1966


WEDNESDAY 18th MAY 1966

We do not have a penny

   Only eight gifts came in today, totalling £8 2s 6d. I spent £1 10s 6d on petrol (6 gallons @ 5/- per gallon plus 6 shots of Redex), and £1 10s on stamps (87 @ 4d and 6 @ 2d). The new rubber stamp cost 12/- and ink pad 3/9d, and later I had to spend a further 7/3d on stamps.

   We posted the newsletters, undated, today. I wrote:—

Dear friend,

   This confidential letter is going only to those who have sent a gift this year, or to those who have written recently and we think are genuinely interested in our ministry. If I have misinterpreted your intentions please ignore this letter.

   This is primarily a request for help. But first I want you to know of the tremendous way in which the Lord is blessing the work. Judgment on Britain has had the greatest response of any book we have published. Orders have been coming in at the rate of almost 1,000 copies per week. The entire first edition is almost gone and we must have a reprint immediately.

   Another new venture. Since February we have been printing a monthly faith-message in a What’s On In Birmingham publication. To date we have printed 172,000 copies.* Very shortly this will be going into every household in Birmingham. We shall be reaching 1¼ million people with every issue. Think of that for one moment.

   In a few weeks you will be receiving the new enlarged Focus magazine, free as always. Testimonies — hundreds of them — have been pouring into our office the last few months. So many are being converted to Christ, miraculously healed, blessed with a financial miracle. You will read their stories for yourself.

   The blessing has never been so great, but I need your help urgently. Please understand, we are not in debt, our bills are all being paid, but we just do not have a penny at the moment. Our employees in the office have even had less salary. To put you in the picture, this is how we are placed:

   I must pay immediately £750 booking fee for a great Crusade in the West of England next year (details soon). Three of our most popular books need an immediate reprint. The What’s On outreach is costing us £1,000 this year. We often have to spend as much as £80 per week just for postage stamps.

   Can you help us please with a gift? I am asking you believing you to have a genuine interest in our ministry (forgive me if I have made a mistake). We especially need folk to promise, by faith, to send a stated sum over the next year so that we can budget accordingly. If you can send £50 over the next 12 months as your tithe or offering to God, I will send you then a beautiful Presentation Bible. God bless you for your help — Proverbs 3:27–28.

      BRIAN WILLIAMS

   * Ask for a free copy when you write


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webwork by Jim Nagel at Abbey Press, Glastonbury — this edition published 2007-06-30