I feel that this is a watershed moment in my young life. You see, I project that in ten – nah, make it five years – World Services will be open to the public. We’ll (gasp!) know where they live and that won’t be all. Dream the impossible dream with me and picture this:

Facebook

Karen Zerby is excited about the new GN I just finished. ILY Family! xoxoxo
(Steven Kelly likes this)

Twitter

KingPeter @JuanRS my flight lands in Rio in 2 min. r u sure sum1’s coming 2 pick me up? GBY!

Yup, that’s the bright and shiny future I envision. It’s gonna be awesome.

At that point it’ll be like “so you’re going to WS? Sweet, I hear Miami has some awesome national parks” (I don’t know why I chose Miami, it just came to me) and I’ll have to figure out what to do with all the time I devote to speculating where those WS’ites might live.

And when WS people come to visit for meetings and stuff, what will there be left to tease them about? And what will they have to be all cryptic and mysterious about? There won’t be any point to rifling through their bags looking for their passport to check the stamps, or immediately grabbing their wrist when they first walk in the door in the hopes that they didn’t change the time on their watch yet, or offering them beer after beer in the hopes of…..dang, this actually getting to be kind of a depressing prediction. It’s like all the fun will be gone. Oh well. Change isn’t always easy, is it?

Back on topic.

Until that day arrives, savor this moment with me. My cousin Bethy, daughter of co-administrative head of the oft-publicized NRM The Family International, (hah, this is such fun) longtime member of World Services and all around cool cat, has agreed to let me probe her mind and share these probings with you. I’m excited!

You’ll notice that this interview wasn’t posted in typical Interview of the Month format. Bethy and I cheated just a little bit and did the interview beforehand and now I’m posting it all in one shot. The reason is that naturally, this interview had to get checked over by other WS bunny rabbits to make sure that Bethy didn’t give away vital information as to her whereabouts. It’s a tricky process and a very slippery slope. See, if she slips and says something like “and sometimes when the weather is nice I like to go out for a walk” this would clearly imply that the weather is at least sometimes nice where she lives, which considerably narrows the field of where WS could be located. With that kind of information, it would just be a matter of time before someone connects the dots.

Well, I think I’ve said all the foolish preliminary things that I felt I needed to say to preface this interview.

Enjoy!

Oh, one more thing. At the bottom of this post there are PHOTOS of real live WS people. I should add here that to my overly inquisitive eye, they’re all looking pretty tan. What can we learn from this?

Interview with Bethy, WS

(Bethy:) Thanks Jules—my awesome cousin with her awesome blog that I frequently visit—for thinking of such interesting questions. I’m excited to be a contributor to the interview of the month section of your blog. I’ve found that it takes me longer to write something short than something long, and since, like many of us, time is my most precious commodity, I warn you that my answers to the questions will end up on the longer side.

Having been in a “normal” non-WS Home situation for only a short amount of time, how do you relate to other Family members? We have in common the same Word and (I think) the similar Home lives but when it comes to the struggles that they face day in and day out, the many difficulties, fundraising, etc. how do you see yourself relating. I’m speaking to you personally and not WS as a whole.

I look at WS as one of many fields of service. I believe that no matter where or how you’re serving the Lord, the core discipleship fundamentals are the same—or they should be. I might choose or be called by the Lord to serve Him in Africa, or South America, or Asia. Each field has its own peculiarities, its own culture, its own perks and benefits and its own sacrifices. If you compare Family members from one field to another, you’ll find many similarities but there will also be some differences, especially in their adaptability to the surrounding culture. Think about someone transitioning from an outspoken, passionate culture of a country in South America into the more reserved culture of a country in the Far East. There would be a significant adjustment period and learning curve.

I feel that I can relate pretty well to Family members because I am one. I think that there are so many more things that relate to my life as a Family member than differences that exist. And the things that are the same are the real important things as far as I can see. The reasons why I do what I have been called to do within WS, are the same reasons that you do what you do every day. We love Jesus. We love the lost. We want to win the World. We feel we are called and chosen to be disciples that pick up our crosses daily to follow Him.

With the core reasons the same, the goals the same, the Word the same and many aspects of Home life the same, in my opinion, the main difference is what I spend my work time doing versus what you spend your work time doing. I spend that time working at my desk/on my computer and having work meetings. While I expect that the majority of you are spending time out witnessing, doing follow up and teaching classes, fundraising, etc. Another difference certainly is finances. We don’t fundraise, as we have operating budgets that allow us to provide services to the Family. I recognize that not having to worry about making ends meet financially is a bonus and a blessing. Stability is a perk as well—not only financial stability, but stability in the make up of the Home and in the continuity of the ministries.

There are plenty of sacrifices as well. Few opportunities to witness. Limited fellowship and/or contact with other Family members. Ministries that are very behind the scenes that people often only notice if something goes wrong or stops working like it should. Ministries that are tedious or monotonous and remaining faithful in them year in and year out, while still keeping the vision of why you’re doing what you’re doing—these types of things are challenging for me.

Of course, whether something is perceived as a blessing or sacrifice in any situation I think depends a lot on your personality and outlook. For example, if you’re the kind of person that likes stability, and plodding along day after day and you live in WS, those aspects will be a blessing in your life. But if you’re the kind of person (like me, and plenty of other folks I know in WS) that likes excitement, meeting people and interacting with them, then those aspects of stability could end up being a supreme sacrifice.

So, although what I spend my time doing every day is probably different than what most of you spend your time doing, the reasons why we’re each doing what we do are the same. We’re on the same page in that way, and we’re each going to face struggles and experience growth as a disciple as we do our best to fulfill God’s call and will in our lives. The circumstances or struggles the Lord uses to teach me something may be different than the circumstances He uses to teach you the same thing, but the Lord has His ways of making sure we’re both getting to the same place of growth and maturity in the spirit.

We also have the same Enemy, and we’ve put ourselves on the same battle field. Looking at it that way, you may be out on the front lines making advances and incursions into the Enemy’s territory and I may be manning the communication and supply lines, but we’re all fighting the same war. We have that in common. And that’s a lot to have in common, in my opinion.

There have been times in the course of my work, that I’ve visited “normal” Homes (though, I’m not sure if ‘normal’ is a good word to use to describe any Family Home, ha) and I never felt like there were huge gaps in relating.

What’s the closest you’ve ever come to leaving WS and what made you stay?

I don’t feel that I fit into the mold of what people might consider a “typical WS person.” Desk work and being behind the scenes are not what I consider my natural make up or preference. While I have and am adjusted to the work and lifestyle, I also love people, witnessing, fellowship, variety and excitement (like many others in WS). I choose to remain in WS because every time I pray about it (something I do on a fairly regular basis), the Lord tells me that it’s still His will for me to serve Him here. The day that I get instructions otherwise from the Big Boss…that’ll be the day I’m outta here! I have several choice mission fields already picked out and potential Homes and ministries I’d be thrilled to be a part of. I also have a slew of ideas I’d just love to try.

To me, being in WS is about being in the Lord’s will and serving Him where He chooses. When I look at my natural preferences and desires, WS wouldn’t have been at the top of my list of places or ways to serve the Lord. But I look at it as part of denying myself, my own wishes and wants it order to take up the cross to be a disciple. So if this is where He wants me to serve Him, so be it.

I often need to remind myself why I choose to sacrifice many of my personal wishes and wants in order to remain in WS. It’s because those of us in WS help to provide the services that are needed by the rest of the Family, and that would be more difficult or impossible to do the job without. Things like publications and productions, outreach products, training programs, websites, etc.

Have there been times when I’ve felt like I’ve served my “time” and wanted to leave and do something else? Absolutely! In fact during this recent bout of illness I’ve had, I’ve hit some pretty low points and have spent a good deal of time thinking about and examining many areas of my life, my place in WS included.

I don’t look at WS as a place that everyone should aspire to be. If it’s God’s will, then it’s a fulfilling place of service, albeit with its own set of sacrifices and difficulties. However, I don’t think anyone should come to WS unless it’s very clear to them that it’s the Lord’s will, and I don’t think anyone should continue to remain in WS unless they are convinced that it’s the Lord’s will for them. The way I see it, the important thing is to find the Lord’s will, and be willing to follow it, appreciating the blessings as well as being willing to embrace the sacrifices that come with the journey.

What do you introduce yourself as to a new acquaintance when out doing shopping, business, etc? What do you say you do for a living?

Depending on who I’m talking to, pretty much whatever my ministry is at the time is what I’ll use as an explanation for what I do for a living. Like graphic designer; project or productions manager; homeschool mom, etc.

How much do you see WS changing in the next 5 years? 10 years I imagine quite a change, but what about 5?

WS has seen a lot of change in the last five years. And if you look back 10 years, I feel it’s almost unrecognizable from how things are today. So I expect things to continue to change at a pretty good clip, as a part of all the change that is ahead for the Family.

One of my personal wishes and hopes is that, in time, there would be less need for WS Homes to be secluded from other Family Homes and more fellowship or openness could exist.

How long have you had the long-term vision? When did you stop having a fixed timeframe for when the Endtime might start?

When “The Way I See it” (ML #2956) came out, it was the first time that “10 more years” was mentioned as a strong possibility. Prior to that, the going thinking was that Jesus was going to come back in 1993. I was either 17 or 18 when the letter came out and it was a huge deal for me. I wept and cried and was very disillusioned. I had only recently returned to a WS Home to help care for children and had done so with the thinking that I’d be there till “Jesus came back”—which in my mind was only going to be another four years or so. I figured with only four years left, that it wouldn’t be too hard to give those last years to the Lord in service, if that’s what He was asking of me. So the concepts brought out in that letter rattled my world and shook me to the core, as suddenly I faced a much longer future of doing what I was doing and I doubted whether I had the right motivation in my decision making.

Through that experience, I had to make a decision, that, looking back, was fairly fundamental: Was I doing what I was doing because it was a good use of time for the next few years till Jesus came back, or was it because I believed in what I was doing and was willing to do it because I loved Jesus and the lost? I had to come to grips with that, and thank the Lord, I guess I must have. It was around then that I stopped basing so many things on when Jesus was going to come back, as I realized that my motivation needed to be based on other things besides a timeframe.

I can’t pinpoint any specific time that I changed my mindset to a more long-term one. I think it was a gradual background process that occurred over the years, probably as a natural outcropping of growing in responsibility. I do remember sometime in the mid 90s, realizing that my body might end up needing to last me many more years than I had previously thought and I really ought to start doing things like flossing my teeth (ha), and taking better care of my body and things like that. So that was a practical change. And then when I had my daughter, I started looking much more towards the future, thinking about things like how I wanted to raise her, what kind of an adult I wanted her to become. That type of thing gets you looking at things in a different way.

Is raising a teenager what you expected it to be? Any major surprises?

When you’re raising a teenager, every day is a surprise! That’s what makes it exciting. So far so good, but I’m just out of the starting block on this one, so we’ll see how it goes.

Right now I’m scrambling to put together her high school projection. It’s exciting and fun to do, but quite a bit of work with substantial decisions to be made. I should have actively begun the project much earlier. The new high school site is fantastic and a great aid. It gives you the information of what you need to do and what you need to decide. It’s super helpful, but it doesn’t do the work for you. There are important decisions to make, and lots of research and work to be done. I knew it was something I needed to focus on, but I waited too long before getting into it. Then once I realized the magnitude of the project I wished I had started much earlier. Also, in the vein of having a long term vision and planning ahead, budgeting and/or saving towards a high school education is something that can be done in advance if you’re thinking that way.

How do you keep up a balance between learning/hobbies and working? For example, I want to be a hard worker, but if I let work take up my time I’ll never learn anything new. I can learn as I go for some things, but certain things I want to learn will never come up in my work.

What are you learning and progressing in, what are your hobbies and how do you keep the balance of progressing in those as well as keeping up with/taking initiative in your “day job”?

I love learning new things but the reality of life is that it can be pretty hard to fit in time to learn new things, or even to just enjoy a hobby. Some things that help me keep a balance are: organizing my time, looking at getting around to things over a longer period of time, and keeping track of what I’m doing/learning.

For starters, time organization is essential. I find I have to schedule myself pretty well in order to fit in all the things that I have to do, and that are necessary to do. If I don’t schedule things, it doesn’t happen. I schedule and plan for my free time too, as otherwise I find it’s too easy to just keep working because work or other life needs can be very pressing.

Also, if I make a schedule and keep to it, it gives me more freedom to enjoy and put my heart into whatever I’m doing at the time (free time included) because I know I have a plan for getting to the other things that I need to do as well.

I find that when I have something I’m learning or devoting time to, maybe I’m only able to get to it once a week for an hour, but at the end of the year, that’s 52 hours that I was able to devote. So even small amounts of time add up to progress over a longer period of time if there’s consistency. That’s been a real key for me.

I also find it useful to keep a daily log. The log I keep is a simple listing, consisting of the various types of things I do each day, for example, what I accomplished in my work that day, what I did/read during my Word time, what kind of personal things I did, whether or not I had exercise, and recently I’ve been tracking my health and any symptoms.

I find it’s easy for me to come up with ideas of what I want or need to do or learn, and even plans of how to get things done, but I can be a bit idealistic as far as follow through. So keeping a log helps me to track progress over a longer period of time. It makes it easier to plan things out at the beginning of the year or month, and then take a good look at what I was realistically able to do, and what type of progress I’m making overall.

At the end of each month, I summarize the month’s main accomplishments or projects into a yearly summary. I’ve been doing this for a few years now, and I like it and plan to keep it up for a while longer.

As far as the things I’m interested in learning at this point in my life, I find I am most successful when I major on things that I can easily do when I have a few minutes. For instance, I read the news clips posted on the MO site. I try to read them every day, but it ends up being more like a few times a week. It helps me keep up with what’s going on in the world, as I don’t have the time or the interest to pursue other news sources. I find that the news clips expose me to new concepts and ideas and vocabulary and that’s extremely educational and useful. It expands my thinking in many areas and it pushes me to think about or pray for things that I wouldn’t ordinarily come across in my day to day life.

While reading the news clips, if I come across a word that I don’t know the meaning of or how to pronounce it, I open up my dictionary program, look up the word and listen to how it’s spoken (I LOVE that feature in electronic dictionaries). There are so many words that I’ve only ever read and never heard spoken because they aren’t commonly spoken in our day to day vocabulary, so I have a thing for learning not only what words mean but how they are pronounced.

I know that multitasking divides your focus and it’s not that great for work productivity, but I find it works well for keeping my mind busy when I have a physical job to do. So I like listening to a language learning program or lecture on my mp3 player while folding laundry, ironing, cleaning, etc.

Once I have a good schedule going that is realistic, then it’s easier to start filling in the spare moments. For example, I really enjoy reading, but I don’t have a lot of time for it. So I keep things in the bathroom, and I read them little by little while I’m brushing my teeth or on the toilet. Right now the things I have on hand in the bathroom include: A compiled listing of customized keys from the HIM site, “Empire of Debt” book summary, “How to Run Seminars and Workshops” book summary, plus some scrabble word lists: two letter words, short J, Q, X, Z words and vowel dumps. (Yeah, I like scrabble. And you can really rake in the points if you’ve memorized the two letter words, heh)

As far as hobbies and interests go, I love music. I like to sing and harmonize. I enjoy working with others to come up with vocal arrangements for songs, with various parts and harmonies, etc. I play a little bit of a few instruments, though I really only keep up with piano and guitar. There is little need for musical ability or singing in my line of work right now, though the Lord may have plans for using those talents in the future. Who knows? I enjoy music a great deal, and it makes me happy, so I try to make time for it, even if it’s sporadic.

I’m also very interested in learning about how the body works, and alternatives to allopathic medicine. I have some chronic health problems which have prompted me to research in order to understand what isn’t working with my body and why. I find study on this topic fascinating. It’s amazing to learn more about how the body works, all that goes on without any conscious thought on our part. And even when something breaks down or isn’t working right, the fact that everything else keeps functioning pretty well is astounding. So that’s an area of interest for me and something I have been doing research and study on in the last six or seven years. Though, ironically, I find that I really only have time to devote to reading or researching on this topic when I’m ill and unable to work.

What’s the last really memorable party/hangout/chillaxing time you had with a group and what made it special?

Being ill for a number of months has impacted my social life considerably. I have frequently found that I lack the energy needed to enjoy group gatherings/parties and activities like I used to. And when I do attend these types of things, I’ll often find myself exhausted afterwards. It seems like I am experiencing a poverty of resources in my body’s energy department, ha! This has been a not-so-good (in my opinion) change that I’ve been experiencing, and I’m hoping and praying that my health allows me to be more active in this way in the future, as I really enjoy fellowship and parties/activities, etc.

So lately, I’ve found that relaxing with just one or two other people is much more enjoyable and doable for me.

You’ve had quite a few struggles with your health; what has it taught you and what took the longest time for you to grasp, perspective-wise?

To explain what my struggles with my health have taught me would take several pages at least. I will spare you that and instead focus on what’s taken the longest for me to grasp in this last round of illness that I’ve had.

Becoming so ill during the launch of the Offensive was not at all my idea of progress or usefulness for the Offensive. It seemed like such bad timing and such an attack of the Enemy, especially when I continued to be so ill for months. It took a long time for me to come to the point that I was willing to accept that being sick and physically weak is the Lord’s will for me at this time in my life.

Also, for a long time I struggled with so much effort to do whatever I could to get better so that I could go back to how things were before, to what I was accustomed to accomplishing and what I felt my accomplishments were worth—to myself, the Lord and others. It took months to understand that I was supposed to come out of this period of illness as a different person, thinking differently and operating differently. The goal was that things would be different, not that I would go back to how things were before, and what I always did and how I did it. Instead, I am supposed to have new mindsets and new understanding that would shape new ways of thought and operation.

I’m a stubborn person, Lord help me, so aside from it taking a long time to grasp this major principle, I’m still attempting to grasp the aspects of change that the Lord has in mind for me—my personal change journey I guess. It’s all a bit fuzzy still, so I have to trust the Lord that as I continue to hold on and trust Him, He’ll help things to become clear and help me change in the ways He knows I need to.

With our swell new long-term vision of possibly having another 30 to 50 years, myself and I’m sure plenty of other people my age are now a little more interested in continuing their education. Do you have any advice as someone who is largely self-taught and self-disciplined in that sense?

In point form, if I may, since I’ve been doing an awful lot of rambling so far:

-No matter how busy one is, one always has more time available for education/learning when one is young, single &/or childless. As work and life responsibilities grow, available time for these things decreases. When you’re older and have more responsibility &/or a family, you’ll wish you’d made better use of the time you had when it was available. I certainly have.

-Be disciplined. When you’re planning and furthering your own education, personal discipline is a must. If you’re not naturally that way or haven’t learned good habits of discipline, get someone to help you. Make yourself accountable to someone else.

-Make a plan and work the plan. Don’t hurriedly slap together a plan either. Take whatever time is needed to find the best way/method/instruction needed for what you want to learn. Figure out how you’re going to incorporate it into your life and how you’ll monitor your progress. Change things if it’s not working or not effective, or you’re not getting the progress you want to see.

-Explore whether investing smaller/shorter amounts of time over a longer period of time will be most effective or efficient in the long run. There are times when concentrated periods of focus are best, but not always. Sometimes shorter bits over a longer period of time is the better choice—or the most realistic.

-People are a wonderful resource. There are so many folks in and out of the Family with a wealth of experience, information, knowledge and know how, but often you’d never know or guess. And you’ll never benefit from their knowledge and experience unless you take time to listen to them and ask questions. If you’re inquisitive and ask questions, you can learn a lot, and it’s often free instruction!

What do you miss most about working on the Zine and what are you most grateful to not have to deal with anymore as far as the Zine goes?

I miss our Zine meetings, where we would plan the content of the mag and brainstorm what the cover would consist of. There was much creative brainstorming and lots of laughs. Piper and Lance would keep our meetings well furnished with jokes.

Then there was the flyswatter cover idea–to put a photo of a solitary flyswatter on the cover with the TFZ logo emblazoned on the mesh of the flyswatter. Then people would meditate over what the point of the cover was and how it was connected to the mag. And the point was that there would be no point, it would just be weird and zany. It was one of many ideas that got scrapped, but every time we’d draw a blank on what an issue’s cover should be, the flyswatter idea always came up as an option, followed by debate on whether or not it was a good idea. By the time we got to the final issues of the Zine, we almost used it as a cover, if only to memorialize such a frequently raised cover idea. But when we asked the Lord about it, we obviously didn’t get the green light.

I sometimes miss doing graphic design. Towards the end of the Zine era is when I stopped doing design and starting doing more management/coordination/administration type of work. I was enjoying design and layout and had learned a lot, and I had done some pretty nice work that I was happy with. It was very creative work and that’s always fun. My daughter has fun sometimes going through the Zines on Infostore trying to ascertain which pages in any given Zine were the ones that I laid out.

I don’t miss the dumb mistakes that we constantly made because we were so green and didn’t know what we were doing. We caused a great deal of hassle for the NPCs who had to print the mag every month. Many times we didn’t even know enough to figure out what we were doing wrong that caused the printing to be so problematic. We had a significant learning curve going, and we were all pretty young and inexperienced in that type of work.

When I think back on the early days of Zine production, it’s embarrassing to recall that it took a team of us an entire month to put out just one mag. For sure, we did stuff in the Home and we took care of our kids, but the Zine was our main ministry. When I compare those days with my current workload or the workload of others involved in pubs production today, I’m baffled as to how we managed to take so much time to put out just one mag a month. And on top of it, we were often late and running behind in our deadlines!

As time went on, we started getting our act together and eventually there was a team of us that were responsible for not only the Zine but also the production of several other pubs, so output really increased. Then when the letter “Putting Skin on the Era of Action” (ML # 3301) came out, there was the commitment to excellence and a major focus on efficiency and streamlining. All that continued to move us forward to adopting a more professional approach to our work. Those changes highlighted the contrast to the early days of Zine production, when were pretty unprofessional in our work, and generally disorganized. I have to say that I don’t miss that, and I am grateful that work ethic and productivity has improved the way it has. I would be ashamed otherwise.

I love this question, it’s so easy to come up with :): Name your three current favorite:

Old MO Letters:
Just three, huh? That’ll be hard. The first three that come to mind are: “For God’s Sake, Follow God” (ML #4). “Prophecy of God on the Old Church and the New Church.” (ML #A) “The Temple Prophecy” (ML #9). To me, these Letters and others like them are just so core. They’re passionate. They motivate me. They encourage me. They challenge me. They move me. And they’ve been doing that for many years.

Non-Family heroes:
The missionary greats—too numerous to mention, but Hudson Taylor and C.T Studd I just think were amazing. Also I tremendously admire Adoniram Judson and others like him that stuck it out for many years in one place, even when they didn’t always see the fruits of their labors immediately. They inspire me.

Ways to relax
Reading Family blogs
Fellowshipping over a nice meal or a glass of wine.
Reading aloud to my daughter while she draws or does some type of project.

Movies
I don’t know that I have favorite movies, to be honest. I like watching movies a lot and there are movies that I like or enjoy, but they are the kind of thing that I watch and then easily forget about. It’s a rare movie that sticks with me or moves me to the point that it makes a significant impression on me for good or bad.

But one movie that probably does rank as a favorite, though not current, is “Office Space.” I think because at the time it came out, there was so much we could identify with. At the time, our Zine team had a basement room we all worked in with thin dividers providing some privacy for each desk area, but no sound proofing. The printer we had at the time was the bane of our existence. It basically didn’t work or it would cause problems more than it worked. The main problem with the printer was that we were printing graphic intense pages on it with multiple fonts, and the printer just wasn’t capable of handling it.

Anyway, because we were all working in the same room, everyone else could hear if someone got super frustrated at the printer and the continual error messages, paper jams and so on. At some point or another, pretty much every one of us lost it over the printer. At our work meetings or devotions, we’d have reminders to stay praiseful and be a good sample to others in the office by not getting verbally out of it when the printer stopped working.

So then when the “Office Space” movie came out, the whole printer part was just too funny, especially because our printer would give the exact same error messages that the one in the movie did. A few months later when we got a new printer, it was a major victory and we celebrated by taking our old printer into the yard and….no….we didn’t do that exactly. We had to sell the printer, so we were careful to take good care of it. But before selling it, we did take it into the yard and carefully took it apart, adding some papers, wires and miscellaneous computer components into the scene, and then took a series of photos of our team with hatchets and bats and hammers, looking like we were about to bust the printer or just had. We put the photos together onto a card titled “Zine team holds going away bash for the old printer.” It was pretty funny, and our special way of saying thank you for our new printer.