Dear Brethren and Friends, I recently returned from a most inspiring trip to Mexico! Mr. Mario Hernandez, our Director of the Spanish Work, had for some time encouraged me to visit our brethren there, and it was very helpful and encouraging for me to join him in Mexico City in early February. The brethren were very enthusiastic, warm and loving, and the growth of the Work there is encouraging to behold. Mr. Hernandez has done a superb job overall, and I am very grateful for what Christ has been doing through him and through the other leaders in the area.
Mexico is a nation of 100 million people, and Mexico City alone contains about one-quarter of that number—25 million—making it the most populous city on earth! So there is tremendous potential there. Mr. Hernandez and some of the other leading men are making plans to establish an office there within the next year or two. They are praying, planning and hoping that one of our ministers (not Mr. Hernandez) may move to Mexico City and actually live there full-time to serve the brethren, that Mr. Hernandez can then get back on the powerful radio station in Mexico, and that God's Work there can truly move ahead as never before. Please pray fervently about this!
Flying into Mexico City on a Thursday afternoon, I was met by Mr. Hernandez and Mr. David Tenorio. Mr. Tenorio is an extremely capable and helpful servant of Christ, and is one of the leading men in our Mexico City congregation. After checking in at the Holiday Inn, we went to the home of the Cortes family, where we had an enjoyable meal with them, including their five adult children. It was wonderful to see the dedication and love of this family, and so many others in Mexico City.
On Friday morning, Messrs. Hernandez, Tenorio and I went to the Museum of Anthropology—one of the greatest museums of its type in the Western Hemisphere. This was very educational, and I was able to visit with these two men and gain more information and insight into the Spanish Work. On Friday evening, back at the Holiday Inn, I led a Bible Study which was received very enthusiastically by the several dozen brethren who attended.
After breakfast and a walk with Mr. Hernandez on Sabbath morning, I prepared the sermon and we were able to have a fine service for 104 enthusiastic brethren right there in the Holiday Inn. Mr. Tony Mora, an elder of Mexican origin who now lives in California, gave a fine sermonette.
That evening, after a long period of rest and visiting, we had a catered dinner for the entire congregation at the hotel. A mariachi band played, and we enjoyed an impromptu "guest artist" performance when Mr. Hernandez beautifully sang a couple of numbers with the band!
On Sunday morning, we were able to share a meal at the home of some of our brethren, and we enjoyed getting to know them and their families better. We then went to visit the famous pyramids northeast of Mexico City, and learned more about the early history of Mexico. That evening, we went to dinner at the home of Mr. Tenorio's brother, and were able to become better acquainted with him and his fine family. Through all of this, I was able to experience a cross-section of Mexican life and to become better acquainted personally with our brethren.
On Monday morning, after breakfast and a final meeting with Messrs. Hernandez and Mora, we headed for the airport where we had to part ways, and all three of us flew to our homes. I returned with many happy and meaningful memories of my visit to Mexico, and with a deeper appreciation for the culture, the trials and the love and warmth of our Mexican brethren.
Going back a little in time, I should mention that Mexico City was not the first stop on my trip. had gone from Charlotte to Phoenix, Arizona, where I joined Messrs. Ames and Crockett in visiting an important company that acts as an agency to buy television time for churches—as well as operating in many other areas of the media. We scheduled this visit in order to gain more understanding of their processes, and to think about using additional media-buying agencies to give us greater flexibility and perhaps better pricing as the Work moves ahead. We gained a good deal of insight from this visit, and hope that God will bless us and enable us to have a great deal more growth in this area in the future.
Even now, our television response is doing very well—especially considering the relatively small number of commercial stations that carry our program. The response to each weekly program in recent months has averaged more than 2,000—and often breaks 3,000! So we thank God for this, but we are always striving to do better. Also, we have put on an extra "push" in increasing our impact on the Internet. You have probably noticed our new Internet site over the last few months, and now we have extra programs in mind to increase the response and the impact of our Internet use. We will appreciate your prayers for the success of this effort.
Additionally, we are developing a Ministerial Training Program under the direction of Dr. Scott Winnail—the son of our Director of Church Administration, Dr. Douglas Winnail. Dr. Scott Winnail gained experience in developing teaching and training programs at the university level while serving as an associate professor at the University of Wyoming. He will be guided in putting this program together by his father, and by Mr. Lambert Greer, Mr. Rand Millich and others—with regular input from Mr. Dibar Apartian, Mr. Rod McNair and me here at Headquarters. So it will be a reflection of our "team effort" in putting together a program to help all potential ministers and leaders in the Work. Again, I solicit your earnest prayers for this. I hope that all who are asked to participate will try to get involved with this program, since we certainly need more leaders in God's Church—and in His ministry— today!
As the prophesied European Empire rises up, and as the Muslim nations turn more and more against Europe and the United States and bring about the prophesied "King of the South," we will begin to experience more of the events predicted to occur at the end of this age. The "great" earthquakes Jesus predicted in Luke 21 and Matthew 24 will shock many. The continuing wars all over the world, the alternating drought and storms, the fires and floods, the coming severe famines and the horrifying disease epidemics will intensify over the next several years and will certainly shake mankind's complacency. Brethren, our God will get the attention of human beings through His mighty intervention! We need to do all we can to reach out to a confused humanity with the message of Christ's coming Kingdom; the message of the true way of life that will bring ultimate peace and joy to the world, and of the purpose God has in giving us life and making every single human being in His image. We in God's Church have a tremendous opportunity and responsibility to do all of this—and certainly to powerfully warn our Israelitish brethren of the very-soon-coming Great Tribulation and traumatic events at the end of this age, so they may act ahead of time and be protected.
Dear brethren, please be zealous in obeying Jesus' command to "watch" world events! Watch especially the Middle East and Jerusalem, as I have often encouraged you to do. For remarkable events are truly beginning to occur, which the Church of God has prophesied for decades. A recent article in the Washington Post gives this insight into the situation there:
"The goal of reuniting Muslims under a single flag stands at the heart of the radical Islamic ideology Bush has warned of repeatedly in recent major speeches on terrorism. In language evoking the Cold War, Bush has cast the conflict in Iraq as the pivotal battleground in a larger contest between advocates of freedom and those who seek to establish 'a totalitarian Islamic empire reaching from Spain to Indonesia.'
The enthusiasm of the extremists for that vision is not disputed. However unlikely its realization, the ambition may help explain terrorist acts that often appear beyond understanding. When Osama bin Laden called the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon 'a very small thing compared to this humiliation and contempt for more than 80 years,' the reference was to the aftermath of World War I, when the last caliphate was suspended as European powers divided up the Middle East. Al Qaeda named its Internet newscast, which debuted in September, 'The Voice of the Caliphate.'
Yet the caliphate is also esteemed by many ordinary Muslims. For most, its revival is not an urgent concern. Public opinion polls show immediate issues such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and discrimination rank as more pressing. But Muslims regard themselves as members of the umma, or community of believers, that forms the heart of Islam. And as earthly head of that community, the caliph is cherished both as memory and ideal, interviews indicate.
That reservoir of respect represents a risk for the Bush administration as it addresses an issue closely watched by a global Islamic population estimated at 1.2 billion. Already, many surveys show that since the U.S.-led invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, Muslims almost universally have seen the war against terrorism as a war on Islam.
'Why do you keep invading Muslim countries?' asked Kerem Acar, a tailor in central Istanbul. 'I won't live to see it, and my children won't, but one day maybe my children's children will see someone declare himself the caliph, like the pope, and have an impact'" (January 14, 2006).
Indeed, as you can see, the coming "Mahdi"—or "King of the South" (Daniel 11:40–45)—will soon arise and have a dramatic impact on world events. He will unite many of the more than one billion Muslims. He will be a genuine menace to the coming European Empire, which will have to crush this threat in order to continue exploiting Middle Eastern oil to further its military ambitions.
Also note that the Vatican is now "muscling in" on Jerusalem and trying to gain more and more power in that part of the world—as we have for years indicated would happen. In a recent article on the "Jerusalem Newswire," Stan Goodenough reports:
"The Roman Catholic Church says the Jewish state cannot be trusted to exercise control over the city of Jerusalem—ancient and eternal capital of the people of Israel.
In a statement whose arrogance and contempt he seemingly could not see, the Vatican's legal advisor in Israel, David Jaeger, told an international conference in Haifa Tuesday that Jerusalem was too important a city to leave in the hands of either 'Palestinians' or Jews.
Jaeger's view was that the status of Jerusalem required the approval of the international community as a whole.
Ironically the Vatican, which claims to be spiritual home to one billion of the world's Christians, rejects the biblical stipulation granting everlasting possession of ancient Canaan, inclusive of Jerusalem, to the Jewish people.
Since 1947 it has sought to have Jerusalem internationalized, confident that with Rome's massive global constituency the pope will be able to exercise substantial control over the city.
Jaeger is historically on solid ground when he says the Palestinian Arabs should have no say over Jerusalem. The city has never been an Arab capital and the 'Palestinians' have no historic or national rights to it (or to any other part of Israel's biblical homeland).
The Jews, by contrast, have venerated the city as their holiest site for over 3,000 years. Israel is the only nation that has ever had Jerusalem as its capital. During centuries of exile, Jews everywhere prayed daily to return to Jerusalem in order to be able to once again worship their God in this place" (January 4, 2006).
Before the end of this age, the coming "prince" of the revived Roman Empire in Europe will apparently grant the Jews an opportunity to once again offer animal sacrifices on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. But this opportunity may be cut short by the revocation of a treaty he makes with the Jewish people, as the final "Great Tribulation" begins in earnest (Daniel 9:26–27). As you and your family carefully watch all these events, this should certainly make your watching and reading the news far more exciting and meaningful! For God's word will stand. All these events are beginning to occur, and will occur with increasing intensity over the next several years of our lives.
We in God's Church are the only ones who truly understand the real meaning of the events that are now winding up the present 6,000 years of human existence under the influence of Satan the Devil. God grant that we take advantage of this understanding, appreciate it and draw ever closer to our Father—and to the Living Jesus Christ, our High Priest, sitting at His right hand.
May God inspire all who are called to "get with it"— to be truly zealous in His service and in preparing for Christ's return as the literal King of kings, to rule over the nations of this earth! With Christian love,
