Herbert W Armstrong

(Editor's Note: Following is the essence of an official Church news release given to the press Thursday, June 6.)

The Prime Minister of Tunisia, Mr. Hedi Nouira, received Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong, Mr. Stanley R. Rader and Mr. Tokuo Yamashita at noon, June 5th in the Palace at the Casbah in Tunis.

Mr. Armstrong, Pastor General of the Worldwide Church of God and founder of the Ambassador International Cultural Foundation and Mr. Yamashita, a senior member of the Japanese Diet, discussed at length a proposed project of triangular cooperation between the government and people of Tunisia, the United States and Japan in the domain of nutrition. The meeting was also attended by the Minister of Planning as well as the Chief of Staff of the Cabinet of the Prime Minister.

Mr. Armstrong explained the Church's long interest in improving nutritiona1 values everywhere, including various agricultural projects and studies that had been carried on for many years under the auspices of Ambassador College in Texas. Mr. Dale Schurter, a minister of the Worldwide Church of God and former head of the Ambassador College agricultural program at Big Sandy, met with Mr. Armstrong prior to his departure for Tunisia to discuss current developments with him in this very important field.

Wednesday, June 6, 1979, Mr. Amstrong and Mr. Yamashita were the speakers, as well as Mr. Rader and the Japanese Ambassador to Tunisia, at a dinner in honor of Mr. Armstrong and the Ambassador International Cultural Foundation. The Minister of Culture, the Minister of Planning, the Minister of Justice, the Minister of Social Welfare and the Minister of Foreign Affairs were all present, as well as Ambassadors from Saudia Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Italy, Romania and Morocco.

Mr. Armstrong, in speaking for some thirty minutes, explained the purposes of the Church and the Great Commission. He announced that world peace would be established in the world tomorrow with the government of God under the laws of God.

Mr. Rader in describing the Foundation stated that the Foundation had been blessed with four kinds of resources — spiritual resources, human resources, physical resources, and financial resources. Whenever the resources of the Ambassador International Cultural Foundation are equal to the needs of a particular country, and those needs have been manifested by the proper representatives of a particular country, a new project for the Foundation will commence. For the moment the Foundation will work closely in the future with the National Institute of Nutrition in Tunis.

Mr. Armstrong arrived in Tunisia after meeting with the Prime Minister of Morocco in Rabat several days earlier, at which time he and Mr. Rader discussed problems in the field of social welfare with the Moroccan Prime Minister.

CHURCH'S LEGAL BATTLE CONTINUES ON NUMEROUS FRONTS

Although the Church's legal battle with the state of California is not now directly interfering with the day-to-day operations of the Work of God, and we are no longer seeing the bold newspaper headlines of the past several months which were especially in evidence in Southern California, the Church is still involved in considerable activity in the courts.

The Church presently has four appeals in the appellate courts, two petitions for hearings in the California Supreme Court and a petition for a hearing before the U.S. Supreme Court. Each of these legal actions involve different aspects of the overall case. The Church's attorneys consider each of them absolutely necessary to protect the rights and freedoms of the Worldwide Church of God which are guaranteed by the Constitution.

These appeals and petitions are in addition to a flurry of other legal activities which transpire almost daily (deposition of witnesses, obtaining of documents and various other motions before the judges, etc.). Thus, while there is no clashing of wills and cross-purposes as the Church's attorneys wage an unrelenting battle with the Deputy Attorneys General to keep the state out of Church affairs.

NEW "INTRODUCTORY PT" READY FOR MAILING

Roger Lippross, Director of Publishing, announced that the new introductory version of The Plain Truth is ready for distribution. The Work has used this vehicle at times in the past, but it ceased to be produced since before the PT tabloid. The "introductory PT" is part of a carefully planned program of readership follow-up service for new subscribers and is the result of the coordinated efforts of several different departments — Mail Processing, PT Editorial and Publishing. The goal and purpose is to "introduce them to us as an organization and hopefully answer some of their questions about what's behind The Plain Truth," said Roger Lippross in the June 4th Pastor's Report.

Each new subscriber will begin with this special undated edition of the P.T. The second issue they receive will be the regular subscription issue. Mr. Lippross pointed out that the introductory P.T. will enable us to give new subscribers a prompter response from the time a subscription is requested. "We hope to cut the lead time down (before we mail it out to a new reader) from 4-6 weeks to 7-10 days," said Mr. Lippross.

STILL NOT TOO LATE FOR S.E.P.

Applications from 525 campers have been received as of June 4th. This raises the percentage to 80% full for both sessions. Any youth still interested in attending the Church's Summer Education Program in Orr, Minnesota should apply as soon as possible. Applications will be accepted until 100% capacity is reached for each session.

Any correspondence regarding S.E.P. from this date forward should be directed to the S.E.P. office at Box 231, Orr, Minnesota, 55771. Phone: (218) 757-3211.

Mike Blackwell of Y.O.U. reported that 150 young people will experience camp as a result of the scholarship fund. Speaking for the entire staff, and certainly for the young people involved, he said, "Again, we deeply appreciate the generosity of those members who contributed to the scholarship fund to make this possible." He said that contributions would still be accepted to help others on a waiting list.