© 2024 Lilian Muthui, Marian Hughes, Nugroho Widi
© 2024 Urantia Foundation
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By Lilian Muthui, Kenya
Editor’s Note: Lilian Muthui of Kenya was a recipient of the second round of Mustard Seed Grant awards in 2023. She shares her completed project below.
In addition to over 623,500 registered refugees and asylum seekers, Kenya also has an internally displaced population (IDP) of around 380,000 people, ranking seventh in Africa for the number of IDPs. Displacement in Kenya can be caused by a variety of factors, including conflict, natural and man-made disasters, and human-rights violations.
My husband, James, and I conceived a project to increase and enhance the comfort, happiness, and well-being of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Kenya, as individuals and as members of society. Our approach has been to preach the encouraging message of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, spreading the good news of hope and inner healing by preaching the love of God as described in The Urantia Book. Our goal was to establish cohesion and equity among members of different groups in the IDPs, to organize Urantia Book study groups, and to distribute Urantia Books to the members of these groups.
After the initial mobilization and awareness meetings held in December 2023, 46 participants showed interest in learning more about how the love of God as described in The Urantia Book can bring inner healing to their traumatized souls, and they attended our training sessions in January and February of 2024.
During our last meeting on March 1, 2024, a total of 40 participants reported feeling inner peace and a change of attitude towards God and their fellow group members; 30 participants reported good sleep after reading about the love of God before bed; and 20 participants reported the prayerful ritual of calling God their father as a way of relieving stress and feeling protection.
Overall, there was great cohesion among members of our group, and most felt a sense of belonging unlike before. We witnessed better listening skills when participants were sharing, and observed their need for more time to stay in the presence of God during meetings.
This program was life-changing for us as we witnessed how God could use us to heal his children through sharing the revelation. We are grateful to Urantia Foundation for the Mustard Seed Grant and look forward to more training opportunities.
¶ Hawaii and Chile Book Placement
By Marian Hughes, Hawaii, United States
Editor’s Note: Marian and Matt Hughes of the United States were recipients of the second round of Mustard Seed Grant awards in 2023. They share their completed project below.
Benjamin Franklin wrote, “Without freedom of thought, there can be no such thing as wisdom—and no such thing as public liberty without freedom of speech.” At the time, only the very wealthy and the clergy had easy access to books, leading Franklin and some associates to found the Library Company of Philadelphia in 1731.
Inspired by Ben Franklin, my husband Matt and I resolved to place copies of The Urantia Book in as many libraries on the island of Hawaii as are reachable within a day’s drive of our home. We would also place copies of El libro de Urantia in libraries of the Chilean Lake District (a zone in the south of Chile) that are within a day’s drive of our home there. We are grateful for the Foundation’s help in making this project a success.
Once we received the Mustard Seed Grant funds, we ordered the books from Amazon, which offers free shipping. English copies of The Urantia Book are now in every library of the Hawaii State Public Library System, as well as in the Hawaii Preparatory Academy, the University of Hawaii at Hilo, and Tutu’s House, a community resource library in Kamuela. Six Spanish books have been placed in four different cities in Southern Chile: Puerto Varas, Puerto Montt, Llanquihue, and Frutillar.
On the flight to Chile, a passenger in my row noticed my Urantia hat. We proceeded to discuss the revelation and spirituality for most of the nine-hour flight. The man, a retired police commissioner, said that after reading the book he would donate it to a library in Santiago. I gave him a book at baggage claim, figuring a book in the hand was worth two in the bush!
¶ The Urantia Book Video Channel
By Nugroho Widi, Indonesia
Editor’s Note: Nugroho Widi of Indonesia was a recipient of the second round of Mustard Seed Grant awards in 2023. He shares his completed project below. Nugroho Widi translated The Urantia Book into Indonesian. It was published online in 2020.
In late 2023, I received a Mustard Seed Grant to create the Urantia Revelation Channel of videos on YouTube. My mission was to explain The Urantia Book to young readers using popular language. I chose a documentary format with a tutorial mode, where I explain topics and respond to the many questions of viewers.
Although first created in English, the videos are mostly in Indonesian. There are 10 videos so far, and one has already reached 15,000 viewers! Most are still below 1,000 viewers, although if it is an interesting title, it can reach 2,000–3,000 after several months. While the videos haven’t gone viral, I already have 700 (mostly) Indonesian subscribers, most of whom are Muslim and Christian.
It takes a lot of effort to make a video tutorial of this book because we have to understand it in detail and approach it globally. The Urantia Book is systematic, deep, broad, and covers many subjects that have never been presented visually. I drew upon my past experience with creating videos, translating The Urantia Book into Indonesian, and making online presentations to groups of Indonesian readers for many years. The rise of artificial intelligence has been a breakthrough, enabling the creation of original stock images and videos for abstract, historical, morontial, and spiritual things that have never been created before. With the help of technology, it is possible for the Urantia Revelation to be presented vividly and boldly.
Thanks to Urantia Foundation and the Mustard Seed Grant Program, I am now spending time as a scriptwriter, editor, and artist. I hope readers will support my work. And as I remind my viewers, don’t forget to click Like and Subscribe!
