KEYWORDS: family, world, god, new, word

Eleven Years of Family History

David Berg

For the IRFs & All the Family!—May 1979 DFO791

1. DEAR CHILDREN, FAMILY, FRIENDS & FOES AROUND THE WORLD: Praise the Lord! Thank You, Jesus! Hallelujah! Greetings in Jesus' Name, amen. Well, here we are, about the 1st of May, 1979, with four months of our 12th year already gone by & just beginning & entering into one of our greatest ministries yet! PG! Hallelujah!:

2. THE WORLDWIDE MAILING MINISTRY TO OUR NEW IRF HOMES THROUGHOUT THE WORLD! Greetings & Welcome to the Family of Love!—Once again for some of you & for the first time for many! Since the beginning of our new IRF Family in only January of this year, our Worldwide Mail Ministry is absolutely booming at the rate of about 100 new IRF Homes per month with about 300 new members per month!

3. SO THAT BY THIS TIME‚ WE SHOULD HAVE ABOUT 400 NEW IRF HOMES WITH OVER 1‚000 NEW IRF MEMBERS! PG!—Which is pushing our total population again over the 6,000 mark with well over 1,000 Homes in nearly 100 countries around the world—the most we have ever had in our entire history! Hallelujah! And we are now composed of over 100 different nationalities from over 100 different countries throughout the World!

4. ABOUT 2, 000 OF US ARE MATED & we have nearly 2,000 children, so we must also have nearly 2,000 single men & women by this time. So it is another Family explosion in the new 1979 NRS Revolution to Nationalise, Reorganise & be Security-Wise! Hallelujah! TYJ! PTL! Amen, amen!

5. —AND WE ARE REALLY WITNESSING with a third-of-a-billion pieces of Gospel literature already distributed, & a witness to over 20 billion people, an average of about seven times to everybody on Earth, & we have won over 3 million converts! Hallelujah! TYJ! PTL! With Europe leading the field in total ratings, the Americas are next, followed closely by Asia, Africa & the Pacific.

6. EUROPE SEEMS TO BE DOING BEST ON LIT, NEW CONVERTS & NEW DISCIPLES‚ while the Americans are doing best on New Converts & New Homes & very well on New Disciples‚ while Asia & Africa are absolutely tops on New Members & New Homes, & the Pacific is doing great on New Converts & New Homes. God bless you all! With the new IRF Boom these stats should skyrocket!

7. WE'VE ONLY ONE SAD STAT, & THAT'S YOUR LITNESSING, which has fallen off drastically since the RNR, your Homegoing & the intense persecution which all smaller religious groups are now suffering due to the anti–sects campaign inspired by Jonestown. But we expect your litnessing to improve as you get NRSedNationalised, Reorganised & Security–Wise & resettled in your New Homes & fields of labour. Amen!

8. DON'T NEGLECT THE WORD—the preaching of the Gospel in all the World to every creature! Our Family was built on the Word & our faithfulness in proclaiming it, & we have distributed more literature per adult than any church I know of. So though your Homegoing & this recent persecution has driven you off some streets, don't give it up completely.

9. THERE ARE STILL PLENTY OF PLACES WHERE YOU CAN LITNESS freely throughout the world. In fact, Europe is still leading the world in litnessing, with the Americas next & the Pacific next. But Asia & Africa have been very low on this, perhaps due to the language difficulties of translating & printing in so many different languages.

10. YOUR INDIVIDUAL WORLD LIT AVERAGE HAS SLIPPED from over 1,000 pieces per adult per month to half that. So you must remember the number of warnings that God has given us about this, beginning with the "Birthday Warning" of 1973‚ when He told us that the more we publish the Glad Tidings, the more He would bless us & prosper us & increase us in many ways. Therefore, since your decline in litnessing‚ we have suffered other declines as well, particularly financially.

11. OUR WORLD INCOME IS OFF OVER 25% THIS YEAR! this is sad, because it means that we have had to cut down many of our World Services & reduce our publications & narrow our literature diet to the most basic essentials, so that we have been unable to feed the sheep as much as we should, which means that the millions that you were feeding are now starving!

12. WHO IS TO BLAME?-ARE YOU?—It cannot be altogether the reorganisation, the Homegoing & the persecution. I fear that many of you are using these as an excuse for letting down on your litnessing & your feeding the Word to the World. But I warn you, as the Word says, that "He that withholdeth, it tendeth to poverty, but he that scattereth abroad, it increaseth." (Pro.11:24)

13. WHICH ARE YOU DOING? WITHHOLDING?—OR SCATTERING! "With what measure ye mete it unto other men's bosoms, it shall also be meted unto you." (Mt.7:2.) Have you been selfish & fearful or neglectful or lazy, & because you have found other ways of surviving‚ you think litnessing is not necessary anymore?—If so, you have a sad surprise coming!:

14. IF YOU ARE NOT FAITHFUL IN POURING OUT THE WATER OF THE WORD, GOD CAN DRY UP ALL THE SPRINGS of your sustenance & starve you as you are starving others! You'd better get with it & get back on it or you may soon be off it altogether! You cannot reap unless you sow, "For whatsoever a man soweth‚ that shall he also reap", & "With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again." (Ga.6:7; Mt.7:2.)

15. SO LET'S GO BACK TO THE STREETS & DOOR-TO-DOOR or wherever we can, & get out the Word again like you used to, so God can bless you again like He used to, or you are going to be sorry!—And the whole World will be sorry, because you were making them happy with His Words of Love & Wisdom throughout the World.

16. —AND IT'S NOT THAT THE WORLD IS GIVING YOU ANY LESS FOR YOUR LIT, as their donations per piece are higher than at any time in our history! But you are simply not giving them as many pieces. But you had better look out! Don't think you can continue yourself to be fattened on the Word while you are starving the World! For God warned us long ago that if you withhold from them, He will withhold from you—in every way—including the Word!

17. IF YOU WANT ME TO KEEP GETTING IT & GIVING IT TO YOU, you had surely better be getting it out & giving it to others. A river with no outlet becomes a Dead Sea, & if you just keep drinking it in & not giving it out, you are going to stagnate dry up & the Devil will blow you away!

18. SO LET'S GET BACK ON THE BATTLE FRONT, KIDS! Let's get out there on the barricades & start fighting again! Don't give up the ship! It hasn't sunk yet! Don't give up the battlefield & surrender to the Devil just because he said "Boo!" Keep on fighting & you can't help but win, for God will bless you for it & give you a glorious victory! Hallelujah!

19. IT'S TRUE, IT COSTS SOMETHING in self sacrifice & personal effort in giving, as well as persecution & actual suffering. But Jesus Himself promised you that if you would suffer with Him you should also reign with Him. (2Ti.2:12.) Are you going to reign now a little while & suffer a lot later?—Or are you going to suffer a little now & reign forever?

20. ARE YOU STILL DYING DAILY?—Or have you decided just to settle down safely & earn a living yearly? If so, you'll be sorry, for you will reap what you sow—& if you don't sow, you won't reap! That's one of God's Laws as sure as the Law of Gravity: What goes up must come down‚ if you don't stay up there & in there fighting! May God bless & keep you & help you to continue to be a blessing with the Word to the World! Amen!

21. WELL, PRAISE THE LORD! GBY! I didn't intend to begin this report with a sermon‚ but I guess you needed it, & if you can't take that sermon you might as well forget the rest of it! Because that's what we're here for: To give the Words that Work to the World—The Wonder Working Words of the Lord! PTL! PG!

22. SO YOU HAD BETTER GET BUSY & start giving it out again, or God's apt to dry up the spring that you have been getting it from—& that means me!—Whenever throughout history His people stopped listening & stopped preaching, God stopped talking & leading! So if you want me to continue to feed you‚ if you want God to continue to give it to me to pass on to you‚ you had better keep feeding the sheep & passing it on to others, or God will dry up the spring & send a famine for the Word of God! (Amos 8:11.)

23. SO LET'S GET BUSY IF YOU WANT TO KEEP HEARING FROM THE LORD! For what's the use of hearing if you are not doing? He said, "Be ye doers of the Word & not hearers only" (Ja.1:22)‚ & He gives a sad illustration of the difference between the man who builds his house upon the Rock of the Word‚ Christ Jesus, & that can stand the storm, & the one who builds his house on the sand of disobedience, & "Great was the fall thereof"! (Mt.7:24-27.) Some of you old bottles had better watch out!—These new IRFs are going to steal your crown! (IRFs = Individual Reporters.)

24. WELL, PRAISE THE LORD! THANK GOD FOR THE NEW BOTTLES!—All you newcomers who are just now joining, as well as all you old–timers who are rejoining under the IRF! We have had a tremendously favourable response from you throughout the world, & you seem to be falling all over each other trying to climb back on the bandwagon! Hallelujah!-And we are still rolling‚ TG!

25. HOWEVER, SOME OF YOU HAVE BEEN WONDERING WHAT HAS HAPPENED since last you fell off, or before you have now climbed on, & you have been begging to know what the Family's been doing since last you heard. Some of you are even as far behind as TSC, clear back in 1970! (Our first Texas Ranch Home.)

26. I DON'T KNOW WHERE YOU HAVE BEEN, but you must not have been reading the papers or the magazines or the books that have been written about us, or you must not have a radio or a TV, because we have sure been on them aplenty! You must have been on a South Sea Island or the North Pole not to have heard about us for that long!—And even there you couldn't have escaped the news by radio & literature, because we have really been rolling along since some of you say you last heard!

27. ANYHOW, BECAUSE YOU ASKED US & for your benefit, we're going to give you a little brief rundown on our Family history since you last saw us or heard about us. To make sure that we don't leave anybody out, we are going to start from the beginning, way back in 1968, the Year of the Jesus Revolution!—Or the Birth of the Revolution for Jesus!—When the Family first began!—Or that is, when some of you first joined us!

28. MY FAMILY BEGAN GENERATIONS AGO with my German forefathers who left Stuttgart, Germany, because of persecution when they became Christians. It looks like some of their descendants today are still having to leave some of the cities of Germany for the same reasons!

29. ANYHOW, MY FOREFATHERS WENT TO AMERICA ON A SAILBOAT IN 1745 & began to generate farmers & teachers & preachers as well as mothers & lots of children. So we have been preaching the Gospel for hundreds of years, including my Grandfather & his family, & my father & his family, & me & my family, & you & yours! Hallelujah! TYL!

30. ARE YOU STILL PREACHING IT?—Or have you quit just because the going got a little bit tough? Well, let me tell you, we never wouldn't gotten this far if I had quit just when things got a little rough! When things get tough, you've got to fight all the harder! But if you do, you'll win, & get higher victories! WHEN GOING'S TOUGH‚ THE TOUGH GET GOING!

THE FAMILY THE PAST 11 YEARS!:

31. BUT ANYWAY, as a brief resumé

Of the Family the past 11 years,

I only say the Gospel does pay

As His coming evermore nears!

32. IN THE YEAR '69, man, that was the time

Of the Cavalcade of the Prophets!

We got on the road & carried a load

And they couldn't get us to come off it!

33. NOW IN 1970 came Letters aplenty

As the birth of MO Missives began!

We pioneered Europe‚ explored the Mideast

And wrote'm as fast as we can!

34. IN '71 with nary a gun

We colonised more & more!

As we went here & there, & everywhere

You'd find us from shore to shore!

35. BUT 'TWAS '72 when we crossed the blue

And we made our "Great Escape!"

For in our own Land they hated our Band,

So we left'm all agape!

36. IN '73 both you & me

'Gan a Worldwide Lit Revolution!

It was then we found to our own dumbfound

They'd pay for my pen's convolutions!

37. THEN IN '74 they begged for more

As we went to Tenerife!

FF Pioneers created some sneers

But it made our tree more leafy!

38. IN '75 we were still alive

So we made a New Revolution!

I said "Scats!" & you upped the stats

As you went of your own volution.

39. IN '76 we made some sick

With our FF Revelations!

But some believed & some received

And climbed to higher elevations!

40. IN '77 we headed for Heaven

With the Family of Love's Explosion!

But as some of you know, there was Hell below

As they reeled from our sex exposin'!

41. IN '78 it came too late—

The purge of the RNR!

We fired three hundred, as Old MO thundered

And some thought he'd gone too far!

42. NOW IN '79 for you I pine

To obey the NRS!

As we Nationalise & Reorganise

And Security-wise do our best!

43. SO WILL 1980 still be weighty

As our 13th year goes by?

If you'll be faithful,

I'll give you a plateful

Of these Letters that make them fly!

44. SO THERE YOU ARE, if you follow our star—

Our record in one nutshell!

You'll still do better if you follow the Letter—

Right outta the Old Nut's shell!

45. YES, I'M A BIT NUTTY but I'm not so rutty

If you like old nuts like me.

Get outta your shell & go like Hell

Till we've told it from sea to sea!

46. THERE FOR YOUR SHELF from the Old Nut himself,

It just popped out that way!

I don't know why, but it makes you sigh

'Cause you like the things that I say!

47. MAYBE YOU'LL REMEMBER come next September

This funny little poem of mine‚

As you endeavour in all kinds of weather

To get this old World in line!

48. SO SET YOUR SAILS to get more details

For funny navigation!

Just drop me a line & I'll send you mine

To keep you in agitation!

49. BUT NOW I MUST STOP or this Letter will pop

As I write you my heart's gyrations.

Revolution, you know‚ is around-you–go

As you tell it to all the Nations!

50. SO KEEP REVOLUTIN' & rootin' & tootin'

And don't be afraid of the blast!

Just keep on agoin' & keep on asowin'

'Til Jesus has come at last!!

51. I CAN'T SEEM TO STOP, but here I must lop

If you're goin' to get goin' again.

I just hope the last is as good as the past

And we keep on agoin' till the End!

52. HALLELUJAH! Praise Jesus!

Are you still w/us? Welcome to our next evolution!

We got some changes guaranteed to derange us

In this here new Family Revolution!:

53. SOME IRF'S & a few of the rest

Ask why U don't get DO Letters (Disciple Only)

Well, I'm sorry, Dear Sir, but those we reserve

For disciples who pay for the betters!

54. FOR AN IRF we'll give you our best

That $10 a month will cover.

If you want the rest & all that is left

You'll have to give more & above'r!

55. SO'F YOU WANT MO'MO, fork over the dough!—

DO's go to ten-percenters!

For all those who tithe all of their jive

We consider the hundred–percenters!

56. WHETHER CATACOMB or live-in Home

You are all now full-fledged Members!

But those who give so we can live

Will get the hottest embers!

57. FOR WHERE YOUR HEART IS there your treasure 'tis

And you'll give as much as you can!

It's DOs to tithers, DFOs to the misers

You can choose your part of the Clan!

58. WHETHER FULLTIME HOME or alone you roam

If you're giving the best that you can,

We'll send you DOs & God only knows

What else'll come outta the can!

59. BUT FOR ONLY $10, you shouldn't make hollers

If you only get DFOs.

What can we give you if we don't even know you

Or whether you're Friends or Foes?

60. BUT FOR THOSE WHO GIVE MORE that $10 to store:

Of total income ten percent:

Twenty dollars or more, then you can be sure

That DOs to you will be sent.

61. IF FROM YOUR TREASURE you give without measure

Then we're sure where your heart is at.

If back in the System or out of your system—

And you can be sure of that!

62. IF YOU WORK 9 t' 5, it'll keep you alive,

Whether preaching or making tents.

Whether Live-in Home or a dear Catacomb

Your giving shows your real intents.

63. SO FROM THE NOW ON old classes are gone—

You're all Family Members to me!

How much you give tells where you live

And how much you love the Family!

64. IF YOU WANNA KNOW ALL when comes mail call

And you want to get those DOs!

You'll have to give just like you live

From the top of your head to your toes!

65. SO AFTER KISSIN' copies you're missin'

Please don't blame it on me!

I'll do my best that you get the rest

If you give ten-percent A to z!

66. SO THAT'S THE DIVISION by our decision

Between DFOs & DOs.

If you live the Gospel like the Apostle

It's you giving that really shows.

67. SO A HOME IS A HOME & a Member's a Member

And you'll all get the DFOs.

Whether blue or white collar or you lit for a dollar,

Only tithers will get the DOs.

68. SO'F TEN'S ALL YOU CAN we'll send all we can

But it'll have to be DFOs.

But if you give 10% to you will be sent

All the Letters & all the DO's.

69. SO'F YOU UNDERSTAND as clear as I can

We love you all, God knows!

If you give 10% or only ten is sent

It's DO or DFOs.

70. WE HOPE YOU SEE what we're tellin' thee:

Whether you're giving all or just ten,

We don't think it's right to those in the fight

When you give a lot less that them!

71. WHATEVER INCOME we hope you'll send some

Whether ten or ten-percent.

Or even if less & you're givin' your best

To you Letters will be sent.

72. SO LIVE-IN OR LIVE–OUT now please don't pout—

All have some kind of Home!

So please remember you're a Family Member

Wherever you may roam!

73. DF OR DO, please dig up the dough!

And to you Letters will be sent!

DFOs from my pen to those who give ten,

Or DOs for your ten-percent!

74. I HOPE YOU'VE GOT IT‚ & how we allot it,

DOs or DFOs.

To those who've got it that's how we plot it,

Disciples or Friends or Foes!

75. SO IF YOU GIVE 10 but for more you yen

All the secrets that are in the DOs

Please stretch your 10 to a percentage of 10

Of all your income that goes.

76. OR IF YOU WISH to catch more fish

And for Missions you give ten percent,

You can be sure we'll send you more:

All the Letters to you will be sent!

77. SO THANK YOU A MILLION, GBY a billion!—

And you can be sure that He will!

Give a trillion & He'll give you a zillion

If you can swallow this pill!

78. SO NOW WE WILL SEE if your heart's still w/me

And you still love us, my friend.

Whether 10% free or ten dollar fee

Don't kick up a fuss without end!

79. I HOPE YOU LISTEN with no Letters missin'

To all we have to say.

I only hope you get all the dope

And we'll all work together each day.

80. GOD BLESS, KEEP YOU ALL a blessing to all!

And make you a blessing alway!

It goes without saying for you we're praying

And loving you every day!

81. THINK YOU'D DO BETTER W/ a business Newsletter?

—It's sure that you'd have to pay!:

They'll charge U $10 for each of their hollers!

Not like ours—almost one everyday! (So whadaya say?)