Letter to the Brethren: September 8, 2016

Dear Brethren and Co-Workers in Christ:

Greetings from our office in Grover Beach, California.

Spent a lot of time working on prophetic and proclamation matters as well as preparing for the upcoming Feast of Tabernacles.

Feast of Tabernacles

The Feast of Tabernacles will be here next month, and we have been trying to work on a variety of details, related to a variety of sites all around the world.

We sent about a dozen sermon DVDs and music CDs each to the Philippines (Oscar Meidavilla), Kenya (Evans Ochieng), Ghana (Samuel Ofosu), Ethiopia (Koang Deng), and Malawi (Sosten Libungwa) to help with the Fall Holy Days.

For more information on the locations of the Feast of Tabernacles’ site this year, check out the link: Feast of Tabernacles’ Sites for 2016.

Malawi Trip

Pastor Evans Ochieng sent the following related to his trip to Malawi:

Pastor Dr Bob,

Greetings from Malawi.

It was a wonderful time in Malawi. I had a safe journey to Malawi,even though it was a little bit long because our flight landed in Ethiopia first and after that is when we fly to Malawi. The weather was smart. I was received by Three brethren from Malawi. Our in charge in Malawi, brother Sosten, brother Juberg and brother Bester. I reached when I was tired because after landing in Malawi, I took another 5 hours in a bus for us to reach in Migowi.

The next day early in the morning we traveled to go Chisuguru to meet the people who decided to come out from wisdom church under pastor Juberg. I gave a sermon that lasted 2 hours. It was little bit long simply because I was touching many areas. I also touched church history and the differences between church of God and other denominations. And why now (continuing church of God). The sermon was good that made many people to believe fully in God and know that continuing church of God is doing a powerful work at this time.

Here is the list of those 12 people who came out from Wisdom Church to join CONTINUING CHURCH OF GOD:
PASTOR B. JUBERG

REBECA JUBERG

SAMUEL

KAPENI

GIFT

MVULA FANNY

CHISOWIRE FANNY

MAI CHISOWIRE

JENIPHY CHISOWIRE

KHUSE

HELEN KHUSE

KAMPENY.

CHILDREN

BONIFACE

YAMIKAM

MANUEL

HAPPY

WTNES

JOE MVULA

MADALISO

I also met pastor Bausen who left church of Christ to join CONTINUING CHURCH OF GOD. He left Church of Christ with the total of 22 people who joined CCOG.

On Sabbath we kept Sabbath in Migowi with 50 people including pastor Matiya from Mozambique and his church member who accompany him. This is a very serious pastor who need all the truth. I was very happy with him because he is really taking his time to listen for the truth. he is very polite. They have a problem in English. They don’t understand English. They can only speak Chechewa and Portuguese. So they requested that if the church can send to them Magazines and books in Portuguese language so that they can understand things well. I told them that I will find out from the church if we have translation in Portuguese that we can send to them. Their national language is Portuguese. Please pastor if there is translation in that Language, help them. We have 33 people in Mozambique.

I met other pastors who came to keep Sabbath with us.These include pastor Pangani and pastor chikwama. They were surprised to hear that the kingdom of God is coming on earth.

Actually the meeting was very good.

I will travel back Kenya today. I will leave Malawi at 3:27 pm and land in Kenya at 7:20 am+1 day.

Since the feast of Tabernacles is coming near I am planing to book my ticket to Ghana when I am in Nairobi before I travel back home in Ndhiwa. I want travel to Ghana on 15th September 2016 so that I can come back to prepare for the feast. We will have  Four feast sites in Kenya and one in Tanzania. Our feast site in Tanzania is almost finished. This year we shall have our own site in Tanzania. The four feast sites in Kenya are Ndhiwa, Bomet, Transmara Chilani and Mau.

Pray for me to have safe journey back.

Evans.

Sosten Libungwa, our leader in Malawi, sent the following:

About a man called Radson Mulozowa Evans talk with him and all is fine. Now am on the way with Evans to the airport and by this afternoon shall travel to Kenya. Please we need your prayers. Sosten

Note: The ‘Wisdom Church of God’ listed above is NOT related to one in the USA.

Anyway, after getting Sosten Libungwa’s report, I wrote him back and asked for some additional clarification in terms of congregations and members. Here is what he sent:

Dear pastor Dr Bob,
Greetings.

In Malawi we have four Churches:

1 Migowi Church led by Sosten Libungwa,number of people 40.
2 Chisugulu Church led by brother Juberg number of people 18.
3 Jali Church led by Hosea Baulen,number of people 25.
4 Namangale Church led by again Hosea Baulen number of
people 32.

Mozambique 1 Duya Church led by brother Matiya number of
people 33.

Nakhongolo Church though it is not fully CCOG but very
interested led by Luice Mulelemba number of People 59.

More Churches in Malawi are interested and I have not include those Churches.

Sosten

We are pleased that we have had such growth in Malawi and Mozambique.

Africa Trips

Pastor Evans Ochieng is preparing to go to Ghana later this month.  Those in Ethiopia also hoped that he would be able to visit, but Koang Deng (of Ethiopia) informed me that traveling the roads is currently not safe there, so that trip will be delayed.

Please keep Africa and Pastor Ochieng in your prayers.

World News Items

The world is changing, and many of the changes are not good. A Canadian comic was fined $42,000 for telling a joke, whereas a judge in Wyoming was fined $40,000 because she said her religious beliefs do not allow her to perform marriages between homosexuals, even though her job does not require she perform marriages (see Canadian fined $42,000 for telling a joke; Wyoming judge fined for $40,000 for not endorsing ‘same-sex marriage’). Freedom of speech and freedom of religious speech is increasingly being lost in North America.  We are getting closer to the coming ‘famine of the word’ that the prophet Amos wrote about (cf. Amos 8:11-12).

Germany is starting to rise up and make its global aspirations known (see ‘Germany has explicitly stated its aspirations to play a role as a world power’: This will NOT save Australia!). This will not end well for the USA or its Anglo-Saxon descended allies (cf. Daniel 11:39; Isaiah 10:5-12; Jeremiah 30:7).

Pope Francis declared the Albanian nun, commonly called ‘Mother Teresa’ a Roman Catholic saint on Sunday (see ‘Mother Teresa’ canonized as a ‘Catholic saint,’ but she certainly was not a biblical one!). After I made a post explaining that Teresa was not a biblical saint, a few people wrote and expressed their disagreement. This helps show that we are reaching people with the truth, who even when they plainly see it before their eyes still cannot accept it. This is part of why Jesus said that the true Gospel of the Kingdom of God would be preached to the world as a witness (Matthew 24:14). Many do not want to accept the truth of God.

Over in Asia, the USA and China agreed to an international environmental treaty (see China and Barack Obama sign off to accept UN’s COP21 climate agreement for ‘wellbeing of mankind’). International agreements related to controlling ‘buying and selling’ (cf. Revelation 13:16-18) were made that the G20 conference in China (see G20: China looking for economic dominance and the world controlling ‘buying and selling’). China, and many in the international community, are pushing to replace the USA’s dollar as the world’s reserve currency and even secular sources see more demise of the USA’s dollar (see G20, SDR, China, & JR’s ‘Timetable for the Dollar’s Demise’).

Over in the USA, its election has many concerned. Some believe that chaos will result no matter who wins the election (see ‘Chaos will erupt across America in less than 100 days… no matter who wins the election’). No matter who wins, I expect to see more civil unrest in the USA.

Others have a different view. Because of positions of the Obama Administration and candidate Hillary Clinton, a Jewish rabbi called Donald Trump “America’s messiah” (see Rabbi calls Donald Trump ‘America’s messiah,’ but is he?). America’s Messiah, as well as the for the rest of the world, is Jesus the Christ. It is Jesus, the Lamb of God, that takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29), not an American politician. What the USA needs is national repentance, the return of Jesus, and the establishment of the Kingdom of God.

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: Sanhedrin pushing animal sacrifices. 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: Matthew 19-20: Transgender? Divorce? Purgatory? The first shall be last? 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

King David of Israel proclaimed this in a psalm:

8 Oh, give thanks to the Lord!
Call upon His name;
Make known His deeds among the peoples!
9 Sing to Him, sing psalms to Him;
Talk of all His wondrous works!
10 Glory in His holy name;
Let the hearts of those rejoice who seek the Lord!
11 Seek the Lord and His strength;
Seek His face evermore! (1 Chronicles 16:8-11)

Brethren, let’s be thankful and continue to make God’s deed known as we work to fulfill Matthew 24:14 and Matthew 28:19-20.

Sincerely,

Bob Thiel
Pastor and Overseer