Elder's Conference—2016 #3

Go To Meeting

Reports/Discussion #3
May 17, 2016

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LYALL JOHNSTON (New Zealand): We live across the ditch from Roy Assanti; a lot of competition between the two countries. We beat them in football every year; that's rugby, and they're quite unhappy about that, but we're still good friends. It's just like the banter that takes place between the United States and Canada, as I understand.

It's amazing how God knows each one of us. He knows where He wants us to serve, even when we don't. After having served in the ministry for a number of years, pastoring single congregations up to five at one time. People ask, 'How do you manage?' I said I don't, because it's very hard to pastor that number of churches that are scattered and be effective. So, we try to train up men in each area to take care of that. But things change. Once, as I like to put it, I was terminated from Worldwide Church of God, and that was a blessing from God Himself.

Now, of course, having been with Christian Biblical Church of God since 2004, I've had the privilege of baptizing about seven people. Two of those who had no experience with Worldwide Church of God, so have no baggage.

A friend of mine gave him one of those little business cards with the Church of God on it, and they started tuning into the Internet and they were listening every week to several of the CBCG sermons and Church at Home from Fred, and they just made incredible progress. He is half Dutch and Lebanese, and his wife is Dutch. They're just a lovely couple.

We do have a solid group of brethren in New Zealand, but scattered because, although the country is very narrow, it's very long. We have three islands, and most of the members are on the North Island, which is the major part of the Church.

We only have two in the South Island, one of them is a very fine lady who came out of Worldwide. The other is a man whom I've known since he was about 12-years-old. He was baptized. Now he's in his 40s or 50s now. He's good, and we can actually have Skype contact with them on the Sabbath when it suits. We can talk to them and join them for Sabbath service.

In the North Island we have a couple of members living probably about a two hour's drive from Auckland, which is the major city in New Zealand; not the capital, but the largest city. The house prices there are greater than even in Sydney, which is just incredible. If the market crashes, New Zealand is in big trouble, because most of the population lives there.

Then we have scattered groups south of that, probably a couple hour's drive from Auckland, and there's one family there and they are just very solid people. We've only had, since the time I've been with Christian Biblical, seven baptisms. One of those was the daughter who had three children, but she is just a lovely person. She opens her home; it's out in the country. We were there the first day of Unleavened Bread. I took a wrong route and entered over a very narrow road for about a half and hour to get to there place when there was a much easier track.

But we really had a very good first day of Unleavened Bread. We live probably about two and a half hours from that, so we don't travel that much. We mostly come together for the Holy Days where that's possible, and then, of course, for the Feast of Tabernacles.

For myself, since Fred had asked me to start recording for Church at Home—I've been doing that since 2013—it's been a total change and I'm still working on trying to get handle on that. We've had some discussions here, which I think is very helpful. And having Eric [Stott] there from the United Kingdom is able to give input.

The content that I have mostly with this couple John and Olga Schurick, lovely couple and now the office manager and the brethren love them.

Just on the aside: I was able to attend the Feast in Australia this year. One of the interesting things, some of the members were going with friends to some of the Churches like CEM and United, and they were coming back and reporting that these people are not being fed. Interesting comment! I think we know that to some degree, which is a shame and a pity. Hopefully they will be fed as they need to be.

Most of the contact I have with new people comes from contacts from Fred like with Eric. Now, Eric being in England is very helpful because what Fred has asked me to do is particularly concentrated to Britain, and we know the problems in Britain right now with their being right on the stages of a referendum where they're trying to pull out of the European Union.

I watched a video on YouTube on Brexit the Movie. It's about an hour long, but it shows you the clay and the iron mixing together with the European Union. This one investigative journalist went to Brussels to try and find out… 'take me to the European Union, the buildings.' The driver said, 'Actually, there's not just one, there's 90 buildings and they've got all these 'technocrats' there earning huge salaries and are probably there for a lifetime. But nobody knows them.

We've got British politicians working there, but the people in Britain don't know them. Nobody knows who's in control at this stage. Brexit the Movie is really worthwhile viewing, a lot of good information there, and really good material for us to be able to present to the British people before and after.

For me, I've been doing this for three years and I'm still learning, making that change from speaking to the church audience to speaking and trying to get through and realizing we're speaking to new people. So, I'm really still working and struggling on that one, but it's good now to have somebody like Eric. There's another man by the name of Kenneth White, another contact that Fred sent me, and I'm getting good feedback from him.

Just before I left, another contact came through that Fred sent me: Brent Rice. He's about 60-years-old, ex-policeman and his interest in CBCG was he was wrapped with the material by Earnest Martin. Now he's switched over to CBCG and we had a great meeting. We only had about an hour because he had a commitment, but he really wants to be in contact.

Meeting him was like we had known each other for a long time. The thing about this man is that he's an ex-detective/policeman; he's had a lot of experience working with young people up and down New Zealand, throughout the country running programs, as well as in Australia.

Fred mentioned that when we brought this up at a meeting that Fred's very interested in having a booklet produced for the young people.

FRED: I'll talk about it.

LYALL: The other thing is that Philip Neal is producing a booklet similar to the one Why Is "Christianity" Failing in America? The title of the new book we believe will be: Why "Christianity" Has Failed in the United Kingdom—not England, but the United Kingdom, as was input there from Eric, what would be acceptable by the English people.

So, that's where my focus is mostly. Because of the distances, as I said, we get together on the Holy Days, but what would happen on the Sabbath is where I work, they allow me to come in on the weekend and use one of the interview studios where I can sit down and record maybe three programs.

A lot of what I've recorded I just discarded because I'm not happy with it as it needs to be more focused, or again, it's just a work in progress developing that. I've done several series but it just didn't seem to come across right, and I've had feedback, which is good. So, I'm still working that.

Britain is really in strife, and particularly with the Islamization of Britain. There are thousands of people waiting to get across the channel because they want to get into Great Britain, because they can get a home, finance and everything. As we know, in Europe the nationals are being thrown out of their accommodation to make way for the immigrants.

It's a big issue and the pressure is there. I just feel that somehow we've got to get that message out. As somebody else mentioned here, it's in God's hands as to what's going to happen. We're responsible for preaching the Word of God, preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom. I think that the Scripture that comes to mind is that if we do our job faithfully God says that He'll send His Word out and 'it will accomplish what He sends to do and it will not return to Him void.'

That's my faith and belief, as I know it is with us all, but God will do what He wants to do, and that's really is strong. As far as I'm concerned, that's where it's at.

FRED: Good place to end,

MARLIN FANNIN (Ohio): I'll start with last year as far as travels. That's basically what I do. Roy Mack is taking care of the local group on the eastside of Cincinnati for several years. He went to Cleveland this year and I stayed there and did Passover; we had 27. That's about average each year for Passover, somewhere around 27-30.

One thing we're able to do: starting last summer I went to Pennsylvania and met Roger and along with him we were able to ordain Stan Timek. That was a nice accomplishment. On the way I took advantage to be able to visit some of the brethren in West Virginia, whom I try to see about once a year.

At the Feast last year I was able to baptize four people; actually re-baptisms, because they had a question as far as their original baptism and the person who did the baptism evidently wasn't an elder.

They felt that God's Spirit was with them, but they didn't have God's Spirit within them. I was able to talk to them and counsel and they said that they would like to be re-baptized, so I did that and asked God to send the Holy Spirit to come and be within them.

A man traveled from North Dakota, whom I've been talking to on the phone, and he came down to be baptized. I was able to baptize him and also another young lady there who wanted to be baptized, who is Hiedi Vogele's niece.

I was also able to go to Virginia and baptize a man there. His niece had been a member of the Church since way back in the mid 60s. He had been studying some, but his health is very bad. He has COPD and it was kind of a problem baptizing him because we tried to work something out. She brought by her little inflatable pool, but when I got there it wasn't deep enough and their backyard was kind of on a slant, so we ended up going to the motel where I was staying and able to baptize him there. That was difficult with him being on oxygen. The first time we had the oxygen tank up on edge of the pool, and I don't know whether it was an arm, a leg or something came up.

So, we had to do it again. So, we had to take a break and rest and get back on the oxygen. He said, 'We're going to do it this time,' and we did. That time I was able to get him completely under and no arms or legs came up, and was able to baptize him. That was the first one I ever had that… He has to have the oxygen on all the time. So, we were able to accomplish that.

Also, just before the Passover, I was able to baptize a lady in Ohio whom Fred had sent me a couple of years ago; we had actually visited her and talked to her, so she called me a couple months before the Passover and said that she'd been thinking about what I had written her. I had written her a note, and she wanted to be baptized. She was baptized when she was about 18-years-old, but in one of the congregations of this worldly system, so I was able to go there and baptize her.

There's actually a lady who is coming here to the conference whom David Lineberger talked to and he asked her to call me. So, I talked to her and she had been raised up in the Church, but then she left in 1995. She's come back and reading the material on baptism and all that and downloading it, and I sent her some information. So, if we can coordinate it. If you (Fred) want to do the baptism, you're more than welcome to do it. I know it's not your first rodeo, or my first rodeo, but she's going to make it. She called and left a message on my phone that she's going to try and be here Friday.

I've had a couple of situations happen to me. Of course, you don't like to lose anyone, and most of the people I've baptized over the years are still 'walking in Truth,' as John said. But I've had a couple that have gone to the Messianic Jews. I've listened this guy some; he's not really Messianic. Has anybody heard of Michael Rood: aroodawakening.tv

He's off on some things, he's got his own calendar and this year he was off a day on the Passover. But he does speak out. He was a church minister and he found out about the Sabbath, and he started teaching the Sabbath and the Holy Days. He teaches a lot of things good and he actually has a program that comes on live every Friday night: Michael Rood Live. Sometimes we watch him, and he has some things very interesting and good, but he's out there. He does really speak out about the Sabbath and the Holy Days.

FRED: Maybe we can help him along.

MARLIN: Church at Home is certainly an inspiration that God gave there for you to start that; really, the programs are great. You speak out more on that than you do in just regular speaking; you hold nothing back and that's great.

I was taking a walk the other day and one of the neighbors asked me, 'Where do you go to church?' I said, 'Well, really I do Church at Home.' He said, 'Oh, that's good!' I said, 'Every day that I get up I pray and study, and I try to build the mind and character of Jesus Christ.' He said, 'Amen!' and he just walked off.

A little bit on Bob Hunnicutt. Certainly, I miss Bob, because we talked fairly often, maybe every two weeks or something like that. The last month that he lived, he wasn't able to talk that long, maybe ten minutes. Just about two weeks before he died, which was the last time I was able to talk to him, we actually talked close to an hour. Then after that, I wasn't able to get a hold of him; he wasn't really able to talk; he was really weak.

But Bob is still serving. How is he able to do that? The man is dead; we know that. Well, his son Bill, before the funeral, was in another room and we were talking and he reached in his pocket and he pulled out an envelope and it was full of cloths to be anointed. He said, 'Here, I found these, and I want to give them to you, because dad has no more use for them.' I said good, and I've actually sent out a couple of cloths that I've anointed from the packet that Bill had given me; so he's still serving in that way even though he's dead.

FRED: Good!

MARLIN: I talked to by e-mail to Bill; it's better to e-mail Bill instead of calling him. He said that Elaine was moved from one location where she was into a special rehab-type facility for people who have Alzheimer's or else had brain injuries as she did when she fell and had to be operated on. That's the latest on her.

Certainly, I miss Bob and I'm sure all of you do that knew him. I miss his conversations, as I mentioned at the funeral, 'Iron sharpens iron.' We got along good, but we didn't always agree on everything, so I learned things from Bob, as I told his son, and I think maybe Bob learned a few things from me. He's at peace and rest; he has no more bills to worry about, no more pills. People ask what's going on, and I say, 'Bills and pills! If you ever reach that point, you live long enough and you'll get there.'

One thing I do is that I keep in contact with those whom I have baptized or have visited, and that's a very important follow-up. Let someone know. That one of the reasons why some of these others that we baptize go to other groups. A lot of them are out there in the boonies and they don't have anybody to fellowship with. Just sitting at home they have Church at Home, they got all the literature and things, but they like to have somebody that they can actually meet with face-to-face and talk. So, I do follow up and keep in contact and try to visit them at least once a year.

In closing, I know that a lot of people have talked about the 'A' word—age. And a lot of us have health problems, but keep this in mind: For those who have health problems and getting older—if you don't have them you're going to get them—if it wasn't for sickness we wouldn't have any health at all! Remember that!

FRANS PEETERS (Holland): Not Frank or something like that. My wife and are long-time members since 1971-72. We came in contact with Fred Coulter in 1979, but then we lost contact, and then in 2002 I got his book on the Passover. Then all things started really well.

We were not able to find a congregation from Fred in Europe. So we waited and waited, and again I asked for that in 2009, congregations in Europe. No, he says, 'but you can be the first.'

I have to study a lot; and was sent a study package back at that time and we received and studied it and got on the mailing list. We were in Living CoG, started the Living Church in the Netherlands in 2000 and we built up a congregation of about 20-25 persons. But we got in trouble with the leading persons there because they wanted to take the money—we had the foundation in Dutch with a bank account that we had built up—to do other objects or projects that we did not agree with on the board.

That's the first time we wanted really leave Living, but it took us about three years to completely finish the website it was four years even. Then on 7 July, 2014 I wrote to Fred and said, 'May I translate articles into Dutch and put them on the website with links to CBCG. That we did, and so we left Living and we now have a congregation of about six people, but four persons meet regular for every Sabbath in our home, and we listen to Fred in English. We are working heavily translating the booklets, and we have three booklets. This Beliefs booklet we call it Doctrines in the Dutch language, and we took it for Biblical Understandings Which Every Christian has to Know.

In Dutch when we say doctrines or something like that…. So, we translated now three booklets and we put it on the website. We, of course, everybody translating has a connection with Fred's website, with the articles or the booklet. We make a project of this and we say that we have different publications in English in Church at Home and CBCG.

We promote Why were Born? (Pt. 1) A Speck of Dust to a Son of God (churchathome.org). At that time the new book was not ready. Now we will receive it.

I think it's really a promotion of the Word of God and what has happened by CBCG. We come together then and read and study, because there are big issues from Living or Restored (CoG) or Flurry. The government in the Church, and you have a really nice series about that and every Tuesday evening we come together and we study the government in the Church, and now we are just starting with the ten lies (Satan's 10 Most Believable Lies series).

The people are really interested in the ten lies, because it explains in a different way where we come from and what we went through. So, they're really excited about that.

On the website, I already told that, I think, we have one article of Nicolaitans from John Allen who also wrote the book American and Britain in Prophecy. What Mr. Armstrong misused. That is the most clicked article and most read.

FRED: Really?

FRANS: Yeah! In Dutch, because it did not dare to take the English one and put it on the website.

FRED: Well, it's not copyright.

FRANS:  It's possible now?

FRED: You can have it, too. That's the best way to do. But be sure and emphasize to the Dutch that Britain got what they got—Holland!

FRANS: We try to be humble!

FRED: Well, this will help the Brits get humble.

FRANS: Thank you! We have about four or five prospects, and one is really close to joining us again, because we were together in Living. Last year one person from Living contacted us and he wanted to be baptized and we went through the baptism series because he's not really fluent in the English language, so we have to explain a lot of things in Dutch. He was baptized after a month that he came; it was in November last year. He's real excited, and we were also really excited.
Last year we had also our second Feast of Tabernacles near our village. Before we had four people. Last year Dave Obey and his wife came over to the Netherlands for the Feast. So, that is that.

There's one really nice thing I want to mention, because translating is a lot of work. We got a contact again with a person we really know very well in Worldwide, but we missed each other because we went to other churches or stayed home. He contacted us a year ago, and we meet every three or four months. The last time, two months ago, he says, 'We were talking about your Fred or CBCG and have something from you on the website.' Oh, that's nice, what is it? 'He translated 1-Peter, the transcripts in Dutch and he put it on the website with a link to CBCG.org.

He's really energetic about you, but he lives about 200 kilometers from our home, and in the Netherlands that's a long distance, and it's very expensive by train or car. That's always a problem.

So, we are looking forward now to more translating. We expect again two persons who contacted us just a month ago. We know them already from Worldwide. I think they are already listening for a long time to CBCG, and they will join us it is most sure, because we have known them from Worldwide and they were very close. That we are looking forward to. And we are looking forward to translating the Why were Born? (Pt. 1) A Speck of Dust to a Son of God (churchathome.org) and put it on the website with links to English things.

There are a lot of older people who don't speak English so much that they really understand something. The Dutch language is most for them to take care of it and maybe we can rebuild the Church, because in Worldwide when we left there were 400 baptized people. Now, I think, there are about 20 in Flurry, Living and Restored. The other people stay home because they don't want to go anyplace more because they were very troubled by the changes and the way they changed.

But the government of God, how Fred explains it on CBCG is very eye-opening. Someone also told that the Love series is really appreciated in the Netherlands. And that's my story!

FRED: Okay

ROY ASSANTI (Australia): Australia is a pretty big land, almost as big as Canada. We have mainly people scattered all over the place. There are small groups here and there, but mainly scattered and stay at home. We have a situation where some of our people join in with other groups—United, Living—and there are quite a few people who listen to Pacific Church of God. It was brought to my attention so I listen in as well to know what's going on.

We've got about 240 or so on our main mailing list. Then we have another mailing list, which are the additions from advertising, promoting and offering the Church At Home DVDs and CDs. There are around 250 or so; could be more.

At the moment I'm going to be involved in a 'calling program.' We sent out a letter, but there are those are not really that interested, we give them an opportunity to drop off. I've had a witness and plenty of information and they need to come back to us and say, 'yes, please keep us on the mailing list.' If they do, we know we've got people who really want to receive the information. The plan is then to write to them a personal letter and talk about counsel, baptism, etc. Just to introduce myself and my contact details so they can come back and have an individual place/person that they can come back to and ask specific questions that they may have.

The way we work is produce our CDs/DVDs; we offer both, through a company called Media Movers. What they do is produce the CDS/DVDs, envelope them and include letters from Fred when it's appropriate once a month and mail them out from there to Australia and New Zealand direct.

We have a wonderful cohesive team. We have a fellow who produces the CDs/DVDs and organizes with Media Movers, and I don't worry about that anymore, he does that automatically. He also organizes bulk mailing to the UK and to South Africa. So, we supply them. We generally put in a few more sermons and material. We might overload them, but from Roger, Steve or Norbert.

We have a little project going and it's been going a little bit too long, but it's still going and that is to develop another website calling it CBCG-International.org

The main purpose of that site is to basically showcase all other speakers, as well as Fred, he's our main attraction, but we give other men an opportunity to be exposed on the Internet. When you're there you have to perform, you have to do a good job. That's the purpose of it, to encourage self-development and growth in the various speakers.

With that, I say that if anybody does have material, send it along to me and I will have my e-mail available through Send this File, what we use, and we will endeavor to put you in there on the international site. We tend to have different countries, different parts of the world and so on. It would be good to have someone give a message, for example, in Dutch for the Dutch people. Even in Dutch/English for the Dutch/English.

In each country you feel more of an affinity if someone sounds like you, where you come from; like a neighbor, 'he's actually in my neighborhood.' Or to hear someone speaking British English. This is also what Lyall is doing in going to the UK and so on.

We've got a lot of isolated groups; we're mainly scattered. Confidentiality is important, so today we tell everybody that their details are confidential. However, we're sort of thinking outside of the box now, and seeking to get people who are in close geographical locations together to say, 'Can we introduce you to each other.' We're seeking to get small groups together wherever it's possible. That's something else that we're working on.

I guess really that's about it. I think that there's a need, and overall need, we believe in the CBCG, to show and speak about compassion, love, embracing. There are people that just get alienated and put to the side and hurt. So, I just voice that there is a need to embrace, to bring people in, to help and to encourage. And that's generally a direction that we'll be emphasizing ourselves.

ROY MACK (Ohio): I'm shepherding the former flock of Marlin's, but over the years—going on three years now—nothing has changed. It's just the same. You've got three groups and you can't talk to them to try and get them to mingle.

I've been trying to start a Bible study just the last year and a half, and they've got just more reasons than a little bit as to why they won't do it. They say, 'We're scattered too far, it's too far to go.' I said, 'Okay, we start services at 11 o'clock and most of you get here about 10:30, why can't we have a Bible study before services?' But they said no. Fred said before about giving them sermons on the Love series, which I've been trying to do. But it gets discouraging to get up and give a sermon—and I'm not the greatest speaker in the world as you well know—but they say, 'Oh, we've heard that before.' That's it!

How do you approach those kinds of people. Most of them have been in the Church as long as I have or close to that anyway. I was baptized in 1967, but I try to get them together in a group to integrate but they won't do it. They've been that way ever since I came into this church.

One of them is from another church—who used to be a choir director: Al Dennis… there's about six of them from his former group, and every Sabbath they go back to a back room and talk about everything but the Bible. If you say anything they get mad at you.

There's about five or six people in the whole church that will actually get up and give a prayer or a sermonette. I keep praying about it, but it doesn't seem to accomplish much. But God will take care of it eventually. On average we have about 17 people every week. On the Sabbaths when the Fannins show up we get up pretty close to 30.

FRED: You have a challenge!

ROGER TOINTON (Northern California): I'm from what used to be the "great land" of California. I wonder if we could really find out how many people had been through, in and out, of the Church of God. Since it's beginning there were probably a pretty large number of people, but where are they today? They're scattered, I guess, into different little divisions! They're scattered to the four winds, being nowhere.

In Christian Biblical, in California, it's not any large number at all. The biggest amount is all in Southern California. In No. Calif. we have very few. Sacramento in the Worldwide days had up to 600 people come. There are a still a number of divisions that hold fellowship groups there. But in Christian Biblical there's me and my wife and four other people. The other four people don't come from Sacramento.

The information is there on the Internet, etc., but the ones who are going to a Church of God are comfortable in the group they have selected, I guess. I don't know of any others that really listen Fred and whatnot. I imagine that a number of people would recognize his name, but beyond that I don't know. So, they're just kind of out there into the Church Wars.

In our little group we're meeting since Fred quit coming to Fairfield, we have varying numbers down there. It was never large, but it was more than we have now for sure. So, we started meeting where we could find; and we couldn't find anywhere so we were meeting in a little conference room in the Yellow County Library over in Davis.

We met there about three years, I guess, and we grew tired of that environment and so on, and we couldn't interact very well. So, we decided that we were down to six people, and we would meet in our four different homes on a rotating basis. So, we meet each week for four times and have one week off. That's what we're doing now.

Since we've started doing that we have gotten a lot closer together, and they did express that they wanted interaction and Bible study, so I said okay, we'll try to do a Bible study each week by turning to a Scripture and then go from there and see where it leads us. I kind of have something in mind when I read a Scripture by reading it Friday night or Saturday morning and say that there's something here we can learn from.

We'll go there and they have really enjoyed that and it's brought us closer together, I think, because they do interact. The women also. That's helped us and we've gotten to know each other better, but as I say, we don't see any growth.

You talk about your big open spaces in Australia and so on, well, we have the great western United States, and there's a lot of similarity in some ways with vast open spaces, dry land and so on, and scattered people. We have in Christian Biblical a number of people scattered in that area. They're in different parts of Idaho, Wyoming, Washington, Oregon and Montana. Montana has some out the in west in Flat Head, and you have some scattered in the eastern part.

I tell you, those people would love to get together, but when you're scattered like that, it just doesn't happen. I know that last summer I had a call from Norbert's youngest brother, and he and his wife had grown up in the Church, but they had never been baptized. They were part of the Church until it finally came to them that something is missing here. So, they studied on it for a year before he called me. We were able to meet them in Spokane and baptize them, which was very special.

But we took the opportunity then—the Vogele's got involved—to check all the mailing lists and got some of those scattered people from eastern Washington and from Montana and Idaho together. We had about 25 or so that met, and they were just delighted to get together.

If people are truly a part of the Church of God in the heart, then they do hunger for that. They really hunger to get together. It's too bad in a lot of ways; I think about it all the time. If I wasn't working all the time, I would love to just take off and go and travel through that big space and you get people together. They would really, really enjoy it, and it would be good for them, because it would be like a shot in the arm to uplift them.

I try to keep in touch with a few scattered like that. In the west in Arizona I also baptized a couple last year. They were just out of the world. I think he was kind of raised Catholic, but never much of a Catholic. She got on the Internet and she came across the website and started really going into it. I tell you, they still are. They are just really going through it very much. They're down there in northern Arizona in Prescott Valley, south of Flagstaff.

Sherry and I are going to go to Arizona to the Feast this year, and they're not that far so I've talked to them already and got them excited about going over there, because otherwise they really haven't had much contact. I just hate to go and baptize somebody out there in that big space and then have them just be alone. It's not good. There is a real need for contact. So, I'll pick up the phone and call people. I know they really appreciate it; you can tell in their voices. They like that contact. That's about all that I can do.

I say, 'God, You know that I'm here and if You want to send anybody our way.' But it hasn't happened very much at all for some time in our region. I think we always have to stand ready to help anybody that God does bring our way.

What more can we do? God's in charge! He is in charge, as we know, of the calling! When He does, it is real. When it's some other way, it just doesn't last. We need to be there and ready to help when He does!

FRED: That's good! That's highlighted a lot of what we do, which is take care of the scattered people.

Unnamed speaker: I know that there are a lot of people that go to United and Living and the follow you, but they want that fellowship, that touch and they don't have it. The distance, in a lot of cases, is the problem.

FRED: Let's go ahead and get around and get everybody here.

STEVE DURHAM: One thought that I have with that; they're not meeting the person face-to-face, but we just guide a Bible study and we also did a sermon at Sabbath service with a couple that we baptized in Michigan, and another couple that was up there with them—there are four of them—and they sat through a Skype meeting, so they could see the group. They really liked that. We don't do it all the time, but about once every six weeks. I know that's not like meeting someone face-to-face and grip and grin and hugging them, but at least they know they're not alone. I just wanted to throw that out there.

ERIC STOTT (United Kingdom): I'm from the colonies and here on behalf of Dave Obey, the office manager in England. As I'm only a member, I can't give you an in-depth analysis of what's going on in England. There is no congregation. I've been with Fred for eight years, and I've been alone. There is no congregation, although I have been told there is one in Northern Ireland. That's a separate island and it's obviously too far for me to travel.

So, listening to the comments that have been made today, it would be wonderful if what Roger and Roy have said about trying to contact people on the mailing list to see if they can't get together. I think that's a wonderful idea, and I really hope that it comes to fruition, because it is necessary to have contact. It's not the same when you're on your own. You do hunger for physical contact. It's been a great opportunity to get with Lyall. That's given me a bit of excitement, something to get my teeth into. So, I'm very grateful for that, Lyall, it's been great. Yes, I really hope we can push that concept forward. That's going to be great.

There are apparently 50 people on the mailing list in England, so there must be people that can draw together. Unfortunately, it's not my responsibility at the moment, so I hope sometime in the future I can give a helping hand; perhaps a little bit more on that front.

BEN AMBROSE (Georgia): In our area we are scattered everywhere, the same thing that's going through with everybody. There are nine people that I can count that are dedicated to Christian Biblical Church of God ministry. In LaGrange we have two and I'm one of them.

In Macon there are three, plus one other guy who lives in Warner Robbins, but he only comes for the Passover. You know, the Passover is a must; we all know that and look at it; maybe that's why he comes. He won't meet with the other people that are there, 30 miles from him. Then in Kennesaw there's one and Clayton two and Liberty, So. Carolina we claim one lady up there as being part of us.

We get together on the Holy Days; we always meet on the Holy Days. There are 7-9 of us and from all of these different places. So far as other people and coming in contact with them, last summer Marlin called me about a man in central north Georgia right south of the Tennessee line. That was before the Feast. I called him and talked to him and was surprised at how knowledgeable he was about the Scriptures. But he had been baptized by somebody in some group two or three years prior who was not a minister and didn't even lay hands on him.

So, he had come to the conclusion that his baptism was invalid, and I assured him that it was, so I'm thinking that this fellow is going to come around. Well, we went to the Feast—told him about the Feast and explained it to him—and that the closest one was in Pigeon Forge, TN where he lived. But he didn't have the money, had a job and all kinds of stuff.

I told him that he could keep the Holy Days, suggesting that to him. So, anyway, I came back from the Feast and I kind of left it with him, if he was interested and he should call me and I'll help him with everything I can. Well, he never called; so I called him back at some point in time after that, so it didn't go anywhere. Then, about two months ago he called me. He is very knowledgeable, and I think this is just typical of what is going on and what we are doing in the Christian Biblical Church of God ministry.

So, I made an arrangement—he wanted somebody to meet with—for some people who lived not too far north of him in Tennessee. This man's mother and father lived in a little town about 15 miles away. He goes over and visits his parents. He must be about 45 or something like that. So, I called them before I would give him their name to make sure that that was okay; and they said okay. I haven't heard anything more about it, so we'll see what happens.

At Bob Hunnicutt's graveside service we had in Columbus, GA, Elaine gave me a man's name up in Calhoun. I called him and we had a long conversation. Turns out that he was baptized in Worldwide about the same time I was 43 years ago. So, it was like old home folks, just like me talking to one of you all that's been in the Church forever. But what he was looking for is just somebody. He is now in United. There's no doubt about it, he has the Spirit of God and he's just like us. He's in United and he's gotten Fred's sermons and this sort of thing off the Internet and I think he's now on the mailing list.

He just wants somebody to congregate with so that he can drop out of United. But it's going to be the same thing. In other words, he's going to go somewhere there are 10 or 15 people and they will sit and have regular Sabbath services. That's what he's looking for. Well, we don't have that anywhere close. We got one lady who is a single woman and his wife is not in the Church, so he's like a single man who is not, but she doesn't participate at all. He let me know right quick that he has no wife to go down and meet with a single woman.

Of course, I haven't said anything to him about that, but I've discussed it with her. She don't want somebody there that she don't know, so we're not even going to try to go there.

So, I left it with him that if there's anything we can do for him, and if he wants to come down and meet with us on a Holy Day we'll be glad. Or if he wants to drive somewhere, we can meet in Kennesaw. He said he'd think about it. He's with United. He knows there's a difference in the sermons that he's getting from Fred and what he's listening to with them.

The same thing here that everybody is saying, is the same thing that I encounter. That is that people want to meet with a congregation. They will go and meet with even our Christian Biblical brethren. They have now started to go to a new group in the last couple of months. I went over there and met with them one Sabbath last summer and I'm going to try and go every so often, and that means that where I'm at the person that I meet with will just be by themselves that week.

People want to have the fellowship, and they're willing to go and listen to 'cardboard' sermons rather than to get the strong meat. Their answer always is, 'I listen to Fred during the week, or Friday night, but I'm going over here and meeting with these people,' because they're wanting to have that contact.

Well, I look at it different. I don't want to take God's Sabbath and lay aside the filet mignon to have cardboard. That is what is going on with a lot of people.

On the preaching, about three or four Sabbath's ago you were talking about preaching and publishing the Gospel and the booklets and all these sort of things. It made me think about something, and I'll just add it here: There's going to come a day when the Church of God is going to go down to an extremely low ebb, as we get closer to the Tribulation. We don't know when that's going to be, but one thing I thought was: How is a message from God going to get to the 144,000 and the great innumerable multitude so that they'll know some Truth by the time that time comes along in their life. I don't know if an angel is going to go through the sky and preach, I don't know about that.

FRED: The first angel; that's all in God's hands!

BEN: That's right, but here's what's in our hands: That's what you're doing! That's what the ministry is doing! We don't know and we must not get discouraged in doing what Jesus said in Matthew—and I'm not saying we are—but we listen to all of this, but we have to keep this in mind:

Matthew 28:17: "And when they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Therefore, go and make disciples in all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit; teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even until the completion of the age.' Amen" (vs 17-20).

There's another one in Luke that reads a little different. But we've got Jesus saying, 'Many are called, but few are chosen.' I'm sure that has sunk in real deep in all our minds.

John 6:44;65: "No one can come to Me unless the Father, Who sent Me, draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day."

Then in Luke, 'Go into all the nations and make disciples in My name.' Well, you've got put all of that together.

I've said something to Fred about this, but we can't choose, but we can preach and teach. All of this information that is going out, and these booklets like this one—From a Speck of Dust to a Son of God: Why Were You Born?—that is going to be here and it's not going to go anywhere.

Whenever the end of the age starts coming down, we don't know what God's going to do and how He's going to do it, but this is mighty good material to be going out. Some of it's going out and maybe to people who are young. Who knows, we'll all be gone, but the 144,000 we just don't know if it will 50 years or a 100 years, we just don't know. But God is going to make contact with them and that Word is going to be preached to them. It may be being preached to them now; we just don't give ourselves credit for what we are doing, but we've got to persevere to preach the Word and for it go out.

God is the One Who is going to do the calling and He's going to do the choosing, but we have a dire responsibility to preach the Word and for it to go out.

FRED: Remember, everything we've discussed here is like a coin: there are two sides.

Last but not least; the last shall be first, so you were the first and now you're last. From the neighborhood of Australia by about a thousand miles.

ANDREW MOSES (Malaysia): I don't have much experience like all of you have, but my dad does, and he had to fight all the way through and I'm in the easy chair.

I didn't have the experience of going through the Biblical deeply down, and it's been taught by my dad. It all starts from 1993 when he got the CBCG cassette from one other member. Then he goes and started from there.

I was so excited, the happiest man on earth because here's a person willing to learn a lot of things from the time. The current congregation in Malaysia are all scattered in different churches. All of them, I'm proud to say, are my dad's flock. He brought them all in from the time in Global/Living Church. At the time he couldn't cope with any of them because he was listening to Mr. Fred's messages and he had all this extra knowledge, and people reject him.

We left Living Church in 1997 and I was with my dad all these years listening to Mr. Fred. The problem we have in Malaysia: it's a very small country where we can reach people at the far corners in less than four hours. It's a very small place and it's…distance of all the brethren there.

The only problem that we have is not with CBCG, Mr. Fred Coulter. My dad's addresses Mr. Coulter as teacher. So, they always feel that "Joseph, you always have something to say, and you have this so-called Mr. Fred Coulter as a teacher." Then people kind of push him aside and always have things like 'Mr. Fred Coulter is not a man of God because he don't have a church. It's just an educational foundation.' So, we have this; it's been going on for years. We used to have all these materials coming to us like the first book I really go through is God's Plan for Mankind. I have done that a couple of times with my dad and we have the Passover book, which we have to go through every year according to my dad. We have to start soon after Passover then we can finish by the following Passover, because we have a lot of material to go through.

So, my dad used to do that year-by-year. I think I've gone through it about 11 or 12 times. So, we have people in Living and United and RCG and all of them feel that CBCG is not a church, so why are you all still there? They kind of influenced my family and my sisters to experience the opportunity of a congregation, that they need congregation and all that.

They manage to manipulate and pull my family away. I was all alone with my dad, and I said I'm not going anywhere, I know this is the Truth and I want to be in the Truth. My dad struggled to bring all of them back. He succeeded in 2006, brought all of them back. We have been going on well and fine for all the Holy Days. We have been fruitful and have Mr. Fred Coulter's messages; we have his Bible and everything is easy.

In Malaysia our main language is English, so we don't have to have translation or whatever, except for the people who are not educated. My dad knew a few languages and he could write, so we have a special Bible study for them for those who really can't understand English. It's basically kind of an easy thing for us there.

It's been going on well until the Passover this year. There's a man called 'trouble shooter'—Mr. Roy Assanti—he came along and it's become a rival problem in Malaysia. The whole of Malaysia is affected with his entry. 'We do not know that there's a minister from CBCG here, do you all have a minister?' Big question mark! Then things start to be rapid and people questioning what is happening, why we have a minister. I have this Living Church minister, my Uncle Rajan Moses—I think most of you know him—so the first thing is he met him and they had a discussion and all that.

Then he (Rajan) was shocked to see him (Roy Assanti) because about 17-18 years we don't have any ministers coming along, all we have is our dad. So, they all feel that if there's no minister there's no church. That is the basic understanding all of them had.

When he (Roy) came along, people got excited. We didn't know that this church, all we know is Mr. Fred Coulter. So, they don't know that anything is going on. So, when Roy came along and we had some problem in my family—two of my sisters in Living Church, and one in United—and they all came back. The all get excited that there's a minister that we should encourage.

All of a sudden he came here and they have a different thought that he should ordain me. Things have gone different and people have started calling me and asking me what is happening? Why is an ordination happening when there is no church called CBCG. So, it's like a cartoon. They feel that suddenly somebody is in, and suddenly somebody is ordained.

It's not a difficult thing to have these people back, because they've all been scattered for different reasons and dictation and all that going on. So, I find it to come to Malaysia is not a difficult task like some of you have. All of them know basic and each one of them have CBCG materials in their hand. For just for the sake of educational thing, but I don't think so, because there's nobody to teach them. So, for the sake of this they have been going through.

So, here comes, 'Andrew, we heard that this has happened. So, CBCG and you are the elder.' So, I'll talk to them after my conference. I'm in shock and I don't know what is going on, so I said, 'Let me get back and I need some support from the group, because we didn't have this for about 20 years in Asia. We don't have the resource to get people attracted.

It's the same thing as people wanting fellowship. It doesn't matter what's going on, but fellowship. When you go to the fellowship it's not really fellowship, it's just everybody keeping quiet. You can't see the faces going on. For five months I went to Living Church with my dad's instruction that he wanted me to learn what was going on there.

So, I went there for five months. ZERO! I have to honest because I've gone through Pentecost, Trumpets, Atonement and Feast of Tabernacles. I didn't get at any point for me to lift up to say that I've learned something about God's plan. So, when I came back to my dad, my dad said, 'I've heard enough! I've eaten the meat. They're still drinking the milk.'

So, I said, 'No! I want to eat meat with you.' I came out and now thing have gone in a different direction. So, I have to get back and know what it's all about. When I'm here on Sunday, my uncle in Living Church minister visited my family and he visited but could meet with any of them. He went to the area and called all my family members and said he wanted to visit. All of a sudden, after 20 years, there was no such thing as visiting even his own people. That is never a thing that he had done that.

My sisters called, 'Uncle is here looking for us!' Why? 'Because the cat is out.' So, I really don't know what is ahead.

FRED: Don't let 'Uncle Rod' find out!

ANDREW: That is all about what is in Malaysia, because I'm going to take care of Malaysian community and members. I don't feel that it's a difficult task where they need guidance, love and compassion. It's what He wants from the people and I don't find it's difficult. But no doubt, I'm not going to hijack people. People calling me and I should advise them; I should talk to them more.

I'm willing to help. And what happened was, immediately after I was ordained, I was doing this church registration called Christian Biblical Church of God in Malaysia. It's gone through very well. In less than a week I got it registered with the government. We're in a Muslim country and everything went well without any question, without any problem.

So, I'm happy and I've got the certificate and I've already forwarded it to Mr. Roy Assanti. God's work is very, very fast. Things can happen in less than a week, when my uncle struggled to get the license for years. The license is under my dad's name, so he wanted to get rid of my dad's name. He found it difficult. When I phoned him he said, 'Andrew, it's a difficult task.'

I don't know anything about it, he just said that. But I got it through, got the license, then everything is formal in Malaysia. Now we can have our office in Malaysia and I can have my own letterhead and everything to be done—within a week!

So, it's a miracle that happened there. It's such a long time, and when it came it came all through well. I'm happy, and I'm thankful to Mr. Roy, very thankful to Mr. Fred.

The reason why people hate us is because we love Mr. Fred Coulter so much, my whole family, every corner, Mr. Fred Coulter is what we have. They're excited that I'm coming, and they've been calling me on phone every day: What is happening? What is happening? We want to hear his voice; that's how excited they are.

We have all younger generation at the moment. I have only one of my aunties, older, about 50+; and the rest of the brethren are all young people. They are willing to help in every corner to build up the Church, so I find it is something positive.

I don't know how Mr. Roy figured it out. It's something God inspired, and everything has gone through and that's what I have to say about the Malaysian church.

(go to track 6)
Transcribed: bo—6/22/16
Corrected 6/29/16