MARBLE HILL NATIVE AND MINISTER VISITS WITH MIDDLE EASTERN LEADERS

The Rev. and Mrs. Thomas M. Jackson, formerly of Marble Hill, recently returned from the Holy Land where they visited after participating in the Fifth Qiunquennial World Fellowship conference in Athens Greece.

The conference is sponsored by the United Pentecostal Church, which is based in Hazelwood.

The Rev. Jackson currently serves as executive administrative assistant to UPC general superintendent Rev. Nathaniel Urshan.

Following the world fellowship conference, Jackson and other officials of the United Pentecostal Church met with members of the cabinet of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

In addition, the UPC officials requested and were granted an audience with Yassir Arafat, chief of the Palestine Liberation Organization, at Arafat's headquarters in the Gaza Strip.

Rabin and Arafat recently broke a deadlock and agreed to step up talks on expanding self-rule for Arafat's government in the West Bank.

The Jacksons left Marble Hill in 1968 when Thomas Jackson accepted an executive post at the World Evangelism Center in Hazelwood. He had previously been pastor of the United Pentecostal Church of Lutesville and also owned and operated the Banner-Press during the 1960s. Jackson sold the newspaper to Cletis Ellinghouse in 1968.

The Rev. Jackson is the brother of David V. Jackson, Marble Hill's city adminstrator. Both are sons of the late Rev. Verdell Jackson, who owned the Banner-Press and founded the United Pentecostal Church of Marble Hill.

The United Pentecostal Church International sponsors missionaries in more than 130 nations. Its overseas constituency has grown in the past five years from 871,900 to a current total of more than 1.62 million.