In the video, the speaker discusses the highlights of the field leaders meetings. One of the highlights was the ministry from Mike Evans on the book of Judges, which set the tone for the day's discussions. There was also a great discussion on Logos, with a strong sense of unity on moving ahead in replacing it. The speaker also mentions a visit from Eddie Waxer, who works with Christian athletes, and how the movement could use their resources. Additionally, the speaker shares the success of the Logos ministry, with millions of people being ministered to and thousands of Bibles and Christian literature being distributed.

The theme of our conference 12 months ago was God is doing a new thing. And 12 months ago we discussed together new people who were moving into leadership, new policies that we were considering or in the process of implementing, and a large number of new projects which seemed to be emerging in the work at that time. This sense of newness that we experienced together 12 months ago has, in my opinion, continued to be experienced in many parts of the work in the intervening year. And we'll be looking at further progress on a number of these fronts in a few moments. However, the past year will probably go down in OM's history as the year of testing. By no means the first year of testing, but we've been through the fire as a movement in the past 12 months. I think around February, many of us were wondering just what might hit us next in Operation Mobilization. On December the 10th of last year, Michael Karmokar and Alex Roy, two brothers working on our teams in Bangladesh, were visiting one of Michael's relatives, an uncle of Michael, and they were standing at a bus stand which apparently was very unwisely sited on the outside of a curve at the bottom of a hill. A truck came down the road heavily loaded with wood, lost control coming around the bend, and plowed into both of those brothers. And both of them went to be with the Lord Jesus. Michael's family are a solid Christian family. One of Michael's brothers was actually on the YCW teams at the time of the accident. Alesha's family are all Hindu, apart from his younger brother, and they live in a very remote village area. But there's been good contact with both of those families since the accident. And then on the 24th of January, our sister Nuesa from Brazil went to be with the Lord in a hospital in Madras, India. Nuesa joined OM in September 1985, going on the Overland Eastward Bound program and spending the first six months with a woman's evangelistic team in Gujarat State. Here's the testimony of one of her fellow team members during those first six months. Nuesa was a good example on our team, always cheerful, eager to share the gospel, and to teach the word to others. All of us used to appreciate her Bible studies very much. She had a special gift of making them interesting, but not only interesting, always challenging. She was very encouraging, it was easy to talk with her about different subjects, and many times her joyful spirit cheered me up. One thing I remember very clearly, and it's what really spoke to me the most, was that Nuesa loved to worship. She loved to praise the Lord, especially with singing, and especially Hindi songs. Nuesa was always ready to pray. Nuesa had some health problems over the months. A gallbladder operation proved to be necessary at one point, and eventually she was hospitalized in a provincial town in Tamil Nadu with severe back pain. Then she was moved to Madras City. Nuesa was diagnosed to be dangerously ill with leukemia and other complications, and arrangements were being made to send her home to Brazil when she passed into the presence of Jesus. And then on the 29th of February, Ray Johnston from the USA also went to join Nuesa and our two Bengali brothers. Twelve days before, Ray had become ill with what was considered at first to be a mild case of flu. Four days later, his temperature shot up to 104, and the next day the doctor said it was a virus, but would clear up quickly. Three days later, he was admitted to hospital in a highly confused state, and the next day the doctors diagnosed encephalitis and meningitis. And on the 29th of February, the virus eventually affected Ray's heart, and at that point nothing more could be done for him. At a memorial service in India, many Afghans and Iranians heard the gospel of Jesus Christ. I was with Ray's widow on the day of that memorial service, and she was rejoicing in the opportunity for testimony. But we need to continue to pray for Kim, Kimberly Johnston, that God will give her grace and strength. More recently, we have lost one of our senior board members in the work, Kenneth Frampton from Bromley, a long time prayer supporter and board member of OM, went to be with the Lord whilst he was preparing to go on a flight to Turkey. He died in Heathrow Airport. The loss of MV Logos on January 4th in the Beagle Channel was, of course, though a great loss, not to be compared with the three lives lost which I've just mentioned. The rescue of all on board and the apparent subsequent deliverance from any spiritual or emotional shipwreck for those who were sailing on her at the time should be a cause, and I'm sure it has been, of great thanksgiving to God. Now, I don't intend at this point to go into detail regarding the loss of the Logos or the plans to replace the vessel, because after coffee this morning, Dale will be leading us in a session on that subject. Let me just say at this point, however, that probably no other event this year has had a larger impact on the work than the loss of that vessel. The impact has been felt not only in Mossbach, where of course it's been felt considerably, but throughout the OM world. One result has been that OM probably has a higher profile in the Christian world today than ever before. I think we probably have more people praying for Operation Mobilization this year than ever before, and of course the giving towards this project has been incredible, as you'll see also later this morning. So we said that God is doing a new thing, and I think Satan agreed with us. I feel this year we've felt something of his attempted backlash. Now, those are just the most obvious examples of that backlash. There have been many others, and again, one has to highlight the potential for disunity, which has been evident in some parts of the work this year. I mentioned this 12 months ago, and I think we need to mention it again. As far as I can see, as issues which could have caused major disunity have arisen during the year, they've been dealt with in a biblical fashion. But the potential for disunity and division in a movement of this nature and of this size, moving at this speed, is an ever-present reality, which we must be constantly praying against. Well, let's think of some of the progress made in the new things that 12 months ago we sensed God was doing. At the conference last year, we approved a three-year extension of the mandate of the Communications Working Group and the appointment of David Conkle as the administrator of that group. Dave's task was to study the whole area of communications with OM, to try and discover ways in which an international communications department could help the work. He's done a very diligent job, placing a very large document before the area leaders during the year. From that large document, we presented a number of specific proposals to the field leaders' meetings. In the coming year, starting right after this conference, we hope that the International Communications Department of OM will begin, based at ICT in Forest Hill. In recent years, through the excellent work of the Personnel Committee, we've seen considerable development in our personnel policies and procedures. The Personnel Committee has continued its work through the past year, and will be presenting to this council proposals on emergency leave for long-term OMers, home assignment, or we used to call that furloughs, study leave, which we've changed since the field leaders' meeting, to in-service training. They'll also be presenting a couple of ideas to us, rather than specific proposals, on pastoral care in OM and training for long-term people. For some time, we've considered that an international personnel department is necessary in the work. Alastair Hubbard spent a great deal of time in the past year interviewing personnel managers in other missions and a variety of leaders within OM. He presented to the last area leaders' meeting a paper which, as I told the field leaders, slightly exceeded David Conkle's paper in its length. Again, specific proposals from that study, an excellent study which has been much appreciated by many of us who've read it, specific proposals from that longer document have been presented to the field leaders, and an international personnel department will commence in January 1989 under the leadership of Viv Thomas, and we'll be presenting that to you later in this council. Love Europe has had a very interesting year. In the early part of the year, my impression was that we crept forward. European field leaders were struggling with a number of things, the dates of the Congress, the lack of suitable personnel in their offices to commit to this new and massive program. We were struggling with financial implications, evangelistic methods, the style of the Congress. I'll not forget for a long time sitting with Stuart McAllister in my car in Manchester when we were really in the depths of the pessimism about Love Europe at that time. But I think Stuart will probably testify that though he went through some dark days, the second half of the year we've seen not a creeping forward in Love Europe, but progress at a much more respectable pace. There's been real advance in thinking through evangelistic strategies, advance in publicity. You've probably seen some of the publicity already. Peter Conlon was telling me just last night that the conference program or the Congress program is tremendously forward in its planning. We know all the speakers who are coming. We're well in advance in putting the seminar program together and so on. So I think the whole Love Europe program, we would have to say, is on course and we'll be thinking more deeply of that for a few moments this afternoon. It is, however, going to take a massive effort from all of us in this room, I think, to keep that program on course and to see the great objectives of Love Europe achieved by the turn of the century. Two years ago we agreed that our emphasis in the 90s would be on the great cities of the world. I was a bit depressed coming to the field leaders' meetings because I'd asked field leaders to present their proposals to me as to how that new emphasis would work out in their field. I didn't have many responses. I think I had about three during the year. But a large number of field leaders have presented their proposals for this project in the 90s in their field to me during these field leaders' meetings. It does seem that many fields are very excited. It's an interesting thing that's taking place because many of our fields, which we've previously thought of as sending fields, are thinking of city-wide evangelism in their fields during the 90s. I just read through about 8 o'clock this morning Canada's proposal for how the city's emphasis will operate in Canada. I think it's going to be an interesting program as we emphasize the cities in the 90s. Another thing which we asked field leaders to do at the last conference was to send to me the plans that they would like to see achieved by the year 2000 in their field. Again, response during the year was small. I've had a bit more during these field leaders' meetings. In January, in I think the Philippines, there's what's called a global consultation on world evangelism when Christian leaders from all around the world are getting together to look at over 450 specific plans and programs which are planned to reach fruition and completion or closure, the new word, by the year 2000. OM will be represented, we trust, at those meetings. We recognize the Real Leadership School as the beginning of something that could lead to a whole new emphasis within the work. That school has continued very successfully during the year, considerable progress is planned in the coming year. You'll see a very attractive brochure around. If you don't find it, look out John or Pauline Hymas and they'll provide you with one. As well as the basic leadership preparation course, we're planning a more advanced leadership training course during the year, an English teaching course, and a more advanced course in counseling. One question which we're considering and making, I think, some progress on is how the training being given there can be made more widely available around the OM world. Do we need similar courses in other parts of OM? Many other new things which we didn't even think about 12 months ago have been coming together during the year. The work in the Arab world continues to expand rapidly with exciting new opportunities in the Gulf and in North Africa particularly. We'll be placing before you a proposal which will help us to move back into Iran and Afghanistan as God opens those doors. We're suggesting a new field to be created in OM called the Central Asia Field. RUN88 or Community Concern also appears to be on course. We'll be hearing more about it this afternoon. Commences very soon in October going through to February. This great attempt to reach as many of the 44 million Muslims in the state of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and West Bengal as possible. And after that campaign, church planting teams amongst both Muslims and Hindus is proposed. And that will certainly be a new thing in OM India with many implications. I think that we can say that though Satan's resistance has certainly been felt, we have not been moved from many of the new directions that we sense God is leading us into. Of course much in OM is in one sense not new. We hope it's fresh, we hope it's alive, but it's what we've been doing for many years and probably will continue to do for many more. The daily moving out in evangelism, the prayer meetings, the administrative tasks, the taking of meetings, and so on and so on. So let's have a look at each area of the OM world very briefly and note what's happened in the past year. Obviously I'm going to miss many things and I ask your forgiveness in advance. First of all, East Asia and the Pacific region. In Australia, OM is now officially registered and a board, a legal board, established. I think it would only be honest to say that the leadership of the Australian field has been a problem and is unresolved. It hasn't worked out for Alan Adams to be the field leader as his absence from that country makes that difficult. The present arrangement is that Don Adams is responsible for Queensland, Richard Beaumont for Victoria and Tasmania, and Graham Roberts for New South Wales and the Central Territories. When Mike and Anne Hay go to Australia, visa permitting, in early 8 to 9, it's expected he will take responsibility for South and West Australia. Those four brothers meet together three or four times a year, once with Alan Adams, and form the leadership team of OM Australia. In New Zealand, the board and the executive committee has been established and has become very active. In answer to prayer, we have an administrator joining our work there to work alongside Murray and Cathy. That's going to be particularly helpful with M. V. Doulos sailing towards New Zealand. In Malaysia, Daniel Ho is now the acting field leader. Raymond Ko and his family are doing a three-year Bible study course at the Bible College of New Zealand. There has been a considerable crackdown by the security forces against Christians in Malaysia during the year. A number have been imprisoned, but our work has continued. As you all probably know, the Doulos visit to Indonesia was shortened to just three weeks. However, this was considered a most significant event. OM has now been established in the country, and we've separated amicably from the Indonesian Missionary Fellowship. We received five excellent recruits from Papua New Guinea in March. They're all serving on board the Doulos. Our relationship there, an official established relationship with global prayer warriors, continues successfully. As our work expands in this part of the world, structural changes are necessary. We'll be bringing to you a proposal to create a new field, which we're going to call the Southeast Asian Field, with Rodney Hui as the field leader. The field will be composed of Singapore, with Kenneth Bong as the country leader, Malaysia, with Daniel Ho as acting country leader, Indonesia, with Meggie Pelopulesi, and also Hong Kong, where we expect to have a full-time representative by the 1st of October this year. A summer campaign was also held in Taiwan during August, but I've received no reports as yet from that campaign. Moving on to India and to the subcontinent. After nine years leading the work in Pakistan, Mike Wakely and family returned to the UK in July. Mike has taken up his duties as associate area leader for the subcontinent. He has particular responsibility for Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal, and he will be based at our international office in Forest Hill. John Brown has now moved into the leadership there, and would, I'm sure, appreciate your prayers for the great challenge that is before him. This year's summer campaign in Punjab, involving 50 mainly Pakistani workers, was particularly successful. 8,500 replies for Bible correspondence courses were received within a few weeks of that campaign ending. The increase in long-term families in Pakistan, now up to between 8 and 10, is another significant change in the work there. Des Harper and family have, during the year, returned to the UK from leading Eastward Bound, and they'll be working with FFA in an evangelistic team leading the team in the Midlands. Gary Dean, we propose, will take over as the Eastward Bound field leader, based again at our international office in Forest Hill. In India, the leadership changes have continued to develop. Ray Aikar is on a sort of semi-sabbatical, though he appears to be extremely busy, in Missouri. Joseph D'Souza is responsible for the day-to-day leadership of the work of the teams. Ray and Alfie are still the associates, or what do they call themselves, joint India field leaders. Joseph D'Souza is responsible for the day-to-day leadership of the teams in India. Divakaran and Usha have moved to Bombay to relieve Alfie of some of the pressure on him in regard to financial and business matters. And, of course, that proved to be particularly helpful during the year, as Alfie's heart condition was finally diagnosed, and he was flown to the United States for triple bypass surgery. And we give thanks to God for a very successful operation. I hear that Alfie is now back in the office, mornings only, and we give thanks to God for his recovery and for the generosity of the church in Akron and of the medical staff which made that operation possible. The India Vehicle Program continues with the goal of adding two India vehicles each year to the fleet, up to a maximum of 11. I was just talking with Joseph last night, and with no more vehicles going over land, apparently, we may have to increase the pace of the Vehicle India Program, the India Vehicle Program. One area where considerable attention is required is in the quality of our women's teams in India. The visa restrictions on foreigners there has probably had a bigger effect on the women's work than anywhere else in the work. Indigenization is the word of the hour in OM India. Our brothers and sisters there particularly want to see some breakthroughs in indigenous finance. Their goal is to see OM Indian long-termers supported by Indian finance, and I'm sure you want to join them in prayer to that end. Juliet Thomas, a noted women's speaker in India, member of the International Lausanne Committee, joined OM India on the 1st of March. We would appreciate prayer for a big issue in OM India, which we'll be looking at in the coming year, and that's the possible movement of the national headquarters from Bombay to another location. Hyderabad has been mentioned. That very important matter will be discussed further in Kathmandu in our February meetings. In Nepal, there has been a clampdown on the church as a whole. Pastors have been imprisoned and others have left the country. A new law has been passed restricting foreign visas, but it doesn't yet appear to be being implemented, and our work has not been really affected by it as yet. The trekking teams have therefore continued, and a good amount of literature has gone out. Rick Hibner's ministry of teaching to brothers coming up from India to Nepal has also continued throughout the year. In Bangladesh, the YCW vehicle, cycle, and boat teams continue, as does the church planting work. In the country as a whole, there does seem to be a real work of the Spirit of God amongst Muslim families. At a conference recently, one of the speakers, who is in no sense given to exaggeration, spoke of at least 5,000 conversions in Bangladesh from those from Muslim background. I haven't heard that from OM leaders, I stress, but those are the figures which are being talked about in missions conferences at the present time. Now we're hoping to send some experienced in this ministry of reaching out to Muslims in Bangladesh down to the RUN88 program to give advice and oversight there. In the Middle East, this has been a very interesting year. I'm sure it's been a very interesting year in Turkey. Arrests and acquittals, people leaving, seems to be the news of the year. Those leaving have included Glenn and Laurie Garner, who've been field leaders for many years now. They've returned to secular employment in the USA at the present time. Julian and Lena Lidstone have taken over their responsibilities in Turkey. We praise God for the court acquittals and for the strength given to face arrest and imprisonment to the national Christians and to some degree to the foreigners as well. The first two printings of the New Testament have been sold out and several further printings are already on the way. Summer teams return to Turkey this year for the first time for a number of summers. During the year in Israel, a very important meeting of long-termers and leaders took place. Radical questions were asked about the work there such as, is OM still useful in Israel or are we now just duplicating what others are doing? The conclusion was that OM's ministry was still vital in the country, but that new methods of evangelism must be employed. There was a need for more outreach, it was felt, on the Arab-Muslim side and the suggestion that the West Bank should be being reached on a continual basis. On the Jewish side, it was recognized that many, many hours spent on the doors were showing very few results. More recently, street tracting had been much more encouraging and other new methods being considered included more street evangelism, park and beach evangelism with music, continued door-to-door work, but with new titles, cheaper books, free books, and a Hebrew youth magazine. There's a desire to have teams in the Tel Aviv area as we move into the 90s. Of course, that fits well with our city emphasis for that decade. But the great need in Israel is for experienced people who will be willing to stay on a good number of years in the work there. In the Arab world field, a 40% growth in personnel was experienced during the year and that follows a couple of years of considerable growth, which is very encouraging as we're in the decade still of Muslim evangelism. It was a hard year financially for the Arab world field, though in the midst of that, through generous trust giving, three vehicles were purchased for the work in Sudan. We managed to survive in Morocco this year. Survival was success because the previous year we didn't even survive one week in Morocco. So the Arab world leaders feel that now we have a bridgehead at least into the nation of Morocco. The North Africa base in Spain has had a year of consolidation and is now well established. In Cairo, the work amongst the poor, they've had a very good year with a number of conversions and church planting in that situation seems a much more realistic possibility today than it did 12 months ago. Our brothers in Alexandria have also had a very encouraging year indeed. The Sudanese summer campaign appears to have been a great event with 70 Sudanese involved in that special effort. And enormous amounts of literature distributed. Visa restrictions in that nation are going to make our operations there, initially at least, much more difficult. In North Yemen during the year, we've had three trekking teams and now the first, I had permanent here but I thought that was optimistic, the first long-term couple have just moved in to the nation of North Yemen. The development of our work in Jordan and beyond, mainly literature work, has been very encouraging. We now are established in a bookshop in Kuwait. And I hope you'll be hearing from Howard during this conference of some of the progress we've seen in that ministry during this year and some of the expectations for the coming years. Coming now to Europe, Dennis Wright is really just settling in as European coordinator as most of this year. He has been on furlough in the USA. During the year, Bernd Gulke moved to the director's role on MV Dulles, which of course left gaps in Germany and here in the conference ministry. Eugene Johnston has taken responsibility for the programs at the conference as well as for the practical arrangements. And I think the summer conferences with Stuart heavily involved as well were immensely successful conferences. I thoroughly enjoyed the two that I was able to attend. George Verwer, in what to many was a surprise move, took over both the field leadership and team leadership role in ICT. I think George is highly motivated, having had a few months in the job, and the team there seem highly motivated as well. ICT is growing, having had the privilege of inheriting the Carlyle operation, and also with the proposed new departments for communications and personnel. Mike Wakeley's return, you can see that there will be some development, essential development in the international office. The new offices in the Forest Hill area are a real answer to prayer. There are certain problems with folks living in West Wycombe and Bromley and the office in Forest Hill, but I think those problems are much smaller than the great blessing that those new offices have been to us. Neil and Mary Brinkley, after many years in the literature side of the ministry, and after this year directing the InTouch reunion, have moved on from OM. Not very far, however. Neil has taken on a pastoral role in the Honour Oak Christian Fellowship, which meets actually in the same general premises as our Forest Hill international office base. Gerry Davey has recently agreed, along with all his other responsibilities, to move into Neil's role in the literature side there. Marjorie Murphy, after many faithful years of ministry on the ships first, and latterly in STL, also moved on during the year, and we need to pray that the Lord will clearly guide Marjorie concerning her future. Judith Davidson is taking one year out, working locally in Glasgow, spending time in her home church, and she's also praying regarding the next step for her at the end of this year. Les and Dot Wade are just completing a one-year sabbatical. I don't know the exact date of its completion, but I see Les here, so it's probably already finished. I think they appreciated the sabbatical very much, and they're still discussing the details of the new role that they'll have in evangelism in the United Kingdom. Diz and Di Didsbury will continue, therefore, with their responsibility for FFA in the coming year. Andrew Thompson has accepted the task of coordinating evangelism in the UK. He'll be responsible to Tony for this, though he will continue at present to live in Carlisle, sensible fellow. STL has had a very good year. There have been quite a few personnel changes, but a new sense of direction and considerable expansion in sales has been most encouraging. Profitability is again increasing. You'll see that later in the overall financial report, and because of that, STL has begun once again to be able to make a significant financial contribution to the work in India, and we hope that that will continue and increase. Alan and Elizabeth Grant are now installed as our full-time Scottish representatives, and OM now actually has office space right in the center of Glasgow. Jean Giff continues her work as our Ulster representative, and my impression is we've had a great year in Ulster. In France, the major transition from the days of Mike Evans to the days of Danny Hamou continue. Stuart Morton and family, after over 20 years in the work, have left to commence a new mission which will be called Auto Mission. They'll continue to work on OM France vehicles. Hilary Smith is also leaving OM France, though thankfully not leaving the OM Fellowship, for a quite legitimate reason. She's marrying Wayne Thomas on the 17th of September. Pray for them as that great day gets close. Danny really needs a new leadership team to come together in the work in France, and a particular prayer request is for a new office manager for the work there. In France, results from the Easter campaigns are proving to be very encouraging indeed. It's possibly a good time to say that Easter campaigns are now a very significant part of our outreach in Europe. We have significant sized European Easter campaigns in Germany, Switzerland, Britain, and Austria. This has been a year of considerable change in GE, including the setting up of a forine or legal trust, and the purchasing, through the generosity of another mission and a loan from the ships, of very suitable premises for offices and for garage. In Zaventem, particularly the CAO, romance is the word of the hour. Wai Leong will marry his Esther in October, and Cheryl Varitek, our interim chief accountant, having received social permission with Steve Baumann during the year, will be returning to the USA on, I think, was it the 3rd or the 4th of October. We really need to pray, brothers and sisters, for the situation in CAO. We have no immediate idea as to who will move into Cheryl's position. I'm in negotiation, discussion with three brothers, but they're totally outside of the work. They're qualified to do the job, but they know nothing about OM, and we would appreciate your prayers as we seek to move forward in finding a replacement for Cheryl. In Belgium, we very much want to purchase the SAS Van Gendt training center. It's not looking tremendously likely that we'll be able to at this time, but we're still praying that that might become possible. If we're not able to continue in that building, it's going to mean a major reorganization of the work in Belgium. We've had a full-time representative with OM in Denmark for the first time during this year. I think the story in many of our European bases is much the same. Lack of cash for the home bases, a lot of cash coming in for the work as a whole, but lack of cash coming in for the bases themselves, and a shortage of personnel, so often, on the secretarial and the administrative side. Developments in southern Europe are most encouraging. A recent memo from Pedro Arbalat on the future strategy and possibilities in Spain was, I think for me, the longest memo of the year, and pointing out in great detail the way Pedro and others feel the work will go in the coming decade. And it's very encouraging to see our work in Spain very strongly established. We're also seeing real development in Portugal. We've had a summer team there this year, and we are looking to commence a small full-time year program team right after this conference in Portugal, chiefly to line up the Love Europe program for Portugal. I have a report here from Randy Lawler about Turning Point. I'll just read it to you. We're presently going through a series of changes. As usual, some difficult, some very encouraging. First of all, the difficulties. Reorganization and lack of long-term responsible people have put extra pressures on Turning Point. On the positive side of things, we are very much encouraged. In London, we're dividing the Turning Point headquarters team from the evangelistic team. The evangelistic team will be integrated much closer to a local church, as will the headquarters team with another local church. For 1989, a third local church in London has asked for a Turning Point year team to work closely with them. In Austria, there's now two long-term families to organize and coordinate the work, and they're also hoping to begin to reach the Muslims of Yugoslavia through a new exploratory team in the coming year. The Italy team leader is committed to continue in Perugia with another brother who will stay on with the organizational side of the Love Europe operation in mind. We're also praying and planning towards a future team in Sicily, which is being explored right now. So it's been an encouraging year in many ways for the work of Turning Point. One issue which we have to face in OM Europe as a whole, and for which we'd certainly appreciate your prayers, is that our expenditure in the continent continues to exceed by a considerable amount our income. And that's something which the European leaders really want to work together on in the coming years. In the United States of America, there's been real progress in the Atlanta headquarters building project. It's been my privilege to visit the site on a couple of occasions this year, and to see the progress just between those two visits was a real cause for thanksgiving. The site preparation, the work on the roads, is well advanced. The farmhouse, which was on the site, has been renovated and is now occupied, and the first duplex was well on the way to completion when I was last there. Plans for the main office building were also well advanced. Of course, a large amount remains to be done, and a fresh, large injection of finance is urgently required. Dave himself, Dave Hicks, has given so much time to Logos II since the accident, that working for provision of cash for the Atlanta building project has really fallen behind, and that needs our prayers. Dave Greenlee has been responsible for Logos II matters in the USA since the accident based in Atlanta. A committee has come together with men such as John Kyle and Stuart Briscoe helping, and all of this has greatly increased the workload in the Atlanta office. Dave Greenlee, ever a man of faith, has also accepted responsibility for Love Europe matters, as well as Logos II matters in the USA. Recruiting from the States was slightly up for the summer, and I believe it's also up for the year program. Urbana was one of the highlights of the year, with George's message making a big impact, and OM's profile in the US greatly helped just by that one preaching opportunity. In the area of communications, there's also been much progress in the States, with a very useful communications audit produced, and with Jud Lamus joining the team as editor. Don't forget the immense work in computers, which many of us are benefiting from, that Ron Tenney and his small team there in Atlanta are involved in. Although that's based in the US, it's very much an international operation. During the year, installations have taken place in Sweden and Finland, and there's been a major rewrite of the software, which is now enabling smaller offices to upgrade their operation to multiple terminal operations. And all of that has been done with a minimum of staff in the computer department. Staff is the major need, computer-wise, for the coming year. Not so much in Atlanta, but in the various offices where we now have computers. We need a team of gifted, committed, long-term operators to keep these computers operating around the world. It was also my privilege this year to make another visit to Waynesboro, and to be impressed and challenged by what I saw there. There's been a third printing of Operation World, bringing the total of the new edition printed in the US alone to 160,000 copies. Harley Press is on there, but staffing needs continue to be a tremendous challenge in Waynesboro. We need a warehouse manager, we need an accountant or a very proficient bookkeeper. It's actually about 50% of the present staff in Waynesboro, or the staff when I was last there, were from Latin America. In Canada, this has been a year of development in Quebec, as Andre and Nicole Normadine arrived back from India last September. The second and final year of Turning Point Toronto has resulted in hundreds of contacts being followed up by a dozen churches, many of whom have never had a ministry to Haitians before. The addition of Rob and Birgitta Weatherby, and Rick and Darlene Monroe to the full-time Canadian staff, has definitely strengthened the team in ministry in Canada. In Mexico, the major event of the year has been the transfer of leadership from Dick Griffin to Darrell Grassman, Dick continues, with ministry opportunities in O.M. Mexico. We've also moved into the purchase of some incredibly cheap property in Mexico, which we hope will bring greater stability to the work. We now have new and very suitable office premises in Mexico. An Easter campaign saw 160 Mexicans participating and 375 making some form of decision in the nine mountain villages where the team worked. Anna Castro was at one point in danger of her life during the birth of her baby, but is now 100% well again. A copy of the 16mm film No Greater Love, and a gift of two 16mm projectors, has had a real impact on the ministry in Mexico. Support for national workers is a continuing challenge in that country. The bookshop should move from its temporary location back into the building, which was damaged by the 1986 earthquake, hopefully by the end of this year. A national missionary conference on the lines of Comibam in Brazil is scheduled for Mexico in 1989, October I think, and we need to pray for that event. A little further south now, very quickly to Latin America. Earlier this year a paper was given at a missions conference sponsored by EFMA, a seminar called Latin America Today. The paper was called Emerging Missions in Latin America. The author was a man called Alan Hatch. I want to just read to you part of his paper. All over the continent of Latin America one can see this new enthusiasm for missions. The Comibam 87 Congress was an example. After acknowledging that this surge of interest is God's doing, he continues, two organizations deserve special mention in their impact on the missions movement. Then IFES, International Fellowship of Evangelical Students is mentioned, and he continues, Operation Mobilization is the second group which has had a dramatic impact on the missions movement through its training programs that have exposed hundreds of Latin youth to the challenge of world missions and the need of other lands. Both their ship program, as well as their summer ministries in Europe and Asia, have allowed Latins to experience firsthand the reality of cross-cultural ministry and teamwork. In many of the emerging missions efforts across Latin America, one finds OM graduates in leadership, a veritable missions mafia, which is not always evident at first glance, but all of whose members share a serious commitment to world missions, dating back to their experience with OM. I mention that not to give us a kind of big pat on the back as a movement, but because I believe we need to see in OM that something very significant for the Kingdom of God is taking place in that continent. And I think it's a real privilege for OM to have a part in that. There's a price to pay, of course, and if you want to talk about that, you need to discuss it with Frank Dietz, because the struggle for finances to support the ministry there goes on. One of the leaders at Comibam said that, in his opinion, 50% of the Comibam delegates were there because of Operation Mobilization in one way or another. So I think we're having a very significant impact on that continent. There were 300 participants this past year in winter conferences and campaigns in South America. Daniel Bianchi is settling in as country leader for Argentina, with Luis Perfetti moving to a preaching, counseling, and follow-up role. The Sacramento Latin America office is being established with Frank and Anneli and Peter and Barbie Ward, and that office also acts as a West Coast base for OMUSA. Development and growth appear to be the characteristics of our work in South Africa. We now have a fully operational training team there, in a situation which Viv Thomas, after a visit, described in a memo to me in the following way. One of the best training opportunities that I believe we have in OM. This team has had some tremendous opportunities at a Mozambique refugee camp. One report says we've seen 300 to 400 people come to the Lord at the camp over the last few months. Last weekend, 40 were baptized. One of the great advantages of this training team is that it gives us time with potential year program people before they leave the country. Opportunity to see how they're doing spiritually, to check their financial support position, and so on. And I think it's proving to be a very useful team indeed. We move now to MV Doulos, and with coffee urgently required by many of you, I can see. I will go very quickly. As I mentioned, there's been a change of director. Mike and Joris Futura have returned to the U.S. for further studies. Bent and Margaret Gulker taking their place. Lloyd Nicholas serving as associate director on board, and Alan Adams continuing in a senior position there as well as East Asia area leader. If you like their statistics, you might be interested to know that from September 87 through July 88, 795,570 people visited Doulos. 95,857 attended conferences on board, and 190,380 Christian books were sold. 287,681, don't forget the one, educational books. Now if you want to know something more than statistics, some of the really beautiful highlights of the ministry there, ask me for that copy. I don't have time to read it, but there's some really exciting glimpses of what God has done through the Doulos. Financially, we'll be having a full report from Wai Leong this afternoon, but it will be a report of God's goodness and generosity towards us as a movement. Even in the first four months of the year, when the attention of many of our prayer supporters was obviously on Logos, and income for that project was huge. Income for the rest of the work was up 20% during that same four month period. And overall, if you take in the Logos income, gift income during that four month period showed a 70% increase on the previous year. Let me just close by mentioning two final matters, the InTouch reunion, which George mentioned in July. We definitely went through the extremes of emotions about that event. Some months before, some of us were ready for cancellation. It appeared that there would be about five of us present. But towards the end, we were wondering how we would accommodate everybody. It was a great event, and I could keep you here a long time with testimonies that I've received since InTouch, in writing, from people whose lives were deeply touched by that event. Let me just close with the bare statistics of the Logos ministry, which I think will be a great encouragement to your heart. 7,480,000 people visited the Logos. 370,000 attended programs on board. And it's estimated that over 2 million people were ministered to in meetings in which ship personnel were involved. Approximately 450,000 Bibles and New Testaments were distributed. 51 million pieces of Christian literature and just over 1.5 million Christian books in the 231,250 nautical miles in which Logos sailed, visiting 401 ports in 103 countries. We give thanks to God with real joy for the ministry of that vessel and those on board. Now, very quickly, that was the annual report in one minute, two minutes. Let me tell you what happened at the field leaders' meetings. We had some marvelous ministry from Mike Evans, who returned to visit us, on the Book of Judges. It was a highlight, I think, of the three days together. And it was ministry in the morning which really set the tone for the day's discussion. We had a great discussion on Logos II. There was a tremendous degree of unity in that meeting on moving ahead in replacing the Logos. And Dale will be bringing us up to date right after coffee about that. We were excited by Stuart's reporting of what God had done through Love Europe. And this afternoon, Stuart will be giving us a much briefer report of what has happened and what is expected in the coming year. We had a very interesting visit from a man called Eddie Waxer, who works with Christian athletes around the world. And he came to challenge us as to how we as a movement could use the resources of athletes, you know, household names in various countries who have come to Christ in recent years around the world. And I think many of us were stimulated to think how we could use these people for the glory of God. On the technical side, we looked at a number of business items which bored 75% of the meeting to pieces, but were still necessary. We had to open a number of new fields, and we'll be bringing that to you for ratification during these two days. We had to add some people to our committees, and again that will come to you for ratification. We talked about the need for the chief accountant. We proposed Wai Leong to you as our continuing financial manager, and Noel Bennett as our continuing internal auditor. We looked at some very interesting financial proposals, and we passed them. You'll be delighted to know that that is something in our constitution which the field leaders are able to do. It's a management issue, and that doesn't need to come to this meeting for ratification. But we're going to move from the term field in our finances to the term fund. So you'll notice that change taking place during the year. Now you might think that's a bit pernickety, but the word field has become a confusing word because it's a management term, and it's also a financial term. And we're trying to clarify that, and we have a new definition for a fund. We're also moving from the field credit, field indebtedness picture which you've had in OM, and instead of owing somebody you know not who money or giving money to somebody you know not who, all indebtedness and all credit will be in the central fund. So from now on, fields will owe central, or they will have credit in central. And part of moving from this past position to our present position has been me writing to various fields who have a large amount of credit and to fields who have a large amount of debt. I wanted to see whether those in debt were willing to receive gifts from those who had credit. To my surprise, I found that every one of them was. But much more to my surprise, those in credit, 100% I think, I haven't looked at the file this morning, but 100% were willing to give of their credit to those who were in debt to bring us back to a more balanced position from which to start our new system. We're also opening a central restricted fund so that money which comes in around the world for particular projects can be placed in that restricted fund until it is needed for use. We also looked at a number of personnel and doctrinal matters, almost all of which will be brought to you for ratification in the next couple of days. So I won't go over those matters. That's what we looked at in the three days of the field leaders' meetings. Let's pray together. Father, we worship you for another year in which we've experienced your faithfulness and your provision and your power through many of the struggles, Lord, through many of the trials. Your character has been that which has given us hope. We have known, Lord, that we could hold on to you because you are unchanging, eternal. And, Lord, we worship you and we recognize that all that we've talked about in the last hour is because of your grace and through the power of your Spirit. Thank you for it, Lord. Keep us faithful in the coming year. In Jesus' name, amen.