Announcements for November 26, 2014

2015 Continuing Education Seminars

From David Johnson: Due to the strong positive response last summer, Foundation Institute is once again planning to conduct two on-site, one-week Continuing Education seminars this coming summer. Subjects and schedules will be established later, and future announcements will include information about costs and other details. Both one-week sessions will cover the same subject material, so participants will be able to select the one that best fits their schedule. The Foundation Institute classroom will allow us to host approximately 25 people for each session.

Since many of our attendees need to know the dates of the sessions so they can plan and request vacation days, we wanted to announce the dates we have selected. The first session will be July 13-17, 2015, and the second session will be July 27-31, 2015.

There is no need to register at this time. We will open registration and announce further details shortly after the first of the year, so be prepared to register at that time.

Thanks again for your interest and support.

Summary of October PCD Activity

From Cecil Maranville: PCD sent out 65 replies in the month of October. Due to the Feast season and closing the office during that time, we processed less mail than we have in other months.

But, as some may know, the digital channel between LHT and our mailbox was inadvertently shut off late in September and not turned back on until we discovered the problem on Nov. 3. One reason we did not notice the downturn in mail was the fact that mail is often slower at the Feast time. But also, we continued to receive a trickle of mail from the corporate and member websites. Those channels were open, so everything addressed to [email protected] from those sites reached us. So, for a time, it just seemed that the mail had fallen off.

When the low numbers continued after the Feast, we began to look at where mail was coming from to try to figure out if there was something amiss. We discovered the problem was with the “Ask a Question” form on the Life, Hope & Truth website. Since Nov. 3 when the form was fixed, mail has been reaching us normally.

Following is a summary of the highlights of the October activity.

It is always encouraging to hear from people who want to attend COGWA services, and we have had several of those letters. One was from someone who had attended the Church of God as a child and now wants to return with his family. Another individual wrote that he has been comparing us with another Church of God group. A more general message, from someone with no Church of God background, wanted to locate a church that worships on the Sabbath. An individual who apparently located one of our congregations through the Internet and then visited it a few times wanted more information about COGWA. And a group of congregations in Kenya that have a background in the Church of God (although not with one of the major organizations) would like to associate with COGWA.

Counseling situations involved questions about divorce and remarriage, needing a job, being trapped in a toxic relationship, needing to talk with someone about a life filled with mistakes and their consequences, suicidal tendencies, depression and alcohol addiction.

After reading the list of the 10 Commandments on our website—one of our most popular pages—a reader wanted to know what to do next. While we might think the answer is self-evident, readers often write for direction about an article that they have just read.

After reading our material about the Sabbath, a person with religious training wanted to know why we didn’t have any church services on Sunday. Having interaction with someone helps our readers move forward.

A reader wanted to know the difference between “the Catholic and Protestant” listings of the 10 Commandments. And another reader wanted to know if we should obey the 10 Commandments if God were to issue a new list that is the opposite of the current ones!

A man from a non-Christian faith wanted us to explain “the meaning of fornication in the Catholic tradition.” It was not clear if he thought we were Catholic or if he was looking to us as an authority on the subject. Another reader asked whether married Christians should watch pornography.

On the subject of “other sheep” (John 10:16), we were asked if perhaps this referred to Muslims and Jews going to heaven. Of course, that opened the door to introducing several subjects for the reader to consider.

One question came through on the two witnesses; the person wanted know whether the actual Moses and Elijah would be resurrected to be the witnesses. And a reader wanted to know from what countries the wise men came who visited the infant Jesus. He also wanted to know which wise man gave which gift!

We were asked to explain life-after-death experiences by a person whose friend claimed to see a recently deceased person at a family gathering after the person’s funeral.

Sometimes, people lash out at us without reading our material. One individual blasted us for failing to teach the biblical truth about same-sex relationships. We were able to show him several places on LHT that covers the subject fully and biblically.