Greetings Everyone:
Here in the United States we celebrate Thanksgiving Day this Thursday. Mr. Meredith is hosting his family and friends at his home—I think he told me that there will be 22 at his house! Mr. and Mrs. Richard Ames will be a part of the group at Mr. Meredith's, and Mr. and Mrs. Apartian will be visiting their son, Dan, and his wife in Pasadena.
FINANCIAL AFFAIRS
While we are in the early stage of budget planning for 2002, it seems a good time to remind you of how the income is apportioned. For year 2001, Church Support for the U.S. and for the International area accounted for 50% of budgeted expenditures while Preaching the Gospel (TV and Publishing) was 42% of the budget.
The remaining 8% of income went to Administrative overhead. While we are pleased with the small percentage of income taken up by overhead, it will be necessary to add to our administrative workforce in due time.
Meanwhile, we are very thankful to all of you who are dedicated to the support of the Work of God by Living Church of God. As Jesus said to His disciples in Matthew 9:36-37, "But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd. Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few."
ANNOUNCEMENT
Brethren in Jamaica were affected by the recent hurricane. Mr. Jonathan McNair passed on the following information to us from a member in Jamaica, Makeda Goldson:
We were inundated with water, water, and more water these past days. The floods have not yet let up (sent to me November 9th) and the place is just breaking up and it's scary. Today I can't go home for Sabbath Services…. Today we went to see where yet another road was cut off, yes, just broken in two and carried away by water…. As I write this the army is in the process of search and rescue and we hear the droning of the helicopter engines. I worked almost all night last night at one of the shelters. It's just so sad. One person had just moved into her new house under a month ago and now she has lost it. Not a trace of it is left behind. It is so sad.
Please pray for us here and ask the brethren there to pray for the lives of the people—especially the older folk and the children.
COMMENTS
We don't always deliver our message clearly. And we don't always understand the message the other person intended as illustrated by the following story adapted from the October 16th issue of the publication "LEADERSHIP with a human touch."
A work crew was driving home from the job one evening. Just as they approached a curve sweeping around a hill, an oncoming car came careening around the curve on the wrong side of the road, almost colliding with the vehicle driven by the foreman of the crew. As the car went hurtling past, the woman driving the car yelled out of her window, "Pig!"
Shocked and insulted—he wasn't the one driving selfishly—the foreman yelled back, "Cow!"
As he drove around the curve the foreman turned to his crew and boasted, "I guess I told her," just as he struck a large PIG in the middle of the road!
There are two obvious lessons evident here. The first lesson is that communications are not always clearly delivered, so try to understand before reacting. The second lesson is—don't mistake a WARNING for an INSULT!
According to "LEADERSHIP with a human touch" September 18, 2001 edition said that FINCH COLLEGE FOR WOMEN began as a finishing school for young women in 1900, and closed in 1975. When the school began it established the following guidelines for its students. While I would word these differently, the ten points that were valid instruction for developing young ladies for seventy-five years are instructive to us today.
- Believing in people usually brings out the best in them.
- There is always another side; suspend judgment.
- There is always a solution to every problem. Do not waste time on self-pity.
- Be considerate. Your actions affect others, and other people's feelings are just like your own.
- Be kind. Remember that other people are as intuitive as you are, and judge you just as you do them.
- Be sincere. In the long run everyone will find you out and judge you by your true self and not by your pretensions.
- Snobbishness of any kind is a sign of limitation.
- Remember that recreation must be to re-create for work.
- Remember that you must be worthy and capable of love to be able to give or to keep it.
- Remember that you have a soul [I would say conscience] just as you have a body and a social self. Do not starve it.
I will leave you with the following quote from the Roman historian Cornelius Tacitus (c. 56—c.120) concerning the Emperor Galba's character. It serves as a lesson to us—especially if we lust for position or power and are unqualified to fulfill the position we lust after.
"No one would have doubted his ability to reign had he not been emperor."
Think about it as you have a great Thanksgiving Day and Sabbath Day following! All of you who are traveling, by whatever method, please travel safely. Predictions are for very heavy auto traffic due to the September 11th incident and fear of flying.
Carl E. McNair