Dear Fellow Students of The Urantia Book,
I wish to extend a warm welcome to the 8th Urantia Association International Conference.
Bienvenidos a todos, Welcome everybody, Bienvenue, Boas Vindas, Dobro pozalovat.
It is not by accident that this 8th International Conference is taking place in the South American continent, in this nation of Colombia and in this beautiful city of Medellin. We feel privileged to be the organizers of this Conference and to have the responsibility to receive people as special as all of you are; the readers of The Urantia Book. We have made every effort possible to ensure that all of us enjoy this wonderful event, in order so that these days which we will be sharing with the Urantia family, may become an important place in our lives.
As background, we can recall that since 1996 there have been seven world Conferences organized by the Urantia Association International, which took place in the following countries.
This morning we had the opportunity to meet and share with the delegations of the 20 countries participating in the Conference and we were pleased with the wide participation of Urantia Book readers.
The Organizing Committee of the Eighth International Conference worked hard for over one year for this event in order to be able to execute it at the height that students of The Urantia Book deserve. We personally contacted most of the people who expressed their desire to come to the Conference. Many more people were willing to participate in the Conference but were unable to come for different reasons.
The purpose of this Conference is not only to listen to the lectures, have workshop-discussions, but to also meet, and to share four days of work and relaxation, to be together at every moment of this encounter, in the lunches, dinners, tours, musical presentations, dances, songs, etc.., or better said; to strengthen the bonds of true friendship. We are people with the same form of thinking, the same way of seeing the world and with a great desire to create changes, to awaken spirituality and to enhance human life on this planet.
We, the students of the Fifth Revelation, are the promoters of a high moral life, of selfless service, of a sincere love. At the same time, we are students of and teachers of The Urantia Book. We teach the science of spirituality, we try to guide people to take the road to the Universal Father, teach to live their lives with dignity, that is; to always go toward the truth, seeking beauty, while serving with goodness, with the purpose that each person may achieve human survival.
When people with the same thinking are brought together, a very large and strong force appears that can move mountains, fight and defeat evil. By working together we can achieve intellectual and spiritual progress for mankind, and with that, establish on planet Urantia the glory of Michael of Nebadon. We are promoters of the Cosmic Mind, we are the hope of the celestial beings, who work tirelessly for the progress and evolution of this planet.
I’m sure that now in this room, there are present many celestial beings who are admiring and listening to us, because during the long process of preparation for this Conference, I felt the constant help of these wonderful beings, as everything went the best way possible for us, and organizational problems were resolved quickly.
During the preparation of the Conference we visited many companies in order to solicit sponsorships, samplings, transportation, simultaneous translators, etc. For each company we had to explain the purpose of this Conference, speaking of the Fifth Revelation, of spirituality, explaining what The Urantia Book all about. This process was also a way to dissemination the news about the Book. Several people that we spoke to are now readers of The Urantia Book.
People of different nationalities are present in this Conference, from different countries and customs. We speak different languages that hinder our quick understanding, however I hope that the days that we will be spending here together will be wonderful and will unite us in a strong bond of friendship and of true brotherhood.
It’s not easy being a teacher of truth, and to teach the true faith, faith without fanaticism, without hypocrisy, a living faith, faith in action, the faith that is able to confront and defeat evil. But we have to follow this path, the path of our creator Michael of Nebadon who lived a difficult life on this planet 2,000 years ago, confronting the priests, teaching the new gospel to the ignorant and unbelieving people, despite the fact that his own family was not able to understand the greatness of his personality and the truths of his teachings.
I invite you to be strong and constant as was Michael of Nebadon while living his terrestrial life, to not get discouraged by the lack of understanding of others, to confront evil and move forward to add a grain of sand toward such a noble cause, in order to improve human life on this planet and awaken true spirituality in the minds and souls of human beings.
Once again, welcome all to the VIII Conference of Urantia in Medellin, Colombia.