Paula Thompson
Tamara Strumfeld
Agustin Arellano
By Michelle Klimesh, California, USA
Editors Note: The Pipeline of Light began sending books to Latin America in the summer of 2002. The project has grown over the years sending out over 2000 copies of the book to 66 countries. If you would like to read more about this project or support this project, please go to Pipeline of Light [2]
Upon returning from a trip to South America in 2002, the chair of The Urantia Book Fellowship's International Committee reported that he had visited a study group where seventy readers were sharing eleven copies of El libro de Urantia. In some countries, books were completely unavailable, and in others, a single copy might cost 5% of an average person's annual income.
Within a year it became apparent that the need for affordable books was not limited to Latin America. Since those early days, the Pipeline of Light has sent 2,415 copies of The Urantia Book in eight languages to readers in sixty-six countries. As much as the project has expanded, The Urantia Foundation's Spanish translation still accounts for 78% of all Pipeline books shipped.
The Pipeline of Light started as a joint project between Jesusonian Foundation and The Urantia Book Fellowship. It is successful today due to the hard work of many people including Paula Thompson in the Fellowship office and Tamara Strumfeld in the Foundation office. These devoted women have learned the hard way about worldwide postal systems and difficult customs officials.
There are so many stories worth sharing with you about the recipients of books provided by the Pipeline of Light! There is the Frenchman who had been looking for Le Livre d'Urantia for months when he sat down next to Agustin Arellano in a Paris subway station. Agustin just happened to have two copies of the French translation in his backpack. There is the Nigerian man who facilitates a study group under a large tree in a Nigerian refugee camp. And we shall never forget the enthusiasm of "Arno the Pagan" who shocked his family and friends by embracing religion while reading a borrowed copy of The Urantia Book.
After the first few years, we began to see cross-fertilization. The Pipeline sent a copy of the German translation to a woman living in Costa Rica. Books to Croatia were hand-delivered by the manager of a bicycle shop in Denver. He was introduced to the Urantia Revelation by a man visiting the United States from Lithuania. We received a request from the Maldive Islands last year. How on earth did someone in that tiny nation learn about the Pipeline of Light?
It has been a joy and an education to work alongside the Pipeline of Light volunteers for these many years. I feel profoundly grateful for the generous donors who make this ministry possible.