The LoneStar Light

April, 2001 The Book

Welcome readers in Texas!

Published by the Lone Star IUA for its members

April, 2001 --------------------------------------Volume 9 Number 1

The past two years have been hectic for many Lone Star Light members. Surgeries, births, deaths, moving -- many events have taken precedence over meetings and newsletters.

If interest warrants,I hope to create a mailing list for members plus an online discussion group. All constructive ideas are welcome, as well as, pictures, poems, etc.

This newsletter is the first to have many email addresses in the text. I heartily recommend contact via email since we are so spread out in Texas!

Mary Michael
Editor

mjm@futr2000.com

Fellow Soldiers of the Circles –

Learning to Learn

This soldier recently spent an entire week in the Dallas/Fort Worth area – Carrolton to be exact – attending classes taught by Jean Barr and her student teachers. What a wonderful informative week it was. Jean has been formulating a curriculum and workbook for studying the teachings of The Urantia Book and her "work in progress" is really great.

She has two teachers working with her who are doing a great job and some 30+ folks who are learning to live the teachings. Jean has written a book entitled Transcendence of Self is a Way of Life -- Cosmic Consciousness. It is a self-help spiritual book to help on a day-to-day basis.

I found it very, very helpful to sort out my own thoughts and to I can recommend it to each of you. Two copies of it are in our lending library for those who might like to read it. Nancy Kidd is in charge of the lending library. You will find her address both mailing and email below.

 

Report on New York Conference
September 8, 2000
Wagner College
Staten Island, New York

As expressed many time, conferences offer the unique opportunity to make new acquaintances and renew old ones with our brothers and sisters from around the world and this one was certainly no disappointment.

The Conference was well attended with representatives from around the globe as well as most points in the USA. The programs were well prepared and in my opinion many of them were too long to hold the audience's attention. The most impressive thing about the conference to me was the large number of youth in attendance. The New York Group paid special emphasis on having youth attend and much effort and some funding provided help in this area. When one considers the average age of the known readership, it is very high. We as a student group are graying very rapidly.

My own best guess I that the average age may be in the mid to upper 40’s. Without new younger readers coming along we will be a diminishing crowd. We must work to interest younger people in this revelation somehow.

The second most impressive thing to me was the number of representatives from around the globe. I will not bore you with too many details, but let me assure you every continent was represented. Yes, even Africa was represented. (Antarctica was absent, but that does not count.)

Translations continue at a blistering pace as Seppo reports more than 17 translations are in some stage or another as works in progress in that very important field. It is very exciting.

Bruce Brown and Suzanne Kelly-Ward starred in a very funny skit, which brought howls of laughter. "The Little Savages" headed up by Steve Shinall who was great provided music for the skit! In addition, we had some excellent piano concerts and performances that were superb or better on top of all of that we had a "Quartet" from Holland that provided some beautiful sounds.

Bert Caleb was there and recited some of his Cowboy Poetry. Bert was nice enough to forward me a few of his poems from "The Trail of Life." He graciously gave permission for us to use any of all of them for the pleasure of our readership. Look for these poems online at http://lonestarlight.com/poems/poems.htm

In conclusion it was generally agreed that college dorms mistreated badly over the years by scores of students were something short of the Holiday Inn. By contrast the food prepared in the cafeteria was quite good. Overall cost in the New York area makes it difficult and Janean and I were fortunate enough to have a room on the 10th floor overlooking New York Harbor and the Statue of Liberty as well as Manhattan. When the smog cleared enough to allow a view, it was really spectacular. No way do I have any desire to go back to a college dorm lifestyle at 71 years old – No Way!

Manhattan by ferry provided great entertainment for the hardy souls who had the courage and fortitude to brave public transportation. Some --including my wife-- became real veterans at getting around the city. I tagged along a few times and was impressed with Janean’s very quick adaptation to moving about like a veteran.

This thumbnail sketch may or may not be of interest. At least it is an effort on my part to share a glimpse of what it was like.

Respectfully,

Bryan Snowden

bts@hctc.net

ADOPT A TRANSLATION

Fellow IUA Members and Urantia Book Reader Groups,

We have less than fifty years to establish the revelation in the spiritual soil of Urantia. The Urantia Foundation has set the goal of sixty-four quality translations by the year 2050. After that date, the copyright expires and the revelation will be divided, mixed, changed, distorted, minced, shredded, amended, amputated, stripped, diluted and polluted. We have until then to plant the whole, pure translations and give the roots time to become established in the native ground so they can endure these assaults. If you feel the urge to insure that this goal will be met, you can join the Adopt-A-Translation project.

Adopt-A-Translation is an effort to find readers who will form groups and pledge to fund one of the sixty-four translations. About three hundred thousand dollars is needed to translate each of the sixty-four languages. At least, this has been the cost for Foundation translations in the past. This money will be used to pay professional translators.

Publication can be quite costly also, but the focus of this project is to cover the expense of translation. There are no funds to cover these expenses, they must be found within the ranks of the believing readers of this revolutionary book.

The following are suggestions to aid in the presentation of this project to your group.
There is any number of other possibilities you might use to initiate the adoption, which your group chooses. Any plan you believe the Master would stand behind is acceptable.
1. Allow your group to vote on the language it prefers to adopt. Agree before you begin that the majority that will be the language you will all support chooses whichever language.
2. To raise such a large amount of money, several IUA Associations or Reader groups may join together.
3. Contribution can be spread over a longer period. Urantia Foundation has setup a translation fund with a bin for each language and since we have five decades, ten years is an acceptable period for those who need a longer time.
4. If ten people each deposit twenty-five cents per day in a jar, in a little over one year, a thousand dollars will accrue. In about a decade, ten thousand dollars will have amassed.
5. A percentage of the amount contributed is tax deductible depending on your national residency, the amount of your annual income and the quantity of your other charitable donations. In the US, one hundred percent of donations to 50lC3 organizations can be deducted if one itemizes. The Translation funds are under the Foundation’s non-profit organization umbrella with the 50lC3 status.

The work of finding the translators, accomplishing the work and dispersing the Book is waiting. The clock has forty-nine years to run out. If we achieve the goal, it will be because you and your group decided to help. The servers are needed NOW to invest the talents and collect the interest. After your resurrection you may actually meet those who were the recipients of your generosity back on Urantia and then receive their gratitude.

Feel free to contact me with any questions or suggestions,

Fraternally,
Rick Warren

rewar@swbell.net

Secretary’s report, 2000 Lone Star IUA conference:

We missed you at the seventh annual meeting of the LSIUA on June 10th in Houston. Forty-one people were able to attend. Mary Michael of Houston did a superb job of finding the venue at the posh South Shore Harbor Resort and she put in many hours attending to the numerous details. It went off like clockwork thanks to her diligent planning and execution.

Richard Keeler, Tonia Baney, Cathy Jones and Lynn Prentice from the Urantia Foundation led the conference. Richard said book sales this year will likely double from last year’s and Spanish language sales were out pacing English. Tonia talked about the aims and needs of the Foundation. Cathy gave a report on the progress of the IUA and the USUA.

Sharon and Bill Beasley, freelance disseminators from Florida, presented the Matthew Project to the group. The project is the strategy for the funding of translations for the next ten years.

We then had a sumptuous lunch catered by the resort. Afterward, Jean Barr presented a summary of her work with 38 students at her minicollege in Dallas. The school has evolved independently from the rest of the Urantia movement. We were pleased that she and two of her students attended and hope for future contact with this group of sincere readers. Then a 50th anniversary-of-the-printing-of-the-book-cake was served while the attendees went over LSIUA agenda and plans for the dissemination in Texas. Some of the topics were:

• Eventual splitting of LSIUA as it grows.
• Study group formation, lack of groups in west Texas.
• Contact with the Hispanic community.
• Book placement in public, university, college, and prison libraries. 700 done, 300 to go.
• Fund raising for translations and support for the Foundation.
• The international meeting in New York in August.
• The secretary and treasurer were combined into one position.
• Election of LSIUA officers was deferred until next year.
• The Lone Star Roundup, a Fellowship sponsored event, is in October. Contact the Fellowship in Chicago or Linda and Bob Buselli in Dallas at bbuselli@flash.net.
• Lynn Prentice, Foundation office manager, brought books, discs, and other gifts and raffled them off to lucky recipients.

That evening, about a third of us had a meal at the resort restaurant. It was a joyous occasion of camaraderie and the updating and making of eternal friendships.

We picked up a new member, Mark Morrison of Houston. You can welcome him at markmorrison@iname.com.

Hope to see you at the annual meeting on September 23, 2001!

Rick Warren
Secretary/Treasurer

rewar@swbell.net

After considerable discussion Mary Michael will host the

Lone Star IUA Annual Meeting

Sunday
September 23, 2001
Noon to 4 PM

at her home on

4350 Pine Blossom Trail
Houston, Texas

Hope to see you all there,

Bruce Brown
President

1220 Meadow Lark Drive
Cedar Park, Texas 78613
bbrown@pool-pro.com
512-335-1822

A Few Words from our Librarian . . .

Hi,
I am Nancy Kidd. Enclosed a list of material which has been collected through the years. Please let me know if I can send you any of the items, or if you have one you would like to contribute to our library.

Nancy Kidd

HC 64 Box 432
Harper, Texas 78631
830-669-2206

kidd@hctc.net

Lone Star Library

• Transcendence of Self is a Way of Life, Jean Barr
• Audio version of The Urantia Book. --96 tapes
• Basic Concepts of the The Urantia Book., Ruth Barton
• Birth of a Revelation, Mark Kulieke
• Concordex of The Urantia Book.
• Declaration of Trust Creating the Urantia Foundation, Urantia Foundation
• Diversification of Total Reality - The "I Am" Grace Stephens
• Elan Vital, Suzanne Marie Kelly
• Evolution of the Soul, William Sadler, MD
• The Mind and Mischief, William Sadler, MD
• Worship and Wisdom, William Sadler, MD
• Gems from The Urantia Book., William Sadler, M.D.
• In His Presence, Eva Bell Werber
• Quiet Talks with the Master, Eva Bell Werber
• The Journey with the Master, Eva Bell Werber
• The Voice of the Master, Eva Bell Werber
• Introducing The Urantia Book in Accord with Its Teachings, Jeffrey Wattles
• It's All Relative When You Travel Faster Than Light, James S. Trefil
• On Fanaticism Seppo Kanerva
• The New Age Beyond 2000 AD K.T. Glasziou
• Science, Antrhorpology, and Archeology in The Urantia Book, The Brotherhood of Man Library, Australian Branch
• Starwind, Troy R. Bishop
• Study Aids for Part IV of The Urantia Book, Ruth Renn
• The Paramony,Duane Faw
• The Urantia Book and the Bible, Duane Faw
• The Plan for The Urantia Book Revelation, Carolyn B. Kendall
• The Urantia Book in 200 Years Time, Kathleen Swadling

Also available are various journals, a video tape of the translation efforts, and a map of Galilee and a map showing the travels of Jesus which is also available online at
http://www.urantia.org/newsinfo/ihs/

Want more details about events or other information
from the Urantia Foundation???

Welcome to new members!

Please email or send your opinions, ideas, comments, insights, book quotes, anything and everything for publication. Input is always welcome! Especially pictures -- *.gif or *.jpg formats.

To add your favorite Urantia Book quotes, links, or perspectives by email at
mjm@futr2000.com . . . . . The LoneStar Light
Webmaster Mary J. Michael

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