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OTo
Mark Bloomfield, Gary Rawlings, Tamara Wood, Merindi
Swadling, Fred Harris, Paula Sutton, Saskia Raevouri,
Norman Ingram, Paula Thompson at the Urantia Book
Fellowship, Michelle Klimesh and friends at the
Pipeline of Light, Buck and Arlene Weimer, Marthe
Muller, Urantia Foundation, the UAI and other
Urantia friends:
Mark Bloomfield arrived
in Johannesburg yesterday [September 17] and I was
privileged to spend the day with this energetic and
devoted young man. His presence here is a wonderful
blessing for us.
On behalf of the
budding Urantia community in South Africa, kindly
allow me to express our gratitude and appreciation
for the wonderful work you are all doing in service
of the Fifth Epochal Revelation, our Christ Michael,
and our beloved planet, and for your generous
contributions to our own efforts.
As a spiritually
progressive country, South Africa is thirsty for the
rich blessing of the Urantia teachings. Not only
will we benefit greatly from the books seeded into
our local libraries, but we also enjoy upliftment
and encouragement from your loving prayers and kind
support.
Our Urantia community
is still embryonic (we now have almost 80 readers on
record) but is growing at the rate of four to six
new (recorded) readers every month. Many more
unknown readers are discovering the book in the home
of a friend or in their local library and will no
doubt find their way into the fold. Although these
are new readers and would need at least four
or five years to work their way through the
book, nonetheless we are already receiving
enthusiastic feedback and word-of-mouth
recommendations from many who have received their
own cherished copy of the Urantia Book.
As local readers'
groups are forming organically, we continue to
distribute every copy as it reaches our shores, as
the demand for the Urantia Book has exploded in
recent months, and we have a backlog of orders for
every media -- hardcovers, softcovers, old editions,
secondhand copies, audio sets, study aids, posters,
etc.
Although our courage is
bolstered by this overwhelming response, we continue
to proceed at a sober pace and as funds allow. At
this point we are not making enough of a profit to
order another shipment of books, because we are
gifting most of the books for free and selling the
rest at a very low cost to cover the expenses of
renting a booth at the bi-monthly
Body, Mind and Soul Fayre and for photocopying
some pamphlets.
If there are any
secondhand copies out there, or old editions, please
let us know, as we have many student readers who
are eager to obtain a copy. Thanks again to every
sponsor who has so generously helped to empower this
exciting project [Mark Bloomfield's
South African Urantia Book
seeding mission), your contributions are as much
appreciated as those of our Mark who does indeed
cover the globe in his worn-out boots and single
backpack to seed the planet with this universal
truth.
Our special thanks to
Norman Ingram, who "grooved the grid" in South
Africa with his initial community seeding mission
[in 1998], to Marthe Muller who seeded the first
libraries in Cape Town and empowered the first
readers' group in Cape Town, to Buck and Arlene
Weimer who flew in to meet with us and encourage us,
to Michelle Klimesh and the
Pipeline of Light who donated the first shipment
of books to seed into Johannesburg libraries, to
Paula Thompson who sent over 110 books to start us
off properly, and to Mark Bloomfield who has made it
his personal mission to bring these teachings to the
farthest outlying corners of the globe. Our thanks
also to those nameless heroes who have made their
quiet contribution and have passed into obscurity --
your efforts are recorded nonetheless and one day we
will be honoured to thank you properly. :)
As we pray earnestly
that these wonderful papers will find their way into
the homes, hearts and minds of our rich cultural
society, we also pray that those who have reached
out to Southern Africa, invested their hard-earned
cash, their time, energy, and heartfelt intent in
seeding South Africa and her sister countries, will
receive ten-fold blessings in return.
Praise to our Paradise
Father for His never-ending kindness.
God's speed,
Simone Cox
simone@bluebook.co.za |
