Report of the Work of the International Fellowship Committee
General Council Meeting/EC Meeting
January 2006

 

A major sea change has taken place in the work of the revelation.  We are increasingly needing to respond to needs and opportunities emerging in the field as contrasted with our organization's earlier approach of conceiving of projects in committees and then having a committee execute the project.  The proliferation of translations and the increased distribution of The Urantia Book to distant parts of the planet is creating challenging and novel situations. 

 

Most pressing is the need for financial resources for the funding of translations, subsidizing of book sales, and travel expenses.  We are evolving a group of experienced people, some polylingual, who can travel, meet with local readers and media, access local and regional situations and provide important feedback about which projects we should be funding.  We have been somewhat restricted in our efforts over the past few years due to limited Fellowship budgets.  Fortunately outside contributors are now coming forth who are providing funds earmarked for travel and book purchases.  The Pipeline of Light project is providing important much-needed funding for books. The addition of these resources effectively triples our operational budget for 2006 but we are still far short of the resources needed to meet the opportunities that are open to us. (In El Salvador, one copy of El Libro de Urantia costs the equivalent of an average person's wages for 15 days of work -- similar numbers exist in many other parts of the world.)  

 

The present spread of The Urantia Book in the world is limited only by available financial resources.

 

A major administrative advance was made this past fall with the setting up of the IntDev group (stands for International Development).  This group consists of individuals actively working on or financially supporting international outreach activity.  The purpose of creating this group was to do a better job of integrating and coordinating international outreach that was being undertaken by various groups and individuals.  At present this group consists Bob Lawson,  Barry and Kaye Clark, Bill and Share Beasley, Diane Bishop, JJ Johnson, Ken Raveill, Michelle Klimesh, Robert Burns, Sue Tennant, Susan Ransbottom, Saskia Raevouri, Paula Thompson, Buck Weimer, Polly Friedman, Dolores Nice, Norman Ingram, and myself.  This has turned out to be a very productive group and I am grateful for all that these folks bring to bear on the international work.

 

The Pipeline of Light project has really gotten off the ground thanks to the work of Michelle Klimesh.  We are hopeful that this project will provide an additional $10,000 in 2006 for subsidizing the international distribution of books.  A $25.00 contribution will purchase a book and pay for shipping to any place on the planet.  You can make a contribution online at http://urantiabook.org/support.htm.  You can also sign up for a repeating auto-debit.  Why not contribute a book a month, or have your study group contribute a book or more each month?  This can be done for the price of a few lattes.

 

We have a good working relationship with Tamara Wood at Urantia Foundation and Adrienne Greer at Alliance that has streamlined the shipping of books from the Pipeline.  Michelle Klimesh will present details of the Pipeline program at the General Council meeting. 

 

The following report will hit the high points of what is happening on the international front. 

 

Misc. Around the World

 

One of the most fortuitous circumstances with which we have been blessed is the work of JJ Johnson, an aggressive evangelist of the revelation who constantly travels around the world in his job for the U.S. Department of State.  He has placed dozens of books around the world.  Here is a sampling from the past few months:

 

US Department of State

Foggy Bottom

Washington, DC  20520

 

(JJ writes:  Foggy Bottom is in the Basement of the Main State Bldg and has a library where various State Department personnel drop off books and pick some up on their travels around the world.  Diplomats of various kinds frequent this place...and....who knows :-))

 

The State Library of NSW
Sydney, Australia

 

Aunt Gee's Residence

Norfolk,  VA (where Dr. Condoleezza Rice stays when she is in Washington).

        

Arlington Public Library

Arlington,  VA

 

The Library Of Busan National University

Burma

 

NBB  Public Library
Isa Town, Bahrain

 

Pusan, Korea

                       

Ottawa Public Library

Ottawa, Canada 
(JJ writes:  They had two books -  One was missing and the other was checked out.)

                        

Residence Inn / Marriott                     

Rosslyn, VA

(JJ writes: The staff at the front desk asked if I would place a book in their reading section. I agreed. They have a cross section of guests who stay there from a day or so to weeks like I do. They have several shelves of books that get checked out for a day or so.)

 

The National Library                           
Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan

 

Fat Boys Cafe

(2 Blocks from Hyatt Hotel)

Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan

 

Central and South America

 

The work in Latin America would simply not be happening if it were not for people like Susan Ransbottom, Agustin Arellano, and Nelida Oliver.  I am grateful for the opportunity to work with such dedicated and enthusiastic people.

 

The work of Agustin Arellano in Central and South America remains the most significant outreach program the movement has ever seen.  Susan Ransbottom will provide detailed information on this work at the General Council meeting. Much of what is being done internationally at this point involves getting leadership people in touch with each other so that an integrated, coordinated effort can be developed at local and regional levels. 

 

We are starting to distribute Spanish copies of the Jesus timeline poster which Ken Raveill created.  This has turned out to be a popular item.

 

Agustin is maintaining a publishing schedule for translated works considered to be of interest to Spanish readers.  This is being done through a publishing agency he has set up called "Casa Mek Editores."  The publishing schedule for this year includes:

 

January 2006   The basic teachings of Urantia Book (Mary Ebbens)

March   2006  Life after death (Jesusonian)

May 2006  The book of everything (Michelle K)

July 2006  The Tao and UB (Richard Omura)

 

Agustin started a program in May 2005 to activate old study groups and open at least one in every main city in Mexico and Latin America.  With Fellowship help he is currently able to place well over 50 books each month.

 

From the Mazatlan conference in May, readers were able to carry more books to Ecuador and to Mexico City.  In June books were provided to three groups in Hermosillo.  In addition he had meetings in Culiacan, Mexico City, and Queretaro.

 

In August he visited Tlaxcala, Puebla where there are now two groups.  He also visited Hidalgo and groups in Tula and Pachuca.  Books for five groups in Monterrey were sent as well as books to the groups in Nuevo Laredo and Reynosa.

 

In September he tried to do some presentations in Aguascalientes but ran into problems securing a place for a presentation as oppositional catholic groups are strong there.  The same problem was encountered in October in Guanajuato, even though there are quite a few readers in the area. 

 

In November Agustin put together the first national meeting in Bolivia, also visiting with groups in Peru on his way.  This was an important trip to Peru -- in the past it has seemed impossible to find readers or groups to develop in Peru.  This year he was able to make some very good contacts and some solid foundations are now being developed in Peru.  This trip included visits to San Luis Potosi and Zacatecas.

 

In December he worked on setting up a meeting in Mexico City to celebrate the second anniversary of Grupo Nambia.

 

This month (January 2006) he participated in the 3rd National Conference in Guatemala, going on to El Salvador for their first National Conference, visiting groups in Honduras and Panama as part of this trip in an effort to get the two groups working together.

 

Here is a fragment of an email message I received from Agustin which might help you appreciate the context in which he works and the need for a responsive support system:

 

David, I got back to El Salvador; it was a nightmare.  The immigration and narks stopped me at the border and thought I was carrying drugs inside the UBs.  Tomorrow I finish here in El Salvador the last presentation.  Hopefully this will get the next group going.  Aguz.  P.S.  The money did not show up in my Citibank card and it doesn't work anymore.  I'm broke!

 

On January 21 a regional meeting was held in San Jose, Costa Rica.  I have not yet gotten information on how this meeting went.  In much of Latin America there is significant social stratification along economic lines.  This is particularly problematic in Costa Rica, Colombia, and Chile.  Even readers of The Urantia Book are not prone to cross these lines which makes coordinated efforts in these countries very difficult.  This is a problem throughout Latin America.

 

The weekend of January 28 will see a major conference in Guadalajara and a meeting in Tepic on the 30th.  It should be noted that for many of these conferences there is advance work being done including radio interviews and presentations in other local mass media.

 

We are planning a major trip to Chile and Argentina in March.  We have more than 450 Argentinian reader names on our Spanish mailing list yet little has been done to organize these readers.  This trip will consist of a tour of major towns in Argentina with a series of public  introductory talks and presentations to existing readers.  Meetings in Chile are currently scheduled for March  6 - 9.  These will include meetings with existing readers in Santiago as well as possible visits to nearby towns where there are groups of readers.  The Argentina trip will be from March 10 - 21, ending in Buenos Aires.

 

The planning for this trip is being done by Agustin, Nelida Oliver, and Mario Fereya.  A meeting in Buenos Aires is being planned by Carlos Rubinsky, the former rep of Urantia Foundation.  We are still experiencing the fallout of Urantia Foundation cutting IUA loose.  Last year I had a very productive conversation with Rodrigo Miño, the Foundation's former rep in Ecuador.  He seemed genuinely interested in working with the independent groups which are in the process of formation.  This was someone who had been very hostile to us just a few years earlier.  Carlos Rubinsky is in the same position and it should be very helpful to have a visit with him.  In Colombia there is still great hostility on the part of the local IUA leader.  Longtime reader, Carlos Zapata, is so fed up that he is determined to start an independent Colombian Urantia organization "free of the influence of the Gringos."

 

There are also problems with IUA leaders in Bolivia who are forbidding the use of quotes in any written materials and have inculcated considerable fear and timidity in the local readership.  These folks remind me of stories I've read of Japanese soldiers fighting on remote islands of the Pacific long after the war had ended -- simply because no one had told them that this had happened.

 

In May the annual Conference of the Three Americas will be held in Guayaquil, Ecuador.  A tour of reader groups and cities in Ecuador and Peru is being planned in conjunction with this conference. This is being organized by Nelida Oliver, Susan Ransbottom, and Agustin Arellano and will include significant media work in conjunction with the conference.  Five groups will be visited beginning in Quito and then Otavalao, Rio Bamba, Loja and Guayaquil.  Agustin will make a stop in Puebla on his return trip to Mexico.

 

We desperately need to make a trip to Venezuela to meet with some local leaders and try to catalyze some organization in that country.   Venezuela is going through a period of significant social and political development (as is much of Latin America) and it might be good if the revelation could be more a part of that.

 

In Colombia the building purchased by Jerry Pando is being used for regular meetings by by "Fundacion Exito Verde" headed by Patricia Rozo and the "Cordesaes" group led by Jose Mañuel Rodriguez Vargas.

 

Europe

 

In April 2006 Agustin and two other readers from Mexico will be going to Europe to conduct some meetings and visit known readers with hopes of catalyzing the formation of some viable Western European study groups.  They will be visiting Spain, France, and Italy.  There is a group of Mexican ex-pats that they will visit in Vienna and another in Prague with whom they are presently trying to make arrangements.  Recall that Agustin is fluent in French and has fostered a number of groups in France -- he will be visiting these groups on this trip.

 

The Whelan's Spiritual Vitamins have proven very popular and effective in Latin America.  The Mexican readers are working on producing quantities in Italian and French for their upcoming outreach trip.

 

I will be going to Lithuania in early May and will meet with Algimantas and the Lithuanian readers.  The supply of books held by the Lithuanian distributor is currently depleted and we are working to get more books in place.  There are some administrative difficulties between the distributor and Urantia Foundation the nature of which is not completely clear to me.  But we've been in touch with Tamara on the matter and it seems as if it is in the process of getting resolved. 

 

The Lithuanian website is proving to be very successful with an average of some 460 visitors each day.  In June the annual national gathering in Lithuania will take place.  In the past this has included readers from neighboring Latvia and Finland.  Promotional efforts being made this year should increase attendance substantially. 

 

Matthew and Saskia are moving to Holland this year and have already begun communication with the Dutch representative of Urantia Foundation.  Since I intend to be working in Eastern Europe for several months each year, I am hopeful that we will be able to bring about some of the interaction and coordination in Europe that has developed in Latin America.  This summer I am planning to visit readers in Kiev, Ukraine, St. Petersburg and Moscow in Russia, and will be visiting with readers with whom I left books in Poland two years ago.  In 2009 Vilnius will be the capital city of the European Union and the Lithuanian readers are hopeful of being able to host a regional conference that will bring in readers and leaders from the surrounding countries.

 

Algimantas Jokubenas reports that on February 18th, the eleven year anniversary of his first lecture to a group in Vilnius will be reached.  In Kaunas, the second largest city in the country, an independent group is operating successfully after a six year effort on his part to get it going.  This group is now meeting on a weekly basis under its own leadership.

 

Algimantas has focused on working with the Vilnius group in hopes that members will get more involved in outreach activities such as hosting additional study groups. 

 

He sets up a table on the street nearly every day and talks with passersby about the book. 

He writes: 

 

This ministry is extremely important because people do not have any information on the existence of such a unique revelation.

 

And they tend to pass by without paying much attention to me if I stand just passively without calling their attention to the book. Thus I also undergo a very good training on man's psyche and his reaction to unaccustomed things that he might encounter.

 

I receive different reactions from being called a satanist to the warmest expressions of sincere gratitude for this ministry. But the absolute majority do not say anything but by their questions put to me I see that so many young people are in a sincere quest of God but they do not know where to find Him since in the current church of rituals they experience some vacuum devoid of life.

 

I have distributed most probably close to two thousand short introductions to the Urantia Book.  Every Friday new people are coming to the Urantia group sessions but each time they are different. That is why we need new copies of the Urantia Book in bookstores and new groups for the beginners. And it is for these new groups that I do my best to train new teachers in the Urantia group in Vilnius.

 

On the other hand I was also approached even by those who have already read the Urantia Book in Russian and now reading it in Lithuanian but who say that they do not need any group. They prefer staying alone. This is not good for them since all the same they need some activity in service which is best among one's brethren even though one's service might be anywhere. 

 

Sometimes the street audience increases to seven-ten persons at a time.  That big interest in the Urantia Book that is being expressed on the street shows that there are great potentials dormant in man that must be turned into his actuals.

 

To spread the word on the book is half-work done. It is also necessary to interest people in reading the book. For there have been such passers by who were stating with pride that they had even purchased one but to my question whether they were reading it, the answers were "not, yet." Thus to have a book dormant on the book shelf no good either for the owner or God's creation since there is no enough of spiritual circulation in all the spiritual system by the impediment of one individual whose potential is to be born of the spirit.  That is why I think that many more people might be reached directly on the street where there is a chance for a dialogue.

 

 

Asia

 

I am re-establishing contact with Dr. Rajan and Ivy Chauhan in Jabalpur, India. They have a room in their home set aside for Urantia activities and have between 20 and 30 individuals attending their study group each week.  They are interested in becoming more involved in regional outreach activities.  I am hopeful that we will find the resources to help support their efforts.

 

Ken Raveill's group in Kansas City continues its support of Nadia Gill and her groups in Pakistan. We just sent her a case of hardbacks from Pipeline funds.  The hardbacks are good in Pakistan because the dust jacket with its Christian graphics are problematic and can be removed.  In addition to supporting her Urantia work, various readers contributed some $7,000 to her for use by her group for earthquake relief efforts.

 

In Korea the first printing of the New York Society's Korean translation has sold out and they are preparing to reprint.  We were able to contribute a small amount from the International budget to their Korean effort.  Barry and Kaye Clark are coordinating the Korean effort along with members of their Korean study group in New York.  You can reach Barry and Kay at barryc00@bellatlantic.net .  Barry maintains the translation portal at http://www.theuniversalfather.org .  During 2005 more than 3,000 copies of The Urantia Book were downloaded from this website.  A search engine for all available translations is maintained on the Fellowship website at http://urantiabook.org:5631/ -- Barry was key to getting this programmed with the Korean language character set.

 

In late December we sent some books to a Seminary in Burma but they have not arrived yet.  I'm concerned they have been seized in customs.  Burma has one of the most repressive governments on the planet.  If they do not arrive soon we may try to send them by some means which will enable us to track them.  These were being sent to contacts provided by JJ Johnson.

 

We also have an agreement to provide books for several study groups created by Jorgan Andrews, another State Department employee, in Khazakstan.

 

Africa

 

In February Buck and Arlene Weimer will be making a trip to Ndola, Zambia to visit with Chita and Namukale.  Chita is lining up some regional presentations at libraries, etc. and the Weimers will be taking a supply of books (as well as a set of guitar strings for Chita).  We're also supplying Chita with an LCD projector which he can use with his laptop.  Laptops and LCD projectors are emerging as a key outreach tool for use in public presentations and study groups.  More resources are needed to enable us to provide these tools to more leaders.  At present we can afford to place only one LCD projector each year. 

 

There is an Anglican Bishop in Capetown who is very interested in The Urantia Book and its promotion.  We are looking into having Buck and Arlene take a few days to make the trip down to Capetown to visit with him and to meet with other readers in the Area.

 

One of the things we are doing is looking into ways in which local and regional groups can raise funds for outreach projects locally.  Buck and Arlene will be helping Chita and Namukale to assess their situation in Zambia.  Chita and Namukale have suggested several business options that could be exploited.  This is an emerging frontier in our work as we struggle to find ways of financing the increasing workload resulting from the spread of interest in the book.

 

There is additional work being done in Africa which is beyond the scope of this report.  Additional information may be found on Norman Ingram's website at http://www.ubla.org/uno/

 

We are in very early stages of trying to put African leaders in touch with each other.  I have good reason to believe that Africa may become a real beacon for the revelation and I am particularly pleased to see the enthusiasm and dedication that Chita and Namukale have.  

 

In closing . . .

 

Our primary needs are for more financial resources and polylingual workers. 

 

Then saith He to His disciples, "The harvest indeed is abundant, but the workmen few." Matthew 9:37

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

David Kantor

January 2006