Announcements for August 28, 2014

Foundation Institute Update

From Ralph Levy: It seems incredible, but we’re already into our third class for Foundation Institute, Center for Biblical Education.

This year we welcome 19 students, from 10 states in the union, plus one from overseas. We have five men and 14 women. Texas is well represented, with six students. As well, there are two each from Florida and Missouri, and one each from Arkansas, California, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, North Carolina, Ohio and Tennessee. One young lady has come all the way from New Zealand. In addition, the young man from North Carolina is originally from Thailand and is of the Karen people from that part of Asia.

Orientation was held in the Church’s office in Allen, beginning at 10:30 a.m. on Sunday, Aug. 17. A welcome address was given by Doug Horchak, operation manager for Ministerial Services, followed by presentations from academic officer Ralph Levy, Student Affairs officer Clyde Kilough, student housing officer Erik Jones, Dallas and Sherman pastor Andy Burnett, and registrar David Johnson.

Around 12:45 we all enjoyed a delicious lunch prepared by office employee Ina McLemore, with the assistance of several others, after which students had the chance to “break the ice” with Personality Bingo and other games.

Classes got off to a fine start on Monday, Aug. 18, at 8:30 a.m., with visiting instructor Dave Myers, who is teaching Gospels 1 and 2. Because of his responsibilities as a church pastor in Ohio, Mr. Myers will visit twice to teach at FI, with each visit lasting three weeks.

Our curriculum is slightly changed this year. Mr. Myers takes over from Richard Thompson as the instructor in the Gospels class. In addition, we are introducing a new class in the second semester titled “Service in the Church.” It is designed to help students transition from their intense one year of study to beginning to serve in the Church. The class will be team-taught by various headquarters employees and pastors, and will emphasize areas of service, such as summer camps, Sabbath school classes, FOI programs, and writing for Church publications, as well as a general approach to service in the Church. David Johnson will coordinate the class, to be taught from January to May of 2015.

As I write, we have completed only the third day of classes, but the group of students seems to be engaged and desirous of learning. We are looking forward to a great year. 

Finally, a word about FI Online. We expect to begin posting our third class after the Feast. This year we will present our first Old Testament class—covering the book of Jeremiah—taught by Ralph Levy. Seventeen classes have been recorded, though there is still considerable post-production work to be completed before the classes are ready to be presented. This should be completed shortly, and the classes are expected to begin in late October or early November. We very much appreciate the enthusiasm of the Church for the FI Online program, and we plan to continue to provide more educational programs via the Internet.

Media Update

From Clyde Kilough: I am pleased to announce that we have a new hire in the Media department: Kelly Cunningham, whose official job title is assistant data and web manager. Kelly will be working directly with William Beech, but he also brings other skills with him that will be useful to us in video production and audiovisual technology.

Many of you will know Kelly’s dad, Merle Cunningham, a longtime elder who recently moved from Florida back to Dallas. Kelly has been involved on a contractual basis with several facets of the Church’s web management since early 2011, and we’re very happy to have him full-time on our team. We are in the midst of purchas­ing and installing a multifaceted database system, and he will be an immediate help on the technical end of that project.

The Feast of Tabernacles opening night welcome message and the Sabbath sermon are now completed and on their way to all Festival sites. The U.S. sites will be receiving the webcast from Orange Beach, Alabama, on the Sabbath during the Feast, but Jim Franks recorded his sermon in advance so all of the sites around the world can be united in hearing the same message. (It will also provide a backup in case any U.S. site has technical problems in receiving the webcast.) Thanks go to all who make it possible to get these videos produced so far in advance and out the door in time to make it to all the far-flung areas. It means a lot to many of our brethren in more isolated areas to know they are unified with their brethren all around the world in seeing the same messages at the same time.

By now members who are on the mailing list for Discern should have received the September/October issue. The lead article is “The Greatest Story Never Told” and is a great review for all members as we go into the Feast season. I hope you will display and talk about this issue and encourage everyone to take the time to look at it online.

Feast Youth Lessons

From Ministerial Services: Many of you have downloaded the Church’s family-based children’s Feast lessons and used them to teach your children the meaning of God’s Feasts (http://feast.cogwa.org/cyi/). These lessons will be available again this year. As a supplement to these outstanding resources, some (but not all) of our U.S. Feast sites will be offering two classroom-style Feast lessons for elementary school-aged children during the Feast this year. There will be two classes for those in grades K through 2, and two classes for those in grades 3 through 5.

The classes will cover the two trees of the Garden of Eden and how the world will change during the Millennium when everyone will be able to eat of the tree of life. Look for the “Festival Youth Instruction” announcement on the COGWA Feast page of the site you will attend, to see if they will be offered there. We look forward to our children benefiting from this time with others their own age, learning lessons from God’s Word.

Summary of July PCD Activity

From Cecil Maranville: We sent out 114 emails in July. With the increased web traffic to our site comes an increasing number of questions. Even after answering over 100, we still had 100 in the inbox at the end of the month.

Five people wrote to us about attending with COGWA. One is probably too far from a congregation to be able to attend regularly. Among the others, there were questions about procedure, necessity to contact anyone first, etc. But all represented households eager to start attending with us.

In counseling situations, we sent condolences to someone whose fiancée died from a sudden illness. He wanted to know “where she is now,” which required an overview explanation of the afterlife. Then we introduced him to our material on the subject.

Another wrote for help in overcoming homosexuality, expressing her fears that it would keep her out of the Kingdom. Thankfully, God inspired Paul to write in enough detail that we know the first-century Church of God dealt with this issue—and that people who had been practicing homosexuals were able to repent. We could tell her that they became faithful members of the Corinthian congregation (1 Corinthians 6:9-11).

A reader struggling with the aftereffects of viewing pornography in the past asked for prayer. Even though he wants to leave it behind, it is virtually an addiction. He wanted guidelines on how to overcome it.

A person who has a family member with psychosomatic illnesses asked for scriptures that she might use in helping her relative deal with her challenges.

A heartbreaking letter came from a mother asking for help in explaining how her 12-year-old’s father, whom the child adores, left the family for another woman.

A woman wrote that she had an aunt named Billah, asking if the name is in the Bible. She wanted to quote a verse that uses her aunt’s name at her funeral. Aiming to please, we found the name was not in the Bible. But in checking on its origins, we discovered it is Arabic. We found the Hebrew equivalent used in a pleasant way, and we sent this to the lady.

A tile installer asked if he would be breaking the Second Commandment if he took a job that required him to install a semblance of Buddha in tile form. Of course, he would not be worshipping in any form just to do the tile job.

The article on how to know if you have the Holy Spirit has stirred a number of responses. One person wrote of having many spiritual struggles and not being able to overcome sin in spite of having “accepted Christ” decades ago. She wanted to know if she was truly saved. We were able to discuss her need to recheck her spiritual foundations, and we pointed her to the pertinent articles in our Life, Hope & Truth library.

Another person, apparently not grasping the truth of the matter, wondered if the Holy Spirit leaves her when she sins, because she does not “feel his presence” at that time.

A reader asked for help in discerning the difference between desire and lust. He wondered where one should “draw the line.” We pointed him to the basics of conversion, as well as to our series of articles on “deadly sins.”

A woman who introduced herself as new to the website said she had been reading the 10 Commandments material and recognizes that she is sinning. She wanted guidance on how to obtain forgiveness. Again, we directed her to the basics of conversion, as well as to our article on God’s forgiveness.

A reader told us that his priest had explained how God judges, but that the man wanted to hear the answer from us! As we usually do, we gave a brief overview of the subject and then introduced him to our articles on judgment and the resurrections.

A man wrote that “some believe Daniel is still alive and will be one of the two witnesses.” The person wanted to know if we could prove that Daniel had died. (He had not read the entire book, for Gabriel himself told Daniel he would die!)

A reader wanted us to coordinate all members to fast with other Christian denominations in order to change moral and political issues. Another person asked for a list of all scriptures that describe heaven. And a minister asked if we would help him prepare his sermon for youth—“something that would truly interest them.”

A reader asked if he could send slides with astronomical data that shows a possible timeline for Christ’s return (we said, no, thank you). A reader wanted a Bible verse that proves God is in church only on Sunday. Lastly, we were asked to explain if COGWA is “Unitarian or Trinitarian.”