In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of teaching the word of God systematically and thoroughly. He criticizes the lack of proper training and instruction given to individuals involved in literature work. The speaker also highlights the need for diligence and discipline in the handling and distribution of literature, comparing it to the care given to weapons in war. He encourages the use of new ideas and taking initiative in evangelism, while also stressing the importance of learning and using the local language.

Can we just look at the book of Philippians for a minute? Philippians chapter 3, verse 7. This is for a scripture reading. For what things were gained to me, those I counted lost for Christ. Take doubtless, and I count all things but lost, for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things. And do count them but refuse, that I may win Christ, be found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith, that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his suffering, being made conformable unto his death, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead, not as though I had already attained, neither was already perfect, but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press forward to mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded, and if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. Nevertheless, as to that which we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing. Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them who walk, even as ye have us for an example. For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and I will tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is their appetite, whose glory is their shame, who mine earthly things. For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our lowly body, that it may be fashioned like his glorious body, according to the working by which he is able also to subdue all things unto himself. Well, may the Lord use that as a foundation. I especially like those words. It's been a great help to me, so oftentimes, forgetting those things which are behind, reaching forth unto those things which are before. One thing that's a guaranteed inspiration for anyone interested in learning how to be a leader is the study of the life of Paul. And I certainly recommend that, studying his epistles, of course, studying his life, reading books about his life. I've especially been amazed as I've been doing a somewhat thorough study of Thessalonians, to realize the apostle Paul went in there, within one month he left, and he left behind a flourishing church, who were an example to all the churches in that area. Of course, he wrote letters. He sent Timothy back to help the little follow-up, see what was happening. He remembered the night and day in prayer. It's certainly amazing what Paul did in that very short visit. What I'm going to do in this hour is just throw out thoughts, some of which I hope you can write down, that I hope will help you in your leadership. I'd like to start by a few quotations. I'm very sorry to say that I lost my Bible, that I had for ten years, and it has many quotations in it. So I just quickly went through one of my old files, and grabbed some quotes, and I thought I'd just pass these on to you, just to promote thought, and to challenge you as a leader to be a little more wider-read. Readers are leaders, and leaders are readers. And we can learn a lot by reading, not only Christian books, sometimes non-Christian books, since oftentimes the children of darkness are wiser in this age than the children of light. We can sometimes learn something, then go to the Word of God. There's no particular order of these quotes. First I'd like to read Field Marshal Montgomery's Seven Ingredients to Military Leadership. If you haven't heard of Montgomery, you must be extremely ignorant. Field Marshal Montgomery, one of the greatest British generals of all time. Here's what he wrote. These are seven ingredients to military leadership. I'm not saying all of these apply. One, you should be able to sit back and avoid getting immersed in detail. One of the great mistakes of all leaders is they get immersed in details, and while they're doing it, six thousand rupees floats out the window, or some guy backslides, goes down the tube, or some other major catastrophe takes place. Of course, we realize we don't quite have the core underneath us that Montgomery had, but take it for what it's worth. Two, he must not be petty. He must not be petty. You can look the word up in the dictionary if you don't know what it means. Three, he must not be pompous. Pompous! You know, the big, great general who's above everybody, and sort of floats around, waving his medals. Four, he must be a good picker of men. It's a little difficult to know, and we tend to use what we get. Choosing his material with perception. Choosing his men with perception. Five, he should trust those under him. He should trust those under him. Letting them get on without his interference. Letting them get on without his interference. Six, he must have the power of clear decision. He must have the power of clear decision. Dithering means defeat. Dithering, procrastinating, means defeat. He should inspire much confidence. He should inspire much confidence. I never literally jump at everything that I read in any secular book, not even any Christian book. I weigh it up in my mind. I try to compare it, that person's situation with my own situation, and I do a lot of thinking. You can do that with that quote. Here's a few of the quotes. C.T. Stutz Never tell another man to do what you are afraid to do yourself. C.T. Stutz Founder of the World Evangelization Crusade Never tell another man to do what you are afraid to do yourself. I'm not sure who said this next one, George Deacon, unless that's a misspelling. A vision without a task makes a visionary. A vision without a task makes a visionary. A task without a vision makes drudgery. A task without a vision, we get that quite a bit on our team, makes drudgery. We get a lot of that too. A vision with a task makes a missionary. A vision with a task makes a missionary. Eric Bice, the man who organized Urbana, big missionary convention years ago, and this is so true today, said this, Urbana indicates an enormous missionary interest amongst students, but not enough action. How true this is. Not enough action. Benjamin Franklin, very interesting quote. He's not Christian to say the least. So it's quite amazing he said this. Whosoever introduces into the mainstream of public life the principles of primitive Christianity will change the course of the world. Whosoever introduces into the mainstream of public life the principles of primitive Christianity will change the course of the world. Another one from an unknown man. There are no disappointments to those whose wills are buried in the will of God. Now that is a tremendous quote. I don't know who in the world said it. There are no disappointments to those whose wills are buried in the will of God. I have pages of selections from Wesley's diary, all of them very irritating. It was the August 7th. After preaching at 4 a.m. in the morning, because of the harvest, I took a horse and rode easily to London. Indeed, I wanted a little rest. Having ridden in 7 months 2,400 miles by horse. I don't know how many of these I should read because we don't want any of you to get ill. Next to the sovereign power of God and the prayers of his children, Wesley gave the following reasons for his remarkable health and vigor at 86 years of age. This will encourage you all. 86. The first thing, this is great Wesley, holiness preacher. If our holiness people today had these concepts, instead of charismania, we'd have reality. Point one. This is his first point. To my constant exercise and change of air. Interesting, isn't it? Point two. Point three. To my never having lost a night's sleep, sick or well, at land or at sea, since I was born. Not too good for the O. Emerson. Point four. To my having slept at command so that when I feel myself almost worn out, I call it, that is sleep, and it comes, day or night. Deep spiritual health. Four. To my constantly for 60 years rising at four in the morning. I better read that again. To my constantly for 60 years rising at four in the morning. You ask him when you get to heaven. Five. To my constant preaching at five in the morning for 50 years. Six. To my having had so little pain in my life. Doesn't seem to go along with his horseback riding. So little sorrow and so little anxious care. Incredible that a man could say that. John Wesley, born in 1703, died in 1791. Do you want to browse through that? There's no fee. A few more quotes. J. O. Fraser, the great missionary to the Lisu people. I have no doubt whatsoever that the power sustaining me and blessing the work is derived from the prayer group at home. My own weakness on the front is appalling. More down our line isn't it? My own weakness on the front is appalling. J. O. Fraser, solid, lasting missionary work is done on our knees. What I covet more than anything else is earnest, believing prayer. One more quote from Fraser. Our work among the Lisu is not going to be a bed of roses, spiritually. I know enough about Satan to realize that he will have all of his weapons ready to determine, determined opposition. He would be a missionary simpleton who expected plain sailing in any work of God. Let me repeat that last phrase. He would be a missionary simpleton, means a fool, who expected plain sailing in any work of God. Pascal, don't know whether he was born again or not, but here's what he said. One of the ways in which man brings much trouble upon himself is his inability to be still. Very good for me. Oswald Sanders, director of OMF for many years. I hope you realize this is much better than listening to Verwoerd. I get a lot more out of it. Oswald Sanders. We seldom give God time to deal with us radically and deeply. Even when we experience conviction of failure and sin, like most of us last night. We do not allow the Holy Spirit to work in us strongly, that we are brought to hate the sin. We lightly assent to our sinfulness without seriously and permanently dealing with it. That's true. That's true in our flippant age. Daniel Logan Bringle, a great soul winner who united with William Booth. William Booth had his great doubts about Bringle because he thought he wouldn't submit. One of the greatest sins in the Salvation Army, and we could use a little more of that, you know, is if you disobey an order of your leader, no matter what that order is, that is an act. General William Booth, who you probably all admire, you would find great difficulty in working with. He removed his own daughter, flesh and blood daughter, from the Salvation Army and disinherited her and threw her out of his family for disobeying one order. He said, I am your general first and your father second, and he threw her out of the army. Personally, I think he made a great mistake. God greatly used it. She became as great a soul winner as he did. Her name was Amara Shaw. You can read her biography. It's in the library. Anyway, Samuel Logan Bringle bent to the strong arm of Booth. This is what he wrote. Speaking of spiritual authority, it is not won by promotion, but by many tears, confession of sin, many humblings, many heart-searching, many self-surrenders, many courageous sacrifice, sacrifice of every idol, bold, uncomplaining, and uncompromising of the cross. It is not gained by seeking great things for ourselves, but like Paul, in counting those things which were gained, lost for Christ. That is a great price, but it must be paid by those who would be real leaders. Another man of God said this, The difference between one man and another lies largely in his use of time. The difference between one man and another lies largely in his use of time. Leon Trotsky, an amazing man, not a born-again believer, one of the founders of communism for your interest, who split with Lenin and was exiled to Mexico where he was assassinated. Amazing story. Here's what he said. I think it's somewhere, is it in India? The only place they saw Trotsky, I think it's Carolina, one of the few places in the world. The most powerful means of propagating communism is the small pocket pamphlet. It's interesting, isn't it? The most powerful means of propagating communism is the small pocket pamphlet. Abraham Lincoln said this, I must confess that I am driven to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I have nowhere else to go. My wisdom and that of all about me is insufficient to meet the demands of the dead. Lenin, Vladimir Lenin, one of the most dedicated fanatics who ever lived. If he had met an OM recruiter at the age of 17, it might have been different. Then he became a great enemy of religion. Here's what he says about religion. Religion is a kind of spiritual gin, whiskey, Russian whiskey, in which slaves of capital drown their human shape and their claims to any decent human life. Don't know where that one fits in, but I couldn't resist reading it. Hudson Taylor. He never met Lenin, unfortunately. A man may be consecrated, dedicated, and devoted, but of little value if undisciplined. Very powerful. A man may be consecrated, dedicated, and devoted, but of little value if undisciplined. George Whitfield. I give an imbalance to Mr. Wesley. They were great friends, even though they disagreed. Between the summer of 1736 and 1770, George Whitfield preached no less, listen, than 18,000 times. 18,000 times. He preached in churches, fields, factories, courtyards, barns, from wagons, balconies, horseback, boats, and windows. He, by the way, had a ship project, operated a ship, a small ship in North America. Men fought for him in vast throngs. It is impossible to say what countless thousands, his creed became their creed and his faith their faith. Nor did he neglect the pastoral counseling of his converts. In one week after preaching in Moorfield, London, he received 1,000 letters from those in spiritual need, and he attended all of these letters personally. He was a great traveler in the service of the Gospels. It would scarcely be possible to name a town of any size in England, Scotland, or Wales that he had not visited. He crossed the Atlantic seven times. It was not in a lagos, you can be sure. I've read about his experiences at sea. He saw much fruit both in America and Britain. You may want to read that. Just a few more quotes. Winston Churchill. One of the greatest quotes I've ever had from a man in the secular world. Helped me in this crazy work. There is only one thing certain about war. That is, it is full of disappointments and full of mistakes. Let me read that again. There is only one thing certain about war. That it is full of disappointments and full of mistakes. By the way, his life is worth reading. The thing that always amazes me the most is that after his great triumph in World War II, the greatest Prime Minister, certainly one of the greatest Britain ever had, the British public immediately removed him from office. They said, Don't worry if you get bounced out of your leadership. Go and read Winston Churchill. This is from General Westmoreland in Korea. January 7th. Threatful that the ceasefire, the deadly thing you know, in Korea, was playing havoc with his men's discipline. Westmoreland set out a Spartan regiment to keep up their morale. Revelry at five. Two mile run. Digging fortifications all day. Baths in the icy creeks. After dinner, two and a half hours of intramural sports, especially boxing. Ten o'clock every night, Westmoreland said, they were so exhausted there was no time for mischief of any kind. My quotes often get mixed up. And I have inserted here, there are 7,000 printers in Bombay involving 50,000 employees. I don't know how that fits in. From the five English martyrs. Two statements. The French ambassador describes the death of John Rogers, one of the martyrs. He went to death as if he was walking to his wedding. He went to death, I think they burned him on the stake. As if he was walking to his wedding. Of John Bradford, Fuller said, he embraced the flames as a fresh gale of wind on a hot summer day. He embraced the flames as a fresh gale of wind on a hot summer day. It's a good one to keep in mind in May in Delhi or wherever else you may be. I won't read this quote, but this is about the man who laid the first Bible on the shores of Korea. They arrived, they were attacked on a boat. Everybody was murdered and slaughtered. This man ran down the beach with an armful of books and as he was clubbed to death, he laid them on the shores of Korea. That was the birth of literature distribution in Korea. Well, I think that's enough quotes. Perhaps this last one from Dag Hammarskjöld, leader of the UN for many years. Your position never gives you the right to command. It only imposes on you the duty of so living your life that others can receive your orders without being humiliated. Well, that's part one of my thoughts for this afternoon. And I hope it will challenge you to read widely, to write down the quotations of great men and to let them be inspiration and challenge to you when you're feeling depressed or elated, when you're wondering how you're going to make it through. Because I believe that as we read great men this little lecture, some of this will be overlapped. I'm sure Ray is touching on it. Some of you heard something similar to this, though actually quite different, in Pondicherry. But, I think all of us are concerned about ON in India. I think all of us realize that in many things, many places, things are just not being done right. Now we can take the mercy of God and the sovereignty of God and we can take the brokenness message and all this, and that's great. And praise God for us. And it's my only hope. But at the same time I believe that we have really got to get more desperate about the whole work. The organizing of the work, the diligence in carrying out the task, up and down the ladder. And I feel that it's only when we get desperate about these things and cry unto the Lord in desperation that he comes and helps us. I actually laid aside a quote by A.B. Simpson, one of the greatest missionaries of all times. Maybe I should read it. Because it fits in with what I'm saying right now. God has hidden every precious thing in such a way that it is a reward to the diligent, a prize to the earnest, and a disappointment to the slothful soul. All nature is arrayed against the lounger and the idler. The nut is hidden in the thorny case. The pearl is buried beneath the ocean waves. The gold is imprisoned in the rocky bosom of the mountain. The gem is found only after you crush the rock that encloses it. And the very soil gives its harvest as the reward of industry to the laboring husbandman. How much more are the things of God, the real treasures of God, only found by the diligent seeking His face? If you want to become a good organizer for God, men like Wesley were good organizers. Men like Whitfield were brilliant organizers. Men like Booth were beyond degree in organizing. Booth would sit on the train hours, hours, dictating letters. He would dictate letters in the bathtub. He would work many, many times on into the night, and he had all of his lieutenants, they had no choice by the way, working to the most incredible hours of the morning. You read The General Next to God, you will read one of the most exciting, staggering books that you can ever get your eyes into. And I believe that we, as leaders, should have a passion to be better organizers for God. Better organization means more time for witnessing, more time for prayer. It means you save your team members time, you save other leaders time, it means more literature, more meetings, more souls, more everything. But the man who's not desperate about his core organization abilities, the man who doesn't diligently seek out the secrets of organization, the secrets of being diligent, the secrets of operating effectively, the secrets of handling his correspondence, who's not willing to study the lives of other men who have gone on before him, who's not willing to dig a bit and read a bit, this man is not going to discover what it is to organize God's work effectively. How few Indian brothers we have who can organize. We know that's true. How few. Because if any other Indian brother learns how to really organize, then God knows how much we want to turn whole states over to brothers. And the whole will work. And we praise God that we have a few, and if God can give us a few Indians who can organize, he can give us more. But it doesn't come through just dickering about. It doesn't come through just half-heartedness. We don't have that many foreigners who can organize. So don't feel anything prejudiced one way or the other. And yet because of lack of organization in the work in India, lack of diligence, lack of discipline in areas I'm going to mention, we are suffering incalculable, immeasurable losses. On every front. On every front. Of course we have many victories. Incredible victories. God has taught us many organizational skills. And it's amazing to see what Brother Rani has done with literature. What Brother Kripa has done with the vehicles. What Brother Alfie has done in the whole Bombay operation. What Brother Matai has done in Kerala. There's plenty of positive points. I'm not here to just be negative. We're limited in time. I don't think the need at the moment is pats on the back. You need some of those, write me, I'll send you one. We need to realize that we are dropping the ball. I don't know if Indians know what it is to drop the ball. It's one of those American expressions or British expressions from rugby, I guess. Not from football. Not from English football. But when you're playing football. I used to play football. I used to quarterback. You get the ball, that's what the quarterback gets. The last thing you do is drop it. Eat it. Don't drop it. And it's a good expression. We drop the ball. What are some of the specific areas? Let's give you some of them. Let the Lord search your own heart. We drop the ball in communications. Weekly reports are bimonthly. Or illegible. Or sent to the wrong place. The leadership manual explains what to do, but we don't read it. Except on alternate leap years. Communication. I'm supposed to sit down and write the international report to the backbone of this movement. To prayer cells all over the world. And sometimes when I write it, I've got no more than six reports. I want to praise God. Some of the Indian teams have been the most faithful. Some are not. Prayer letters. They should be going out every month. I'm talking about your personal prayer letters. Sometimes they go out twice a year. Sometimes they have no address. People don't know where to write back. Sometimes the figures are so poor, the duplicating is so atrocious, that you'd wonder if the prayer letter was sent out by a turkey on the run. Communication is important. The misuse of telegrams. We try to save two rupees by cutting three words, and you would need a Houdini to read the telegram. We declared years ago in O.M. that every telegram is to be followed by a covering letter, because generally, that's usually when you find out what the telegram says. But lo and behold, many times the covering letters don't come. This costs money. It brings confusion. Also, we send telegrams sometimes too quickly. We panic, send one telegram, the next day we reverse the order and send another telegram. That one ends up getting there first, the other one comes later, and the poor team, they wonder just what they're belonging to. If you send a second telegram, you'd better say something in the telegram. This is the second telegram. This supersedes previous instructions. But somehow we've got to be clearer. Of course, the telephone in India is a long-standing paddle, but we don't use it enough. And of course, we don't have the fruit of the spirit patience to handle it. One of the greatest trials in my life is the telephone. Reminders. We delegate without follow-up. We call that passing the buck. Call it burden dumping. Dump it on somebody else and forget it. No leader operates that way. Give the man a chance to run, but a follow-up in a gentle way, ask him how he's doing. In all leadership, the man who's been given a job is required to report back what in the world he's doing. That is not interference, as Montgomery mentioned. And so, when there is delegation, when there is communication, there needs to be follow-up. Communication is a very, very big area. Most people don't get something when you say it to them once. Can't tell you the heartache and mistakes I've made in this area. Especially when a multi-language operation. Say it again, write it down, ask the brother if he understands. How foolish for leaders giving someone instructions of where to go to tell them, when he can in the same amount of time write and give a small map. Petro costs a lot of money. I wanted to share with you the latest little quote from Newsweek to let you know what we're up against in Europe. Price of petrol, Madrid $1.30 a gallon, New York $0.60, country we're not working in, Paris $1.25, Italy the highest in the whole of Europe, Italy, where we're having our main summer push. One of the biggest in our work, $1.45 a gallon. And it's higher than that here. Of course diesel is cheaper. But I don't believe we can afford to blow hundreds of gallons of gasoline and diesel because our teams launch out not knowing where they're going. We can write down maps, we can buy a map, we can ask, all of us know that asking one man in India is pure foolishness. You ask in the mouth of two or three witnesses, you lose. Because when they don't know, oops, my microphone, when they don't know they still tell you, go here, and you go down there, there's another five rupees of gasoline. So we're pinching, feeding our brothers a little bit of dal and rice, we go from two rupees to $1.50 and we blow ten rupees out in the gasoline just like that. Communication, writing things down, clear instructions, written instructions, of course, the never-ending battle, there's a lot against us, and I'm praying for you. Next area I want to mention is the handling, care, distribution of literature. I'm convinced that our book sales is just a little bit of diligence, a little bit of treating our literature like these men we've read about feeding their weapons in the war, ammunition. I believe a little more of this kind of diligence and discipline, we could double our distribution. We must not ask men to do literature work in OM without giving them thorough training. That has to be done on a local basis. You've got new team members, the first thing you should do as a team is have a half a morning for literature orientation and give them an examination. Make them put back on paper the prices of the book, the purpose of the book, so they don't sell literature evangelism manual as an evangelistic book. We have got to teach line upon line, precept upon precept, and we've got to put more of it into print, and say brethren, study this tonight, tomorrow morning we're going to have a test. We are so slipshod in our training of our men in this area that it's enough to make anybody weep. We just sort of throw people in the trucks, throw the literature in the trucks. We have conferences which mainly consist of a lot of challenges in bible study, which is great, but it doesn't teach the man what he's expected to do eight hours a day for the next three months. And it's unfair. It's unfair. We are so pathetic in this that even many of us as top leaders in India don't know how to sell books. And I wish I could take every leader on a team with me and go door to door with them, and show them how to do it. And I'm not that skilled at it in India. But I still know my Urdu phrases, and I believe it is a pathetic thing when people have been around India for six months and they don't even know a few phrases in Hindi. And they're still trying to sell the books by sort of waving them in people's faces or just depending purely on psychological tactics. And it's just a crime. We must teach these brothers how to sell. We must show them the books. We must give them conviction on the books. We must require them to read the books. Let's stop playing around with all kinds of, if you want to do this, if you feel like it, do this. Let's get some more requirements into this work. If this brother can't study how to find peace with God, then what in the world can we take him out in the streets to sell? He can read the book in about three hours. Let's require these books. Let's not accept these recruits who come and have never read any books, have filled out no application. Tell them to go home. I don't believe any army has ever functioned in history so slipshod as often the armies of God. Who ever heard sending men out to the battlefield who've not had any boot camp? Who've not had any training? Who have never shown how to shoot the gun? It's like sending a man out and not even showing him where the trigger is. He'll blow his head off. And this is what we do with our brothers in OM. Lack of training in the area of literature. Of course we do teach him how to put the books in a plastic bag. We seem to waste an awful lot of time doing it. I'd prefer to pay coolies myself and get the team out distributing, but that's the decision I leave with you. Packing the literature properly. I've visited office after office, headquarters after headquarters and the way I saw literature packed, I couldn't believe it. You'd think they were handling banana leaves and coconuts. You don't put a book with its spines this way on the shelf and that other book keeps up on top of it, packed in the opposite direction, so this book after a few weeks is crushed beyond the point of being sold. I've seen literature put in a box, I swear somebody must have put it in the box, planted a hand grenade in the bottom of the box and let it explode. I can't believe the literature got in such a mess any other way. And more often times we see box after box after box of literature that's beyond compared. I don't believe we should spend hours sorting that out. I believe we should get it in the back of the truck in some area and distribute it right out of the box. Somehow use it instead of going into the new literature which is easier to handle than this box of mixed literature. Otherwise take the box and give it to the paper wallet for a couple of rupees because I believe the box, the way it is, is an offense. It stumbles people and certainly stumbles visitors to O.M. They get this idea, this is O.M. And of course most O.M. trucks when you look at them, and I know some of you improved greatly on this, the tracks are sprawled out the back of the truck. I went to have my quiet time down in the maintenance space, hard finding space on the ships these days. I like to walk around. I was walking around the van, of course I couldn't pray. I looked in the back of the van, there were nice tracks, beautiful over the back of the van. Half the vans on the ship, when they were put on I went, I was washing vans one day, most, many of the literature jammed all over the place. And of course you get literature in Telugu, up in the middle of Bihar, because you don't know what to do with it, and it's a disgrace to the world. We haven't even got enough initiatives to pack it up and burn it. I'd rather burn it than just keep trampling it and trampling it until it, to a more sensitive person, it can be a stumbling block. The care of literature, the packing of literature, the solitary making use of what we got. Poor Bombay gets bombarded, send us more, send us more, send us more. How many thank you letters do you think they've ever got in Bombay? They can keep them in one plastic file, I'm sure. You don't get thank you letters, Christian word. You beat your brains out serving people, you take abuse, you take criticism, when you make a mistake you get it through the neck, you get duplicated, mimeographed letters going around the world. But when you do something right, you can be sure no one will thank you. How many people on this ship have taken any effort to go to anybody in the galley and thank these people, who have beaten their brains out to serve us food three times a week like a guzzling army? Woo, one fourth. This is sin, beloved, and it discourages people, it breaks them down, sure the thick-skinned rhinoceros types, they just keep going. But most people are not as thick-skinned as you think. We need more gratitude to God, more thankfulness to one another, and more making use of what we do have. I've been to places where they're complaining they didn't have enough literature. When I got there I saw enough literature to run a full-scale war. Sure, it'll take a little adaptation, take a little changing, a little work, but literature is around. And I believe we've got to sharpen up in that area. That's not saying Bombay doesn't need to sharpen up, they've already got a guilt complex about their mistakes. They're a complicated business trying to get literature from point one to point two in this country. Believe me. Another area is planning ahead. Planning ahead. The word gets around sometimes and we don't believe in planning ahead. And I've spent my whole life planning ahead. I'm working on my October schedule. My October schedule. Right now I've got to write letters, I've got to organize. I'm working on my August schedule. I'm always planning ahead. And two or three months ahead I've got to live that way. So I hate it. I always leave gaps, of course, in my diary. I'm not one of these people who fill my diary. Other people do that three years in advance. We have got to plan ahead. The secret of the effectiveness of this ship and may God never make us jealous when we hear of some of the victories of the ship has been based on a lot of advanced planning. Peter Conlon was in Ethiopia four months before the ship got there. Who can deny that we saw things happen in Ethiopia in one month that we haven't done in some O.M. fields in seven years. Planning ahead. Getting people praying. Getting people excited. Then when O.M. comes boy, people are ready to move. Many places when the O.M. teams arrive, people say, oh, they're here again. No planning ahead. No stimulating of the imagination. No prayer. Just arrive. Or maybe a week's notice. Phone call, telegram. We're on the way, brother. Here we come again. We've got some floor space. Now praise God, I think at times it's good to operate that way. Just get in the truck and go. I've done that. If that's what the Lord has showed you to do, that's your plan. But we don't operate that way most of the time. That's not our strategy. We need to line up crusades. We need to line up the meetings. We need to line up the evangelists. We need to line up where we're going to stay, what literature we're going to need. We need to line up who's going to be with us, what vehicles we have. There will always be problems. Just read you that quote by Churchill. You keep that one in the front of your car. Encourage your hearts. But I tell you because Winston Churchill believed that war generally was always disappointment and mistakes, doesn't mean he didn't plan ahead. His whole life was one series of plans. By the way, in the process of all that he did, he also was one of the greatest historical writers of all time. And I think he was also a painter and did a few other things. So this whole area of planning, planning the movement, planning the travel, planning the use of money. Too much last minute cries out for money. You should let Bombay know what you need one month ahead. At least two weeks ahead. All it takes is a little bit of thinking. Now I know sometimes Bombay can't send it. But if they know, for instance, hey look Bombay, three weeks from now we've got a conference coming up. That means income stops. That means we're going to need money. Then Bombay can calculate. If necessary, they can communicate with me. Six months of the year out of India, I'm closer to Bombay than when I'm in India. Because there's good phone connections between London and Bombay, New York and Bombay. They can get me on the phone and when I hear there's no money in India, I turn the world upside down and get money. In one night, I talk to Sweden, Singapore, USA, Belgium, Scotland, two or three other countries in one night. London phones are very good. And sometimes there's only one purpose in those calls. To get money so that you people can keep moving out here. When I'm back there in Europe and there are others who are with me, we live day and night for you out here. But if there's no advance planning, no warnings, it gets very, very confusing. Because it does take time for money to get from London to Bombay or from New York. Planning ahead in every area. I know it's hard. But we've got to press on more. A whole area of initiative. New ideas. Maybe we should have these kind of sessions where we sit down and just all begin to throw out our ideas. It's too easy to get in a rut. Do the same thing all the time. We need new ideas. Of course, ideas, visions without action, we just read about that, didn't we? PODEM is a movement in which there's a lot of scope for experimentation. We've tried about everything under the sun in evangelism, but there's still scope. Of course, some things can be tried again in a new environment. New situation. But I'm interested in seeing new ideas put into practice. Taking the initiative. Teaching our brothers how to take the initiative. It's an incredible thing when because the leader is busy one day, everybody else sits on their tailbone. Can you believe it? The assistant leader should take the initiative. Somebody should take the initiative to redeem that time. To get the team doing something. Every disappointment, beloved, is God's appointment. So many times my plans have gone down the tube. My plans are going down the tube right now. Again, some plans I made for this month. How to get my wife to do what I'm going to do. Sometimes the more you plan ahead, the more you see it shot out of the air. It can be discouraging, but you've got to keep playing because pressing on in that area. But initiative is very important. And this whole thing of improvisation. Do you know that word? Improvisation. When your original plan goes down the tube, you improvise. That was originally a word used in music. The word improvise. And it's a good word. The Allied forces, when they invaded France, would have lost that invasion if they hadn't improvised. And they had some wild guys with imaginations that you wouldn't believe. So many mistakes were made. Parachutes were going in the wrong place. People were hanging from church steeples and landing in the swamps. Guys were getting out of the boat before the water was shallow enough. They had 50 pounds on their back. Stepped out of the boat. Two. Done. Finished. Done. You know, our mistakes haven't cost us any lives yet. These men improvise. Improvise. And it's a great challenge to me to do that. Making better use of our tools. God has given us tools. A diary. Do you have a diary? How can you be a leader without a diary? Files. Stationery. Maps. Telephone chain. I want to tell you, of course India may not be that way, but most parts of the world, unthinkable to go around without telephone chains in my pocket. Maybe a little thing. But an awful lot to be hinged on whether I can find some chains to get in that payphone. Because some places in the world, if you don't have it, very interesting. Of course some people have credit cards. I don't have one. This whole area of keeping records. We've had a number of cases in O.M. where the main files for organizing something were thrown away. New people come in with new visions. They have big clean-up. Every once in a while in O.M. they get inspiration for clean-up. The pendulum swings and they throw away some of the most valuable stuff you can ever imagine. People who threw away my brass fire extinguishers. All of them worth 15 rupees a piece. But we have these big clean-up sessions. And we throw away valuable files. We throw away the list of people who were saved. Who we should be sending follow-up material to. We throw away lists of villages we've covered. So we end up going to the same villages not even knowing any team has ever been there before. There is a purpose in files. I believe in throwing a lot of things away. Generally personal letters aren't worth keeping. But often address lists, contact lists, or lists of converts. I have lists of my converts dating back to my first evangelistic meeting in 1957. These are my spiritual children. There I forget. I feel ashamed that I have lost some lists. Because when it gets in the thousands, it does get a bit confusing. But again, we need to press on. Well, I guess my time is gone. The whole area of prayer. There are many O.M. leaders, and I'll be very blunt. You can't organize a prayer meeting to save your life. If I was in your prayer meeting, apart from a divine move of the Holy Ghost, I would drop dead and go to sleep. These brothers are young. They need stimulation. They need challenge. They need a thought from the Word of God. They need a little help. Not just that praying, praying, praying, praying. The same guys praying too long. Other guys sleeping. Especially nights of prayer. An hour of prayer, you can get away with everybody sitting there like folks on a log. But when you go for a night of prayer, you need a little imagination. There's so much you can do in that area. Prayer meetings in general are too slow-moving. Too slow-moving. If we had Lawrence's, Brother Lawrence of Paris, it may be all right. But with the kind of slow-thinking, slow-moving, dull people that we tend to get in this work, we need to move a little bit. Better to get them to run around the desk. Do something than just sit there. Because they're not concentrating anyway. They're meditating on girls sitting across from them in the meeting or some other thing. Well, I guess I've said enough for one meeting. I wanted to add to this, lack of relaxation. I'm convinced some leaders don't know how to relax. If I didn't know how to relax hilariously, I wouldn't keep going. Billy Graham said anything he'd do if he had a chance to do it over again is pace himself more. Pace himself more. You can't just keep your hand on the trigger all the time. You've got to learn to relax. Whether it's bird-watching or hiking or sleeping or reading Newsweek or standing on your head or yoga or whatever else it is. Learn to relax. Everybody's different. I've never needed a holiday in all these years. I can take a one-hour segment of a day and turn it into one.