The Good News Magazine Reader Update -- September 2007

The Good News - A Magazine of Understanding

Dear Readers,

Imagine my surprise last week to walk into the small waiting room of the airport terminal in Lusaka, Zambia, and find a man reading a copy of The Good News magazine! Imagine his surprise when I introduced myself as the president of the church that publishes the GN! Ben Makungu, I found out, is an airport employee who was on his break time. Equally surprising was that the July-August 2007 issue in his hands was originally mailed to a subscriber in the United States. How it found its way to Zambia is a mystery—had a tourist left it behind? Had a subscriber forwarded it to a friend or family member? Who knows? Regardless, someone else in Lusaka had already read the magazine and passed it on to Mr. Makungu, who was eagerly devouring the articles.

Clyde Kilough and Ben Makungu in the Lusaka, Zambia, airport terminal (photo by André van Belkum).

We know the gospel of the Kingdom of God is going into "all the world as a witness to all the nations" (Matthew 24:14), and we frequently give you statistics about the work that we are doing to fulfill that commission. But to actually stumble upon someone reading our literature for the very first time makes our efforts personal and thrilling in a way that facts and figures cannot convey! I hope it is a joy to you to know that thousands of people like this gentleman are daily coming across The Good News, the Beyond Today television program, the United Church of God Web sites, Vertical Thought, World News and Prophecy, our many booklets and the Bible Study Course. Lives are being changed! The knowledge of God's way of life is offering stability and extending hope to thousands of people trying to survive in our turbulent world.

Zambia and Malawi, for example, are just two among the many very poor nations in the world. But in the midst of great difficulties, the people who find the Word of God discover that it brings not only the promise of a better world when Christ returns, but a better way of life today for those who will follow Him now. As the apostle Paul wrote, "Godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come" (1 Timothy 4:8). I was in those two countries visiting several hundred members of the United Church of God, an International Association. Their lives are living testimonies to the truth of Paul's statement. They have profited—spiritually, first and foremost, but often physically as well—through the lifestyle changes brought about by obeying God.

But while some nations are physically impoverished, the entire world is spiritually poor and crippled. The apostle Peter once said to a crippled man asking for help, "Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk" (Acts 3:6). A spiritually destitute world desperately needs what we can give, the knowledge of God. That is the work to which we are committed, and we are grateful that you share our passion and concern.

The September/October issue of The Good News has gone to press, and is now available on our Web site. Two articles of note discuss the biblical festivals that occur during September and October: "God's Plan to End Evil and Suffering" and "The Biblical Map to Jesus Christ's Return."

The gospel message includes this wonderful knowledge of God's blueprint for the future of humankind. The United Church of God, which sponsors The Good News magazine, will soon portray that coming peaceful world by participating in God's annual fall Holy Day season. To learn more about the meaning of these days, please request your copy of God's Holy Day Plan: The Promise of Hope for All Mankind. It's absolutely free, and the biblical connections it makes between Jesus Christ, these Holy Days and biblical prophecy are eye-opening.