—By Father DavidMarch 13, 1978MODO No.684

1. GOOD WITNESSING SHOULD PAY! IF YOU'RE OBEYING, GOD WOULD BE BLESSING you in some way and would take care of your needs. If you are not obeying God and refuse to obey, then he will have no part in you!

2. (MARIA: SOME HAVE EVEN SLACKED OFF IN MINISTERING TO THEIR FISH. They were entertaining like mad and having friends over for dinner every single day. Now, instead of going ahead by faith and ministering to these people, they say we don't have the money so we can't.)

3. YOU DON'T HAVE TO SLICE THE FFing, BECAUSE IF YOU DO IT RIGHT IT WON'T COST YOU A DIME! It's ridiculous that our men are still going out with the girls and still paying the bills! No wonder you can't afford FFing!

4. IF IT'S DONE THE RIGHT WAY IT WILL PAY FOR ITSELF. It not only would be paying for itself, but it ought to be generating income for the whole work.

5. WE OUGHT TO TAKE THE GIRLS OFF THE FF LINE IF THEY CAN'T EVEN MAKE IT PAY for itself! I'm sure the guys would help.

6. MOST OF THE GUYS OFFER‚ "CAN I GIVE YOU ANYTHING? Is there anything you need? I'd like to help you somehow." Now what do they say to those guys?

7. "OH NO‚ WE'RE FINE. NO, WE DON'T ACCEPT MONEY, blah, blah." When don't we accept money?! We may not accept money for sexual service or get paid on the spot, but we'll sure accept the money if they want to give it to us!

8. "WELL, IF YOU WANT TO MAKE A DONATION TO OUR HOME OR BUY THE CHILDREN SOME FOOD or get us this piece of furniture, that'd be wonderful! There's a nice bed here in your hotel room, but I don't have one at home. How would you like to buy me a bed?" (Maria: I think they're too proud.) Absolutely!

9. IF YOU'RE TO BE GOD'S WHORE YOU CAN'T HAVE MUCH PRIDE! Let me tell you, I never went to a whore yet that hesitated to ask for the money in advance. She didn't take off a stitch of clothes until you handed it over!

10. IF YOU DON'T KNOW HOW TO LET THESE GUYS KNOW THAT YOU NEED MONEY you ought to get out of the FFing business! It's nice to win souls, but it's got to pay for itself.

11. MY LORD, YOU'RE PROVIDING ENOUGH FF SERVICE AND GETTING LAID‚ IT'S ABOUT TIME YOU GOT PAID! You brag about the great FFing you're doing, but if it's running up bills that you can't pay, it's not so great!

12. YOU SAY IT'S WINNING GREAT FRIENDS, BUT IF IT'S NOT PAYING THE BILLS then there is something wrong with their friendship!—Especially when you let them know that you need it.

13. IF YOUR AREA CAN'T AFFORD TO SUPPORT YOU, YOU'LL HAVE TO MOVE but I know it can. There is no reason why most countries can't support a few little Homes. There's just no excuse!

14. IF YOU GET OUT AND EVEN DO THE MINIMUM LITNESSING, which is only 1000 pieces a month, you should be able to keep up minimum living standards and be able to pay your bills. Most Homes have on the average four adults and two children. Well, even in a poor country, if four adults get out 1000 pieces of lit at only 10c per piece it would bring in $400 a month.

15. IF YOU'RE PAYING EXORBITANT RENT, YOU'RE NOT GOING TO MAKE IT. You're going to have to pay for your luxuries. If you're going to live in a mansion you're going to have to get out and work harder to pay for it. If you're only going to earn enough to live in a tent, you've got no business living in a mansion!

16. AND DON'T TELL ME KIDS CAN'T LITNESS! Haven't you read all of Deborah's letters on that? I'm just dumbfounded to find the Homes think that kids are a liability and they can't litness and somebody has always got to stay home with them!

17. OUR FAMILY OUGHT TO BE OUR BIGGEST ASSETS. Where did this business begin that we had to have some kind of single shiners to support works and homes?

18. IT CERTAINLY WASN'T SO IN MY OWN LITTLE FAMILY and it wasn't so in the early days. People who had children could do more litnessing than anybody!

19. WHO CAN TURN DOWN A LITTLE CHILD? I even give those dirty little beggar boys something. The idea that you always have to leave somebody home with a bunch of kids because they can't litness is ridiculous!

20. EVERY CHILD SHOULD BE AN ASSET AND TAUGHT HOW TO LITNESS AND PROVISION. Take them along when you go provisioning.—What man could resist a poor mother with a babe in arms and a few little tikes tagging along on her coattails? …

21. WE OUGHT TO START SENDING MOTHERS AND CHILDREN OUT AS PROVISIONERS! Our mothers and childcare workers could be out going from store to store provisioning.

22. SOME ARE LIVING LIKE WELL-TO-DO RICH PEOPLE WHO HAVE NURSES AND NANNIES and can leave the children at home and never be worried with them while they all go off and have a good time. Well, that's not the kind of Family we had in the early days!

23. I'D LOVE TO SEE DAVIDITO LITNESS, I bet he'd litness up a storm! Who could refuse him? (Maria: He went out provisioning.) Well, I'm sure that our little mothers and children would rather be going out store-to-store provisioning or even out door–to-door witnessing than just sitting at home trying to entertain'm!

24. I'M SURE THE CHILDREN WOULD LOVE IT! Can you imagine having to sit here in the house all day with Davidito? I think that he would love provisioning and litnessing, if we were not so selah and our security so important. He loves to go out!

25. TEACH THE LITTLE KIDS TO BE A FAMILY OF SINGERS and instrumentalists like we did ours and go out to the park. The kids have a good time and then they earn their money while it's nice and sunny. "When it's sunny, it means money!"—Get out in the park and sing and play and pass the hat!

26. I THINK THEY OUGHT TO ESPECIALLY DO MAIL PROVISIONING.—Write some letters home. Raise the money back home. That's what most missionaries do. They get their support from home. They don't expect the poor natives to support them.

27. DID YOU KNOW WE HAD A LETTER WRITING SESSION AT TSC ONCE A WEEK? Everybody wrote his parents or relatives telling how he was, what he was doing for the Lord and asking them to help.

28. WE GOT VERY GOOD RESPONSE TO THOSE LETTERS. That was a part of our provisioning, money provisioning. And there is no reason why we shouldn't do it.

29. TELL THEM WHAT YOU NEED. If you were there they'd be getting it for you. Well, now you're here and you're working for the Lord‚ and it's their business to help support you.

30. IF ANYBODY'S GOING TO BE INTERESTED IN YOU, IT'S YOUR PARENTS and relatives, or your working brothers and sisters back home. Of course, if you can't report to them that you're winning souls and you're preaching the Gospel, they're not going to be encouraged to support you.

31. A FEW OF THE KIDS HAVE FOUND OUT IT PAYS TO ADVERTISE, BUT SOME OF THEM ARE TOO PROUD, they're too ashamed. They haven't kept on good terms with their parents. They've been lazy‚ they haven't written home even once a month, or once in 3 months!

32. WE PUT OUT OUR PRAYER LETTER ONCE A MONTH, even when we were a road team out on the road! I know it can be done. I've done it!

33. I SUPPORTED OUR LITTLE FAMILY FOR YEARS ON PRAYER LETTERS because I did it faithfully. It was our lifeline and I knew I had to do it‚ and folks responded.

34. SOME PEOPLE SAY THEY CAN'T AFFORD THE POSTAGE this month and refuse to pay their lit bills! That's like the farmer saying‚ "I'm sorry but we're going to have to eat our seed corn because we don't have enough to save." You know what happens when you do that? You won't have any corn to plant and therefore you won't have your next harvest!

35. PRETTY SOON YOU'RE NOT GOING TO HAVE ANY MONEY to pay your bills or buy the lit, and you're not even going to have any lit to distribute!

36. SOME HAVE DONE WELL ON THE MAIL MINISTRY BUT THEY HAVEN'T LEARNED HOW TO MAKE IT PAY. People write in with their problems and confessions and their tales of woe and they want you to love them and pray for them and so on. Well, most of those people have jobs, they could easily slip a donation in the envelope to pay for some of those prayers!

37. WE ALWAYS SLIPPED IN SOME LITTLE HINT THAT WE NEEDED HELP. If you send them literature say, "We'd appreciate it if you could send us a little gift next time to help pay for the literature and the postage and costs." Or express some need to them. "We need so and so, if you could help us we'd appreciate it."

38. BUT IF YOU'RE TOO PROUD TO DO A LITTLE BEGGING THEN YOU'RE TOO DAMN PROUD and your needs aren't going to be met. People are accustomed to religious outfits begging, and most people will give to the people who have the strongest appeal and the most desperate need.

39. WE WERE FLAT BROKE ONE TIME IN THIS LITTLE COWBOY TOWN. We were between meetings and we were stuck, so Mother gave Deborah, who was about five, a little tin cup‚ stuck tracts in it and sent her from cowboy to cowboy and they got the point right away. They were supposed to take a tract and put in some coins‚ and she came back with that cup stuffed and we had enough gasoline to move on!

40. IF YOU ARE TOO PROUD AND ASHAMED TO DO THINGS LIKE, THAT THEN YOU OUGHT TO GET OUT OF THIS BUSINESS and go someplace where pride pays! I never found any branch of the Lord's work where pride pays at all! Pride does not pay, and it doesn't pay the bills. We've got every reason in the world to ask for help for His work.

41. IN ALL THE YEARS WE'VE LIVED BY FAITH, GOD HAS NEVER FAILED! I never missed a meal for God's lack of supply, never! I never missed paying the rent even when we had nothing and nobody.

42. IF GOD DIDN'T SEND IT IN, I GOT MYSELF A JOB AND EARNED IT! There's no excuse for anybody not having enough money to pay for their needs and their bills.

43. I'VE TOLD YOU SEVEN DIFFERENT WAYS OF SUPPORT and if you can't do it with one of them or some of them or all of them, then I think you're in the wrong business or wrong field or you're the wrong people!

44. SO GRAB YOUR LIT OR YOUR GUITAR OR YOUR KIDS OR YOUR TIN CUP OR YOUR FFers OR YOUR MIMEO OR ALL OF'M AND GET OUT AND WITNESS and God will move folks to help you if you're faithfully obeying.

45. OTHERWISE, IF YOU CAN'T WITNESS, GO HOME AND GET A JOB and support the folks who can! Whatever you can do, get back to work! "He that shall not work shall not eat!" (2Thess.3:10.) God bless and help you make it pay!—Amen?—Love,—Dad.