By Mark McCulley
Festival Administration manager
Eight exciting days and eight refreshing nights. Away from job, housework, school, telephone and mailbox. Inspiring music, inspiring sermons and heart-touching hymns. New friends and old friends. Family reunions and getting to know new brothers and sisters in Christ.
Sound worthwhile? It's only the beginning of what will be offered to you at the 1996 Feast of Tabernacles, "A Celebration of Salvation."
Regional Festival sites in the United States are planned in Anchorage, Alaska; Big Sandy; Chattanooga, Tennessee; Coeur d'Alene, Idaho; Daytona Beach, Florida; Hawaii (site to be determined); Hot Springs, Arkansas; Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri; Myrtle Beach, South Carolina; Palm Springs, California; Pensacola, Florida; Rapid City, South Dakota; Saratoga Springs, New York; Seaside, Oregon; and Vail, Colorado.
In addition, Festival services will be conducted in some local church areas, depending on need.
About the first of March, registration packets will be mailed to U.S. member households. The packets will include an updated list of sites worldwide and a form to use for registration and sending a Festival fund contribution.
Members are asked to respond as soon as they know which site they will attend. Because a large part of our planning is based on how many people will attend, we need to know who and how many to plan for.
Instead of saving 10 percent of one's income for the Festivals, the church now teaches that all who wish to participate in the Festival should save the amount needed for their own family to attend the Festivals and, as they are able, to help others.
And rather than asking members to send 10 percent of their Festival savings to headquarters to cover the administrative costs of the Festival (what was called the tithe of the tithe), the church now asks those attending the Festival to donate the appropriate amount specified on the registration form.
These funds will pay for rented meeting facilities and personnel, and materials such as videotapes and equipment.
The registration form asks for a Festival fund contribution of at least $75 per single person or $125 for a family attending a regional site. By comparison, many seminars charge more for one day.
The Festival fund also covers other costs not directly associated with a regional site. For instance, this fund also pays for:
* church halls, videos and other materials for the local meetings during the Festival.
* sending speakers to U.S. sites and overseas.
* subsidizing speakers in overseas regions.
Members attending a local site or transferring overseas are asked to donate $40 per single person or $50 for a family. A portion of those funds will also be used for the general expenses described above.
For example, from our 1996 income, the U.S. Festival Office will pay to send ministers from one part of Africa to another.
We began supporting that expense in 1995. John Halford, European regional coordinator, explained: "Because of the generosity of members in Europe and North America, several African Feast sites received visiting speakers from other African countries. It was encouraging for brethren in Africa to receive guest speakers from their own continent."
In 1995, only 9,200 donors provided all the funds for Festival arrangements. We encourage everyone who can to make the requested donation, or even a smaller one if necessary, to help pay for these programs. Won't you help?
Your registration donation pays for all services, workshops and other physical arrangements at the regional sites. Social events, such as youth socials and singles hospitality events, will be funded by sales of tickets to the events. However, as always, those with limited funds will still be invited to such activities.
We encourage everyone to begin setting funds aside now rather than waiting until it may be too late to adequately save.
For details on how you can help others with their financial needs, see the article below.
Come worship with us this fall and "Celebrate Salvation!"
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News February 13, 1996 |
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