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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, NOVEMBER 16, 1984
From Australia Members of God's Church and their families gathered this
year at six festival sites throughout Australia and profited from a most
educational and uplifting Feast of Tabernacles.
The final registration
figure for the six Australian sites--Caloundra, Gold Coast, Gosford,
Hobart, Warrnambool and Perth--totalled 5,702--a 5.2% increase over last
year.
The four fall holy day offerings showed very fine increases over last year
--the Feast of Trumpets was up 18.6%; Atonement was up 20.9%; the first day
of the Feast of Tabernacles was up 21.0%; and the Last Great Day was up
19.5%.
Mr. Armstrong's sermon on the first day of the Feast was received via
satellite and then transferred to video tapes, which were rushed by air to
each of the festival sites. Mr. Armstrong's message was then projected
onto large screens in each auditorium.
We appreciated the visit to our country by evangelist Ron Kelly and his
family. Mr. Kelly traveled to five festival sites to deliver powerful and
encouraging messages. After the feast, Mr. Kelly and his family visited
our regional office at Burleigh Heads.
Mr. Guy Ames, Regional Director in the Philippines, was guest speaker at
three sites and many of the brethren were delighted to renew their ac
quaintance with Mr. Ames and his family after an absence of some years.
We were also privileged to receive a visit from Dr. and Mrs. Lynn Torrance.
Dr. Torrance is the Registrar and Director of Admissions at Ambassador Col
lege, Big Sandy. Dr. Torrance, who was a World War II prisoner, spoke at
three sites and showed God's obvious intervention in saving Australia from
Japanese invasion at a critical point of the war in the Pacific. In the
coming "time of Jacob's trouble," unless our people repent, God will not
protect this part of modern-day Israel, and foreign invasion will become
reality.
In Asia, the brethren met at festival locations in four countries--Sri
Lanka, Burma, West Malaysia and the Solomon Islands. Guest speaker at the
Sri Lankan site was preaching elder Abner Washington, visiting from the
United States, while the visiting speaker at the West Malaysian site was
Mr. Richard Wilding, a pastor-rank minister from Canada.
Reports and comments about the Feast have been extremely positive. Unity,
harmony, and cooperation were very evident throughout the Feast. Everyone
agreed that Mr. Armstrong's timely messages, the sermons from the minis
ters, the festival films and the other activities were indeed a real
foretaste of "the wonderful World Tomorrow."
The film "Behind the Work, 1984" was a superb presentation and drew many
favorable comments from the brethren. The "Young Ambassadors" entertain
ment film was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone and the beautiful music set
many a foot tapping.
At the end of October we mailed out Mr. Armstrong's letter offering The GOOD
NEWS magazine to 27,175 Australian PLAIN TRUTH subscribers who have been on
file two years or more. By the end of the month we had received 4,066 re
plies--a 15% response--with requests continuing to come in. Our GOOD NEWS
circulation in Australia is now approaching the 15,000 mark.