Dear Friend,

Recently, astronomers boggled our minds by calculating that there are approximately 70 sextillion (70,000,000,000,000,000,000,000) stars in the known universe. This means that there are perhaps ten times as many stars in the sky as there are grains of sand on every beach and desert on earth! In attempting to comprehend this staggering figure, our minds simply reel. In fact, three thousand years ago King David felt the same way as he considered the vastness of the shimmering night sky compared to the apparent insignificance of humankind. David wondered why, in this immense universe, God is so concerned with human beings. "When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained, what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him?" (Psalm 8:3-4).

Is that not the big question for you and me today? Why were we born? What is our purpose here on this little dot in space called earth? As a Good News reader, perhaps you have noticed that we are striving to make plain the biblical answers to those and many other significant questions. Two of our published booklets in particular focus critical attention on questions surrounding the ultimate potential of humankind. Our revealing booklet What Is Your Destiny? considers the overall plan and goal the Creator has for your life and mine. Also, our booklet The Road to Eternal Life discusses what each of us must do to access that ultimate and incredible destiny. We invite you to write for or download these free booklets or any of our other publications.

Also, we are excited to announce that the inaugural issue of our new 24-page teen and young adult magazine, Vertical Thought (subtitled, "a magazine of understanding for tomorrow’s leaders"), was mailed on Monday, September 29! Free copies were sent to people we have listed on our file as being in the age bracket of 12 to 22. You can view the premier issue online at www.verticalthought.org in both HTML and PDF formats. Please pray that we can harness the most effective ways of reaching readers among our younger demographics. We trust that this new publication will be one more tool in our toolbox as we strive to diligently preach the gospel of the Kingdom of God to all we are able.

We want you to know we are grateful for your interest. Be sure to let us know if there is anything more we can do to assist you on your spiritual journey.

Sincerely,

Roy Holladay
President
United Church of God, an International Association