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Letter to the Brethren: July 13, 2017

Letter to the Brethren: July 13, 2017

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Dear Brethren and Co-Workers in Christ:

Greetings again from the Five Cities region of California.

As always there were many tests and opportunities.

We are trying to plan visits to various areas. For example, we hope to send someone to the Philippines for a visit, perhaps around the Spring 2018 Holy Days.

We already are scheduled to visit the brethren in New Zealand for the Day of Atonement and the first half of the Feast of Tabernacles this Fall.

DVD Recording

As far as another opportunity, Joyce and I went down to Malibu, California last Thursday, for me to meet with a Protestant film maker early Friday for a DVD that he is planning to sell related to Fatima. He interviewed me and had me discuss items that are in my book, Fatima Shock! Although we have theological differences, he agrees that the ‘Lady of Fatima’ was not Jesus’ mother Mary. He hopes to get his DVD (which I believe he will promote online) out around September 1, 2017–which is nearly six weeks prior to a major anniversary related to Fatima that is intended to be celebrated by many (including Pope Francis). We will see if this will help us to reach others that we otherwise would not.

Internet

One of the ‘tests’ this week was the fact that our websites were down for a time yesterday. COGwriter.com was offline even longer.

We made some moves that we hope will reduce the occurrences of being unavailable, but some of the causes are not clear. We hope the latest steps will help.

Rift Valley, Kenya

We received reports from Rift Valley in Kenya.

Tomas Koskey from Bomet, Kenya, sent me the following email:

hallo bob greeting you in jesus name! the work of the lord is doing
well here at bomet. thank you. tomas koskey.

Bomet is a county in the Rift Valley region of Kenya.

Pastor Tiongik Sawek sent the following:

I greet you in the name of Jesus Christ. I hope that you are well.

Last Friday God enables us to go to Nakuru where brethren have waited us so long. We also visited  Njoro-Nesuit.

Nakuru area is the boarder of the Rift Valley and it is a cosmopolitan area where many tribes lived it is so far from Transmara where it boarders with Tanzania.

We noticed that our God has opened up the ears of many brethren and they are calling us.

The meeting at Nakuru was also attended by brethrens from other  areas like Sururu, Sirikwo, Nyakinywa, Rongai, Sekutiet and Nesuit.

All these area are far from each other and not all who came were mostly leaders. Brethren from these areas were appealing for the feast of tabernacles to be conducted at their areas.

We sat with pastor Ochieng, Pastor William Kirui and pastor Sawek and discuss about it and saw that, the feast is so near we can only conduct at the centre place which is Nesuit-Njoro and the others will be seen next time. God willing, we shall divide next year though transport id the problem.

Brethren from those five areas requested the bibles for Kalenjin, Kiswahili and English. If possible each local church to get atleast gets twenty five bibles for Kalenjin, twenty for Kiswahili, twenty four English and then several magazines for the churches and towns.

Though we got some bibles in the Rift Valley it seems that they also need more because it is also large. We thankful for those ones we got.

We are also requesting for other magazines for English to be taken to Kericho town where soon I will go there for a week preaching the gospel. We shall arranged with pastor Ochieng about that day for Kericho visits. Kericho is still Rif Valley.

The harvest is great and the labourers are few, we pray that our God add the labourers for His work.

Pastor Ochieng taught for two hours about eternal life and immortal life. His teaching made, the brethren so happy after knowing about the eternal kingdom of God. Pastor Sawek and Pastor William Kirui were also happy how Pastor Ochieng presented teachings. We also seconded about it and made the brethren happy.

What the continuing church of God has done in the Rift is also great, by spreading the gospel and helping the needy people, we are thankful about them.

I will send to you some pictures taken during the meeting.

God bless you

Pastor Sawek.

He also sent some photos. Here are two of them:

Evangelist Evans Ochieng sent the following report today:

Pastor Dr Bob,
Greetings from Kenya.
Even though the trip was very long. I am feeling better because I met very friendly brethren in Nakuru and Njoro.
I met pastors of 5 congregations who are demanding my services in their congregations. All of them are pastors of seventh day church of God. Since the conference in Nairobi, so many people are  interested in truth and the teachings of CONTINUING CHURCH OF GOD. All these 5 congregations have decided to join CCOG.
These are the pastors and their congregations :-
1-Njoro Nesuit – – – – – pastor David Cheruiyot
2-Molo Nyakwinywa – – – – – pastor Charles Langat
3-Molo Sirikwo——-Pastor Daniel Rono
4–Rongai – – – – pastor Soi
5—Sururu sekutiet – – – – – pastors Samuel Bii and Edina Chetotich
All these congregations will keep the feast of tabernacles 2017 with David Cheruiyot who joined CCOG long time before the conference in Nairobi.
The Continuing Church of God is having a good growth in Kenya. It has bring into our attention that those who will keep the feast of tabernacles 2017 in Kenya will be more than last year. Last year we had 4 feast sites in Kenya but these year, we are going to 5 sites in Kenya and one in Tanzania. The feast sites are :- NDHIWA, Bomet, Chilani, Mao and Nakuru Njoro.
Evans

Brethren, please pray to God for more laborers for the harvest and that those who come with us will be able to properly proclaim and teach the truth (Ephesians 6:19-20).

World News Items

The so-called Islamic State has been suffering losses in Iraq (see Islamic State defeated in Mosul? What’s ahead?). Many now believe that its ‘caliph’ Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is dead (see ‘Monitoring group says ISIS members confirm leader’s death’). Whether he is or not, the reality as I have been writing for nearly three years is that the Islamic State would not continue as it has, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi would not be the prophesied King of the South, and that the time will come when a confederation of North African and Middle East nations will form. The first two are looking more certain, and the third will come to pass.

We continue to have sabre-rattling between North Korea and the USA (see US claims a successful THAAD test: A message to North Korea?). This may not end well for North Korea and the USA itself could be damaged by what may happen (e.g. see North Korea poses electromagnetic-pulse threat to USA). Jesus foretold a time with “troubles’ (Mark 13:8) prior to the start of the Great Tribulation and there may be troubles associated with North Korea.

The G20 meeting concluded in Hamburg, Germany (see G20 concludes with increased tension with the USA; Pope Francis pushes for federal Europe). It is becoming clearer to more that the USA and Europe are separating and that the USA is not viewed as the world’s leader as it was before (see also David Gergen: For the first time, US president is ‘no longer regarded as world leader’).  Pope Francis recently stated that a ‘federal Europe’ is needed (see G20 concludes with increased tension with the USA; Pope Francis pushes for federal Europe). Europe will take steps to unite and the Vatican will continue to try to make this happen (cf. Revelation 13 & 17). We even saw some of these events beginning to take place in the past week.

Over in the USA, its State of Oregon has pushed for ‘free’ abortions for all (see The land of ‘free’ abortions). This is not good. This week’s recommended sermonette is related to this (watch Land of ‘Free’ Abortions and Debt).

Suggested Sabbath Service

Here is a suggested Sabbath service for this week:

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 Apostle Paul was inspired to write:

1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; 4 and perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. (Romans 5:1-5)

Brethren, we have a hope that the world does not have and can endure the tribulations in the world as God builds His character in us. We who have received the love of God need to reflect that love in our lives.

Sincerely,

Bob Thiel
Pastor and Overseer