Letter to the Brethren: May 18, 2017

Dear Brethren and Co-Workers in Christ:

Evangelist Evans Ochieng was in Uganda last week. Here is his report from late last week:

Pastor Dr Bob,

Greetings from Kenya.

I am back from Uganda. My trip was very good and I am very happy with our brethren in Uganda. I did not expect to meet very good people like the ones I met in Uganda. This is my first time to meet a person who has been a Sunday keeper since his childhood and their families but has turned out completely to follow up God’s way with all his heart. Kennedy Wafula was a Sunday keeper through out his life but he is now keeping the Sabbath. No one taught Kennedy about Sabbath or the truth about Church of God. But when visited the Continuing Church of God website, he started reading many things from that website and that is where Kennedy found all the truth. I really appreciated the work that Dr. Bob has done through website, because many times most who are contacting me are getting the truth from Continuing Church of God website. Kennedy has been sharing the truth with many people in Uganda and that has led a total of 14 people to follow the truth and they are fellowship together with him.

I also met with David who is a refugee in Uganda. David had been a member of Living Church of God for 8 years. This year, David visited our website, where he read so many things. According to his statement he said that he found many truths in CCOG than other churches. That is the reason why he decided to follow and join Continuing Church of God. David left the refugee camp and is now staying in Kampala town. He and other 8 people are fellowshiping together in Kampala. Another 21 members, who also joined CCOG, are still in the refugee camp in Uganda and are staying at a place called Cheka in Uganda. I gave David funds to go and visit the brethren in refugee camp. Also I gave him funds to come back to Tororo town on the Sabbath to visit Kennedy’s group to share with them some truth. We discussed so many things concerning the work in Uganda. We came to realized that it is very important to register the church in Uganda. I gave Kennedy some funds to start the process of registration.

I was accompanied by Grantone Otieno. When we were going to Uganda, I forgotten all the books and magazines. It forced me to go back to Uganda yesterday to take all the books to Kennedy. For many years that David and the 21 people who are in refugee camp stayed in living church of God, they have not been baptized. So David requested me to go back in Uganda after my trip in Malawi to baptized them.

Evans

That is fantastic news. Evans Ochieng and I have long wanted to successfully reach people in Uganda. Here is part of an email I later received from Uganda:

Dear Elder Bob,

Receive our greetings from the pearl of Africa-Uganda.

We have been happy that pastor Evans Ochieng’ visited us from Kenya and we had a great time together, He also came with some literature that has been very helpful in our quest to know the truth, the number here is growing and we are praying that more people will come to the knowledge of the truth.

Pastor Evans has given me the task of registering the Continuing Church of God in Uganda and am working on the details before I report on this. We are face with numerous challenges here but we are overcoming all by prayer and perseverance that the truth and truth alone must be preached to people of all nations. Uganda is indeed blessed that the preaching of the truth of the word of God has finally arrived and people are hungry for it.

We have been meeting in one of the brethren’s house as my place is a bit far from town, He is called Were Hassan and he has also been helping with translations for the members who don’t speak well in English. The challenge we shared with Pastor Evans is that the house has now become small for our number and we have requested if the the church leadership could provide us with an alternative hall of worship. …

Pastor Evans said he may give us some laptops to aid our communication but if any is available and not in use you assist us to ease communication so I may not have to travel a long distance to access internet service and printing literature from the net for use during sabbath is a bit costly as I have to sell farm produce to get some little money for work. I already showed Evans some of the literature i print from the net. If some literature are available for posting please post to:
KENNEDY WAFULA,

Much blessings.

So, I did send a set of literature. However, as the freight costs more than twice as much than the printing cost, I emailed Kennedy Wafula and said that in the future, he will need to get the literature from Kenya. I also informed him that we do not have any extra laptop computers in California, but that a member in the USA who repairs computers sometimes gets used ones donated and sends them a couple of times per year. So, he may be able to get one later.

World News Items

As I wrote last week, World War Three did not begin last Saturday. However, Pope Francis did push his improper version of Jesus’ mother Mary (see Pope entrusts people to ‘Mary’ and canonizes two related related to Fatima. Yet, Fatima was demonic as several originally thought.). Marianism is an intended interfaith and ecumenical tool by the Church of Rome.

A computer malware program hit many computers starting last Friday (see AP: ‘Perfect storm’ of conditions helped cyberattack succeed; COGwriter: Another ‘perfect storm’ will eliminate the USA and its Anglo-Saxon allies). Reportedly, around 300,000 computers have been hit using something that espionage agencies of the USA government had been known about (see Microsoft slams spy agencies for ‘stockpiling’ vulnerabilities). While this malware was not an official US government release, this certainly does not make the USA look good around the world.

China’s influence and international prestige is rising, while the USA is losing some of its. China also hosted a two-day conference on its “Silk Road” project a couple of days ago, with the USA mainly as an onlooker. Over 60 nations are expected to be involved in this project, and in my view, it will help ‘pave the way’ for some future troops to head to Armageddon (see China committing significant resources to pave roads that can help lead to Armageddon).

Speaking of China and the USA, pressures from these two nations have, thus far, not stopped North Korea from launching missile tests. North Korea launched a two-stage missile on Sunday which it claims can carry a “large scale heavy nuclear warhead” (see North Korea says it has proven it can launch a ‘large scale heavy nuclear warhead’).

Over in Europe, Austrian lawmakers decided to essentially outlaw facial veils like certain Muslim women wear (see Austria moving ahead on its burqa ban–will there be war between the Arabs and the Europeans?). Europe is taking some steps it hopes will better deal with Islam and more radical ones will occur in the future (cf. Daniel 11:40-43).

Suggested Sabbath Service

Here is a suggested Sabbath service for this week:

• 2-3 hymns (our songbook, The Bible Hymnal, contains the materials from the 1974 Bible Hymnal from the old WCG with new covers, plus ten additional hymns; there is also some Choral Accompaniment online).
• Opening prayer.
• Sermonette, which for many who receive this letter via email will be a recorded one. The one suggested for this week is: When is Pentecost? Counting complete Sabbaths. Other sermonettes are available at the Bible News Prophecy channel.
• Announcements (if any; though for many it will be this letter) and one hymn.
• Sermon, which for most who receive this letter via email will be a recorded one. The one suggested for this week is: The Ten Commandments and the Beast of Revelation. Other sermons are also available at the ContinuingCOG channel.
• Final hymn.
• Closing prayer.

Note: If you have a slow internet connection, you can watch these by starting the video, then below it (and towards the right) look for an outline of a gear–if you click on that, it will allow the YouTube video to be played with lower video quality, but at least it will not stop often–you can select a quality as low as 144p. If your internet connection is still too slow (as my home one is) and/or you prefer audio messages to audio-visuals ones, go to the YouTube link for the message, click on SHOW MORE related to the description. You will then see something that says, “Download MP3.” Below that is a link to an MP3 file. Most computers (and even some cellular telephones) will allow MP3 files to be downloaded and played. This is an option we have made available (but we are also looking into ways to improve that as well)–and, of course, we have written article options. Some people have found that if their internet connections are not fast enough, that they can simply listen to the messages that are found at the new Bible News Prophecy online radio channel.IN CASE YOU DO NOT RECEIVE A ‘LETTER TO THE BRETHREN’ FOR ANY WEEK, REMEMBER THAT THERE ARE MANY SERMON MESSAGES ON THE ContinuingCOG channel AND MANY SERMONETTE MESSAGES ON THE BibleNewsProphecy channel. There are also some messages at the CCOGAfrica channel.

Concluding Comments

The prophet Micah was inspired to write:

1 Woe to those who devise iniquity,
And work out evil on their beds!
At morning light they practice it,
Because it is in the power of their hand.
2 They covet fields and take them by violence,
Also houses, and seize them.
So they oppress a man and his house,
A man and his inheritance.

3 Therefore thus says the Lord:

“Behold, against this family I am devising disaster,
From which you cannot remove your necks;
Nor shall you walk haughtily,
For this is an evil time.
4 In that day one shall take up a proverb against you,
And lament with a bitter lamentation, saying:
‘We are utterly destroyed!
He has changed the heritage of my people;
How He has removed it from me!
To a turncoat He has divided our fields.’” (Micah 2:1-4)

Brethren, sometimes it looks like Satan’s liars and workers of iniquity ‘get away with’ their behavior. But that will change. So will the heritage of nations. Do not believe that all will continue to go on as it has–for a New Testament reference on that check out 2 Peter 3:3-16.

Sincerely,

Bob Thiel
Pastor and Overseer