when Jesus fired Livingstone

I can't take credit for this post, it's by my good friend and was up on another message group:



About 3 or 4 years ago when more Family members started looking toward Africa as a potential mission continent, there were quite a number of pubs and prophecies that came out on the topic of Africa.
David Livingstone was very prominently featured in those publications and he sure had a lot to say. Jesus also had a lot of commendation to
pour out on Livingstone and He advised Family members to "be like Livingstone".

The extent to which most Family members know about Livingstone's life is covered in the pages devoted to him in the LWG books (Horray for
those LWGs!) I on the other hand had by chance read an actual biography on the dude. I was killing time in Yaounde, Cameroon trying to acclimatize from a harsh Swiss winter to the heat and humidity of a Central African summer (a process that takes about two weeks if you
don't drown first from your own sweat and the humidity that accumulates in your lungs). That I had the strength or energy to even lift the massive tome was impressive enough. That I didn't keel over from doubts after reading it was miraculous.

Shortly thereafter (perhaps within the next 6 months) another wave of Livingstone worship broke out in the Family and by that time those little festering doubts on the veracity of prophecy had started to pop up like heat rash. So I decided to write Mama about it. Here's what I said: (Please note that all kiss-assing and brown nosing in
this letter was entirely intentional).

Dear Mama: I have a question regarding "Livingstone Reverence" which
has been coming out in Pubs - I'm not quite sure what else to call it, but I don't mean it in a bad way. Especially lately with so much emphasis being put on the African work, more and more has come out regarding Livingstone in which he is given a lot of respect and commendation and basically set forward as an example of a great
missionary to be followed.
I don't so much have a problem with this - knowing that indeed, he was a very brave and different man who appeared to have a deep passion in his love for the Lord. But what I do wonder about is why Livingstone is the one consistently referred to by the Lord as one to be like, rather than some of the other great missionaries in
Africa--who, although perhaps lesser known within the Family, won many more souls and accomplished greater things for the Lord, as far as "missionary" work and soul winning is concerned.
If you study Livingstone's life, you find that he was only a missionary for about two years, and in almost everything he set out to do, he was a failure. In all of his time in Africa, Livingstone had only one convert who later backslid. Livingstone abandoned his wife and children in order to be an explorer (his older son later changed his name so as not to be associated with his father), nor could he get along with any of his co-missionaries or fellow white explorers--they couldn't get along with him either. He used the excuse of opening Africa to the Gospel as his reason for leaving his mission base (and family) and going off to explore.--However, his reports of conditions in the places that he travelled to for the purpose of "missionary expansion" were not accurate, and future mission bases were not able to function due to the fact that they weren't prepared for the actual conditions they had to face. With the
exception of a few large discoveries, most of Livingstone's explorer "achievements" had already been accomplished by others, who never received fame for what they had done. Although there is no
doubt that his travels greatly helped to map out the African continent and pave the way for others to explore, the not so publicized detail is that a lot of his map-making facts were inaccurate and had to be redone by others. On his behalf, Livingstone was a gifted writer, and his accounts of his experiences in Africa drew great public interest in England.--Especially so as it
was during a time when the English people needed a "hero". The public had a very distorted view of the missionary activity going on, and were under the impression that large numbers of souls were being won and many converts gained. The cash strapped London Missionary Society (and Livingstone as well) preferred to let the public think what they wanted while the money came rolling in & Livingstone became famous.
I'm not trying to knock Livingstone or say that he is undeserving of the credit that the Lord is bestowing on him as he probably did a whole lot more with his life than most people have done with theirs--and he did have a lot of understanding of the African natives (the only people he could actually get along with)
but I'm just curious to know "why Livingstone" when there are other famous missionaries to Africa who were true "missionaries" and
zealous soul winners, who stuck it out in places that were rough & with people they didn't get along with & because of that, left works
that lasted. (the end)

I think I received a short reply back from Maria's secretary saying "thanks" or something along those lines. I don't think I have that saved anywhere.

But I noticed something rather interesting take place in Family publications after this. Not long after, there were more "Africa" GNs and FSMs published and some former African missionaries (very famous in the churches but mostly unheard of in the Family (because they weren't featured in any LWG)) finally got to say their piece. But
Livingstone was completely mute. I wondered what had happened to the dude since previously Jesus had been so very proud of him. I did a little Sherlock work, and here's what I came up with.

Shortly after Maria got my letter, she had sex with Jesus. During the course of their wild and passionate love, she ratted on Livingstone.
Jesus was of course horrified that Livingstone had managed to pull the wool over His eyes and pass himself off as someone to be emulated (I mean, really, what part of Livingstone were we supposed to be like? The wife and children abandoner? The guy who couldn't live or work with anybody else? The bad mapmaker?). After realizing His mistake, Jesus promptly fired Livingstone from his position of African Spokesperson to the Family and we've not heard a peep from him since.

Which is unfortunate, because gee, I really wanted to hear about the virtues in his women bashing views. <smirk>