Basic HTML Version
PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, MARCH 1, 1985
PAGE 3
new subscribers. It was in 1984 that we began advertising in a big way.
Between 1980 and 1984 we have added a total of 375,000 new subscribers to
The PLAIN TRUTH list for the German-speaking area. In December of 1984 we
ran an ad (a flyer attached to a travel magazine) in most of the German
trains. This campaign is expected to bring us 10,000 new subscribers at a
cost of about $1.50 each.
Our PLAIN TRUTH list stood at just around the 100,000 mark at the end of
1984. Our income for the year showed an increase of 11.5% over 1983. Our
financial base is made up of approximately 5,000 people: 500 members, 1,760
co-workers and 2,770 donors.
Our ·GOOD NEWS list almost doubled during 1984 to just under 24,000. We re
ceived 250,000 pieces of mail, which is six percent more than in 1983. Dur
ing 1984 we sent out 230,000 pieces of mail, which is 63% more than the year.
before. During 1984 4,500 students were enrolled in the Bible correspond
ence course and our Personal Correspondence Department reports an increase
of 67% more letters answered than in 1983.
We have a total of 14 congregations in the German-speaking area with at
tendance at about 800.
The 1984 Feast of Tabernacles was held in Bonndorf, West Germany (in the
Black Forest) with 960 in attendance and in Brno, Czechoslovakia with 275
(including 15 from East Germany) in attendance. 1985 will see a new Feast
site for 140 people opened at Krakow, Poland.
At the beginning of January, 1985 we completed another very successful ses
sion of our annual YOU Wintercamp. This was the sixth year the youth from
all over Europe (including some overseas guests) came together for 11 days
of alpine and cross-country skiing, toboganning, Austrian curling, ice
skating, youth Bible studies and much more. Seventy youths were present at
the camp in the beautiful Alps of Saalbach, Austria. Wintercamp coordina
tor Wolfgang Thomsen commented that this was a fantastic opportunity for
the youth to get together, since the Feast of Tabernacles is the only other
time for the young people to have close contact with one another. Due to
financial constraints and long traveling distances, the youth are not able
to meet together very often.
January brought good news for one of our young Church members here in Ger
many. Robert Geis, a member in the Darmstadt Church, was awarded conscien
tious objector status by a German Administrative Court after having been
turned down twice previously by his local draft board. Until new legisla
tion that was recently passed, when applying for conscientious objector
status, the defendant was virtually pitted against the State of Germany,
having to answer many difficult and sometimes tricky questions. Robert had
applied before the new law and therefore was asked such questions as how he
found the Church, its typical doctrines, how he became a member, and then on
to more intense questions such as why did ancient Israel fight wars, why was
the death penalty instituted in ancient Israel, how does one explain the
"eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth" scripture, what would you do if you
saw someone being attacked and the only way to save the person would be to
kill the attacker? etc. Mr. Alfred Hellemann, associate pastor of the
Darmstadt, Dusseldorf and Bonn congregations, commented that God's inspira
tion was evident in Robert's successful answering of these questions.