Announcements for November 29, 2012

FOCUSED MENTORING PROGRAM

The Church of God, a Worldwide Association, is pleased to announce a new program designed to address our need to identify and develop pastoral leadership. We all know that one of the challenges faced by the Church is that of an aging ministry. While only God can call men into that responsibility, we in the present ministry and leadership must do all we can to prepare those whose fruits indicate that God may be calling them to this service in the Church. In some cases they are already elders, and therefore the question is one of aptitude, training and education for full-time service rather than one of just calling, as they have already been called to ministerial service on a local level.

After thorough discussion among senior ministers, Ministerial Services has developed and is now launching a program called the Focused Mentoring Program. With input from the local pastors, six couples from six different church areas have been selected to participate for this coming year and have agreed to do so.

The Focused Mentoring Program is a 12-month program that is a concentrated effort to provide biblical education and application, along with practical experience in how the pastoral ministry carries out its work. The education involves both biblical classes and personal mentoring by the local pastor. Bible classes will be provided online by Foundation Institute and will include “Fundamental Beliefs of the Church of God” and “Epistles of Paul.” In addition, there will be monthly, interactive live webinars presented by Ministerial Services that will include all pastors and participants in the program. There will also be separate webinars conducted with all of the mentoring pastors in order to assist us in teaching and training on a consistent and timely basis. In other words, while the program will be “focused” on the couple in the local congregation, who will be mentored by the local pastor, this is, in fact, a national program that provides resources and instruction beyond what a local pastor could provide alone. It also ensures that we will all be teaching and learning the same things.

A big part of each couple’s experience and education will come in the form of assisting the pastor by occasionally accompanying him on visits, as well as by making occasional visits on their own as a couple. The FMP candidate will also assist by working with various local church activities and the office communication systems used by the Church. This type of experience will allow each couple to better understand firsthand what the work of the pastoral ministry involves.

Each couple realizes that even though they are participating in the Focused Mentoring Program, there is no expected offer of employment by the Church. However, it does offer them both experience and training that can enable them to be more valuable servants in the congregation and enrich their understanding of the work of the ministry and Church. In addition, it also offers the Church the opportunity to, through such experience, create a pool of qualified couples from which some could be asked to serve in the full-time ministry sometime in the future.

We are excited about this effort in the development and training of leadership for the Church. Please pray that God will bless and guide this program and grant us His fullest blessings in our efforts to mentor and train servants for God’s work.

MEDIA UPDATE

From Clyde Kilough: In preparation for the upcoming annual meeting of the Ministerial Board of Directors, last week we sent the board members the proposed operation plan for 2013. After the meetings, you will also receive a summary of that plan; but for this month’s newsletter, I thought you might appreciate seeing the part of the media report that summarized what we accomplished in 2012. Of course, most of the report focused on the plans for 2013, and we are very excited about what lies ahead; but it is also very encouraging to see the forward progress of the past year.

Following, then, is the “Introduction” and “Summary of 2012 Developments” from the media operations section of the report to the MBOD:

Introduction. Looking back at the last year and ahead to the next for media operations brought to mind the nine-mile, 4,000-foot-elevation-gain hike that the campers would take on the first day of the Teton Challenger Camp. At certain rest spots you look back down the mountain and across the valley and are amazed at how high you have climbed. Then you strap on the backpack, look up the mountain and, seeing no end to it looming above, you realize a long climb lies yet ahead.

In the past year we have come a long way from where we started in media, especially in establishing a foundation on which to build; but at the same time, we have a long way to go. However, just like in a long mountain hike, one does not get to the top quickly or easily; but by pushing steadily onward, one makes progress over time. We see 2012 as a time of having taken some great steps forward, and 2013 as a time of making much further progress.

Media operations serves both facets of the Church’s commission—in concert with the president and Ministerial Services, we help provide some of the important means for their regular communication with the members; but we are also responsible for the sole means of preaching the gospel to the world. The former is certainly easier than the latter. It is obviously much easier to produce the means and material to spiritually feed the flock, with its smaller scope and narrower target audience, than it is to produce the means and material to hit the vast target of the entire world with the gospel of Jesus Christ! So our biggest challenges for media lie in the arena of preaching the gospel; and while this plan specifically addresses steps we plan to take in 2013, they have to be seen in the context of longer-range plans for building the work.

Before getting to the future steps in this plan, a review of the steps taken in the last year offers some great encouragement that the plans for 2013 will help us meet the challenges and increase our effectiveness.

Summary of 2012 Developments. The 2012 Media Operation Plan stated that “the first thing we are doing is to create two major websites with entirely different focuses: the member site will be for ‘feeding the flock’ and a public proclamation site for preaching the gospel to the world.”

We knew the member site would be the easiest, but the public proclamation site had to be planned, developed and built from the ground up, with a fairly ambitious start-up date. Launching Life, Hope & Truth was easily the biggest media project of 2012.

Life, Hope & Truth. Over three pages in last year’s operation plan were devoted to outlining an innovative approach, given our limited manpower, for building the content portion of the public proclamation site. The site build-out could be contracted out to web development experts, but the content development was primarily depending on the contributions of the ministry. This required from them a new way of thinking and perceiving their role in preaching the gospel. The June launch of LHT resulted from scores of people catching the vision of preaching the gospel, understanding how their contributions played a vital role, and then working in a coordinated manner toward a common goal. It was easier for some than others; but overall, they really stepped up to the plate—without them, we would not have a viable vehicle for fulfilling this part of our commission.

By the end of 2012 LifeHopeandTruth.com will have the following content:

Approximately 300 articles posted in seven “silos.”
50 weekly video commentaries, which are averaging 273 viewers per commentary (with three over 600).
Approximately 250 blog posts by 26 bloggers. We are posting about 10 blog posts a week on LHT.
Approximately 1,200 sub-scribers to the LHT Weekly Newsletter, which is designed to engage people weekly with a short commentary and update on newly posted material. We started this newsletter on July 20, 2012, with 494 subscribers and doubled in four months.

In addition, we have been very pleased with the rate of growth in search engine results for queries, impressions and clicks. The growth rate has exceeded our expectations.

The Current COGWA Members’ Site. As LHT was being developed during the year as our public proclamation vehicle, the current COGWA site continued to serve as our main tool for communicating with the Church members and “feeding the flock.”

Much of the content in the Questions & Answers section and many of the blogs were shifted over to LHT, but we still regularly post new material designed specifically for members. These include:

In Accord, averaging 750 views weekly.
One Accord, primarily online but also in print.
Member letters.
Sermons (audio and video).
Blogs. By the end of 2012 we will have posted over 1,000 blog posts by nearly 100 bloggers to the cogwa.org site. Many of them were moved to the LHT site, but we are currently posting on the member site about three blogs a week that are directed to the Church.
Trifolds. We have produced 16 trifolds, primarily designed for use in less-developed inter-national areas that wish to have some type of print material.

The New COGWA Members’ Site. Getting LHT off the ground was a huge undertaking, and it wasn’t until the late summer that 30 Degrees North could turn its attention to the member site redesign. As of mid-November, it is nearing completion and should be introduced by the end of 2012. It will have a new look and feel and will be members’ go-to source for spiritual food and Church information.

The new design highlights several major sections: news (In Accord, One Accord, member letters, MBOD reports, etc.), education (sermons, articles, study papers, booklets, Bible Reading Program, etc.), and links to other Church websites (camps, Feast, Winter Family Weekend, FI Online, Foundation Institute, local congregations, etc.).

One note regarding the sermons we will post: We decided to be more selective with sermons posted on the members’ site—video only and no more than two or three per week. We have concluded that video is much more appealing and that the main site should focus on selected sermons rather than everything that is sent in. On the sermon page we will encourage viewers to go to local congregation sites to listen to audio-only sermons or sermons from speakers they may particularly want to hear, but the main site will have controlled quantity.

COGWA.org. Midway through the year we decided to add a third website that was not in the 2012 plan. We concluded that new people coming to LHT need a resource to answer their “Who are you?” questions. We did not believe, however, that sending them directly to the member site was the best way.

The solution was to remake the current cogwa.org site into a “corporate” website devoted to explaining who and what we are. This will be a comparably small and static site, that is, one that does not require much maintenance but is primarily informational. On it, viewers can find information such as:

About us.
Organization and leadership.
Fundamental Beliefs.
Congregations.
Subscription page for weekly LHT newsletter.
Contact page.
Press releases.
“If you would like to help …” (how they can donate).
A link to the member site with a short description of what it contains.

We don’t want to hide the member page from anyone and will provide a link to it, but this site will provide a better transition than leaping from the proclamation to the members’ website.

The redesign of cogwa.org is paralleling that of members.cogwa.org, and we expect to have both ready and online by the end of 2012.

One Accord. We introduced One Accord in January as an online monthly church newspaper but quickly saw that we needed to provide print versions to those who did not have computers. Beginning with the May issue, using the services of Horizon Printing in Austin, Texas, we began printing and mailing hard copies to anyone who requested. As of mid-November, we are mailing 998 per month, a number that has leveled off with only a trickle of new additions each month.

FI Online. A year ago the idea of having a weekly online Foundation Institute class available to the entire Church was only a hazy idea, described vaguely in the operation plan as an educational program “such as seminars, ‘ABC type’ classes, etc.” Once we all came into the office and could talk about whether and how it could be done, a plan jelled, and we put it on a fast track.

The enormous and enthusiastic response from the Church members (even before it launched, but especially afterwards) tells us that this is filling a need. At the writing of this report, we had 1,250 people register; and for the first class on Nov. 14, 2012, we had 760 connections. With an average of 1.69 viewers per connection, we had an approximate total of 1,300 viewers. In addition, over the three days that followed, we had 460 views of the archived version.

This level of response was extremely encouraging and made it well worth the huge amount of work by a number of people that it took to make it possible.

Office Facilities. Moving into the new headquarters office meant starting from the ground up in researching equipment needs and purchasing and setting up the camera gear, lighting, sets, editing programs, computer systems, furniture, etc., that would be required for video production. In addition, we decided early on to video all of the Foundation Institute classes, given the anticipated needs for both member education (such as FI Online) and ministerial education (such as the Focused Mentoring Program). Then the move of FI to the new upstairs facility meant revamping the entire production process in order to remotely capture and store all of the video. It was a demanding undertaking, involving a lot of man-hours for everything ranging from researching equipment capabilities to drawing schematics to physically installing the equipment. However, we are now pretty well-set with our basic equipment needs. The main needs in the near future will be in the set construction and lighting for the new studio.

Website Map. In total, we now have eight websites (not counting the “seasonal” web pages that function as sites, such as the Winter Family Weekend and Young Adult Leadership Weekend):

[url=http://lifehopeandtruth.com/start]http://lifehopeandtruth.com/start[/url]
[url=http://cogwa.org]http://cogwa.org[/url]
[url=http://members.cogwa.org]http://members.cogwa.org[/url]
[url=http://feast.cogwa.org]http://feast.cogwa.org[/url]
[url=http://camps.cogwa.org]http://camps.cogwa.org[/url]
[url=http://foundationinstitute.org]http://foundationinstitute.org[/url]
[url=http://foundationinstitute.org/online]http://foundationinstitute.org/online[/url]
[url=https://ministerial.cogwa.org]https://ministerial.cogwa.org[/url]

HOW TO SEARCH [url=http://lifehopeandtruth.com]http://lifehopeandtruth.com[/url]

From Cecil Maranville: Some of you are saying, “Just use the search box.” Others are saying, “I’ve used the search box to look for a topic or a verse that I know we’ve written about, but the search box returns say there is nothing!”

That is because our internal search box is programmed to search only keywords that are in titles of articles. When a website has a lot of material, and the search engine is programmed to read every word—even partial words, the result might be several pages long! The user then has to wade through all of these results to find the word or verse he wants. In the present world, people expect results quickly. If they don’t get what they want in short order, they move on.

So, our web development team programmed LHT’s search engine to read titles only, not every word.

But ministers and members often want every reference to a keyword or to a certain verse! And there is a way to obtain this information. Using an Internet search engine (Google, Bing, Yahoo, Dogpile, etc.), type the word or words for which you want to search; add a space followed by the word “site,” a colon and “lifehopeandtruth.com”; then key Enter.

The engine will search only the website that you put after the colon—lifehopeandtruth.com, in this case. (You can use this method to search any website.)

Examples:

angels site:lifehopeandtruth.com

money site:lifehopeandtruth.com

Genesis 3:15 site:lifehopeandtruth.com

If you try the last example, you will discover that the search engine will pull every reference to “Genesis” on [url=http://lifehopeandtruth.com]http://lifehopeandtruth.com[/url], as well as any combination of “3:15.” That isn’t what you want. To search only for references to Genesis 3:15 (or similar scripture searches), put the book, chapter and verses in quotes:

“Genesis 3:15” site:lifehopeandtruth.com

“Matthew 7” site:lifehopeandtruth.com

(If you use Google as a search engine, you’ll find additional options under its “advanced” section.) Try searching this way! It’s a useful tool.

SUMMARY OF OCTOBER PCD ACTIVITY

From Cecil Maranville: We sent out 57 responses from PCD for October, which somewhat surprisingly is our second-highest month this year—in spite of the fact that the office was closed for the first eight days of the month.

There were several counseling matters. A person to whom the Sabbath is a new doctrine wanted advice about how to observe it, considering the fact that he is a shift worker. Another individual described himself as having been “born as a Christian”; and yet, in spite of all of his efforts and prayers, “the gospel doesn’t sink in.” His request opened the door for us to suggest that he consider his spiritual roots and what true conversion entails. We were able to direct him to the articles in the Change silo of LHT.

Another counseling matter involved a potentially complex problem. The writer said that he is a bipolar patient, and he wanted biblical guidelines that would help him gain self-control. And a new person asked “how to pray for a financial blessing.” That opened the door for us to discuss building a relationship with God that includes praying for daily needs as a normal part of the Christian’s life. We also directed the person to several related articles on LHT.

A deeply personal question came from an individual who wanted to know if the Bible indicates where it is appropriate to scatter the ashes of a loved one. Scripture does not say anything about the issue, but we pointed out that there are laws in some localities that do. Of course, Christians should be subject to the law of the land, as long as it does not conflict with God’s instructions.

It’s unclear if the person asking this next question was facing a serious illness, but he asked to what extent a Christian should use medicine to prolong his life, in light of our knowledge about the afterlife. We explained that his was a deeply personal question and that the Church provides spiritual support and comfort, whatever direction an individual member chooses to take.

A person taking “a Muslim-Christian relation class” wrote that she was told in class that Muhammad is the Prophet of Deuteronomy 18:15 and wanted to know if this is true.

We handled a few questions about Church organizations. One person wanted to know why there are so many different Church of God groups, when the Holy Spirit cannot disagree with itself. There were two questions about whether the beginning of COGWA was over doctrine or government. An isolated individual asked if we would recommend a different Church of God group to him since he does not live close to a COGWA congregation.

Two people asked for the Church’s guidelines about tattoos and body piercings. We told them that there is an article on the subject that will be posted soon on the LHT website.

A person (not a member of COGWA) sharply criticized us for allowing members to sell their personal wares to other members at the Feast. The person had seen something about marketing things at the Feast on a personal Facebook account. We were able to quote directly from the Festival brochure every attending family received, in which it plainly says that any such marketing at the Feast is forbidden. We thanked the person for checking directly with us, so that we could straighten out the misunderstanding.

Someone asked us to provide a verse-by-verse commentary of a specific chapter of the Bible. We explained that we do not have the personnel to provide that type of lengthy reply. We recommended that the individual use some of the standard and readily available commentaries, and we offered to answer any specific question that he might have about the chapter or a specific verse.

A member, having seen a subject mentioned in a previous PCD report, wrote that she, too, would like to have the answer to the question. We provided it, but we suggested that she ask her pastor or an elder about any of the topics in these reports. Some pastors have taken subjects from PCD reports and used them as Bible study/discussion topics.

On Bible questions, a person asked what would be the best day for naming a girl, stating he “knew the Bible indicates the eighth day is the time a boy should be named.” We corrected that misunderstanding and explained that the Bible does not indicate that a child should be named on any particular day. John the Baptist was given his name by his mother on the day of his circumcision, but God actually named John before his birth.

A questioner asked if gelatin capsules for medicine or supplements are made from pork and, if so, whether it is breaking the biblical food laws to use such a product.

Lastly, there were two questions on baptism. One appeared to be from someone who wants to argue that baptism is not necessary for salvation. He cited several way-out scenarios in which it would be difficult to obtain water for baptizing. (We could tell him a number of stories about creative ways we have baptized people over the decades!) The second question was about the faithful of Hebrews 11 who lived in the Old Testament period. The individual wanted to know whether they had the Holy Spirit and, if so, whether they were baptized.

VISIT TO INDIA AND SRI LANKA

From David Baker: During the last part of October and the first part of November, I had the opportunity to visit our members in India and Sri Lanka. During the last week of July our longtime member Dr. D.S. Ali died, and her daughters asked if I could visit them after the Feast to conduct a short memorial service for their mother. I arrived in Hyderabad on Wednesday, Oct. 24.

Thursday I visited with Arjumand and Nargis Ali, and we discussed their lives and challenges since the death of their mother. They mentioned the melancholy sense of loss that they experience, especially on the Sabbath. They lived with their mother for decades, and it has been a big adjustment for them since her death.

After our initial discussion, we enjoyed a nice lunch together and then drove through the congested streets of Hyderabad to the cemetery in which Dr. Ali is buried. Living in the U.S., I am accustomed to cemeteries that spread over several acres covered with lush green grass. Most cemeteries in India are quite crowded. The cemetery we visited in Hyderabad is very congested, and it was impossible to navigate through the cemetery without walking on graves and headstones. During the visit to the cemetery, I conducted a short memorial service at the grave of Dr. Ali.

Afterward, I dropped off Arjumand and Nargis at their home, and we said our good-byes. Arjumand and Nargis are both highly educated in their fields of study but for many years have chosen to give private tuition or teach on a temporary basis in order to not compromise the Sabbath. With no retirement or medical insurance, they face the future knowing that God has and will continue to provide for them. I know that Arjumand and Nargis appreciate the continued prayers of all our brethren on their behalf.

On Friday, Oct. 26, I traveled to Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu, which is located on the Coromandel Coast off the Bay of Bengal. It is a major commercial, cultural, economic and educational center of South India. On the Sabbath I traveled by car to Vellore, about a two-hour drive from Chennai, to spend the Sabbath with Tarun, Seema and Priscilla Ghosh. Some may recall that Seema experienced a stroke on March 6. While treating the aftereffects of the stroke, her doctors discovered a large tumor in her abdomen. On April 2 Seema had to undergo a seven-hour operation in which the doctors removed the tumor, as well as her ovaries, uterus and appendix. Unfortunately the tumor was malignant, and she also had to undergo chemotherapy.

Seema and her family were in Vellore for her final checkup at Vellore Christian Medical College and Hospital. I met Tarun, Seema and Priscilla in their hotel room near the hospital. After chatting for a while and catching up on their lives for the past few months, we held a Sabbath service in their room. Tarun had his laptop with the hymnal music, so we sang a few hymns and I gave a sermon on Numbers chapters 13 and 14. After the Sabbath service, we enjoyed a nice lunch together and then drove to the Vellore Fort (a 16th-century fort built by the Vijayanagara kings), where we had an opportunity to walk for a bit along the walls of the fort. At the end of the day, I traveled back to Chennai. Tarun promised to send me news of the medical report once they received the news. A few days later, I received the following message from Tarun:

“Thanks so much for your prayers; God has been kind and merciful by providing His healing touch for Seema’s complete healing. The doctors at Vellore Christian Medical College and Hospital said yesterday after the CT scan and other routine checkups that it was a miracle and that God was helping us through these difficult times. My wife is completely healed, and she must now go for regular checkups for some time.

“Words are not enough to express my thankfulness and gratitude to God Almighty and Jesus and to all our brethren who have been continuously praying for Seema’s recovery and for their wonderful words of encouragement through emails and cards. May God shower His blessings abundantly upon each of them and provide His protection for all the faithful. May He also provide us the strength to stay faithful to God in every spiritual and physical way. We shall continue to pray for each other in these testing times of trials and persecution of the end times. Our deepest love and regards to all of you.”

On Sunday, Oct. 28, I met with G.P. Samuel (far right in the picture below) and a couple of members from his congregation. Mr. Samuel is from Chirala, located in Prakasam district in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India. He had planned to meet with me early that morning but unfortunately missed a train connection along the way and spent several hours during the night on the station platform. Thankfully we were able to meet by mid-afternoon. Mr. Samuel has a congregation of approximately 40 to 50 people, and I visited his congregation in January 2008. Mr. Samuel learned of the Sabbath through the teaching of Mr. Armstrong and other Sabbatarian ministers. We share the same basic doctrinal beliefs. During our meeting, we discussed how COGWA may be able to assist him in spreading the gospel in his area. I sent him PDF versions of the trifolds that we have developed and hope to visit with him again during my next trip to India.

On Tuesday, Oct. 30, I traveled to Moradabad in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, which is a five-hour drive from New Delhi. The five-hour drive is basically an obstacle course of movable and immobile objects (some moving and some overturned along the side of the road)—cars, vans, buses, lorries, bicycles, motorcycles, tractors, oxcarts, three-wheel scooters, goats, cattle, an occasional camel and a few monkeys. The city is nicknamed Pital Nagri (“City of Brass”) for its famous brass handicrafts industry. The city itself is a densely populated area with a very high percentage of Muslims. A trip to visit our members in Moradabad involves traveling down narrow streets with just enough room for one vehicle. There is often not even enough room for a motorcycle and car to pass—one will have to stop for the other.

I had planned to visit the members in Moradabad earlier in the trip, but they advised against it, concerned that I would not be able to reach their house due to the festival of Eid-ul-Adha, sometimes referred to as the festival of sacrifice. (Muslims around the world believe that on this festival date Allah—God—commanded Ibrahim—Abraham—to sacrifice his son Ishmael. Ibrahim followed God’s orders, but his son was replaced by a sheep at the last moment.) During this festival, the Muslims of Moradabad and all the neighbors of our members sacrificed goats in the streets leading to their home. One neighbor actually sacrificed a camel.

So I rearranged my schedule to have my visit to Moradabad at the end of my trip to India in order to safely reach their home. I arrived at the home of Robinson Yusuf and his family late in the afternoon and enjoyed several hours of wonderful fellowship. We discussed events of our lives since my last visit in May as well as news of the Church. I also conducted a Bible study in the evening. One thing that Mr. Yusuf’s family emphasized was the wonderful blessings they have received from God for many years. They related how they came to Moradabad from a nearby village with very few material goods. Mr. Yusuf (far-left corner in the picture, right) had lost his job at a hospital, and his family started giving private tuition, which led to the formation of their school. God has continued to provide them with classes full of students, including Muslim students and several Muslim teachers; and yet the name of their school is Saint Peter Junior High School. After the Bible study, we enjoyed a wonderfully delicious meal prepared by the Yusufs, and then I returned to my hotel for a good night’s sleep before my return back to Delhi.

Thursday, Nov. 1, I flew to Colombo, Sri Lanka. I was a bit concerned about the weather because a typhoon had hit southern India and parts of Sri Lanka. The landing was a bit rough, but the roads from the airport to Colombo were not flooded and traffic was normal (which would be considered chaotic by many in the West)—swerving, horn blaring, accelerating and slamming on the brakes, near misses of pedestrians and bicyclists, and being forced off the road by merging buses and lorries.

Friday morning I traveled to Mt. Lavinia, a suburb of Colombo, and visited with our members and enjoyed a wonderful lunch with them. We caught up on events of the past few months, and they updated me on the Feast of Tabernacles. We also discussed plans for the Feast in 2013. Our members face the challenge of increasing rates of inflation and stagnant wages and salaries. The country experiences corruption on various levels, which allows a few families to live lavish lifestyles, while the majority struggle to survive. Our members are very thankful that God continually provides for their needs.

Saturday morning I awoke several hours before daylight and conducted the Skype service with our brethren in Australia at 5:30 a.m. Sri Lanka time. After the service and fellowship, I was able to enjoy a leisurely breakfast and then travel back to Mt. Lavinia for my second morning service of the day. (Over the past 49 years of attending church, I believe this was the first time I’ve attended two morning services on the same Sabbath!) I always enjoy visiting our Sri Lankan brethren. I attended my first Sabbath service in Sri Lanka 27 years ago and once lived and worked a few blocks away from where our members now live. After enjoying lunch and more fellowship, my early morning began to catch up with me and I returned to my hotel to prepare for an early morning departure. Sunday morning I departed for the airport at 3:30 a.m. to catch a flight to Bangkok, Thailand, my final stop before returning to the U.S.

Visiting our members in India and Sri Lanka is always inspiring. They are scattered among more than a billion people and face some unique challenges and difficulties. For most of the year their only opportunity to spend time with other members of the Church outside their family is during the Feast of Tabernacles or when I have an opportunity to visit. Thankfully, through modern technology, we are able to communicate on a regular basis throughout the year. I hope some of our members from outside the area of South Asia will consider attending the Feast in either India or Sri Lanka. It would be a memorable Feast, and it would be a great service to our members in India and Sri Lanka.