wonderful children that the Lord has blessed you with. We pray that each Family member will be motivated to reach out to help and care for the needs of our dear single parents and their children, for whom we are greatly thankful, and that each individual will continue to progress toward being more prayerful and respon­sible by living the Law of Love in every aspect of life.

nBetrothals

131. We had 55 betrothals in 2000—equal to 1999's total. This year there were 4 FM betrothals as compared to none in 1999. To-date we have had 2‚462 betrothals reported, or an average of 77 a year—three every two weeks since the Family began.

nNationalities

132. Our CM/FM Family is now composed of some 93 passport nationalities—two more than last year. Praise the Lord for new laborers! We also have outside members and sheep in an additional 23 countries, for a grand total of 116 passport nationalities that are either members of the Family or who the Family is ministering to in some way!

133. The majority of Family members are still from the U.S. (27%). Brazilians (9%), Japanese (6%), Canadians (5%) and British (5%) round out the top five. A substantial 60% of the Family is from the West (U.S., Canada, Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand), while 40% of Family members are from the rest of the world. Ten years ago, 64% of the Family were from the West and 36% were from other countries. At that time we also had nationals from just 77 ­countries. So we've diversified quite a bit over the past 10 years and have been winning more disciples of all nations!

nWhere We Are

134. The Family currently has Homes in 101 countries. That's one less than last year, but it's still the second year in our Family's history that we have had Homes in more than 100 countries of the world! A whopping 74% of our CM Family Homes are on the mission field. Good for you! A little more than half of our FM Homes are in the West, with 54% in the U.S., Canada, Western Europe, Australia and New Zealand.

135. About 77% of the CM Family and 48% of the FM Family is on the field. The country with the largest CM population is Brazil—with 1,196 Charter Members, or over 13% of our total CM population.

The Flow of New Wine

136. The Lord has continued to pour out abundantly through the 43 new GNs published for the Family this last year. You, however, received 49 GNs in 2000, totaling 912 pages‚ as six of those GNs were published in 1999 and sent to the NPCs early (because of our Y2K plan). Looking at the 43 GNs produced in 2000‚ that's one new GN every eight days, and a total of 776 pages of new Letters. The average GN length was 18 pages, but a quarter of our GNs were only eight pages long. We went to this shorter format in order to get the Lord's Words, news and views to you quicker than ever, and to make it easier for you to read.

137. Last year we also posted GNs on the MO site for the first time, beginning with "Stay on the Wall" and continuing with "None of These Things Move Me," making them available to you just as quickly as they were finalized.

138. It's the era of action, and our GNs certainly reflected that! We published three "Era of Action" GNs at the beginning of 2000, and we shared the changes taking place in four "Action Series" GNs that were published during the course of the last year.

139. We also tackled many tough questions head-on in the four new "Issues" GNs, not to mention the rebuttals and explanations contained in four other GNs: "Stay on the Wall," "None of These Things Move Me," and "The Way Things Really Are in WS, Parts 1 and 2."

140. There was news about the state of the world in three "Currents" GNs, and very inspiring news about the state of the Family in the last year-end review Letter, "End of a Millennium!"

141. Further news about the Family's present (and future) was contained in the five GNs published for last year's Feast, and more prophetic insight into the world's future was given in two new "Endtime Series" Letters.

142. The Lord also provided more insight into "Understanding Prophecy" with three GNs on that subject, as well as three others with beautiful words on "How to Love Me More!" In addition, He gave us some touching counsel, guidance, and instruction in the three GNs directed to departing teens and their parents, "Take Me With You" and "They'll Always Be Mine!"

143. Three other GNs were directed to our spiritual life, counseling us on how we can make it ("You Can Make It‚ Part 2") and giving the Lord's instruction on self–righteousness and unity ("Self–Righteousness—the Great Barrier to Uniting the Generations") and condemnation ("You Don't Have to Be Perfect!").

144. So there was lots of variety in our Letters last year‚ including five more GNs on various subjects: "Mama's Memos No.12," "Ask Mama No.4," "King Peter's Birthday Celebration," "Midlife Victories" for our friends and contacts, and Dad's beautiful Christmas Mess­age for the Family. Praise the Lord!

145. We think you'll find lots of variety in this year's Letters as well, since we've got new Letters in the works on communication, jealousy, prayer, as well as more "Issues," more of the "Action Series" and "Endtime Series," and more on "How to Love Me More!" There's lots to look forward to, and we pray you'll find this New Wine inspiring, feeding, and spiritually intoxicating.

Assortment of Family Pubs

146. Amidst a good deal of reorganization in WS (see "Putting Skin on the Era of Action," ML #3301), our faithful pubs workers have managed to keep pumping the Word and a selection of magazines to you—hardly missing a beat, God bless them.

147. Following are the publications you received in 2000: 49 GNs, 24 Grapevines, 21 FSMs, 13 Zines, 30 Heaven's Library mags‚ 5 linkUPs, 14 ENDs, 9 Blades, 11 Reflections, 38 FARs, 8 Prayer Lists‚ 11 Kidlands, 10 Eves, 1 Power and Protection, 6 CLTPs, and 24 miscellaneous pubs/notices—as well as dozens of pubs from FC, which are listed in the next section.

148. One new development in the Family pubs department is that while the Free Zine will continue to publish linkUP-style prophecies in their Dead Men Talking column of the Zine, the linkUP mag will be discontinued for the time being. (However, should we get an influx of new linkUP material in the future, we will consider putting out more linkUP mags.) Another development you will have noticed is that the Prayer List is now being included in the Grapevine, so that you get up-to-date prayer requests more quickly and frequently. The Prayer List can also be found on the MO site, so please down­load it and print it for your prayer days and prayer vigils.

149. Along with these magazines you received seven new Heaven's Library books: "Hellbreak," "Saga of Cormac," "Warriors at the Edge of Time," "Betrayal," "Treasures of the Snow," "Hearts of Steel," and "Seven Keys—Book I: Denith's Story" (if you don't have this one yet, it's arriving soon).

150. Here's a peek at the next Heaven's Library book to come in 2001, with more to follow:

Seven Keys—Book II: The Warrior Lord

151. The story of Denith continues as the seeds are planted for the great alliance that he will form with the Baron kingdom, and Lancer continues plotting the overthrow of this luminary Warrior and Celor's Warrior Guard. But the Evil One lurking behind Lancer's rule is hatching an even bigger plan against these growing forces of light that are threatening his world.

Word for Kiddos!—
Family Care Productions

152. God bless our dear Family Care team who've continued to pump out the Word for our children! Here's an overview of their productions for the past year:

153. (From FC team: ) "The Era of Action‚ Part 1" promised that this year of 2000 would bring much change! Yes, we can testify to that, as our team went through a major stage of change throughout the year. Some of our personnel went to help at Activated offices and NPCs, while ­others are regrouping to continue helping with pubs work from the field. However, even during these changes the Lord has done great things with the pubs.

154. Besides our regular MLKs and HTKs, FC worked on three books this past year: Mama's Childhood Memories, MB2K (Memory Book 2000), and a new edition of the Techi Book—Techi's Story.

155. Childhood Memories: Our kids loved learning about Grandpa from Life of Grandpa and Life with Grandpa. Now‚ coming soon to your Homes: Childhood Memories‚ by Mama Maria—23 illustrated stories from Mama for all our children! She relates experiences and lessons as a child and young girl. Thank you, Mama!

156. MB2K: Check it out! It contains verses from the old Memory Book, the Key Bible Verses, as well as key memory chapters, all in one handy little book. "Some day the only Word of God you'll have may be what you've implanted in your heart" (ML #2467:18). Happy and successful memorizing!

157. Techi's Story: You'll also be receiving some wonderful counsel for raising the 229 new babies the Lord gave us this year! It's coming in the new edition of Techi's Story—Her Early Years! Even if you don't have little babies in your care, there is a lot of very good counsel in there, as well as great pictures. Don't miss it!

158. All of these new books (528 pages) as well as the regular mags were completed in 2000: 136 pages of HTKs‚ 184 pages of MLKs, one Endtime Power mag, 112 pages of Kidz Biz, two new Memory Book games, a flannelgraph for Christmas, and Be the Artist #3.

159. (Jesus speaking: ) Remember, adults and parents, you too can be reading these MLKs and HTKs as they come out! You'll find in them review for many needed spiritual principles of the Word for today. Do you often wish you had time to review the Letters as they come out, but there are so many pubs in the flow that you only have time to read that new GN once or maybe twice? Well, then let the MLKs and HTKs be a source of review for you.

160. And while you're reading them, take time to ask Me how to apply the messages within to your children's lives. You'll be amazed at the jewels in each of these comics, tailor-made to your child's specific needs. Just ask Me, and I'll show you. (End of message from Jesus.)

Inside of WS

161. (Peter:) Over the past year, WS has seen a number of changes. In January 2000, as we announced‚ WS held a series of meetings involving reorganization and restructuring of our pubs departments and overall efficiency. The Lord gave us not only the "commitment to excellence" commission, but also a lot more work! With Activated taking off, we've had to juggle personnel in order to fill the needs of the ever-growing Activated ministry. At the same time, over the past year WS has said goodbye to over 20 adults/children who have since headed to the field and other ministries for the Lord! We're beginning to bring in a few people to join our WS team, as there's more to do than before, and at present, fewer people to do it with. Please pray for us.

162. On the pubs front, we've begun to combine efforts on some publications. At the beginning of last year, a team of several SGAs (artists, layout artists and editors) merged, taking on the Zine‚ Heaven's Library mags and books, all field artist coordination/project assigning, as well as layout for the END, Blade and Grapevine, and other assorted layout work. This has improved and streamlined the production and layout of these pubs, and in the upcoming months we hope to departmentalize even further in order to make the best use of our personnel and get top-quality pubs to you!

163. Despite a great deal of personnel ex­change and shuffling within our WS units‚ we haven't missed a beat on the pubs front‚ with the exception of one or two shorter Zine mags. In fact, overall we've increased output during WS reorganiza­tion in this last year.

164. One of our main efforts this past year has been improving and facilitating more direct communi­cation with CRO offices, media teams, Service Homes, others we work with closely, and you, our Family. There have been great strides of progress in this department. WS is now in direct e-mail contact with all CRO offices, Activated desks and Homes, LIMs and translating teams, NPCs‚ FEDs, WS Audio Depart­ment, Aurora‚ media desks, a number of artists, regular contributors to the pubs, and more! This development has speeded up communications and made a tremendous difference, which we're thankful for.

165. We've also created new e-mail addresses for most of our WS departments and publications, enabling you to send your contributions, questions and suggestions directly to the pub of your choice—and the e-mail has been flooding in! Thank you for your contributions. We hope you've been happy with the service you've been receiving, and we hope to con­tinue to improve our e-mail response system and answer your questions more quickly than we have in the past. As of now, you should receive an acknowl­edg­ment of receipt to any e–mail that you send to WS. If you do not receive an acknowledgment, then please resend your message.

166. You'll also note that there is now an official e-mail address at:

question@wsfamily.com

Yes, that e-mail service was made especially for those sundry questions that you haven't known who to ask or where to send it. Send it here, and we'll try to get back to you with an answer, or forward it on to someone who can answer you.

167. On the trip front, I, along with several others, made a trip to establish the FMF foundation this past year. Mama and I also went on a short business trip. Matthew and Francis visited the NACRO office, and the US and Mexico Activated desks in December '99. Francis went to India in May‚ to visit the Activated desk. He later visited the US Activated desk and FCF. Two members of WS went to Japan and Thailand to help with the ASCRO/PACRO office merge. Luke went to Hungary for a month to take part in meetings discussing and planning our new follow-up course. And Yvonna, our Activated layout artist, attended a computer fair and the Frankfurt Book Fair. In late November, I attended my younger daughter's wedding in the US, at which time I also visited the US Activated desk and FCF.

168. Some other happenings within WS this past year include the birth of a knew disciple—Kevin, born to SGA couple Jude and Amie! We also had three new arrivals to WS this year—all SGAs—two males and one female.

169. All in all, it's been quite a year! Things are still settling from the various changes and shifts in personnel. We're looking forward to a very productive year ahead, and we expect to be able to do even more for the Lord and you, our wonderful Family, once we've completed our reorganization of WS. Thanks for your prayers, love, and encouragement!

Family Administration

170. As part of the changes made within WS this past year, the administration, finance and stats personnel combined into one team, which has set the stage to serve you, the Family, more effectively than ever before. As part of this restructuring, Francis and Louise moved out of the administration team to the GP production team.

171. With the new direction the Lord is leading the Family, the administration team spent a good portion of their time this past year meeting and counseling concerning changes soon to take place in the Family leadership and organizational structure—a glimpse of which was shared in "That Banana There" (ML #3313, GN 917). They held three sets of two-week ­meetings with CROs from the various areas to ­discuss, plan, and pray about the upcoming changes, made two written and video presentations to all the CRO teamworks, and continue to fine-tune the Family leadership structure for final presentation and deliberation at the 2001 Summit meeting.

172. Aside from that, your faithful admin­istra­tion team handled and processed approximately 3,500 incoming messages, and sent out at least 1‚500 messages this year! They also sent out seven LNFs and other notices, finalized three new Statements and updated others. Charter Amendments (LNF 280) and policies were changed in the Pioneer Gift Procedure, as well as with the Pass-on Gift, which was increased to $2,000.

New CROs and VSs

173. We've continued our efforts to provide you with more CROs and VSs. Last year the following seven people were added to the CRO teamworks—either as full teamworkers or as trainees. Thank you so much, dear ones, for answering the call! And please keep them in your daily prayers, as they do their best to serve you.

ASCRO: Emmy‚ Mark

NACRO: Miguel, Phil, Harmony, Ginny

PACRO: Rachel Mei

174. There were also 19 new VSs/VS trainees added to your VS teams this last year:

ASCRO: Beth (India)

EURCRO: Polish Kay Martin (North EurAsian territory)

NACRO: Mercy (of Phil and Marie) and Marcos (of Rebecca). Esther (of Miguel), Nic (of Sherry); Juan and Angela are now full VSs, from VS trainees

PACRO: Ezra (Japan); VS trainees: Claire (of Matthew), Stephen (of Spring), Jack and Jenny Mark and Nicole (SGAs), Esther (SGA)

SACRO: Phil, Celeste (Brazil); Joy A., Ariana (Colombia/Venezuela)

CRO Weekly
"Conference" Days

175. This year, for the CROs, the Lord instituted a weekly day away from their normal work, which He has asked them to spend with Him in the Word, prayer, and prophecy. (See GV 86.) This He named His "conference" day with them. As your shepherds, they've needed to take more time out of the wings and in the temple, to receive the guidance and instruction needed for your fields. As the Lord said, this is a key to their success and not becoming burned out‚ which in turn is a blessing to you and your areas.

176. (From Dawn CRO: ) One thing that has been quite a life-changer for us is the weekly conference day with Jesus, a day to get in the Word and hear from the Lord, which was instituted in March or April 2000 for the CROs. Looking over my log of the past year, I see a notable change in the time we have given to hearing from the Lord after the Lord gave us His Word on this weekly day with Him. This has resulted in much more pre-planning, greater time to rest in the Lord and get His directions‚ both for ourselves personally and for others and work-related matters. It has definitely changed our lives for the better‚ and has been a real lifesaver.

Mama's Mailbox

177. We've been very thankful to hear from so many of you this past year, as you've shared your hearts, asked for prayer, expressed ideas for new pubs, GP tools, or other Family changes or improvements. Many of you have commented on how the personal response and often accompanying prophecy that Mama has sent you has greatly helped and encouraged you.

178. Mama and her secretaries are very diligent and faithful with your personal communications to her, and they work hard to process your letters, acknowl­edge them, and in the majority of cases‚ personally respond and send you the Lord's specific words of counsel for you. Here's a word from Mama's secre­taries, who help her to process and answer your mail.

179. (From Ashley and Theresa:) Mama loves each of you dearly, and is so happy to hear from you. It's very important to her to be able to listen to your letters and, with our help, reply to as many as she can.

180. Over the last 12 months Mama received 1,332 personal letters and‚ with the help of her secretaries, responded to 933 of them. That's an average of 78 replies a month, or five every two days. Last year, 361 people received a personal letter, and 572 received a personal letter and a prophecy. The 399 letters that didn't receive a response were birthday notes, thank-you letters, or letters that we weren't able to answer due to not knowing who the letter had come from.

181. We try to answer as many letters as we can‚ as quickly as we can. But with the growing number of people writing, it's a big job, and it sometimes takes a while for Mama's letters to reach you. We're so sorry for any delays, but please know that each one of you is very important to us. We pray for you as we receive your letters, and we do the best we can to send you an ­answer as promptly as possible. Please pray for us.

182. Sometimes delays in your receiving a reply are due to our not knowing who you are, where you are, or what Home you live in. If you include these vital details with your letters, it will help ensure that you receive your answer as quickly as possible. Mama often receives letters that she'd like to answer‚ but isn't able to, because this important information is missing. Thank you for remembering to let us know these important details, so that we can serve you better!

GP Web Expansion

183. (Peter:) This year has seen tremendous growth in our Web stats. If you haven't been to our Family website lately, you should check it out. It's a tremendous witnessing tool, and a hot spot of news and testimonies from Family members around the world, feeding Word, and more, where your sheep can be fed and updated on the latest happenings. It can also help your sheep, contacts and friends to feel more a part of the Family. Having access to our Family website will enable them to receive regular news and feeding, even when they're unable to visit and fellowship with your Home or receive classes in person.

184. Here's a look at some of our GP website statistics. Our GP website received:

·206,837 distinct visits in 2000,
compared to

·174‚079 distinct visits in 1999

·566 average visits daily in 2000,
compared to

·476 average visits daily in 1999

·49.7 gigabytes total amount downloaded in 2000, compared to

·33.3 gigabytes total amount downloaded in 1999

·535,636 page views, which is over half a million pages viewed!

·13:46 minutes was the average time each visitor (of which there were 206‚837!) stayed on our site. That's a total of 46,538 hours, or 1,939 days worth of online time.

·182 people are subscribed to receive daily e-mails, meaning that 5,460 various publications are e-mailed to these people from the site every month.

·503 people subscribed to receive weekly e–mails, meaning that 2,012 various publications are e-mailed from the site to these subscribers every month. [These 7,472 e-mails per month (daily and weekly e-mails together) are in addition to the 49.7 gigs that were downloaded, and are not reflected in visitors to the site, since they now receive the Word by e-mail, and therefore no longer need to visit the site to get it, unless of course they want to.]

·Approximately 1,815 people visited the salvation prayer page (featured in 14 different languages), hopefully praying the prayer and getting saved!

·The top two downloads are: MO Letters (29‚420) and MP3s (over 7,500).

·The top 10 countries that access the site are:

1. United States

2. Japan

3. UK

4. Canada

5. Germany

6. Brazil

7. Sweden

8. Australia

9. Mexico

10. Belgium

185. (From the Web team: ) In January we completed a major redesign and restructure of the GP Family site. Since then, we've added a lot more interactive and daily features to add to our "revisit–ability" quotient, such as a quote of the day, a Daily Word section, Pic of the Day, and a Chapter-a-Week section which features some of the Heaven's Library novels with a new chapter added each week.

186. We've focused on adding more content to the existing sections, posting more Word for the GP, propagating our music, promoting the Family's various pro­jects and outreach, and ways to allow people to send material they like from our site to others, in the form of e-cards and e-mail, thus enabling the Word to be spread even further. More and more, this site is becoming a wonderful witnessing and follow-up tool. We sincerely hope that each of you are taking advantage of this tremendous resource.

187. P.S.: Special thanks to Promise, Trust and the U.S. Activated desk, who faithfully respond to and follow up on all the GP e-mail that the website receives. We love you‚ appreciate you, and certainly couldn't do without you!

Family E-mail Ministry/
Wine Press

188. (Peter:) Those individuals who are willing to faithfully and consistently minister to the sheep, take the time to answer their questions, read their mail and answer it‚ are the heart of our follow-up, and that heart beats because of their love and faithfulness. God bless all of you who are doing that, whether on a small or large scale. If you have a heart for the sheep and you keep in touch with them via mail, sending them Word and feeding material to read, answering their questions, praying for them, hearing from the Lord for them—you are an integral and essential part of the follow-up revolution that the Lord is bringing about in the Family. We need more of you!

189. Here's a look into what it takes to keep up with all the e–mail generated from our Family website‚ and the feeding and behind-the-scenes witnessing that is going on, because of those few wonderful souls who are willing to sit behind a computer desk and faithfully answer the sheep. God bless them—and all of you around the world who make time for it!

190. (From the Activated USA Home:) The Family e–mail ministry has continued to grow over the past year. The monthly online newsletter for the Family website, called "Power Links," is now sent to about 1,500 e–mail addresses each month. This year we received over 4,000 e-mails at our Family e–mail address‚ and we have sent out about 4,000 e-mail messages in reply—that's 21 e-mail messages in and out every day of the year. These are e-mail messages to and from the general public who write in to the Family e-mail address; these stats do not include our innumerable Activated business e-mail messages that we send and receive each day.

191. The Wine Press ministry kept rolling as we continued pumping out the New Wine for our former Family and live-out sheep, with 13 new Wine Press issues and a number of separate "New Wine" Letters. We increased our Wine Press mailings from one per month to two monthly, and now send the Wine Press to over 160 precious live-out families. We also held a Wine Press retreat this summer which was attended by some of these precious brethren, who were very inspired by the fellowship and time of Word‚ prayer, and spiritual feasting.

Spanish GP Website

192. (From Esteban, SPALIM:) Web traffic increased substantially this past year on our GP Family Spanish site (www.lafamilia.org). Here are some stats:

Visitors/salvations

·11,177 MB downloaded (a 40% increase over 1999)

·66,018 visitors (a 48% increase over 1999)

·1,592 visitors (a 76% increase) read the salvation prayer; 509 said they had prayed the prayer (a 62% increase).

Downloaded texts

·379 Word Basics (full book) (65% increase)

·346 sets of Living Waters (3% increase)

·217 sets of Mountain Streams (28% increase)

·279 "In Search of Truth" (45% increase)

·277 "Who is Jesus?" (47% increase)

·431 poster screensavers downloaded (119% increase)

Our Members Only Site

193. (Peter:) The Members Only site is tremendous! I hope you're availing yourself of it. There's a lot of great material posted there, with updates all the time, and more new features coming! Check it out!

194. Family members visited the Members Only site 138,403 times during 2000, or 379 times per day. You downloaded 76.4 gigabytes of material from it this year‚ and the average Family member stayed on the site for eight minutes and twenty-two seconds. That comes to a total of 19,299 hours of online time this last year!

195. The top two downloads are currently MP3s, at 10,303 for the year, and second place is taken by the Grapevine, at 4,728 downloads. The 10 countries that most frequently access the MO site are: United States, Japan, Mexico, Brazil‚ UK, New Zealand, Taiwan, Thailand, Italy and Romania.

196. (From the Web team:) The Members Only site was redesigned and the new version was launched this year. It had been in need of a face-lift and upgrade in order to be more usable, current, and up-to-date with the latest pubs, movie ratings, Family pictures, news and music‚ etc. We also wanted to put in place increased security measures that would allow us much more control over the site, as well as the ability to distribute the more confidential pubs.

197. In order to secure the site, we had to completely change the way people obtain access to it. We redesigned and restructured the site and discontinued publishing the universal logon password in the Grapevine several months ago; now each Home has to have their own personalized login info. This has helped to secure the site considerably. (We presently have 639 MO site users. PTL!) Getting folks onto the MO site has been a huge job that has required lots of communications (we receive an average of about 400 messages a month), which has taken a lot of effort and time but has been well worth it.

198. Some of the main sections of the revamped MO site are:

199. Pubs section: Here you can download all the latest pubs (minus the GNs)—and we're steadily working toward posting the backlog. You can also subscribe to have the pubs sent to your Home by e-mail.

200. Art/Photo Gallery: God bless all of you who've faithfully contributed to this section. Thanks to you we now have over 3,000 photos in our Family gallery!

201. Audio section: This section has well over 800 MP3s available for downloading.

202. Computer section: Designed to help answer your computer questions, cover topics that you are interested in, and publish tips that you have discovered. Also included is a "links" subsection where you can find helpful links to other websites.

203. Newswire section: Where you can find current, up-to-date news of happenings in the Family, as well as testimonies, newsletters, reactions and tips from Family members worldwide.

204. Activated section: Here you'll find up-to-the-minute Activated news, stats, tips, follow–up resources, pubs‚ and much more!

205. FED section: Where you can download and/or order all the latest FED materials.

206. Movie section: Get the latest ­ratings and search the movie list.

207. Overflow: Book summaries‚ articles and extras.

208. Classifieds: Coming soon, D.V.!

209. Chat: Safer, more secure, Family Only chat room. Lots of fun!

210. And there's a lot more in the works as the Web is always growing and changing and has an infinite capacity for expansion.

211. In closing, we'd like to thank all of you who have contributed to the site in one way or another. The site wouldn't be what it is today without you! Please keep your contributions coming! And if you haven't yet accessed the site‚ please check it out. It really is a fantastic resource with an enormous amount of material offered, and lots available for downloading. It's a "happening" place, so don't miss out!

If your Home doesn't already have access to the site, all you need to do is send your CRO Office the following information:

·your Home number

·the password of your choice (minimum 8 characters, no more than 15, please)

·your e-mail address

·your PGP key

Once the CRO office has received and verified your information, they will forward it to us, and we will then activate your Home's MO site account. We love you!

Members Only site:

www.familymembers.com

Our e-mail is: web@wsfamily.com

Mama on the MO Site!

212. (Peter: ) I hope you enjoyed the section in Grape­vine 100, "Some Mama jewels … from camera clips!" If so, you'll be happy to hear that we've clipped those portions of video onto MPEG so that you can hear Mama's voice—live and in action! Since the last time most of you heard Mama's sweet and bubbly voice was years ago when she read the Victory Quotes on tape, we thought you might like this glimpse into what a conversation with Mama is like. So check out the MO site and download a few Mama jewels today! You never know what you'll find there!

2000 Audio Output!

213. Thank the Lord for another exciting and fruitful year for Family music! The WS audio department's rolled gold was really rollin' this year, praise the Lord! First of all, here's a recap of what was worked on and released to the worldwide Homes.

214. > GP: Always, by the JAS and Gateway—finished the recording of, and mastered for the duping centers.

215. Revised version of Great Adventures (2 CDs), by WS Audio Department (WSA)—remaining 15 replace­ment songs recorded and mastered. (Check out the new cover, courtesy of Zeb!)

216. > FTTs: Straight and Narrow Road (FTT#17)‚ Rapturous Feeling (FTT#18), Flying Colors (FTT#19—God willing, you'll receive by the end of 2000), and Horizon (FTT#20—will wrap up the year for FTT production). A big hand to those studios who made these CDs possible: JAS, RAD, MEX (Mexican Audio Studio), Gateway (Japan), OHS (Open Home Studio, Japan), and the EAS (European Audio Studio).

217. > KATs: My Heroes (KAT#3—you'll receive by year's end) contains the 15 Great Adventures replace­ment songs, plus 6 brand-new songs (recorded by WSA and one from JAS) that you'll only find on this CD!

218. A special edition release (KAT #4) of I Like to Sing will be sent out to the Homes before the year's end, which consists of the GP Treasure Attic songs, compiled from the last batch of TA shows. This CD was finalized and released for distribution in 1999, but since some areas will not be duplicating this CD for the GP, WS wants to release it as KAT #4 to help make more music available to our precious kiddos!

219. > Pubs: Editing, mastering, and sending to the Family Web team Simon Peter's recording of From Jesus With Love—Vol.2‚ available for downloading on the MO site.

220. > Other GP: The Jonas [Jason] CD‚ Dream Journey (recorded by the EAS), was recorded in 1999, but was released to the Homes as NF#4 this last year. The Simon Black CD, Love Is the Sweetest Thing (recorded by the DC studio), was recorded in 1999, but was mastered this year and released to the Homes as NF#5.

221. In tallying up the above items sent out to the Family this year, that's 12 CDs, or one CD per month, or approximately 120 songs—about 12 hours worth of music and Word! Praise the Lord!

222. This does not include the multitude of hours spent transferring DAT masters to CD, MPEGing BMTs and Minus ones, and duplicating the numerous orders for the duping centers around the world—not to mention the hundreds of hours spent songwriting and auditioning.

223. In the year 2000 there was also lots of work and recording going on for upcoming CDs‚ which WS will be releasing in 2001, God willing, such as: more FTTs, more NF [New Features] CDs, more Loving Jesus CDs‚ and more KATs!

224. Dear Family‚ thanks for your faithful prayers for all our wonderful and dedicated studio musicians and technicians, not only in the above-mentioned studios‚ but in all the many other Family studios around the world who are involved in the production of local language tools. Please continue to pray that the Lord will raise up more qualified contributors, the finances, and needed equipment to help record and get out more songs to you, our wonderful Family!

Project definitions:

GP = General Public

FTT = Family Teen Tape

KAT = Kids Audio Tape

NF = New Features (which are usually witnessing songs, inspirational, and easy-listening compilations for an older audience—although we receive many reports that all ages enjoy the NF CDs)

State of the FAF

225. Thank you for your continued faithful giving to the Family Aid Fund. Because of your giving, and World Services' tithe, which supplements the FAF, during the last year the FAF has given out:

·102 HER Gifts to new Homes = 8 per month

·135 Pioneer Gifts = 11 per month

·212 Home Loans = 18 per month

·434 Tool Fund Gifts = 36 per month

·80 Home emergency expenses = 7 per month

·251 Baby Bonuses = 21 per month

·12 Homegoing Gifts* = 1 per month

·1,226 Total Gifts = 102 per month

*Homegoing gifts were increased to $2,000 in 2000.

226. To-date, after five years and seven months of operation, the Family Aid Fund has given out:

·956 HER Gifts to new Homes = 14 per month

·1,148 Pioneer Gifts = 17 per month

·1‚243 Home Loans = 19 per month

·3,139 Tool Fund Gifts = 47 per month

·391 Home emergency expenses = 6 per month

·1,417 Baby Bonuses = 21 per month

·12 Homegoing Gifts (just raised to $2‚000 this year)

· 8,306 Total Gifts = 124 per month

227. It's a wonderful blessing to have the FAF to draw from for all the above-listed needs, which at some time or another benefit your Home person­ally, or will in the future. Remember, income to the FAF comes not only from the CM Homes' 1% and WS' 10%, but also via Designated Gifts to the FAF from Homes and special windfalls, Home Loan repayments which are continually coming into the FAF and being sent back out as new loans, as well as returned HERs from closing Homes which are recycled and used for new outgoing HERs. These other sources of income besides the Homes 1% and WS' 10% make up a sizable major portion of the FAF income, and make it possible for the FAF to handle such a huge amount of outgoing gifts. Praise the Lord for His never-failing supply! And thank you for continuing to give an additional 1% of your income for the overall Family's benefit.

WS Expenses

228. In the year 2000, WS outgo matched its income almost to the penny—as usual. Thirty–six percent of the total outgo was spent on creating‚ printing, and mailing the pubs and the audio and video tools. Seven percent was given to the Activated ministry to get it rolling and off the ground. Ten percent went to the CRO and administrative offices and expenses. And forty-seven percent went to missionary aid and support throughout all 5 CRO areas of the world. This missionary aid and support includes the translation of the pubs/tools into local languages, home support for poor mission fields such as Eastern Europe and Russia, the Mideast, Southeast Asia, Africa and China, as well as WS' tithe to the Family Aid Fund. There is probably not another organization on Earth that gives 47% of its income to the mission field.

Missionary Giving by You!

229. During the year 2000, Family Homes gave over half a million dollars to other Family Homes in the form of Designated Gifts forwarded via their TRFs and passed on by the CRO Offices. This averaged out to over $46,000 a month! The monthly averages given per CRO area were:

$17,000 - PACRO

$15,000 - NACRO

$10,000 - EURCRO

$ 2,500 - ASCRO

$ 2,000 - SACRO

230. That's a lot of giving! What a Family! When Mama and I see how much you share with other Homes, it makes us so proud of you! And we trust the Lord blesses you abundantly for it, fulfilling His promise that as you pour out, He'll pour in!

Commendation for
Our NPC Heroes

231. Big news on the NPC front is that the PACRO and ASCRO NPCs have merged. This has resulted in money saved and time efficiency. They are now called the ASIAN NPC. They, along with the NNPC‚ SPALIM NPC and the BRALIM NPC, continue to print and package the Word for you. And this last year they printed and mailed approximately 18.5 million A5 pages of it. Whatta job!

232. It's difficult to imagine the time and effort it takes for our NPC teams (and our LIMs, Lit-Pics, and translating teams) to get the Word to you in English and other languages. So we asked the Lord for some special commendation for our dear brothers and sisters who labor so faithfully in these ministries. He was more than happy to oblige, and here's what He had to say about our NPC, LIM, Lit–Pic and translating teams:

233. (Jesus speaking: ) I have exalted My Word above My Own Name, and to these who give their lives day in and day out to print and translate and package and mail the Word to you‚ I give great and high commendation.

234. Do you want to know what I'm going to do for these humble, faithful, hard-working ones—for every one of My children who played a part in printing My Words for the Family and for the world? When I call you all Home to Heaven and I pass out the rewards, there is going to be a grand display in honor of these, My humble, faithful, hard-working ones.

235. As we watch, hundreds‚ then thousands, then millions of individual pages—representing My Words—are going to come marching through the sky. They are going to be alive, and moving, and will look like a great‚ albeit miniature, army. They're going to march in, singing My praises!

236. Then these millions of pages are going to transform—it's going to be so beautiful! First they're going to turn into butterflies, to represent the soothing comfort and the beauty that My Word has brought into the lives of My children. Then they're going to transform into beautiful, multicolored flowers—each page looking like a flower, and floating in the sky—to represent the beautiful scent of My Spirit that has gone out into the world through My Words. Then the pages will transform into tiny flames of bright light as the whole sky darkens. This will represent the wonderful light every page of My Word has spread into the world. Finally, each page is going to turn into sparklers, and they will fall to the ground in slow motion.

237. Just when you think the show is over, great beams of light will shoot up from the ground and present a fast-paced projection in the sky. You'll see people of all nationalities‚ of all ages and religious persuasions, being enlightened by the wonderful‚ life-giving truths found in My Word. It will be so glorious! You'll watch such scenes for what seems like hours on end, and you will not tire. We'll all be weeping tears of joy to see the wonderful results of your efforts to get out My Words, to proclaim them abroad in every way possible.

238. When all this is done, those millions of pages will ascend once more into the sky, in the shape of the human form—many human forms. The pages will fall away from each form in the sky as if a gift is being unwrapped—a form at a time—to reveal one of My faithful ones who dedicated their lives to proclaiming My Words, printing My Words, and translating My Words.

239. With each new revelation, a great cheer will go up from the masses—a cheer of admiration and of gratitude. I Myself will be cheering the loudest for you‚ My faithful ones. (End of message from Jesus)

LIMs‚ Lit-Pics, and Translators

240. (Peter:) What a wonderful and well-deserved commendation from our dear Husband to our precious behind-the-scenes "worders." Let's focus on the accomplishments of a special bunch of people, who though you may not hear very much about, enable you to read the Word and distribute GP tools in your local language—our LIM and Lit-Pic staff, and translating teams around the world! We couldn't do it without you!

241. The number of translations completed in the Family each year is phenomenal. Not only do we‚ as a Family, produce a high number of publica­tions, both internal and for the general public, but they're translated into numerous languages as well! That's a tremendous accomplishment that goes on day in and day out by our faithful translators. Please pray for them, in love and appreciation for all that they make possible.

nBRALIM Translations

242. (From the BRALIM team:) This was a wonderful year of both Family and GP production. We got more "activated," directing our efforts to the witnessing wave of the day. Improved communications with new e-mail links both to WS and to our field translators has been a great blessing.

243. We also got some new recruits: Two YAs, two senior teens, one FGA, and another field translator joined our team. Our current office team consists of: three FGAs, one young national, four YAs, and two senior teens, while four FGAs help from the field (two of whom are our principal translators).

244. Here are some stats from the past year:

Translations

·Weekly CM/FM/DFO pubs: 3,633 A5 pages.

·GP pubs: equivalent of 1,350 A5 pages.

·Total pages: 4,983, which is 415 pages a month, or over 13 pages for each day of the year, rain or shine. Plus each pub is gone over at least four times!

·We produced Portuguese versions of 19 of the 22 pubs sent from WS.

·Special thanks to our field translators, who are a big part of us and without whom we couldn't have done the job.

Other work

·KTKs: best stories were translated and laid out into 2 volumes, one for GP‚ the other for DFO.

·Finishing up DB 13 and LOG.

GP Activated mags and books

·10 Activated mags produced print-ready (160 pages total.)

·20 GP books finalized (1,033 A6 pages total.)

·5 GP books in final proofing stage (1,641 A6 pages total): Understanding God's Word, Word Basics‚ Word Topics, My King and I, GP From Jesus With Love.

Emphasis on follow-up materials

·Babes Basic Course translations revamped, plus 49 MLs added to complete it—Letters which weren't in the previous HomeARC.

·29 Wine Press Letters (DFO GNs) edited and laid out, ready for MO site.

·162 more basic MLs added to HomeARC, not counting the new pubs.

·A CD for DFOs and Live-outs is almost com­pleted, to be ready at the first of the new year.

·MO site: Began uploading megabytes of pubs to the Portuguese pubs page.

nSPALIM Translations

245. (From Esteban, SPALIM:) This past year we pro­duced 5,031 A5 print-ready pages in Spanish. Of WS' mailings‚ we translated:

·All GNs, FARs, tracts, Prayer Lists and MLKs.

·Most FSMs, Reflections, Statements, DFO MLs‚ Endtime Power mags and other FC pubs.

·Some CLTPs, EVEs, Kidlands, Blades and HTKs.

·Portions of Grapevines and ENDs.

246. We also prepared a variety of mags and books for GP distribution and follow-up (in conjunction with the Conéctate Home), including:

·CD cards (7 designs)

·Kiddie Viddie Activity Guides

·GP From Jesus With Love

247. We sent out a greatly improved new edition of the Spanish HomeARC, which now includes:

·Over 2400 MLs, up to #3300

·DBs 1-13

·Updated Charter

·The Bible

·From Jesus With Love, Volume 1 and 2

·Good Thots

·Marvelous Marriage

·Most of Raise'm Right

·Mega-songbook with over 1,000 Spanish songs

·Over 250 PDF files with Spanish GP/DFO pubs ready to print (Reflections, Statements, tracts, Power and Protection, Mountain Streams, DFO MLs, etc.)

248. We also opened a Spanish Members Only site (http://es.familymembers.com), which presently features:

·PDF files of all new GP and DFO pubs

·Selected CM/FM pubs

·Rough drafts of novels to be published

·System book summaries

nJapanese LIM

249. (From the Japanese LIM: ) From Nov. 1999 to Oct. 2000, a total of 2‚520 A5 pages were translated and printed in Japanese—an average of 210 pages a month. We were able to produce two books, From Jesus With Love #2 and To Jesus With Love #2‚ and we made good progress on DB 11, which is now at layout stage.

250. Besides GNs‚ key FSMs, GVs and other regular pubs that we normally get out in Japanese (CM/GP), we were able to translate some Heaven's Library stories, including "Journey to Tricon," and some linkUPs and compilations of Kidland, etc.

251. Another victory is that we were able to start working on a Japanese HomeARC project. It's a very big project, but is now well underway‚ and we should be able to make the first versions of two CDs (one with CM/FM pubs and the other with GP/DFO pubs) available in the early part of next year‚ D.V.

252. With the decision made to set up an Activated desk in Japan, we face the challenge of translating all the Activated magazines and other feeding materials. On this front, we've nearly completed two GP books, Glimpses of Heaven and Future Foretold. Three other booklets from the Get Activated series are in the works too.

nChinese Lit-Pic Heads Toward Activated!

253. (From the Chinese Lit-Pic:) The Chinese Lit-Pic produces lit in both Simplified Chinese (for China and Singapore) and Traditional Chinese (for Taiwan and other Chinese areas around the world). For China we mostly put everything in text and PDF format on CD and mail it to the China teams. This year, we completed a CD with over 450 PDF files and over 1,000 text files. God bless our faithful four mainland Chinese translators and proofreaders! For road teams to China, we also printed 103,000 pages of tracts and booklets in 2000. This includes a four-part Word Curriculum series in Chinese, explaining in detail everything about Christianity and the spirit world for new converts.

254. A CLP website was put up to make these pubs and files available to all Chinese around the world. The address is: http://www.thefamily-chinese.org/clp

255. Over 20,000 pieces of follow-up lit were distributed to the Taiwan Homes in 2000. This is apart from orders from the Taiwan PPC. This year CLP also completed volume one of a reprint of Treasures, in Traditional Chinese, 5-volume format‚ with an inspiring full–color cover done by Philippe la Plume! The Word Basics, a milestone in CLP history, was also completed and, God willing, will soon be in print in the larger "Discovering Truth" Activated format.

256. Speaking of Activated, we also pursued the legal directions for setting up an Activated desk for the Chinese. The Activated ­vision in Chinese made great headway‚ with seven Activated mags and five booklets being already translated!

nThai Lit-Pic

257. (From the Thai Lit–Pic:) Our small translating team was able to do a one-take translation of 37 GNs this year‚ including most of the milestone GNs that came out. We worked on translating some GP tools for the Family in Thailand to distribute, including eight Treasure Attic scripts, and some new tracts and Reflections.

258. Aside from translating, we helped with the recording and dubbing of six Treasure Attic shows‚ and we also processed 1,800 Thai DF/EC3 letters. We helped translate and produce a new Heavenly Streams booklet. This booklet contains 31 articles in both Thai and English—taken mainly from Reflections or the Activated material.

259. We have also been involved in Web work this year. We translated two of our local sites (the Thai Family site and the Jonas site) into Thai.

260. We sent out 18 mailings this year, or 785 A5 print-ready pages.

nGreek Lit-Pic

261. (From the Greek Lit-Pic:) The Greek Lit-Pic con­sists of Matthew and Maggie Greek, and John and Joanna (Greek/American), living in two different Homes in Thessaloniki and ­Athens. Translations and correc­tions are coordinated by e-mail.

262. We were able to translate and finalize 5 FARs, 5 Mountain Streams, 35 GP Daily Might pages, 1 tract, 5 Reflections and 1 Christian Digest ("Racing Towards the Mark"). Most of the Homes in Greece prefer to receive the translations by e–mail, and then they do their own printing‚ so we only send mailings to two Homes who don't use e-mail.

263. With the help of the EURCRO office team, we were also able to maintain and update the Greek website (www.thefamilyeurope.org/el) including all of the new and some of the old pubs we had available.

264. The highlight of our production was that we produced the first Greek tape, with a variety of translated Christmas songs and chil­dren's songs, for the inspiration of our DFO Family in Greece. We hope to make this tape available for GP distribution also.

nFrench Translation Department

265. (From the French translation team:) Great strides have been made in consolidating the ministry of French pubs translations. This past year, our little team translated and finalized the equivalent of 450 A5 pages (270 pages of adult pubs, 176 of kids' pubs). The African Homes have begun receiving regular "e-mailings" of new French pubs. Activated mags 1-6 are translated and the first 15 mags will be ready to go to press within a few months. This will kick off our Activated program for the whole French-speaking world!

266. A first-ever "French Pubs CD" will soon be ready and available‚ thanks to the faithful labors of the French translation team and the BISC. The new GP FED project is being translated simultaneously with the finalizing of the English version‚ which means it will be available in French within a short time of the English version being published. Seven books for kids were made ready for print. For the adults, 27 Reflections were translated, plus Glimpses of Heaven, which is now being distributed.

267. All of this is especially exciting in light of the great hunger and need in the recently pioneered French-speaking countries of Africa. These translations will be a key in reaping the fruit the era of action promises to bring!

nRomanian Lit-Pic

268. (From Dan, EE:) Over the past year‚ getting the books from the Activated series translated into Romanian was our main priority. The following have now been translated and are ready for print:

·Hearing from Heaven

·Overcoming Obstacles

·From Jesus—With Love

·Farmyard Heroes

·Tug of War

·Key Bible Verses

269. We've also been translating and sending out to the Homes originals of GP/DFO publications that come out regularly‚ such as Reflections, FARs, ENDs, CLTPs, etc.‚ which they can then photocopy or print themselves. In total we've translated about 670 A5 pages. Over the last year we've sent out 8 such mailings containing: 75 Reflections, 11 FARs, 4 CLTPs, 3 Kidz Mags, 3 Parent and Teacher's Digests, 2 ENDs, 4 MOP sections, and 4 Treasure Hunts.

nHungarian Lit-Pic

270. (From Dan, EE:) Much like the Romanian Lit-Pic, our Hungarian Lit–Pic concentrates on translating and sending out the originals of the GP publications to the Homes in Hungary.

271. This year we translated 255 pages worth of the following material: 56 Reflections, 5 FARs, 2 CDs (Christian Digests), 1 Kidz Mag, 1 WB (Word Basic) section, 1 Treasure Hunt, 2 Christmas stories compila­tions, 4 Activated books. We mailed out 4,970 pages of the above publications as originals to Homes.

nEE Mail Ministry Productions/Printing

272. (From Dan, EE:) God bless our dear productions person (a single entity!) whose role has been filled by four individuals in the last year! Our productions department mainly prints materials for our MM course in order to keep our mailing stocks up to par. However, productions is often given other extra projects for the field, such as a present undertaking of printing the Romanian Daily Might (broken down into four booklets).

273. Some major undertakings of the last year by our productions department included:

·Y2K DFO GN in Russian—2,000 copies; 24,000 pages in total.

·Romanian DM—1,850 copies; 366,300 pages in total.

·From Jesus With Love (selected portions for a special MM mailing, in Romanian, Russian, Bulgarian, and Hungarian)—4,420 copies; 35,020 pages in total.

·Hearing From Heaven (in Romanian, Russian, Bulgarian and Hungarian)—4,120 copies; 77,600 pages in total.

274. Productions printed a total of around 777,000 pages last year!

nEE Mail Ministry/Layout

275. (From Dan‚ EE:) Topping the list of undertakings here at the MM Home is the Mail Ministry! During the last year‚ our MM teams collectively have distributed around 95,039 pieces of literature, which equals 674,403 pages.

276. Presently the MM is working on revamping its course to become more Activated-like, so that the Homes in the EE will be able to utilize it more as an Activated vehicle for Eastern Europe. This amounts to monumental tasks of translations, layout, printing, etc. Please continue to uphold us in your prayers, as there's so much to do!

277. Our layout team comes to the fore in every pub that has been translated, both for the Homes and for our MM mailings. They take each pub as it's completed and run it through layout, after which they return the pub to the translator for final proofreading and hyphenation. Once the mailing is back in their court, they produce an original for productions and archive the publication.

278. They have also been working through our archives of previously laid-out/translated materials, often coming across such archaic formats as WordStar, Ventura, and Word Perfect. They have also worked on the original layout of MM pubs, such as brochures, Kidz Mags (for the Russian Kids MM), and other related items.

nActivated being translated into EE languages

279. (From Angelina, EE Translating Department:) Our goal‚ with the Lord's help and supply of funds and resources‚ is to translate the Activated booklets into all the (13) EE languages (Albanian, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Hungarian, Polish, Romanian, Russian‚ Serbian, Slovakian, Slovenian and Ukrainian). After that, we hope to translate the 12 Foundation Stones course (the Bible classes course that is part of the Activated Training Program—see the Members Only website for details). The present MM mailing course (recently revised, scaled down to 15 mailings from the original 36) will stand as the EE Activated course, with the exception of some of the smaller languages‚ which don't have much material from those mailings translated‚ so we'll go with the English Activated mags.

280. So far, 38 booklets have been translated. That's 658‚528 words from Activated translated into EE languages! God bless our great EE Family members who have put hours, days, weeks, and months into getting all this work done, be it through translating, proofreading, hunting down translators, pushing projects through, not losing hope, putting up with delays, keeping the vision, and what have you! The remainder is in the works, and some languages have yet to be tackled, beginning nearly from scratch. We're aiming to have the Activated/MM course and 12 Foundation Stones done by the middle of 2001 in most of the 13 EE languages. Major prayer power is needed to push this through.

281. Please pray that we can learn how to work efficiently, establish a solid team at the MM after a bunch of changes in the works, for those who contribute to translations but are in field Homes (God bless them, real heroes!), and everything else that this big ministry entails. Also, the MM is in need of a printer [person] and printer [machine]. I recently told someone it's like trying to set up and run 13 mini-Activated desks—yikes—but our Love definitely has the grace and the plan!

nActivated being translated into Spanish

282. (From Jonathan Nubes, for Conéctate:) We have made great strides in the translating and publishing of the Spanish pubs for Activated this year.

283. Conéctate (Spanish Activated) was translated up to magazine 17. Two children's books were printed as part of the Aurora/Activated program: Tug of War and Farmyard Heroes. Trudge and Zippy was completed and is print ready.

284. We've also sent to Thailand for printing the following books: Key Bible Verses, Discovering Truth #1, Dare to be Different‚ Obstacles Are for Over­coming, the first book of the Praisin'U series and Best Friends #1. Quite a few other books are in the final stages: Prayer Power, Understanding God's Word and Hearing from Heaven, the Feed My Lambs series, the rest of Best Friends (Jesus and Me series), My King and I, Discovering Truth #2 and two novels—Two Tests and a Wish and The Mountain Calls.

285. Apart from this, we've made quite a few brochures and catalogues and have caught up with Reflections in Spanish‚ so that we now have them all translated and published. And we have finished the latest versions of the Statements. This has been our best year for GP pubs in Spanish so far!

286. (Peter:) God bless all of you who work on translating the Word. You play a major role in winning and feeding the sheep, and we couldn't do without you. Keep up the good work!

FCF's Mission Support and
Humanitarian Services Program

287. As part of an overall major expansion this past year, FCF has continued to help an ever-increasing number of our missionary communities and their local CTP projects. Here are excerpts from recent FCF newsletters:

288. (FCF:) The objective of Family Care Foundation's Mission Support and Humanitarian Services Program (MSHSP), commonly referred to as our Umbrella Program, is to help those engaged in worthy projects around the world to raise funds for their missions. A primary goal for the year 2000 was to increase the scope and effectiveness of our MSHSP Program, and we're thankful to all of you who play a part in making this possible.

289. You will recall that FCF's goals for the year 2000 were to effectively develop and implement a range of programs and services worldwide‚ including:

·Supplying humanitarian aid in developing nations, including food and clothing for the poor

·Vocational programs for children and youth

·Educational programs for persons with special needs‚ including the physically or develop­ment­ally disabled

·Missionary activity, training and support

·Mobilizing resources for disaster and humanitar­ian relief in developing countries

·Obtaining equipment and supplies for needy hospitals, orphanages, prisons, and other institutions

290. We are happy to announce that major gains have been realized in all the above programs this past year. To give you a better sense of how many lives were touched through our 160+ Humanitarian and Missionary Projects in 52 countries, here's a year's worth of informal statistics. (Please note that the following summary is by no means exhaustive, but simply highlights some of the activities and services provided by Family Care Foundation and our pro­jects. Actual total services provided and humanitarian goods distributed far exceed this list.)

Number of food recipients: 1,394,000

Prepared meals served: 129,000

Weight of other food distributed: 716 tons

Individuals personally counseled/ministered to: 488,000

Number of seminars and classes: 1,872 (subjects ranging from parenting, childcare, health and hygiene, education, vocational training‚ war trauma, youth empowerment, Christian values, midwife training, drug prevention‚ computer skills, responsible sexuality, conflict resolution‚ domestic violence, and child abuse)

Number of individuals attending seminars: 150,000

Number of disaster victims served: 245‚000

Number of functionally challenged served: 26,000 (hearing impaired, seeing impaired, mentally challenged, etc.)

Number of people provided with medical treatment: 9,500

Number of orphans served: 41,000 (taught, fed‚ etc.)

Number of infirm visited in hospitals‚ clinics, etc: 26,000

Number of youth served: 64,000

Number of individuals served in institutions: 22,000 (prisons, juvenile detention centers, shelters, etc.)

Number of performances for emotional healing: 5‚100 (inspirational perform­ances involving music‚ clowns, etc.)

Number of individuals served at such performances: 2,244,000

Bibles and Gospel literature distributed: 9,174,000

Other items and services procured and provided for the needy in developing countries include but by no means are limited to: heart operations, dental equipment, medical supplies, computers, ambu­lances, 27 tons of food to North Korea, two tons of baby food to Cam­bodia, eyeglasses‚ clothing, educational materials, shoes, church construction projects‚ renovations to orphanages and daycare centers, home construction, and school supplies

291. FCF is moving into partnerships with other non­profit organizations in order to expand program services. Our broad network of workers on the ground in developing countries makes Family Care Foundation an ideal partner for U.S.-based relief organizations‚ which collect and distribute humanitarian goods such as food‚ medical supplies, etc. Recently we established a partnership with a Texas-based nonprofit organiza­tion whose mission is to collect surplus medical supplies and equipment in the U.S. and distribute these to developing countries. Our first joint effort resulted in 13 tons of medical equipment and supplies (worth over $170,000) being delivered to a host of waiting medical facilities in South America.

292. A summary of the good work that each of FCF's projects have undertaken in their respective countries can be found on our website at www.familycare.org, where each project has a designated web page that is updated regularly. Great strides have been made in using the FCF website this past year to educate the public about our many programs and the people who are served by them. We intend to expand our educational and fundraising efforts via the Internet to take advantage of the instant, widespread, and cost-effective benefits of operating in cyberspace. (End of excerpts from FCF newsletters.)

Television Broadcasting
And Video Marketing

293. (Peter:) Meanwhile, Family Care Foun­dation continues to pursue avenues to get Treasure Attic broadcast and various videos commercially marketed. To quote more excerpts from recent FCF newsletters:

294. (FCF:) Another of FCF's objectives is investing in today's children through character-building materials. To help achieve this goal, agreements were reached with various tele­vision networks to broadcast Treasure Attic, a children's TV series that FCF licensed. Trea­sure Attic is broadcast regularly on three U.S. channels, two in English and one in Spanish.

295. Another video, Countdown to Arma­geddon, a stand–alone 55-minute docu­ment­­ary, continues to sell on the shelves of five major nationwide store chains through­out the States and Canada, as well as via Amazon.com and various other Internet distributors. (End of excerpt from FCF newsletter.)

296. (Peter: ) You'll recall that FCF and the IVM legal team were instrumental in laying the groundwork of legal details necessary to enter the mass marketing world with our ­videos. With the emergence of their grant-writing department, donor-advised funds and other activities, FCF has now narrowed the field of their television and mass-marketing to just North America, since Activated and other Service Centers are now up and running and able to take up the torch on these activities in other areas.

297. Please continue to keep FCF in your prayers, that the Lord will bless their expansion and all the services that they provide.

China Work Continues to Grow!

298. (From Jeff and Rachel Mei:) The China work is up and rolling like never before, and although the stats are meager when compared to those of the rest of our wonderful Family missionaries around the world, nevertheless our faithful and dedicated pioneer families are making major inroads into the lives and hearts of many precious Chinese sheep. At last count, the various teams spread around the country in 20 different cities had already listed over 70 live-out sheep on their TRFs! We've had the privilege of meeting some of these sheep, and these precious new laborers are everything the Lord said about them in the Letter "China's Hour" (ML #3273, GN 877).

299. We now have one full-time live-in disciple whose main job is translating the Words of David. The Chinese Lit-Pic team say he is one of their best translators! God bless him and the precious team who helped to bring him in, and who have been faithfully taking care of him these past few years.

300. This past year the Lord opened up three major new cities, and eight new teams have established new pioneer Homes. Several other laborers‚ both young and old, have joined existing teams wherever possible, and there's excitement in the air when we visit each team and see and hear all the Lord is doing.

301. One outstanding feature of visiting the Homes in China is that everyone is convinced that theirs is the best city and the best place to be in China—and they're very eager and quick to tell you why. As we leave each Home, we're convinced they're right—at least until we get to the next Home!

302. This past year the Lord led us to appoint seven new VS trainees who live in China. Four of them are FGAs and three are SGAs. God bless them for taking on this new anointing. At a recent meeting with these new VSs and some other pillars from the work in China, the Lord led us to divide the existing Homes into four different VS areas‚ so that each VS will not have too big an area to cover, and hopefully by the time you read this news, all the Homes will have been visited by their new VSs and will have been planning and praying about how they can all work together as an area to meet their needs for fellowship, coordinating of mail pick-ups, mini-delegates' meetings, and so on.

303. God bless the Taiwan Homes, who this year have continued to do more than ever to be a strength and support to our Family in China. Here are some of the ways the Homes in Taiwan have helped the work in China:

·The Chinese Lit-Pic team has worked long and hard to produce two feeding follow-up booklets, specifically designed for feeding the Chinese sheep.

·The Chinese studio team has produced three new Chinese DFO follow-up songs for the China Homes to use. They have also won some precious new live–out catacombers who have been singing and helping to produce some of the songs on Always.

·The China Reception Home has received and helped prepare several new teams to go into China. They've been providing classes and information, which have been a great help in preparing the teams to have an easier adjustment once they make it to the field.

·Two of our precious Taiwanese nationals went on very fruitful follow–up visits to China to feed and strengthen some of the Chinese live-outs. Several of the China Homes are limited by the language barrier in communicating deeply with their sheep, so the Lord gave the vision to send some of the Taiwanese nationals in as pastors to strengthen the Chinese church. The few visits that have taken place this past year have borne tremendous fruit in the lives of those they were able to meet.

·The Chinese website was set up this past year, and we've heard that some of the mainland Chinese are already beginning to visit the site. The team working on the website is planning to produce a site specifically designed for the mainland.

·Three major CRO/VS visits were made to most of the Homes in China.

·Our office team has been supplying more and more Family material on CD to the China teams, as they are not able to download from the MO site inside China.

·Our faithful secretaries at the China desk have continued to help the Homes in China with their communications and mailings.

304. All of the above was possible because of the hard-working Service Homes and the rest of the faithful Taiwan Family—the wives, the husbands, the children, the childcare workers, the drivers‚ the support staff, the young people‚ the teachers, and the shepherds. Many of them made important sacrifices to make these ministries possible.

China Already Activated!

305. The teams in China are very concerned about being in line with the latest moves in the New Wine. They want to use the beautiful new Activated tools, and as a result, want to know how they can get "activated" in China. We're praying about this important question, as there are many factors to consider and obstacles to overcome.

306. One exciting fact is that in many ways the China teams are already "activated," because their main ministry is the sheep! They can't go on outreach like Homes in open fields do; they can't provision; they have to go very slow in their witnessing when they first meet someone. As a result, all their time and energy is invested in being with the sheep—having them visit whenever possible and trying to feed them with whatever Word they can. They spend hours with their sheep, as in many cases their flock may be their English class, or the people who work at the same place as they do. Everything they do in their daily lives is observed and taken note of by those around them, and they are very much on stage.

307. The Chinese have a way of dropping by at any time, just like the Word says we can expect in the future. In many cases they come with expectancy and a genuine desire to be fed, so the Family in China has learned to be ready at any time to drop what they're doing and be there for their visitors. They know every opportunity is a precious occasion to bring that sheep closer to the light.

308. Do you have a burden to come to China? The whole Family could easily fit into this country and still have room for more! There are untouched cities of millions of people just waiting to be reached with the Words of David! If you don't mind farming, and know how to prayerfully use a plow, this could be your field. Jesus said in China's Hour, "Truly this is a land where a man shall labor and see the fruit of his labors!" We look forward to hearing from you.

Thriving Work
In the Middle East

309. (Peter:) Here's a peek into the thriving, though often unheard of, work in the Middle East. God bless our dedicated Family members there who have become one with the local people and won their trust, in order to minister to them and give them the message.

310. (By Joan, CRO:) One of the most inspiring victories in our pioneer work in the Middle East over the past year is that we've been able to distribute a lot more of our literature in person or through the mail. Our yearly visits and performances at international festivals, as well as other performances by our local Heart to Heart singing team elsewhere in the region over the past five years, have opened people's hearts and made them receptive to receive the written Word. During the time surrounding each perform­ance, we've been able to distribute ­thousands upon thousands of Reflections and classes. We've also given special prophecy messages to encourage people's hearts‚ especially those who have been through or are going through extremely difficult times. People literally mob those with the lit bags, begging us for something to read.

311. We receive regular heart-touching mail responses from some of the very needy that we have ministered to. Not only do these dear people receive the Word with gladness, but they also spread it around to others. We receive mail responses from people who have never met us, but who have seen us on TV or received a piece of lit from someone they met. Many are asking us if there is anything they can subscribe to, as they cling for dear life to any encouragement they receive.

312. Our goal this coming year is to come up with a series of magazines‚ similar to Activated, suitable for the largely Muslim fields of the Middle East, to fill this desperate need.

313. The songs the Lord has given for specific areas and situations here in the Mideast have touched people deeply. The song "Somebody Cares," especially written for our outreach, has touched many hearts. The song "The Phoenix," written for the Palestinian people, gives a message of hope to people who have nearly lost all hope for peace and a better future, especially during recent months. The lyrics of another song entitled "Christmas in Bethlehem" (written nearly two years ago) couldn't be more fitting this Christmas:

Winter fires were burning bright,

Travelers journeyed in the night.

A husband led his weary wife through
the falling snow‚

To a humble cattle stall, nowhere else to go,

Christmas in Bethlehem, many years ago.

There was born a baby boy,

Mother's heart was filled with joy,

Shepherds heard the angels' voices fill the night with song.

Wise men wondered at a star, with strange celestial glow,

Christmas in Bethlehem, many years ago.

Yet in Bethlehem today,

Children fear to run and play.

Mothers cry and fathers pray for healing
from the pain.

And around the weary world‚ echoes
the refrain,

Christmas in Bethlehem, love once more shall reign.

One day soon the Prince of Love

Will return from skies above,

When the world has had enough of pain
and tears and war.

Then shall songs of joy and praise, ring out from shore to shore,

Christmas in Bethlehem, peace on Earth once more.

314. Many years ago, Dad said that music would be the key to open the doors to these Muslim fields and to the hearts of these ­precious people. This couldn't be truer today. Many people cry as they listen to these songs that were especially written for them.

315. The violence which recently erupted in the region has changed our ministries in certain parts of the Middle East considerably. Where we once performed clown shows and musical shows, we now visit those who have been personally affected by the violence, in homes and sometimes in hospitals. Some have lost their jobs or businesses; others suffered the loss of limbs or have sustained injuries; still others have lost friends and family members. Nearly everyone in the region has been affected in one way or another.

316. If ever people were ready to receive the Lord's Words‚ it is now. A simple verse like "The meek shall inherit the Earth" brings a glimmer of hope to those who are suffering. They cling desperately to any words of comfort and hope we give them. Even in areas not directly involved or affected by the conflict, people receive our prophecy tract‚ "Towards a Brighter Future" (received at Mama's Home), with reverence, respect, and gratitude. Everyone knows that should the violence not be contained, the situation could spill over and affect the entire Middle East. This has brought a more sober spirit to our work and ministries in these lands, as well as a desperation to get out the Lord's message like never before.

317. The recent dramatic changes in the area have also had an impact on our own children‚ young people, and adults. Our love for the lost has been deepened, and we have a greater conviction to stand up for what is right and true. The circumstances have also given us a much greater awareness that we are living in the Time of the End; they've caused us to review Dad's Endtime classes‚ to start memorizing or reviewing some of the key verses on the subject, and most of all, to realize that time is short!

Pioneer Works and Fields!

318. ASCRO—The pioneer works in Vietnam, Burma and Cambodia continue to flourish. Presently we have two Homes in Burma, four Homes in Vietnam, and one in Cambodia. There is quite an extensive mail ministry in Burma, which is very fruitful and a wonderful way to reach out to others. We also have quite a bit more material translated into Burmese and Vietnamese. The team in Cambodia has a very fruitful CTP ministry, and is often one of our area's top distributors!

319. EURCRO—This past year pioneer teams opened Homes in Ethiopia, Benin, and a country in Northern Africa, all of which did not have Homes. Other countries with no permanent Homes, soon to have teams, God willing, are Angola, Cameroon‚ and Togo. Road teams made trips into Angola (to see about opening a permanent Home there), Congo and Sudan. Exploratory trips into eastern Congo (formerly Zaire) and southern Sudan were made to prepare the way for starting a work there by training labor leaders to reach their countries. Key contacts were made and follow-up visits are planned for the near future. There are strong national churches of outside witnessers and members growing in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Mozambique and Zambia‚ and also just starting up in eastern Congo.

320. As of October 2000, there are 574 CM/FM Family members in Africa (303 adults, 16 and up, and 271 kids), living in 56 Homes.

321. This past year Family teams have concentrated on reaping the very receptive field of Kosovo, bringing music and the message to countless desperate people. Bulgaria has also received a renewed witness, as Family teams follow up on the many sheep there.

What's Up in Australia,
New Zealand and Tahiti!

322. (From Jeff, CRO, PACRO:) I had the opportunity to visit Australia this past year, and it was very inspiring to meet many of our dear Family there again after not having visited for around three years. In answer to the Lord's call to move on to more fruitful and receptive fields, many of the brethren have left for the mission field‚ and many more are on their way. As a result, the work there has greatly scaled down over the past few years.

323. The Homes in Sydney have had a very inspiring and fruitful prison ministry, and pretty much the whole city has been involved. (Note: See testimony in upcoming GV.) Many prisoners are getting saved, fed, and followed up on, and one man from South America wants to join the Family when he is released soon!

324. We didn't have a chance to visit the remaining Home in New Zealand, but from what we've heard, they also have a fruitful local work going and have many precious sheep on the line. Because of the fruit the Lord is continuing to give them‚ they're feeling led to stay there and reap the harvest He's giving them.

325. The national team in Tahiti is continuing to bear lots of good fruit, as they've been faithfully feeding and establishing their local church for several years. God bless these teams in New Zealand and Tahiti who have faithfully followed the Lord's specific leadings to stay and reap the harvest He has provided them with, even though they're quite isolated and cut off from seeing other Family members. It sure makes us proud of each of our wonderful, dedicated Family who are so willing to follow the Lord wherever and however He may lead.

Live-Outs, Language,
And New Tools in Japan

326. (From Stephen, VS:) Our CRO/VS Home in Tokyo hosted two live–out meetings this year, one for the Tokyo area and one for the whole country. These meetings have been a real strength to our live-out members‚ and we're planning to have them regularly.

327. In relation to the S2K, the Lord showed us some areas which the Japanese Family needs to make pro­gress in. One of them is learning the language. Many of our second–generation nationals' Japanese level was rather low‚ which was not a good example. This has been a country NWO for many years. Many non-Japanese members were also having a hard time witnessing deeply or relating to Japanese people because they don't speak/understand Japanese sufficiently. So we proposed to make learning the Japanese language a country goal, and the Homes voted for it. Many members took this seriously, and a lot of progress was made this past year.

328. It takes a lot of patience and time to win the Japanese, and you don't see many immediate results. The Lord led us to publish a monthly local testimony pub, as otherwise people don't hear many testimonies from Japan. This, along with the onset of the era of action, brought greater witnessing fervor to many.

329. The Lord also admonished our Family in Japan to find ways to reach Japan. Sponsoring and carrying out CTP projects in developing countries like India and Cambodia (which several families and Homes have done) seems to be one of the keys. [Note: See Grapevine 101, "India Project Is Rolling," for one example of how the Japanese Homes are using their CTP works in other countries to help reach Japan.]

330. We also learned from experience that some of our witnessing tools have to be modified so Japanese people can relate to them better. Our faithful JTC (Japan Tool Committee) members have been praying about this and producing local witnessing tools. This year they produced a music CD (most songs taken from Always, and other more relatable songs added), a 31-day full-color calendar (with a quote on each page taken from Mottos for Success) and a comic tract to distribute when ballooning. Dear Lydia (of Johanne) published her second book of essays and poems regarding her sickness (she has terminal cancer). She made it available for all Homes in Japan to distribute, and the Japanese GP have found her books uplifting, comforting‚ and very relatable. We are also preparing Japanese Activated materials, which will be a real blessing to new converts.

331. Another key to the Japanese people is Christmas. This is one time of the year when they are more open to Christian messages. We have an official website for the Japan Family, and one section is dedicated to Christmas. During the past year we had 158,600 distinct visits (13,200 a month) to our website. In November and December the stats skyrocket, and in the first three weeks of November 2000, we've had almost 35,000 distinct visits!

332. Besides the Christmas section‚ we've been pioneering new things with our website. In Japan there's an Internet service for mobile phones called "i-mode" which is used by nearly 20 million people. We made a special section for the i-mode users a few months ago because they cannot view normal Web pages. We are now printing the URL on our tracts, so that sheep can access our website anywhere, even on the street, using their mobile phone.

Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan,
Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan!

333. (From Magda, CRO, Russia:) As a result of S2K and the Lord's encouragement to get us where He wants us to be, the work in these countries has become more grounded and the Homes have progressed in establishing themselves with a long-term vision. Some have decided to move on to other fields (mainly to Africa), and those who remain are, for the most part, committed to stay and work here for as long as possible.

334. These fields continue to be extremely fertile, and the harvest is plenteous. During the past year, 11 people committed themselves to full-time service in the CM Family! The Lord indicated that the work in our area is entering a new stage, and surprisingly, He said that the greatest work is only beginning! It's easy to see why. There are literally hundreds of people who can be easily organized into National Churches; they're only waiting for shepherds to lead them and show them the way! We can clearly see the Lord's vision for the era of action, as a great follow-up ministry unfolds right before our eyes.

335. Every Home in our area got to make inspiring and miraculous road trips this summer. Some Homes organized training camps for catacombers and live-outs, which resulted in many new labor leaders.

336. The Lord led us to open a new Service Home this year, with its sole purpose being to help the field Homes consolidate, build‚ and feed the National Churches. This Home will provide a solid, long–term office and shepherding base for National Churches, similar to how a Continental Office provides services for CM Homes. Besides translating and sending out regular National Church mailings gleaned from the New Wine as it comes out, the National Church Home will receive, process, and answer National Church reports, and will have a designated team of VSs who will frequently visit the National Churches. Working together with representatives from different field Homes, the National Church Office will help to take care of dozens of National Churches in five countries.

337. This year we finished recording five new Russian Treasure Attics and a feeding audio­tape for National Churches. We're planning to open a new local language audio studio that will make the production of new GP and DFO ma­terial much faster.

338. Opening two legal companies has enabled us to branch out into a new world of mass-producing and mass-marketing GP books. We expect this to be a great success, and although the real fulfillment of this vision is still to be seen, an important foundation has been laid and great steps of progress made.

339. Along with all the other great happenings on our field, we also had four betrothals and 14 babies born. With the increasing number of children and new parents on our field, the Lord led us to hold a series of childcare workshops in different Homes. More workshops are planned for next year.

340. Our area has expanded—now Ukraine is part of our region. Though our whole region encompasses a variety of languages, climates, time zones, etc., almost all 250 million people in this part of the world can speak and read the Russian language. To help us meet the needs of these people, we've created a variety of local language tools‚ including CD cards and kids' pubs.

341. Our local programming department upgraded the InfoStore computer program, which is used by the Lit-Pic for sending out local language CD libraries‚ making it more versatile and user-friendly. Along with many new local language publications, the CD includes all English publications up till June 2000 and Activated promotional material. This CD has proved to be a great blessing in feeding the sheep‚ even if you don't speak the local language.

Meetings and Visitation
In the EE

342. (From Dawn‚ CRO:) This past year we held 11 meetings and camps throughout the EE, and the majority of Homes (50 out of 61) were visited by a VS or CRO team. Following are the meetings/camps/work­shops that were held:

·Youth Camp, Romania

·Moms Meeting, Hungary

·Moms Meeting, Poland/Baltics

·Music Workshop for Young People, Hungary

·Guideline-assessing meeting for sensitive country of Bosnia

·Guideline-assessing meeting for Kosovo

·Catacomb Camp‚ Romania

·Outside Witnessers Camp‚ Bulgaria

·Activated/EE Mail Ministry follow-up meeting, Ukraine

·Activated/EE Mail Ministry follow-up meeting, Hungary

·Activated/EE Mail Ministry follow-up meeting, Romania

NuBeat Program Airs in Africa!

343. (From RadioActive Productions, Uganda:) After doing the groundwork for nearly a year, NuBeat is now being heard in Uganda on one of the largest FM radio stations, CBS (on two different frequencies), Saturday and Sunday mornings at 10:30 A.M. This station reaches all of Kampala and central Uganda. We're also on the air via Voice of Teso on Sundays at 9:30 A.M. This is the main FM station that reaches Eastern Uganda, as well as parts of Sudan and Kenya. Negotiations are now under­way with three more FM stations that broadcast to the north, south and west of Uganda.

344. The first 12 NuBeat radio shows (all on different themes and using many of our inspired FTT songs) have been sent out to various Homes in Africa that have requested them, to try to book on their local radio stations. We're now busy working on the last three of the second set of 12 NuBeat shows.

345. Lord willing, on December 15 we will begin broad­casting a two-hour live morning show on a new FM station, Radio Kampala, the only FM station to reach the whole of Uganda. The show will be on Mondays through Fridays. This will enable us to pour out our music and message in a volume that is impossible on a half-hour weekly show. It will also enable us to have direct contact with the listeners through call-ins and live interviews on the air. We plan to edit the best parts of these shows into syndicated programs that can be used on other stations throughout Africa.

346. We completed one CD of new children's dramas containing: "The Greatest of Them All," "Trudge and Zippy," "Henny Penny," "The Selfish Chief‚" "The Camel's Nose," "The Blind Man and the Elephant," and finally "The Tailor's Secret." A second CD of children's dramas is in production. These dramas are for inclusion on "Kids World‚" which is to begin production early in 2001. We're also counseling about the best ways to make these new dramas available for children in the Family.

347. The African Video Ministry sent out their first video CD to the Homes in Africa. They also created an infomercial on some of the work in Africa for FCF, to be aired in the U.S., as well as a one-minute infomercial of our work to be aired in Africa.

It's Only the Beginning!

348. (Peter:) There you have it! And that's just a part of the Family's accomplishments over the past year. You've heard the news in 24 Grapevines, and even that is only a fraction of what we all accomplished this year. What a year! And what an even better year this coming one is going to be, by God's grace! He's promised wonderful things, and we're sure to see tremendous growth, expansion of the Family, and big strides of progress in our follow-up and Activated goals.

349. Are you on board with Activated? Are you feeding your sheep? Are you following the latest, hot-off-the-griddle counsel and direction in the New Wine? If so, you can be assured that this coming year will be exciting, fruitful‚ challenging, fulfilling, motivating, faith-stretching, full of activity, and over­flowing with blessings! Let's enter our second year in the era of action with an even greater determination to reach the lost, win souls, spread the message, and be the on-fire Family that the Lord expects of us!

350. Are you Activated? If not‚ get Activated today! Not only is Activated the commission the Lord has given us‚ but it will also revolutionize and unite your Home. It's not only the solution for follow-up and deeper feeding of your sheep and friends, but it's also the solution to many of your Home's needs and problems. Here's a reaction from a VS in the EE on this topic:

351. (From EE VS:) The Activated program has been a lifesaver for the Family as a whole. It's been helping to get all FGAs, SGAs, teens‚ etc., back on board with one vision—the reason that we're here! It is so simple to do and has caused no small stir in our area. Even though we have quite a challenge to get all the countries Activated in their language, the fact that it's such a powerful weapon to help people to come closer to the Lord, is easy to use, and is a definite "cool" Family trend, has been a tremendous blessing. I also have seen it to be a solution in helping the Homes have greater unity between themselves, as all are learning and growing in the Activated world. (End of reaction from EE VS.)

352. Try it! You'll love it! The Lord is expecting it of you, and as you obey, He's promised to pour out His blessings like never before! Prove Him! He won't let you down.

353. To end with, here's a vision-increasing word from our Husband and Guide about the year ahead:

354. (Jesus speaking:) It's only the beginning! It's only the beginning! It's the beginning of a wonderful new wave of worldwide witnessing and follow-up. The world is going to rock with the Activated magazines, booklets, and tools! As you obey‚ step out, and promote Activated, I will bring the increase! I will bring in the sheep. I will bring in the labor leaders. I will bring in the disciples. You'll soon be bursting at the seams with converts to teach and train. You'll be thanking and praising Me from morning to night for My abundant supply, provision‚ protection, and foresight in directing you in this Activated path. It's going to be a year of great change—as every aspect of your life and ministry changes over to the Activated vision, to feeding the sheep, and getting out the mess­age while there's still time!

355. There's so much more to the era of action than what you've seen so far! You've only touched the surface. You've barely dipped your toes in the water! I have countless victories and blessings stacked up for you as you step out to obey and do your best for Me this year. Your prayers and putting feet to your prayers will make this the best year you've ever known—the most fruitful and the most blessing-filled!

356. Activate the world around you with My Words, love, and message of salvation, and I'll activate the era of action in full‚ and activate all the blessings that you've been seeking! It's going to be a wonderful year! (End of message from Jesus)

Let's do it, shall we? Happy New Year!

Love, Peter