By PeterCM 3224 12/98

Dear Family,

1. God bless you all! Mama and I love you very much, and we're so proud of you. Thank you for your labors of love and for your diligent service to the Lord. Thank you for pressing on with us to the prize of the high calling of God in this new and wonderful day!

2. As we've come through yet another tremendously fruitful year, Mama and I have taken some time to look over the progress, victories and accomplishments of 1998, which we'll cover in this GN. It's been very inspiring to see all that the Lord has done through you, dear Family. Not only have we continued to revolute and change as we receive the New Wine that the Lord has been so abundantly pouring out, but we have made tremendous progress on a number of fronts in our continuing effort to reach the world for Jesus. There have also been a significant number of pioneer efforts and new ventures we've undertaken this past year, which I'll explain in greater detail further on. But first I'd like to share with you an inspiring message from our wonderful Husband‚ in which He talks about the past year and touches on what the coming year holds.

Congratulations from Jesus!

3. (Jesus speaking:) My dear Family, con­gratulations! You might wonder, "Congratulations for what?" I give you My congratulations for making it through 1998. That was quite an accomplishment! I know that there were many changes that came your way‚ and there were many decisions that each of you personally had to make in order to remain on board and part of My chosen, called-out Endtime Family. Thank you for making the right choices.

4. 1998 was a good year, a fruitful year, a prosperous year. I kept you and protected you and provided for you. A tremendous amount of My message went forth to the world, and new avenues of witnessing and preaching the ­Gospel were opened. I opened mighty doors through the media to proclaim the message and to spread the good news of My salvation and the good tidings of My children. New fields and continents were pioneered and invaded with the Words which I have poured forth. New tools were created for the public, and new materials for your children. Much internal progress was made in the Family—much streamlining‚ greater organization, more shepherding and direction, and thus there was more fruit borne.

5. But despite all the victories and the peace and safety that I gave you, I know that there was much personal sacrificing on each of your parts. There were many hidden struggles and battles, and many difficult choices. 1998 was a year of determining your own faith‚ of stretching yourself to receive the New Wine, and of remaining open to whatever I would pour out. I poured out My New Wine in great abundance upon you‚ as fresh waters give drink to the parched and thirsty souls. Yet in return‚ each of you had to give Me greater commitment and dedication. Each of you had to choose to forsake the weights and sins that were holding you down. Each of you had to be willing to allow the light to shine in your heart and expose that which was not pleasing in My sight. Each of you had to determine to change and be washed clean with the Word.

6. I have seen the depth of your sacrifices and commitments to change, and commend each of you for your faith and trust. You have put your hand in Mine, and now you need not worry, for I will guide you through. Just as I have kept you safe and sound throughout the past year, even so will I lead you through the next year—1999.

7. To those of you who have passed through deep waters or endured hot fires of testing ­during 1998, I say to you, don't worry or fret for what this new year holds. I will not give you more than you are able to bear. If you have truly committed your life and heart and thoughts to Me, I will lead you in a fruitful and safe path. I will hold you in My hands. Know that the foundation of yieldedness, faith and trust, desire to love Me intimately, faithfulness to hear My voice in prophecy, and prayer and praise, will keep your house steadfast. You will not be blown about or buffeted by raging winds, for your foundation is solid. This is why I have pled with you to take these things into your heart and to use them to build your foundation‚ for I know that they will keep you solid, steadfast, and immovable in the year to come.

8. If you have embraced these new weapons, then you need not worry or fear for the year ahead. You have a strong ballast that will keep you and hold on to you—Me. And with this foundation laid, I will be able to perform many mighty works. The house of My Family will be strong and steady, and I will call many children of the world to come and see. I will call them to visit you and to see your good works, that you may minister to them and teach them of My truth and of My ways. I will set your light upon a hill that all may see it, and that through your good testimony and sample you may glorify Me.

9. In the year to come, I will multiply your efforts. I will bless and empower those who are launching forth and pioneering as they seek Me. Though I may lead you in unconventional ­methods of preaching the Gospel, or ones which you would not have thought to try yourself, I will bless and touch the works of your hands with My Spirit, and that which you do will flourish before you.

10. 1999 will be a year of fruit and souls won! My children will be strengthened‚ and I will call upon the young ones to stand up for Me. I will call them to witness and be a sample of the good training and Word that you have poured into them these many years. Each one, whether old or young, will be called upon to do their part this year. Not one is unimportant. All are needed to bring to fruition My great plan—My plan for the year of 1999!

11. So seek Me diligently at every turn, at every crossing, at every opportunity. I will lead and guide you. Just as I will lead and guide My Queen Maria and My King Peter as to what direction I would have My Family go in, so will I guide each of you in your individual Homes. I will lead you day by day, step by step, moment by moment, if you will just turn your eyes ­toward Me and listen. This is the secret to fulfilling My plan for 1999. Touch base with Me, so that I can give you the plan. I love you, My precious, faithful children. (End of message from Jesus)

12. (Peter:) Amen! Mama and I are also very thankful for the individual choices that you have made over the past year—choices that contributed in large part to the very fruitful and productive year that we had. Thank you for putting your will on the Lord's side, and for obeying and implementing the New Wine that the Lord has poured out.

13. Since the Lord began His message by highlighting the fact that your willingness to receive the New Wine played a big part in the success of 1998 and its many victories, let's begin our review of the last year (December 1997 through November of 1998) by taking a look at the Word that the Lord has given, and how it has changed and shaped the Family this past year.

GN Output and Review

14. There were 64 GNs pubbed this year, totaling 1,192 pages. That's a 39% increase over 1997 in the number of GNs you received. That's more than one GN per week, with an average size of 18.6 pages‚ roughly categorized as follows:

— 16 GNs explaining the "Law of Love" series and covering such related topics as marriage, jealousy, loneliness and relation­ships.

— 11 GNs on various topics relating to our spiritual lives and raising the Family standard (including "The Spiritual Health Revolution," "Dump the Dirty Language," "Eat Right," "Stop the Gossip Now," and "The Year of the Bottom Line!").

— 9 Feast '98 GNs on the topics of unity, overcoming the generation gap‚ yieldedness‚ and the goals for 1998.

— 6 GNs on our children's education, training, and keeping our teens (including "The How-tos of Home Education" and "Tapping in Together").

— 4 "World Currents" issues.

— 3 GNs on holding on and the benefits of the Family ("Hold on to Your Crown!" and "The Benefits of the Family!").

— 3 New Year's issues ("The Weakness Revolution!—How You can Make It!").

— 2 GNs on prayer ("Freedom Through United Prayer!" and "When You Pray, Things Happen!").

— 2 GNs relating to being a missionary and heading out to fertile fields ("Trash Your Trinkets and Head for the Hills!" and "Be a Missionary for Me!").

— 2 GNs reporting Family progress ("1998 Midyear News and Progress!" and "Victory Review '97!").

— GNs on healing ("The How-tos of Healing!"), bitterness ("How to Recognize and Get Rid of Bitterness!"), the Charter ("Charter Responsi­bilities!") and others.

Law of Love Study Month

15. The most monumental portion of the New Wine this year was the GN series "Living the Lord's Law of Love." Receiving all this counsel, making sure it covered every aspect of the Law of Love and putting it together for you took a tremendous amount of time and work‚ but it was well worth it. It also required much prayer‚ counsel, and time spent seeking the Lord further for clarifications and answers. However, the new guidelines and tremendous counsel that this series of 11 GNs contain has already caused some great changes within our Family.

16. We've received numerous encouraging reports and reactions from many of you to this series. We've been very thankful to hear how well the reading of these GNs went in your Homes, and that for the most part, you've been very thankful and inspired with the counsel that the Lord has given. Despite the fact that there were many details and technical points involved, it seems that everyone sees the need to have these guidelines implemented, and you're thankful for the Lord's abundant and detailed instructions.

17. As was explained in the "Law of Love" GNs themselves, we know that "putting skin" on this counsel and actually applying and imple­menting it in your Home will not be altogether easy. It will require sacrifice and yieldedness, and there will be battles and testings along the way. You may already be experiencing these tests, or perhaps you're battling jealousy or fear of what the future holds as you step out to live the Law of Love. But don't let the Enemy discourage you or convince you to give up! Please hold on to the Lord and go to Him for counsel and encouragement. He won't fail to see you through!

18. Every day we receive letters from Family members explaining what victories and blessings are being brought into their life‚ marriage or Home through their faith to begin to live the Law of Love and the One Wife vision more fully. People are doing it, and it's working and bearing good fruit! Praise the Lord!

19. We know it's not easy and the Enemy fights such love and unity‚ so you feel there are more battles than victories. But even if you don't see it clearly from your viewpoint, being so close to the battles, Homes are being unified, marriages are being strengthened, folks are learning responsibility, and we're all coming closer to the goal of living the Law of Love fully.

20. Here's a stirring quote from Part 11 of the series, which should encourage us all to continue to love and give and make daily pro­gress in this area:

21. (Jesus speaking:) Living the Law of Love is what needs to be done. It is a great and magnificent solution, a mighty move of My Spirit! It is put forth through power­ful Words of truth and revelation. It is the fruit of the conviction, desperation and yielded­ness of the king and queen, and it will bring forth great fruit.… As My Family lives the Law of Love fully, in every aspect, the totality of My Bride will come at last. They will become My total Bride, My One Wife, prepared and adorned to meet her Bridegroom (End of excerpt of mess­age from Jesus.) (ML #3211:20,21; GN 814.)

22. Here are just a few of the reactions we've received from you:

23. The "Law of Love" series has been a super blessing. We really do appreciate all the time that Mama and Peter put into giving this very clear and complete counsel for living it in our everyday lives. It feels like Millennial prep. Already the spirit in our Home is changing as He draws us all closer to His Word and each other. Some parts of the series are sobering with the responsibility we have in living the Law of Love fully, and other parts are convicting in the areas that we need to change in. It's re­freshing to receive this New Wine.—Indo­nesia.

24. What a masterpiece! It's incredible how the Lord has covered every little detail and every aspect‚ so that no corner will be left without the exposure of the light of His Word. God bless you for all the monumental work that has gone on behind the scenes so that we can enjoy these life-changing Words!—Colombia.

25. The "Law of Love" series this month is a lifesaver for the members of our Home. It's helping to draw us closer together, giving us better communications in these matters of the heart, as well as helping to clarify so many areas that our younger generation were not clear about. It's also bringing out various lessons in everyone's life, as the Lord is highlighting different areas that each person needs to work on and grow in.—Turkey.

26. Thanks for giving us the "Law of Love" manual. Terrific! The details make it easy for each of us to be good. I'm so glad Jesus touched so much on taking responsi­bility; that's so needed, especially since we're all in training for our soon–coming Millen­nial life. There are a lot of problems out here, but that series sure is the cure; even so, it's gonna take miracles to implement, practically. But that's what this business is all about, miracles of new life and new beginnings!—USA.

27. When starting the series I could see the general tone and direction was leading toward encouraging more sharing among one another. My thoughts were immediately: "Yes, I agree people's needs should be met, but what about this pitfall, and that very potential pitfall‚ and that type of scenario and this other need, etc.? Maybe Mama and Peter didn't think of those aspects." I was thinking of writing in right away to bring them to your attention so you would have time to consider them and possibly address those points later in the series.

28. But then I thought: "Okay‚ I'll wait a little and see what is addressed in the following parts of the series." Well, lo and behold! By the time I finished reading Parts 1 to 4, every one of my concerns and potential pitfalls were addressed and taken care of.

29. Thank you for following the Lord so closely, for doing such a thorough job and addressing the situation so clearly and specifically so there is little room for ­errors being made out of ignorance. It puts loving sharing in a clear perspective and outlook so there is no misunderstanding.—Japan.

Other Family Publications

30. In addition to the increased flow of GNs, you also received many other pubs, including: 23 Grapevines, 13 Zines, 12 FSMs, 11 ENDs, 25 FARs, 10 International Prayer Lists, 10 Reflections, 19 LNFs and notices, 2 CLTPs, and 4 other pubs, among which was the first Zine poster, of which more are planned.

31. On the Heaven's Library front, the team reports having received 2,237 pages of spirit stories (222 individual stories) in 1998, from both the field and WS members. The field contributed 74% of the incoming Heaven's Library ­stories, totaling 1,648 pages, while WS contributed 26%, totaling 589 pages. The amount of illustrations used in Heaven's Library mags have also increased, from 157 in 1997 to 245 in 1998. 29 mags were sent out this past year, totaling 556 pages, compared to 21 the year before.

Increased Children's Material

32. I'm sure you've all noticed the increase in pubs that our wonderful Family Care staff has been putting out. God bless them, they've been working hard to get out the current MLs for the children‚ along with a host of other pubs and goodies. In 1997, you received 726 pages of children's pubs. In 1998, you received 874 pages—a 20% increase. Praise the Lord!

33. You received 23 HTKs in 1998, totaling 316 pages, as compared to the 14 HTKs, totaling 176 pages, that went out in 1997. That's an 80% increase in the number of pages out! God bless our artists Jerry, Zeb‚ Jacques Elan and Rain (SGA), who devote their full time to drawing HTKs, MLKs, and lots of other pictures for children and adults alike!

34. There were 20 MLKs (188 pages) sent out in 1998, as compared to the 23 MLKs (202 pages) sent out in 1997. That's a 7% drop in MLK output. However, there are other FC pubs, such as the new Endtime Power mags that also contain Grandpa quotes and other Word which you are now also receiving.

35. Our Kidz Biz team has really gotten off the ground this past year, putting out 21 issues (92 pages). That's a more than tenfold increase over last year—the fruit of training one of our JETT helpers in pubs work. Praise the Lord!

36. You also received 3 Endtime Power mags (47 pages), 2 Kidz mags (49 pages), along with 8 MLK and HTK posters, 1 Activity Book‚ 5 Games‚ 3 sets of Coloring Pages, 1 set of Activity Pages, and 1 EDX.

37. What's presently in the works for our children? Besides the regular HTKs, MLKs, Endtime Power mags, Kidz mags, and Kidz Biz, FC is also working on:

—A new Endtime Game and more Memo Book Games.

—Reprinting the Techi Book.

—Updating the Word Curriculum.

—And more surprises!

38. Please continue to keep our Family Care team in your prayers as they put together these powerful pubs to feed our precious children.

New Mags and Books!

39. Two new pubs were born last year—the END and linkUP! We've already gotten rave reviews on these from a number of you, who are glad to have up-to-date information and the Lord and Dad's views on current news, as well as another outlet to receive more stories and mess­ages from the Heavenly realm. We're also begin­ning to receive a number of potential linkUP articles from many of you who are opening your channel to the host of departed spirits eager to give their stories and messages. Keep'm ­coming!

40. Thanks again to all of you who have continued to send in your Heaven's Library stories. At the beginning of 1998, our Heaven's Library team commented that they had so many stories in reserve that they would never be able to get them all out. In discussing how we could get out more of these stories for our children and young people, the Lord inspired us to put out paperback books of the longer Heaven's Library stories (each one being 200 pages or more in length), the first two of which you should have already received. We hope to be able to send out these paperback books at a rate of one a month for as long as we have enough stories to fill them. Now that we have a greater capacity to get these stories out, please continue to send them in.

41. Please pray for our Heaven's Library team‚ as putting out paperback books has greatly increased their workload. They are presently working on Heaven's Library books 8-12. They used to put out approximately 300 pages every six months; now they put out well over 1,000 pages every six months! Seven of these books were completed in 1998‚ equaling 780 (GN-size) pages of text. That's almost double the amount of text pages sent out in the Heaven's Library mags in 1998!

42. In addition to the Heaven's Library books which you have begun receiving, you will also receive another seven books during the next few months. These are: Daily Bread 12, Lifelines 23 and 24, the new revised Charter, Word Topics, and Rhymes from Our Times (poetry book). Lifelines 25 will also be coming out later this year.

Revised Charter to Press

43. After much work and prayer, Matthew and Francis and the CROs finished the new revised Charter, which includes all amendments since the first printing in January 1995. It is now reprinted in A5 size on Bible paper with a sturdy vinyl cover‚ thanks to our faithful book printing team, and is being shipped to you. You should be receiving it during the first few months of 1999.

44. The Charter has been the subject of a great deal of prayerful deliberation, resulting in numerous additions and changes—nearly all based on suggestions from you on the field. We believe these additions and changes will answer and clarify a lot of Charter questions and issues and make your service for the Lord easier. Some of the major changes were explained in the Letter "Charter Responsibilities" (ML #3197‚ GN 803), and they'll be listed in the Amendments LNF that you'll be receiving with the Charter. However, because many small changes have also been made, we suggest you read through it again bit by bit and refer to it often so you'll be savvy concerning all your rights and responsibilities‚ both new and old. In the new version‚ an "N" symbol was placed in the margin next to paragraphs that contain some change or rewording, for your easy reference.

Creation of New GP Tools

45. During Summit 1998, the Lord emphasized the need to create a WS-sponsored follow-up mail ministry to help feed the multitude of souls that the Family leads to the Lord each year. For the last several months, WS, the CROs‚ and others, have been working towards this goal. We are very excited about the potential of this program. Though it involves a tremendous amount of work and many details to get it set up‚ we believe it will be well worth the investment of time, energy and finances. As we get closer to the program's completion, we will explain the details in full in a GN. Please keep the work on it in your prayers, as there really is a lot to do.

46. One outgrowth of this program will be a number of new GP pubs that will be available to you for distribution or follow-up. By the middle of 1999, God willing, the following books will be available in English, Spanish, and Portuguese.

ØThe GP Daily Might, slightly revised, with updated art.

ØWord Basics (with a new cover and titles).

ØWord Topics (not all the sections, but those that relate most to the GP. This will be presented as a "companion volume" to Word Basics.)

ØMountain Streams‚ volume one, titled "Dare to Be Different."

ØFrom Jesus With Love, for GP (parts taken from both volumes one and two ).

ØTo Jesus With Love (parts taken from volumes one and two combined).

47. Along with these books we're working on a new series of follow–up booklets called Get Activated! which cover many of the basics that new Christians need to know. These will be in the same format and the same length as The Future Foretold and Glimpses of Heaven, with color covers. The ones currently in the works cover the following subjects:

ØGod's Gifts (salvation, Holy Spirit, gifts of the Spirit).

ØUnderstanding God's Word (spiritual feeding).

ØPrayer Power (getting answers to prayer).

ØOvercoming Obstacles (trials and tests).

ØHearing from Heaven (prophecy).

ØLove's Many Faces (God's love; love for ­others).

48. After finishing this first batch, we plan to work on more booklets in the same series that will cover such topics as witnessing, raising children‚ overcoming besetting sins, how to find God's will, marriage, and more!

49. Apollos and Phil have been working on cutting down a number of poster texts so they can be used as A5 poster tracts. These are primarily for distribution in Africa and other Third World countries. They've completed five ("Signs of the Times," "Incredible Journey," "Peace in the Midst of Storm‚" "What Everybody Needs Is Love," and "Why Worry")‚ and are now condensing the material from the Who Is Jesus and In Search of Truth booklets, to be used as poster texts or tracts. They've also done new poster texts on the subject of "Why Sin and Suffering" (titled "But Why, God!?")‚ racism (titled "The Color of Love"), and the Mark of the Beast! Also near completion are the second and third Mountain Streams volumes.

50. Please continue to pray for Eman Artist's full recovery from a recent stroke (see GV 54). We'd like to make some of the above-mentioned poster texts into full-color posters for GP distribution, and it would be a blessing to have his beautiful artwork on them. In the meantime, however, we'll put some of them out as tracts.

51. Please pray for this major GP pubs and follow-up program push, as it's been very taxing on everyone involved. Pray also for the ­finances needed to launch it, as producing a large number of GP pubs is expensive.

The Unseen Workers

—NPC and LIM Staff

52. As you can see, we've upped production levels on just about every front. This means that our dear NPC and LIM folks have had to carry a greatly increased load. We'd like to commend and thank them for the wonderful job they've done in keeping up with the myriad details that go into getting "that banana there" to each Family Home.

53. Since we are now putting out more publications than ever, the Lord recently led us to make some streamlining changes in our NPCs, and provided the means to upgrade some of the NPCs' printing and duplicating equipment‚ which has helped to lighten their load a bit and enabled them to keep up.

54. Please keep the NPCs and the LIMs in your daily prayers. They sacrifice a great deal for you‚ day in and day out, spending long hours printing, folding, stapling, mailing, translating, proofreading, doing layout‚ and other office jobs. They put in long hours and often work under tight deadlines‚ as they press in to get the mailings out to you as quickly as possible. Please pray for our book printing team too, who've not only been overseeing the printing of new books but a multitude of GP pubs and follow-up tools as well.

Thanks to Field Artists

55. Over the past year, WS and our Family pubs have been able to benefit from a number of very talented field artists, who have agreed to contribute artwork for various pubs, including the Zine, Heaven's Library, Grapevine, etc. Though it's taken some time to set up‚ we're now working with 36 field artists, and we are establishing communication with more each month. This past year WS received 181 pictures from field artists, each of which has been a great blessing, and has played an important part in illustrating our pubs and making them more inspiring. In the Heaven's Library department, field artists contribute 45% of all the story illustrations!

56. Mama and I would like to thank each of you for taking your time to share your talent with all of us. Without your help, many of our pubs wouldn't be illustrated, or would be delayed in getting out. We're very thankful for your help.

A Look at Our Stats

57. This year's stats are particularly ­special, as in 1998 our Family completed 30 years of history‚ dating back to about September 1968 when Dad made his "Declaration of Revolution" against the System! (See ML #1336, Vol.14.) What wonderful things the Lord has done through us during this time, praise His Name!

58. Souls Won: The Family won 1‚291,094 souls in 1998 as compared to 1,087,919 last year. That's an increase of 203,175 souls, or 19%! This was the highest year in the last 11 years for souls won‚ and only the ninth time in our 30-year history that we've won over a million souls in one year. This comes to over 100,000 souls a month for the year, a very high average!

59. To-date (over our 30-year history) the Family has won a grand total of over 22 million souls—22,048,949 to be exact. That's an average of about 735,000 a year, 61,000 a month, 2,000 a day, 84 an hour, or 1.4 for every minute over the last 30 years!

60. Distribution: Distribution was down about 9% from 1997 and just about equal to 1996, at 165 million pages distributed for 1998 (18.2 million pieces). Though lower than the last two years‚ it's still higher than any of the other years since 1987. This includes 5.9 million posters, 418,000 tapes and CDs‚ 122,000 videos, and 164,000 Living Waters.

61. Witness: The Family personally witnessed 7.7 million times in 1998. 7.7 million times comes out to 1,225 per adult for the year, or 102 per month per adult! The ratio of souls won (1,291,094) to personal witness (7,724,819) comes out to 17%, or an average one out of every six people personally witnessed to being led to the Lord.

62. The Family had a grand total witness by all means possible of over one billion in 1998 (1,039,654,849)! That beats 1997's 997 million, and is our highest total witness since 1984.

63. To-Date Stats: For our 30-year history, the Family has now won 22 million souls, personally witnessed about 230 million times‚ distributed 4.7 billion pages of lit‚ 984 million pieces, 105 million posters, 7.6 million tapes and CDs, 1.3 million videos, and nearly 2 million Daily Foods and Living Waters!

64. The record breaker this year was ­posters, which topped the 100 million mark after 14 years of distribution—105 million posters to-date! Pieces distributed is also getting close to the one billion mark.

65. Family Population: The Family had about its largest TRF population ever in its 30-year history at 13,959, up slightly from 1997's 13,943. Charter Members are up by 246 to 10,183, compared to 1997's 9,937, and Fellow Members are down by 351 to 2,871, as compared to last year's 3,222. We also have 655 Live–Outs and 255 Catacombers. Since the Charter was implemented, Family population has increased from 12‚884 to its present 13,959, or 1‚075 more members, praise the Lord!

66. The CM and FM population of 13,054 consists of 3,123 mates, 3‚159 singles 16 and over, and 6,772 children 15 and under. That's 48% adults 16 and over and 52% children.

67. Homes: We now have 809 Charter Homes, or 60 more than last year's 749. This means on the average we opened up five new Homes a month or about one a week for all of 1998!

68. CM Home size has gone way down from about 40 prior to the Charter to its present 12.6 members per Home. That's down from 1997's 13.4.

69. We have 540 Fellow Member Homes as compared to last year's 552, presently with an average size of 5.3 members per Home. Our FM population now makes up 22% of our combined CM/FM membership, down from last year's 25%, probably due to many FMers changing to CM status.

70. So between our CM and FM Family we have a total of 1,349 Family Homes. That's our highest number of Homes since 1983.

71. Births: In 1998 there were 293 births‚ an average of 24 a month (21 CM and 3 FM). This was down somewhat from 1997's 349, or 29 a month. We have now had a phenomenal 12,792 Family births in our 30-year history! That's 426 a year on average‚ or 35.5 a month—more than one a day for 30 years! Our peak year was 1980 during the height of the FFing Revolution. We had 717 babies that year, or nearly two a day!

72. Betrothals: We had 49 as compared to 68 last year. To-date we have had 2,352 betrothals reported, or an average of 78 a year—over one a week since our inception.

73. Nationalities: Currently the Family is made up of 91 nationalities, which comes to about half of the approximate 180 nations and principalities of the world. It's quite an amazing multinational Family we have!

74. We're still about 30% U.S. Americans. Then 8% Brazilian, 7% Japanese, 6% Canadians, and 5% British. Mexicans and Australians are 4% each. French‚ Argentineans and Germans are 3% each. Spanish‚ Indians, Italians, Vene­zuelans, Peruvians and Dutch are 2% each.

75. Countries: We now have Family Homes in 88 countries! In looking back over the past 10 years, this has been a phenomenal expansion. We've grown from 43 countries in 1989 to 88 in 1998! We were in 46 countries when the Charter began, so that's nearly a 100% increase due to the Charter!

76. Breaking it down by area, we have the following number of Homes in the following ­areas:

346 – Latin America

302 – US and Canada

(down from 327 at end of 1997)

262 – Western Europe

189 – Pacific

116 – Eastern Europe and Russia

54 – Southeast Asia

43 – Indian subcontinent

    31 – Africa (in 13 countries)

77. Other Members: Our population of live-outs, catacombers, DF/follow-up members, outside witnessers, active supporters‚ mail ministry and GP members has also continued to grow. It now stands at 29,334 as compared to last year's 23,166! That's an increase of 6,168 members‚ or 27%!

WS Expenses During 1998

78. In order for Mama and I and WS to do the job of feeding the sheep—both you in the Family and the GP—we depend on your faithful monthly tithe. Here's a general rundown of what your monthly tithe paid for:

79. Producing the Word: Support for Mama and I and the units which produce, print‚ and mail the abundance of Word you receive each month. This includes the cost of translating and printing the majority of mailings in three languages other than English.

80. Administration: Support for the CROs and their office staffs who work diligently with a multitude of facts‚ figures, and numbers in order to process your TRF reports, answer your questions, report your progress and make sure you get your mailings. They also handle a multitude of other minute details in servicing you and trying to make your job easier, including CRO visitation, legal and media help, news bulletins and advisories, hosting fellowships, and other administrational details.

81. Missionary Aid: Monthly gifts to 65 missionary Homes in poor and needy countries. Monthly gifts to the China, Africa and Asian Funds which are disbursed to needy situations in these fields. Gifts to nine Lit–Pics who translate GP lit for distribution by you on your field.

82. Audio and Video Ministry: Gifts given to five audio and two video studios which produce English and local language GP tools for your distribution, as well as beautiful FTT, New Feature, Loving Jesus‚ and other wonderful music for your listening pleasure and inspiration.

83. The Computer Ministry: The setting up and maintaining of the International Family and the Members Only Web sites, updating and upgrading the HomeARC, producing the Ultimate Family Songbook, programming the new Windows TeleTRF.

84. The FAF (Family Aid Fund): WS tithes 10% of all of its income to the FAF to help pay for all the FAF does.

FAF Report

85. (Note: Besides receiving 1% from the CM Homes and 10% from WS, the FAF also benefits from windfalls and special offerings. In addition, a very large percentage of gifts—such as Home Loan Funds, the return of HERs from ­closing Homes, etc.—are recycled. These recycled gifts are then counted as income and are redistributed as gifts for new loans, HERs to new Homes, etc.)

86. During 1998, the Family Aid Fund gave out 146 HERs to new Homes, 157 Pioneer Gifts, 631 Tool Fund Gifts, 269 Baby Bonuses and Passed-On Gifts, 226 Home Loans‚ 69 reimbursements to HERs for legitimate expenses‚ and 32 other gifts to needy situations. That comes to a total of 1,530 gifts given out for the year. The FAF gave out an average 128 gifts a month for 1998.

87. Since there are now 809 CM Homes in the Family, this means that most, if not all, CM Homes have probably received some benefit(s) from the FAF during the year.

88. To-date, since May of 1995 when the Family Aid Fund began, it has given out 742 HERs to new Homes, 832 Pioneer Gifts, 2,249 Tool Fund Gifts‚ 926 Baby Bonuses, 801 Home Loans, 231 reimbursements, and 71 gifts to needy situations. That comes to a grand total of 5,852 gifts given out since the Family Aid Fund began. Over the 43-month period, that's an average of 136 gifts a month, or four a day. The FAF is working! Thank you for your willingness to contribute. We pray that the FAF is a blessing to you.

New Countries Pioneered in 1998

89. This year there were five countries opened up where we didn't have Homes at the end of 1997. Some of these countries had Homes in previous years‚ but they have now been re-pioneered. These include Bosnia, Gambia, Iceland, Malaysia, and Martinique.

Leaving the West

For Fruitful Fields

90. NACRO estimates that during 1998 over 350 people left the U.S. and Canada to head off to mission fields. And there are many more getting ready to move on in January‚ after the Christmas push. Praise the Lord! A number of missionaries left Western Europe as well, but we don't have accurate enough records to estimate how many.

Music Studios Report

91. This year 10 tapes were released to the Family: Shangri-La (FTT#11), In the House (FTT#12)‚ March on Strong (FTT#13), Rhythm 'n' Grooves (FTT #14), Embrace (LJ #3), Dancing with Jesus (LJ #4), Country to Country (NF #1), Wings of Prayer (Prayer Scripture songs), Christmas Beat/Little Drummer Boy (GP), and Eagle Bleeds (GP).

92. Other tapes which the studios helped to produce this year, which will be released during the first months of 1999, are: Oasis of Love (LJ #5), Unbeatable (KAT #1, a new CM/FM kids CD of Bible/ML songs), Heart Beat (FTT #15), Famine for Love (GP), and I Like to Dance (GP children's tape).

93. The following GP tapes have been or are being slightly revamped, re-mastered, or other­wise rearranged in order to make them copyright-safe, and these also will be released in the first months of 1999: The Lion, the Dragon, and the Beast, Fear Not, Be So Happy (compi­lation of the best songs from "Time to Be Happy," "Little Things," and "Magic of Love," thus taking the place of those three tapes), and Sweet Dreams Tonight. (The last two will have new covers too!)

94. As well as new FTT recordings, here is a listing of some of the tapes our wonderful musicians will be working on during 1999, some of which are already started:

ØKAT #2 (being worked on by the RAD)

ØSimon Black album (being worked on by the DCS)

ØTreasure Attic Songs Tape #2 (being worked on by the JAS)

ØHeaven's Magic "greatest hits" remake #1 (being worked on by the JAS)

ØHeaven's Magic "greatest hits" remake #2 (to be worked on by the JAS)

ØGreat Adventures part #1 and #2 revised (being worked on by WSA/JAS—substituting new Family-written songs for System-written ones)

95. Because of the great amount of GP ­audio work being done as well as some changes that have been made in our studios, we are in need of help to produce more FTT music. If you have experience, are gifted in audio production and have a burden to help produce FTT music, please write and tell us about yourself, your experience and your talent. Family‚ please pray for the Lord to raise up more producers so we can continue to send out the wonderful FTT tapes.

IVM Accomplishments

96. —Kiddie Viddie was revamped! We changed the covers and trailers on the Kiddie Viddies and recompiled the songs. There are now only five Kiddie Viddie shows instead of six. We revised this series in order to ensure they could be used for mass marketing.

97. —The EMV‚ now titled The Final Stand, was completed this year.

98. —We shortened the first eight Treasure Attics for broadcast.

99. —14 new Treasure Attic shows (#13-26), primarily designed for broadcast, have been final edited and mastered this year! This includes cover work, labels, songbooks, etc. The titles are:

•All Aboard

•Try a Little Laughter

•Fit To Win

•The Fantastic Friends

•On the Lookout

•Radio Waves

•Back on the Air

•Be the Best

•Lights! Camera! Action!

•Learning Is Fun

•Rain or Shine

•Sweet Dreams

•Storytime

•Barks 'n' Sparks

100. —The IVM art department created new covers for two children's audio CDs.

101. —Together with SACRO, the IVM helped to create an Interactive Treasure Attic CD, which will be used for marketing. (See "Interactive Educational CD in the Works‚" pg.16)

FCF Network Broadcasting

And Marketing

102. Family Care Foundation has continued to pursue avenues to get Treasure Attic broadcast, and some of the other video series commercially marketed. To quote excerpts from recent FCF newsletters:

103. One of FCF's primary goals is to invest in the leaders of tomorrow—today's children and their families. To help achieve this goal, FCF has licensed a number of videos.… Through our initial efforts‚ these products are gaining exposure in North America and abroad, via both broadcast and home video distribution outlets. Our product lines were recently represented at MIPCOM, the largest international gathering of television broadcasters held annually in Cannes, France. Our videos were also displayed at MIPCOM Junior, held just prior to MIPCOM, where worldwide buyers have the opportunity to sample children's video materials. Our video lines have had representation in several other major inter­national television broadcasters' and video distributors' conventions, with more such venues planned in the future.

104. So as set out in our goals for 1998‚ we have begun developing an international distribution network in order to achieve maximum exposure for the positive and character-building content of these products. Our many thanks again to those of you who have contributed so much in making this project an ongoing success.

105. Treasure Attic is now being broadcast in the U.S. on the primary network of Sky Angel, which has a subscriber base of 1.75 million households, who in turn have a reciprocal arrangement with another cable network reaching a further two million households. In addition, over 200 television stations nationwide also carry this programming. A flagship Kids channel is scheduled to begin broadcasting any day now, on which Treasure Attic will also be run three times a week. (Treasure Attic episodes, along with footage from the Kiddie Viddie series‚ was also broadcast for a three-month period on a pay-per–view cable network, Only Kids TV, partnering with the Primestar satellite network.)

106. Utilizing this opportunity for tele­vision advertising, Direct Market sales of Treasure Attic videos is also underway‚ with viewers directed to an 800 number from which select episodes of Treasure Attic can be ordered. Negotiations are underway to create a Beanie Baby toy [a famous toy in the U.S.] of Peepers, the fun-loving and ever-learning sheepdog featured in the Treasure Attic series.

107. The stand-alone 55-minute documentary Countdown to Armageddon is now on the shelves of five major nationwide chains throughout the States and Canada. Recently a contract for Kiddie Viddie was signed with a distributor for the States and Canada, and we expect that the new Kiddie Viddie series will also be on the shelves of major national chains some time in the new year.

108. Family Care Foundation signed a licensing agreement for the Italian version of our children's video series with Progetto Aurora, a nonprofit organization in Italy. Progetto Aurora has already signed on with a large distributor of educational materials who have placed their first order‚ as well as incorporating our Italian-language ­videos into their company's 1999 catalogue.

109. The Treasures company in Mexico has likewise sub-licensed rights to Treasure Attic in Spanish for the territory of Mexico‚ and is presently lining up a commercial deal with a large distributor there.

110. And recently Family Care Foundation signed a licensing agreement with Kidcom in Thailand, for the distribution of the Thai version of the children's series.

111. We expect similar ventures to take off in a number of other countries in the year ahead. (End of excerpts from FCF newsletter.)

FCF'S Mission Support and

Humanitarian Services

112. Aside from promoting the Treasure Attic series on television worldwide, FCF has also been able to help a number of our missionary communities in their local CTP projects and other endeavors. Here is an excerpt from a recent FCF newsletter:

113. Another of the objectives of Family Care Foundation is finding ways to help those engaged in worthy projects around the world to raise funds for their missions. To this end, FCF has established the Mission Support and Humanitarian Services Pro­gram (MSHSP), more commonly ­referred to as our Umbrella Program. This program makes it possible for a local ministry whose activities further FCF's exempt purposes, whether in the United States or abroad, to become an FCF charitable pro­ject. FCF now has over 120 such pro­jects operating in 30 countries around the world. An increasing amount of funding is generated toward the support of these projects.

114. Additionally, through direct grants made by Family Care Foundation, the translation of Gospel literature into 17 languages is being funded by FCF. This includes the monthly operating budget for the Eastern European Christian Correspondence Course (EECCC)‚ which translates and distributes publications into 11 languages: Albanian, Bosnian, Bulgarian‚ Croatian, Czech, Hungarian, Polish, Romanian, Serbian, Slovakian and Slovenian.

115. The grant made to Asia Vision provides direct support for translation and distribution in the languages of Hindi, Indonesian, Arabic, Vietnamese and Burmese.

116. Lastly, FCF's monthly funding to the Chinese Christian Literature Production Center (CCLPC) helps make possible an array of Christian publications to reach into the mission field of mainland China.

117. Family Care Foundation grants have also made possible the local language production of Treasure Attic in Hindi, Arabic and Turkish. (End of excerpts from FCF newsletters.)

118. Please continue to keep FCF in your prayers, so that the message via video can be spread far and wide.

FED Production Center (FPC)

119. As mentioned in "1998 Midyear News and Progress" (ML #3198‚ GN 802), the FPC has been getting set up. Their goal is to make children's material in color available to the Homes and to the GP. The first color items which will be made available via the FPC are the Praising U series‚ a new Feed My Lambs series for young children (which the EURCRO FED has done), and a Baby Book of Remembrance.

Computer Programming

Department/TeleTRF

120. Individual Family pro­grammers have developed programs for WS in the past, but this year saw the establishment of the first WS pro­gramming team where several programmers were working on the same project. There are currently two FGAs and two SGAs working together to develop the new Windows TeleTRF.

121. The TeleTRF project is quite large, as it not only involves the Home TeleTRF program‚ but also the processing of the TRF information for the CRO offices and WS. It is by far the largest programming project that WS has ever undertaken. The team drew up some preliminary plans for the Windows TeleTRF early in 1998. At the Structure Meeting Workshop‚ representatives from all of the CRO offices discussed the needs of the Windows TeleTRF plus the processing needs on the office side, and further plans were made.

122. The team has continued designing and has been programming the Windows TeleTRF since the Structure meetings. Developing a unified program for the TRF has proven to be a very big challenge, because we are such a multi­national organization and each area has unique needs. Developing programs for the Windows environment is also a big challenge. And while writing a program can sometimes be done rather quickly, developing one that will stand the test of time, that won't need frequent bug patches and that will work on a variety of computers and configurations is a much bigger matter. Though this is a large undertaking, we feel that this new Windows TeleTRF will be a big help and time-saver to the Homes as well as the offices. (We hope to make the TeleTRF available in the second half of 1999. See LNF 276 for more details, as well as tips on what sort of computer you'll need to run this program, which will become mandatory for CM Homes.)

123. Our programming team is also involved in many things other than the TeleTRF, such as computer research, supporting existing programs, etc. One of our team members took a couple of months off from the TeleTRF project to write the program for the Ultimate Family Songbook, which we hope will prove to be a big blessing to you‚ our precious Family. Please continue to pray for our programming team, that they can produce tools that make your work for the Lord easier and more productive!

Worldwide Web News

124. One tremendous witnessing avenue that we have continued to explore this year has been the Worldwide Web. Besides the beautiful International Family Web site, there are a number of other sites‚ all of which are being a tremendous witness. Added together, all of the Web sites are a powerhouse of witnessing. These GP sites had a combined witness to over 200,000 people who downloaded over 34 giga­bytes of material. This means that each visitor to one of our sites went away with an average of 40 GN pages of material! What a witness!

125. Below is our faithful International GP Web Team's report for 1998. God bless them, they really work hard on keeping both our GP and Members Only sites updated with feeding material, which we hope you're utilizing to the full.

1. Stats for this past year:

Total visits to the GP site: 49,365.

Total visits to the Members Only site: 15,798.

Total downloaded from the GP site: 12.5 gigabytes.

Total downloaded from the MO site: 6.4 gigabytes.

2. Additions to the GP site (updated 2-3 times a month):

ØMusic section with lyrics and audio files of songs from the GP FTTs, as well as pictures of our musicians around the world, and some quotes on music.

ØRedesigned several sections of the Family Web site, including: home page, Our Founder pages, Photo Tour, Family Activity Reports, and the Lit Trunk.

ØThree new fully colored MLKs were added to the True Komix section of the Lit Trunk.

ØUpdated Family Activity Report section, with video clips from the International Activity videos, organized by countries, as well as some photos of our Family's activities worldwide! (We need more of this type of material to keep updating it, especially for the inspiration and encouragement of Family friends and contacts! Please send any material you may have to the mail/e-mail address printed in the Grapevine and please be sure to mark it "Attn: Web Team!" TYSM!)

3. Additions to the Members Only site (updated 2–3 times a month):

ØHeaven's Library mags, the Grapevine, the Zine (in color!) and ENDs are available for viewing and downloading before printed copies reach your Home!

ØSongbook section was added to the Members Only site–with lyrics to 3,000 songs.

ØOverflow section was added. Finally, a place for good incoming material from the Family that there isn't enough room in the pubs for! Book summaries of helpful and informative secular books will be available in this section on a regular basis.

ØWine Press mags (mailing for former members and close friends of the Family) were also made available for downloading from the Members Only site.

ØYou can now get audio previews of new FTT songs.

ØMovie listing of all recommended and non–recommended movies!

ØOnline version of the Prayer List.

ØComputer section: tips 'n' tricks, HomeARC FAQs, info about online security and privacy, useful links to good Web sites, Y2K Resource (by WS computer department), Family screensavers and other goodies.

ØFind a Friend section.

ØBulletin Board and Discussion group section.

4. Projects in the works:

ØOnline FED catalogue with downloadable games, pubs, color books, and the like from area FEDs.

Other Local Web Sites

126. EURCRO: Our EURCRO Members Only site (www.eurcro.org) just opened. It uses the same password as the worldwide Members Only site. Local language pubs (which we are steadily increasing the number of) can be downloaded. Also posted is FED-related material that can be downloaded, viewed, or printed to help with home schooling‚ plus a Tech section to give help and how-tos on setting up and using computers. CM and FM members worldwide are invited to log in and use all the available resources.

127. PACRO: We opened our official Japan­ese Web site (www.family.gr.jp) in February of 1998. Since then we've continued updating it twice a month.

What's on the site:

ØInternational Family brochure.

ØJapan Family brochure.

ØFAR (We produce a local FAR every few months for the Web, and also print for the Family to distribute).

ØLit Trunk.

ØPoster Gallery.

ØVideo Corner: We have some video samples of teen videos. We are preparing more materials, such as Countdown and TA.

ØMusic Corner: This includes audio samples of five Family CDs, lyrics pages‚ and photo pages.

ØChristmas corner: This includes Christmas CDs, Christmas TA, A Christmas to Remember booklet, Christmas tracts, and Christmas wallpapers (graphics files of the Christmas cards).

ØPresent: We are giving out a different CD each month as a present. People really like it. This is for advertisement‚ and it only costs $5 a month for seed and postage.

128. As far as stats goes, our first 6 months were rather slow. Our site is in Japanese only, which limits our audience. The average for September and October was 780 times visited and 140 MB downloaded a month. November was phenomenal. We got 5,100 visits and 820 MB were downloaded!

129. www.bekkoame.ne.jp/ro/familykyo: Japa­nese meaty witnessing page called "Time of the End." This site became operational in mid-December 1997. Japanese only. We feature subjects such as "Endtime News," "The Crash is Here," "The Lion, Dragon, and the Beast," as well as several posters. So far we have had 1,700 visits.

130. www.jctp.org: (Advertisement page for TA and KVs, called "Kids Treasures") This site became operational in mid-November 1998. Japanese only. This is a nonregistered Nonprofit Organization (NPO) called "JCTP"—Japan Consider the Poor. The profits of the sale of these videos goes to a few Family missionary projects such as "Ton a Month Club" in Korea (Family project to supply rice and other food aid to famine-stricken North Korea), the Katmandu (Nepal) Home‚ "Action in Focus" in Kenya, and shortly, the Lagos Home in Nigeria. During the first few days we had 236 visits and access from five different countries, with 20 MB downloaded. Our vision is to advertise online and send e-mail advertisements to different associations, kindergartens, etc.

131. SACRO: Spanish Web site (www.lafamilia.org).

What's on the site:

ØAll FARs that have come out since 1995, updated monthly.

Ø5 GP tracts.

Ø"In Search of Truth" and "Who Is Jesus."

Ø13 Word Basics sections.

Ø13 Mountain Streams.

Ø1 story from A Christmas to Remember.

ØAds for 9 Spanish CDs‚ with sound clips.

Ø10 Statements.

Ø"The Family Vindicated!"

ØColor photomontage and overview on the Family.

Ø50 pictures of Dad.

Ø"The Future Foretold"

ØJokes.

Ø54 posters.

ØYouth testimonies (based on the Free Zine).

ØGP Daily Might.

ØTestimonies and pictures about the work in El Salvador.

132. In 1998, 3‚161 MB were downloaded from our site, plus 16,915 hits. The countries we've gotten the most hits from are: Mexico (26%), Spain (21%), Chile (13%) and Argentina (9%).

133. ASCRO: We have four Web sites that are fairly active: the Countdown to Armageddon (CTA) site, the Thai Family Web site, the Jeremy Spencer/Heart to Heart site, and the Arabic Web site. Last year we got over 140,000 visits to our sites, with most of them really taking off toward the end of the year. 17,565 MB of files were downloaded. We've done around 50 updates this year to our sites‚ or almost one a week.

134. Countdown to Armageddon site (www.countdown.org) has had 61,528 visits‚ 8,544 MB downloaded. In November of 1998 alone this site was visited almost 20,000 times, with 3,000 MB being downloaded.

135. The main sections of this site include Countdown to Armageddon (complete with video, study links, graphs), the END Online (all the Endtime related articles from the END along with tons of Endtime articles from other sources), and The Future Foretold. Also on the site is the complete Lion, Dragon and the Beast tape and lots of Endtime posters. All the content is linked so that someone can get‚ for example, the Bible verses related to a certain page‚ or current articles on that subject.

136. Recently, we were able to submit the site to Yahoo [one of the most important Internet search engines to be registered on]. By a miracle they accepted our site and now have it listed. When you search for the word "Armageddon" on Yahoo, our site now appears as the fourth or fifth entry! Because of this, we have received 2,500 visits within the last five days, since going on Yahoo. We're hoping to move towards 10‚000 visits per month by keeping things pretty active and trying to update the site regularly.

137. Thai Family site (www.thaifamily.org) has had 55,521 visits, 6,155 MB downloaded. Most of the visitors to this site are Thai people from outside of the country, particularly interested in our audio and video material. This site is multilingual and features an explanation of the Family, Heavenly Streams (with a daily channel which allows its regular delivery by e–mail), Online Video catalog, home pages for the Thai Homes and Online Activity Sheets.

138. Heart to Heart/Jeremy Spencer site (www.heart-to-heart.org) had 21,545 visits, 2,363 MB downloaded. This site features tons of real video footage of the India concerts, interviews and news clips and the complete Jeremy ­Spencer CD. We'll be submitting this site to Yahoo also, in preparation for Jeremy's performances here in Asia (Lord willing) sometime next year.

139. Arabic site (www.familyintl.org) has had 5,784 visits, 502 MB downloaded. This site has been left pretty much as is since the time it was put up‚ so we're hoping to work on that a bit.

140. NACRO: Our Washington‚ DC, site (www.thedcfamily.com) received 2,689 hits, and 2 GB were downloaded. The most visited sections were: Letters of Recommendation, Freedom Works Award, and the Photo Gallery.

Online Family

Songbook/CD Completed!

141. (Peter: ) If you've visited our Members Only site recently‚ you've probably seen the Family online songbook. It's a tremendously wonderful songbook! This project has been a labor of love for many over the past few years. Mama and I want to thank all of those, both in WS and on the field, who participated in making this wonderful songbook possible. Many thanks to the computer programming team for the great deal of work you put into creating the program and ironing out the glitches, and also to those on the field who began this project—Jonathan and Joy Waters, the former Sizzler Home, various music studio personnel, and a host of others along the way.

142. Coming your way soon will be a CD of the complete Family songbook. Also on this CD is a friendly program that allows you to search for songs alphabetically, by songbook or cassette, author, title or words, make personal songbooks, click on any chord in a song to view its diagram, tune your guitar‚ generate an HTML version of your songbook, and more! One very helpful feature for those like me who have barely adequate music skills is the chord transposer. If the song isn't in your key, one click of the mouse will change all of the chords to a new key more suitable to your singing range. Also in the program is a link to the songbook section of the Member's Only site where we will post updates to the program, lyrics of older songs that were not included on the original CD‚ and lyrics to songs on new Family tapes as they come out. Check it out!

Interactive Educational CD

In the Works

143. Presently in the works is the creation of an interactive educational CD for the GP based on our Treasure Attic characters. The IVM has provided a System company with materials to create this CD in three languages—English, Spanish and Portuguese. It will include games, sound clips‚ video clips, etc.‚ and should be a wonderful distribution and follow-up tool. Please pray for the completion of this project.

New HomeARC 99 CD

144. The new HomeARC 99 Text Library CD is due to be in your hands around the time of the Feast, D.V. It will replace your old HomeARC 98 Text Library CD. This third annual edition adds a year's worth of new pubs as well as most of the earlier Letters that were missing from pre­vious editions. This version has 937 more MLs on it, and 7,822 more text files. Most of this past year's HomeARC work was devoted to preparing these remaining 800+ MLs for the HomeARC (as explained in LNF 270), as well as proofreading, cleaning up, and reformatting many more MLs and other pubs.

145. Some new jewels in the HomeARC treasury include: the full text of the Junior Daily Breads and Junior Lifelines, the final version of the Word Topics book, the Ultimate Family Songbook lyrics, the compiled Movie Ratings listed on the Web as of November 1998, The Love Charter up to and including Amendment 99, Daily Bread 12, Dito—His Early Years‚ the To Jesus with Love and From Jesus with Love books‚ 7 Heaven's Library books, including the latest—not yet in print—Cry of the Harvest (plus all the individual Heaven's Libraries to-date), the complete MOP, and, yes, Cool Tips for Hot Sex, etc.—all this and over 250 PDF files of GP and DFO books, tracts and posters! A PDF file, if viewed with the free (and included) Acrobat Reader program, will display and can print the exact page-by-page layout, pictures and all.

Upcoming CVC CD

146. Another monumental project that is near completion is updating the CVC Program and putting it all on CD. This will provide our Family young people (and older people too) with easy access to pretty much every reading item the CVC program calls for. Our CVC team has been working hard on this project for quite some time now. Following is an excerpt of a report on their progress:

147. We are producing two CDs to hold all the material we can find that is called for by the CVC program. There are now about 500 courses in the regular CVC program. Since each course usually has its own list of reading materials, the entire program now calls for almost 6‚000 reading items! The best Home library in the world would probably be hard pressed to supply much more than 75% of the items called for. Plus we have included some of the best of the locally produced publications from the various CRO areas, helpful items that much of our worldwide Family may not have seen before.

148. For example, we have a nice ­series of cookbooks offering delicious and nutritional food. The SACRO FED and others did all the hard pick-and-shovel work of collecting and topically arranging all of the many WND articles called for by various CVC courses. We are trying to put as many of the smaller items as we can onto one main "CVC Program and Pubs CD" for quick and easy access to the main collection of reading items. Any larger book-sized items we are putting on the separate CVC Books CD.

149. The project is going well‚ and DV, any computer that has a CD drive and a regular Internet browser installed will be able to instantly open up this CD, as we are using a Web page format. All you have to do is point and click on any study area, certificate, course, or reading item you want to see. So CVC students will now be able to just "click and read" through their courses. All the hard work of finding each article in the Home library has been done for them. A few of the more age-restricted items, or specifically CM-related items called for by certain courses, we will still ask students to obtain from a CM Home library.

150. In addition to the regular CVC courses, we have included a listing of over 100 supplementary courses in various subjects for our students to choose from. These include CLE and A Beka courses, and others (course listings, not the workbooks or teaching materials). These are mostly courses that people have asked us to include in the CVC program; some we have added are based on educational CDs and other available courses. We also have included a full listing of currently recommended books, plus video titles that the local FED Resource Center may have available.

151. These CVC CDs will provide our Family with an easy-to-use CVC reading resources collection. (End of excerpts of report from CVC team.)

Wine Press Ministry

152. Here is a report from Trust in the U.S., who helps to head up The Wine Press mailing team. As you'll see‚ it's burgeoning. Praise the Lord!

153. We now send the monthly Wine Press mailings to over 130 former members and friends in the U.S. and Canada. In addition, a number of former members in Europe and Australia are receiving The Wine Press from the Family there.

154. In December of 1997 we published our 15th issue of The Wine Press. We recently started a brand-new monthly news bulletin called "What's Up," with news‚ testimonies‚ want ads and photos from The Wine Press readers. We've received a tremendous response from former members all over the world‚ who are very thankful to be back in touch with the Family and to be receiving feeding from the New Wine. ­Often folks who have been searching for the Family for many years find us on the Inter­net. We've met 17 former Family members this way in the past three months alone, some of whom hadn't been in contact with the Family for 15 to 20 years.

155. This year we also started a new online newsletter called Activated Online, which we send to everyone who writes in to the Family e-mail address and who is interested in receiving monthly news from the Family. At present we're sending Activated Online to 600 e-mail addresses.

Rapid Response Tract Team

156. We are now set up with a RRTT (Rapid Response Tract Team) who are responsible to pray about and receive tracts in prophecy cover­ing certain events that are happening in the news. The goal of this team is to get current tracts to you quickly. In Grapevine 54, we posted the first notice about the first two tracts ("I Have Not Forgotten You" and "Are You Part of the Solution?") that this team had put together. Future tracts will be posted on the Members Only site. While we will announce new tracts in the Grapevine, please be sure to check the Members Only site frequently, so that you can utilize the tracts that are applicable to your area.

157. During 1998, six new tracts were made available for distribution:

—Peace in the Midst of Storm

—The Deal of a Lifetime

—Merry Christmas

—Are You Part of the Solution? (For Chile)

—I Have Not Forgotten You (For the victims of Hurricane Mitch)

—Shattered Hopes (For Kenya and Tanzania bombing)

158. We hope to see many more in the coming year, including a special tract for 1999 about the coming of the year 2000, a tract about the Y2K bug, and a tract about the world economic crisis! These will be posted in the Members Only site when they're ready and will be mailed to you as well.

Fruit from Summit Meeting

And Workshops

159. The Summit discussions and ensuing workshop meetings held in early 1998 have improved Family operations in a number of ways. I'll list just a few here:

ØThe Charter amendments and revised Charter went out.

ØA number of GNs were generated from the Summit, as the CROs shared the needs of their various fields.

ØImproved communication and coordination between media teams.

ØBetter setup and communications between ABMs.

160. Representatives of each CRO area's FED department were also able to meet during the post-Summit workshops. Their meetings were a tremendous blessing and served as a time of getting together, talking, praying, getting to know each other, and sharing different ways to take care of FED responsibilities. Some of the specific changes and improvements that have been made as a result of the meetings, prayer, and discussion include:

•The FED Production Center (FPC) has been established. A team of workers in the U.S. is working especially towards publishing children's materials in color for the Family: readers, verse books, picture facts, games‚ flannelgraphs, etc. Many of these color materials will also be made available for the GP or for the upcoming follow-up program [see paragraphs 45-51]. The EURCRO FED team has completed the color work needed on the Feed My Lambs booklet series, as well as a Baby's Book of Remembrance. ASCRO FED has prepared a number of games in color. SACRO FED has done Baby Quotes and Picture Facts. And lots more color materials for our kids are on the way! At this time‚ WS cannot afford to pay for this color printing, but knowing what a great need and desire it is to have good, colored material for our kids, the goal of the FPC is to have these ma­terials printed and made available to the Homes on a pay-to-order basis.

•Many VS teams have begun including child­care personnel on their visitations, and some of the FEDs are providing childcare and childcare pubs kits for the VSs.

•The FEDs assisted in updating the CVC reading lists, incorporating many of the wonderful new pubs that have come out in the past two years.

•SACRO FED produced a compilation book of the WND articles that are required reading in the CVC program. WS does not have the finances to print it now, but it will be included in the upcoming CVC CD.

•Ado, in conjunction with NACRO FED, filmed a very helpful introduction to the CVC. The video has been sent to all FED centers for their use.

•As a result of concerns expressed by the FEDs at the workshop, there is now a special application form available for CVC high school diplomas for young people who have left the Family. (Contact your FED if you know someone who is interested in this.)

•Several FED teams have sponsored and participated in childcare seminars, and have held a number of JETT and teen meetings.

•FED teams have continued to fill the job of CVC Instruction Coordinators. Our CVC graduates have earned over 600 certificates and diplomas!

Attack Day for Single Parents

161. Thank you all for your cooperation toward our attack day for single parents. The attack day went very well, and $42,500 was raised by you, which when matched by WS means the Family has contributed $85,000, which we'll be sending soon to all our single parents. We appreciate the love and care you've shown our single mothers and fathers, and pray that this gift will be a token of all of our love and concern for them.

Young People Moving to the Fore

162. This past year, once again, we've had an increase in the number of young people who have moved into positions of responsibility and shepherding. Whether you are a young person on childcare‚ outreach, pioneering a new field, shepherding JETTs, or keeping the home fires burning, we've been very encouraged to hear reports of how many of you have stepped up to fill the need, and to move into jobs that were formerly handled by FGAs. Young and old working together side by side will strengthen the Family tremendously‚ and it is already doing so. Dad had a short word on this topic:

163. (Dad speaking:) It's a tremendous victory how you young people and older folks are working together better. Not only that, you young people are stepping into places of great responsibility‚ and you're carrying the load responsibly and prayer­fully. We couldn't do it without you!

164. I'm not going to go into great detail here and list all the ministries that young people have stepped into that used to be only managed by FGAs. Each of you can simply look around you and see it for yourself. I just wanted to give you all a short word of commendation. This merging of the generations and working alongside one another is what I've been working toward and praying for. Now it's happening more than ever. Keep up the good work! (End of mess­age from Dad.)

Family Strengthened

Through Greater Use of Prophecy

165. (Peter: ) A major step of progress this past year has been the increased use of prophecy at the Home level. Mama and I are so proud of all of you who have made a commitment and special effort to make prophecy a part of your daily life. Yes‚ it takes faith‚ but we're sure you're also seeing its invaluable benefits!

166. As was brought out in "The Weakness Revolution—How You Can Make It, Part 1," the Family has been in large part spiri­tually strengthened through utilizing the gift of prophecy in everyday living, as well as loving Jesus intimately and obeying the New Wine. Here's an excerpt from a prophecy in that Letter that touches on how prophecy has strengthened our Family:

167. (Jesus speaking to Mama and Peter:) My Family, My children, are progressing more now than ever before! The pro­gress that I talk about is deep spiritual progress.

168. Many are learning to seek Me more, to operate more in accord­ance with My plan and My direct leading and guidance. Many are linking up more to the things of the Spirit and are learning to be more attuned to the checks of their spirit helpers, those that I send to help, to lead, and to guide. And there are outward manifestations of this growth; as people hear My voice and follow My leadings, it brings forth fruit both in their lives and in the lives of others. Those who grow in this manner receive more of My blessings than ever before. (End of excerpts of message from Jesus.) (ML #3218:32,33; GN 819).

Documentary on the Family

169. A new and very negative documentary on the Family, entitled The Love Prophet—The Children of God, has recently been released. Besides demonizing Dad, the film contains outright lies about him and the Family, and portrays us all in a very bad light.

170. The producers of this docu­mentary, Abbey and Irene Neidik, originally promised to produce a factual and fair documentary on the Family of today and our Endtime beliefs, and stated that we would be able to view the final edit before publication for our input. Sadly, they did not keep their promises. Instead, they succumbed to editorial and financial pressures from their sponsors‚ focused on our distant past, and created a typical sensationalist documentary. Like so many others in the media, they came to the conclusion that scandal sells‚ truth doesn't. This film was recently shown at the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion Conference in Montreal and met with strong criticism from academics who have studied the Family in depth.

171. This documentary is scheduled to be aired on TV in Canada early in 1999 and has already been aired in one country in Europe. Please pray against the showing of this documentary, that it will not be picked up by media outlets in other parts of the world, and that any negative repercussions for the Family will be minimal.

Mama's Thanks for Your Prayers

172. (Mama:) I can't thank you all enough for the many prayers you've prayed, and how you've helped to support both Peter and me through your prayers. Through these the Lord has been able to sustain us physically and spiritually. The Lord, in speaking to me, said that your prayers are "love offerings that come up before Me daily, whose perfume rises before Me, and in return I command your strength. 'As thy day, so shall thy strength be,' and that is ­because they pray for you daily. You are truly a mir­acle motor, fuelled by their constant intercession around the world. One of the great victories of the year is your continued health to lead and guide this army through the power of their prayers, which each one has had a direct part in and influence." (End of excerpt of message from Jesus.)

173. Peter and I are so thankful to have such a wonderful Family who help to support us in prayer‚ not only for our physical strength, but for the Lord's anointing and guidance. We know it's a miracle of the Lord and an answer to your faithful prayers that we have His strength and anointing. The Lord has miraculously kept me from having a period for several months now, which has enabled me to be much stronger. He's kept my eyes from getting sorer, and He's done a real miracle in helping my hair to stop falling out and to actually begin growing back again. He's kept Peter's heart from problems and has given him the strength he needs.

174. Thank you‚ dear Family, for those love offerings in prayer for us, which we appreciate so much. We love you!

Stay Faithful in Prayer

175. (Peter:) Please continue to uphold in prayer our dear Family members who are fighting life-threatening illnesses. We are called to be our brother's keeper and not only lovingly care for those who are suffering afflictions within our own Homes, but also reach out and touch others through our fervent prayers. Make good use of the International Prayer List by putting it in a location where it gets constant attention, and pray daily for these dear ones whose lives depend on your prayers!

176. Please don't forget to keep praying for the poor people of Iraq who have suffered under the U.S. and Britain's cruel bombing and sanctions. In the recent Currents on this subject‚ Dad exhorts and pleads with us to pray for these poor people (ML #3223, GN 826). Also, let's not forget others in war-torn countries and those suffering persecution throughout the world. It's our responsibility‚ folks. The Lord and Dad expect it of us! Amen?

Changes and Major Events

In Russia During 1998

177. We've had a wonderful missionary work in Russia for many years. With the changing political climate and the passing of strict anti–religious laws‚ it has been necessary for our Russian Family to find new ways to operate. This is a major change for this field which we wanted to keep you informed of so you can continue to pray for the Family there.

178. Following are excerpts of a report from Magda (CRO), outlining the various changes that the Russian work has undergone since the strict new anti-religious law was passed. God bless our Family there, who have earnestly prayed and sought the Lord concerning what preparations they should make in order to continue preaching the Gospel and feeding the sheep.

General changes in the work:

•It was voted for Russia to become a sensitive country.

•A number of childcare meetings (geared for young families with little children) were hosted, including a 3-day seminar.

•Workshops: After receiving clear instructions from the Lord, Dad, and spirit helpers concerning how to operate in Russia under the new law, we held workshop meetings with representatives from 17 Homes. The meetings led to creating a new set of advisories, info about better security for our work on the field, etc.

•Area training meetings: In early November we were able to have five days of meetings with representatives from each Home on the field. Altogether we had 110 people attending those meetings (about 95% of the whole field). We majored on new methods of reaching the country, security, and Endtime preparations.

•VS program: Two VS teams have begun to actively work with us, visiting Homes and starting to communicate with the field (last year we didn't have VSs).

•Area services: Nationalization of all area services (PPC, Lit-Pic‚ communications, ABM-related responsi­bilities and Border Base). We still have others working hand in hand with our national brethren, but more and more of these operations are being run by nationals in preparation for the time when foreigners may have to leave.

•In the last year we've had 8 Homes in ­Russia close. After a series of messages sent to our Homes with prophecies concern­ing changes happening on the field, we were expecting more Homes to close down and move on to more open fields. However, the majority of brethren are staying for right now, learning how to reach Russia in a new way, under new conditions.

Legal-related changes in the country that the new law has brought about:

•More restrictions on witnessing and lit­nessing.

•As a result of being very open before the new law was implemented, several Homes, after confirming it with the Lord, have moved to new locations and are learning to be more underground.

•Our distribution of humanitarian aid continues to be welcomed in most places. Bible study groups, some distribution of literature and private religious teaching also continue, and from what we have been told by legal experts‚ this is within our rights.

•A few Homes had to close down their work when it became impossible for them to ­renew their visas or registration. This seemed to have been at the discretion of the local officials, and it is not clear whether it was because of their affiliation with the Family or part of the general tightening of controls over foreigners' stay in the ­country.

•As our members are not attempting to formally establish a religious organization, nor are they holding large evangelical-type meetings, we have not been faced with the type of difficulty that other small churches or larger Western-based de­nomi­­nations have encountered. However, the growing animosity and suspicion of the public towards minority religions and even generally towards foreigners is a big concern.

Reaching the country with new methods:

•We're taking more time to strengthen ­national churches (catacombers/live-outs and outside witnessers).

•CTP ministries have opened doors with local authorities, and friendship with high-ranking officials has allowed teams to stay longer in the country and continue to teach and preach Jesus to others.

New ways to reach the country:

•We're switching into a more computer-oriented operation instead of paper only (follow-up lit, local language library‚ all communications).

•We are presently ready to print four books in Russian for distribution, which will be new tools for reaching this field. All Russians love to read‚ so we are expecting good results from that distribution.

•Soon there will be a new Russian audio tape, made especially for the needs of Russian National Churches, to strengthen their faith in times of troubles and bring His encouragement to their hearts.

179. Here are excerpts of a message our Russian leadership received a few months ago when asking the Lord how they should help the Homes to be better prepared for what's coming:

180. (Jesus speaking:) In teaching My children on this field how to survive the winter that is ahead of them, teach them most of all to pray; teach them to hear My voice and to obey the Words that they receive from Me. Teach them to love Me and My Words, and to love one another, for in doing so they will stand strong and immovable. For though the attacks of the ­Enemy will be stronger and greater, yet My power in My children will be much greater if they only believe and receive this power from Me.

181. I will speak to them. I will care for them. I will speak clearly of My plans for them. Remember that the light of the Word and My love can never be conquered by the darkness of the Devil and his emissaries. I will call a team of people who are called to be here. One by one, little by little, I will lead them and strengthen the faith of those who are chosen by Me to be here. (End of excerpts of message from Jesus.) (End of excerpts of report from Magda.)

182. (Peter: ) Please continue to keep the Russian Family and work in your prayers as they pioneer the way in once again working in a more underground setting.

A Unified and Progressive Body!

183. After reading all of the above vic­tories and testimonies, you might wonder, if things are going so well in the Family, why does it seem like there are still so many problems? After all the milestone GNs that the Lord has poured out this past year on unity, gossip, love, kindness, the Law of Love and living the One Wife vision, why is there still a lack of harmony in your Home? Or why do things not flow as smoothly as it seems‚ from the New Wine, that they should?

184. The Lord gave an insightful message on this very topic, which I'd like to share with you. Mama and I found it very interesting, and we believe it will help to explain to you, dear Family‚ why it is that despite the fact that the Lord has given the solutions to all of our problems in the Word, oftentimes things do not seem to change. The problem is not with the Word! The problem is that we don't put the Word fully into effect. And as the Lord explains‚ it takes time for people to learn to open themselves up to Him, to hear from Him, and to make the needed changes, or else step aside, so that His Body—made up of all of us—can become the unified sample that He wants us to be.

185. If you're going through big testings and trials at this time in your life, don't give up. Things are improving and they'll continue to improve, even though it may be hard to see that right now. Hang on to the Lord and He'll pull you through!

186. (Jesus speaking:) Do not fear these tests and trials. These are opportunities to take upward steps, to grow. It may seem like a big wall at times‚ but you can make it, and you are making it!

187. Take time to let Me speak to you, and that will wash away the vestiges of the past—all the hurts, the filth, the uncleanness, the doubts. This is the way I'm leading. This is what I'm trying to teach all of My children everywhere: to listen to Me, to hear Me, to let Me guide and direct your lives.

188. This is what I would tell the whole world! If the leaders of the world's nations would stop right now and open themselves up to hear from Me, I would tell them what to do. And if they would do it, it would solve more problems than they could ever imagine!—And more simply and quickly than they could ever imagine. But even if these were to stop and listen and open themselves up to hear from Me, it would take more. It would also require their people to cooperate and to likewise listen.

189. This is what I'm doing with each of you in the Family. My king and My queen have learned this; they have opened themselves up and they are listening and they are hearing‚ and to the best of their ability they are trying to do what I show them. They are the head. But if you—the body—do not cooperate, progress can't be made.

190. So many of you in other parts of the body wonder why things are not progressing as much or as quickly as it seems they should. It is a lack of coordination, a lack of working together, a lack of everyone accepting and opening up to hear, to believe, to act. When every member of the body—every muscle, every joint, every organ—stops and yields and listens and obeys, then you will have a total unifying and the ability for the body to work together, to run, to jump, to do great things. This is the work that I am working now. For the head alone cannot move the body; the body has to be open, receptive and yielded as well.

191. This is why the pressure is pushing down on you. You have to yield. You have to be open. And as you learn to yield and to be open and to act upon what I tell you and what I give you and have faith in it—to have faith not in yourself only, but also in the head—your coordination will be heightened and greatly increased. The body will work together in greater unity. It cannot be just you striving toward these things; those around you must also do the same. There must be total coordination and cooperation throughout the entire body for the body to function properly as it should. This takes time.

192. Many people—young and old alike—have grown old in spirit and are less elastic and pliable than they were in previous days. Many feel that they have grasped My Spirit and how it works. They feel that they have captured the Wild Wind and that they know how things should be, and they're less open, less moldable, and less pliable than in previous years. But it's more important than ever to be a new bottle now! It's more important than ever to open yourself up and to let Me speak to your heart, to warm you‚ to make you soft and moldable again and working together with the entire body.

193. Many of you have suffered and endured many hurts, and you try to protect yourselves from further hurt or damage. But in doing so, you close yourself off to not only those around you, but to Me. It's much like the person who has been heartbroken and never wants to love again because they don't want to endure the heart­break. That is never a solution, and it ­usually results in a very sad and lonely person. You have to be willing to risk the heartbreak to gain the love, and those who try and try again usually find and gain the love that they've wanted and needed and desired.

194. You can't let things of the past hold you back or make you reserved or fearful or fretful of moving into new things and opening yourself up. I know that you really don't know how to do this or how to accomplish it, but I do. The answer and the solution is found in taking time with Me daily‚ for I am faithful and I will not fail you. I know your needs. I know where you're at. I know how to give you moment by moment and day by day what you need to help you be what I need you to be and what you want to be, and what will make you happy.

195. So listen. Take the time and hear from Me, and I will do the miracle. I will make the change in you day by day, moment by moment. As you listen to Me‚ your heart will grow softer, your faith will grow, and you'll be able to do things you never imagined.

196. I have promised time and again that great things lie ahead for My Family, and many wonder where or how these things are going to happen. "Why haven't they happened?" many wonder. The answer is simple: You haven't learned to coordinate, you haven't learned to yield, you haven't learned to work together, you haven't learned to be in sync and in harmony and in tune. But when you do—as each one, one by one‚ opens up‚ opens their flower to the sun, as each learns to be in harmony and in tune and in perfect coordination with the other members—then great things can happen!

197. It's like the athlete who is recovering from an injury; as the members of his body are healed and grow and yield‚ he can learn to walk, run, exercise, and grow stronger again. Eventually, as he works at it, he can become swift and strong and sure enough to compete in the Olympics. Though he was weak, yet he has become strong.

198. So it is with you. Each Family member is either learning to yield or be replaced, and this takes time. As I have told you before, there are many great things ahead, things that you've never dreamed or imagined! So hold fast to your crown and let no man take it from you. Encourage and strengthen and lift up those around you to do likewise. You must not grow weary in well doing, for in due season you will reap the rewards and fruits, and you'll be glad that you stopped, looked‚ and listened to My still‚ small voice. (End of message from Jesus.)

The Year of the Bottom Line

Has Ended!

199. (Peter:) To end this GN, Mama and I would like to share with you a message about this new year which we received at the close of 1998. It explains that 1998, as the year of the bottom line and time of decision-making, is now over. The Lord is moving on to a new year of further decisions and honing of our skills, in order to make us into a tight-knit, strong‚ quality Endtime team!

200. (Jesus speaking: ) This year [1998] brings to a close the year of the bottom line. This year concludes the year of people making their decisions—whether they want to go forward, make progress, change, and accomplish not only My good will but My highest will. Now I take those of you who have signed a blank sheet of paper, who have made the right de­cisions during this year of the bottom line, My spiritual navy seals, My Gideon's band, and I begin fashioning you into the vessels and instruments needed to form My strong, small, quality Endtime army.

201. You who have chosen above all things to love Me and put Me first, who seek to please Me and to perform My will, have made the most important decision in your life of service and in your spiritual growth. Nevertheless, the de­cisions along the pathway of life do not stop with this decision to put Me first and to do My will above all. I put My soldiers-in-training in circumstances and conditions that will continue to refine and hone their skills and enable them to hear from Me and perform My will amidst adverse and difficult circumstances and conditions.

202. As the Endtime scenario unfolds and you, My soldiers‚ continue to be used of Me, you must learn to operate according to your personal faith based on decisions that you personally make. Know that according to your choices and yieldedness I will teach you very important quality lessons. Sometimes you must go through the school of hard knocks. Sometimes you must take a step backwards, which in turn catapults you to new heights in the spirit.

203. So though you fall or make the wrong decisions, you must not worry or feel like you have failed, for even these falls which seem to be backward are My opportunities to teach you greater lessons of brokenness and dependence on Me. So though you see the situation now in the present, I see the fruit that will be borne in the future through the decisions that you make. But they must be your decisions; you must oper­ate according to your faith. I present choices before all My children, for I am working in the hearts of each individual, and you must petition Me about My will for you personally.

204. For some the decision will mean sacrificing and forsaking something you cherish and hold dear to your heart in order to do My highest will. This is your choice, for I do not force My will upon you. You must operate according to your own faith and trust that I will use you and continue to teach you the lessons that you need and train you as My Endtime soldier within the circumstances that you have chosen.

205. Whatever decision you make, My love for you is constant and unchanging. I will be a very present help in any time of trouble, your Comforter and your Refuge, your Lover and your Friend. Any sacrifice will be greatly rewarded, for no good thing will I withhold from them that walk uprightly.

206. Worry not, for you are in My hands and I will care for you and I will accomplish My will. You simply must seek Me about My will and consider the options so that you can wisely and prayerfully make decisions that will affect your future usefulness. (End of message from Jesus)

207. (Peter:) So there you have it, dear Family!—The victories and accomplishments of 1998‚ as well as some words from the Lord on what the new year holds in store for us! There are a multitude of victories won in every Home and in every Family member's life that we couldn't possibly cover here‚ but you and the Lord know what they are. The Lord has helped us to make tremendous progress this past year, thanks to you, each Family member, who has given your all, both in witnessing and reaching the lost and in obedience to the New Wine.

208. May the Lord bless and keep us this coming year, and help us reach more people with His message than ever! We love you!