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PASTOR GENF.RAL'S REPORT, December 19, 1980
Page 2
and Groningen. The response in both cities was excellent. Each city has
just about 600 readers. Attendance the first night was 3%, the second
nightly attendance increased to 3.5%. Topics covered by Mr. Bram de BFee
were "Coping with life in the 80's" and "Europe in Prophecy." A number of
people attending the second night requested information about the once-a
month Bible studies in Zwolle. At both lectures Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong's
book THE INCREDIBLE HUMAN POTENTIAL in Dutch was presented as a gift to
all those attending.
Income showed a 25.6% increase year to date and a 23.7% increase for the
past 12 months. Church attendance increased 20.9% while the membership
increased 10.3% compared to November 1979.
The Latest From New Zealand Responses to our October advertizing campaign
for The PLAIN TRUTH magazine continued to come in steadily throughout
November. Over 11,500 replies have now been received at a cost per re
sponse of $3.67.
Mail for the year to date is running at an increase of 8.1% over last
year, and income is up 27.1%. Church attendance is up too--November's
Monthly Church Report shows that average attendance in this part of the
world passed the 1,000 mark for the first time ever.
Finally, plans are now well underway for the upcoming SEP camp to be held
at.Gem Resort in the beautiful r�rlborough Sounds in mid-December.
Appreciation for Ministerial Refreshing Program
Dear Mr. Armstrong:
Becky and I want you to know how much we appreciate being able to
take part in the last session of the Ministerial Refreshing Program.
We were excited about the program since its inception, and our antici
pation continued to grow as we read the letters in the Pastor Gen
eral's Report from those in previous sessions. We had come to expect
a truly outstanding program and we were not disappointed in a single
area! All the classes were well planned and designed to meet the
real needs of the ministry. From the outset the instructors let us
know that they viewed themselves only as servants who were responsible
for presenting to us the material you had approved and felt we needed.
All of the instructors were warm and friendly and presented their
material with a genuine sense of loyalty and conviction. Our job in
the field ministry is much easier when we are sure those at Pasadena
are loyal to you as Christ's apostle.
We also appreciated the mixture of ministers who were in this time-
some ''old-timers," some newer, and it was especially helpful to have
about half of the group from the International areas. That helped us
to get more of an understanding of the worldwide scope of the Work.
As with Ambassador College, the value of the program cannot be
measured entirely in terms of the "head knowledge" given in the class
room. We were not only instructed in what it means to be a minister,
we were instructed and shown how to minister to God's people. Those
in the program set a fine example of practicing what they preached
(Continued on Paqe 4)