Herbert W Armstrong

   Greetings again from Pasadena: We are all fine here, and appreciate the many encouraging calls and letters that continue to come in from so many of you and also your brethren out in the field. Now that the receiver has been gone for some time, things seem more normal here at headquarters, and we are able to concentrate more than ever on doing the Work!

   We had a fine meeting with the Area Coordinators here last week. On Wednesday, we flew over to see Mr. Armstrong in Tucson and all of us spent several hours with him. It was truly inspiring, once again, to have his direction and inspiration in so many areas of the Work and Christian living. Also, we covered a lot of ground in organizational matters and manpower planning in our meetings here.

   We were all encouraged by Mr. Armstrong's approval to ordain Larry Salyer as a pastor-rank minister! It was actually somewhat of an over sight that he had not been ordained to this rank before, but certainly most necessary now because of his tremendous growth and the new responsibility as Area Coordinator that he has been given. So again, congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Larry Salyer!

   Because of the very tight financial situation we will be in for the next few months, we want to start immediately to implement a fine idea Mr. Richard Rice has submitted. It involves church fund raising projects. We will send you a complete packet on this within d few days, but I would like to ask all of you personally to start NOW to begin planning and perhaps even preliminary organization of fund raising projects in your area as a special emergency crusade to raise monies to be sent to Tucson at the earliest possible date. Get your leading members together, and begin to organize different groups to engage in painting houses, cleaning houses, ironing, mending, etc., washing cars, selling farm produce, artwork, babysitting, conducting paper drives, yard and garage sales, bake sales, quilting bees, collecting scrap iron, delivering sales papers or advertisements for local firms, etc.

   This is one way the members can directly have "a piece of the action" in SERVING God's Work at this time, and yet it will involve very little of their own personal money — merely time, effort and elbow grease. So please try to catch the vision, fellows, and get your churches enthusiastically involved in these projects as soon as possible. As I said, we will try to send you a packet of ideas within a few days with further details, but I would hope some of you would start on some of the obvious things you could do almost immediately.

   God willing, a number of us will be flying out from headquarters to visit many of your areas during the Passover season! We have already talked this over with most of those involved, but here are some of our preliminary plans. I will be going to Cincinnati for the Passover and then to New York for the last part of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Denny Luker will be going to Seattle-Tacoma for the Passover and then to Portland for the last half. Burk McNair will be going to Washington, D.C. for the Passover and then to Charlotte and later Richmond for the last part of the Feast. Gerald Waterhouse will be going to St. Louis for the Passover and then to Nashville for the last half. And Sherwin McMichael will be going to Minneapolis for Passover and then to Kansas City for the last half of the Feast. Plans are being made for a few others — as expenses permit — and we hope any of you will send in requests if you have need of a special visitor at this time.

   Also, preliminary planning is already under way to cover at least seven cities with evangelistic campaigns this spring and summer! We will checking the exact cities and our campaign format with Mr. Herbert Armstrong in a few days and will try to let you know by next week the specific cities we have in mind — as well as telling you about others that will be added along the way. So this should really stimulate some of the local areas, encourage the brethren, and produce growth in the Church gf God!

   In closing, I would like once again to say "thank you" to the vast majority who have been solid and loyal in what is without a doubt the worst crisis in the history of God's Work. It has not been easy for some of you, I know, but Mr. Armstrong and all of us appreciate the fact that so many of you have been able to see through the subtle web of lies, the power plays, and the obvious rebellion against the government of God and His Church that is confusing so many of our brethren (and even some of our ministers) at this time. Hang in there, fellows! When Christ comes back to this earth, I am sure one of the main things He is going to be interested in is the degree of loyalty to His government and His viable, active Church and the willingness to humble oneself and wait on HIM to straighten out any real or imagined sins or mistakes in the very Work of which Jesus Christ is the active, Living Head.

Your Brother in Christ,
Roderick C. Meredith