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PASTOR'S REPORT July 23, 1979
Page 6
GERT\1ANY
(Mr. Frank Schnee, Regional Director)
The highlight for the German-language churches in June was Mr. Frank
Schnee's series of weekend visits to the various church areas. During his
seven-week stay, Mr. Schnee visited and preached to each church area, de
voting himself to current projects and planning ahead for the '80s with
expansion in mind. The membership greeted Mr. and Mrs. Schnee enthu
siastically, again demonstrating that recent events revolving around the
receivership have had no negative repercussions. Instead, many members
have indicated that this persecution of the Work has further bolstered
their conviction that this is indeed the end time. Mr. Schnee returned to
Pasadena in the middle of July.
In June Alfred Hellemann, local elder serving Austria and Bavaria, visited
our lone member in Poland, Victor Przybylla (pronounced Chee-bee-lah), and
his wife and six children. Despite their isolation, Mr. Przybylla's family
is doing well and he himself is growing in faith. His wife is not baptized
but is becoming increasingly friendly to visitors from the West, Mr. Helle
mann reports. Mr. Przybylla hopes church members everywhere will pray that
more religious freedom (and thus the opportunity to preach the Gospel more
freely) will soon be allowed in Poland. The success of the Pope's recent
visit will probably result in more leeway for other churches too, Mr.
Przybylla feels.
Office
As usual with the summer school vacation beginning, our incoming mail
decreases in comparison with other months of the year. We are using the
additional time to plan our efforts for 1980. This project with all the
different considerations involved, will undoubtedly take several months
to complete. Also, office members are now able to take their vacations
without leaving others behind inundated with additional work.
Income
The mail income for the year to date is up 8.5% over last year. At present
our Holy Day offerings are up 14.4% over last year.
--Compiled by Rod Matthews, International Office
ON THE WORLD SCENE
IMMIGRANT, ILLEGAL ALIEN TIDE ENDANGERS PUBLIC HEALTH: For the past se
veral weeks the news from South East Asia has been grim: hundreds of thou
sands of hapless refugees thrust out of Vietnam and onto the high seas.
Appeals to many nations for permanent resettlement of these unfortunates
have often fallen on deaf ears, especially in the nations surrounding
Vietnam. Reason: most of the refugees are ethnic Chinese, and Chinese
already form sensitively significant minority communities in the area.
Much of the resettlement burden therefore has fallen on the United States,
which already has swallowed up 250,000 of them. More will be arriving
soon at a rate of 14,000 a month.
Public health authorities are now showing great concern over the impact of
the refugees on the rest of the population. They are equally concerned