Herbert W Armstrong

Melvin Rhodes, our minister in Ghana, his wife Diane and their two children, returned to London on August 21st. The ultimate reason for their departure from Ghana was the fact that their visa expired and the government would not in any way renew it. It has been a problem that we have wrestled with now for some three years in that area. At long last some real progress on obtaining permanent visas for a minister in Ghana has been achieved, but until they are issued, the Rhodes have had to leave the country.

We have all along thought that it may have been possible for that visa to be issued while they were in the country. Under normal circumstances that could have been possible, but Ghana is under anything but normal circumstances at the present time.

It is said that the government (Armed Forces Revolutionary Council) will be making their final clean up campaigns in September (prior to handing over the reigns to civilian rule on October 1st). And there is even talk of more house-to-house searches as was seen immediately after the coup.

Presently, the entire country suffers the hardships of drastic food and petrol shortages. Prior to returning to England, the Rhodes had been able to procure only enough food for basically one meal a day. Since the coup much of Melvin's time has been spent in lengthy waits for petrol and food and attempting to gain visas. Not particularly productive time. However, it was encouraging time for the brethren in Ghana, as most other Europeans have up and fled the country. At least the brethren can see that the Rhodes had not deserted them because the going has been tough, but because the government has demanded that they go.

It should be possible for Melvin and Diane to return to Ghana in early October prior to the Feast of Tabernacles. If the residence permits have not been granted by that time, they can at least remain for a few weeks as visitors, prior to returning to the U.K. again. Having a residence permit will be a big aid to them as in fact they will be able to obtain multiple re-entry permits to Ghana, enabling them to travel to neighbouring Togo and/or the Cameroons, where food and supplies are plentiful.

It would be good if people could remember the brethren in Ghana. The Eternal has called some 90 Ghanaians into His Church at this time, who together with their families, will be continuing to suffer under the hardships that exist. They certainly would appreciate the prayers of the brethren around the world. Unfortunately there is little that can be done in the way of sending food to them as it would never reach them. Very little in the way of parcels gets into Ghana without being tampered with in some way.

Australia

A postal strike at the Redfern Mail Exchange in Sydney seriously disrupted our mail receipts for July. A backlog of an estimated 30 million items of mail piled up in this central post office clearing house. During the latter half of the month this strike action by postal workers slashed the number of letters reaching us in half. Our mail count for the month was 10,223 letters received, and 25,000 booklets and articles were mailed out.

There is no doubt that the Work in Australia has been, and is being, affected by the increasing number of strikes throughout the country. One statistician reported that the number of days lost in the first quarter of this year through strike action around the nation was a massive 506,000 man hours!

Though the strike action by postal workers seriously affected the number of letters reaching us, our mail income held up surprisingly well with a +7.1% increase for July, bringing year-to-date total income to 9.8%.

While many responses to our national advertising and householder card programs are still held up in the back log of mail, nevertheless, for the month of July we were still able to add another 5000 new PLAIN TRUTH subscribers to the mailing list. The Australian PLAIN TRUTH mailing list now stands at around the 75,000 mark, and it is still growing.

Church attendance for the 57 Australian churches for July continued to be very good. July is mid-winter and traditionally, along with August, usually has the lowest church attendance because of colds and flu. But July this year again, as in the past few months, held up well — over 4700, which is good news indeed. It appears we may surpass our goal of 5000 by the end of the year.

Compiled by Rod Matthews, International Office