Letter from South Africa

Dearest Brothers and Sisters

Allow me to restate a few words of thanks to some very special
people. This is a letter that was published by Saskia Raevouri in
September last year. I'd like to say these words to you now, adding
a comment about future publications of the Urantia book at the end
(in bold).

/Our thanks to: Mark Bloomfield, Gary Rawlings, Tamara Wood, Merindi
Swadling, Fred Harris, Paula Sutton, Saskia Raevouri, Norman Ingram,
Paula Thompson at the Urantia Book Fellowship, Michelle Klimesh and
friends at the Pipeline of Light, Buck and Arlene Weimer, Marthe
Muller, Urantia Foundation, the UAI and other Urantia friends./

Mark Bloomfield recently spent some time in South Africa as part of
his African seeding mission, and I was privileged to spend some
time with this energetic and devoted young man. His presence here is
a wonderful blessing for us.

On behalf of the budding Urantia community in South Africa, kindly
allow me to express our gratitude and appreciation for the wonderful
work you are all doing in service of the Fifth Epochal Revelation,
our Christ Michael, and our beloved planet, and for your generous
contributions to our own efforts.

As a spiritually progressive country, South Africa is thirsty for
the rich blessing of the Urantia teachings. Not only will we benefit
greatly from the books seeded into our local libraries, but we also
enjoy upliftment and encouragement from your loving prayers and kind
support.

Our Urantia community is still embryonic (we now have almost 80
readers on record) but is growing at the rate of four to six new
(recorded) readers every month. Many more unknown readers are
discovering the book in the home of a friend or in their local
library and will no doubt find their way into the fold. Although
these are /new/ readers and would need at least four or five /years/
to work their way through the book, nonetheless we are already
receiving enthusiastic feedback and word-of-mouth recommendations
from many who have received their own cherished copy of the Urantia
Book.

As local readers' groups are forming organically, we continue to
distribute every copy as it reaches our shores, as the demand for
the Urantia Book has exploded in recent months, and we have a
backlog of orders for every media -- hardcovers, softcovers, old
editions, secondhand copies, audio sets, study aids, posters, etc.

Although our courage is bolstered by this overwhelming response, we
continue to proceed at a sober pace and as funds allow. At this
point we are not making enough of a profit to order another shipment
of books, because we are gifting most of the books for free and
selling the rest at a very low cost to cover the expenses of renting
a booth at the bi-monthly _Body, Mind and Soul Fayre_
<http://www.bodymindsoulfayre.co.za/home.htm> and for photocopying
some pamphlets.

/
/Simone manning the UB booth at the Body, MInd and Soul Fayre in
South Africa

If there are any secondhand copies out there, or old editions,
please let us know, as we have many student readers who are eager to
obtain a copy. Thanks again to every sponsor who has so generously
helped to empower this exciting project (Mark Bloomfield's _South
African Urantia Book seeding mission_), your contributions are as
much appreciated as those of our Mark who does indeed cover the
globe in his worn-out boots and single backpack to seed the planet
with this universal truth.

Our special thanks to Norman Ingram, who 'grooved the grid' in South
Africa with his initial community seeding mission [in 1998], to
Marthe Muller who seeded the first libraries in Cape Town and
empowered the first readers' group in Cape Town, to Buck and Arlene
Weimer who flew in to meet with us and encourage us, to Michelle
Klimesh and the _Pipeline of Light_ who donated the first shipment
of books to seed into Johannesburg libraries, to Paula
Thompson who sent over 110 books to start us off properly, and to
Mark Bloomfield who has made it his personal mission to bring these
teachings to the farthest outlying corners of the globe. Our thanks
also to those nameless heroes who have made their quiet contribution
and have passed into obscurity -- your efforts are recorded
nonetheless and one day we will be honoured to thank you properly. :)

As we pray earnestly that these wonderful papers will find their way
into the homes, hearts and minds of our rich cultural society, we
also pray that those who have reached out to Southern Africa,
invested their hard-earned cash, their time, energy, and heartfelt
intent in seeding South Africa and her sister countries, will
receive ten-fold blessings in return.

_*Added comment: *_

*We would also like to express our hope that the publishers of the
Urantia book will give careful consideration to the matter raised by
Mark Bloomfield recently, in that there is a concern about using
images, pictures and illustrations on the covers of Urantia books
and related publications. I am writing in support of his comments in
this regard. As fieldworkers, we find ourselves dealing directly
with new and potential readers, and we feel great passion in
presenting the Urantia book as a non-denominational revelation for
all humanity. This naturally includes readers from all faiths and
belief systems, some of which may be turned away at first glance by
images on the cover of the Urantia book, whatever those images may
be, and however appropriate they may seem to other Urantia book
readers. *

*From the start, with our initial efforts at promoting the Urantia
book in South Africa, our first request to sponsors was for
publications without images on the cover. We were fortunate to
obtain some old editions from the Fellowship that suited our purpose
nicely. These plain-cover blue-books were invaluable in establishing
our niche in the South African market as a non-denominational
movement. It is our cherished hope that future publications of the
Urantia book will, wherever they are printed, reflect this universal
approach to making the Urantia book palatable and attractive to
readers from every walk of life.*

*I am currently in Turkey, preparing for the first adventure offered
by our new enterprise called 'Urantia Tours' which has been created
to generate funding for Urantia book fieldwork and translations.
Every time I return to Turkey, I am impressed at the progress of
this unique country, in that it is the first Islamic state to
separate its government from its religious leadership. This country,
I feel, will be one of the first Islamic countries to investigate
the Urantia book. The young people are open minded and eager for new
insights. Their universities are brimming with bright minds.
However, many of the heads of state (and in fact most of the
population of Turkey) still cherish religious tradition and it can't
be assumed that we may fail to be respectful and sensitive to their
traditions. *

*In this regard, I trust that all publishers of the Urantia book and
related works, will give careful consideration to this matter and
continue to provide us with the very best in spiritual material. For
this we thank one and all.*

Praise to our Paradise Father for His never-ending kindness.
God's speed,

Simone Cox