United Church of God

Update from the President: March 21, 2019

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Update from the President

March 21, 2019

We have just sent a subscriber development letter to our nearly 15,000 U.S. donors and coworkers. We are offering the booklet Easter: The Rest of the Story. We are also offering them a subscription to United News (UN). Already 43 percent of those receiving UN are non-members—mostly U.S. coworkers—who have become more interested in how the Church spends their donations. We are now offering a subscription to donors on our list.

From Australia, I have been notified by Doug Gray, Director of Operations in our UCG-Australia office, about some managerial changes there. Mr. Gray writes:

"I am pleased to advise that following Ruth Root's retirement, Derek Lewis from our Brisbane congregation and current Board Treasurer has been appointed as the new National Office Manager. Ruth has been a wonderful servant of UCG-A for over 24 years and she will be greatly missed. Derek comes with a solid church background and a wealth of experience in management, banking and finance and is also very active in serving in his local church area."

Derek Lewis attended the Pastoral Development Program last November here in Cincinnati, and we became better acquainted with him over that time. Ruth Root has been our friend for almost four decades. I have appreciated working with and knowing Ruth since our days working in Church Administration in Pasadena, California, as well as while she has lived in Australia.

From Canada, Tony Wasilkoff writes about the increased number of responses to the Beyond Today television program.

"Beyond Today is shown on cable television coast-to-coast in Canada on Sundays both in the early afternoon and early evening. Over the past 52 months, we have received an average of 59 responses per program. However, there has been a significant spike starting in February [with the programs recorded in the new studio with a new format]. The first week (Are We Living In the End Times?) drew 93 responses. The second week (The Four Horsemen) drew 125 responses. The third week (Are You Led By God's Spirit?) drew 119 responses. The fourth week (The Michaela Diemer Story [a repeat of an old program]) drew 73 responses. The first week in March (Three Signs Before Jesus Returns) drew 124 responses. UCG-Canada is very encouraged by this significant increase in responses. It is interesting to note that the province with the highest rate, compared to its population size, is Newfoundland!"

On Monday, long-time Flint, Michigan, member Andi Chapman gave a seminar to our employees titled, Death is Certain, Timing is Not. She is a regional and clinical educator for Heart to Heart Hospice. This was the first seminar of this type to be recorded in our new video recording studio.

We recorded three more German Beyond Today TV programs with Paul Kieffer last week. These are the first German-language programs produced in the new studio. More than a dozen of these are now streaming on YouTube in Europe. Plus, a podcast was recorded with our German office manager, Jesmina Allaoua, who was also in town. Here is a link to the podcast: https://www.ucg.org/members/united-news/inside-united/inside-united-podcast-112-jesmina-allaoua-beyond-today-in-germany.