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Posted By: lone wolf
Date: Saturday, 4 May 2002, at 1:04 p.m.
In Response To: Re: GM is G. (Sam Ajemian)
Here you go Sam. For the smoking gun, check out the last sentence.
"The decision-making body of the Family Care Foundation is its Board of Directors, of which Gary is president."
Ouch!
FSM 320 CM/FM Introducing the "Family Care Foundation"!
Prophecies, Progress and Plans from the GPU.
-- By the GPU team, 8/97.
Introduction
As you know, the Lord has for some time been encouraging the Family to produce books and other new GP tools, as well as to develop more effective means of distributing them. For the past year, the GPU team has been helping in this capacity, as well as pioneering new methods of fund-raising. This FSM is dedicated to sharing some of what has been accomplished so far, and what the plans are for the future. Along with this, we'll explain how the activities of the GPU may affect you and your Home, your outreach, etc. So without further ado, let's jump right in!
The GPU has three broad goals or objectives:
* Creating and publishing new GP Gospel publications.
* Trying out new means of fund raising to help missionary and CTP projects.
* Exploring new ways to effectively mass distribute existing, and new, GP audio and video productions.
We rejoice at what the Lord has accomplished so far, especially considering that when this project got underway, we had very little idea of how all of this would be accomplished, let alone who would be involved in it and where it would be based. The only thing that was clear at this point was that, if this venture was to be a success, everyone involved would have to seek the Lord's counsel at every turn, and be willing to try new things.
Since it is the Lord Who has led and is leading, and it is He Who deserves all the credit for getting the GPU up and running, what better way to explain the progress of the past year and plans for the future than through excerpts of prophecies received when we faced major decisions. These should not only give you a better understanding of the GPU, but also strengthen and encourage each of you personally because, as He so often does, the Lord included advice and counsel that is beneficial to every Family member.
Recaps of some of the major developments and research findings, and explanations of present and upcoming projects provide the outline and round out the picture.
History: Seeking the Lord with Family Representatives
In late 1995, the Lord spoke to Mama and Peter about publishing books (see GN #654.) This was a new direction the Lord was leading in, and in order to begin the implementation of this, the Lord showed them to gather together a group of Family members from field Homes to discuss this project and other ways in which we could help the Family's outreach and fund-raising efforts with new tools, new methods, etc.
In March 1996, Peter and Gary hosted a two-week brainstorming meeting in Houston, Texas. This was attended by nearly two-dozen delegates from around the world, representing a cross section of the Family from witnessers to Home shepherds and SC overseers. The question at hand: How could the Family best fulfill the Lord's commission to publish books for the GP and do a better job of distributing GP tools?
The primary focus was our GP tool outreach, but other areas of Family life kept making their way into the discussions. How could this GP publishing push give our outreachers a fresh challenge and help our Homes financially? Witnessing is our life and livelihood, so it's difficult to separate the distribution of the message from the lives and well being of the messengers.
As the meeting progressed, a plethora of ideas were generated. Although all of these ideas couldn't be pursued, they brought issues to the table that those who would be involved in the GPU could eventually work on. In general, the meeting covered not only the publications of books and how to implement it, but also the need for new and different tools, the need to modify and update existing tools, the need to find ways to generate more income at the Home level, ways to make our outreach and distribution more efficient and effective, the need to mass market all of our tools and not just books, and ways to have a centralized follow up program by which the Homes could send in names and addresses of those who received tapes and videos, so that other tools could be offered to them via mail.
All of the topics discussed at the meeting were very exciting and helpful in giving us an idea of the magnitude of the need. In fact, it was rather overwhelming! The original GPU team consisted of only four people, and the thought of trying to accomplish all that had been proposed was daunting, to say the least. Of course the Lord wasn't expecting us to do this all at once, but He used the meeting to help indicate where He was going to be leading in the months ahead.