My Conclusion | A look inside The Family International

Justin McDonald and Freedom’s Price

Justin McDonald (aka Justin Spirit) went to India to perform at India’s “Echo” (a missionary training program for teens) Celebration as well as at other venues in India. Following are a few YouTube clips of their performances.

Update: Freedom’s Price has a Facebook page where you can also find pictures of The Ethereal Dance Company. Enjoy!

The Family India has a new website

The Family India has launched their updated and redesigned website. The design is visually appealing and I think it’s an excellent example of the ethnic-diversity of The Family International. I especially like the logo and color scheme. Orange/white is a favorite scheme of mine. And what about that logo! Nice work India!

Posted in Syndicated on October 13th, 2009 by Chris | No Comments »

The Family International Podcasts ROCK!

I’m loving the podcasts that this team has been putting together regularly. Sometimes you just want a little variety in your devotions or a short pick-me-up and there’s lots of great material at The Family International Podcasts. (You don’t need an iPod to listen to them, there’s a host of ways to subscribe.)

The BiblePod is just like what my dad used to do when I was a kid, he’d read us a Psalm each day in the morning and I’m thinking of playing these for my kids when they wake up in the morning to help them start their day.

If you were to string together the Daily Praise with the Daily Might and From Jesus With Love and top it off with Connection through Meditation that’d make between 10-15 minutes of variety.

And hey, that’s not to mention all the great Activated material on there too. I just haven’t gotten around to listening to those yet. I’ll bet you could put together a great playlist for the day. But what are you listening to me for? I’m sold, but the site sells itself, check it out: http://podcasts.thefamily.org

Posted in From the Editors on October 6th, 2009 by Chris | No Comments »

Change program — the times are a changin

This isn’t news within the Family International but I wanted to link to this post that the Family International’s spiritual leaders gave at CESNUR earlier this year. This article provides a nice summary of the current direction and changes with the family. So without further ado please see: CESNUR presentations.

It’s a long but worthwhile read if you are interested in the direction that the family is headed and haven’t had a chance to read about the “Change Program” — Here are a few quotes.

Perspective on the Second Coming Considering the future of the Family and the change this will entail led Maria and me to discuss the time frame for the second coming of Jesus Christ. We ultimately conjectured that this may not occur for another 30–50 years.

Our intention is to bring about substantial change within the Family. We are after significant differences from the way we have thought and operated in the past. We want to unhitch the Family from anything of the past that hinders us from fulfilling our mission, our core purpose.

Tags: Change Journey, The Mission
Posted in Syndicated on October 4th, 2009 by Steve | No Comments »

Fire fighting tales from South Africa

This one from my good friend Anita.

…..in the middle of our evening party we got a call that the fire had flared up again and was getting really out of hand. The wind had picked up a lot as a big storm was blowing through. A couple of people drove down to look at it and called back to tell everyone to desperately pray as the fire was completely out of control, jumping about 10 meters every five seconds, and burning toward our house.

Posted in Syndicated on October 1st, 2009 by Jules | 1 Comment »

Delicous

Good photography and good food – these are a few of my favorite things.

Go check out Linda’s post on all things delicious. Lots of happy memories for me in this gallery.

A quiet, dimly-lit dinner & good company has a way of always being special, and I have to say it’s one of my favorite ways to spend an evening.

Posted in Syndicated on September 29th, 2009 by Jules | No Comments »

Congratulations PMA graduates

The PMA graduation for North America was held last month at the Excaliber Hotel in Vegas.

Tammy’s blog has some photos.

Congratulations to all the graduates!

Tags: PMA, The Mission, Witnessing
Posted in Syndicated on September 28th, 2009 by Jules | No Comments »

A Snapshot

Was reading “The Snapshot” over on my Dad’s blog this morning and really identified with it. There are so many times I have referred to snapshots of my life in both ways the article identifies. While it can be healthy at times, some snapshots are better just left in the filing drawer.

These snapshots – just a single point in time – not even seconds – just a blink, a shutter falls – an aperture is set – the film advances, life goes on –

Posted in Syndicated on September 27th, 2009 by Dan | No Comments »

Real Life Witnessing

Another post from FDTP 2009 Japan & ACTON. I want to commend those involved for the great reporting done and published online. Sounds like a wonderful day of witnessing in new ways.

Prophecy Witnessing

We would receive prophecies at home in advance, then once in Yoyogi park, ask the Lord who He wanted us to give the prophecies to.

Protrait Witnessing

Lord showed my team to draw free portraits at Yoyogi Park

Dress Up, Hugs and more

In our group, we had Pandita Ramabai, Christmas Cheer, Fairies, a hippie, and a young man with water paint on his tummy saying, “hug me”. Our goal in dressing up was to attract people, explain why we are dressed in weird ado, and get into personal witnessing just like that.

Read the whole story at : http://japactfdtp2009.blogspot.com/2009/09/real-life-stories.html

Tags: FDTP, Japan, The Mission, Witnessing
Posted in Syndicated on September 26th, 2009 by Steve | No Comments »

Thoughts – By Rich Alcasas

The following was sent in by Rich Alcasas who is doing missionary work with his family in the Philippines:

For many of my best friends and even missionary acquaintances I have found two things true at this time of Family history: Change is inevitable and the results of these changes are unpredictable. Myself included, I do not know what the future holds but i could not have asked for a better change that broadens the scope of opportunity to effect change in a fast paced global egomaniacal society where souls are lost at a greater rate than those starving of malnutrition.

With these new opportunities granted through the Change Program comes a much greater responsibility to make sure you are strong enough to change and to more importantly effect positive and lasting change where you are.

Read more …

Posted in Contributed on September 24th, 2009 by Dan | No Comments »