July 2026 Member Letter

July 9, 2026

Dear Brethren,

The past year has been one of the most unusual of my life! One year ago, on July 1, 2025, I underwent open-heart surgery to replace my aortic valve. I had been born with a bicuspid aortic valve, and it had begun to narrow. Since my overall health was good and there were no blockages in my arteries, surgery was the offered solution. The surgery was followed by three months of rehabilitation. Everything went well, and I returned to work the first week of September last year.

Since returning to work in September, I have traveled to a number of international sites—Chile, Colombia, New Zealand, Australia, Fiji, India, Sri Lanka and England. In addition, I have visited the following U.S. congregations: St. Petersburg, Florida; Grand Rapids, Michigan; Houston, Texas; Denver, Colorado; Birmingham, Alabama; Austin, Texas; and Madison, Wisconsin. And we also traveled to two sites for the Feast last October: Fort Myers, Florida, and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

To say that we have been busy over the past nine months since I returned to work would be an understatement! I want to thank all of you for your prayers, and of course, I give God the thanks for everything. The past year and my surgery are all a blur. I don’t like to talk about my health, but this one-year anniversary seemed to be a fitting time to update everyone.

As I step back and look at the world in which we live, Matthew 24:7 comes to mind. In this verse Christ spoke to His disciples about the end time: “For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places.”

Consider the news of the past few months and, more recently, the past couple of weeks. While there is, no doubt, more to come, recent events bring emphasis to the words of Christ. According to respected conflict-monitoring organizations, including the ACLED (Armed Conflict Location and Event Data, acleddata.com) and the UCDP (Uppsala [University] Conflict Data Program, ucdp.uu.se), more than 60 state-based armed conflicts have been active worldwide since the beginning of 2025, with roughly a dozen meeting the common definition of war (more than 1,000 battle-related deaths in a year).

Here is a partial listing of those wars:

• Russia-Ukraine War, which began in 2022.
• Israel-Hamas (Gaza) War, which began in 2023.
• Israel-Iran War, which escalated dramatically in 2024-2025.
• Sudan Civil War, which began in 2023.
• Myanmar Civil War, which began in 2021.
• Lebanon-Israel Conflict, which escalated in 2024-2026.
• Yemen (Houthis and regional conflict), which began in 2014.
• Nigeria (Boko Haram), which began in 2009.
• Haiti armed conflict, which intensified in 2025.

This list is far from complete, but it certainly illustrates Christ’s warning about “wars and rumors of wars.” Notice what is next: famines, pestilences and earthquakes.

As for famine in the world, the United Nations has declared that the first half of 2026 has witnessed the worst global food crisis in decades. Approximately 266 million people across 47 countries experienced acute hunger in 2025—roughly double the number before the COVID-19 pandemic (fightfoodcrises.net). The UN confirmed two famines (in Sudan and Gaza) in 2025.

After famine, Christ mentioned pestilences as a sign of the end time. The biblical definition of the word pestilence refers to a widespread outbreak of deadly disease or plague that results in significant loss of life. The World Health Organization (WHO) lists a number of serious outbreaks of deadly disease in the world this year. There are outbreaks of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda. As of early July, the CDC reported more than 1,600 cases, with over 500 deaths. There have also been many cases of other “pestilences.” WHO reports that cholera is well above historical averages. Monkeypox has spread rapidly through Central and East Africa, and even Madagascar. Avian influenza (better known as “bird flu”) continues to be a concern.

The final event Christ prophesied would come to pass in the end time is the prevalence of earthquakes. On June 24 of this year, Venezuela was struck by two powerful earthquakes, only 39 seconds apart, measuring 7.2 and 7.5 in magnitude. Current reports indicate more than 3,500 people have died, more than 16,000 have been injured, and tens of thousands remain unaccounted for. Analysis of satellite data suggests that nearly 59,000 buildings have been damaged or destroyed, making this one of the worst natural disasters in Venezuela’s modern history.

What does all this mean? When faced with the stark evidence of the acceleration of death and destruction in the world, we believe we are living in the time that Christ referred to as the end of this age. How long will this last before Christ returns to this earth to establish the Kingdom of God? We don’t know. But we do know that we, as Christians, should be watching and praying (Luke 21:36). This isn’t a time to pretend all is normal.

Over my lifetime, I have seen some major world events that could only fit in the very end time, but never have we seen so many of these events, back-to-back and virtually every day. No doubt we are all getting used to the tragic stories of multiple shootings, new wars, new diseases and more earthquakes that devastate whole regions. Over time, we can come to accept these conditions as “normal,” and we can get distracted from the reality of how bad things have gotten.

I am not writing about these events to depress us, but to encourage all of us to face reality. The return of Jesus Christ is a real event, and it is the only thing that will save this world from total destruction. Our prayers should include a heartfelt request that God’s Kingdom come soon. Please call out to God, remain watchful and pray earnestly that He will shorten these days, as Christ promised (Matthew 24:22).

Sincerely, your brother in Christ,

Jim Franks