Herbert W Armstrong

The month of July is the vacation month in Holland. Many people have 3 to 4 weeks vacation and consequently incoming mail is slow and very low: 457 letters were received and 224 donor/co-worker letters. However, our income shows a 11.57% increase over the previous month, a healthy sign indeed. Our attendance over one year ago is plus 10.42% and requests for visits keep coming in. The quality of the visit requests is very high and interest is very positive.

Our newspaper advertising campaign is to start this month covering the Northern and Eastern provinces of the Netherlands. A series of three lectures for PT readers has been scheduled for October 31, November 7 and 14 this year in the city of Zwolle.

We are looking forward to a most enjoyable Feast. This may be the largest Feast we ever had in Holland. So far we have 77 foreign people scheduled to attend. This should bring our total attendance to about 300. This year we will have Mr. & Mrs. Peter Michielsen from Calgary, Canada visiting for the Feast and assisting Mr. Bram de Bree (the Dutch Regional Director) in the speaking (in Dutch). A simultaneous English translation will be provided.

Philippines

Our incoming mail continued to show a healthy upward trend as compared with previous months — a good total of 7,661 letters. Also, we processed and sent out 23,957 mail matters; almost 80% of this volume can be attributed to the warm responses brought about by booklets offered in our Subscriber Development Program.

However, as early as March this year, we had to slow down or stop the promotion of PTs by way of insert coupons to keep the PT copies to a financially manageable level of 50,000. Nevertheless, our latest statistics showed 50,953 Philippine subscribers as of August 13.

Churches: We have 19 Churches or local congregations and 9 outlying Bible studies. Church attendance*totals 1,682 and local Bible study attendance totals 1,354. Bible study attendance in the 9 outlying areas is 195.

Finances: Increase in August this year compared to August of last year was 46.50%. Income from January to August this year registered an increase of 25.90% over the same period last year.

Plain Truth Lecture: Mr. Adair conducted a PT lecture on August 4 in Davao City, some 1,000 kilometers south of Manila, There were 130 new people out of the 172 who attended; the rest were members. These people were invited to a special Bible seminar the following day and thirty-seven new people came, out of the total attendance of 77 which included members.

Speaking Engagements: Mr. Bien Macaraeg, Elder of Metro Manila Church, spoke on sex and dating at the Eulogio Rodriguez Institute of Technology. Present were 400 students. The first speaker was a Catholic priest who is a radio personality and magazine columnist. He apparently beat about the bush on his basic theme that "as long as one has love he can express it any way he wants." Mr. Macaraeg's message, on the other hand, aroused great interest and one of the nuns in the audience was quoted as saying, "Very good, very good," as Mr. Macaraeg answered many follow-up questions.

Mr. Pete Melendez, a Local Elder, spoke before 60 students and faculty of the Philippine National School for the Blind in Pasay City, Metro Manila, August 30. He spoke on the subject, "How to Develop Confidence." The students (ages 16 and above) and faculty were enthusiastic about the subject and asked many questions during the forum following the lecture. The invitation came about as a result of a suggestion by a blind member of God's Church who is presently enrolled in that school. The lecture was actually the first in a series on social behavior and human development as applied to the blind. Succeeding lectures which will be held monthly, will cover such topics as laws of success, family relationships dating and marriage.

Compiled by Rod Matthews, International Office