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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, April 18, 1980
Page 13
SHREVEPORT, LA--BILL BRADFORD:
We have had record-breaking attendance
this month.
The membership is showing more and more support for God's
Church.
CHICO, CA--MARC SEGALL:
Brethren are responding very well to Mr. Arm
strong's leadership concerning the cleaning up and strengthening of our
spiritual lives and our support of the Work.
Five new PM's contacted me this month alone.
Most of these have already
begun to attend Church.
Most of the growth has been in the Redding area,
where we didn't begin to grow until dissident GTA supporters were put out
of the Church last year.
PT newsstand program growing significantly.
New
subscribers are way up.
Brethren are very excited about Mr. Armstrong's
coming trips.
Also, very appreciative of Mr. Rader's role in the Work.
We would love to see the film on the receivership if possible.
We are
looking forward to Mr. Waterhouse's visit.
After completing the fourth month as pastor of Chico, I wanted to express
to those over me at Ministerial Services how deeply appreciative my wife
and I are for this opportunity.
We have been able to develop an initially
fine rapport with the brethren.
One of my personal goals is to strive
with the help of God to never allow the freshness of appreciation, the
novelty, the deep feeling of gratitude for the calling to the ministry
God has given us, to wear off or diminish.
If we in the ministry are
continually thankful for our calling, we will hopefully grow to be more
effective in service to God.
European French-Speaking Churches Visited
Mr. Dibar Apartian returned April 8th from a very hectic five-week trip
to visit the French-speaking churches in Europe over the Feast of Un
leavened Bread.
After flying from Los Angeles to Geneva, he found he had to conduct a
public Bible lecture the same evening in Lausanne, Switzerland, 40 miles
away.
That's how the trip started, and that's how it continued--24
public Bible lectures to which La Pure Verite subscribers were invited,
10 sermons to European churches, four Bible Studies and one television
interview.
As Mr. Apartian stated in a Bible study in Pasadena, "if I wasn't
speaking I was travelling."
Every major city in France, Belgium and
the French-speaking area of Switzerland was covered.
Cold, windy weather with rain and snow didn't help much. Yet 20 to 25
subscribers (on the average) attended each lecture, with a high of 47
new people attending in Charleroi, Belgium.
Mr. Apartian made several interesting observations on changes in European
life.
The preoccupation with security and safety experienced in the U.S.
has caught up with Europe.
People are reluctant to come out at night,
and in Paris, are afraid to use the subway trains in the evening.
A more open hostility towards the U.S. was evident, and American foreign
policy is ill regarded.
In France, it was difficult to find news of the
situation in Iran.
The main interests centered on the E.E.C., and con
stant friction between Britain and France was evident, especially over
monetary contributions to the support of the E.E.C.