Basic HTML Version
PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, JUNE 21, 1985
PAGE 3
in the Oslo area on Sunday, May 5th, at 10:30 a.m. on Norway's largest cable
network. This new channel has 140,000 connections within the Oslo area and
should have a growing impact.
Middle East/Continent of Europe: The PLAIN TRUTH files for the Middle East
and the European continent are picking up again after the dip caused by
renewals. The Middle East file is doing particularly well, with 2,923 sub
scribers added during May.
The newsstand programme has opened again in Greece after being closed for a
few months. There are five outlets in and around Athens currently dis
tributing 500 magazines per month.
Africa: We are currently mailing 57,506
Africa, which is 68.8% higher than 1984.
1,116, which is a 50% increase over 1984.
copies of The PLAIN TRUTH to
GOOD NEWS circulation stands at
Unfortunately, we have bad news regarding the mailing out of literature to
readers in Nigeria. As you may know, Nigeria is experiencing severe eco
nomic problems. Now the government has introduced austere measures to com
bat these problems. While inflation soars, people's incomes have been held
down. Naturally, this has had a detrimental effect on the Church's income.
Postage alone has been increased by up to 500%, which will severely hamper
our ability to mail out booklets.
On a more positive note, the attendance at Passover in Ghana was the highest
ever in the eleven-year history of the Church there. My wife and I visited
Ghana for Passover and the first day of Unleavened Bread.
From Mr. Robert Morton Over 4,000 new subscribers were added to the Aus
tralian PLAIN TRUTH mailing list in April. The majority of these new sub
scribers came on file as a result of our PLAIN TRUTH advertisement ·in the
April issue of READER'S DIGEST, the newsstand programme and "The WORLD TO
MORROW" telecast.
In December last year the Australian PLAIN TRUTH subscription list passed
the 100,000 mark for the first time. Since then we are pleased to report
that new subscriptions have kept pace with the drop-off caused by the
renewal programme.
Currently the mailing list stands at 101,237
subscribers--a 39.4% increase over April, 1984.
Our WATS line number is continuing to boost responses to "The WORLD TOMOR
ROW" telecast. Responses have increased so far this year by 92.4%. A small
group of volunteers from the members of the local Gold Coast church have
been trained in the WATS line operation and are now making a valuable con
tribution helping to answer the telephones each Sunday morning.
The mail count for April totalled 20,077--a 12.5% increase over the same
month in 1984. Income for the month increased by 13.3% over April last
year, bringing our year-to-date increase to 5.9%.
We have been most encouraged by the number of inquiries from people seeking
counsel from the local ministry, desiring baptism, or wanting to attend
church services. So far this year these requests have increased by 36.3%.
Attendance in Australia during the Feast of Unleavened Bread was 5,502--an
increase of 4% over last year. The first Holy Day offering was down 9.7%,