© 2001 Larry Mullins
© 2001 The Christian Fellowship of Students of The Urantia Book
Joan, Claire Thurston and I conduct a youth study group for the Urantia Papers. We meet weekly, and the participants must juggle their homework and activities to make space for the meetings. It is wonderful to see the sacrifices this group makes to continue reading the Papers. We have almost completed Part II. The age range is 10-17. The group consists of our daughter, Michelle; Angie Thurston; Jesse Thurston, and Haley Thurston. Chuck Thurston also attends whenever possible. We always have pizza before the meetings begin, and we let the young folks socialize before and after the reading period, which lasts about an hour or so.
We have encouraged the group to develop a service project of some kind to give more meaning to their studies. They elected to join Claire on her visits to the nursing home on Sundays. The idea is to uplift the spirits of the folks there with a bit of conversation. This can be challenging, because at times the folks there tend to be a bit difficult to converse with. This led to an amusing incident. One recent Sunday I asked Michelle how the visit went. She reported that Jesse and her had spent the hour with a woman who was 97 years old. Michelle said the woman was somewhat depressed that day. She told the kids: “I’m so old. I’m missing out on so many things.” Michelle said Jesse replied: “Well, not as many as you would if you weren’t alive.” The woman had to chuckle.
For many Urantians, who may be a bit reluctant to evangelize, they will discover Urantian youth to be a willing and energetic audience. When I told Michelle that we were going to start reading the Urantia Papers with the youth, she replied: “At last!”
“If the Christian church would only dare to espouse the Master’s program, thousands of apparently indifferent youths would rush forward to enlist in such a spiritual undertaking, and they would not hesitate to go all the way through with this great adventure.” [UB 195:10.10]