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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, APRIL 9, 1982
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from 51,000 to 30,000 readers. Six months later, the list now stands at
36,000 subscribers. This increase has come about mainly as a result of
"word of mouth." The magazine is often passed onto friends and acquaint
ances of the actual subscribers. These additional readers in turn request
their own subscription to the magazine.
Apart from The PLAIN TRUTH, the only other major method of preaching the
Gospel in Southeast Asia at the present time is The WORLD TOMORROW broad
cast over powerful Radio Ceylon. Listeners to the programme over Radio
Ceylon were originally experiencing some difficulty in understanding the
mailing address (a box number in Dehiwala in Sri Lanka) announced at the
close of the broadcast. We recently changed this mailing address to a new
box number in Colombo, bringing an immediate increase in response.
An exciting new door for preaching the Gospel in Sri Lanka and Southern
India has now opened. It was planned that on April fourth The WORLD TOMOR
ROW television programme will be seen for the first time by viewers in that
area of the world. The Sri Lankan state-owned broadcasting system has ac
cepted Mr. Armstrong's television programme, and it will be aired on Sun
days at 9:00 p.m. prime time. The programme will be broadcast via a relay
system throughout the entire country of Sri Lanka and into southern India,
including the area around the major port city of Madras. The potential
viewing audience is in the multiple millions--perhaps two to three million
in Sri Lanka alone, where we will have a captive audience since the program
will run simultaneously on the only two channels!
Caribbean January and February proved to be very good months for God's Work
1n the Caribbean as far as mail was concerned. The total mail received in
January 1982 was 140% more than that received in January 1981. February
1982 experienced an increase of 102% over February of the previous year. It
is interesting to note that though the January percentage change was bigger
than that of February, the overall mail count for February was greater than
that of January. This reflects the positive trend of increasing monthly
mail.
Another very encouraging trend which illustrates the growth in God's Work
is the increase in PLAIN TRUTH requests. Both January and February showed
increases of over 100% in relation to last year. This upsurge
in
incoming
mail in the Caribbean is largely accounted for by the increase in mail from
the country of Trinidad. Trinidad's total mail was 36% of the total Carib
bean mail for February.
While the mail response was very positive, the income did not show a similar
trend. In fact, for both January and February the income fell below that of
the previous year. January's income fell by 6.7% while February's fell by
three percent. This drop seems related to the general recessionary trend
being experienced in the Caribbean.
Some ministerial manpower changes occurred in the Caribbean during the
month of February. Mr. Carlos Nieto was transferred from Barbados to the
United States. Mr. Nieto and his family are now living in Columbia, South
Carolina and he is assisting Mr. John Ritenbaugh in pastoring the churches
in Columbia, SC and Augusta, Georgia.
The new pastor of the Church in Barbados is Mr. Arnold Hampton. Mr. Hampton
and his family were previously living in Laurel, Delaware. From there he
had cared for the Laurel and Wilmington Churches.