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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, FEBRUARY 1, 1985
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Our members total 1,557--an increase of about five percent over 1983. Bap
tisms in 1984 totalled 118, which is an 18% increase over 1983. Our pro
spective member list shows an increase of 14%.
Presently we have 17 congregations pastored by 11 full-time field minis
ters--six preaching elders and five local elders. There are four local
church elders. Another five ordained men are employed in the office in Cape
Town.
As of December 22, the Johannesburg Church, which had reached an attendance
of 618, has been separated into two congregations--the Central and East
Churches. The Central Church is pastored by Mr. Dan Botha and the East
Church is pastored by Mr. Ron Stoddart. Other recent transfers have been
Mr. Andre van Belkum to Cape Town, with an attendance of about 370 (220 mem
bers), and Mr. John White to Pretoria. Four pastors have a two-church cir
cuit and one has three churches. The total average Sabbath attendance is
2,529.
A successful SEP was held at Wagondrift near Estcourt in Natal during 1984.
And smaller Youth Camps were conducted at Elgin in the Cape Province and in
Zimbabwe. Mr. and Mrs. Fred Kellers and three Ambassador College students
assisted.
The 1984 Feast of Tabernacles was indeed our best ever.
God certainly
blessed the members--their joy, fellowshipping and concern one for the
other were much in evidence. Attendance was up just over seven percent and
holy day offerings for the year averaged a plus 36.5%. 1985 will see Feast
sites in Livingstone, Zambia; Mutare, Zimbabwe; Grand Baaie, Mauritius;
George and Durban in South Africa.
Our office move to Cape Town took place prior to and immediately after the
1984 Feast of Tabernacles. Not only did we drop from 6,000 feet above sea
level to the coast, but we descended from the 35th floor of a SO-storey
building to the fifth floor of a seven-storey building. We have slightly
more floor space but our rental is about 30% cheaper. We are 25 minutes
away by road to where The PLAIN TRUTH is printed. The environment and of
fice facilities certainly add to our enthusiasm.
One area of concern has been Zimbabwe, where the pastor of the Harare Church
was refused a residential permit--a result of changes in the government's
attitudes toward religion. The pastor, Mr. Robert Klynsmith, can enter on
temporary visas, which he has no difficulty at present in obtaining. We
would appreciate your prayers for God's intervention.
Plans for 1985 include a second direct mail letter to about 900,000 house
holds, although we may decide to be more selective and mail to smaller, more
specific mailing lists. We are mailing out the first direct mail letter to
110,140 additional households--72,980 in English and 37,160 in Afrikaans-
at the end of January.
We plan four, perhaps five, READER'S DIGEST advertisements--beginning with
the February issue, and then basically every other month till October. We
also plan to place 10 advertisements during the year in top national maga
zines.
In addition, we plan to increase our newsstand distribution to
80,000 per month and continue with the blow-in card from time to time.