Dear Brethren and Co-Workers in Christ:
Post Feast of Tabernacles greetings from the Five Cities region of California.
My wife Joyce and I held service in Belgrade, Serbia, Amsterdam and Gouda in the Netherlands, as well as in Aurora, Illinois. We were on 8 flights each and are glad we have no more flights this month. This week’s recommended sermonette (What is the Fate of Christians in Europe and Elsewhere?) was given in Amsterdam the Sabbath prior to the Feast of Tabernacles.
Here are a couple of photographs:
Aurora, Illinois
Gouda, Netherlands
(To see a photograph from Serbia, click on the following Letter to the Brethren: October 13, 2016.)
Despite airline and other travel issues, the trips went we and we were able to meet brethren from 4 countries in the three I gave sermons at.
Richard Close sent in the following report about the Canadian site:
We enjoyed a fantastic Feast in New Brunswick.
Plus, Steve Dupuie sent the following photograph of the attendees in Canada:
St. Andrews, New Brunswick, Canada
We were able to meet the Canadian brethren last year.
Koang Deng sent the following from Ethiopia:
Dear Pastor
This is a day we finish the Feasts of this year.
Our GOD blessed us.
koang deng
While we have not gotten full reports from all of the festival locati0ns, we have included many we received in this week’s Letter to the Brethren.
Malawi and Mozambique Feast Reports
Sosten Libungwa sent the following report from Malawi:
Dear pastor Dr Bob,
Greetings after the feast of Tabernacle,in Malawi many came to
attend,the people from Mozambique arrived before the sun set of 16
October 2016 and the people from Zomba arrived at 2pm of the same
Saturday,we have also received brethren from Balaka district which
joined ccog before one month for the feast,we provide funds also for
them to come of which they did,they were ten of them,that is great,the
minibus you see are the people from Zomba district they came about 25
of them,the people from Mozambique came 33 of them,Migowi Church were
55 of them,Namangale Church were 40 of them,Mulomba were 45 of them
plus other interested groups,how good it was to keep this feast thank
you very much for the support,you can see the banner written Malawi
feast of Tabernacle in the front of pulpit ,other people put on
T-Shirts written feast of Tabernacle in the front and at the back
written Continuing Church of God Malawi,brother Tembo from Mzuzu came
and attend only for one day because his wife was not feeling well then
he went back to care his wife but I discovered that he is the pastor
of Church of God 7th day for more than 30 years.thank you very much.Sosten
Albert Tembo has been a subscriber to our magazine for some time and finally was able to meet Sosten Libungwa and others in the CCOG at the Feast of Tabernacles. He sent me the following report:
Dear Dr. Bob Thiel
Greetings in the precious name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
It was really good to meet Brother Sosten Libungwe at Migowi in Phalombe here in Malawi. It was a long journey by bus from Mzuzu to Migowi. I was exceedingly happy to be with the brethren at the feast of Tabernacles. It was unfortunate that I could not complete the celebration with the brethren because of my wife’s sudden illness in Mzuzu.
My son who was very excited to hear about the celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles at Migowi did not make it to the site due to illness that be fell him. He has, however read much about the Feasts of the Lord. …
May God richly bless you and the great work that you do.
Yours in Christ,
Albert Adamson Tembo
This was the first year that CCOG had a site in Malawi. Last year, Sosten Libungwa went to Kenya to observe his first Feast of Tabernacles as well as to learn how to try to conduct one in Africa.
Sosten Libungwa sent lots of photos. Here are three of them:
Baptism and Feast Report from New Zealand
John Hickey sent me the following report from New Zealand:
HI Bob
Good News!!! I am pleased to report God has added a new member to His Family. Our daughter Danielle Gestro was baptized on Sunday morning by her Grandad Solomona Leaana and myself.
We are all home safely once again from the Feast of Tabernacles. While you in the northern hemisphere were having a Fall Feast we here in the southern were enjoying our Springtime. The weather we had was great apart from a couple of days of showers. The sun was out to display all the blossoms on the trees and the springtime flowers, the view was beautiful and peaceful.
Our Feast of Tabernacles in NZ was a Spiritually wonderful time for us all, we appreciate all the Spiritual food our Father has inspired you our Leader and our Brethren to teach us, it has been a spiritually uplifting time. We enjoyed fellowship, discussing sermons and other biblical topics. We enjoyed participating in various activities together from seeing lions being fed to creative glass sculptures, sharing many meals together and listening to Sharon’s special music and praising God with psalms with Sharon’s provision of hymn music. Despite technical challenges with our sound system we still managed to hear all the Sermon messages. It has been a time of challenges, rejoicing, drawing closer to God and drawing closer together to be of one mind in unity.
We look forward to the fruition of God’s master plan showing His love, the establishment of His Kingdom on earth and an opportunity of salvation for all. What a blessed time it will be.
With Brotherly Love
John
Glad it basically went well there. We also had a baptism in Aurora, Illinois that I performed. As well as some technical difficulties in recording.
Here is a photo from New Zealand:
Kenya Feast Reports
Ondigo Ochieng sent the following report from Kenya:
Dear Dr Bob,Glad to inform you that we enjoyed the wonderful FoT and the Last Great Day!Many people from outside of the CCOG were pleased to attend and some have received a calling from God through the uplifting sermons and sermonettes.May God richly bless you for the support and the materials like the BNP magazines.God bless pastor Evans for his outgoing concern and love he displayed during the feast!Best regardsOndigo Ochieng.
Received the following two reports about the CCOG Feast site in Bomet, Kenya:
We celebrated the feast well with the church members. 200 members attended the feast. …The church members were very grateful and waiting for another feast coming next year by God’s willing.
Thank you Dr. BOB THIEL for your support you gave us.
erik koech
Here is our one week feast of tabernacles at bomet,it began on sunday
16th octomber when we open out meeting with prayers.we had over 30
members who attendet on the first day.on monday more people attended
and we had morning and evening lesson .we continued doing the same
until24th octomber,the years feast was actualy more different from
last years because of financial reason. thank you.pastor tomas koskey.
We also received the following report from Rift Valley, Kenya:
I am greeting you in the Name of Messiah.We successfully did feast of Tabernacle in RiftValley and we were blessed.The feast was full of Congregation it was held on Chilani church In Trasnsmara it was more than 400 people attended and another one in Mau and Bomet Church also.
The Feast Held in Mau Church was the first one to be Held in the Area and the Congregation give thanks to Pastor Ochieng as they have been traveling the long distance to meet the Feast of Tabernacle.
The church in Chilani was the second to be held and the congregation was full. The villagers also attended the Feast, milk was the required commodity due to lactating mothers who attended the Feast because they don’t eat meat as others.We appreciate the presence of Pastor Ochieng who gave us money to buy a slaughtered bull. Due to large congregation the bull was of egual to a chicken’s meat.The season in Transmara is now a Sunny there is no vegetables and thanks to Christians who also Contribute their little they have to support the Feast.We had a lot of Visitors who came as far as Nakuru who make to Reach the wonderful occasion.We had the following local Churches;1. Takitech2.Motosiet3.Chebunyo4.kapolechong5.Chialni.All converge in one place the witness the Feast of Tabernacle.The hall we have not enough to accommodate all the brethren so we have to exclude youths. We therefore urge to build for us big hall in Chilani.God Bless YourJOSEAH KIPNGETICH
Here are a couple of photos from the Rift Valley site”
Philippines Feast Update
Anthony Flavell sent in some clarification about the Feast in the Philippines. Because of travel problems, there were seven meeting in Cagayan De Oro and 11-12 meeting in in Silay City (Bacolod).
Here is a photo he sent of five people at Cagayan De Oro:
Reached nearly 4,000,000 Computers in September 2016
Google reported that our campaign with them reached 3,739,157 computers last month. When this is combined with what cogwriter.com and the CCOG websites have reached, this means nearly 4,000,000 computers received information about the truth in September of 2016. This Google reach is up from last month. We are diligently working to fulfill Matthew 24:14 and Matthew 28:19-20.
World News Items
In Europe, there have been problems with a trade agreement in Canada, but the Europeans still expect to get a deal (see CETA: To be or not to be? Or is that the wrong question? and CETA looks to be a go). Irrespective of what happens with Ceta, Europe will be able to pull off more trade agreements. Because of the Brexit and problems with TTIP, etc. we may see closer cooperation between Canada, the USA, UK, Australia, and New Zealand.
The US presidential contest continues with both major candidates often taking positions that ignore biblical prophecies (see, for example, Trump and Clinton proposals on terrorism will not work). Biblical prophecies will come to pass, and this is something political leaders of all sorts should take more seriously than they do.
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 many who receive this letter via email will be a recorded one. The one suggested for this week is: What is the Fate of Christians in Europe and Elsewhere? 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: Halloween: Are there 7 reasons for Christians to celebrate it? 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 new 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.
Concluding Comments
God’s feasts for 2016 are now past. Hopefully, you learned, changed, and benefited from observing them.
The Apostle Paul wrote:
12 Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. 13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:12-14)
Brethren, we are now entering the season where Satan pushes his ‘substitutes’ to God’s Holy Days. Like the Apostle Paul, ‘press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus’ and not the downward pull of Satan’s demonic holidays.
Sincerely,
Bob Thiel
Pastor and Overseer