The Family's Priority List

from Jules - Wednesday, November 27, 2002
accessed 2010 times

I recently received a document outlining steps that Family homes are being advised to do to prepare for the coming accountability. It is interesting that the only issue the majority of us have is the violation of our rights, yet protecting their children only makes a minor mention way down the list at number 8. It's sad that the leadership are not getting the point.

(Please note that I received this document through indirect sources and cannot vouch for the complete authenticity of it. However it seems to confirm what we are hearing rumours of.)

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Dear Family,

God bless you and keep you all in the care of our wonderful Husband!

GOING ON THE OFFENSE AGAINST PERSECUTION!

By now you have all probably read some of the GN’s that hint at coming persecution, but now with the GN, Pray, Obey and Prepare, # 1007, we see that the threat of persecution is real and something we all need to seriously pray & prepare for:

Use this warning of impending persecution as a rallying cry to expand your witness, to fortify your work, to reach out further and more effectively. Use it to come together in your boards‚ to pray together about how you can strengthen and build your local work‚ to pray together about how to thwart the Enemy's plans and minimize their effect by building the good name of the Family. Don't just defend, proclaim! Proclaim the Lord's Words and call on the keys. To be forewarned is to be forearmed.

Your enemies are still attacking with the old, old lies‚ but the old is long gone and will never be again. Build around the new restructured Family; build on how the Family helps and enurages the lives of others; build, so that your good will not be evil spoken of. Face outward to the fields and the harvest. Get out witnessing and winning, being a testimony for good. Get out building your contacts, encouraging your friends, and giving to others. Strengthen your follow-up programs. Build the influence of your work. Set the foundation of your local work on a rock, testifying of the Family. (GN 1007:67,65)

The good part is that we’re getting advance warning with numerous points of practical and spiritual preparation that we can avail ourselves of. Having received this wise counsel and warning of impending persecution, the PR board has taken time to pray and hear from the Lord in prophecy about what we can do to aid the homes with their persecution prep and have felt led to pass on the following guidelines which we pray will be a help and blessing to all. Some of the points we gleaned from GN 1007 but added more of the specifics on how to practically apply it to your particular home or area.

PERSECUTION PREP POINTS:

Pray and claim the power of the keys:

-- I am in you and I am all-powerful. When the Enemy attacks, I will fight for you through the power of the keys and defeat your adversary. Nothing can overcome or defeat Me and the power of the keys.
-- Call on the keys and they will be turned to swords, cutting the Devil's monsters to pieces and all the lies that they spew out against you.
-- The keys will fight for you when you cannot fight. Call for the keys of the Kingdom to be turned to swords, and they will slay the dragons of discouragement and despair that oppress you.
-- When the spiritual battles are strong, claim the keys of the Kingdom and they will fight valiantly for you and not give up until the victory is won.
-- As you call on the power of the keys that turn into swords, you become an unbeatable foe! For yo weapons are not carnal, but mighty through Me and the keys! It's the sword of the Spirit at work!
-- All the Devil's plans will be thwarted through the power of the keys!
-- Take the offensive and attack with the power of the keys to defeat your adversary's devices and strategies! You cannot fail if you attack with the power of the keys.
-- It's the hour of your destiny! Stand tall and strong and call on the power of the keys to do battle with the Enemy, and to conquer him.


2. Have your legal papers, passports, visas, Id’s in order—

-- Check all your legal documents to see that they are not outdated, especially your personal and car visas and passports as we sometimes lose track of time and let them get outdated, but in a persecution situation this can make the difference of being detained or going to jail. Some brothers have not been careful with the little paper visa and lost it, so please check to see if you have it and if you do lose it you can go to your nearest immigrations office and ask for a replacement.

--If you’re mated and have children but don’t have a marriage certificate, then be sure that at least one of the parents has the legal custody of the children and have the legal paperwork to prove it.

--If you’re a foreigner in the country (on tourist visa) and been here awhile, you should save your bank statements, money transaction statements, photocopies of donations received from your family or friends abroad, pensions, or income tax return receipts showing the amounts, dates, etc. All this could be needed should you have to prove that you are financially stable and not depending on the country to support you.

--Parents should have medical records for their children, school records, the name of the institution that supplies their home schooling materials, etc.

--Children or minors that are staying at your home without their parents should have a notarized power of attorney permit (POA) from their parents.

3. Communications, computer & personal security--

--From the experience some of us had in past persecutions, it’s a sure thing that some homes phone lines will be tapped as a routine procedure. In the Argentine persecution the police knew our provisioning and home schedule, who was on breakfast, lunch and dinner, as well as everyone’s names and position, just from information they gleaned from tapping the phones. Most governments nowadays have the technological know how to access personal e-mail messages, and with the new post S-11 security programs, they can do all this plus intercept fax and cell phone calls anywhere in the worl Knowing this, it behooves us to be very prayerful and careful what we say when communicating over the phone, sending e-mails or chatting on line.

--All homes should know how to generate keys and have their own PGP key that enables them to send closed messages between homes.

--Your PGP software has the option to create a separate PGP disk drive which allows you to store security files in that drive and can only be accessed with your PW. This drive also closes automatically when you shut down the computer.

--Optional security software would be a firewall to protect against hackers getting into your computers. Some software available for this are Zone Alarm & Bull Dozer.

--Notebooks, diaries and telephone number booklets can be security leaks if we’re not careful about how we note down information. A simple security measure would be to code your phone numbers and keep your notes brief and avoid writing down any information that you don’t want to fall into the wrong hands.

4. Establish good works in your area—It doesn’t take much to start doing something positive and good for your community or city. Following are a few ideas:

--You can visit the nearest orphanage or children’s hospital and take the children or teens and share your happiness and joy, pray for healing and give a salvation message via puppets, singing or skits.

--Follow up on new contacts, cultivate them and give them the word, for their own sake first of all but also so they will be ready to stand up for us should the need arise.

--You can also visit your local police station and offer to do a special program for the policemen’s children. You can take the children or teens along and let it be a part of your community socialization class for the kids and get lots of good pictures.

--Document your witnessing and bible class programs. People will expect to see your documentation of this and it’s expected of Christians.

--If you’ve got a sheep on the line that you’re feeding and they get saved, find meaning to their lives or get delivered from vice, or healed from sickness, get them to write their testimony of how God made a difference in their lives and document with pictures of them before and after, etc.

--Find a needy family or person and start your own charity program by helping them to paint an old room, fix a window, cut the children’s hair, help them with educational guidelines, provision chairs or educational materials for them. Give them the word so they can grow in faith.

--Select a home team to pay a friendly visit to your neighbors. Let the children go with you and take some home made cookies, this is a real door opener!

--Take a camera and small recorder next time you go to the market and ask some of your best contacts if they wouldn’t mind giving you a short testimony about why they help the Family, etc, and get a their picture with you in it.

" Like I've always said, the best defense is a good offense. The Lord is leading you, dear Family, to further strengthen and expand your witness, encouraging you to build the reputation of your local works, showing that the Family is a positive force for good in your local community.” (GN 1007:64)

5. PR Album: One effective way to show your good works on a local level is with a well organized photo album. After you’ve snapped a few shots, select someone in your home with a bit of artistic talent to lay out your picture sheets along with the text explaining each picture. It’s essential that the PR pictures also include some of the people living in your home. We’ve seen several homes’ albums which have been done quite well, and some have pictures .. [of] events outside their cities. However it’s very important that you document local events in your area or city. In [previous] persecution, the homes PR album became key evidence which was included in the court documents and served to prove that the folks there were true missionaries and doing good works and helping their fellow citizens.

(The PR board will be printing a PR brochure soon, to show the various facets of the Family nationwide work and we’ll notify you as soon as it’s ready.)

6. Raising the home standard: Jesus gave us sound advice when he said, “Man looketh on the outward appearance.” This can also apply to the inward appearance of your home and here ... people really go by appearances. You will want to have a high enough standard so that anyone visiting your home, friends, sheep, contacts or officials will feel comfortable when visiting and be impressed with the good sample of your home, the children’s good manners, cleanliness, etc. You’ll find some excellent guidelines on the home standard in the Charter, (13-Responsibilities of the Charter Home Regarding the Welfare of it’s members, A6): and also the Statement “The Heritage and home life of our children”.

7. Keep records of the children’s school records, excursions, outings and any socializing events: Keeping accurate and complete school records is quite important to prove our parents are not negligent with the children’s scholastic needs and to defend our way of life and show the good fruits of it. To demonstrate that our children are normal, socialized and that we don’t keep them locked up against their will, (a common accusation of our enemies) it’s helpful for parents and teachers to document excursions, outings or singing at orphanages, etc, where the children participate. Try to get recommendation letters from the institutions where you perform too. You may want to contact your Fed board for more details on this.

8. Protect your children: In much of society right now there is an atmosphere of concern that the rights of children living in religious communities are not being violated in any way. It is the responsibility of the home to assure that the children are safe from physical, mental, sexual, psychological or any other kind of abuse as per the “Rights of Children” in the charter.

9. Witnessing with young teens & minors: At present, there is a lot of freedom [here] to do just about any kind of witnessing. However, we do need to keep in mind the conservative culture of the country, methods of witnessing and other security points.

--One point would be to assure we have an adult to supervise and accompany our younger teens and minors when out witnessing.

--In most countries including here, people will complain if they see our young people out witnessing on school days.

--Another thing to consider is the dress code for our young people when going out on follow up or witnessing to avoid the punkish look with wide pants, beads, etc. For the girls this would include carefulness to not dress too sexy with bare midriffs, see through clothing, etc.

10. Be familiar with the statements: Be ready to give an answer to him that asketh. It’s to your advantage if you can have a general knowledge of some of the basic statements such as: Our statement of Faith, Our Support and the Heritage and Home Life of our Children.

11. Getting a lawyer: If your home or area doesn’t already have a lawyer, it’s better to get one now rather than wait for a crisis situation where you may not have time to find one. If you face an investigation, you have to be ready with your lawyer who can help you take any legal action necessary to defend yourself or the work. We suggest to that the lawyer be a local lawyer who is familiar with the laws in your area as well as a penal lawyer.

So these are some things that if we'll obey, if we'll do what the Lord has asked, if we'll pray, if we'll be faithful witnesses, if we'll not compromise, if we'll build a strong missionary work, then we can really minimize persecution, and the Lord will not let it be one little bit, not one ounce more than it needs to be to accomplish His purpose.

So please pray against our enemies, pray for the Family, pray for yourselves, strengthen your follow-up programs, keep getting out Activated, get out the meat of the Word, build your work as the Lord has said, show the Family as a positive force in your community, feed your contacts and let them know who you are and what you stand for, and have conviction! Then you don't have to worry about persecution.” (ML 3420, 2002)

We love you and will be praying for you and know that as we all do our part to obey His word and stay in his will, He will keep us as the apple of His eye.

Love in our wonderful Husband & Protector,

Your PR board