As Mr. Armstrong mentioned in his recent letter, both Savannah and Biloxi survived the recent holocaust of hurricanes along the southern Atlantic and Gulf Coast areas. If these storms, with winds up to 150 miles an hour, had hit our Festival sites with all their fury, it's doubtful we would have been able to hold the Festival in either of those areas this year. Thankfully, God spared our Festival cities from serious damage.
However, the Hilton Hotel in Biloxi is an example in stark contrast to the protection we received. This, of course, is our first year in Biloxi. During the first year at any site there is usually a motel or two which will not commit their rooms to us. Not having had any experience with us, they are reluctant to set aside their facilities for a full 8 to 10 day period.
As it turned out, the Hilton Hotel decided not to rent us a single room in its beautiful new facility. Hurricane Frederic itself did not hit Biloxi directly, but one of the tornados it spawned did! Interestingly enough, the only hotel/motel that was damaged by this tornado was the Hilton. The tornado swept through town, destroyed the Hilton and left the rest of the city intact for the Festival. Perhaps the Hilton should have made its facilities available to the Church for the Festival!
Biloxi Reservation Changes
As soon as the Festival Office had confirmed which motels were lost to Hurricane Frederic, a post card was mailed to the people assigned to those facilities explaining the situation and assuring them that they would receive re-assignment confirmations as soon as possible.
By Tuesday (9/18), Al Garrett, Biloxi Housing Officer, had finished reassigning the 537 people who had been displaced by the hurricane damage in the Pascagoula-Biloxi area. Tuesday night, new confirmations were printed and the following day they were mailed. Allowing 3 to 5 days for delivery, the people whose reservations were affected should have received their new assignments by Monday or Tuesday (9/24-25) of this week.
For those few who have not received a new confirmation (due to complications in mail delivery, etc.) before leaving for the Festival should, upon their arrival in Biloxi, visit the Housing Office located in the Coliseum. Their room reservations will be available for them there as well.
Frankly, we were surprised at how easy the reassignment process went. The establishments we were able to contact following the storm did all they could to help us out. With the extra rooms we were able to find combined with the rooms we already had on hand, we had just enough rooms to go around!
Ministerial Allotment
Several ministers have called or written in questioning whether any money from the allotment that was not used for Festival expenses should be returned. Apparently, some of the ministers are wondering if they can keep whatever is not spent of their ministerial allotment and simply count it as income and pay the tax on it.
Please let us re-emphasize, the Ministerial Allotment must be considered an expense account. Any of the allotment not used at the Festival for purposes outlined in the memo accompanying the allotment check, should be returned to Pasadena after the Festival. Though the I.R.S. looks at it as expense money, it is, of course, Second Tithe and any monies returned will be used in helping us meet our expenses in other Festival areas. So, if you have excess Festival Tithe this year, please mail it to the Worldwide Church of God, P.O. Box 385, Pasadena, CA 91102, Attention: Accounting Department.
BILOXI SURVIVED!
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