Multiple Publishing Houses Worldwide: Progress Report, Part 2: A Dream Comes True

For Part 1 in this series, please go here.

Vanuatu

In June 2018 we at upa7.org began to receive emails requests from brethren in the south Pacific islands of Vanuatu to come visit them and address two urgent needs. 1) Help them understand the changes and remodeling of the original SRod message that has taken place in the years since the death of Brother Houteff and 2) to help them publish the original SRod tract literature. They indicated that they had be watching some of the recent presentations we had posted on YouTube documenting changes to the original SRod literature and artwork. This group had been under the administration of the Mt. Dale GADSDA for many years and where not satisfied with their explanations when they were asked about the originals and why the changes had taken place. Mt. Dale had a large group organized on these islands approaching 300 members with an established branch leadership. They also conducted several DLI programs there over the years as resent as January of 2018.

At first, we were apprehensive about going since the cost of airfare was very high. We told them we are open to visiting but would have to wait on the Lord to see if He would open the door. A few months later the brethren contacted us again urgently pleading that we come visit them because of increasing controversies over the authority of the New Codes and their need for literature. After looking again at the airfares, the prices had dropped dramatically to a level that we could afford and thus took this as a sign from the Lord it was time to visit these brethren and help them out. After considerable planning the Publishing Director (PD) for upa7.org finally paid a visit to the islands in Vanuatu in the fall of 2018. A series of seminars were scheduled to address issues that the brethren had been asking regarding changes on the original SRod message but also problems with the leadership structure, tithing, the role of the storehouse, etc.

After being briefed of the actual situation of what had been happening in this part of the vineyard over the years it become very apparent what was needed. Mt. Dale continuded to fight and defend the unauthorized New Codes and the confusing doctrines coming from them (for our response to this controversy see this prior post). They also revealed a complete lack of proper organization and ability of helping the brethren acquire the desperately needed SRod tract literature for their own studies, and for sharing with mother like the leaves of autumn. In fact, many startling things were discovered that showed how badly these brethren had been treated. Several thousand dollars of money had been gathered and used to purchase an expensive copy machine to reproduce SRod tracts, but nothing ever came off the machine. All they were copying were old counterfeit booklets done by Wanda Blum that had come to the islands from the Yucaipa days (1980’s), none of which were original SRod tracts. Despite having almost 300 members, none had a complete set of original SRod tract literature for their own studies. At best, they had a handful of old worn out tracts that had been printed many years before and came from the U.S. or a handful of pieces of recent Mt. Dale literature that was not original.

Another unexpected discovery was the Mt. Dale HQ in Vanuatu had been spending tithe money to produce low quality copies after copies of a compilation entitled “Meat in Due Season” to give to members as their only source of SOP references. Imagine the shock when these brethren discovered that the author of that very manual was standing in their presence. Seeing this reprehensible situation, I immediately provided these brethren a high-quality PDF of the latest edition of this useful manual having the latest color original 1944 SRod chart images. Older versions of this manual had the old corrupted chart images that were altered by Salem and later adopted by Mt. Dale. The Vanuatu brethren were given permission to print any many copies as they wished without any restrictions.

Publishing House is Established

In another remarkable development, while I was visiting the island of Santo to share his presentations, a brother back in the capitol city of Port Villa was strongly impressed by the Lord to remodel a small building he owned to serve as a place to print the tract literature. Upon returning to Port Villa I was informed of this new development and show the area where the publishing was to take place. Work areas were installed having a newly wired electrical outlets, so it was clear it was time to act. Plans were changed to visit another island and that very day we set out and were able to secure a high capacity laser printer (see miracle below)* and the needed supplies to start the printing. The next day we dedicated the facility and the three young brethren who stepped up and agreed to take up this important work. Just to show you have fast the Lord works when we clear all obstacles and submit ourselves to be used as the helpers of the Elijah message, after just 1 ½ days these three young men were fully trained and had produced 110 tracts of fresh meat in due season for distribution on the following Sabbath day! The brethren who gathered for this blessed day of worship and fellowship were truly praising God for answering their prayers in such a dramatic manner. After a final day of fellowship and dedication of the entire community of SRod believers to the advance of the original SRod message on the islands of Vanuatu and regions beyond I departed back for the U.S. singing endless praises to God for this miraculous break and answered prayers for over a decade to see a publishing house established abroad to send forth the SRod literature as leaves of autumn in accord with the mandate specified in Testimonies Vol. 7, p. 140.

 

*(As a quick aside, the Lord worked another miracle during this time that gave all who were present a clear sign that this was the direction God was leading people on the islands of Vanuatu. When we went out to locate a suitable printer our first stop was known to be the highest end office supply business in town and was owned by an Australian businessman. Upon entrance I immediately recognized the best printer for the job as it met all the specifications (almost exactly like the printer upa7.org uses in the U.S.) but it turned out to be expensive. The host brother encouraged us to look at other options and so we drove all around town looking everywhere but nothing met the standard despite costing much less. Based on my past experiences, I strongly recommended we go for the best as it was for God’s work. After going over the available funds it turns out the brethren were about $1000 USD short. Soon after communicating with my wife via email I was informed that upa7.org had just received an anonymous donation for $1000 to advance the publishing work! We quickly did the math and as it turned out the brethren, after gathering all their funds, plus all the travel money of the PD, needed exactly $144,000 Vatu, the local currency, to acquire the desired printer. Almost beyond belief that converted into almost exactly $1000 USD that upa7.org had just received! Truly God had performed a miracle and we made haste to purchase the best printer at the end of the day and have it delivered and installed the next day so that could begin the printing and training process).

Now that a fully operational publishing house had been established with almost lightning speed it was time for the brethren to set about the critical need of printing on the order of 15,000 SRod tracts just to get each of the estimated 250-300 Davidians scattered around the islands of Vanuatu a complete set of literature for their own studies. The printed tracts amount to 75 individual pieces for Tracts Nos. 1-15, 7 Misc. tracts, 5 Answerer Books and Timely Greetings Vols. 1 and 2. At the present time (January 2020) complete sets of everything except the TG’s have been printed and distributed. And in a recent exciting development, a brother and his wife traveled to the nearby Solomon Islands and were able to bring a large installment of SRod tracts to share much to the delight of the local brethren. And these courageous Vanuatu brethren had big plans to continue publishing the leaves of autumn and bring them to other island groups which has a huge presence of Seventh-day Adventist brethren who need to hear the most urgent Elijah message announcing the great and dreadful day of the Lord. Now isn’t this what God wants us all to be doing brethren? Who of you here in the North America are willing to side aside your divisive politics and stagnant lukewarm associations and break free and help advance this grand work of the Lord?