Greetings y'all,
Life goes on at Headquarters in Charlotte even though many are away. Mr. and Mrs. Meredith are in England for the UK Board meeting. Mr. Charles Bryce will be returning from his Australasian trip this evening. Some of the Headquarters personnel are at the Living Youth Camp in Michigan. Others are about to join them.
CHURCH ADMINISTRATION
Last Sabbath, before giving his sermon, Mr. Meredith made the following announcement:
"I am very sorry to announce that Mr. Raymond McNair, whom some of you know, just wrote us that he is leaving our fellowship and I think he is trying to go into some other organization or start something himself from what he indicated in his letter to me. You remember, he turned away from us in the split back in 1998. So, this is the second time around in that sense, and we are very sorry that he has chosen to do this. I pray for him—I sincerely do. I have already prayed for him several times. I pray that he and his wife will be guided by God overall, and I hope that they will learn whatever lesson God wants them to learn and that they can be in the first resurrection along with the rest of us. I think that is the way to pray—not to pray against them, but for them. I think God will work that out."
INTERNATIONAL
Europe & East Africa Update – Dr. Douglas Winnail
On Sunday, July 6, after meeting with the London brethren for the Sabbath, I flew to Malaga, in southern Spain, and then traveled by bus to Gibraltar to gather background information and take photographs for several TW articles. The Rock of Gibraltar is an imposing mass of limestone three miles long and almost a third of a mile high that towers like a brooding sentinel over the narrow (14 km = 8.4 mi) strait connecting the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. Gibraltar is partially shrouded by clouds during the day and showers are frequent. The turbulent waters of the straight are often blanketed by fog. The Rock forms the eastern arm of a large protected bay on the north side of the strait. At the southern tip of Gibraltar is a shrine dedicated to Our Lady of Europe that dates to the 1300s. The shrine is located not far from a cave where the Phoenicians set up a shrine to the pagan goddess Astarte, around 1000 BC. Both shrines have been venerated as a patron of seafarers. The shrine to Our Lady of Europe is a site of pilgrimage for many Catholics and has been promoted by Pope John Paul II as a potent symbol of the desired unity of the continent.
From Gibraltar, I flew to Nairobi to visit with brethren and deal with matters affecting the church in Kenya. It now appears that we have been able to resolve the issues. I was able to get to know a number of the brethren on a more personal basis and I was impressed by the character and dedication of the individuals God is calling in Kenya. It appears the future may hold some very exciting possibilities for the church in Kenya and East Africa.
FEAST OF TABERNACLES
Festival Office
A Choir Director is urgently needed for the many individuals who have volunteered to participate in the Myrtle Beach Festival Choir. If you know of an experienced director who would be willing to serve in this important function, please ask him to send in a volunteer form to the Festival Office by mail, or by fax to (704) 844-1974, as soon as possible.
DVD SERMONS—Additional Information
Here is a link to a website that lists the DVD players that will play the DVD-R media format that we use in our DVD duplication. Ninety percent of all the newer models will play this media, so it shouldn't be a problem for most. Mrs. Nestor bought a KLH brand recently, though, and it does not play them. I thought we should make this compatibility information available to our Hosts and Elders before we get too far into this. This is a brand new technology and the learning curve is steep. We are doing our best to keep up with any new info out there.
http://www.dvdrhelp.com/dvdplayers.php
RISK MANAGEMENT—For US Ministers only
The "Non-owner's" auto insurance mentioned in last week's message is a necessary item for all the Church's fleet drivers to understand. Fleet vehicle insurance stays solely with the fleet vehicle—it does not in any way follow you (the fleet driver) or cover you while driving any other vehicle that is not part of the fleet. Therefore, if you do not have a personally-owned (or leased) vehicle with your own insurance policy naming you as an insured driver on that personal auto insurance policy, then you have no auto insurance whatsoever while driving vehicles other than those in the Church's fleet—unless you purchase a "Non-owner's auto insurance" policy.
"Non-owner's auto insurance" is, as the name implies, insurance for those who do not own (or lease) a personal vehicle—and would therefore otherwise have no personal auto insurance policy. If you purchase "Non-owner's auto insurance," then when you drive a vehicle that is not part of the Church's fleet, you would be "covered." Without it, a driver who is a "non-owner" could end up spending "quality time" with law enforcement, and both he and the Church (if an accident happened during the course of his duties as an employee) could be sued heavily in civil court—in addition to any fines and other penalties.&
A call to your personal insurance agent to discuss this issue should prove helpful and is strongly and is strongly recommended.
—Tom Turner
MEDIA
Web Site Update
Recently, the official Church Web sites recorded their first visit from the small West African nation of Benin. This brings to 174 the number of countries known to have visited official Living Church of God Web sites. So far in 2003, the http://www.lcg.org/ and http://www.tomorrowsworld.org/ sites have recorded more than 107,000 unique visitors, who in more than 350,000 visitor sessions have viewed more than 890,000 pages, played or downloaded more than 212,000 audio and video files, and downloaded more than 55,000 PDF files (mostly booklets and magazines). So far in 2003, visitors to these sites have submitted more than 16,000 online Literature Request Forms requesting printed material, asking for more than 40,000 booklets, 6,800 Tomorrow's World magazine subscriptions and 5,900 subscriptions to the Bible Study Course.
COMMENTS
The other day, while waiting for someone in a restaurant, I watched a young lady busily working on her makeup with the tacit collaboration of a small mirror. Occasionally, she held her face closer to the mirror to examine more carefully her artwork. Finally, she displayed a happy smile, presumably satisfied with the finished product. She knew she looked nice, very nice, not because anyone around her told her so but because of her mirror's congenial testimony. The next morning, as I was shaving, I thought of her and I suddenly realized, perhaps more than ever before, of the importance of the mirror in our lives—in our daily chores and activities. Without it, men like me can't even properly shave. Without it, no one can drive a car safely. Without it, we will never know how we really look—or how others see us.
Isn't it true that when someone tells us that there is dirt on our face, we quickly turn to a mirror to see it for ourselves and get rid of it? As a matter of fact, regardless of what anyone says about our looks, we always turn to a mirror to know whether their remarks are right or wrong. Of course, we have our own opinions about ourselves. Humans may conceal the truth about our looks—but mirrors never lie. Unfortunately, we can't ignore the reality of our looks by getting rid of a mirror, or by throwing it into a trash can (actually, a trash can would be an ideal place for throwing the ugliness the mirror shows, not the mirror itself).
Actually, a mirror can only reflect our physical appearance, not our true character. But God has given us a spiritual mirror—the BIBLE—wherein we can always look to be aware of our character and to get rid of its ugliness. How nice it would be if each of us could look regularly into that spiritual mirror to improve our attitude or beautify our character with the same zeal and attentiveness with which the woman in the restaurant was endeavoring to embellish her face! The Bible says, "For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does." (James 1:23-25).
Y'all have a wonderful Sabbath,
Dibar Apartian