Greetings brethren,
As you already have noticed, Mr. Meredith and Mr. Ames are becoming stronger and stronger in the Tomorrow's World telecast. This is good news and bad news at the same time… This week, Mr. Meredith taped two new programs titled respectively "Signs of the Second Coming" and "Unlocking the Mystery of Revelation." They are scheduled to air in October. Mr. Ames also taped two new programs this week titled respectively, "Keys to Understanding Prophecy" and "Principles for Effective Bible Study." These programs will air in November.
According to Headquarters' Mail Processing Department, to date we have processed more than 42,200 requests for Mr. Meredith's latest booklet, Satan's Counterfeit Christianity. This figure does not include the number of requests processed at our International offices!
Dr. Doug Winnail is presently working very hard on a new booklet.
CHURCH ADMINISTRATION
Festival Registration. Festival Registration for those living in the USA and Canada will begin at noon, Eastern Time, on Sunday, April 2. The Feast sites open for transfer will be posted with site descriptions on the Member Resources website www.cogl.org. For organizational purposes, we have assigned everyone to an "assigned Feast site," but since most of our sites in the United States have ample room, feel free to request a transfer if you wish. If your transfer request is approved, you may begin making your housing reservations.
This year we are once again using online registration, with modifications and improvements from last year. If you don't have a computer or Internet access, please consult your pastor or your local congregation's festival advisor for a registration form to fill out. Please fill out your information on this form, give it back to your festival advisor and he will be able to register you online.
To register online, go to www.cogl.org, click on the "MyLCG" button, and then follow the directions to become a "registered member." You will need your PIN (found on the mailing label of your Tomorrow's World or Living Church News magazines) in this process.
If you have any questions about the registration process, please consult your pastor or festival advisor. Please direct all questions about the Feast sites themselves to the coordinators (listed in the site descriptions).
International Feast Sites 2006. In The World Ahead last week we listed the 2006 Feast of Tabernacles sites in the USA and Canada. You will find below the 2006 International FOT sites.
Argentina (San Rafael)
Australia (The Entrance and Albany)
Barbados
Colombia (this is a no transfer site)
Guatemala (Antigua)
Guyana (Georgetown and Awarewaunau)
France (Evian—the only LCG Feast site in Europe this year)
India (this is a no transfer site)
Indonesia (Tumpang)
Jamaica (Ocho Rios)
Kenya (Homa Bay)
Malaysia (Penang)
Myanmar (this is a no transfer site)
Mexico (Huatusco)
New Zealand (Taupo)
Papua New Guinea (Wewak)
Peru (this is a no transfer site)
Philippines (Baguio, Tacloban, Davao, Don Carlos and Maranding)
South Africa (George)
Sri Lanka
Thailand (Mae Sot)
Tobago
Vanuatu (Orap)
Venezuela (this is a no transfer site)
Site descriptions will appear in the Festival Planner. However, since attending the Feast abroad requires making plans much ahead of time, those wishing to transfer to an International Feast site may consult our Member Resources website www.cogl.org for details, starting this Sunday, April 2.
NEWS FROM HEADQUARTERS
Tomorrow's World
renewal: We recently sent out more than 50,000 colorful cards urging subscribers who have not responded in 2 years to renew their subscription to the Tomorrow's World magazine. The usual response to our renewal request is about 7% to 10%. We expect that the new procedure will increase the rate of renewal.Bible Study Course
: Subscribers to the Bible Study Course are responding enthusiastically to the new procedure of providing four lessons at a time. We are experiencing a substantial increase in the number of tests being returned, which triggers four more lessons to be mailed out. We are hopeful that this increase in interest and activity will result in bringing people along more rapidly in their spiritual growth.Income:
Our income is back to "normal" and we are on budget for the year to date. Thank you for your wonderful support. However, we have a number of important projects which are "unfunded." Please pray that God will provide the funds for us to implement these programs, which include adding more ministers, upgrading equipment, and going on more television stations.—Davy CrockettMEDIA
The year 2006 is turning out to be an exceptional year for the Tomorrow's World telecast. Last week we aired Mr. Ames' program entitled "America's Moral Meltdown," offering The Ten Commandments booklet—a repeat program. The first airing occurred back in January, only nine weeks ago. When a program is re-aired, we usually receive about 80 percent of the first response. However, this week's repeat program brought in 92 percent of the first airing's response, producing more than 3,100 replies for the booklet, and 50 percent of the respondents were brand new, having never requested literature from the Living Church of God. Both the first and the second airings are now in the record book for The Ten Commandments booklet requests.
After 13 weeks into calendar year 2006, we are showing a strong 24 percent increase over the same period last year. The growth is encouraging, and with Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread coming up in less than two weeks, we are certain many TV viewers, who started attending Church services in the Living Church of God in the past few months, may request baptism. We have several right here in Charlotte. To date, 372 brand new people in the United States and Canada—brand new to the Church of God—have been baptized since the Tomorrow's World telecast started. Moreover, 386 others had previous contact with the Church before their baptism, but came in touch with the Living Church of God through the telecast. Thus, 758 are now members as a result of Tomorrow's World programming. Two weeks ago, when my wife and I were in England for Church business, we met a prospective member in London who is now attending as a result of the UK satellite telecast. Another prospective member has come with us as a result of the Church's website.—Wayne Pyle
COMMENTS
The 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Torino are now history. Some of the athletes returned home with a medal of victory. Others, with only the hope of doing better next time. But one thing is sure: They all had one goal in mind—victory. They all knew the price to pay for it: Hard and strenuous work, relentless training, much sacrifice, determination and self discipline. In many ways, their goal and efforts ran parallel with ours in God's Church. Theirs is a combat to win a physical crown. Ours is a perseverant combat for a spiritual reward: Eternal life. Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympic Games, said, "The day when a sportsman stops thinking above all else of the happiness in his own effort and the intoxication of the power and physical balance he derives from it, the day when he lets considerations of vanity or interest take over, on this day his ideal will die."
Once again, here is a lesson for all of us in God's Church. When we let considerations of vanity or personal interest motivate our desire to be in the Kingdom, for our self-glorification—that day our ideal will die. The Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 9:24-25, "Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown."
The question is: How many of us in our race toward the Kingdom are willing to work as hard as the Olympic athletes do? How many of us are willing to sacrifice everything for the "pearl of great price"? How determined are we—and how much do we discipline ourselves? These are some of the questions we need to ask ourselves as we get ready to take the Passover. These are the questions we need to consider as we examine ourselves seriously. As you see, the requirements for victory are the same, both for the athletes and for us: constant struggle against our weaknesses, perseverance and determination with conviction and faith that we will win the race to obtain the crown God has promised us—an office in His everlasting Kingdom.
Have a wonderful Sabbath,
Dibar Apartian
NEWS AND PROPHECY—March 30, 2006
Increasing Tension Between the EU/Catholic Church and the Islamic World. The Vatican recently sponsored a weekend conference in Rome aimed at setting the record of the Crusades "straight." Academics and historians lectured on how the modern portrayal of the Crusades as wars of Christian aggression on Muslims is totally inaccurate. One speaker implied that the Crusades were an act of self defense by civilized Christians against the attacking barbarian Muslims (The Times online, March 20, 2006). Adding more fuel to the fire, the German newspaper Deutsche Welle (German World) recently reported on the unified European reaction to a former Muslim in Kabul, Afghanistan, who has professed faith in "Christianity" and is facing the death penalty for that action. Germans and Italians in particular are outraged, and German politicians are even getting involved. One German politician is quoted as saying "…religious freedom is extremely precious to us and should be respected by an Islamic society too" (March 22, 2006). Actions by Europeans (including Germany and the Catholic Church) as well as Arabs continue to amplify the growing divide between these Northern and Southern world regions, making an increasingly stronger case for the validity of prophecies God inspired to be written more than 2,500 years ago in the book of Daniel.
China Stealthily Buying Up World Ports. As the U.S. Congress wrangled over a ports deal with the UAE, China has been buying up ports in strategic locations throughout the world. Out of eight international regions with potential economic choke points labeled by the U.S. Department of Defense as "U.S. lifelines and transit regions," China now owns ports in six of them. Port owners in the U.S. and Canada, intent on making money and doing so without understanding the future impact of these sales, have been highly in favor of selling to the wealthy Chinese businesses. According to a 1999 U.S. military intelligence assessment that has basically gone unheeded, Chinese shipping facilities "could provide a conduit for illegal shipments of technology… or facilitate the movement of arms and other prohibited items into the Americas." (NewsMax.com, March 27, 2006). China is also intent on purchasing uranium from Australia and may even purchase rights to mine uranium in Australia solely for "peaceful" civilian use in China (Agence France Presse, March 28, 2006). China is a growing economic and military powerhouse that many Israelite-descended nations seem to be unconcerned about. God prophesied long ago about a powerful force arising in the East that would ultimately destroy the King of the North (Dan 11:44-45, Rev 9:13-18). We are likely witnessing the development of part of this power.
Asia Warning Nations About U.S. Dollar Collapse. The Asia Development Board (ADB) this week warned Asian nations about a potential future collapse of the U.S. Dollar—a currency now tied closely with many Asian economies thanks to their financing of much of the U.S. deficit. The ADB suggested that Asian nations slowly begin to allow their currencies to increase in value against the tumbling dollar, in order to limit the impact of Asian economies adjusting to the change in currency values—trade will likely be slightly reduced as items sold in the U.S. would increase in value. These warnings also compelled Asian nations to avoid just assuming that they will be able to support the U.S. deficit indefinitely, especially if there is a collapse in the U.S. dollar (Aljazeera.net, March 28, 2006). Yet one more ramification of the U.S. becoming a debtor nation (Deut 28:44, Prov22:7).—Scott Winnail, Don Davis, Floyd Spencer