Letter to the Brethren: February 27, 2020

Dear Brethren and Co-Workers in Christ:

Greetings from the Five Cities region of California.

We have been looking into additional ways to get our biblical teachings out to different ones around the world.

One to report about now is that on Tuesday we used a service to get the first chapter of our book Universal OFFER of Salvation, Apokatastasis: Can God save the lost in an age to come? Hundreds of scriptures reveal God’s plan of salvation to research oriented individuals. We will see how this works as we have other items that this may be helpful for.

Haiti Matters

A couple of days ago, Gisele Haddon sent an email about how rough the situation in Haiti has become:

Dr. Thiel this is the latest news from Haiti. There is so much suffering. They also kidnap people for money. From all walks of life. Women they rape. I really feel for our brethren there. They seem to stay safe amid all the evil. Will keep you posted. Gisele

Watch “Haiti gunfight: Protesting police exchange fire with army” on YouTube https://youtu.be/MGjxqchilzQ

Please keep Haiti in your prayers. We had hoped that the situation in Haiti would have improved long before now, but it has been a full year of mayhem that has been preventing them from actually meeting with the brethren there.

Africa Matters

Evangelist Evans Ochieng sent the following emails last Saturday evening:

Pastor Dr Bob,

Greetings from Kenya.

I’m happy to inform you that the visitation in Kenya was wonderful.

Spiritual inspiration.  Terry Nelson has done a perfect work in Kenya. It is good for him to have another trip in Kenya. People were very happy and I’m getting many calls from every congregation telling me to bring Terry back to Kenya during the Feast of Tabernacles.  I hope he will explain more about Kenya. He traveled almost all over Kenya. He was loved by all brethren in Kenya. May GOD give him more strength and courage to do a lot.  The journey was perfect and now we are back to Nairobi to prepare for our trips to Malawi tomorrow. Pray for the journey and the work. Without GOD this work can’t move and since this is the end time CHURCH and it’s massage. GOD is protecting his church and open the doors for the massage of the gospel of the kingdom of God to reach the poor and the rich, small and strong, the foolish and the wise. Pray for the work in Africa.

Evans

Pastor Dr Bob,

Greetings from Kenya.

We will go to Malawi and Mozambique tomorrow for one week and back in Kenya on 1st March. I have finished all the funds that I had. I’m asking you to put for me funds in my account before 1st March. I want to print some magazines when I reach in Nairobi on 1st before before  I go home. Also we shall have committee meeting on 8 March for all congregations in Kenya.

Also I want to inform you that send me the book entitled WHY CONTINUING IS DIFFERENT FROM PROTESTANTS. I want to print it more to fit people.

Evans

While it is NOT time to print more of the draft book, Hope of Salvation: How the Continuing Church of God differs from most Protestants, the reason that we rushed and printed a few draft copies was that I felt that people in Africa needed it. When we get the final version ready, we plan to send that to print in Nairobi, hopefully by the end of the year.

Last week, we mentioned that Nyakach was probably the poorest congregation we have in Kenya. Bradox Ochieng sent the following photo showing some of the food we provided a few days ago:

Nyakach, Kenya

Here is a photo in Kenya at a stop on the way to Malawi:

Asher and Andre Nelson in front of zebras in Kenya

Deacon Radson Mulozowa sent in the following report on Sunday:

Greetings from Lilongwe Malawi. Thanks for the funds you sent. Let me report that Terry Nelson and the sons together with Evans has arrived at 4pm. Because they were tired I had to book accommodation in Lilongwe … as they wanted a hotel with Wi-Fi.

Tomorrow morning we will continue our trip to Mwanza.

Evangelist Evans Ochieng sent the following report on Tuesday:

Pastor Dr Bob,

Greetings from Malawi.

We arrived Malawi safe. We had a wonderful meeting in Mwanza yesterday. Terry touched more about the differences between Continuing Church of God and Protestants. We will visit another congregation tomorrow called Jenjeti.

I have noticed many good fruits.

Evans.

Today, Pastor Tiongok Sawek sent the following report and photographs:

 REPORT FROM NORTH RIFT KENYA

Hello and receive greetings in Christ Jesus. our journey to Njoro-Naswet went on very well. were received by the Pastor William Kirui and elder David Cheruiyot together with church leaders of Molo.

The meeting was blessed as we had several visitors and brethren who turn up for the meeting. The visitors were welcomed by the Evangelist Ochieng, thereafter Terry Nelson had a chance to preach over the congregation. Indeed the brethrens felt happy and blessed. Thereafter after i was given opportunity to say thanks and the visitors later leave to Nairobi.

In addition, members from Rongai were requesting for our visit and other regions who never had opportunity to encounter/meet with the visitors.

Lastly, members from Kitale have welcome us for a church opening ceremony before the passover begins.

Attach with this are few photos we managed to take in Njoro and Molo.

May God bless you.

Regards,

Pastor Sawek

On Wednesday, Terry Nelson sent the following email:

Hi Dr Thiel; everything is going good here; I couldn’t email you sooner as we didn’t have internet: we arrived in Malawi on Sunday as planned; … Kenya has great potential for incredible wealth via fishing and chicken farming, I’m glad I came down here, I believe God will use the wealth down here to jump start the work greatly in a years time or less.   I will update you with my personal plans later today when I  arrive at the hotel in Mulanje, Malawi.  Evan’s is taking very good care of us, he is a true man of God, and cares greatly for the people down here. I’ll contact you later today.  Terry

For his later contact, he sent the following emails as well as links to various photographs:

Hi Dr Thiel, finally have good internet service today: Before arriving in Malawi, visited the Kehancha and Njoro congregations in Kenya; in Kehancha we had a nice visit, there Hall there is very nice with all electrical lighting and outlets, they were very happy to see us; I met our local representative there; the ladies of the church fixed us a fine lunch; on this past Sabbath we visited the Njoro congregation, they also were very excited to see us, they are in the process of building a hall, after services they took us to the plot of land were the new Hall is to be built; I’ve been giving sermons on the importance of tithing and our difference between us and the Protestants and how we our separate from the world, I’ve been talking about the the two books as well.  Next update Malawi

Hi Dr Thiel, arrived in Malawi on Sunday the 23rd; Radson was there to greet us at the airport, his driver and him drove us to a hotel on the outskirts of Lilongwe, we stayed there for the night; next morning on the 24th, we headed out to the Mwanza congregation; they were very excited to see us; the service went well; I mainly spoke on the importantance of tithing and our difference from the Protestants; after the service we were presented with a beautiful painting of there Hall on canvas, with the words Continuing church of God Terry Nelson and also nice fruits and vegetables, I’ll try to send a pic of it, tomorrow, I don’t have it at the moment; today visited the Njenjete congregation; it was very difficult to get there due to road conditions, but we made it, walking part way and crossing a small stream on foot; the congregation was also very excited to see us,. There in the process of rebuilding there Hall, as a storm destroyed it;. We had to have a shorter visit as rain was pending and we didn’t want to get trapped on the road; the service went well; again I touched on the importantance of tithing and our difference from the Protestants also to have faith in the coming persecution of the church;. Tomorrow we will visit the Sunuzi congregation.  We are all doing well, all of you, please pray for the church here in Africa and for there financial and health well being; God bless all of you.  Terry Nelson

Radson Mulozowa, the Nelsons, and Evans Ochieng

 Njoro congregants, Kenya

 Kenhancha congregants, Kenya

Malawi near Manza

 Manza congregants, Malawi

Njenjete congregants, Malawi

Please have Terry Nelson, his sons, and all in Africa in your prayers.

Brighteon and BitChute

Because of censorship concerns, we added additional platforms (channels) for our video messages.

While normally, we get more views on YouTube than the other channels, I noticed this week that the recent sermonette video Wipe Out Humans to Save the Earth? received about 200 more views on Brighteon (see Brighteon Bible News Prophecy) than on YouTube.

Also, we are getting a fair number of sermon views on COGTube sermon channel we have on BitChute.

World News Items

On Tuesday, former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak died. It is possible that this may affected the Middle East and perhaps Iran (see Hosni Mubarak dead: Will Iran believe it is time for the Imam Mahdi?). Speaking of Iran, it has been having problems with the coronavirus (see Coronavirus impacting Europe and Asia: Iranian cleric blames Donald Trump) as have many other nations (see VOA: Trump: US ‘Totally Prepared’ for Coronavirus’ AP: Vexed by how to contain virus, countries take tough steps’ WT: Natural Protection). Jesus said to expect pestilences (Matthew 24:8).

Over in France, there is political change in the wind related to Islam (see Is France’s Macron going to trigger Islamic civil unrest?). Ultimately, we will have unrest in Europe and Islam effectively pushed out.

Also in Europe, the powers that be are working at putting together a massive database on facial recognition that will end up with totalitarian control (see ‘EU poised to create massive transatlantic facial-recognition database, link with US’). This is a prelude to 666 control (cf. Revelation 13:16-18). Our recommended sermonette for this week (watchFacial Recognition and Christian Persecution?) deal with that.

In the USA, events related to the presidential primaries is often in the news. Interestingly, the German press mentioned “America’s miserable finances” and stated that neither Donald Trump or most of the Democratic candidates were willing to truly reduce USA debt (see VOA: Democratic Presidential Candidates Say Front-Runner Sanders Can’t Beat Trump; DW: America’s massive debt load a no-show on the campaign trail). The Bible teaches that in the appointed time of the end (Habakkuk 2:2-3), the highly indebted will be taken over and essentially be made slaves (Habakkuk 2:6-8)–as the USA is the most indebted nation of all time, this looks to be a prophecy about the end of the USA. And as the German press pointed out, political leaders of the USA do not seem to consider that the debt is an important enough problem to deal with. But it will be dealt with–and in a way that Americans will regret (Habakkuk 2:6-8; Daniel 11:39).

Suggested Sabbath Service

Here is a suggested Sabbath service for this week:

• 2-3 hymns (our songbook, The Bible Hymnal, contains the materials from the 1974 Bible Hymnal from the old WCG with new covers, plus ten additional hymns; there is also some Choral Accompaniment online).
• Opening prayer.
• Sermonette, which for most who receive this letter via email will be a recorded one. The one suggested for this week is: Facial Recognition and Christian Persecution? Other sermonettes are available at the Bible News Prophecy channel.
• Announcements (if any; though for many it will be this letter) and one hymn.
• Sermon, which for most who receive this letter via email will be a recorded one. The one suggested for this week is: Were Ancient Hebrews Black? What About Jesus? Other sermons are also available at the ContinuingCOG channel.
• Final hymn.
• Closing prayer.

Note: If you have a slow internet connection, you can watch these by starting the video, then below it (and towards the right) look for an outline of a gear–if you click on that, it will allow the YouTube video to be played with lower video quality, but at least it will not stop often–you can select a quality as low as 144p. If your internet connection is still too slow (as my home one is) and/or you prefer audio messages to audio-visuals ones, go to the YouTube link for the message, click on SHOW MORE related to the description. You will then see something that says, “Download MP3.” Below that is a link to an MP3 file. Most computers (and even some cellular telephones) will allow MP3 files to be downloaded and played. This is an option we have made available (but we are also looking into ways to improve that as well)–and, of course, we have written article options. Some people have found that if their internet connections are not fast enough, that they can simply listen to the messages that are found at the Bible News Prophecy online radio channel.

IN CASE YOU DO NOT RECEIVE A ‘LETTER TO THE BRETHREN’ FOR ANY WEEK, REMEMBER THAT THERE ARE MANY SERMON MESSAGES ON THE ContinuingCOG channel AND MANY SERMONETTE MESSAGES ON THE Bible News Prophecy channel. There are also some messages at the CCOGAfrica channel.

Concluding Comments

The Apostle Paul was inspired to write:

12 that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

14 For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, 15 having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, 16 and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. 17 And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. 18 For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.

19 Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, 22 in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. (Ephesians 2:12-22)

Brethren, we who also had no hope, do have a real and abiding hope. Jesus is our peace and the chief cornerstone of our church. We are to grow together with His aid.