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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, AUGUST 30, 1985
PAGE 7
Many women write in seeking help for their alcoholic husbands. One
recently wrote: "Pray for my husband. He is not a Christian. He is an
alcoholic and he needs God."
• Poor Health and Illness
Sickness and chronic health problems plague many people who write in.
A man who contracted AIDS from a blood transfusion asked for our
prayers. His wife left him and everyone in his family turned their
backs on him because of his disease and the social stigma attached to
it.
• Senior Citizens
The elderly are often beset by multiple troubles such as health prob
lems, diminishing savings and abandonment by their children. Many are
living out their last days in convalescent homes. They relate their
fears of being alone and that no one really cares for them.
As the above problems show, the need for God
I
s Kingdom has never been
greater. With Christ ruling on earth, we will be able to teach people
everywhere the solutions to the.ir problems and the way that lea�s to happi
ness and abundant well-being.
--Richard Rice, Mail Processing Center
ON THE WORLD SCENE
SPY SCANDAL ROCKS BONN; GERMANS AND THE LAW; GROWING PARIS-BONN
AXIS; "POST-NATO" EUROPE; RELIGIOUS REVIVAL IN EASTERN EUROPE
West Germany is in the throes of perhaps the most damaging spy scandal ever
in its history. Names of those spying for East Germany are being released
almost daily. The biggest catch in the net so far is Hans Joachim Tiedge,
former head of the Bonn intelligence unit that kept track of East German
spies roaming around the Federal Republic. He disappeared, then turned up
in East Berlin seeking asylum. Was he a recent convert to the other side
(perhaps trapped because of his heavy drinking and past marital problems),
or had he been a "mole" for nearly two decades?
Bonn fears it may have to reconstruct its intelligence operations from the
ground up. And Bonn's allies are fearful that Tiedge, having broad access
to NATO intelligence links, may have jeopardized the whole alliance. Heads
are beginning to roll in the unfolding affair, but Chancellor Helmut Kohl,
said to be infuriated at the findings, seems secure for the moment. Josef
Joffe, foreign editor of the SUEDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG in Munich, explains both
how serious the current affair is, and the tremendous disadvantage Bonn has
in the spy-versus-spy business relative to its German Communist counter
part. He wrote in the August 28 LOS ANGELES TIMES:
Tiedge is the biggest fish that the East German State Security
Service has landed in a generation••.• What we do not know yet is
whether Tiedge was a "mole" or a turncoat. If he was a mole who
had burrowed into the intelligence system years ago, it would
explain why the West Germans have not scored any notable sue-