Greetings from Charlotte,
Mr. Gerald Weston is traveling this weekend and will be speaking at a Tomorrow’s World Presentation in Winnipeg, Manitoba. From the other side of the world, we received news that our four traveling Living Education students are safely in Mr. Robert Tyler’s hands in Thailand. They arrived in Bangkok on Monday and have been touring before their summer teaching duties begin in Mae Sot. One student’s visa was not approved until Saturday evening, when their flight was scheduled to leave the very next morning! We are grateful that God has watched over them and given them a good start. The L4T—Living for Tomorrow—event near Charlotte went extremely well, with 44 young singles in attendance, 23 men and 21 women. We’re grateful to all who contributed and look forward to expanding these events to additional locations in the future. And responses to the recent semi-annual letter offering our new booklet, Understanding Bible Prophecy by Mr. Richard Ames, are coming in well. Your prayers for those responses, and for our hardworking crew who processes all those responses, are much appreciated.—Wallace Smith
Church Administration
Tomorrow’s World Presentations
This is a very busy weekend for Tomorrow’s World Presentations. We have 17 presentations scheduled this weekend, with ten in the United States, five in Canada, one on the Caribbean Island of St. Lucia, and one in the United Kingdom. This follows a run of successful TWPs last weekend, when we held eight presentations that drew a combined total of 138 guests. Please remember to pray for the pastors who host these TWPs, who put in a tremendous amount of work to ensure that the presentations are successful events. As always, thank you all for your prayers and support for this particular effort of the Work of God.
Feast of Tabernacles
2023 Feast Service Needed
The Feast site in Rockport-Fulton, Texas needs pianists to play hymns at the Feast. If you are able to help fill this need and would be willing to transfer to Rockport-Fulton for the Feast, please contact the Festival Coordinator, Mr. Jonathan Bueno at [email protected].
Living Youth Program
Texas Teen Camp Registration Closing Monday
Registration for LYC Texas will close on Monday, June 12. If you want to attend but have not yet applied, or not yet completed your application, please visit https://camp.livingyouth.org right away to register. We are open for campers ages 13 to 17 and hope to see you there!
TrainRight Child Abuse Awareness and Prevention Training
All camp staff members who are 18 years old and up are required to participate in an online training program for awareness and prevention of child abuse: TrainRight Child Abuse Awareness and Prevention Training Program. It is an online training course that takes about one hour to complete. Once you have been accepted as a staff member at one of the camps, you will receive an email from [email protected] titled “Invite – Child Abuse Awareness and Prevention Training Program” with a link to register for and complete the training online.
Note: The certification for this TrainRight course is good for two years: the year the course is taken plus the next year. For example, if you took the course in 2021, the certification was valid in 2021 and 2022. Therefore, you would have to retake the course in 2023 to receive your new certification for 2023 and 2024.
If you have any questions, please contact Jill Ewers ([email protected]).
Food Handler Training Program
If you have received certification through an ANSI-accredited food safety program for the State of Texas as a Food Handler or Food Manger and will be attending Texas Teen Camp or Texas Preteen Camp in 2023, please send your certificate to Jill Ewers ([email protected]), copied to Joshua Penman ([email protected]).
First Aid/Lifeguard Certificates
If you have a current certificate in First Aid/Lifeguarding, etc. and will be serving in this capacity at any of the USA camps in 2023, then please send a copy of your certification to Jill Ewers ([email protected]). The certificate must be current and valid through the entirety of the camp(s) where it will be used.
Comments
Importance of Earnest Prayer: Jesus urged His disciples to “Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation” (Matthew 26:41). David and Daniel prayed three times a day (Psalm 55:17; Daniel 6:10). Jesus prayed all night before making a major decision (Luke 6:12–13), and when He prayed, He prayed earnestly (Luke 22:44). When Jesus’ disciples asked Him to teach them to pray, He gave them an outline of a model prayer (Luke 11:1–4). In this model, the focus in the beginning and at the end is on God and His coming kingdom—personal issues are sandwiched in-between. This helps us keep our personal issues in a proper perspective. We can certainly ask God for help and guidance in our personal lives (Matthew 7:7–8). As we see major prophesied events coming to pass, we can also earnestly pray “Your kingdom come” (Matthew 6:9–13). The New Testament records that when Church members prayed earnestly, God answered those prayers in dramatic ways (Acts 4:24–31).
Have a profitable Sabbath,
Douglas S. Winnail
News and Prophecy—June 8, 2023
Violence Against Teachers Is Increasing: In December 2022, students in a Nevada middle school assaulted a teacher who saw them sneaking in through an exit-only door (Wall Street Journal, June 4, 2023). As she told them to turn around, they slammed her face into a locker in the hallway. According to law enforcement, students in the school district have committed over three dozen acts of criminal battery against school staff so far this school year.
In a recent nationwide survey of almost 15,000 teachers, 14 percent reported experiencing violent events perpetrated by students. Nearly half of the teachers surveyed said they wanted to quit their jobs or move to a different school. A major cause cited for the increased violence is the lowering of disciplinary standards, emboldening students to feel they can commit violence against teachers without any fear of consequences. Longtime teachers report students are far quicker now than in years past to turn to physical force instead of just inflammatory words. Some school districts now equip teachers with panic buttons in case they feel unsafe or need assistance to quell student violence.
The prophet Isaiah foretold a coming time of world peace after the return of Jesus Christ as the Prince of Peace, when children and their elders will live in harmony, respect, and safety (Zechariah 8:4–5). However, Isaiah also warned of a time immediately before the Messiah’s return when “children are their oppressors” (Isaiah 3:12). We are living in that time today, but this is going to change when Christ returns! To learn more about the future, be sure to read “Classrooms in Chaos.”
Medicalized "Gender Transition" Called into Question: In April, the prestigious Economist magazine ran a story titled “The evidence to support medicalized gender transitions in adolescents is worryingly weak.” The article reviewed current research studies and highlighted trends in treatment. One major finding was that these transition treatments are seldom questioned in the United States. However, in many European nations, there are grave questions and many concerns about so-called “gender transition therapy.”
A review of the research reveals major concerns about the procedures and that many studies that propose to assess “gender transition” treatments are significantly flawed. This includes a review study that purported to find few side effects with “transition” procedures but which failed to examine whether the therapy was even effective. Other studies repeatedly show this “therapy” has detrimental effects. Although the research is currently limited, three recent studies have shown that of those who start “gender transition therapy,” 7 to 30 percent chose to stop the therapy before it was complete. The thrust of the Economist article speaks to just how aggressively medicalized, so-called “gender affirmation” is being pushed by advocates, even within professional institutions, in spite of its clearly questionable effectiveness and unknown long-term outcomes.
Society today appears intent on promoting practices without considering their consequences or even their morality. Doctors, once tasked with “doing no harm,” seem to have cast that philosophy aside. Yet, as Isaiah prophesied about society at the end of the age, “the whole head is sick” (Isaiah 1:5). Ultimately, we see in modern medicine, and society as a whole, a parallel to the degraded morality of the ancient, pre-monarchy Israelite peoples: “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 17:6). Without the moral compass of the Bible and a submission to the authority and leadership of God, there is no central source for right and wrong. We should not be surprised by what we are seeing. This is just one more reason we need the return of the Lawgiver Himself, Jesus Christ, to correct this tragic situation. To learn more, watch “Humanity’s Moral Meltdown.”—Scott Winnail and Francine Prater