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 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
CoxSimone@hotmail.com