Dear Friend,

As we near the end of the calendar year, we gratefully look back on a very encouraging year of growth. In a world of uncertainty and turmoil, the one constant hope for all humanity is the promise God gave that Jesus Christ will return and establish a lasting peace on this earth. Jesus commissioned His Church to never cease or slacken its efforts to spread the message about His coming Kingdom, and that's what motivates us every day!

This spiritually and morally blinded world so desperately needs to understand, in virtually every area of living, the knowledge of God and how much happier we could be if we would only listen to Him! When the ancient prophet Hosea said, "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge," he was talking about the knowledge of God. How true those words are today, too! We have so much knowledge about everything today except what we need the most, the knowledge of God.

It encourages us greatly to know that you are among those who are seriously considering the meaning of life, the condition of the world around us, what God says about it and how to live according to His will. We are also very grateful for your support and prayers in helping us reach and affect many more people every month. Lives are being changed for the better, and you are a part of that by helping to spread the word! I'd like to give you a few examples of how we have been encouraged lately.

We had a print run for the November-December issue of The Good News magazine of 437,334 copies, and we are planning strong advertising campaigns in the next few months to significantly increase our readership. One way we see an increasing impact of this magazine is through a dramatic surge in visitors to The Good News Web site (www.gnmagazine.org). In the past fiscal year we have had 1.15 million visitors, which is a whopping 207 percent increase over the year before! Another example of readers digging more deeply into the Bible is that during the last fiscal year we reprinted 135,000 copies of the Bible Study Course, for a total of 1.18 million copies of all lessons printed.

On another front for spreading the word, members of the United Church of God actively participate in their local neighborhoods by distributing subscription brochures. We also began, on October 1, distributing 721,000 bifold "take one" subscription brochures on 4,503 "Good Neighbor" displays located at the entrances of major U.S. supermarkets and discount stores—including Wal-Mart, A&P, Safeway, Kroger and many others. Seven new brochures are being offered that advertise a variety of our free booklets and a free subscription to The Good News.

In addition, we are now entering our second season of airing the Beyond Today television program. We recently held production meetings at our home office in Cincinnati, Ohio, to plan the next 40 programs. These will cover a wide range of important subjects and will incorporate enhancements and format changes that will ensure that this second season builds favorably upon the first.

These are just a few examples of how we see God blessing these efforts. Without His help, without Him opening doors and opening hearts and minds, all human effort is in vain. But Jesus Christ promised that He would be with His Church until the end of the age, and that the gospel would indeed be preached as a witness before His return.

There is nothing more important or exciting than that good news! It gives hope, meaning to life and sound direction in how to live in such a manner that "makes life work." In fact, if you haven't yet read our booklet Making Life Work, please read it online or order your own free copy! Again, thank you for your response and support. Please keep us in your prayers, as you will be in ours.

Until next month, may God be with you,

Clyde Kilough
President
United Church of God