Taking the Good News to All Nations?
Dear Good News Magazine Subscriber, In this newsletter I want to share with you exciting news about our efforts to spread the good news in two major areas of the world—the Arabic-speaking areas and the Russian-speaking world! But first, may I share with you a brief personal highlight that helps explain why we are tackling such difficult challenges? And I hope to show you why you should care. This year in Jerusalem! The Church of God celebrated its 1,979th anniversary recently, and I was thrilled to be in Jerusalem with other members from Australia, Canada, England, Israel, Nigeria, Scotland and the United States to celebrate it. Since I am linguistically challenged, I was thankful we all spoke English, but all around us we could hear many other languages. Standing in the lobby I was impressed to hear hotel staff members reply to guests in German, Spanish, English, French, Hebrew and probably other languages! An impossible mission? Why do I mention this? Because Pentecost, the anniversary of the founding of the Church, provides a sobering opportunity to remember the staggering mission Jesus Christ gave His Church. We summarize that biblical mission this way: The mission of the Church of God is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God in all the world, make disciples in all nations and care for those disciples. All the world? All nations? Really? What about North Korea? What about Somalia? What about the Arab world? Jesus Christ might have called the Church a little flock, but He wasn't shy about giving it a big (some might say impossible) mission. Thankfully Jesus understands the challenges. "But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, 'The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest'" (Matthew 9:36-38). And thankfully, "with God nothing will be impossible" (Luke 1:37). Spread the news On the Day of Pentecost in A.D. 31 God provided a spectacular miracle that allowed people from over a dozen areas of the world to hear the apostles speaking in their own languages and dialects, including "Cretans and Arabs" (Acts 2:6-7, 11). Though it would be nice to have a repeat of that miracle today, it seems God generally expects His people to tackle a new language the old-fashioned way—to learn it. If you check the bottom of our Web page, you will see that the United Church of God has made great efforts to translate the message into other languages. But we are sobered by the tremendous number of people around the world who speak languages we do not yet support. That's why we are so excited that we have been blessed recently by the work of translators in the Russian and Arabic languages. Natasha Weatherhead, originally from Belarus, has been translating material for many years on a volunteer basis. Now we were able to hire her to continue the translation and editing work in Russian, as well as help with the subscriber management for Eastern Europe. She started working at the office full time June 1. Welcome, Natasha! And we are also very thankful to announce the completion of the first booklet in the Arabic language! Fittingly it is The Middle East in Bible Prophecy booklet. The back story of this prodigious effort is amazing and inspiring, and you can read it at "First Arabic Booklet Produced." For us, these are giant leaps. But considering the incredible job God has set before us, they are only small steps. We need your help to let others know about the literature we do have in more than a dozen languages. And even more, we need your prayers to the "Lord of the harvest," that God will continually send more laborers to help in this exciting work. As always, thank you for your interest and support. Please let us know if there is any way we can serve you better. Let me end with one word of Hebrew I did pick up. Shalom! Peace! 
Warm regards,
Mike Bennett
Editorial content manager |
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