30 YEARS IN REVIEW - Branhambranham.org/branham/ctv/CTV2011-03-30YR-Special-Issue-WEB.pdf · 4 5 Brother Joseph, Brother Billy Paul, and Brother Jackson Silla (top and right) during

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30 YEARS IN REVIEW

LETTER FROM BROTHER JOSEPH3

WILLIAM MARRION BRANHAM37

Dedicated to the ministry of God’s prophet, William Marrion Branham.“But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.”

Revelation 10:7

Catch The Visionis puBlisheD By Voice of GoD RecoRDinGs, inc.

Voice of GoD RecoRDinGsp.o. Box 950

JeffeRsonVille in 47131 u.s.A.

[email protected] . www.branham.org

CONTENTS

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When i started Voice of God Recordings thirty years ago, i never would have thought we would reach the year 2012. Although we believed it would only be a few days until we saw the lord return, we held strong to Brother Branham’s words, “If I knowed He’s coming tomorrow, and I was a farmer, I’d put my crop in today, sure. If He made me a farmer, I’m going to stay right at my duty.” We kept planting the seeds all these years, fully expecting the lord to return, but he just kept growing wheat.

We started with five employees and three rented rooms in the little town of Jeffersonville, indiana. Brother Branham set an example for us by never asking for money, no matter how bad things looked. i must admit that there were quite a few times when i didn't know how we would be able to make payroll that week. But each time, the lord provided just enough for us to get by and he continues to provide for all our needs.

The lord placed a burden on my heart to set up overseas offices and libraries, but we

could barely make the bills at home. i also wanted every believer to have access to all of Brother Branham’s sermons, but one cassette library cost thousands of dollars and an enormous amount to ship. Against all odds, he continued to open the doors and we continued to move forward. little by little, and country by country, we set up a network of distribution centers, offices, and libraries where believers could gather to hear Brother Branham and read his books.

over the years, we saw the once-impenetrable soviet nations open their borders for shipments of books and tapes, and now we are even printing in some of those countries. Technology moved forward with modern printing presses and duplication machines. cassettes gave way to Mp3 files, where the complete Message library comes in a tiny package of DVDs. Recently, we were able to give the entire world access to Brother Branham’s Message from our website, both in english and 50 other languages. We’ve started a

worldwide youth ministry called Young Foundations, and built a youth camp north of Jeffersonville. We now have 80 employees in Jeffersonville, more than 200 employees overseas, 53 foreign offices, and thousands of libraries, serving about two million believers worldwide.

i know that this work has not come without sacrifice. year after year, believers like you have put their shoulders to the grindstone to help send God’s Message around the world. The prophet isaiah said, So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. My friends, we can all look out across this crop of wheat and see that our labors have not been in vain. We will soon see the harvest that we all long for. until that time, we’ll work till Jesus comes.

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Brother Joseph, Brother Billy Paul, and Brother Jackson Silla (top and right) during the first trip to Kenya to establish lending libraries in 1984. Nairobi marked the first of thousands of VGR lending libraries.

Brother Fred Sothmann (above) proofing reel-to-reel tapes to find the best master and/or missing audio. This process has continued until today. We are constantly finding new sermons and missing portions.

First employee picture taken in 1984 (opposite page top left).

Top row: Helen Borders (now Helen Mullen), Mindy Quick, Rebekah Smith, Joseph Branham, Bobby Watson, Fred Sothmann, James Maguire.

Bottom row: Carl Schaeffer, Nathan Jones, Paul Branham, Fred Sanger, David Branham.

(opposite page top right) Brother Joseph in Kenya, 1984.

(opposite page) Brother Joseph and Brother Billy Paul during the first trip to Africa. Brother Obadiah Kamwati (behind Brother Joseph) was the first VGR librarian.

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(above) Original VGR building in the Quartermaster Depot. We started by renting three rooms in this building.

(right) Brother Joseph and Sister Helen Borders. Sister Helen also worked as a secretary for Brother Branham.

(below) The old Olivetti 351 electronic typewriter was state-of-the-art in those days, and there was no one better at writing than Sister Rebekah Smith.

(above) Brother Joel Watson preparing a shipment to go to Africa. We duplicated cassette tapes until 2009, when we completed the switch to CDs and DVDs.

(below left) Brother Joseph speaking to a crowd at Easter about the “new” overseas lending libraries.

(below right) M bags were how we shipped material before pallets and containers. There was little protection for the contents, which led to many of the books being damaged during shipment. Now, the volume of material is so large that we use 20’ and 40’ sealed containers for much of our overseas shipping.

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Employee picture during the late 1980’s.

Brother Joseph, Sister Rebekah, and Brother Billy Paul in Kenya during one of the first overseas trips.

(from left to right) Brothers Mike Pister, George Wenger, and Richard Sacher working on the press in 1994 (opposite top left).

(opposite top right) Brother Nathan Jones and the Tapeboy, Brother Jim Maguire in the duplication room. We call him “Tapeboy” because Brother Branham did: “Well, this is the tape boy sitting here, Jim Maguire.” 63-1130E GO, AWAKE JESuS

Brother James Jones in the typesetting department in 1986 (opposite middle left). The Kurzweil optical reader (foreground) cost $42K and the Varityper type setter (left side of the picture) cost about $36K. With the IBM personal computer, there is about $82K worth of computer equipment in that room. A simple desktop computer and scanner can do most of this work today.

Brother Joseph and Brother Roy Roberson (opposite middle right), a personal friend of Brother Branham and long-time trustee of VGR. Brother Joseph was interviewing Brother Roberson about his experiences with Brother Branham.

Brothers Joseph, Tim Gary, and Jim Maguire (opposite bottom) with footlockers that would be sent to Kenya. Each locker was packed full of cassette tapes, which were to accompany Brother Barnabas Kariuki back to Kenya. We did not know there was a 70lb limit for luggage before we arrived at the airport. When we arrived, the counter clerk laughed and said they were far too heavy to send. When he weighed them, each locker registered 70lbs on his scale. The lockers weighed in excess of 120lbs each.

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Brothers Matti Honkanen, Heino Buitenkamp, Joseph Branham, Gerald Buitenkamp, and Carl Schaeffer in front of the European Office in Holland in 1993 (above left). Brother Matti and Brother Heino risked their lives to smuggle the Message across the Iron Curtain. After the fall of the Soviet union, we began printing Message books within Russia, ukraine, and uzbekistan so we could get as many books as possible inside those countries while the doors are open.

(above right) Brother Billy Paul at an Easter Open House.

(below) Office in Kinshasa, Congo.

For years, the Message books were brought to Bolivia (above right) in baggage on airplanes. Our distributor, Juan Tarqui, worked for the airlines and was able to get packages onto commercial airlines. These packages did not need to go through customs, and shipping was free. Brother Juan picked up the packages and brought them to our office, where they were distributed to believers. The demand is much too high now for this method, but it was a great blessing while it lasted.

African believers carrying a new shipment into their library (above left).

(below) The Indian work started in 1985 with the help of our current office manager, Brother Joel Paramanandam (not shown). We sent the first 40’ container to India in 1993, and that is when the work began to grow quickly. Today, there are about 100,000 believers in India, and we are translating into 10 different languages for that country alone.

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(top) VGR has donated hundreds of bicycles to missionaries like these at a uganda library.

(left) Believers come from far and wide to visit VGR libraries.

(above) It’s always an exciting time when newly-translated Message books are delivered.

(top left) Each VGR office and library has its own staff of employees. The librarian reports to the VGR manager in that country, who reports to the Missionary Department in Jeffersonville.

(top right) These believers in Bolivia just received a set of newly-translated Spanish sermons.

(left) This young man in the Central African Republic was given a solar panel, cassette player, tapes, and books to bring back to his family and church.

(below) Nicaragua is a rural country and the poorest in Central America, but it has more Message churches than any other Central American country. Many of the churches are high in the remote mountains, and cannot be reached by truck.

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Each library has a librarian that is in charge of keeping the sermons in stock. Some libraries have their own building, and others are small rooms like this one (left).

The Lighthouse Project changed the way VGR distributes material. A full cassette library was rare because of the thousands of dollars it cost to send all those tapes. Now, a box of CDs, an MP3 player, and a few boxes of books (above) give access to all of Brother Branham’s sermons. Just a few years earlier, a small church would have no hope for such a blessing.

The hundreds of Message books that are included in the package are shared by the believers. They take these books home, read them, and then bring them back for others to enjoy, even at a church of this size. (below)

The first obstacle a new believer in prison usually faces is a way to be baptized. All too often, they can’t find a pool deep enough, or if the prisons have a baptismal, the chaplains frequently refuse to baptize them properly. The believers fill large trashcans, barrels, or anything else they can find with enough water to be immersed. These are inmates at a prison in Argentina. They are baptizing in a basin that is normally filled with acid. They were burned, but their wounds healed, and they are now following the end-time Gospel. Every month, we send out hundreds of books to inmates all over the world.

Brother Jerry Amalong felt the pull to the Mexican people at a very young age. He had no material from Brother Branham to pass out, so he used videos and tracts from T.L. Osborn. Then he said that Brother Osborn got his start from a prophet named William Branham. Decades later, Brother Amalong is still talking about Brother Branham, except now he has plenty of the prophet’s books, CDs, and videos to give to the people.

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(opposite top) Offices serve a very important role in the work at VGR. First of all, this is a place that the local people can find Brother Branham’s material. It is also where the shipments are received and repacked to go to the subcenters, libraries, churches, and home addresses. This is the initial construction of our office in Kinshasa, Congo. We have since moved to a much larger facility.

(opposite left) A pastor in Bolivia passing out newly-translated Message books to his congregation.

(opposite right) A young sister in Mexico carrying her grandmother to church.

There are more than 7,000 islands in the Philippines, and there are thousands of believers scattered throughout these islands. Brother Jeremiah Villagracia (below) is tasked with making sure these people are receiving regular shipments of Message material.

(left) Brother German Calva, (with his hand on the truck) travels about 4,000 miles during each distribution trip through Central and Southern Mexico. The Mexico City office serves the largest number of people of any office in Latin America. There are 25 churches in Mexico City alone.

(below) Motorized vehicles are still a luxury in many parts of the world. These believers make do with what they have, carrying boxes of material for miles in this hand-pulled cart.

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Brother Matti Honkanen once smuggled Message books into the Soviet union from his home country of Finland. In the mid 1980’s, a Russian man traveled 800 miles to visit a Pentecostal Church in Leningrad. He was going by faith that someone in that church might have heard of a prophet that once spoke in Finland. He stood up during service and asked if anyone knew a man named William Branham. Brother Matti was on a missionary trip to Russia at the time, and was in that very congregation. The man became an important contact in Russia.

Brother Matti (top left) and the first container going to the formerly Soviet countries after the fall of the Iron Curtain. The shipment went to Finland first, where it was then sent to Russia and Lithuania. We now print Message books inside Russia, ukraine, China, Indonesia, and India.

Brother Emmanuel Djedouboum (top right) has been distributing Brother Branham’s Message to believers in the staunchly Muslim country of Chad for years.

Ministers’ meetings like this one in Angola (above) are vital for the distribution work. We explain that our main objective is not to preach any doctrine, but to get the Message into the hands of God’s people. We are usually greeted with love and a burning desire to help in any way they can.

A fire broke out in the Quartermaster Depot (above) late in the evening of January 15, 1992. VGR employees rushed in to protect the Message material in the warehouse. We arrived at about midnight, during the heat of the blaze. We quickly emptied the warehouse, but the fire was put out before any VGR property was damaged.

The magnitude of the work is amazing when you consider churches like this one (right). There are about 10,000 members at this Congolese church, and each person needs access to Brother Branham’s Message.

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Brother Joseph and employees at the dedication of the new VGR property in 1998. We moved into the building the following year.

This drawing was made on the back of a paper placemat over breakfast with an architect. Brother Joseph described the vision he had in his mind for the building, and the architect sketched as Brother Joseph spoke.

The 67,700ft2 building is located on 73 acres of land. It is framed with steel girders placed on 6” of concrete in the office area and 9” in the press wing.

Over 90% of the material produced at VGR is given away free of charge. We have shipped material directly to 172 of the 194 countries in the world, and missionaries are actively smuggling the Message into most of the countries that we are not able to ship to. We’ve duplicated about 9 million cassette tapes, 19 million MP3 sermons, and more than 150 million Message books over the past 30 years.

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We printed 103,000 copies of The Mother Opossum and 91,000 copies of Footsteps Of The Prophet children’s books in eight languages. Clockwise from top left: young believers in Honduras, Philippines, Ghana, and Nigeria.

Every church in Honduras (left) received a large package of Message books, a full Spanish MP3 library, two MP3 players, children’s books, a 16x20 framed picture of the Pillar of Fire and another of Christ at 33, and a bookshelf. The project has moved to the rest of Central America, where every church has either received this package or will soon receive it.

The Malawi Tapeboy, John Katyale (above), has baptized more than 3,500 people. How does he get them to believe? He goes into a village and plays a tape. We’ve printed about 4 million Message books in the Chichewa language that Brother John and others like him can leave with the new converts.

The CTV Tour went through the united States, Africa, Europe, and Mexico. This is the Tour at Durban, (right) the same stadium Brother Branham packed to capacity in 1951, when 30,000 “blanket natives” gave their hearts to the Lord Jesus.

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The office managers are vital to the Lord’s work. They grew up in their country, so they know the ins and outs of the distribution process. They also have the greatest burden for their people. Brother Barnabas Kariuki (above) found two pages of a Message book in an outhouse. He read those pages over and over, until years later, when he met a man that had more Message books. He was then introduced to a pastor that had 400 tapes in his library. He never turned back. He has been a VGR distributor in Kenya for more than 27 years.

There are about 800,000 believers in the Democratic Republic of Congo. We send an average of ten 20-foot containers from our Headquarters in Jeffersonville every year to meet the growing need of the believers. The containers arrive at the port in Brazzaville (left), Republic of Congo, and they are taken by truck across the Congo River into Kinshasa. They are then unloaded at our office and repacked for distribution throughout the country.

(top) Brother Gerald Buitenkamp grew up in a family that risked their lives smuggling Message books and tapes across the Iron Curtain, into Poland and East Germany. Here, he is witnessing to a shepherd in Morocco. Over the past few years, we have broken ground in the Muslim countries of North Africa (top right) and the Middle East. Although the doors have opened slightly, many of these places are still very dangerous for Christians.

(above) These young men are enjoying listening to Brother Branham on a phone. Technology has allowed us to place the Message on the internet, which opens the doors for anyone who has an internet connection to hear or read all of Brother Branham’s sermons. Smart phones give people access to the Message anytime and almost anywhere.

(right) The Table has all of Brother Branham’s sermons. It also has most of the books Brother Branham mentioned, Bible audio, Brother Branham’s books, Brother Branham’s videos, and the Message Search program in English, French, and Spanish. Now, if you have a home computer and printer, you are a distribution point for anyone who has a desire to receive Brother Branham’s Message.

We are constantly looking for missing sermons and better audio of the sermons we already have. Brother Branham wanted his tapes to be the highest quality, so we have gone through tens of thousands of reel-to-reel tapes to produce the most accurate transcriptions and best audio possible.

Printed first translated

Cub Corner Magazine

Published first issue of

the new Catch The Vision Magazine

Lighthouse package

delivered to every known

church in Ghana and

Nigeria

Every known church in Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast,

Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger,

Senegal, and Sierra Leone received

a full French Message library and MP3 player

Established office in

Monterrey, Mexico

Launched redesigned

www.branham.org website with all of Brother Branham’s

sermons Easter Open House included 100th year commemoration of Brother Branham’s

birthday

Printed first CTV newspaper

1981 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 1990 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 2000 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 2011 .

Duplicated 6 millionth cassette

PublishedHere I Stand

Established offices in Windhoek, Namibia;

Nelspruit, South Africa

Erected new 6,000 sq ft warehouse

for additional storage,

USA

Duplicated 1 millionth

Spanish cassette

Released The Table in MP3 format with 1,177 sermons

Translated Message

into Danish, Tsonga, Uzbek

Established offices in

Limbe, Malawi; Penco, Chile

Catch The Vision Tour began: USA

Purchased new digital

audio duplication

system


Launched newly-designed

website

Established offices in Barquisimeto,

Venezuela; Kimberley, South Africa; Lima, Peru

Duplicated first foreign MP3:

Russian


French cassette

Released version 2 of The Table

Translated Message into Chitumbuka,

Creole, KyaNgonde,

Lingala, Tshivenda

Established office in Kampala,

Uganda

Translated Message into

Burmese

Launched Young Foundations

Department

Translated Message

into Bengali


Hired 60th employee,

USA

Local believers constructed new office in Harare, Zimbabwe

Catch The Vision Tour traveled to

Europe

Established office in Juárez,

Mexico

Catch The Vision Tour traveled to

Africa

Catch The Vision Tour travels to

Mexico


MP3 Message

Hired 70th employee, USA

130th employee, overseas

Established offices in Lusaka, Zambia; Manila, Philippines;

Niterói, Brazil; Pavlograd, Ukraine

Sent 40-foot container filled with 156,922

cassettes to India

Established offices in Bogota,

Colombia; Buenos Aires,

Argentina


Sinhalese


Albanian, Lithuanian,

Tagalog

Established office in Vilnius,

Lithuania



Cebuano, Serbian

Quadrangle sold at auction

Established offices in Espoo, Finland;

Guayaquil, Ecuador


Bulgarian, Swedish

Produced first CD:

Be Certain of God

APRIL 6:Purchased 75 acres in Jeffersonville for

new VGR International Headquarters


Translated Message

into Latvian

Offered The Voice Message software

7,000 people attended dedication for new International

Headquarters

Established offices in Johannesburg,

South Africa; Navoi, Uzbekistan


USA

First Catch The Vision

publication

Built new recording

studios in Africa and India

Dedicated new European office

in Nieuw Buinen, Holland

Began construction on

new building

Launched www.branham.org

website

Largest foreign printing endeavor:

150,000 French copies per message

Purchased Harris web

press capable of printing 52,000 32-page books

per hour

Purchased Heidelberg 6-color press capable of printing 44,000 covers per hour

Moved into new building


USA

Founded Voice Of God Recordings:

5 employees

Filtered first tape

Purchased state of the art

Infonics cassette-duplication system

First combined Spoken Word

Publications and VGR Easter Open

House

Published first sermon index

book

Duplicated first foreign-language sermon: Spanish

Built sound studio to begin

filtering and recording in-house

Brother Joseph, Brother Billy Paul,

and Sister Rebekah traveled to nine

African countries to establish lending

libraries

Received non-profit

status

Began sponsorship program for

overseas libraries

Established first lending library

in Nairobi, Kenya

First sermon translated,

recorded, gapped, and duplicated in

VGR studioTranslated Message

into Kiswahili,

Tamil, Telugu

Representatives sent to South Africa and

Zimbabwe to establish libraries


Chichewa, French, Hindi,

Korean, Marathi, Polish,

Punjabi

Began distribution in Durban,

South Africa Vision For Africa video released

Modernized typesetting

department by upgrading Linotype machine (7 books yearly) to Varityper (96 books yearly)

Spoken Word Publications

merged with VGR


Afrikaans, Bemba,

Portuguese

Established office in Montreal, Quebec, Canada for French

translation

Translated Message

into Chinese, German, Korean,

Zulu

Established offices in Kinshasa, Congo; Madras,

India

Weekly production

record: 11,340 tapes

duplicated

Berlin Wall came down enabling

access to communist countries

Translated Message

into Czech,Shona, Xhosa

Established office in Cape Town, South

Africa

Translated Message into Asante Twi,

Ateso,Italian,

Romanian,Russian,Slovak,Tswana,Ukrainian

Established offices in Lagos, Nigeria;

Durban, South Africa

Implemented digital audio technology


Kannada, Luganda

Established office in

Mexico City, Mexico


Translated Message

into Finnish, Malayalam,

North Sotho, South Sotho

Translated Message

into Dutch, Hungarian

Established offices in Abidjan, Ivory Coast;

Nieuw-Buinen, Holland; Satu Mare, Romania;

St. Petersburg, Russia


Oriya


foreign cassette

Utilized new word-processing

technology for tape inserts, labels, and

letters

VGR offered tapes on monthly plan

Began ongoing research to locate the most complete and highest-quality tapes. VGR started

with 1,058 sermons

Expanded operations to 3rd floor of Quadrangle

Began establishing

overseas libraries

Printed first Witness

publication

Established office in Harare,

Zimbabwe


USA

Began distribution in Cape Town, South Africa;

Lusaka, Zambia

2nd major expansion: occupied

entire Quadrangle

building

Purchased ATF web press: increasing

production from 8,000 to 34,000 32-page books

per hour

Purchased McCain Saddle Stitcher

increasing VGR’s ability to collate, staple, and

trim books


USA

Shipped first crate: India

Shipped first solar

tape recorder

Began distribution in Mozambique


USA

Shipped first container:

Kenya

Sent representatives to establish offices in Bujumbura, Burundi;

Kigali, Rwanda

Began distribution in Uganda

Representatives traveled to Finland

and Russia to develop distribution system


This timeline represents major milestones of Voice Of God Recordings throughout our 30 years

Representatives traveled to Argentina,

Brazil, and Chile to establish distribution

system

Purchased new audio editing and filtering equipment; started digitizing all audio

24 new sermons

released on cassette

22 new sermons

released on cassette

Upgraded audio editing and filtering equipment

30thanniversaryvoice Of God recordings

1981-2011

Translated Message into Indonesian

Soviet Union collapsed,

opening the borders to Message material

Helen Borders celebrates 40 years of service. She started by assisting her husband, Roy Borders, with Brother Branham’s

campaign scheduleBegan printing Message

books in Ukraine and India

First French MP3 CDs

Printed The Mother Opossum

children’s book

Launched www.youngfoundations.org

website

Began printing Message books

in Russia

Began first wide-scale

humanitarian effort in earthquake-ravaged Peru

Sent humanitarian

aid to Zimbabwe

after economy collapses

Full French library and MP3 player delivered to every known church in Togo

and Benin

Began printing Message books

in China

Sent out the 4,000th Lighthouse

package

First overseas youth camp in Peschiera del Garda, Italy

First Cub Corner Magazine

Shipping Department set record by

shipping well over 1 million pounds of Message material in

one year

Purchased 47 acres north of

Jeffersonville for a youth camp

Began project to deliver a full

Message library, and much

more, to every known church in Central America

Printed 100th Anniversary

Scofield Bible

Sent humanitarian aid to Philippines

after three typhoons devastate country

Jim Maguire celebrated 50 years of service

Discontinued cassette tapes

Massive earthquake sparked

unprecedented humanitarian effort for believers in Haiti


USA

5,000th Lighthouse

package sent overseas

Printed French

translation of the C.O.D.,

largest printing project in VGR

history

Began printing Message books in Indonesia

Printed The Mother Opossum

and Footsteps Of The Prophet

children’s books in 8 languages

Sent humanitarian

aid to a refugee camp in

Swaziland

First youth camp at Still

Waters for local young people

Released version 3 of The Table

Message eBooks available through Amazon

and Apple websites

24 new witnessing CDs in CDA

format

Barge sank on Congo River, destroying

350,000 French Message books

Launched www.stillwaterscamp.org

website

Local churches pulled together

and began construction of VGR office in

Blantyre, Malawi

Printed 150 millionth Message

book

Distributed a full French or English

Message library and MP3 player to every

known church in Cameroon

Four large-scale youth camps at

Still Waters. 128 young

people attended each camp

www.branham.org added thousands

of translated sermons

The Holy Spirit powerfully visited the young people around the bonfire at the Still Waters

camp

Translated the Message into

Kaonde, Kirundi, Lozi, Malagasy, Norwegian, and

Ovambo

Brother Joseph asked believers

around the globe to observe

Quiet Time on Saturday mornings

Duplicated the 19 millionth MP3 sermon

Duplicated 4 millionth CD

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Brother Joseph watches as a new Ford pickup is loaded into a 20’ container. The truck was sent to Honduras, where it has delivered tens of thousands of pounds of material to the believers in Central America.

Vehicles are animportant part of the overseas work. Notice the spare tires on the roof and winch on the front bumper (left). The African roads are rough, so our vehicles must be ready for the task. This Land Rover has carried Brother Des De Fortier (not shown) thousands of miles through the roads of Mozambique.

Brother Keith Herne (in front of the Land Rover) is a gifted missionary who has introduced many souls to the Message. He started working for VGR in 1989, and now manages the work in South Africa and Namibia.

Easter is the highlight of our year. This is when thousands of believers converge on Jeffersonville to recharge their batteries and have a little time of fellowship with old friends.

The dedication of the new building during Easter 2000 was our largest gathering, with more than 7,000 people. We had over 5,000 people in 2009, in commemoration of Brother Branham’s 100th birthday.

Easter 2000

Easter 2000Easter 2009

Easter 2009 Easter 2009

Easter 2009

Easter 2009

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(opposite page) Although we have always done humanitarian work among believers, the first large-scale effort was in 2007, when a magnitude 8.0 earthquake shook Peru. We immediately sent representatives from Jeffersonville to assess the situation and help with the effort.

(below) The next large project was in Philippines after three typhoons devastated that country. Brother Jeremiah Villagracia, VGR Office Manager in Manila, was out delivering food to believers within hours after the hurricanes subsided.

(top and left) The largest project to date has been in Haiti, after an earthquake killed hundreds of thousands of people. We immediately sent a team to organize a relief effort, and the work has continued for almost two years. One of our distributors in Haiti, Brother Guy Contave, is standing by his destroyed house in Port-au-Prince.

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WM

B

Where is that one that's going to sow that seed for that end-time church? Where is that ripening seed, that promised Elijah? And immediately after his days shall the great tribulation set in and burn the earth.

And then at the return of the church and the Bride, the Bride and Christ shall walk out upon their ashes in the Millennium, when the earth is purified by fire. And there they shall reign. And the heathens that's never heard the Gospel shall be raised in that time, and the sons of God will be manifested. If he's to reign, he's got to have something to reign over; he's got a domain. “And they ruled and reigned with Christ,” and Christ ruled, with a rod of iron, the nations. Then the Gospel…Then the manifested sons of God with the authority just like He had when He was here (See?), there will come the Millennium in that reign (See?), upon the ashes.

So I've watched for something. Has it slipped by us in humility and we've missed it? Is it gone and the church is left in her sins? If that be so, then it's later than you think. If not, then there's coming one with a message that's straight on the Bible, and quick work will circle the earth. The seeds will go in newspapers, reading material, until every predestinated Seed of God has heard it. None of them will come unless the Father has drawed them, and every one the Father has drawed will hear it and come. That'll be the predestinated Seed will hear the Word.

Then when that takes place, it'll be a gathering together. And Jesus shall appear, and there will go the Church from all over the earth like that, with the resurrection, going up.

Will it be like John came, and even the elected disciples didn't even know it? They said, “Why saith the scribes that Elias must first come?”

He said, “He's already come and you didn't know it.” But said,

“They did what they said they would do unto him.” His message was so quick, look, to all of Israel, and it only happened in one little pla-…two–two little spots: just below in Jerusalem and there, or down at Aenon, where John went up to baptize; and right down at the river where he was baptizing, the river dried up. Just six months, and the whole introduction of the Messiah come right in. See?

Have we overlooked something? Is it later than we think? This is a heart-to-heart talk now. This is, just tonight, just to…Yeah, it's just–just us talking here. Is it later than you think? Was that actually that message there at the river that day? Has it slipped by, and the people has missed it? Is that it? Then it really is later than we think. When will it be? I don't know. Might be tonight. Might be another fifty years. I don't know when it'll be; I'll just keep on going on as I am now.

62-0527 Questions And Answers

Brother Joseph started the Young Foundations ministry in 2006 to help our youth build the strong foundation that they need to carry the Gospel into the future. Young Foundations organizes events such as banquets, camps, field trips, and even raking leaves for elderly people around Jeffersonville. (previous page)

Construction began on the Still Waters youth camp in 2010, and the first event was held later that year. There have now been five camps with young believers from around the world attending.

Brother Gordon Tutani (right) has been a VGR office manager in his home country of Zimbabwe for more than 26 years now. He has recently played an important role in youth camps by leading songs, baptizing, and encouraging young people in a way that only “Brother G” can.

The young people at Still Waters were so impacted by Quiet Time (below) that Brother Joseph wanted to share it with the entire Body of Christ. In October of this year, he asked believers around the world to observe Quiet Time every Saturday at 7:00am, Jeffersonville time.

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Documents

30 YEARS IN REVIEW - Branhambranham.org/branham/ctv/CTV2011-03-30YR-Special-Issue-WEB.pdf · 4 5 Brother Joseph, Brother Billy Paul, and Brother Jackson Silla (top and right) during