EDMOND—Philadelphia Church of God members in Latin America see a minister only three times a year on average, they have only 20 to 40 percent of the English-language literature available in their native languages, and receiving that literature in their mailboxes is not a given, due to problems with postal service. However, these members, along with departments at headquarters, are trying to overcome these obstacles by using two new methods of digital delivery.
During a sermonette in Edmond on Dec. 17, 2016, Regional Director Carlos Heyer, who oversees Latin America and the Caribbean, said that the faulty mail systems in several countries have prevented pcg mailings from arriving at the homes of members who requested it. Mr. Heyer asked pcg members—a few hundred at headquarters and a few thousand around the world who would later hear the sermonette as a recording—to pray that their brethren in South America would be able to receive literature and audio recordings from the Church.
Mr. Heyer said that with less material available in their native languages and because of intermittent deliveries, Latin American members are eager for any new material they receive and are “sitting on the edge of their seats waiting for the next Spanish-translated Key of David program.”
Though many Latin American members speak English as a second language and the great majority receive literature regularly, the persistent problem of reliable delivery has posed challenges for Latin American members as individuals and as congregations.
After he returned from a January 16 to February 1 trip to visit 12 brethren in Santiago, Chile, and 15 brethren in Trujillo, Peru, Mr. Heyer provided an update to the problems he mentioned in his sermonette.
Peruvian members have had trouble receiving compact discs from headquarters for some time, Mr. Heyer said. Chilean Local Elder Luis Farías González often had to download the messages from the cds he received, copy them onto blank cds, and mail them them to Peru, since restrictions on Chilean mail are fewer than those on mail from the United States. Though circuitous, this solution proved to be reliable, but there were still members in several other countries whose cd shipments continued to be inconsistent. Mr. Heyer said, “The mail system can be really finicky” in Colombia, Guatemala, Peru and even Mexico, often depending on the administration currently in power, fluctuating costs, misprinted postal labels or other mistakes, a new local mailman, or additional unknown factors.
Due to issues with the government, the federal post office in Guatemala stopped all mailing services. Members had not received any mail for several months by the time Mr. Heyer gave his December sermonette.
The result was that a congregation never knew if it would receive sermon recordings each week, which meant that many Latin American brethren were not guaranteed weekly Sabbath services.
“Happily,” Mr. Heyer said, “right around the time that we started to experience all of these problems, God really provided a way out.”
Digital Services
The headquarters audio distribution department purchased a number of MP3 audio players in bulk at a discount; installed a custom-designed, secure application on them; and has distributed them to 60 field congregations, so far, in more than a dozen countries and more than a dozen U.S. states. The department uploads encrypted sermonettes, sermons, Bible studies, announcements and special music to the MP3 players, which are brought to services and played by contact people assigned by their regional directors. The following week, the audio is automatically deleted and new audio becomes available.
For one third of all pcg field congregations worldwide, this method has taken the place of headquarters recording and duplicating the audio onto three compact discs, packing the discs into envelopes, paying in postage ($10 to $13.50 apiece), sending them through the mail-stream, playing them for services, and then physically disposing of them. The MP3 players have now replaced the cds in most Latin American and Caribbean congregations, although lone members still receive monthly cds.
During his January trip, Mr. Heyer distributed MP3 audio players to the congregations in Santiago and Trujillo. Since the audio players cannot be sent safely by mail, Mr. Heyer has been delivering them personally to congregations on his visits since August 2016. So far, one congregation each in Barbados, Chile, Grenada, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru and Trinidad-Tobago is equipped with a player, as are the two El Salvadorian congregations and three of the Colombian congregations.
According to chief financial officer Andrew Locher, the use of MP3s should pay for itself within one year and will save the Work thousands of dollars over the lives of the units. “More importantly,” he said, “we are able to get messages to the brethren consistently and without worry about the cds being lost or stolen in the mail.”
One other benefit of the new method is that once all field congregations transition to MP3 players, the plan is to enable field congregations to hear headquarters messages one week after they are originally given rather than two weeks later.
Digital Literature
The use of audio players has largely eliminated the problem of receiving weekly Sabbath services for most Latin American congregations. Yet receiving literature has also been a struggle for members in some Central and South American countries.
Several years ago, the Peruvian Feast of Tabernacles site received none of the literature pallets that had been sent to it from headquarters. The pallets had been held at Lima, where the post office demanded that the Church pay a 100 percent duty on the pallets by the office’s own estimates. It was cheaper to send the pallets back than it was to pay such a high tax. Since then, Mr. Heyer has personally delivered as many books and booklets as he can carry to areas that are affected by such regulations.
Members in several countries say they continue to have trouble receiving pcg literature by mail. Mr. Heyer says that the majority of Latin American brethren receive their literature regularly, but for those who face more obstacles, the new Spanish-language version of theTrumpet.com,latrompeta.es, offers downloadable pdf documents for 49 translated books, booklets and reprint articles that brethren can print off, in addition to 92 translated issues of the Philadelphia Trumpet. “The launching of the webpage has opened up a big window for all the subscribers, people and especially the brethren,” Mr. Heyer said.
The four-month-old website also provides video programs and promotional videos with Spanish-language voiceovers. Mr. Heyer, Local Elder Deryle Hope and Herbert W. Armstrong College student Adiel Granados are working to translate 15 Key of David programs in addition to the six programs and three other videos they have posted so far.
Mr. Heyer said some isolated brethren around the region rely on those programs for Sabbath services, giving the example of a Costa Rican member who lives “up in the boondocks. This member does receive a monthly cd, and he can watch The Key of David in Spanish for his Sabbath service when a cd is not available,” Mr. Heyer said.
He said he aims to eventually translate four Spanish Key of David programs monthly so that those who rely on those messages for services can have four weeks of fresh programs every month. He also said he constantly feels an urgent need to produce new material for the Spanish-speaking brethren, since he knows they are always eager to receive new material.
Mr. Heyer estimates that more than 95 percent of brethren in Latin America have access to the Internet. He mentioned one group of about 15 brethren near Boa Vista, Brazil, who live in a remote rural area without access; the members are meeting with other villagers to consider installing a satellite dish, which would give them the ability to use the English site, since they speak English and/or Portuguese.
Looking Forward
“The thing to pray for really is for the smoothness of this medium, which is the Internet,” Mr. Heyer said. “How long is that window going to be open, do you think, with the way things are changing in the world?” He added that he believes 2017 will be “a really momentous year in many respects” for the department, pointing to the multiple foreign-language websites that launched last year and to the addition of Mr. Hope to the team.
Spanish, French, Dutch and German versions of the Trumpet website are all live, with an Italian site in the works. Mr. Hope speaks nearly all of these languages fluently and can act as “quality control,” Mr. Heyer said. He said that with the current funds and workforce, the Spanish-language website can never keep up with the English site, but he keeps a positive outlook, saying: “The tools are coming our way; the personnel are coming our way.”
Mr. Heyer gave his student assistant, Adiel Granados, as an example. Granados is the first student worker in the Spanish department since at least 2004, when Mr. Heyer arrived, who is fluent in Spanish and has an aptitude for using software. Mr. Heyer said he is also excited by the fact that several young people from his region have applied to Herbert W. Armstrong College, which could mean that more bilingual helpers are on the way.
Mr. Heyer asked pcg members to pray for the website to remain accessible to members in Latin American and Caribbean countries, for protection from viruses and hackers, and for improved Internet access in less technologically advanced regions. “When Cuba gets good Internet, we’ll be inundated with mail from Cuba,” he said. He also asked for prayers for those who are working to produce the translated materials. “This past day of fasting, January 2017, we were praying for more laborers,” he said. “But also, it’s worthwhile to focus on praying for those that are already laboring, especially for those like in the Spanish department, or in these other language websites.”
Mr. Heyer also suggested praying “for those in the U.S. that watch the program in Spanish, that God moves them to contribute and to be co-workers. That is one way that God could really bring in a lot of support for the Work.” He also asked members to pray that God will protect Latin American brethren from viruses like zika and from dengue fever, and that God will give protection and extra wisdom to traveling ministers, particularly those who visit third-world countries.
The dedication of Spanish translators and the Church’s utilization of audio players, the Internet and other technology have increased the amount of spiritual content Latin American brethren can receive. “They don’t get everything that an English-speaker gets,” he said, “but they get enough. There is enough out there to give them the gist of it, and even more than just the gist of it.”
PCG Latin America Congregations
- Barbados 1
- Brazil 1
- Chile 1
- Colombia 4
- Costa Rica 1
- Ecuador 1
- El Salvador 2
- Grenada 1
- Guatemala 2
- Guyana 1
- Mexico 2
- Peru 1
- Puerto Rico 1
- Suriname 1
- Trinidad-Tobago 1