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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, FEBRUARY 7, 1986
PAGE 3
"Your voice woke up the entire island every morning, with your appeal
for righteousness and decency," he told me!
Thursday evening, in Guadeloupe, we broke all records. The conference
was set for 7:00 p.m., and even though the bus service here ends at 8:00
p.m., 186 new people attended! Mr. Carbonnel told me when I arrived
that several others had called who would have been there if not for the
transportation problems.
The next evening, realizing what a problem transportation was for the
people, we expected a smaller turn-out.
Besides this, there was a
carnival taking place this same evening in the same building, causing a
lot of racket! Those who had come could not even enter the building!
At the last minute, the youths in the Church made posters saying:
"Conference of Mr. Dibar Apartian," to direct the people. We had to
delay the conference for another half-hour, but despite all this, a
total of 122 new people were in attendance--and that is remarkable!
Friday morning, Mr. Carbonnel and I left for Haiti.
We had already
heard on the radio the evening before that the situation was
deteriorating on the "Pearl of the West Indies."
All the same, Mr.
Balford was supposed to be there already, and I could not stay back and
abandon him in this moment of crisis!
It was not until I arrived in
Haiti that I learned that he, as well as the employees at the office in
Pasadena and several other ministers, had tried to contact me in
Guatelopue to tell me to cancel my trip to Haiti! Mr. Halford himself
was in Miami and could not continue on to Haiti.
Arriving in Port-au-Prince, Mr. Carbonnel and I instantly felt the
tension in the air. First of all, the usual Haitians were not on the
airfield watching the airplanes. Instead, there were armed guards.
Mr. Jove and Mr. Franklin told me that we would not be able to hold the
public conference and that I should turn around and leave the island as
soon as possible. But how would I find an airplane leaving Haiti! The -
airport was still open, but most of the flights were canceled; there
were only two flights to Miami, and both were booked solid.
After waiting an hour in the stand-by line, I was told at the very last
minute that there was still one free seat in an "Air Haiti" plane, which
was 45 minutes late in taking off. So I was finally able to leave the
island, where the situation is still uncertain and dangerous.
"And what became of Mr. Carbonnel, whom I had to leave in Haiti?" you
ask. I was able to telephone him Sunday night. He told me that they
had assembled privately for the Sabbath, and that things seemed calm for
the moment. The theatre where I was to hold the public conference had
been closed for three days, like all the other public establishments.
All the same, Mr. Carbonnel had gone there Saturday night, just in case
anybody had shown up. To his great surprise, there were more than 100
people waiting•••of course, they all understood the situation and
returned to their homes!
--Joseph
w.
Tkach, Pastor General