President’s December 2014 Message
There is excitement in the air! There is no definitive way to measure excitement, to say that there is more excitement than last week or last month or last year – excitement is an experiential reality. But this buzz in the air about the Association and the projects we are accomplishing together has manifested in two ways: first, people are talking! In their recent letter to their entire mailing list, the Urantia Foundation chose to highlight two of the Association’s national projects. In Colombia the Association has been importing books and selling them to individuals and bookstores hoping to reduce the cost of El Libro de Urantia in their country. In Ukraine, the National Association has taken a similar step, and together with the International Association we have embarked on a plan to pierce the tough wall of the Ukrainian bookstore market. The success of the National Associations in Colombia and Ukraine will serve as models for other nations to follow paths to make the teaching of The Urantia Book more available and more affordable than ever before. The story of these Associations is so inspiring that the entire Urantia Community wants to spread the word and sing their praises!
We have assembled here for the 12th Annual Virginia Carolina Readers Mini Conference. We are a small group, and the question naturally arises about why we do this. Why spend so much of our time relatively speaking on one endeavor. We have been studying these intriguing revelations for years, and on face value, it would appear that we have not made much progress in bringing these revelations to the world. But I would ask you to consider these thoughts as you ponder in your mind whether or not it is worth the effort.
It requires different methods to teach children and Siegel has to keep them engaged. In a recent meeting she asked the kids, “According to Dale Carnegie, what do you think, is the most favorite word of people?” The answers were love, thank you, and please. But, according to Dale Carnegie, the word is your name. So each week she talks about how they are and it seems to have made a difference. “I start with: ‘How was your week?’ If they answer, ‘Good,’ I ask, ‘Why was it good?’ Or if they say ‘bad,’ I ask, ‘Why was it bad?’ We go around the room and they share a lot or a little, depending on what’s going on in their lives. Over time I really get to know these kids and they feel validated and heard by an adult they trust—who’s not their parent.”
Unlike human education, which makes information and knowledge accessible to the thinking mind, in the encounter with The Urantia Book teachings, The Urantia Book Internet School (UBIS) has to provide students with the opportunity to realize truth in their own experience. As mota 16 declares: “You cannot perceive truth until you feelingly experience it…” That begs several questions: How do we provide for that experience in the online UBIS classroom comprised of students who are not physically present to one another? What role (if any) does the soul play in both the experience of truth and in its consequent perception? As we read and study together the words which embody the fifth epochal revelation, can the Teacher-Facilitator and students together create an enhanced awareness of the possibility of, and the necessity for, the personal experience of truth which will lead to its subsequent perception?
Although The Urantia Book does not offer any official interpretations of its teachings, your study group may benefit from using the following selected text and questions to foster an in-depth approach to your reading and study experience. These questions, then, are designed to stimulate thought in reference to a highlighted section from The Urantia Book.
My dearly beloved brother Rick Lyon, and our international family of students of The Urantia Book in the USA and around the world. Good day and happy greetings from Africa to you all. I am writing to you in order for you to view and share my family photo, our home study group here in Lagos.