United News: September - October 2007

A major focus of the Council's efforts in the coming year will be a full rewrite of the Strategic Plan.

Graduation exercises were held on Sunday, Aug. 12, for the eighth graduating class of the Ambassador Bible Center (ABC).

Saul Langarica is based in Chile, and pastors the members in Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Uruguay and Brazil. These countries have a combined land area 40 percent larger than the United States. He usually is able to make just one trip...

Income grew 7.45 percent, and Good Works projects were completed around the world.

Paul and Kira Spenser are currently the only members of the United Church of God in Sweden.

Most of us are familiar with the term Feast fever.

"Remember True North" was chosen as the theme for this year's United Youth Camp in the Philippines.

This year 12 children and five adults from four congregations in Germany attended summer camp from Aug. 1 to 5 just east of Bielefeld, Germany, at the hostel Naturfreundehaus in Oerlinghausen.

Rock climbing and rappelling, soccer, Compass Checks and Bible studies, team building activities, ballroom dancing, crafts, Bible bowl, computer training, etiquette, volleyball and rope-bridge building, along with much singing and friendship. That was youth camp, Nigeria-style, and the 27 campers...

After a very wet summer, God blessed us with a week of fine, dry weather for the British Isles Summer Camp 2007, which took place at Alleyn's School Field Centre on the outskirts of the spa town of Buxton in...

Endurance and enjoying every moment.

It's funny how you can go to the same place and do similar things year after year and still love every second of it!

One camper summed up the 13th annual Northwest Camp this way: "I understand how to become close to God."

The United Youth Camp program at Heritage Reservation completed its 12th program on Sunday, Aug. 19, as 143 campers and 65 staff members bid good-bye for another year to their "home away from home" near Farmington, Pennsylvania.

Camp Carter started this year with the baptism of a young adult staff member on Saturday evening at the start of staff training.

"Building Godly Character": ABC students strive to apply theme inside and outside of the classroom.

The Beyond Today program began airing Sunday, Aug. 12, on WKRC 550 AM, a news/talk format radio station in Cincinnati, Ohio.

The print order for the September-October 2007 English-language Good News is 522,049, a 3 percent increase over the July-August issue.

Figures from pastors' monthly reports indicate that average weekly U.S. attendance in March 2007 was 11,713.

Aug. 5, President Clyde Kilough reported to the Council of Elders that due to potential environmental concerns, the pursuit of the property in Denton, Texas, has been dropped.

The major work of the Women's Education Task Force since their inaugural meeting in late April has been to develop two surveys, which are near completion.

Update from the Council of Elders

Aug. 7 David Register, chairman of the GCE Planning Task Force, reviewed with the Council of Elders the task force's initial recommendations for next year's conference.

At the Council of Elders meeting Aug. 8, the members and chairmen of the four Council committees were finalized:

The Council of Elders approved a new Council reporter to replace Don Henson, who steps down after serving for nearly five years.

The GCE was recently asked to select elders to serve on the Elder Expulsion Appeal Committee.

Aug. 5 Jim Franks led the Council of Elders through a discussion of the issue of providing fragrance-free seating when possible in local congregations and at Feast sites.

Winter Camp is just around the corner.

Former Ambassador College/University and ABC chorale members are invited to participate in the Winter Family Alumni Chorale.

Once again, the Salt Lake City, Utah, congregation will host its annual Winter Ski Weekend over the Martin Luther King weekend, Jan. 13 to 15, 2008.

For U.S. members attending a Feast site outside the United States, you are asked to send the bulk of your Holy Day offerings to the home office either before or after the Feast.

The ladies of the Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, congregations invite their sisters to join them on Nov. 10 and 11 for the 2007 Twin Cities Women's Conference.

The third week of June we held an Asian Leadership Conference in Quezon City, the Philippines.

In July the number of visitors on the Gute Nachrichten Web site exceeded 13,000 for the first time.

Jim Franks (Ministerial Services operation manager) and Dave Baker (senior pastor, Asia) traveled to India and the Philippines June 12 through 22.

UCG–Canada reports that incoming mail from Jan. 1 to July 31 is running at a record pace.