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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, FEBRUARY 8, 1985
MUNCIE, IN--RICK BAUMGARTNER: The members appreciate and are ex
cited about the material that was presented at the Refreshing
Program. Since most of the material that was given is so applic
able to the local area, I am trying to cover as much of it as pos
sible in sermons and Bible studie�. There is a genuine excite
ment here about Mr. Armstrong's late�t travels to China and other
parts of the Orient.
--Joe Tkach, Ministerial Services
UPDATE FROM MAIL PROCESSING
Telecast Sets Another All-time WATS Record!
The Nepal special "World Peace--Mankind' s Ultimate Dilemma" received an
all-time high 15,992 calls--76% above the 1984 average. It was the third
record breaker within the first five weekends of this year! Previous rec
ord programs usually dealt with prophecy or the Christmas and Easter
holidays. This is the first time a program not covering these topics drew
so many calls.
The huge response came in spite of WOR, the major cable station, preempting
the telecast for a hockey game. We estimate that had the program aired on
WOR, we would have had an additional 1,000 responses from viewers Sunday
night.
Following are some of the reasons for this exceptional response:
• People are genuinely concerned about the subject of peace and were in
trigued with the way Mr. Armstrong revealed it would come about.
• Mr. Armstrong took extra time to describe the publications WORLD PEACE
--HOW IT WILL COME, HUMAN NATURE--DID GOD CREATE IT? and The PLAIN
TRUTH magazine. In particular, a number of people noticed his refer
ence to The PLAIN TRUTH article "Do the Dead Know What the Living Are
Doing?" and asked specifically for this information.
• New stations are airing the program and we have improved viewing times
for other stations.
• Extremely cold temperatures throughout the United States probably kept
many people indoors over the weekend.
• Mr. Armstrong encouraged viewers to keep calling until they got
through.
Mr. Armstrong's two previous telecasts, which were filmed in China, also
did well. "Children--Key to the Future" (shown January 19-20) brought in
8,303 calls. "What is the Cause of Man's Problems?" (shown January 26-27)
produced 9,665. Thus, in the last three weekends, we received 33,960 calls
in response to the telecast.
Comments From Our Callers
Mr. Armstrong's programs filmed in Asia brought in many favorable comments.
Because few world leaders and other dignitaries are granted an audience
with leaders of the governments of China and Nepal, our viewing audience