February 1976GP No.385

—A FINAL FERVENT PLEA TO A DOOMED NATION!

—By the Author of "Letter to a Loved One," A Concerned Child of God, to Her Family in the U.S.:

Dear Folks:

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

1. GREETINGS IN JESUS' DEAR NAME! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR LETTERS AND REMEMBRANCES. I'm so sorry I'm so long in writing. I never seem to be able to get off letters or cards in time, so then I get discouraged about sending them at all.

2. YOU KNOW HOW I'VE ALWAYS BEEN ALL MY LIFE ABOUT LETTER WRITING and other correspondence!—In fact, it does seem to run in the family, doesn't it? But please don't think it means I've forgotten you all‚ because I always remember your birthdays‚ and I've sometimes even bought you cards that I didn't send because I was too late!—Please forgive me! And please don't think it's because I don't love you any more or don't think about you, because I do—a lot!

3. HOW COULD I EVER FORGET ALL THOSE YEARS YOU WERE SO WONDERFUL TO ME and gave me such good training for the future, in spite of the fact that many times I was terrible to live with and so ornery so many times! But you were such good samples of the way the Lord is with all of us, His children: He never rejects us or withdraws His love no matter how bad we get‚ and He always has hope for us and tries to get us back on the right track no matter how far we've strayed.

4. SO I REALLY APPRECIATE THE GOOD START IN LIFE YOU GAVE ME and the good home I had, until the Lord knew I had been prepared enough and ready to go out to help others. Ours was so unlike most of the homes of most the young people with whom we're working, the vast majority of whom have come from ungodly homes where there was no faith or peace or rest or joy, nothing but fighting and bickering, and where sometimes the father or mother was a drunk and ran around with other women or men and the brothers and sisters were involved in drugs‚ vice, crime, etc.

5. YOU KNOW HOW FROM THE VERY BEGINNING ALMOST I WAS ALWAYS INTERESTED IN YOUNG PEOPLE and in working with them and helping them—from the little youth group I had to finally Campus Crusade, which was doing a lot of good as far as it went in reaching certain groups, mainly the college kids. In a way, they were reaching the "good" kids, but hardly ever touching the hippies or drug addicts or dropouts searching for a better way of life‚ the misfits of a society that has rejected them because of their criticisms of it. But the good kids that Campus Crusade was reaching needed the Gospel too, so I gained valuable experience in meeting with young people and sharing with them about Jesus and the happiness He had to offer.

6. BUT THE COLLEGE KIDS‚ though many of them would accept Jesus into their hearts and though it added a measure of joy to their lives, were already pretty much satisfied with life the way it was: They were getting a good education and looking forward to a life which would revolve around this education and the circle of friends who would be involved in this work. So they could not be completely fulfilled in the Lord because they themselves were not keeping their part of the bargain. Jesus said, "If you love Me, keep My commandments: ...Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature, making disciples of all nations!"

7. SO THOSE GROUPS THAT I WAS IN‚ LIKE CAMPUS CRUSADE AND YOUTH FOR TRUTH WERE JUST STEPS in the direction of complete service for the Lord and complete fulfillment in throwing my whole life into the most valuable work in the world: Winning disciples for Jesus! As you remember I began to be very dissatisfied and discontent and bored with the way things were and the lack of change I was seeing in my own life and the lives of others who had accepted Christ. "All things were continuing as they were," and my car was just spinning its tires and getting nowhere!

8. BUT I LOVED YOU ALL DEARLY and was very happy living with you, my family and the decision to leave home was by no means easy, if you recall. It was one of the biggest decisions of my life to leave the parents I loved and my home and friends to go with strangers to serve the Lord, as "a stranger in a strange land." But the Lord's call was so strong I couldn't shut it out nor could I hesitate to obey, and I had to tell the Lord that He'd have to take care of you—He could do a better job of it than I ever could anyway. Thank you for not trying to stand in my way.

9. I WANTED TO SERVE THE LORD more than anything in the world, and since I'd been filled with the Spirit nothing else had satisfied—not jobs or education or even part-time service for Him. I wanted to serve Him where every bit of what I was doing would count toward winning more disciples who would in turn win others who win others in a never-ending process to win the world with His Love.

10. SO WHEN I FOUND THERE WERE PEOPLE WHO LOVED THE LORD WHO WERE REALLY REACHING THE HIPPIES—the most needy class of young people in the whole world—the poor brokenhearted disillusioned, embittered youth of America, drug addicts and just plain searching kids, and they were really successful with them in winning them to the Lord when the churches, as you know‚ had not been able to get through to them, I felt like I had found the mission field of millions of youth with truly desperate needs that I had always dreamed of.

11. WHEN I SAW HOW GOD COULD ACTUALLY CHANGE THESE LIVES ALMOST OVERNIGHT WITH HIS LOVE and our love and patience into really happy, joyful, genuinely saved and born again kids who really love the Lord and have been marvellously delivered from all of their former vices and drugs, etc., and changed into truly wonderful young people who want to serve the Lord with all their heart and soul and help deliver other young people from the things that they themselves were once into, because to whom much is forgiven the same loveth much—when I saw all of this happening before my very eyes, I felt like I wanted to become part of this ministry to youth—my mission field!

12. YOUTH!—THOSE WHO HAVE THE DRIVE AND THE INITIATIVE AND THE INSPIRATION AND THE PERSEVERANCE AND COURAGE AND VISION AND STRENGTH TO REACH THE WORLD—to change the world for the better with God's powerful love! The older generation is already tied down with many cares of life, much of their years are spent, and usually even if they would, their opportunities for being flaming fires for the Lord upon His altar of service, have passed with the years. But if they will they can stand behind the youth and pray and support them in whatever ways they can. If you believe‚ the world can still be moved by your prayers.

13. UNCLE DAVE AND HIS FAMILY‚ AS YOU BY NOW KNOW, WERE HAVING THE GREATEST SUCCESS WITH THE HIPPIE YOUTH in California of almost any group there by stooping to their level as Jesus did, who was accused of associating with "drunks and harlots, publicans and sinner," visiting their homes and eating at their tables in order to win them, for He "came not to call the righteous‚ but sinners to repentance." (Mat.9:13) These were the rejects of society, like the dropped out‚ drug-addicted youth of today who had gotten fed up and bored with school and education and had left it all and finally society, and eventually almost dropped out of life itself. In fact, thousands of them did die of overdoses of drugs because they just didn't want to live in this evil world any more, a world they'd found they couldn't change by themselves.

14. BUT THANK GOD, HE PROMISED that even though He had to "send the rich empty away," He'll "fill the hungry with the good things," and He'll renew the strength of the starving and give them new life and hope!—And when you look at their happy smiling faces now, no wonder the world marvels at the changes in them when they realise the depths from which they have come, and we can only praise and thank God that He always fulfills His promises and cares for His Own!

15. YOUTH EVANGELISTS THEN LIKE DAVE WILKERSON WERE NOT REACHING THE HIPPIES AT ALL. He had been reaching the drug addicts and teen gangs of the New York slums, but he was not reaching these middle– and upper-class youth who had dropped out of society and were so sick of it all, and in their search for a different better way of life had become hippies and then found this didn't satisfy either. In fact, when we first knew him, he didn't even like hippies and said he hardly believed hippies could be saved, he'd only known one in his whole life who had been saved‚ and he seemed to think they were a hopeless case. God gives burdens for different mission fields to different people and then He gives them the faith for reaching those people.

16. SO SOMEONE ELSE HAD TO HAVE THE FAITH TO REACH THE MIDDLE- AND UPPER-CLASS HIPPIES. Wilkerson even used to crack jokes against the hippies and so offended them that they'd get up and walk out of his meetings!—So that when we last attended his meetings he had almost nothing but church kids left! His crowds were made up of almost nothing but Pentecostal youth who had already come from good homes and already knew the Gospel. These, too, of course needed a good evangelist to help them make a decision for the Lord‚ and so he was reaching the ones to whom the Lord had called him and given him the faith for, but he was at the same time condemning us and our mission field of hippies.

17. IN FACT, WHEN HE FIRST HEARD OF OUR UNUSUAL METHODS OF REACHING HIPPIES, DAVE WILKERSON EVEN WROTE A CHAPTER IN HIS BOOK AGAINST US, the Children of God‚ and said it wouldn't work, and compared the hippies to Samson in the Bible as nothing but a bunch of foolish freaks with long hair! But after our astonishing success with them by those very same unusual methods which started the Jesus Revolution rolling, David Wilkerson changed his whole attitude toward the hippies and wrote a new book and confessed that he had been wrong before and was sorry he had had such a hopeless attitude toward the hippies since he'd now found that they could get saved and that some people were having success in winning them!

18. BUT HE STILL DIDN'T AGREE WITH OUR METHODS—EXACTLY THE SAME KIND OF REMARKS JESUS' CRITICS MADE ABOUT HIM and the unusual methods He was using to reach the lowest of the low of His day!—And it was also the church people and church leaders who criticised Him, too! What Jesus and His Disciples were to the hopelessly lost of their day and time here on Earth is what we became to the hippies and the lost youth of our day in order to win them.

19. SO WHAT DID IT MATTER IF OUR METHODS WERE A LITTLE UNUSUAL and sometimes sounded even a little crazy and freaky?—they even accused Jesus of being demon-possessed and consorting with the wrong kind of women and all kinds of terrible things!—But He was winning them!—And that's what we were doing there in California‚ and it worked!

20. OUR LITTLE GROUP THERE REALLY STARTED THE JESUS REVOLUTION with our unusual approach which was the first to really get through to the hippie youth on their own level in words and ways that they understood and could relate to.—And that's what we've been doing ever since: Leading a worldwide Revolution for Jesus which has swept the world from those tiny little beginnings in which I am now so thankful that I was privileged to have a part in our first little hippie club in California where it all began!

21. WE HAVE NOW WITNESSED TO OVER TWO BILLION OF THE YOUTH OF THE WORLD, NEARLY TWO-THIRDS OF ITS POPULATION and have won 667,503 to Christ and persuaded nearly 5,000 of them to serve the Lord fulltime as missionaries to youth in our 725 Colonies around the world in 70 lands and 42 languages! Our literature is now being distributed at the rate of more than one million copies a week or five million a month in these 42 languages on all six continents, and our work is still booming and entering new countries nearly every week!

22. WE'RE FINDING THAT THE LOVE OF JESUS WORKS THE SAME MIRACLES FOR ALL YOUNG PEOPLE ANYWHERE regardless of their race or colour or beliefs or language! All our young people have to do is just show them their concern and love—God's love—and they just melt into our arms and want to be one of us!

23. THANK GOD WE HAVE THESE COLONIES TO WHICH THEY CAN COME FOR A PERIOD OF REHABILITATION AND TRAINING in our family-type of life and in a good wholesome Christian atmosphere, to study the Bible and learn God's Word and His ways and also have the fun and fellowship all kids need, and to learn to witness to other youth of their own kind to deliver them too from the Devil's drugs‚ vice and crime to lives of wholesome, joyful fruitful service for the Lord!

24. WHEN I NOW LOOK AT OUR WORLDWIDE WORK AFTER ONLY SIX YEARS, I AM AMAZED AND THRILLED to think that I actually was there and helped to participate in its humble beginnings and that the Lord has let me have a part in bringing this all about to the tremendous proportions to which it has grown today!—And it was partly because of your sacrifice in giving me to the Lord and letting me go that made it possible for me to serve the Lord and fulfill what He had called me to, and I'm sure in answer to your prayers for me‚ even though it may not have been exactly what you had expected. But "our ways are not God's ways" and "His ways are past finding out." (Isa.55:8; Rom.11:33)

25. MILLIONS OF THE YOUTH OF TODAY HAVE BEEN WITNESSED TO AND HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS WON TO THE LORD, so you could say that even you had a part in making the Revolution for Jesus possible! So in spite of all the terrible things they say about us and the lies they tell about us and the jealous criticisms of various churches and religious leaders and some confused parents, and some things that are possibly hard for you to understand, I hope that you've had a chance to meet some of our young people lately and to learn that the bad things they say about us are not true!

26. WE ARE STILL RATHER HIPPYISH AND INFORMAL AND WE STILL LIVE IN HIPPIE–LIKE COLONIES and our music is rather hip as well, but it's all joyful music about the Lord, and our Colonies are happy homes of happy young people serving Him, instead of being the problem youth they used to be!

27. WHY CAN'T THE CHURCHES AND CRITICAL PEOPLE LOOK AT THE GOOD RESULTS instead of criticising the funny methods that we use? But they treat us just like they did Jesus!—The Church leaders of His day finally got so jealous they even killed Him to try to put a stop to His work and His Words! But the Love of God simply rolled right on over them like a tidal wave to cover the whole Earth!—Hallelujah!—And they were left far behind as dead and dry as He'd said they'd be!

28. EVEN THE PEOPLE AND THE LAND THAT REJECTED HIM AND THIS MESSAGE WERE DESTROYED AFTER HE WAS GONE!—Just as we believe America and its people who rejected us and fought us so fiercely and tried to stop us and put us down will also be destroyed soon! But the Lord will be merciful to the many other poor needy lands of the Earth and their young people who have received us with open arms and given us their blessing and thanked God we were saving their youth from things worse than death! But most Americans, it seems, were so blind they just couldn't see it or didn't want to see it and they rejected our warnings about their crooked government and the corrupt tyrant Nixon.—But now it's all happened and they know it's true—too late!

29. DEAREST FOLKS, I WISH YOU AND THE FAMILY DIDN'T HAVE TO BE THERE when God's judgements begin to fall on America for her sins. But I hope maybe things won't be as bad out there in the middle of the desert as they are in the big cities.—Or maybe you could even flee to Mexico and live with the very poor on one of their farms when the time comes! At least you might have something to eat and it wouldn't be so far away. A mobile home could come in handy for some of you to live in if you became refugees.—Do you still have one? If so‚ please hang onto it, since it may become one of your most valuable possessions soon!

30. SOMEHOW WE AMERICANS HAVE ALWAYS HAD THE IDEA THAT THESE THINGS ALWAYS HAPPEN SOME PLACE ELSE, THAT THEY NEVER HAPPEN IN AMERICA—BUT THEY COULD YOU KNOW! Some of our kids went through the Cyprus war recently and things got pretty rough‚ but the Lord did spare them, so He's able to spare His Own wherever you are even if things get pretty bad.—But they sure were glad they'd stocked up on storage food as we'd warned them, because that helped pull them through!

31. LIKE THEM YOU COULD AT LEAST HAVE SOMETHING TO EAT while lying flat on the floor under a table most of the time through several days of battle! There was a curfew on and you couldn't leave the house even if you wanted to or even if the store had had any groceries, which they didn't, because the suppliers hadn't been able to make deliveries with all the bullets and shells flying all around! So please be sure you've got some extra food stored, Folks, like canned goods‚ etc., as well as water, and are also fixed so you could go without electricity or gas for a few days, because during such emergencies these things are usually shut off—and then you'll be thankful for candles and a woodpile!

32. SO SORRY YOU ALL CAN'T LEAVE THE COUNTRY AS WE HAVE! We've found to our surprise that a lot of the rest of the world is really a beautiful place to live in, contrary to the impression that you sometimes get in the States that that's the only place in the world to live! We've found that the people, too, have been a lot kinder to us in a lot of countries than some were to us in America!

33. IN FACT, AFTER LIVING IN SOME OF THE QUIETER, POORER BUT MORE PEACEFUL AND BEAUTIFUL COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD, WE'VE ABOUT DECIDED THAT AMERICA'S REALLY ONE OF THE WORST PLACES IN THE WORLD TO LIVE with all of its dangerous crime‚ civil strife, traffic accidents, corrupt governments, pollution, wars, etc.! It seems to have about the worst of all these of any country in the world! Thank the Lord that at least some of you live in some of the more peaceful parts of it away form a lot of its troubles, with relatively clean air and not too much traffic and other troubles.

34. BUT YOU'RE BOUND TO FEEL THE WORLD OIL SHORTAGE SOONER OR LATER THERE as things grow steadily worse! Because your industrial economy there, as well as even your home heating and gasoline for the cars and everything, is so dependent on oil which the Arabs seem so determined to hang onto now for higher prices in order to get a little more say in the world's affairs! We actually feel that maybe this is going to be a good thing in the end, however, as we believe the whole world will probably be a lot better off without so many automobiles, air pollution, plastics, etc.—

35. AND THE POOR ARABS REALLY DO NEED A LITTLE BETTER DEAL THAN THEY'VE BEEN GETTING AFTER BEING CHEATED AND PUSHED AROUND BY THE WESTERN WORLD SO LONG! The Israelis have even driven the poor Palestinians completely out of their homeland, and yet still wonder why the poor Palestinians want to come back again! We believe the next war will probably be fought for control of the Middle East and its oil‚ even as it was fought in Cyprus. America's CIA was behind that Greek push into Cyprus with that military coup for this very reason!—But it backfired on them as the Turks turned the tables on the Greeks and took over a third of the island instead!

36. NOW THE ONLY FOOTHOLD THE U.S. HAS IN THE OIL–RICH MIDDLE EAST IS OIL-LESS ISRAEL, so she's bound to want more to ensure her oil supply. This probably will precipitate the next war there as she tries to take over the Arab oil countries, too, and Russia tries to stop her!

37. THAT'S ONE REASON WHY WE'VE TRIED TO MAKE GOOD FRIENDS WITH THE ARABS LATELY, because they're becoming such a growing influence in the world and we've found them very responsive and receptive to our kind of love and the Gospel. … In fact, we've found that in many countries which are [disliked] by most Americans, we've been even more welcome and better treated than we were sometimes in the U.S.! Their youth are just as hungry for the love of Jesus as are the youth of the world everywhere we go.

38. SO YOUR LITTLE GRANDDAUGHTER, GRANDMA‚ HAS GONE OUT TO TAKE A LOOK AT THE "BIG BAD WORLD OUTSIDE" AND FOUND THAT MOST OF IT IS NOT NEARLY AS BAD AS WE WERE TOLD—AND HARDLY ANYWHERE AS BAD AS IT IS IN THE DIS–UNITED STATES! You folks at home are really propagandised against the rest of the world and don't even know it! At home we were always told we were the best country on Earth and the most righteous and Christian and the one that was really right, and we really thought we were!

39. BUT HAVING FINALLY GOTTEN OUT OF AMERICA AND AWAY FROM THE SLANTED NEWS AND VIEWS OF PREJUDICED AMERICAN OPINION and news media and started listening to what the rest of the world has to say and think, we've suddenly discovered to our surprise that most of the world does not consider the U.S. the self-styled "saviour of the world" that she herself really thinks she is.

40. IN FACT, MOST OF THE REST OF THE WORLD THINKS THAT THE U.S. IS ONE OF THE WORST AND MOST SELFISH AND DANGEROUS COUNTRIES ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH and are afraid she's going to plunge the world into another war, which she probably will for that Arab oil!—And we've just about come to agree with them, because it sure looks that way from here when we visit these poor little countries in the rest of the world that have so little‚ when rich America has so much and shares so little of it!

41. IT'S AMERICA'S OWN SELFISHNESS AND BLINDNESS TO THE NEEDS OF THE REST OF THE WORLD THAT'S CAUSED MUCH OF ITS PROBLEMS OF TODAY, including this worldwide inflation caused by the American dollar which is bound to collapse soon the way it's going, and may bring the whole world's economy down with it! We think that's what is going to happen‚ and that then the Antichrist superman will probably appear and take advantage of the situation to take over the world, which will finally precipitate the Great Tribulation just before Jesus comes to rescue us from it!

42. WE EXPECT TO BE SOME OF THE WORLD'S LAST WITNESSES IN THOSE LAST DAYS! This is maybe the reason our own group is having so many babies right now—over 700!—because they will probably become the flaming teenage evangelists of that day, as our kids have been to this generation!

43. WE HAVE GOOD SCHOOLS FOR OUR CHILDREN WHICH ARE CALLED MONTESSORI SCHOOLS because they use the Montessori Method of teaching and our teachers have had the Montessori training which teaches little children to do a great deal for themselves‚ including learning how to cook their own meals, wash their own dishes, tidy up the house, etc. Maybe I should have had some of that, huh?—Ha!

44. SO OUR LITTLE KIDS ARE REALLY DOING WELL.—THEY'RE BECOMING SOME OF OUR BEST WITNESSES and literature salesmen as well‚ and they even lead lots of other little children to the Lord.—They know the way of Salvation so well, including lots of Bible verses, etc. I'm so glad you're teaching your little grandchildren the same, because the Bible will be a great blessing to them not only now but especially as they grow older, as the Bible is to the little children in our group.

45. AS FOR WHAT I'M DOING NOW: As you remember when I last saw you I was working as Uncle Dave's secretary‚ and I'm still now one of his many secretaries in the Publications Department which gets out his letters to the world on all these subjects I've already discussed in this letter, but which I don't know if you Folks ever read or not! At least I know Grandma reads them‚ and I appreciate so much her interest in what I'm doing and learning and what the Lord is showing us!

46. EVEN THOUGH I'VE SENT OUR PUBLICATIONS TO YOU MANY TIMES AND HAD THEM SENT, YOU NEVER SAY ANYTHING ABOUT THEM. Maybe it's because you don't like them and therefore are trying to be kind by just saying nothing, but I'd almost rather you'd tell me what you're thinking, even if it's negative‚ rather than get no response at all!

47. THIS IS ONE REASON WHY I'VE GOTTEN SO DISCOURAGED ABOUT WRITING YOU SOMETIMES, BECAUSE YOU DON'T REALLY SEEM TO BE INTERESTED IN WHAT I'M DOING and the people I'm working with, which naturally gives me the feeling that you don't like them and our work. If I'm wrong in this, please forgive me. I know you do love me and are interested in my personal life, but this is part of my personal life and it is what I live for!—

48. I WANT TO REASSURE YOU THAT I REALLY FEEL THAT I'M A PART OF ONE OF THE MOST WONDERFUL WORKS OF THE LORD AMONGST YOUTH TODAY IN THE WHOLE WORLD and I'm working with some of the most wonderful of the Lord's people, including Uncle Dave‚ who has been very good to your little girl and been a great help to me in many ways and is always very thoughtful of me and how I helped him from the very beginning. In fact, it is he who has encouraged me to write to you many times when I'd gotten discouraged about it and almost given up because you didn't seem to want to hear what I had to say!

49. EVEN THIS LETTER I'M WRITING YOU TODAY IS THE RESULT OF A DREAM HE HAD ABOUT YOU in which you were showing the Lord these lovely letters written in beautiful blue script all edged in gold, a little like that card you sent me for my birthday—and you were saying to the Lord, "You see, I've written her all these letters all edged in love, but she doesn't answer." It was one of those very vivid and significant dreams that he has that are always so true and he remembers so well afterward—different from other kinds of dreams.

50. SO HE KNEW IT WAS FROM THE LORD AND ASKED ME IF I'D WRITTEN YOU LATELY.—And I'm sorry I had to confess that it had been so long I couldn't even remember when I'd last written! He then so kindly asked me if I'd been remembering your birthdays and little things like that, and again I was ashamed to admit that I had neglected some of those, too, although you had been so thoughtful of me and sent me such lovely birthday cards and gifts and letters! When I got out your last birthday card and showed it to him, he actually wept, it made him feel so sorry for you—and made me cry, too!—And I am sorry, really sorry!—Please forgive me!

51. I REALLY HAVE NEGLECTED YOU LATELY, and it makes me feel like I'm a hopeless case to think how thoughtful you've all been when I've been so neglectful of you! Please forgive me! I'll try to do better from now on, God helping me! At least the Lord didn't forget or neglect you, and He must have heard your prayers if you asked Him to have me please write‚ because I got the message right away through Uncle Dave's dream!

52. —AND HERE I AM WRITING AWAY ALREADY EVEN TOO MUCH‚ but maybe this'll help make up for some of my past neglects, as I've just about given you my whole history in this one, as Uncle Dave made me take the whole day off to write it! I need a rest anyway, as I've been a little tired lately since we're pretty busy and all have to work pretty hard.

53. BUT, OF COURSE‚ IT'S NOT NEARLY AS HARD AS IT USED TO BE IN THOSE OFFICES I USED TO WORK IN, since I'm now working with the Lord's people and doing something I really love to do for the Lord and helping so many young people to find Him as their Saviour and changing their whole lives to live for Him! So maybe that will help you understand a little more and take a little more charitable view of those I'm working with, in that they and the Lord have been so thoughtful of me and of you and are taking such good care of me and trying to make me be a good girl and write home!

54. IN FACT‚ UNCLE DAVE WAS VERY INTERESTED IN THE BEAUTIFUL LITTLE FAMILY PICTURE you sent to me, and, after studying it a long time, said that you, Mother‚ have a brave, strong face, a cheerful face, and that I'm very much like you! He says you have a wonderful face‚ Grandma—the face of a saint!—So I told him I know for a fact that you are a saint, and that he's right about both of you! Thanks so much for the picture—I really appreciated it.—But how some of you have changed! I hardly knew you, you look so different! Anyway, Happy Birthday to everybody I missed! Did you all ever read the famous Sun Signs book by Linda Goodman?—I hope you all read parts of it at least and see how they really fit and help you in dealing with people!

55. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE GIFTS YOU'VE SENT! I appreciate so much the gifts you sent me for Christmas! Thank you also for your beautiful cards and letters! I always look forward to hearing from you. I'll always remember you for those, but more, of course, because you've always been so loving and kind to me and so patient with me when I was such a trial! God bless and keep you in His care!

56. PLEASE SEND MY LOVE TO ALL AND EVERYBODY'S KIDS—and if you could, I'd like you to please send copies of this letter to all of them to let them know I'm still alive! I'm going to try to enclose some pics of me also.—I don't suppose I look much different, but whenever I do write I like to send you some. So if you get tired of seeing me, just let me know—or you can send them on to some of the others.

57. PLEASE REMEMBER I LOVE YOU VERY MUCH AND AM PRAYING FOR YOU!—And again‚ forgive me for my neglect! God bless and keep you and continue to make you a blessing!—And please write again soon!—Thanks! I love you! Please keep on loving me!—And pray for us!—And help us if you can!—Thanks! God bless you! Love, —Yours!

P.S.: —Uncle Dave thinks something terrible may happen this year during your boastful Bi–Centennial celebrations as a judgement of God against the wickedness of the U.S.!—Maybe it'll happen on or before or during your July 4th festivities, something like he saw in his dream, "The Deluge!" So please get out soon if you can! Please don't wait until it's too late!—There are so many nicer places in the world who need you!—Love, —Me!