Warm greetings from Charlotte,
Mr. and Mrs. Richard Ames are in Barbados for some much-needed rest and relaxation. Also, while there, they will be in touch with the brethren and keep two Sabbaths with them. Mr. and Mrs. Dibar Apartian are in the Los Angeles area spending time with family, especially their grandson! I hope they are also getting some rest.
I drove down to Mobile, Alabama, last Friday to visit with Mr. and Mrs. Dan Hall and the Pensacola congregation. We had 45 in attendance for Sabbath services which included our brethren from Ocean City. After services, we all gathered for a meal in a private room in a Chinese restaurant. It was invigorating to visit and fellowship with so many happy, upbeat people! Mr. John Burquist was able to attend Church services. He is one of our Elders in the Mobile area and has been ill for some time now. It was great to see him again. One of the most profitable parts of this trip was getting some quality visiting and Church planning time with Mr. and Mrs. Dan Hall. He is the Area Pastor there, and we were together Saturday night and then again Sunday morning before I drove back home. Good trip, great people, happy congregations. That's the way we like it!
CHURCH ADMINISTRATION
Mr. Mike Elertson reports this healing: Recently, a new Prospective Member was suffering with thrombophelibitis. Basically, this is a condition of infected veins and is very painful. The doctors told her she would suffer with this condition for at least one year. Mr. James Wells anointed her and she was healed within 2-3 days. What a blessing!
Mr. Ben Whitfield reports: The brethren in our area seem to be strong in faith and courage as they press on supporting God's Work through the leadership of Jesus Christ and His Church, the Living Church of God, during this present age. The weekly telecast is generating good responses in Wyoming and we have three (3) new prospective members attending with us in Casper on a regular basis as a direct result of the telecast. A family of 5 from Cheyenne is attending in Wheatland. The telecast is imperative for Church development as we spread the gospel…Wyoming is but a small proof of that model developed years ago by Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong. We're seeing positive growth in our area.
Mr. Rod McNair reports on the winter out west: Last Sabbath we cancelled services in Reno for the third time this winter. Very unusual—usually Reno only gets a couple of inches of snow and it is gone soon. They don't have the equipment to deal with bucket loads of snow. News reports have said that Reno has not gotten this much snow since 1916. They got about a foot last week, and were expected to get another foot Monday night. Certainly this will help with the reservoirs and aquifers, but it makes for dangerous driving. I-80 was closed off and on all weekend. I stayed in Sacramento for services and Spokesman Club.
New Orleans Singles Weekend
Attention all singles: How would you like to get away and be with singles of like mind in the Big Easy? The New Orleans area will be hosting a Singles Weekend, starting on Thursday March 24 and ending on Sunday March 27. All singles, ages 18 and up, are invited to attend. The event will include a trip to the famous Audubon Zoo, a river boat cruise down the Mississippi River, a visit to the Aquarium of the Americas, a Bible study, Sabbath services and a semi-formal dance. Bring your appetite, because there will be lots of fantastic Cajun cuisine! The cost of this event is $80, which includes all events and meals with the exception of lunch on Friday. Accommodations are available at a local hotel, which includes a deluxe continental breakfast, for a special group rate. We hope everyone can attend! For more information, please contact Exie Howell at [email protected] or by phone at 504-818-2381; or contact Mr. Rod Reynolds at [email protected] or by phone at 318-346-1471. You can also visit the Louisiana congregations' Web site at www.louisiana-lcg.org for further details on this event.
Congregational Audio/Video Department
Thanks to all the Video Recipients and DVD operators who have so far returned the questionnaire sent out last month. We would still like to hear from everyone. To date we have received 46 forms. Thirty-five rate the DVD quality as "excellent." Ten wrote that they were of "better-than-good" quality and only one wrote "slightly-less-than-good." Very few problems were reported.
The problems mentioned on some of the forms is that the voice and picture are sometimes out of sync. Since this was mentioned only a few times, perhaps trying a DVD player head cleaner would help in these cases or a better player may be needed. The Congregational Audio/Video Department (C.A.V.) is also about to receive a new computer and editing system to replace our present five-year-old equipment and software. Quality control procedures are now in place at each step of the editing and duplication process, requiring the viewing of the master disc and a sampling of copies before mailing. The C.A.V. crew is constantly working to improve the product sent to you. Thank you for your prayers and cooperation.—Don Davis
TELEVISION DEPARTMENT
It looks like the early indications from AIB in Atlanta and Vision TV in Toronto were right on.
We aired program #204, "The END of the World!" offering the Fourteen Signs (FS) booklet. From Thursday through Sunday, we received 2,564 phone calls, and we are expecting the total to reach 3,064. This is by far the highest response we've ever received for the Fourteen Signs booklet, and the first time ever to receive 3,000-plus responses two weeks in a row.
Last week's program #227, "2005 and Prophecy," offering the Revelation (RU) booklet, is still bringing in heavy residual responses. The count is now up to 3,475, the second highest count ever. This week's count for the FS booklet is the third highest of the 311 TV-program airings broadcast so far.—Wayne Pyle
COMMENTS
The Living Church of God Bible Hymnal is nearing completion at last. We are hoping to turn it over to the printer next week. If all goes well, we should get the finished hymnals back in about 3-5 weeks after that, ready for distribution to the far corners of the Earth. We are planning to enclose a set of CDs with piano accompaniment for all of the songs and another set with background singing. This project has taken longer than we expected. But as we got into it we began to realize that we needed to slow it down to get it right because of all the intricate musical and lyrical details and complexities. Please pray to God for His blessings to be poured out so we can finish up this exciting step forward in His Church and Work. God willing, very soon now, all of us will be coming before Him and following the instructions found in Psalm 100:1-5, "Make a joyful shout to the LORD, all you lands! Serve the LORD with gladness; Come before His presence with singing. Know that the LORD, He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name. For the LORD is good; His mercy is everlasting, And His truth endures to all generations."
Mr. Roderick Meredith recently emphasized how important it is to worship God through singing. Now we will be able to do this by singing from our very own Church Hymnal!
Have a splendid Sabbath,
Charles E. Bryce