Letter to the Brethren: February 13, 2025

Dear Brethren and Co-Workers in Christ:

Greetings from the Five Cities region of California.

We are back in California from Thailand and have been attempting to catch up.

My wife Joyce is also trying to recover from a fall she had nine days ago.

Related to the preparation for the short work of Romans 9:28 (see also Preparing for the ‘Short Work’ and The Famine of the Word), we received an additional 60 translations of our English language booklet, The Gospel of the Kingdom of God this week. Jesus’ prophecy in Matthew 24:14 will be fulfilled and having additional translation supports that.

Teaching Children and Bible News Prophecy Radio

When we were in Thailand we met with Sani Mao and his wife Mary Thomas on Manipur, India.

Mary Thomas asked about our outreach to the youth.

I mentioned that we sponsored youth camps in Africa, produced animations (see CCOG Animations), have youth activities at the Feast of Tabernacles, and youth Bible lessons. We also utilize social media and platforms such as TikTok (see also Continuing Church of God Multimedia page).

She was unaware that we had youth Bible lessons, and I told her I would send lessons to she and her husband in India, so I ordered those last Friday.

In addition, notice the following sent by Shirley Gestro in New Zealand:

Dear Dr. Thiel,

Bible News Prophecy Radio Update

A new addition to the BNP Radio website: Youth Audio Bible Lessons.

Narrators: Dawn Parr and Chad Branton. They have recorded many lessons for Levels K, 1 and 2. Available here: Free Youth Audio Bible Lessons — Bible News Prophecy Radio

BNP Interview & Radio Newscasters/Presenters: In addition to your BNP Interviews by you and Steve Dupuie. We continue to have our weekly radio newscasters, James Martenet who has been our regular speaker for the last several years, and Ritchie White who has come on board to help in the last several weeks (with an additional person that James is helping). John Shackleton also recorded one recently. Four interviews are done by our 2 newscasters weekly. I will email in the CCOG group for more BNP online radio volunteers and for other areas for the online radio.

The website had a bit of make-over (😊) because of the additions and other reasons.

Featured Items: This section includes older Biblical topics, new content not on the radio station like CCOG animation videos, and promotional items for shorter videos. It helps keep the radio website updated. Regular digital posters are created for these, and BNP Interviews and sermons.

Created short video messages (30 seconds to 1:10 minutes): Christians, Why Prophecy?, Biblical Keys to Happiness, Faith and Increasing It, and Groundhog Day—are there lessons from the movie? I used AI-generated images in some and selected relevant music. More details below.

BNP Radio Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/BibleNewsProphecy/

Years ago, initially, adding BNP Radio on Facebook was ineffective, so I paused. Recently, I set it up again and tested a promotion targeting New Zealanders and Australians, which saw minimal results. I then revised the promotion to feature the BNP Radio card and expanded the audience to include several Gentile nations for about two weeks. This reminded me of Romans 11:25. Shortly after posting the video someone commented “Amen” and subsequent positive responses.

The statistics revealed:

Follows or likes 1,167

Views 44,115

Cost per Follow or like $0.04

Reach 27,438

Post engagements: 855

Post reactions: 644

Link clicks: 188

Locations Reached:

1. Metro Manila 2316
2. Central Division 2149
3. Calabarzon 1645
4. Central Visayas 1422
5. Davao Region 1238
6. Western Visayas 1158
7. Central Luzon 1038
8. Port Moresby 863
9. Northern Mindanao 855
10. Shefa Province 695
11. Maharashtra 631
12. Eastern Visayas 599
13. Ilocos Region 575
14. Western Division 567
15. Soccsksargen 511
16. Uttar Pradesh 503
17. Honiara 495
18. Cordillera Administrative Region 487
19. Bicol Region 487
20. Zamboanga Peninsula 471
21. Cagayan Valley 439
22. Caraga 431
23. West Bengal 423
24. Karnataka 423
25. Delhi 351
26. Timor-Leste 328
27. Tamil Nadu 328
28. Mimaropa 320
29. West Java 283
30. Kerala 240
31. Jammu and Kashmir 240
32. Andhra Pradesh 240
33. Samoa 232
34. Assam 232
35. Jakarta 224
36. Telangana 216
37. Gujarat 192
38. Odisha 144
39. Unknown 128
40. Punjab region 128
41. Bihar 128
42. North Sulawesi 120
43. North Sumatra 112
44. Tongatapu 104
45. Rajasthan 104
46. Oro Province 104
47. Meghalaya 104
48. Madhya Pradesh 104
49. Morobe Province 96
50. Haryana 96

For 5 days, 2 videos were promoted on Facebook with a “Learn More” button linking to the related item.

Christians, Why Prophecy?, by Dr. Bob Thiel (1min, 10secs) You can view it on the site Christians, Why Prophecy? — Bible News Prophecy Radio or Facebook Bible News Prophecy Radio Reels | Facebook It received positive comments.

Statistics revealed:

Reach: 34,497

Video Plays: 11,885

Link clicks: 876

Cost per click: $0.01

Locations reached:

1. Uttar Pradesh 5495
2. West Bengal 4359
3. Bihar 2384
4. Maharashtra 2048
5. Gujarat 2024
6. Rajasthan 1781
7. Assam 1768
8. Odisha 1632
9. Punjab region 1328
10. Madhya Pradesh 1200
11. Jharkhand 1176
12. Haryana 1136
13. Delhi 1096
14. Kerala 928
15. Jammu and Kashmir 728
16. Karnataka 664
17. Andhra Pradesh 560
18. Chhattisgarh 496
19. Tamil Nadu 456
20. Uttarakhand 424
21. Himachal Pradesh 408
22. Telangana 272
23. Tripura 200
24. Timor-Leste 200
25. Port Moresby 136
26. Manipur 128
27. Dadra and Nagar Haveli 128
28. Unknown 96
29. Nagaland 87
30. Meghalaya 77
31. Honiara 64
32. Sikkim 60
33. Shefa Province 56
34. Arunachal Pradesh 56
35. Puducherry 53
36. Manus Province 48
37. Goa 31
38. New Ireland Province 27
39. Calabarzon 26
40. West Java 25
41. Mizoram 24
42. Central Visayas 23
43. East New Britain Province 21
44. Western Visayas 20
45. Central Luzon 19
46. Metro Manila 16
47. Davao Region 16
48. Cordillera Administrative Region 16
49. Chandigarh 16
50. Central Java 16

Video 2: 15 Biblical Keys to Happiness (Part 1 for the video), by Dr. Bob Thiel (45 seconds)

To watch the video it is available here: Happiness: 15 Biblical Keys — Bible News Prophecy Radio or the BNP Facebook page Bible News Prophecy Radio Reels | Facebook

Shortly after it was uploaded to Facebook, an individual commented “Amen,” followed by several subsequent positive remarks.

Statistics:

Reach: 12,170

Video plays: 6,105

Link clicks: 1,432

Cost per click: $0.01

Post Engagement: 3,178

Location Reach:

1. Uttar Pradesh 856
2. West Bengal 808
3. Timor-Leste 724
4. Maharashtra 584
5. Port Moresby 568
6. Shefa Province 504
7. Assam 420
8. Honiara 376
9. Gujarat 364
10. Delhi 316
11. Davao Region 300
12. Bihar 284
13. Jharkhand 268
14. Calabarzon 256
15. Odisha 224
16. Central Luzon 220
17. Soccsksargen 212
18. Zamboanga Peninsula 204
19. Metro Manila 196
20. Karnataka 184
21. Jammu and Kashmir 184
22. Madhya Pradesh 176
23. Rajasthan 172
24. Western Visayas 168
25. Northern Mindanao 168
26. Central Visayas 168
27. Tamil Nadu 164
28. Haryana 144
29. Chhattisgarh 144
30. Kerala 132
31. Punjab region 128
32. Himachal Pradesh 124
33. Manus Province 116
34. Mimaropa 113
35. Cagayan Valley 112
36. Morobe Province 104
37. Andhra Pradesh 92
38. Bicol Region 88
39. Unknown 76
40. Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao 76
41. Uttarakhand 72
42. Ilocos Region 72
43. Telangana 68
44. Eastern Visayas 68
45. Sanma Province 59
46. West Java 56
47. Manipur 56
48. New Ireland Province 55
49. East New Britain Province 48
50. Tripura 44

Total overall BNP Radio Facebook page statistics for the last 60 days:

Reach: 79, 314

Views: 73,841

Post Engagement: 10,945

Link Clicks: 2,527

Bible News Prophecy Radio Tik Tok Page

Third Video for TikTok: Faith & Increasing It, by Dr. Bob Thiel (30secs)

Available on our TikTok page biblenewsprophecyradio (@biblenewsprophecyradio) | TikTok or on the radio website: Faith and Increasing It — Bible News Prophecy Radio

Organic reach from last night:

• Views: 496 (6 hours)
• Likes: some

Promotion reach (duration for 24hrs):

• Views: 6,013 (first 12hrs approx.)
• Likes: 228

The increase in link clicks has boosted the site’s traffic flow, and it is primarily Gentile nations. At a much later date, I will provide an update BNP radio station stream and Flipboard. I hope you are all okay with this and have time to watch the short videos and that you enjoy them. I plan to create more short videos (30secs), I am thinking of the audio books, and the radio station.  As the promotional testing results provide insights into what works for different platforms and audiences.

I attached the Youth Audio Bible Lessons cover that was shared across social media.

Kind regards,

Shirley Gestro

In the end time, we are to work to, “turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers” (Malachi 4:6) and many are helping to support that.

Baptisms in Malawi

Sosten Libungwa sent the following:

Church greetings,I hope you returned safely back from the trip,in Thailand was a long trip,but great that the Lord God took you back all you three,today we conducted baptism,I have been teaching thise people over 5 months,they are good people,it’s a small church as you can see,8 candidates baptised,some were not able to come who are coming far from the church due to heavy rains,God bless you,…,this is Sosten reporting.

It is great that so many are responding. Remember that Jesus said, “there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents” (Luke 15:10).

Funeral of Edith Bivens

Edith Bivens

Steve Dupuie sent the following:

Tuesday I attended the Edith’s funeral in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I met her daughter, April, her family and her friends. They are, one and all, a tribute to the influence Edith had on the people around her.

It was my honor and privilege to be asked to speak as a representative of CCOG. I spoke about how God views death as being asleep and how Edith will be raised from that sleep in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. I finished with the verse on “there will be no more death…”

But I think the greatest tribute to Edith, and one that Edith would appreciate, came from a family friend who was giving a eulogy. Many of Edith’s younger friends called her “Mama Edith”. She talked about four “f”s. One of the f’s was “faithful”. Another was “friends”. And she spoke about how important these values were to Edith. She then spoke about “family”.  She talked about all the events that took place within a family and how important Edith was to all those events. As she was recalling the events she came to holidays.

She said “and there were the holidays… well Mama Edith wasn’t too big on those.” It’s very well possible that God and I were both smiling.

Here is a text that April sent me today.

Please tell everyone at CCOG that I appreciate their prayers and love they showed my mother.

Remember also that the Bible teaches:

15 Precious in the sight of the Lord
Is the death of His saints. (Psalm 116:15)

Building in South Sudan

Deacon Koang Deng sent the following photo and report:

Dear Dr. Bob:

Greetings to you this evening.

This is the picture of our building stand there where the community in that area (South Sudan) selected to build on.

Only the small part remains to be finished

Thanks you all for doing this for our brothers.

Best regards,

Koang.

Actually, the members did pretty much all the work. What we have done from the USA is to send funds for some of the building materials.

Suggested Sabbath Day Services