Herbert W Armstrong

The video pod and a crew of nine (one extra driver) flew and/or drove the length of the continental United States and back during this two week period. The pod truck, (after a leisurely drive from Tucson and a Day of Atonement stop at New Orleans), arrived in Florida where the taping was to begin.

The hectic schedule swung into high gear once the taping started on the first Holy Day of the Feast, Monday morning at St. Petersburg. After the morning service and while Mr. Herbert Armstrong was addressing the ministers and wives at a special luncheon, the crew was busily tearing down and packing away the equipment. Late Monday afternoon the pod was literally trucking down the road to Big Sandy, Texas (some 1,100 miles away), for our next shoot, Wednesday morning. Once the pod arrived on the Texas campus late Tuesday afternoon, the crew worked into the night setting up for the next day's taping.

When we left Big Sandy, the pressure eased up a little, since Mr. Armstrong would only be speaking one more time — on the Last Great Day in the Tucson Community Center.

The entire operation was very successful, without too many problems of any major consequence coming up, although we almost had heart failure several times along the way. For example, in Big Sandy we blew several breakers that caused a total power failure in the pod. Cameras, monitors, most of our TV lights, air conditioners, intercoms, video tape recorders all went dead. All of a sudden, those in the pod sat in total darkness and silence. After a mad scramble by our crew, the over-loaded circuits were corrected. Thankfully all this occurred prior to the main message.

The tapes of Mr. Armstrong's sermons look good and we should be able to obtain at least six programs from them. Mr. Armstrong seemed to gain more strength and vitality as the Feast progressed; not that he wasn't already powerful at the first Holy Day in St. Petersburg!

A special thanks to all of you who helped us out, especially Festival Co-ordinators, Mr. Jim Chapman, Mr. Dave Robinson, and Mr. Walter Dickinson and all the choir directors who had to work around us and had to alter their programs in order to accommodate our special needs.

John Lundberg, Television Production