Basic HTML Version
PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, DECEMBER 11, 1981
PAGE 3
hoping and praying that God will call new members and co-workers out of this
harvest of new subscribers.
Another highlight for Church members was The WORLD TOMORROW program on
Radio Luxembourg which can be heard clearly on medium wave in most Church
areas. Once again, Church members feel stimulated to "gird up their loins"
and learn English!
In the month of November, as a result of our advertising this fall, we ex
perienced an amazing 99% increase in the incoming mail over November last
year. It was simply a superlative month in the area, with increases of 19%
in regular mail, 14% in donation mail, 90% in solicited mail and 125% in
media response mail. Some 15,978 pieces of mail were recorded this month.
This year's total mail count will exceed every year except 1969 by a consid
erable margin. In 1969 we were advertising frequently in READER'S DIGEST
(DAS BESTE) magazine.
Our fall advertising campaign has been completed, but the end results won't
be in for another month or so. We are especially happy about the increase
God gave us through the DER SPIEGEL ad. We have added 20,057 (as of Decem
ber third) new subscribers and expect another two or three thousand before
the last card or coupon has been sent in. We also have had flyers in three
Austrian magazines and newspapers. The 220,000 flyers that have been dis
tributed in the daily newspaper DIE PRESSE and magazines PROFIL and TREND
have brought 4,281 new subscribers thus far.
As a result of all this advertising in 1981, we now have a subscription list
of nearly 80,000, which was also the highest total ever for the German maga
zine back in December, 1973.
However, in January, 1974 the circulation
dropped to 40,000 as a result of financial difficulties and steadily de
creased until we resumed advertising in 1978. It increased rapidly in 1980
when we added 35,000 new subscribers to the list. This year we will proba
bly be adding some 50,000 new subscribers to the German PLAIN TRUTH sub
scription list worldwide.
Summing Up the Ministerial Refresher Program
Dear Mr. Armstrong:
Ingeberg and I, the only native Scandinavian local elder, are just
back home from the 15th session of the refresher program and from the
best Feast of Tabernacles ever, and it's high time to express our
feelings.
I have read scores of letters of appreciation and as far as I remember
I agree with each and every one of them! It's hard to come up with
something new, but we would like to emphasize three points:
1. The unity and the strength in unity. It is so encouraging to
know, and to know that you know that we are all speaking the same
thing and not only speaking it, but meaning it and doing what we
can to act on it, realizing that the motivation comes from the
gift of the Spirit of a sound mind.
2. The humble serving attitude. We, as you may remember, visited
the campus in 1976-77.
As human visitors you can't see deep