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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, January 30, 1981
Page 5
International News
German-speaking Area--Activities and 1980 report: God's Work in the
German-speaking area carried on serenely through West Germany's frenzied
Christmas preparations in December. Several ministers and their families
spent the week of December 21-26 together with Regional Director, Mr.
Frank Schnee and Mrs. Schnee in the lakeside village of Pertisau in
Austria. They had the chance to fellowship and hold Bible studies with
sixty German, Swiss and Austrian youths enjoying a Y.O.U. winter camp in
the immediate vicinity. Needless to say, everyone also took ample
advantage of the wonderful weather and wintersport facilities to get in
some good skiing, sledding or hiking. The ministers, including recently
ordained local elder Helmut Kaserer, an Austrian head forester who lives
nearby, and his wife Maria, were updated by Mr. Schnee on recent develop
ments as well as on the 1981 budget.
After departing from Pertisau, Bonn Office Manager John Karlson drove
with his family through Czechoslovakia into the Katowice region of Poland
to visit our lone member there, Victor Przybylla, and his family. News
that they were suffering from food shortages caused by the labor unrest,
prompted our Swiss brethren to take up a collection for them. Food was
purchased and taken over to Poland by the Karlsons. The Karlsons arrived
safely back in Bonn on January 2nd and reported that Victor and his
family are presently managing to get by, thanks in part, to the help
and concern of brethren in the West.
1980 Advertising and Mail: Looking back on 1980, we are very pleased to
see that we surpassed our goal of adding 30,000 new subscribers to The
PLAIN TRUTH mailing list.
The major portion of our advertising took place in the spring and fall of
the year. We started out in February and March with several ads in Berlin
newspapers to compliment our lecture series for PT readers, which was
taking place in Berlin at that time. Our next major ads were in national
magazines "Bunte," "Der Spiegel," and several Swiss magazines around April
May and June. In May we had our biggest success with a newly designed
P.T. flyer offering The PLAIN TRUTH and showing comments of several read
ers. This flyer was placed in the prestigious national daily newspaper
"Die Welt."
In the fall we advertised once again in ''Der Spiegel," and our flyer
appeared in the national weekly newspaper "Die Zeit." Nearly 10,000
responses were received.
The fall ad campaign in Switzerland was conducted for us by Swiss Air's
advertising agent Herman and Schneider, with very positive results. Ads
were placed in such prestigious Swiss publications as "Weltwoche,"
Zurich's "Tages-Anzeiger-Magazine" and "Schweizer Familie." At the
end of December we placed our flyer in the bi-monthly "Schweizer Beo
bachter" which again is bringing a good response.
In addition, an unexpected offer from the advertising department of the
national railroads gave us the chance to advertise The PLAIN TRUTH in
over 1.5 million train schedules laid out on the seats of the standard
express trains and the prestigious Trans-European Express trains through
out Germany during the entire month of December--the busiest month of the
year� We have more than 3,000 requests for The PLAIN TRUTH thus far.