Letter to the Brethren: January 1, 2026

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Dear Brethren and Co-Workers in Christ:

Greetings from the Five Cities Region of California.

Today is the first day of the Roman calendar year which is called 2026.

We ended Roman calendar year 2025 this week by trying to test our new website server. We still use the same hosting service, but they transferred our data to different hard drives. The hope is that this will resolve various speed and access issues for our websites.

However, it is not right yet, we lost some information at sites such as ccog.org and currently that site is not accessible.

Because of that, this Letter was posted at the COGwriter.com website.

Our man in Portugal is working on getting ccog.org properly back online.

Riverside Sermon Recording

As mentioned last week, a while back we switched to using Riverside online software for our sermonette recordings.

Last Sabbath, I recorded a sermon using Riverside which did not work for YouTube (format, not censoring issues).

So, we had another sermon that Chad Branton recorded which is the recommended sermon for this Sabbath.

Anyway, I plan to re-record the other sermon this coming Sabbath. And will again try Riverside.

It is my belief that once we get past some technical difficulties, using Riverside will improve our sermon presentations.

Mandarin Chinese

Received the following email last Sabbath from a supporter who understands Mandarin Chinese:

To: Dr Thiel

Quoted from Letter to the Brethren: December 25, 2025 : ‘Bible News Prophecy International radio site, which has Steve Dupuie and I speaking Chinese …’

I just heard this auto-dubbed broadcast through your link. The voices in Chinese are similar to Mr Dupie & yours, very clear & concise. It should attract Mandarin speakers who are interested in this kind of contents outside of mainland China. Not certain if the broadcast could penetrate into that land though, maybe it can according to God’s will. This is a good start.

That is great.

He is referring to the following, which was uploaded at the Bible News Prophecy International radio site, which has Steve Dupuie and I speaking Chinese (which neither of us do):

美国会退出北约吗？

The above was done using Artificial Intelligence software, and we are pleased that the quality was quote good.

We intend to reach people in as many languages as we can and are pleased to go through this new door.

Summer Camps

With most of Africa being in the Southern Hemisphere, it is officially Summer there.

While we had to scale them down a bit because of limited finances, we have been conducting Summer youth camps in Kenya, Malawi, and Mozambique this week.

Pastor Radson Mulozowa sent the following reports:

Greetings from Malawi and Mozambique
We are all fine by the grace of God
Let me report that the youth camp meeting has started well and everything perfect in the following places
Zomba
Miseu 4
Chikwawa
Domasi
Chileka …

Greetings from chikwawa … Let me report that the youth camp meeting went well both Malawi and Mozambique and youth have enjoyed it though there was much rainfall

Deacon Sosten Libungwa sent the following from Malawi:

Dear Evans,

Greetings from Sosten,the youth camp meeting ended well,we had more progressive this year than last year, hundreds attended the meetings,thank you very much for your prayers and support,our youth will be entering the new year with changed mind,we have so encouraging them in many areas of this life,they have enjoyed the camp meeting,we had two places in Lowershire one in Chikwawa which was not done due to heavy rains and another one was in Nsanje district which I received a positive results,they had also wonderful youth camp meeting though the number was not more due to rains.God bless you.Sosten Libungwa.

Evangelist Evans Ochieng sent the following:

Pastor Dr Bob,

Greetings from Kenya.

I’m happy to give reports of Kenya youth camps 2025. The colorful, happiness and great joy is the youth camp at Ndhiwa. This was the largest youth camp with so may youths folloed by kisii this year. We thank God for the protection and enough food for the camp. We thank you also pastor for the support you gave. It was a great help to us. God is changing small things to be enough like the day Jesus took little bread to feed many and was enough. People really enjoyed the camp. The youths were so happy that they wanted to extend for more days. Yesterday evening we sat down to plan for the 2026 youth camp. And their committee stated that they need the youth camp 2026 to be wonderful. The meeting ended well. I received report from kisii that the youth camp was very Smart. I’m still waiting report from rift valley youth camps.

Malawi

Recently I was talking with molozwa about the youth camp. He told me that they started well. I’ve not received report today but I hope it was good. Sosten has sent the report. The report is good.

Conclusion

We have learned that the youth camp is helping youths highly that every country can try to give chance to youths so that they can learn more during this period. It’s helping youths very much.

Evans

Pastor Ezekiel Oanda Omasa sent the following, starting with a photo of the youth camp, relating to his area in Kenya:

The youths seminar starting from 22nd Monday evening is ok. Today we’re going to tour Eberege tea factory. …

I met with {new} people yesterday at Kisii town {last Sabbath}. I shared with them from the book of Genesis 12:2-4 and Numbers 14:28. It was wonderful. …

In Kisii the church is growing rapidly. God is calling more disciples to His flock. …

May God open more doors to accomplish everything in time in Jesus’ name! I have some people who assisting me minister other groups and they’re doing a wonderful work. They walk long distances every Sabbath. I have tried to assist them with the little that I receive but there’s a challenge. Something need to be done to spread the gospel before the darkness comes. This is my prayer and God’s grace be sufficient in the time of need in Jesus’ name. Hallelujah praise God.

Yes, we have been having growth in Kenya–and yes, we are working to teach the gospel before the time comes, that Jesus said, no man can work (John 9:4).

Pastor Tiongik Sawek sent the following report from the Rift Valley of Kenya:

We are doing well here and I am happy to report to you that today we concluded youth Camp here in Chilani.

The camp was very blessed and since we bagan youth camp some years back we have gotten fruits out of it.We as the church we are very happy to see members who were mentored during youth camps now growing and becoming straight forward and firm to the church.

The theme of the youth camp was Proverbs 22:6 and Mathew 19:12-14 …

I will be sending you the report at the course of next week on how all Rift valley youth camps went on.

Thank you and God bless you

Yours Pastor Sawek

In the end time, one part of the work is to, “turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers” (Malachi 4:6). Youth camps are just one way to help do that.

Closing Act

Joan Galloway, one of our ‘Closing Act’ volunteers sent the following update on projects she has been part of:

New eBooks:

* The Gospel of the Kingdom of God in Russian

* Proof Jesus is the Messiah

* Beliefs of the Original Catholic Church

* Christians: Ambassadors for the Kingdom of God

* Hope of Salvation: How Continuing Church of God differs from Protestantism

* Who Gave the World the Bible

* Islamic and Biblical Prophecies for the 21st Century

* Is God’s Existence Logical? Scientific Truths vs. Myths Called Science

* About Baptism

* Meditation for Faithful Christians

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

New Audio Books:

* Who Gave the World the Bible

* Ten Commandments: The Decalogue, Christianity, and the Beast

* The Gospel of the Kingdom of God in English

* Proof Jesus is the Messiah
* Meditation for Faithful Christian’s

* Islamic & Biblical Prophecies for the 21st Century

* Is God’s Existence Logical? Scientific Truths vs. Myths Called Science

* Hope of Salvation: How the Continuing Church of God differs from Protestantism

* Christians: Ambassadors for the Kingdom of God

* Beliefs of the Original Catholic Church

* About Baptism

This list of audio books will become available soon after processing. Some books that are already Audio Books and also eBooks such as “About baptism” and “The Gospel of the Kingdom of God” are available on Vivlio, Tolino, Smashwords, OverDrive Audio, OverDrive, Odilo, Koba, Hoopla, Gardners, Fable, Everland, D2D Audio, Cloud Library, Borrow, Barnes & Noble, and Apple.

One of the ‘benefits’ of being removed by Amazon Kindle is that we have updated literature and have also been turning the updated literature into audio and eBooks.

Getting more information available is one of the ways we are preparing for the short work of Romans 9:28 (see also Preparing for the ‘Short Work’ and The Famine of the Word).

Suggested Sabbath Services

Here is a suggested Sabbath day service for our scattered brethren and other interested people for the Last Great Day Sabbath service:

Note: If you have a slow internet connection, you can watch these by starting the video, then below it (and towards the right) look for an outline of a gear–if you click on that, it will allow the YouTube video to be played with lower video quality, but at least it will not stop often–you can select a quality as low as 144p. If your internet connection is still too slow (as my home one is) and/or you prefer audio messages to audio-visuals ones, go to the YouTube link for the message, click on SHOW MORE related to the description. You will then see something that says, “Download MP3.” Below that is a link to an MP3 file. Most computers (and even some cellular telephones) will allow MP3 files to be downloaded and played. This is an option we have made available (but we are also looking into ways to improve that as well)–and, of course, we have written article options. Some people have found that if their internet connections are not fast enough, that they can simply listen to the messages that are found at the Bible News Prophecy online radio channel.

IN CASE YOU DO NOT RECEIVE A ‘LETTER TO THE BRETHREN’ FOR ANY WEEK, REMEMBER THAT THERE ARE MANY SERMON MESSAGES ON THE ContinuingCOG channel AND MANY SERMONETTE MESSAGES ON THE Bible News Prophecy channel. There are also some messages at the CCOGAfrica channel. There are also messages in the Spanish language at the CDLIDDSermones channel.

World News Items

Iran has been in the news as Israel would like to attack it again (see Is Iran on the brink of collapse or war?). Also this week, Iran’s President says his nation is at war with the United States, Israel and Europe. The situation with Iran is something to watch (Mark 13:37) as we may see the fulfillment of Isaiah 22:6-9 this year, which would involve an attack by an Iranian alliance that will cause great damage to Jerusalem.

The US dollar did not do well on currency markets in 2025 (see US dollar claimed to be the weakest major currency in 2025–will there be an end to US dollar dominance?). We have long warned that the end of US dollar dominance is coming and several events in 2025 aligned with that view.

In addition to steps taken by the BRICS+ block, 5 European countries (who are not in the European Union) joined SEPA, the Single Euro Payments Area in 2025. Today, the nation of Bulgaria is now officially using the Euro as its currency (see Why is it a big deal for Bulgaria to be adopting the Euro?). In addition to promoting more trade in the Euro (and hence less in the US dollar), the Europeans are also looking for new trade and other alliances, consistent with biblical prophecies in Revelation 17 & 18 (see also European Union hit by tariffs and other trade issues in 2025–making new alliances is its plan).

Concluding Comments

The Apostle John wrote the following:

6 This is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, that as you have heard from the beginning, you should walk in it. (2 John 6)

Brethren, despite more and more of the world being against God’s commandments, and false ministers who teach against them, yes, we are to walk in God’s loving commandments.

Sincerely,

Bob Thiel
Pastor and Overseer