Latest / Urantia Radio / Revelation in Africa - The April Helen Interview

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Revelation in Africa - The April Helen Interview · Urantia Radio

0:00
Welcome to another edition of the Rancho Radio podcast.
0:02
I'm Jim Watkins, your host. What would it be like to go to a
0:05
very different country where the average monthly income is under
0:09
$3? Where 5 bordering countries
0:12
surround you, two of which have refugees pouring in because of
0:16
the lack of food. Civil war is about, religious
0:19
persecution surrounds. And yet, despite all of these
0:23
challenges, the revelation continues to grow in Uganda from
0:27
the seeds planted from people like the one I'm about to
0:30
introduce you to right here on The Ranch Radio Podcast.
0:38
This time up on the Ranch Radio Podcast, we meet a second
0:41
generation Uranch book reader by the name of April Helen.
0:45
What's it like to share the revelation with folks who have a
0:47
vastly different cultural view? Let's find out April Helen, my
0:51
guest, this time up on the Urancho Radio podcast.
0:58
As black as night, the pale yellow shone in his.
1:04
Eyes. His path was marked by the stars
1:11
of the southern hemisphere, and he walked his days under
1:16
Africa's skies. This is the story of how we
1:22
begin to remember. This is the powerful pulsing of
1:29
love in the vain, after the dream of falling and calling
1:36
your name out. These are the roots of rhythm,
1:41
and the roots of rhythm remain. I talked to a couple people who
1:50
talk about how well the Urantia book is doing in Africa and that
1:54
is of great interest to me because Africa obviously
1:57
everybody knows it's a beautiful country.
1:59
But there's so many problems that the the, the continent
2:03
itself is facing because you've got all these semi Marxist
2:06
governments, you've got all the slaughter religious stuff going
2:10
on and it's just like of all the places the Orancho book could
2:14
possibly not do well in, I would think it would be Africa or most
2:18
of the countries in Africa. And then you write me this thing
2:21
and I'm reading about it and and it sounds like the people in of
2:25
Uganda, I mean they're just reacting to this book in a very
2:29
nice way. And I and I I thought I'd pick
2:31
your brain on it. So first of all, what is going
2:35
on in Uganda with the Rancho Book?
2:38
Tell my listeners about that what what's going on over there?
2:42
Yeah. Well, I having been over there
2:46
in August of 2022, I. Then got really interested in
2:54
what happened before that and it originally.
3:02
Now if this was the 1st, I'm not too sure about.
3:05
What I my research led me to was that Norman Ingram was really
3:12
the first major player in a worldwide library placement
3:18
program that he did in the late began in the late 90s and that's
3:27
also when. The the power couple of Pat
3:32
Obanton and Antoinette Roots Data also began going over there
3:39
and building relationships in Africa and they well we'll go
3:44
into that a little bit later of their current Ubuntu project
3:48
with Guard Jamison. However, you know, as you say
3:53
this you're it's that interesting take on.
3:58
What you say most of the world understands about those
4:02
countries. And yes, I admit to having just
4:07
a very small lens of what I saw. Yet I did hear from personal
4:15
conversations while I was over there with the delegates to the
4:21
first Ugandan urine shipment conference.
4:25
They, several of them, had to be quiet about their reading of the
4:32
papers and and so it's definitely an organic grassroots
4:39
growth of Christian leaders, Muslim leaders, unaffiliated
4:47
readers having. Their passion around the message
4:54
of the book, yet being quiet about it mostly.
5:00
But then, of course, when you get together with a group of
5:04
other your ancient book readers, you can be a little bit more
5:10
explicit. And that's exactly why I like to
5:14
like you, Mr. Gem. Are on these platforms like
5:20
podcasts or even going to book fairs and being representative.
5:24
Like, I just came back from the Parliament of the World's
5:26
Religions, where you're in the midst of near 10,000 people
5:33
having an open mind to hear what you have to say about your
5:37
philosophy. And yeah, it's pretty exciting
5:42
to go into these places, especially like Uganda, where
5:46
the message is. So new and and hear about other
5:52
countries in that on that continent like Nigeria and the
5:58
Congo I believe are much more active in its readership.
6:04
So definitely Uganda is much younger on the playing field.
6:11
Yet it's it's growing and I would probably say the
6:16
participation at the conference out of maybe 80 people, you
6:23
know, probably half of them were super young readers, meaning new
6:28
readers and actually the demographics, which is so much
6:32
different than it is here in the United States and actually
6:36
younger aged readers. Versus what we have here is
6:41
mostly an an older demographic. I'm at 45, one of the younger
6:47
readers here and that's curious to me as well.
6:51
Yet over there, even a lot of them hadn't even heard about it
6:58
until they were traveling there. It was like some of their
7:02
buddies just said, hey, we're we're going to this being and
7:07
why don't you come along with us?
7:09
And while we were there several, there was one talk in particular
7:16
near the beginning of the conference.
7:18
They the conversation moved to it being a curiosity that the
7:29
your ancient message was trying to take over or dismiss the
7:37
biblical. Teachings and there was a little
7:42
animosity you could feel in the room, yet it was by some of the
7:50
other more knowledgeable readers.
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Calm down that situation by saying there's truth in every
8:01
book and the Aransha book is just an.
8:07
An expanded version of what we know and to remain open to the
8:12
truth, to anywhere that you can receive it.
8:17
And that's definitely something that I appreciate about the
8:22
unique qualities of everything that is offered here on the
8:25
planet and and any book or person or.
8:30
Situation challenge very much. Often challenge is where we find
8:35
our wisdom, so that's exciting to see.
8:41
Well, I want to just interject here a little bit of context of
8:44
what you're saying, because there's not stuff that I just
8:47
happen to know the but some interesting facts about the
8:52
country. It's primarily Roman Catholic,
8:55
which I didn't know. Then there's the Church of
8:58
Uganda, which is about 30%, which is slightly down.
9:02
And then Evangelical Pentecostal represents a very small
9:06
percentage, under about 10%. 13 percent is represented by the by
9:12
Muslims. So I thought that would be much
9:14
higher. And it borders, like you say,
9:18
the DRC, Democratic Republic of Congo.
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And then the other countries that surround it include Rwanda,
9:26
Tanzania, South Sudan. And I just mentioned DRC.
9:31
So it's, it's landlocked. But it's got this incredible
9:36
reputation for being a place to go to see gorillas and elephants
9:41
everywhere and waterfalls and beautiful pristine lakes.
9:45
And I imagine is it, is it mountainous?
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Do you see any mountains there? It's not flat, is it?
9:51
There's also like mountains. And can you see Mount, what's
9:53
that big mountain in? Is it Kenya?
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I'm not sure. But how long were you there?
9:58
And and yeah, how long were you there?
10:00
When did you go? Yeah.
10:01
Well, on that, I think it is Kenya.
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And thank you for all of those facts that actually I didn't
10:08
even know. Yeah, right.
10:10
So thank you for giving that context.
10:12
Well, it's. Just and it was last August of
10:17
2022. I was there for a month.
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And the the conference was actually scheduled for 2020 and
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so the planning began in 2019 through the Spiritual Family
10:33
Network and then the Eurasia Fellowship got on board in 2021
10:42
for additional. Planning, administration and
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financial support. And as the world knows, the year
10:52
2020, why we took a step back, it was obviously the quarantine.
10:59
And so actually that was a really good thing because it
11:03
provided a lot more time for these organizations and the
11:09
people planning it to come into greater.
11:14
Collaborative teamwork, which, as you know, teamwork is one of,
11:20
if not the most important lesson to be learned during our mortal
11:24
career here on this planet and even in the universe as far as I
11:29
understand it. Again, and honestly even being
11:33
there, we could have used a lot more time in in that
11:38
collaborative effort to get a little bit more clear.
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In fact, I wrote two blog posts. One was all about the experience
11:48
of the conference and then a whole another one was inspired
11:52
as how to move forward. In this spirit led teamwork in
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international. Organization, service work,
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specifically commenting on the ranch of a community worldwide.
12:10
And so you know all of that just comes in stages each each time
12:17
we do something of course that ideally will progress the next
12:22
time we do it and it was a great asset to.
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Not only be in the program planning, which I am an adjunct
12:34
on the International Fellowship Committee of the Arrangement
12:37
Fellowship, and I also have direct ties to the other
12:42
organization involved, Spiritual Family Network that you know, we
12:48
just keep going in more conversation and more vetting of
12:53
the people who are on. On site, on location in whatever
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particular country, in this case Uganda, that we can start
13:06
establishing deeper connections so we can have trust in where
13:12
the money is going and the organizational process in that
13:17
country that we can't see because we're across the pond.
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So I think that is one of the greatest things that I took
13:26
away. As my journey I think is going
13:32
to be involved in international affairs, which actually is still
13:38
is, as my secondary reason for going over to Uganda was this
13:47
small orphanage north of where the conference was about 3
13:53
hours. In a little district called
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Kamuli and I have been for about two years supporting the small
14:02
like 18 kid orphanage and actually just last week after
14:08
two years or actually four years of organizing it, we.
14:14
Are are now having all the kids and homeschooling, so now
14:17
education is being provided. So that is really cool.
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I'll just give a little plug to the Vine of Hope industries and.
14:25
And so just seeing those two different reasons of why I went
14:30
over there allowed me to see a greater vision of the culture,
14:36
you know, stepping outside of the Iranshevic movement into
14:40
this other realm of rural. You know, town life, village
14:47
life. And actually that gentleman, the
14:49
director is the beery is a new reader who has been inspired
14:56
since that Uganda conference to bring the Iran Shavik to his
15:01
small district and the orphanage.
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So we got him The Tales of Joshua, the book that I was
15:09
raised with as a Second Generation reader.
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And that's where the kids are starting with their your ancient
15:17
book inspired education, of course, alongside English and
15:21
math, science, history. So that is a pretty exciting
15:26
project. If anybody out there wants to
15:28
have anything to do with you can contact me.
15:30
So, So you just got up one day and decided you're going to go
15:33
to Uganda and see and see if you can run into some of your ranch
15:37
book readers. Is that what you're telling me?
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Actually, I heard back in through the International
15:45
Fellowship Committee and the desire for Spiritual Family
15:49
Network to have this conference over there in 2019.
15:53
As soon as I heard it, I got it was like my thought adjuster
15:57
celebrating inside of my soul that you're gonna go.
16:02
I was like, oh, OK, well, I don't know how that's gonna
16:04
happen, but I'm open to it. Yeah.
16:06
And then along the path another. That opportunity being a
16:12
representative of the IFC, but also Crestwood Foundation who is
16:19
a big supporter of mine, of hope.
16:21
They were my sponsors to go on that trip, so everything just
16:25
synchronistically fell. Of course the angels and
16:29
midwears obviously had something to do with that that I got to
16:33
experience that whole month long journey.
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What is the difference in the way that maybe some of your
16:44
experiences with what do they, what do they call themselves
16:47
Ugandanis? What's their word for describing
16:51
their their country? Are they Ugandhis?
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What is that term over there? Well, I do.
16:59
You know, I just assumed it was Ugandans.
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Ugandans, okay. Do they look at what's the
17:05
appeal, What is there a common appeal to them in the book
17:11
that's different from other countries like America or any
17:14
other country? Do they look at it?
17:16
Somebody told me once that because of Melchizedek is much
17:20
more prominent, particularly in Islam, but certainly in, in
17:24
African culture, because of the, you know, Roman Catholics and
17:30
the Angelicans. But do they haven't a certain
17:32
affinity? What are they different in the
17:35
way they approach the Rancho book than say we are, You know
17:39
what I mean? You know what I'm.
17:41
That that is a good question. And the first thing that comes
17:45
to my mind was honestly we didn't really get that deep into
17:51
those kind of questions yet. If I were to intuitively from
17:56
the experience that I had about what conversations came up at
18:00
the conference during the presentations, I would say
18:04
Jesus, you know the life. And in fact, that's where most
18:08
of the people had most of their. Experience reading where the
18:14
life and teachings of Jesus the 4th part of the book and and and
18:19
all about the like art of living skills like prayer, life and
18:28
living as the expression of spiritual values and everything
18:33
your words, thoughts and needs. And he now, but also as humans,
18:40
I've met many of them who didn't do that.
18:46
Yeah, you know, we're all doing the best that we can.
18:49
Let me ask you this. So I've had conversations with
18:54
people and this may be a difficult, sensitive subject,
18:57
but I don't care. There are some things that your
19:00
Rancho book says or you know, in written in 1935.
19:05
It would not, as we would say, be politically correct.
19:08
You know what I'm saying about the way that perhaps they just,
19:12
you know, the fact that the, you know, the way the Urancho book
19:17
describes the culture or the the backwardness of African natives
19:23
because of, I think, you know, environmental issues more than
19:26
anything. But there, I've heard people
19:29
tell me that the Urancho book comes across as being racist,
19:33
which, you know, I can tell them that they're stupid and explain
19:36
to them why they're wrong, but that never comes.
19:38
That's never discussed. You never had that issue with
19:41
anybody in Uganda about some of the things that the Rancho Book
19:45
says about the different races and the attributes of the races.
19:49
And you know, I'm sure you you know what I'm referring to.
19:53
I do, and in fact, you're bringing up a very popular
20:00
subject, especially since. The International Conference of
20:04
the Orange Book Fellowship just happened and the one of the
20:08
workshops that was the most attended was the panel on the
20:14
race issue. So.
20:16
So I'd like to know more about what that panel I was with
20:19
serving the children's program the whole time.
20:22
However, I heard a lot about it. But yes, you're right, I did not
20:28
have that at all. Come up and of course I was the
20:33
only white girl right in the bunch of near 100, you know, 85
20:41
people. And I was welcomed with open
20:45
arms and love and you know, as they whether that's a cultural
20:51
thing of seeing. And I did, I got approached with
20:56
a lot of hands out wanting something because they thought I
21:02
had money. And that was not just with your
21:05
intubic readers, but that was everywhere I walked in that
21:09
country. Is it pretty?
21:11
So how is it economically? Pretty bad.
21:14
I mean, in your visit, no, you know, I suppose it's just like
21:20
this country or anywhere in the world that I've traveled.
21:23
I see all sides anywhere I go. So it just depends on where you
21:28
are is where you're going to see.
21:31
Now the stories that I've heard there is great contrast of the
21:37
classes. So, yes, and then I did in the
21:42
Kamuli district visit the rural town.
21:46
But then I was in the conference in Jinja, which was one of the
21:51
major cities. So I saw, I saw it all.
21:56
And you know, I've internationally traveled most of
21:59
my life, so that inequality doesn't really haunt me,
22:06
especially when we look at the what the Uranshibik says about
22:10
the inevitabilities of life. And for us to move forward and
22:15
ascend towards the era of lion life, there has to be these
22:20
inequalities so that we have the opportunity to problem solve.
22:24
And yeah move towards that more in line era, but back to this
22:31
this race comment that when I was there, that's something that
22:39
your earlier question about the kind of the major takeaways that
22:44
they see in the arrangement. I would probably say that the
22:48
equality of the races is one of those and and the the women's
22:54
equality, however, even though they know that intellectually
22:59
they're culturally if I would say, far behind our tradition.
23:11
By here in the US. You know, the Iranjavic says we
23:14
love our traditions, We hang on to them.
23:16
You know, we're very tradition oriented.
23:20
Yeah, you're right. And and it's, you know and it
23:23
reminds me of this comment where it says in the government of
23:27
another planet where it talks about this one particular
23:30
continent and. There's they're just about that
23:33
stage where they're sending out ministers to other of the
23:36
surrounding countries and they're saying that the
23:39
revelators, they're saying don't do that.
23:41
That's not what you do. What you do is you go and you
23:43
pull people from that culture, train them in the ways of the
23:47
garden, you know, as a metaphor, and then send them back so that
23:51
they can take what they've learned, the higher learning,
23:54
the higher education, the whatever.
23:57
And then they can. Let it seed organically in their
24:00
own country, so it grows up within their own cultural
24:03
characteristics. So comment on that I mean is is
24:09
the, I really appreciate you saying that.
24:11
That's exactly one of the points that I put in the second blog
24:14
post of how do we move forward and empowering and supporting
24:19
our global community. And I quoted the government on
24:23
the neighboring planet and actually there has been a
24:29
blueprint created from the Spiritual Family Network a few
24:34
years ago where they did that. They brought over a popular
24:40
Bishop Moses Carawa. I believe his name is to Canada
24:46
for a three-week workshop on the life and teachings of Jesus.
24:53
And he has been so successful in bringing people to the Aransha
24:58
book now that he's returned in his country and visited other
25:03
countries in Africa. And yes, I think that that
25:08
establishing that in fact that's the the vision that I have for
25:13
the Vine of Hope ministry is eventually bringing the the kids
25:19
over at at certain ages teenage years potentially and or maybe
25:26
even college and under the guise that they commit to returning to
25:33
their culture and cities and homes to be the the teachers in
25:41
that way. Yeah.
25:42
Well, that's that's the better point.
25:45
So tell me a little bit about the the the world, the
25:49
International Religious Conference that you went to.
25:53
What are they all talking about today?
25:56
Yeah, the Parliament of the World's religious.
25:58
What's on their mind? Yeah, yeah.
26:01
Well, maybe the listeners don't know yet.
26:05
The parliament of the world of religion has been going on since
26:09
the World's Fair in 1893 and that's really where a a big
26:17
springboard. Not to say that interfaith
26:21
conversation hasn't been prior to 1893 yet.
26:26
That's when it came on to the world map and organizations like
26:34
Name, the North American Interfaith Network and stuff
26:40
like that has been around to have the conversations about
26:46
things like spirituality and politics.
26:50
And I think it was 1993 was the 2nd like 100 years later the 2nd
26:57
Parliament of the World's Religions.
27:00
And ever since then, they have them every four to seven years,
27:06
and that's been one of my favorite.
27:08
I think I have. I've been to them five Times Now
27:12
because it's such a place of open mindedness and open
27:16
heartedness. So the conversation this year
27:19
was very much involving their theme, which was defending
27:27
women's rights. Well, not just women, but
27:31
defending rights, a call to consciousness, and defending and
27:37
empowering humanity. And yes, a lot of that still
27:42
revolves around the the women's equality movement.
27:47
So there were so many workshops and plenary speakers and a
27:56
wonderful exhibit hall. All all different.
27:59
Not just workshops on this theme.
28:03
Yeah, everything from cultivating inner awareness to
28:09
having cultural artist displays like music and dance and what,
28:20
you know, The original book movement had, I think 4
28:24
representations in the Expo, and many of the readers in our
28:30
community put on workshops and yeah, yeah, so it's just one of
28:37
those. I highly encourage people to go
28:41
to those future events. Do you or any interfaith work?
28:46
You know, I think interfaith work is one of the grounds that
28:50
the area of light and life can truly be fostered when we have
28:55
people of spiritual, higher spiritual consciousness getting
29:00
together and talking respectfully and finding unity
29:05
through diversity is one of the most powerful places that we as
29:12
a a family of humans can move forward on this planet.
29:18
Do you think I I have to, We'll have to have a separate talk
29:21
about that because that's a whole other stuff, you know,
29:27
because some of the words that are used, like some of the words
29:30
that you use, they're what's the, you know, like the word
29:35
empowerment. I hear that word bantered about
29:38
empower the children, empower this, empower that.
29:41
But sometimes they think, you know, people reserve the right
29:45
to too much what they call. Or what I call unearned power.
29:49
It's like, you know, children, there's a certain amount of
29:53
humility that you have to have humbleness.
29:56
And you don't walk around thinking about how empowered you
29:59
are. You think about how you want to
30:00
serve other people. So that should be the impetus
30:03
for what you're doing in your daily life.
30:05
How do I make the world a better place?
30:07
Not how do I make the world a better place for me?
30:10
And I think that's what gets lost sometimes.
30:13
I'm not saying the people shouldn't feel good about who
30:14
they are and what they're doing. But you know it empowering must
30:19
come with a certain amount of you earned it and it's not just
30:23
something that you're entitled to when it comes to that.
30:26
And I think our kids are growing up with a sense of too much self
30:29
importance and then they grow up to be little radical activists,
30:33
you know and and but again that's a subject for another
30:39
day. So did you get the sense that
30:41
more people are aware of the Rancho Book now than, say, 10
30:45
years ago? And they maybe not know much
30:48
about it. Or what's your assessment of how
30:51
people either recognize or don't recognize the Irancha book?
30:57
Well, I would, I would probably say yes to what you said, more
31:03
interest, curiosity and acknowledgement.
31:07
Yet it will take time for the study, especially because it's,
31:14
you know in English and English as a second language.
31:17
Even though English is the official language, most of them
31:22
come about it as a second language.
31:25
So there's a lot of translation opportunity for years to come in
31:34
all areas of the world that definitely Africa and that has
31:40
any. There is one person that I know,
31:43
a young man, very interested and devoted to that project in the
31:47
Lugan Ben they call it is their secondary official language
31:53
apart from English that that actually is lower on the totem
31:58
pole pole, say relative to. I think Swahili might be the
32:04
first translation that happens over there.
32:08
Yeah that's something that in my other blog post of how to help
32:16
them be more self sustainable is give them tools for studying and
32:24
not just giving them money. Right.
32:28
I'm I'm all about figuring out how we can well, I use the word
32:33
empower in that way to take it on themselves as the responsible
32:38
party to help their neighbors study it and be more free.
32:47
So study guides it translated into other languages and and of
32:54
course the fellowship has a lot of opportunity there.
32:57
So again this is a shout out to any listeners that want to be on
33:01
board. There's so much service
33:03
opportunity if you want to get involved.
33:05
I imagine teachers, you know, I have this theory and it's
33:10
actually quite funny, I think, but I've noticed that people who
33:14
are very religious. Very rarely ever read their
33:17
books. They they seem to know a lot
33:19
about them, but they don't actually take the time to read
33:22
them like the Book of Mormon. Have you ever met anybody who's
33:25
actually but yeah, there are more?
33:28
Or the Bible. Or the Bible.
33:30
Yeah, they might read the Gospels of Revelation once or
33:33
twice and that's it. And then they think they're
33:34
experts. But people are not I.
33:39
As a Urancho book reader, if I had not ever heard of it, and
33:43
today I found it, I would lie. I don't have time to read that.
33:47
I can't read all that. So but yeah, how do we get
33:50
people to read the book? That's the that's the question.
33:52
Well, so yeah, what was coming to my mind was exactly what
33:56
people like you and I are doing. And it's all about secondary
34:00
works. You know, with this era that
34:04
we're living in, where people's attention span is becoming
34:09
shorter and the people who actually like to read are
34:14
becoming less, how can we inspire them?
34:17
To read? Is by doing podcasts.
34:20
And I'm actually getting ready to publish my first children's
34:25
book or things like blog post or social media shorts or people
34:31
like Gary Tong who do these beautiful videos and get them
34:36
out to YouTube. So it's it's really all about
34:39
the secondary works I think. And I think that the more people
34:43
who do secondary works projects, not just books, but all
34:47
different kinds, that even if just one person catches that,
34:53
that is doing a good thing. Yeah.
34:56
Yeah. So I.
34:57
Here's a shout out to all of you listeners out there.
35:00
They if you're inspired to do something creative, even if
35:03
someone else is doing it, they're not gonna be doing it.
35:07
Like you're gonna do it. Yeah.
35:08
So just do it. All right.
35:11
It's April, Helen. Calm and and I have so many
35:16
different resources and please there's a contact page if
35:20
anybody out there wants to know about any of the service
35:23
projects I can connect to. You just get involved.
35:27
You know the life of loving service and living a life on
35:30
purpose for the the brotherhood and the sisterhood of humankind,
35:36
that is. That is where the love is at.
35:43
I've been thinking about the Great Migration.
35:47
Noon and night they leave the flock and I imagine that
35:52
destination. Meadow grass, jagged rock.
36:01
The Lord is my engineer, the Lord is the earth.
36:06
How right on the Lord is the face in the atmosphere?
36:14
The path is slipping a slide. You've been listening to my
36:38
guest April Helen talking about. A truly inspiring story.
36:42
Her story of living the Revelation in Africa.
36:48
Crystal Comma Starlit Knife, Silver Moon to smooth the edge
37:02
of daylight. Now it turned evening rose.
37:14
Tribal voices, Old and young celebrations.
37:25
A history of family song. The endless river flows.
37:40
As always, it's so wonderful that you're able to stop by.
37:43
Always love hearing from you. Got a question or a comment?
37:46
Your Rancho book? Radio@gmail.com and I look
37:50
forward to catching up with you on the next podcast right here
37:54
on your Rancho radio.