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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, FEBRUARY 15, 1985
Ordinations
At Sabbath services in Trinidad on August 18, 1984, Mr. Mikey Mungal was or
dained a local church elder. Hands were laid on him by evangelist Mr.
Gerald Waterhouse and Caribbean Regional Director Mr. Stan Bass. Also or
dained a local church elder was Mr. Robert Thompson, who serves in the Auck
land, New Zealand congregation. Evangelist Mr. Raymond McNair and New Zea
land Regional Director Peter Nathan performed the ceremony October 10, 1984
at the beginning of the Feast of Tabernacles.
International News
From Mr. Dibar Apartian 1984 showed an increase of 18. 5% in tithes and
offerings over the previous year for the French-speaking area of God's
Church. The largest growth in income during this period took place in Bel
gium, where the increase was 44.7%.
Looking at 1984 mail statistics, we find 34.5% more new people were added to
our computer files than in 1983--a total of 79,987. Incoming mail was 27%
above 1983 and outgoing mail 70% greater, not including French Canada. We
mailed from our different offices worldwide, including French Canada,
177,589 booklets, reprints, form letters and Bible correspondence course
lessons.
According to Mr. Dan Samson, elder in the Bathurst, New Brunswick, Canada
Church, growth of the French-speaking congregation there continues to be
steady. Average attendance is around 60 and there are about 10 people in
the Tracadie region, at the very mouth of the St. Lawrence River, who are
keeping the Sabbath and paying tithes. God willing, the Church in this
region may soon have an attendance of 70.
In wrapping up our first-ever direct mail campaign in Quebec, we received
over 8,000 responses to 100,000 letters sent--an excellent response of
eight percent!
This has encouraged us to try the same thing in French
speaking countries in Europe in 1985.
For the second consecutive year, the buying power of the French people
fell! The U.S. dollar is king, taking 10 French francs to one U.S. dollar.
This is more than double the exchange rate of just a few years ago. Never
theless, the work of God's Church in France is going ahead full steam.
Radio and television responses continue to be very encouraging. We are
planning a vigorous advertising campaign this spring. We will place an ad
in the French and Swiss editions of READER'S DIGEST.
(Our last ad in
READER'S DIGEST, appearing in France and Belgium in October 1984, brought
in 15,481 responses.)
Growth is found in all categories for 1984: circulation of La PURE VERITE is
up 9.2% to 149,328 subscribers, the French GOOD NEWS up 39.5%, donors up
23.5%, co-workers up 12.2%, and the French-speaking membership is up six
percent to 1,365 members.
During the spring holy days, I will travel to Europe, giving five public Bi
ble lectures in Switzerland, one in France, and one in Belgium. As I have
stated before, I was reared in Switzerland and I would love to see the Swiss
wake -up!