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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, December 20, 1979
Page 8
the gospel out, Mr. Rader said. As a forerunner for Mr. Armstrong, making
final arrangements and confirming dates and itineraries, Mr. Rader is
planning to leave for Cairo in preparation for Mr. Armstrong's visit with
Anwar Sadat. While in Egypt Mr. Rader may take a quick trip down to
Zambia in preparation for a future visit, then back to Egypt and on to
Warsaw, Poland.
�r. Rader noted that he had been to Poland once before. We have had a
standing invitation to visit Warsaw for a long time. Mr. Armstrong had
been introduced to the then presiding justice of the International Court
of Justice at The Hague, Justice Lachs. Five or six years ago he offered
to host Mr. Armstrong's visit to Warsaw, but till now his and Mr. Arm
strong's schedules never seemed to coincide. Then, just before Mr.
Armstrong's illness in 1977 while on a trip to Japan, Mr. Armstrong met
with the Polish ambassador in Tokyo and he paved the way for a visit that
was formally set for December 1977. We are reviving that invitation at
this time.
From Warsaw Mr. Rader will go to Moscow, then on to Peking. He explained
that we had opened a colloquy with the Russian Charge d'affaires while in
?eking recently. It is hoped that we can get the same kind of treatment
and opportunities to be heard in Russia as we enjoyed in China. We don't
know yet how that will develop.
Speaking of future countries to be visited and future goals, Mr. Rader
said, "Well, China and Moscow are so big, of course, you can't really
assume that you've done all that much just by your first visit. So I
would like to say that those countries are large enough to keep us busier
than we have time to be in those two nations.
"But we are also stepping up our efforts in Western Europe. We are
beginning to make very, very strong inroads now in England for the first
time, breaking out of an insular position that we had before. We will be
able to interface very, very nicely in the future with the leaders of that
society. And we should begin to do more in a country like Germany where
the Work has not grown as fast as it should have in spite of the tremen
dous growth of Germany."
�r. Rader said we are also holding invitations for all of Black Africa,
including Zambia, Kenya (where we have not been since President Kenyatta's
death) and Tanzania. Mr. Armstrong has not been to South America in
almost five years, and so visits to Chile, Venezuela and Columbia are in
his thinking at this time.
How Mr. Armstrong's Invitations Have Snowballed
In response to a question about how Mr. Armstrong's invitations come about,
:vl:r. Rader commented:
"Mr. Armstrong makes it plain that he is above
politics." Then he went on to explain with a little ironic humor how the
invitations come to us. "I'm certain that it /their motivation/ is not
religious because I don't believe that they are thinking in their own
minds at the time that they, or their representative who extended the
invitation, want him to come in to give them a private Bible study or
advise them on a theological issue that's bothering them.
"But I think it's like any other situation where once you achieve a cer
tain 'critical mass,' the movement just keeps going forward. The organi-