WEB SITE FIGURES FOR LAST WEEK
The EA web site had 5,509 visitors last week or 787 per day (728 last week). The total for the lifetime of the site is 3,920,976 or 1,018 a day for the 3,852 days of the site. Last report’s total was 5,098.

We had 4,899 visitors at the Church Site.  1,092 visitors checked into the Gateway site.

FEAST 2008 – WE HAVE LESS THAN A MILLION SECONDS TO GO!!
Feast 2008 begins in just…
11 days [3 thru 13 Oct].  Also called, “11 days and a wake up.”
1 weeks and 4 days
264 hours
15,840  minutes
950.400 seconds

A WORD ABOUT ON-LINE PETITIONS
There are two general types of petitions you will encounter if you have a computer and e-mail.  One is valid, legal, and accepted and the other is not.  The one where you are asked to put your name at the end of a list in the body of the e-mail and an encouragement to send to your entire e-mail address book is the unaccepted one.  I just received one that instructed me to send the e-mail to the White House once there are 1,000 names on the list in the body of the e-mail.  Such e-mails will not be accepted by the White House or any other government agency.

The math shows us how this cannot work.  Say you get an e-mail with 799 names listed.  You add yours for 800.  You send it to 200 names from e-mail address book.  This sends the 800 names off into 200 separate directions and we will assume for a moment that each will pick up 200 unique names before going off to the White House.  So from just your efforts, the White House will get 200 separate petitions with 800 identical names.  But wait; it gets worse.  When you received the petition with 799 names on it, that same e-mail may have gone to some 200 other addresses and each of those 200 individuals may have sent it to their own list of 200 names.  That is the same 799 names going out to 40,000 e-mail addresses and if each of them sent to 200 names, we have eight million almost identical petitions in circulation.

Take the math out from the first day [one petition with one name going to 200 addresses] and you have trillions and trillions of potential e-mails arriving at the White House with several quadrillions of names included, most of which are duplicates.  A single name could be represented millions and millions of times.  The White House would have to employ tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of individuals just to accept and wade through all these potential e-mails.  In reality, however, these petition distributions breakdown due to a lack of individuals on the face of the earth to fill out the lists.

See more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_petition

FEAST ANNOUNCEMENTS
See and print all current Feast Announcements that we have been running here for weeks at this location:  Click here   Also go to the Feast information pages here:

http://www.intercontinentalcog.org/tabernacleshome.shtml

MINISTERS AND SPEAKERS ON THE ROAD
A number of ministers and speakers are on the road in coming weeks and months. Get all the details at Special Announcements at the Church site:

 http://www.intercontinentalcog.org/specialannouncements.shtml           

At the moment and due to everyone heading out for the Feast of Tabernacles, we have no announcements posted.  We have one for November which will go up this week.

QUESTIONS OF THE WEEK
1] Who amazed his comrades by surviving the bite of a viper?
Hints:
– looking for the name of a person.  Last letter of the name is “l.”
– answer in Acts, somewhere between chapters 26-28.

2] According to Proverbs, what substance affects man like the bite of a snake?
Hints:
– looking for something under the heading of food or drink.
– answer in Proverbs, somewhere between chapters 22-24.

3] Who put a bronze snake on a pole in order to heal snakebite?
Hints:
– looking for the name of a person.  Last letter of the name is “s.”
– answer in Numbers, somewhere between chapters 19-21.

4] According to Job, what sort of men suck the poison of snakes?
Hints:
– looking for an adjective that describes these men.
– answer in Job, somewhere between chapters 20-22.

5] What repulsive creatures bit the Israelites in the wilderness?
Hints:
– looking for a type of animal that includes an adjective.
– the adjective begins with the letter “f.”
– answer in Numbers, somewhere between chapters 20-22.

6] What did the people of Judah call the bronze snake in the temple?
Hints:
– looking for the name they gave the bronze snake.
– name begins with the letter “N.”
– answer in 2 Kings between chapters 17-19.

1] Paul (Acts 28:3-6)
2] Wine (Proverbs 23:32)
3] Moses (Numbers 21:8-9)
4] The wicked (Job 20:16)
5] Fiery serpents (Numbers 21:6)
6] Nehushtan (2 Kings 18:4)

Those who answered correctly Snakes and Other Creepy Things Part 1 of 8: Milford & Mary H. – Larry and Mary Ruth B. – Maxine & Terri W. – Frederick T. – Paul P. – Carolyn M. – Joy S. – Lee & Joan C. – Robert S. – Trish G. – Linda P. – Georgia M.

 This Week’s Questions: Snakes and Other Creepy Things Part 2 of 8

1] What kind of snake did God promise to Jeremiah as a punishment for Israel’s sin?
Hints:
–looking for a type of animal.  Type of animal begins with letter “v.”
–they cannot be charmed.
–answer in Jeremiah in chapters 8 or 9.

2] What tribe of Israel was supposed to be like a snake?
Hints:
–looking for the name of one of the tribes.
–answer in Genesis in chapters 48 or 49.

3] What animal came out of the Nile in droves as a plague on the Egyptians?
Hints:
–looking for a type of animal.  The fourth letter of this name is “g.”
–answer in Exodus in chapters 7 or 8.

4] What bloodsucking creature is, in Proverbs, held up as an example of something that can never be satisfied.
Hints:
–looking for a type of animal. 
–five letters in the name.  Includes two of the letter “e.”
–answer in Proverbs in chapters 29 or 30.

5] According to Jesus, what would a loveless father give a child who asked for an egg?
Hints:
–looking for a type of animal.  It has a stinging attack.
–eight letters in the name.  Includes one “i” and two of the letter “o.”
–answer in Luke in chapters 10 or 11.

6] What destructive creature did the prophet Joel have a vision of?
Hints:
–looking for a type of animal.
–six letters in the name.  Last letter is a “t.”
–answer in Joel in chapters 1 or 2.

Have the answers? Drop me an e-mail: chriscumming@icgchurches.org        

Next week: Snakes and Other Creepy Things Part 2 of 8

POINTS TO PONDER
Nine Things That Love Does
Love suffers long. –1 Cor. 13:4
Love rejoices in truth. –1 Cor. 13:6
Love bears all things. –1 Cor. 13:7
Love believes all things. –1 Cor. 13:7
Love hopes all things. –1 Cor. 13:7
Love endures all things. –1 Cor. 13:7
Love abides now. –1 Cor. 13:13
Love covers a multitude of sins. –1 Peter 4:8
Perfect love casts out fear. –1 John 4:18