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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, MARCH 19, 1982
PAGE 13
Mr. Kieffer will replace Local Elder Alfred Hellemann, who has been respon
sible for our four churches in Austria and Bavaria. Mr. Hellemann and his
family will transfer to Hannover at the beginning of the summer to begin
serving the North German churches of Hannover, Hamburg and Berlin. Preach
ing '8lder Victor Root and his family wi11 transfer at that time to the
Mannheim-Ludwigshafen area to pastor the churches in Darmstadt and
Stuttgart.
(This area has been served since last summer by ministers
traveling there from the Bonn office.)
Preparations for the Spring Feast continued during February. Passover will
be held at 11 different locations in East and West Germany, Austria and
Switzerland.
Brethren will then travel on Passover day to five central
locations to keep the beginning of the Days of Unleavened Bread together.
As in 1981, the sites of Hankensbuttel in North Germany, Eltville in the
Rhineland, Salzburg (Austria), Zurich (Switzerland) and Muhleiten (East
Germany) will be used. All-day services will be held on the first holy day
as well as on the weekly Sabbath, April 10� morning services will be held on
Friday, Apri1 9, with the afternoon free.
Social events, including a
dance, will be held during the evenings as well as on Sunday morning before
departure.
The second high day will be held at five other locations in order to spread
the driving distances members have to travel a bit more evenly.
Keeping the beginning of the Spring Feast together belongs to the pleasant
traditions of the German-language area. As most congregations still do not
have weekly Sabbath services due to lack of manpower, brethren really look
forward to the time they can all be together at the Spring Feast!
MAIL:
The month of February showed another substantial increase in mail
over last year. Total mail was up 100% over February, 1981--mainly as a
result of replies coming in from our flyer advertising in January. In the
past two months of 1982 nearly half as much mail has been processed as had
been for the entire year of 1981! To date 50,036 cards and letters have
been processed as compared to 119,285 pieces of mail in 1981. And 1982 has
only just begun!
An unforeseen blessing from the flyer advertising was the request from
HORZU magazine to run our ad. This most popular and best known TV magazine
has a circulation of over four million and is widely read (more than 12
million) throughout the German-language areas of Europe.
Upon seeing our flyer in a daily newspaper, they requested us to do the same
in their magazine. Just as in the case of DER SPIEGEL, the same full-page
ad will appear in the March 19th edition, with part of the circulation (1.1
million) having a glued-on postcard. (DER SPIEGEL has a circulation of one
million and only 800,000 cards were placed on the ad, resulting in 22,000
responses so far.)
God is certainly providing the increase as never
before. As a result of our advertising, we expect our subscription list to
reach 120,000 in June.
The staff of the International Mail Center in Pasadena has made it possible
thus far to enter these many new names and addresses and keep up with this
amazing growth. We are very grateful for the fine job they are doing.
French-speaking Areas Mr. Dibar Apartian has completed a very successful
trip to the Caribbean. In addition to being able to meet with the brethren