Mr. Kulasingam returned from a very successful tour from July 14 through July 22. The eight cities visited and their respective attendances were: Bangalore 25, Quilon 20, Coimbatore 20, Madurai 12, Cochin 22, Thiruchirapalli 21, Kottayam 20, Madras 52.
Mr. Kulasingam reported that those who attended the meetings have been in touch with the Work for seven or eight years. They asked questions in relation to their understanding of the truth concerning the future for their children, their marriages, homes, jobs, and who would bury them. He explained to them that a foundation was being laid and that in time the church would be established and able to help with such points.
Most of those in attendance were from Hindu homes (the native religion and philosophy of India), Four baptisms were performed and seven outlying Bible studies will be arranged in the near future.
Mr. Kulasingam went on to report: "This is the monsoon season for the south, yet the Great God made it possible for us to visit all these places without rain. We had sunshine all the way. Today the papers say that all the places we visited have heavy rains and in some areas floods. Even regarding the bill on 'Freedom of Religion,' God has intervened, and a new government is set up."(This so-called "Freedom of Religion" bill was a proposal to prevent converting Hindus to any other religion. It would have made it illegal to "proselyte").
Germany
July was an exhilarating month for the German-language-area ministers as far as future planning is concerned. Firstly, Mr. Amstrong's guidelines emphasizing the need to prepare the Church for Christ's return have given us an exciting focus for the rest of 1979 and the early 1980s. Secondly, planning the 1980 budget has helped us all to concentrate our thinking on the future here in the German-language areas, especially on the effects of our planned increase in PT subscriber levels on the ministry and the churches here.
To match our hopes for the coming year, the income for July was up 24% over last year, and our year-to-date income registers +lo%. We also put 270 new subscribers on our list this month through unsolicited personal referrals of readers. The effectiveness of person21 referrals will be exploited on a larger scale next year.
God also seems to be opening a door in East Germany. One of our young East German members, Joerg Harz, has applied for permission to leave the country to study at Ambassador College in Pasadena. So far his application has not been rejected, as is usually instantly the case, but has instead been forwarded on to higher administrative levels in East Berlin.
Joerg has been visited twice by government and police officials, who have interviewed him as to his reasons for wanting to study at Ambassador. They have told him that his chances of getting the necessary permission are fairly good, but that this would be a "first" for the country. Never before has a student of theology been allowed to leave East Germany to study 3 to 4 years in a noncommunist country. Please pray that Joerg may receive the necessary authorization to leave. Having an Ambassador-educated resident of East Germany, with automatic access to most countries of the Warsaw Pact, would be a key to future expansion in those areas.
Spanish Work
The Spanish language edition of the Plain Truth magazine — La PURA VERDAD — is presently sent to 72,447 subscribers in 73 countries worldwide. The number of subscribers is growing very rapidly and growth in Central and South America is severely stretching the resources of the Spanish Department under Regional Director, Mr. Walter Dickinson.
One fact that is not commonly realized is that the United States has the 5th largest Spanish-speaking population in the world behind Mexico, Spain, Argentina, and Columbia.
This year it has been further emphasized that the Spanish-speaking population in the U.S. has seen largely untapped in reaching them with the message of the Gospel. On several occasions when campaigns have been scheduled in the U.S., a simultaneous translation into Spanish has been provided as well.
Recently two Plain Truth lecture series were conducted in the Miami-Hialeah area of Florida by Mr. Al Kersha, pastor of the Miami church. The theme for each lecture was "Formula for Global Crisis" and "Formula for Global Success" respectively. A simultaneous translation in Spanish was provided by Mr. Ronald Dopico, a Miami member.
A special invitation to 1376 Spanish-speaking subscribers to La PURA VERDAD was posted at the same time as the invitation to 2730 PT subscribers.
Attendances were excellent with 101 new Spanish-speaking and 52 English-speaking people attending one or more of the lectures. One PURA VERDAD reader flew 180 miles from the island of Key West to attend both of the northside lectures.
Most PV readers who attended were subscribers who had started receiving the magazine through PV newsstand distribution, an effort which has been going on since January 1976. Miami and some nearby communities are 60-70% Spanish-speaking, the majority of those being Cubans. Upwards of 750,000 Hispanics reside in this area.
Undoubtedly this service to our U.S. "PV" readers will be offered on similar occasions in other areas in the future. As a result many more Spanish-speaking U.S. citizens will hear personally of the message God has given us for these times, and will be better able to comprehend because they hear it in their own language.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
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