Vincent, Sherie, and Mark just returned from the stunning, enlightening, and Spirit-filled PTS Travelers Through the Ages Tour of Italy.   We hope you were able to follow our spiritual adventures on Instagram and the NDH with the Light bearers who were walking in the footsteps of great Travelers in Italy.   The Light that MSIA ministers bring on these trips surely is a blessing to the people and lands visited.

With half of the PCI away on the road the past three weeks, Paul, David, and Jeffrey held the focus in Los Angeles. Jeffrey and Paul completed the nine-week Christ Is Now: Seeing Through the Eyes of Love Monday evening class, to rave reviews. The Christ theme continues with Paul beginning a new nine-week class, Heart of Christ: Shaped by Grace, Flowing with Love, beginning on October 20.

Jeffrey Morgan and Paul Kaye also conducted a mini-half-day retreat at Prana entitled Mysticism of Sound: Listening to Our Inner Music.  With Spirit working its magic through the various sound instruments Paul was playing, and through Jeffrey’s meditations and sharing, folks reported leaving the event transformed. It was so well received that they hope to repeat the format for this event in the near future.

Insight needed a last-minute venue for their children’s Insight seminar last weekend and Prana West came to the rescue.  It was a joy to have 21 Light-filled children on the property.  It was a very gratifying and immediate reward for all the work we have done on the classroom to create more space to easily host PTS classes and workshops there.

Prana continues its make-over as David Jaramillo, Paul, and Prana’s head of hospitality, Patty Kan, have been deeply involved with the continuing interior improvements. The reception area is now officially moved to the small seminar room which is now called the Concierge Room. We are excited to welcome visitors and guests to Prana in this new area. And the former reception office has been converted to what we are calling the Reading Room, where J-R and John’s books will be displayed and be able to be purchased and be read there or be taken into our new comfy and inviting Large Seminar Room. The redo of the Reading Room is truly jaw-dropping, as is the Solarium where the pull to do s.e.’s is irresistible in the newly refurbished space.

If you were inspired by the Italy tour, there is still room to participate with the PTS Travelers Tour of Turkey in 2026 or, if you prefer, the Royal Road at Asilomar in Northern California this December.

As you know from your annual donation statement from MSIA, the church’s nonprofit status in the United States makes charitable contributions potentially deductible on your annual 1040 tax form.  There is another tax advantaged option to be aware of for your tithes, seeds, and other donations if you qualify.  MSIA students with IRA retirement accounts who are at least 70 ½ years old, can contribute directly from their IRA retirement accounts.  

The distribution is called a Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD) and many MSIAers already use a QCD to make their tithing contributions.  The benefits are:

• Reducing taxable income: A QCD allows individuals over 70½ to donate directly from their IRA to charity without the distribution counting as taxable income, which can lower tax liability and help avoid bumping into a higher tax bracket in retirement.
• Satisfying Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs): QCDs can count toward satisfying RMD requirements, allowing donors to fulfill this obligation while maximizing charitable impact.

• No impact on adjusted gross income (AGI): Because QCDs are excluded from taxable income, they do not increase AGI, which may help qualify for other tax benefits and reduce exposure to additional taxes like Medicare premiums and the Net Investment Income Tax (NIIT).

• Flexibility and convenience: Up to $100,000 per year ($200,000 if married filing jointly) can be donated through QCDs, with the option to either give one large distribution or several smaller ones annually from various IRA types, without the need for itemizing deductions.

You should be able to get more information about a QCD distribution from your IRA custodian.   And, as always, check with your financial advisor.  Here are links to some articles from the IRS, Charles Schwab, and AInvest.

Thank you to all of you for all that you give in so many ways. As J-R would constantly remind us, “It is the loving that makes all this work.” The times are calling us all to stay in the loving!  We love and appreciate you.

God bless you,
Sherie, David, Vincent, Paul, Mark, and Jeffrey