Dear Wake Up Family!
I hope and pray that you are healthy, happy, and blessed with an attitude of gratitude! Shirley and I are doing very well given our circumstances. My health continues to decline and this produces new challenges, but we praise the Lord every day! He sustains us and blesses us in unexpected and marvelous ways! I know some of you are also facing very difficult challenges, but the Lord is greater than any challenge. My problems are minor compared to the suffering that many people are experiencing. The Lord is so generous and faithful, He somehow makes a way to make it through another day until His higher purposes are completed.
Most of you know I have ALS, so for the past year I cannot speak or swallow. I have a ventilator for breathing at night and a feeding tube for water and food. Paralysis is overtaking my right arm, hand, and fingers. Many of my neck and shoulder muscles have quit working, so my head droops forward and my posture is bad. I relax the upper torso muscles by tilting my seat back in my wheelchair. Typing is getting difficult because my fingers do not lift and go where they are supposed to go. I can still walk short distances; I am so grateful that I am not yet confined to the wheelchair. I have lost 30+ pounds, when I look in the mirror, it is still frightening, no change there. Grinning…
Nevertheless, I have joy in my heart, peace in my soul, and the blessed assurance of eternal life through Jesus, my Savior! Thank you so much for your love, concerns, many prayers, cards, and emails. Shirley and I did not anticipate such a wonderful outpouring of affection. I wish I had enough energy to respond to each of you, but I can’t. However, a day is coming when Shirley and I will hug and rejoice with each one of you! We are looking forward to that wonderful and glorious day and by God’s amazing grace, we will see all of you there!
I am writing because I am very excited about a new adventure that Wake Up is undertaking! We are announcing a “Million Dollar Giveaway!” We feel the time has come to change gears. We are phasing in a new program and our target is to reach one million people over the next three years. We do not know a million people and neither do you, but working together we can sow a million seeds! Because each person is meaningfully connected to about 60 people (researchers say), it only takes a spark to get a fire burning!
There are two sides to this giveaway. For the next three years, Wake Up will be giving away selected materials for free! There will be a small charge for shipping and handling. Limits and intervals also apply. Over time, we will announce changes to our “give away list,” so watch for these announcements. To get started, please see the announcement for our first giveaway list on the back of this letter. But wait, there’s more! On the other side of this adventure, we will be producing numerous “pocket books.” We hope you like the enclosed sample! For distribution purposes, booklets will be packaged and shipped in a sturdy box so you can keep them neat and tidy. To keep expenses down, the number of booklets in a box will be determined by the capacity of the box. For example, if we can stuff approximately 50 booklets (each booklet having 28 pages) in a box, the same box will hold about 100 booklets having 14 pages in each booklet. I mention this because the number of pages in the pocket books will vary, so the number of booklets to fill a box will vary. Each box of booklets will also be free except for shipping and handling. Limits and intervals will also apply.
We hope you enjoy these booklets and appreciate their timely message well enough to order boxes of them for sharing! To reach a million people within the next three years we have to depend on your arms and legs! We need your help to carry the gospel of Jesus and the good news of His imminent return wherever you go. Share-Share-Share! Leave booklets everywhere (except for automobile windshields)! Look over our first booklet so you can see the format. We want readers to visit our website, read our many articles and watch our seminars. We anticipate a huge harvest will come from this endeavor if you will change gears with us for the next three years!
I do not need to convince you the return of Jesus is at the door, the media is doing this. I do not need to remind you of the value and importance of eternal life. I do not need to warn you of God’s coming wrath because you know it is coming. I do not need to encourage you to trust in God because you know how to depend on Him. But I do need to impress on you the importance and timeliness of this new endeavor. We have to act now while we have the freedom to do so. Please join us in this million dollar giveaway so we can reach a million (or more) new people within the next three years! Please pray that every seed sown will take root and the Lord of the Harvest will be very pleased with us when He gathers up a numberless multitude that comes out of the Great Tribulation. Please, will you help us rapidly spread the gospel of Jesus?
“Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me Heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:13–14)
Larry Wilson