Letter to the Brethren: June 15, 2023

Greetings from the Five Cities region of California.

Spanish Sermonette Channel

Last week, I mentioned that we were working on developing a sermonette channel in the Spanish language.

The new program is to be called, in Spanish, Era Profética.

In English, that is Prophetic Era or Prophetic Times.

Here is the tentative logo:

El evangelical del Reino de Dios translates into English as The Gospel of the Kingdom of God.

As far as the prevalence of the Spanish language, according to Wikipedia:

Spanish is the primary language in 20 countries worldwide. As of 2023, it is estimated that about 486 million people speak Spanish as a native language, making it the second most spoken language by number of native speakers.^[1] An additional 75 million speak Spanish as a second or foreign language, making it the fourth most spoken language in the world overall after English, Mandarin Chinese, and Hindi with a total number of 538 million speakers.^[29] Spanish is also the third most used language on the Internet, after English and Chinese.^[30]. 

Spanish is the main language in Central and South America, as well as in Spain, and some nations in the Caribbean. We believe that with a sermonette channel, we will better be able to reach those who understand Spanish.

We continue to strive to reach the world with the good news of the kingdom of God (Matthew 24:14) in as many languages as possible (consistent also with Revelation 7:9). We received another 34 translations of our English booklet The Gospel of the Kingdom of God this week.

We have now received 182 additional translations in the past six weeks and are working on putting them online.

Growth in Kenya

Pastor Tiongik Sawek sent the following:

Received warm greetings, Hope you are doing well. Last Sabbath we had our brethrens visit to the Ngaroni-Segemian area, they were humbly received in their local church.

Members from this region of Segemian once had made a visit to Chilani and we had since interacted with them for the past 3 years. I have also made a visit to the area.

These brethrens have fully joined COG church. Despite the challenges in the region including poor roads accompanied by weather conditions, the brethrens managed to get there.

I had promised them to visit this region together with Evangelist Ochieng, and though we had to go to the Mau region, I propose we start from Segemian before we proceeded to Mau region and especially by early July this year.

I have attached some photos for your reference.

Let’s pray for them and May God bless you.

Regards,

Pastor Sawek

That is great to hear.

Furthermore, Ezekiel Oanda, of another part of Kenya, sent me the following message:

Next Sabbath I’m expecting two groups to worship with us who are interested to join us. pray for them too.

Please pray that God will open the hearts and minds of those interested.

Evangelist Evans Ochieng sent the following report late yesterday:

Pastor Dr Bob,

Greetings from Kenya.

I was on fasting for some days so I delayed not to send the report as I promised. Today I was in my tomatoes garden from morning to evening. The work in Kenya has expanded that needs a lot of care. I was on fasting for the four days and praying. I can’t explain how much the work is growing not only in Kenya but Africa at large.  I’m receiving good reports from all corners of Africa how God has opened the doors for the gospel. Arthur Topos from Lodwar was in Kakuma refugees center, where he met the refugees and before that he was at the border of Ethiopia and Kenya where there is another congregation.

I’ve received good reports from Rwanda, Congo, Malawi and Mozambique. I sent Molozwa to go and meet with Machemba who had been calling me and wanted to come back to the Church after he rejected the rubbish in Hope of Israel worldwide church of God. He decided to come back to the church. Radson Molozwa gave me a report that their discussion went very well and Machemba is back to CCOG.

This week Molozwa has been visiting congregations in Malawi. Today he was in Cheleka.

                    Gospel Trip.

Last month I had a gospel Trip all over Kenya. I started from Kisii then western Kenya where I met two brethren in Kitale. After that we went up to Lodwar where I met over 250 people. I was accompanied by Joel Owuoti and David Cheryot from Njoro. We also started the project of building a hall in Lodwar. The trip to Lodwar is always not safe because of bandits and al shabab {a terrorist group}, but we were protected by the Almighty God and our journey was very safe. when turning back from Lodwar, we called in Eldoret to see my brother who is a major general officer in Armed forces. He warned us thoroughly not to go to Lodwar by roads again because it’s risky and he thanked GOD how He helped us to have a safe journey through the road to Lodwar because it’s always risky. After that we extended our journey to visit Bomet in south Rift valley where we were to go and give iron sheets for the meeting hall in Bomet. After that we went to meet the brethren from Chilani, Kaplecho and Daktech.

After we came back and the other Sabbath I met Nyakach together with Joel Owuoti. Even though it was a long trip but was successful.

                 PRINTING

Last month I took 2  ekigusi translations for printing. The translation was done by Ezekiel Oanda. I produced 300 copies for each booklet. Total were 600 copies. I sent all the copies to Ezekiel Oanda to assist the work in Kisii. I also sent 2 Luo translations of magazines for printing. Each produced 300 copies. Total 600 copies.

                  CONGREGATIONS

This year we have More congregations added in CCOG. Also members are added in our congregations. Especially in kisii where the brethren have increased to almost 300.

 I also received a report from the new congregation in Congo that they are doing well.

            BAPTISM

So many brethren were baptize this year.

We had baptism in Kenya

 Kisii and Karungu bay in lake Victoria.

In Congo and in Malawi. Also in Ethiopia. Lastly the baptism was done to a long member from Uganda who had studied with CCOG for a long time. Aaron went to Rwanda and he was baptized in Rwanda.

             REGISTRATION

There is a Big problem in Kenya for there are some pentecostal churches that have done bad things and bad teachings where they centered. It caused a Big problem in Kenya that every church is properly checked and preparing the annual return is not easy. But we were lucky that our annual return was successful and for the last years I’ve been sending ANNUAL return yearly. …

                   Conclusion

I thanked you Dr Bob for continuing to stand with Continuing Church of God in Africa.

Evans.

Yes, we continue to have growth in Kenya and various other parts of Africa.

Getting the Gospel Out in Ghana

CCOG Pastor and Overseer for Ghana sent our office a copy of two of the booklets that they are printing in Ghana, in the language of Asante Twi.

Here are scans of the front covers of the booklets we received:

It is great that they have these booklets. Those in Ghana have a Church of God Seventh Day background, and still use that term, but since coming in with the Continuing Church of God, they now keep biblical holy days and are working with us to help fulfill Matthew 24:14.