Our Family orders and Our Family experiences.. Dear friends May I please share with you two extraordinary personal experiences with Our Family and its publisher Verlag Friedrich Bischoff, amongst many others which you will also have had : At the time when I turned 21, there was a meeting for ministers on the Saturday in Cape Town (I was a Deacon) and when I sat down in the church bench a few minutes before that meeting started I asked the Lord for “a word on my 21st birthday which would apply for the rest of my life”, without my mentioning to the minister holding the meeting that I was turning 21. He began his meeting by saying with his very first words: A Brother turned 21 and he asked his Rector for a word on his 21st birthday for the rest of his life, and the Rector told him to read his Our Family every day of his life! I have tried to do so ever since, with blessed benefits. While being Rector of Hillbrow congregation in Johannesburg, the annual time came up to encourage our members to subscribe for Our Family for the new year, especially new readers. The system was that each Priest obtained orders from the members in his Section, including payment and receipt, and then all the Priests gave their combined orders to the Magazine Agent. On a Tuesday evening we all met in the vestry and focused on the Our Family subscriptions, possible new readers, financial constraints, etc. As part of my encouragement to the Priests as Rector I told them about the dedicated AND capable well-qualified staff of the Verlag who provide this high standard Our Family magazine with invaluable content. I then told briefly about Editor years ago Dr Fenkl (Doctor of Philology) and the ‘German Typing Champion’ Priest, and then at some length about present Managing Director Hans-Jürgen Hendriock and where he had come from in the business world, and also about Vertriebsleiter Fritz Nicholaus. Lo and behold, NEXT evening, Wednesday, who should arrive in Hillbrow congregation to hold service was District Elder Hendriock and District Evangelist Nicholaus accompanying our Bishop Hector as they had come from Frankfurt to Johannesburg on Verlag business ! Today 105 years ago on 31.03.1909 District Apostle Fritz Bischoff was born. He was the son of Chief Apostle Bischoff, and the father-in-law of Chief Apostle Leber. He was ordained Apostle on 5.08.1951 and served for 33 years until he was retired on 18.11.1984. He started the Unsere Familie (Our Family) in 1933, when he was only 24 years of age, first issue being on 17.12.1933, 75 yrs ago. Love and best wishes, Alan Woodman
Posted on: Mon, 31 Mar 2014 09:14:33 +0000