© 2018 International Urantia Association (IUA)
| Italian-French Urantia Conference – Garda Lake, 2018 – | Tidings — December 2018 — Index | Pereira Book Fair 2018 – |
Dear Siblings and Friends,
We on the Education Committee are getting in touch with you again through this article to bring you some inspiring testimonials about personal truth-seeking and growth, with thanks to the Urantia Association of Mexico for their service of disseminating the teachings of our wonderful Urantia Book.
The truth-seekers and students of The Urantia Book in Mexico find an open and free space to meet each other in the conferences and workshops offered by the Urantia Association. Here, they listen to good lessons, learn, discern, and cultivate friendships and spiritual brotherhood.
Here are some of the stories told by those who lived them (namely Norma Angelica Perez Arteaga, Hector Landin Vazquez, and Martin Guzman.) They speak for themselves.
by Norma Angelica Perez Arteaga, Mexico
Hello to all my Urantian siblings, my name is Norma Angelica Perez Arteaga, and I live in Mexico City. I am 50 years old and I am a housewife. I am the only Urantia Book reader in my family.
I have known of The Urantia Book for three years. In fact, the book reached my hands sometime before, thanks to my neighbour Mari, who lent it to me without mentioning what the book was about or what it really is. She just invited me to read it. At that point in my life, I had not decided yet to search sincerely for the Father, so I returned the book without reading it. I had wandered away from God; I was living without him. It was a very tough time in my life; I felt a terrible emptiness, as if I did not exist. It was something really unpleasant; I did not like the feeling.
Soon after, I felt I needed to know more about God and that I should do something to discover him. Then I said to myself, “I do not know what to do or where to look, but I have to do something to know more about God.”
At that moment, I got closer to the Father and asked him to forgive me. I was truly sincere in my communication with him. And then I had a wonderful experience–I felt an immense and overflowing happiness, which many of you possibly have also felt! Then I remembered The Urantia Book that some time ago was lent to me, so I asked my neighbor to give me the book again. That is how I started reading the book.
Since the book reached my hands, I knew this revelation really came from God. The book confirmed my own convictions about the truth, and thanks to the Father I have experienced a beautiful personal transformation that fills me with great joy. I have learned a lot, but I have yet much to learn and give to others in the fruits of the service to our Father and my siblings. My neighbor, who lent me The Urantia Book, is the wife of Alfredo Esquivel, the current president of the Urantia Association of Mexico (UAM).
Subsequently, I started to attend the conferences organized by the Association, for which I am eternally grateful to my siblings Alfredo and Mari because it was them who invited me to participate. I then made new friends and had the honor of meeting Martín Guzmán, the Education Committee Chair of UAM.
In my first year of attending the Association conferences, I met two beautiful people, Jeannie Vázquez and Jaime Díaz Page. I give eternal thanks to the Father for having known them, because they are awesome servants of our Father, just like Martin Guzman, not to mention the other members of the Association, lovely brethren who love us very much. They have helped me significantly to understand the book’s spiritual teachings.
I am deeply grateful to the Association for their steady work; they do not cease to serve everyone. The Association conducts workshops on the second Saturday of every month, and on the fourth Saturday of every month they organize conferences—all about _The Urantia Book—_which I love, and even though it lasts four hours, I do not feel the passing of time. Those are the happiest hours in my life! I consider the work of the Association excellent because they address The Urantia Book topics with great clarity, and the Governing Board has a genuine interest in our learning progress.
My life is different now. I can see and understand the real purpose of life, who we are, why we are here and, the most beautiful of all, who God is, and the truth that we are his beloved children. I am happy every day of my life because the Father has given me many opportunities, as I asked him in my prayer-worship, to know new brethren, to communicate his message—his gospel, and that God do his work within each one of them as he does it within me.
Dear siblings who read this article, I appreciate your attention and I look forward to serving you someday. I am at your service! A big hug in divine love to everyone!
Hector Landin Vazquez, Mexico
When I found The Urantia Book, I didn’t think that there would be many people who had read the book longer than me. I thought the book had been written not so long ago. To my great surprise, I discovered there was a Urantia Foundation, a Urantia Association International, and even a Mexican Urantia Association!
I thought a lot before I decided to participate in an Association meeting, mostly because, when I began to read the book and to talk about it with my family, particularly my parents, they virtually branded me as crazy and blasphemous. Therefore, I thought, what kind of people are in this Association? Would they perform rituals, weird things? It gave me a great peace of mind to verify, when I dared to go, that there was nothing like that. Much to the contrary, there is a great respect for every Association member, despite sometimes that not all have the same point of view about the topic in study. And there is even more respect for the people who attend the meetings and do not know anything about the book but try to insert their own ideas that have nothing to do with The Urantia Book teachings.
When the president of the Urantia Association of Mexico, Alfredo Esquivel, invited me to participate as Dissemination Committee Coordinator, I got nervous. And I got even more nervous when I offered my first talk at the Saturday conferences, but I concluded that God gave me that opportunity for a good reason, it was not an accident. I still get nervous speaking at my presentations on Saturdays.
I sometimes worry about how the world is today. I perceive that we have a lot of work ahead to disseminate the knowledge of the book. We are like the twelve apostles who had not an easy task to do. But I know that our Paradise Father and our Sovereign Michael will give us the tools and incentives to carry out this task.
I always repeat to myself this phrase: “Father, give me the serenity to accept the things that I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference.” And above all, I declare: “It is my will that your will be done.”
Greetings to everyone.
Alfredo Esquivel, Mexico
I discovered The Urantia Book a little more than 18 years ago thanks to my search for God, which initiated some years before then. When I found The Urantia Book, my life changed immediately. It brought to me new spiritual realities after I discovered the truth that I had longed for so many years.
After reading the book for a while, I joined the Urantia Association of Mexico, and in this way, I started attending the study group organized by the Association.
In 2009, I was invited to join the Association Governing Board as President. In the chartering ceremony there was present Gaétan Charland—then Urantia Association International President—and James Woodward–at that time the Urantia Association Study Groups Chair.
The new Urantia Association of Mexico administration started from scratch because we didn’t have economic resources or secondary materials to provide service to The Urantia Book readers in Mexico. It was at that time when the writer Lucy Aspra, owner and director of the Cultural Centre, “La Casa de Los Ángeles” [The House of Angels, in English], provided us a space in her centre to hold conferences and offer a study group.
In the beginning, we organized conferences about The Urantia Book every three or four months. Since 2011, we host monthly conferences every fourth Saturday and a study group every second Saturday of every month.
In collaboration with my spiritual siblings Martin Guzmán, Héctor Palacios, Héctor Landín, Rogelio Rosas, Asael Núñez and Selin González, we have hosted conferences and workshops about numerous topics of The Urantia Book and carried out activities of dissemination.
In addition to these activities, we organize every August a National Conference to commemorate the birth of our Father-Brother Jesus of Nazareth (Michael of Nebadon). Since 2017, this event turned into the Mexican National Congress of The Urantia Book Readers.
To provide a better service and orientation to Mexican readers, we also publish articles, information about study groups, and notices on our website http://www.urantia-mexico.org.mx/.
My term of service as President of Urantia Association of Mexico has brought me great personal, intellectual and spiritual growth, giving me the opportunity to serve our siblings in dissemination, socialization, and communication of the book’s teachings.
I have been able to develop some aspects of my life by giving them more value and a supreme meaning and to attain a better development as a son of our Universal Father. I also had the opportunity to transmit The Urantia Book truths to our fellow readers and to my wife and my three daughters, to my parents, my seven brothers, and to neighbors and friends.
Martin Guzman, Mexico
I come from a family with different religious beliefs, which instead of enlightening me misled me. And then I became an atheist. Over the years I experienced a great sadness that made me think my life had no meaning at all. One day, after my newborn baby girl died, in my despair I felt a great need to ask for help. I locked myself in my bedroom to cry, and then I begged with all my soul to God, asking him for a sign of his existence. I said, “God, if you exist, I thank you for allowing me to know my daughter; please take good care of her. Help me, if you exist, I want to know you.”
Fifteen days later, I found an article in a magazine, written by Antonio Moya, a Spanish researcher of spiritual deceptions, in which he spoke about a revelation called The Urantia Book, and which he couldn’t debunk. That got my attention, but at that moment I just discarded the magazine. Some days later I decided to buy the book because a friend of mine told me three times, “If I had money, I would buy that book.” At first, it was difficult for me to accept the book, because its content ran counter to my beliefs, and one day, I angrily decided to destroy it. At that moment, a thought stopped me, “There it is what you asked for, take it or leave it!” Then I decided to leave behind everything I was taught and began to read the book.
At first, as I was a skeptic, I said to myself, “I have to catch this book in some lie.” Finally, it turned out that the book caught me because, through my life experiences, I understood that what we read in the book is true. When I consecrated my life to the Father, I began to really understand the book. What gives it more credibility is my personal experience in my relationship with God and the Spirit of Truth.
The Urantia Book teachings have changed my life completely. In it, I found the answers I was looking for. And the spiritual meditation of communion with the Father gave sense to my life. Some years later, I was walking on a street in Mexico City when I saw an announcement about The Urantia Book in the door of a cultural center, and I went in without a second thought. There I found a study group hosted by the Urantia Association of Mexico. In that group, I learned to socialize the book’s teachings.
I became a member of the Mexican Association in 2008, and presently I serve as Education Committee Chair. My work consists in disseminating the book’s teachings in virtual or in-person study groups, workshops and conferences, interacting with readers through questions, quotes to foster study, and orientating readers to help in their spiritual approach to the Father’s presence within them.
I walk the streets all the time in my job, and there I find many homeless people. Frequently, I try to converse with them and, if they are receptive, I try to make them reflect about their lives and think about what led them to live in that way. I tell them, if they know the Father in their heart, their life would be different. I always present the Father in a simple way, and when they feel love and attention, they often cry when sharing with me their hardships. I have seen the Father’s and Jesus’ love doing wonders in them.
One day, I was seated on a bench in the Zocalo Plaza of downtown Mexico, reading The Urantia Book, when a young man, dirty and poorly dressed, approached me. He was a drug addict. He asked me if I was reading the Bible. “No,” I answered. The boy stared at me. Then I asked him to sit at my side on the bench. I asked him why he was in such a sorry condition. He said to me that neither his parents nor his wife wanted to see him; that he had a son, but his family was angry with him because he took drugs. I asked him if he would like to see his child intoxicated with drugs. He said he wouldn’t. Then I asked him, “What would you do if your son takes drugs?” He said, “I would try to help him.”
Then I asked him, “Why do you help others and don’t help yourself?” He answered, “It’s just that I love my son.” I said to him, “And you do not love yourself?” He thought for a moment. I told him, “Your parents love you, everyone in your family loves you, but it hurts them that you take drugs. Besides, you have a Heavenly Father who loves you and lives in your heart. If you ask him for help sincerely, rest assured that he will hear you. And you will get it, and that will open the gates of his kingdom for you.”
Then the boy dropped the drug he was inhaling, approached me and burst into tears. I hugged him, even though he was covered with dirt, and I cried too. I said to him “The Father loves you, open your heart to his love.” Then I read him the story of the young man who was afraid, and the boy dissolved into tears.
He said to me that he wanted to return home with his family who lived far away in another state, but he had no money. I lent him some money saying, “It depends only on you if you are really sincere, that you use this money properly and rectify your path in life. Run to your family, ask their forgiveness and return to your new path of righteousness.” He promised he would. I never saw him again.
I have had many experiences like this one in my service to my siblings in need. At Christmas and New Year, my family and I share our dinner with many homeless people. We also give them a message about the Father’s love, with which I try to awaken their consciousness to unite their will to the will of God. The love of the Father does wonders when he touches man’s heart. I have seen the change in the lives of those people. I do this because Jesus always “went about doing good.” This is what I have learned; at every step I take, I want to give the love of our Father to my siblings.
| Italian-French Urantia Conference – Garda Lake, 2018 – | Tidings — December 2018 — Index | Pereira Book Fair 2018 – |