Greetings y'all,
Mr. Meredith taped two new Tomorrow's World telecasts yesterday, scheduled to air in late November and early December. "Why Are You ALIVE?" offered the booklet Your Ultimate Destiny, and "What Is Ahead for YOU Personally?" offered the Bible Study Course. Mr. Ames taped "The Future of Jerusalem," which offered The Middle East in Prophecy and included a special tribute to fellow presenter Mr. John Ogwyn. Tomorrow, Friday, Mr. Ames will tape "The Day of the Lord in Prophecy," which will offer an audiotape.
Final corrections for the September-October 2005 Tomorrow's World magazine were sent to RR Donnelley, our magazine printer, earlier this week. The print run for this issue will be 275,000 copies.
MEDIA
Telecast
Superstation WGN passed a major milestone this past week when we received our 200,000th response from WGN's TV viewers. Last week's response brought the total reply-count from WGN, since January 31, 1999, to 200,319. These replies came from 106,351 respondents, and we are happy to see so many of them making repeat calls and asking for additional literature. Over the past six years WGN has been very productive for the Church. So far, 162 individuals have been baptized after coming in contact with the Church through WGN. And many more are attending Church services and are headed towards baptism. To date, for those whose first contact with the Church was through WGN, one out of every 656 viewers has now been baptized. This is a very encouraging ratio.
This week our agency negotiated a new contract with a local Charlotte-area TV station, WHKY-TV. We will be able to air the Tomorrow's World program in prime time—at 7:30 pm on Monday nights—starting September 26.
This Friday night, August 12, at 10:00 pm Pacific Time, also prime time, we will begin airing nationwide on the Inspiration Network (INSP) that reaches 22 million cable-TV households. A week later, on Sunday, August 21, we will begin airing the Tomorrow's World telecast in South Africa, on the Community Service Network reaching six million households.—Wayne Pyle
Internet
The Tomorrow's World website continues to see an increase in daily traffic. The number of visitors since May is up 70%! Our web advertising program is in high gear, exposing our literature to more people than ever. During the month of August our advertisements have been seen over 3.1 million times. Year-to-date, this number jumps to over 21 million! Over the past few weeks we have added several new Study Topics to the www.lcg.org site, which continue to be a popular item for people to review. We are now starting to work on the www.cogl.org Member Resources website and, once this area is done, we will then start to work on assisting our international websites. Regardless of time or day, through the Internet we have the potential to reach over 900 MILLION people! Continue to pray that God will bless this very cost-effective way of preaching the Gospel to the entire world.—Steve Stiffler
CHURCH ADMINISTRATION
Canadian Update
The Apostle Paul was told that he would be, "a light to the Gentiles, that you should be for salvation to the ends of the earth" (Acts 13:47). Jesus told his disciples to, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature" Mark 16:15. It is unlikely that Christ's disciples or the Apostle Paul could have imagined how far the gospel would be preached. In looking over calls from a recent early morning telecast (3 a.m. EDT) on Vision TV, we had three calls from what are truly "the ends of the earth." One call came from Pond Inlet on the northern end of Baffin Island, about 180 miles north of the Arctic Circle. Another call came from Arviat and one from Whale Cove – both on the western shore of Hudson Bay. In recent months we have received calls from places like Cambridge Bay, Arctic Bay, and several other locations so remote that the only way to get to them is by boat in the summer or by plane. To what degree any of these people may become converted remains to be seen, but through satellite dishes the message we preach on the Tomorrow's World telecast is going out to the ends of the earth.
We see two trends taking place here in Canada: one positive, the other not so positive. God is certainly blessing us financially, as July income was up 35% over last year, bringing our year to date total over last year to 28.5%. At the same time, we are in great need of more manpower. The four eastern provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland/Labrador are without a resident minister. We also can use another minister out west and we need help with the increasing workload in Ontario. Your prayers of thanks for the financial blessings God has given us and your prayers for God to provide adequate laborers will be much appreciated.—Gerald Weston
South Africa Update
Mr. Syd Hull reports: We experienced two earth tremors of 3.2 and 3.7 on the Richter scale within one hour of each other on the eastern side of Johannesburg last Friday. The experts classified these as unusual as they did not occur in any mining area. Thankfully, no one was injured. However, it might be a forerunner of much more serious ones in the future.
Mr. Davy Crockett Shares An Inspiring Story: A few years ago, while visiting South Africa for the Feast of Tabernacles, I heard an inspiring story from a young African who had found the Church in an unusual way. It seems that this young man, who had some contact with the Church of God as a small child, was at the post office one day in the black township in which he lived. He walked over to the waste bin to discard some junk mail he had received. As he glanced into the trash receptacle, he noticed a colorful magazine that had been torn in half. The titles of the articles and the subject matter of the magazine intrigued him, reminding him the things he had heard as a child. Curious, he dug through the trash until he found the other half of the magazine. He took it home and taped it together so that he could read the whole thing. Liking what he read, he became a subscriber. He progressed in his spiritual life and he now is a member of the Living Church of God along with his wife and two sons. You see, when it's time, God will make certain that a person receives the call, even from a waste bin.
Feast of Tabernacles
Canmore, Alberta. Those attending the Feast of Tabernacles in Canmore who would like the convenience of staying right at our host hotel, the Radisson, the special discounted rate offered will end on August 21. Please make your reservations now, identifying yourself as affiliated with the Living Church of God. Also, anyone wishing to volunteer their musical talent for services, or all kinds of talent suitable for Family Night entertainment in keeping with Church standards, please contact Mr. and Mrs. Stuart Wachowicz at 780-466-1815, 780-466-4512 (fax) or [email protected]. –Eldon Davis
COMMENTS
Lately, I heard a discussion on the radio about happiness and its meaning. It was rather amusing. Some defined happiness as being able to possess whatever one's heart desired. Others called it, philosophically, a state of mind. A few claimed that there was no such thing as real happiness. An elderly woman remarked that happiness derived from a genuine feeling of gratitude. Her definition, at least, was close to the truth. But none of them turned to the Bible to know just how God defines happiness. Have you ever done so yourselves? Have you examined the Scripture to learn what happiness really is? That's the only way to know the truth about happiness.
By the way, in your research, unless you have some knowledge of Hebrew or Greek, try to consult various translations of the Bible because the original words are sometimes rendered differently in our modern versions or languages. For instance, in the Sermon on the Mount—in what's called the Beatitudes—Christ clearly showed who were those who were "blessed." In many translations, that word "blessed" is rendered "happy." In other words, Christ shows how to be happy, or just what happiness is in God's sight. He also inspired Solomon to write, "Happy is the man who finds wisdom, and the man who gains understanding" (Proverbs 3:13).
Y'all have a happy Sabbath,
Dibar Apartian