CTO Pays Tribute Arley Sobers

It is with the greatest sadness that the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) has been advised of the sudden, unfortunate and untimely passing of Interim Secretary General and Director of Information Management and Research, Mr. Arley Sobers. Mr. Sobers was on overseas mission when he passed away in New York on Thursday, August 14.

According to CTO Chairman Allen Chastanet, “Arley was a hard working, dedicated and committed member of the CTO family, selflessly giving over 20 years of his life to the organization. His passion for research and information management was unparalleled and his work on the development of an information management system for tourism in the Caribbean was revolutionary at the time. Quiet by nature, his work spoke volumes for itself.

“Arley was never shy to do whatever was necessary for the good of CTO and the Caribbean region on a whole. He always answered the call whenever the organization and/or the region’s tourism sector needed him. Nothing exemplifies his dedication like his willingness to lead the organization on an interim basis on two occasions in the past three years or so, while we sought a Secretary General.

“His passing is a tremendous loss, not just to the Caribbean Tourism Organization, but to the entire Caribbean region.  Our prayers and best wishes go out to his wife, Margaret and immediate family, as well as the Caribbean tourism family that he adopted in his more than decades of service,” concluded Chastanet.

Former CTO Secretary General and current Minister of Tourism for the Bahamas Vincent Vanderpool-Wallace said, “We in the CTO family have lost our heart and the Caribbean has lost a brilliant, passionate and compassionate friend in the passing of Arley Sobers. He was my sounding board, my confidant, my advisor and my great friend during my years at CTO and long before. He helped to establish and solidified CTO’s global reputation as a source of information on the Caribbean. Few people are irreplaceable but Arley comes as close as any. We all consider ourselves a part of Arley’s family and mourn our great loss with Margaret and all of Arley’s family and friends.”

Details on funeral services are not yet available.

 

Terrell Hunt Rides High

Washington, DC - Terrell Hunt, RichEscape Music’s praise and worship phenomenon, has been enjoying great success from his debut project, Awesome. A recent highlight of the project’s success is the nomination of Hunt on the first round of the 24th Annual Stellar Awards Ballot as New Artist of the Year. The Stellar Awards, the gospel community’s version of the GRAMMY Award, is the industry’s most coveted honor, especially for a brand new artist. Members of SAGMA, the Stellar Gospel Music Award Association, will vote for the winners in each category.

The up-tempo praise anthem “This Is The Day” and its follow-up, the album’s title tune, “Awesome”, have been the impetus for the CD’s notoriety and are being played on hundreds of radio stations across the country including the Sheridan Gospel Network, Inspirations Across America, Radio One’s WPRS and on satellite radio stations Sirius and XM. Recently charting at #3 on XM’s Spirit 33, #1 on Richmond’s WREJ, and #32 on Miami’s WMBM, Hunt is heard on stations everywhere including Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Birmingham, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Memphis, Baltimore, New York, and Los Angeles.

Terrell Hunt has been featured as a guest artist during the 2008 season of BET’s Bobby Jones Gospel and has been reviewed in Worship Leader Magazine where they said, “His debut release is nothing short of authentic, inspirational worship, rich in Scripture and repetitious praise, Hunt is the devoted leader of one choral anthem after another that are breathtaking reminders of what whole-hearted, submissive worship can be.”

Having sung with Karen Clark-Sheard, Daryl Coley, Yolanda Adams, Donnie McClurkin, and CeCe Winans, he’s revered as one of praise and worship’s up-and-coming shining stars. Dr. Leonard Scott says, “Terrell Hunt is one of the premier worship leaders of our time. He has an anointed word and song from the Lord, and the presents with a power that inspires worshipers to give God glory.”

 

Faith We Can Count On Rev. Henry Bates

“We are not one with Infinite Mind, but one in it.  Do you see the difference?  We are in it; we are not with it.  If you say, “I am one with Infinite Mind,” there is a subtle sense of God and you.  There is no separation if you say, “I am in God.”  Whether you think it objectively or whether you think it subjectively, you are thinking in God.  The objective thought leaves the brain and goes into expression.  There is no avoiding the thought that you are in God.  There is nothing but immutability in the universe.  We are Infinite in all capacity to think, to will, to wish.’’... - Dr. Ernest Holmes

       To gain an even greater understanding of the paragraph above written by Dr. Ernest Holmes, we can consider the ocean and the wave ... the wave is individual and distinctive ... but it is in and of the ocean.  This is our relationship to the Infinite ... we are individual and distinctive ... but we are in and of God ... and just as the wave has no life separate and apart from the ocean ... we have no life separate and apart from God.  As simplistic as this analogy may seem to be ... it is a profound Truth.  It is the Truth for all of Life ... for Life is God ... in and of God.

There are those who will tell us that we are a “child of God” ... ... a child is separate and apart from its mother and father.  This language denotes separation ... it is subtle but Mind reflects this subtlety in our experiences.  We are not separate and apart from God ... we are not all of God, but all that we are is God ... in God.  And this we must condition our mind to realize in the greatest way possible.  Life is God and Life supports, sustains, and maintains our life as the ocean sustains the wave.  In scripture we can read, “in Him we live and move and have our being.”

As we contemplate, meditate, and fill our minds with this immutable Truth, we begin to actualize our One-ness in God to a greater measure in all areas of our life.  Realizing that we are “in God” ... we also realize that there is no unhappiness in God ... no depression, in God ... no lack in God.  The full-range of limited human experiences can be eliminated as this realization is actualized in our personal experiences.

As we look at world events, we can easily see the evidence that we have been acculturated to believe in separation ... from God and from each other.  And most of this comes in the form of religion and politics in our culture.  As we are conscious of being separate from God ... we accept this same separation from each other.  Religion separates us by theologies ... by good and evil ... by saints and sinners ... and even more.  Politics separates us for worldly power and political gain.  Both politics and religion have organizational structures that support separation.  And religion goes even further and attempts to separate us from God based on nonsense created by man.

The realization of being “in God” will bring more energy, more life, into our every experience.  It will “lift us up” ... from the dis-ease created by living at a low-level of spirit or energy.  When our spirits are high ... created a higher level of energy in our mind, body and soul ... we do not succumb to dis-ease in our health, our finances, our relationships ... or whatever else concerns us.  But we must “purposefully” condition our mind to be in the flow of this great spiritual energy ... the essence of God.

No one is outside of God ... we are all “in God” ... and to think this is so is to align ourselves with the highest Truth.  But ... we must “think” into our mind this Truth ... or otherwise, we will be “in the world” ... and our mind will be disconnected to the Divine urge that impels us to rise higher in consciousness to accept the power, the presence and the activity of mind in the nature of God ... we will still be “in God” ... but we will not reap the benefits of “knowing” this is so ... if we lack the awareness of it.

Within each of us is an infinite amount of love, peace, joy, happiness, harmony and power ... for this is God within us.  But, just reading these words does not actualize it in our experience ... we must “know” that it is so ... and we can ... through faith ... faith that takes the time to meditate, contemplate and actively affirm that this is true for each of us ... and this is faith we can count on!
     
And So It Is!