By Paula Thompson, Colorado, United States
Editor's Note: Paula Thompson recently retired as executive director of the Urantia Book Fellowship. She previously served for 13 years as executive director of the Jesusonian Foundation. She was also a founding member of TruthBook.com, where she was responsible for much of the content, from Quotes of the Day to topical studies. Paula has spent her career dedicated to service and the spreading of the fifth epochal revelation. While she has earned her retirement, we have no doubt that Paula will continue to touch the lives of everyone she encounters, as she passes by.
The idea of raising money to get books to impoverished countries came as early as the Fellowship’s International Conference in 1990 in Snowmass, Colorado.
There was a reader from Estonia who was seeking help to supply books for his compatriots. An impromptu fundraiser took place at one of the plenary sessions, and a paper bag was passed around for funds to buy books for him to take home. We filled that bag to the brim with cash donations. Books were more expensive then, but we raised enough money for a good supply of hardcover English Urantia Books, purchased from Urantia Foundation.
In between the Snowmass conference in 1990 and the Flagstaff conference in 1996, the Spanish translation was completed and published. At the conference in 1996, a Chilean reader impressed on many of us how hard it was for Spanish speakers to afford the book. This person explained that one book could cost some Spanish speakers an entire month’s wages. Another Spanish reader described a group of one hundred people who were reading and sharing just one book. Therefore, the Urantia Book Fellowship mobilized again to raise the money to purchase and send Spanish books to Chile and elsewhere in Latin America.
We soon realized that we had to create something that would address the problem. We knew that even if books became more available and affordable, the problem of distribution to other countries would still exist. This is when the idea of the Pipeline of Light was born. A pipeline to keep the revelation constantly flowing to those who cannot afford it . . . a Pipeline of LIGHT!
The Spanish translation of The Urantia Book, El Libro de Urantia, has always been our most requested Pipeline book, and Urantia Foundation has consistently made affordable Spanish books readily available to the Fellowship. The Pipeline would not flow to meet the needs of the Spanish speaking community without Urantia Foundation’s able and ready help.
When we get a Pipeline request for the Spanish book, we immediately send that to the Foundation office, and they make sure the book or books get drop-shipped to those who are anxiously waiting. The Pipeline has purchased many Spanish books, but in the last few years, Urantia Foundation has given Spanish books to the Pipeline. The Pipeline then pays to ship them. This arrangement has greatly increased our ability to send books to Latin America.
Shipping one book to Latin America can cost more than $30, but shipping costs go down significantly (about $13 per book) when they are shipped by the case. Over the years, Urantia Foundation has provided over 1,700 Spanish Urantia Books to the Fellowship’s Pipeline of Light, and many of those were at no cost to us.
The Pipeline of Light has been instrumental in helping dedicated Urantians disseminate the book in countries all around the world, and Urantia Foundation has been an indispensable partner in making all Urantia Book translations affordable and available to the Pipeline.
In the 15 years that we have kept track of Pipeline placements, as of June 2021, the Pipeline of Light’s all-time totals were 12,221 copies of The Urantia Book placed into 89 countries around the world.
Pipeline of Light