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.
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.
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:
Metro Manila 2316
Central Division 2149
Calabarzon 1645
Central Visayas 1422
Davao Region 1238
Western Visayas 1158
Central Luzon 1038
Port Moresby 863
Northern Mindanao 855
Shefa Province 695
Maharashtra 631
Eastern Visayas 599
Ilocos Region 575
Western Division 567
Soccsksargen 511
Uttar Pradesh 503
Honiara 495
Cordillera Administrative Region 487
Bicol Region 487
Zamboanga Peninsula 471
Cagayan Valley 439
Caraga 431
West Bengal 423
Karnataka 423
Delhi 351
Timor-Leste 328
Tamil Nadu 328
Mimaropa 320
West Java 283
Kerala 240
Jammu and Kashmir 240
Andhra Pradesh 240
Samoa 232
Assam 232
Jakarta 224
Telangana 216
Gujarat 192
Odisha 144
Unknown 128
Punjab region 128
Bihar 128
North Sulawesi 120
North Sumatra 112
Tongatapu 104
Rajasthan 104
Oro Province 104
Meghalaya 104
Madhya Pradesh 104
Morobe Province 96
Haryana 96
For 5 days, 2 videos were promoted on Facebook with a “Learn More” button linking to the related item.
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
Here is a suggested Sabbath day service for our scattered brethren and other interested people:
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).
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 mobile 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. There are also messages in the Spanish language at the CDLIDDSermones channel.
In case one or more of our video channels are unavailable, down, restricted, or ?, understand that we are on multiple platforms.
For sermons in English:
ContinuingCOG YouTube channel. Dr. Thiel has produced video sermons for this channel.
Bible News Prophecy radio. This is an audio version of the Bible News Prophecy videos on one of our internet stations as well as our radio broadcasts in English. The BibleNewsProphecy.net website also has information about our international radio presence for Europe, Asia, and North America. That page is also available as a mobile app.
Bible News Prophecy International radio. This has links to our non-English language online radio station as well as materials in multiple languages.
US President Trump upset many in the world related to his proposal to remove all the Palestinians from Gaza (see Gaza, Trump’s thoughts, and Hamas)–even IF they were all to leave, the Bible shows that they would be back (Jeremiah 25:17-29).
Donald Trump has again upset the Iranians (see Iran concerned about Donald Trump and considering lifting FATWA against use of nuclear weapons). Iran may one day, relatively soon, cause great damage to Jerusalem (Isaiah 22:9). Donald Trump even made a comment that Ukraine may be Russian someday (see Donald Trump said that Ukraine “may be Russian someday”)–and the US basically is taking the position that to end the conflict there, Ukraine will have to agree to lose territory. And the Bible shows that at least some of Ukraine (and possibly all of it) will one day support Russia militarily (cf. Jeremiah 51:11, 28).
1 And seeing the multitudes, He went up on a mountain, and when He was seated His disciples came to Him. 2 Then He opened His mouth and taught them, saying:
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4 Blessed are those who mourn, For they shall be comforted. 5 Blessed are the meek, For they shall inherit the earth. 6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, For they shall be filled. 7 Blessed are the merciful, For they shall obtain mercy. 8 Blessed are the pure in heart, For they shall see God. 9 Blessed are the peacemakers, For they shall be called sons of God. 10 Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. 12 Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
(Matthew 5:1-12)
Brethren, we are to do good, despite how others will treat us or how they may speak badly about us.
