Basic HTML Version
?ASTOR'S REPORT, April 30, 1979
Page 4
with interest stimulated by the receivership crisis in the States.
It's
dpparent that Christ will move people to support us when we are seen to
be actively preaching the gospel in our magazine.
In an effort to preach the gospel to an ever wider readership, we're
currently right in the middle of the biggest advertising campaign the
Work has ever undertaken here.
In early March, we tried something new
for us -- a series of sixty-second spot ads on one of New Zealand's
top-rated radio stations.
Ads for the Drugs, Health, and Modern Romans
b�oklets were run every hour, 24 hours per day for 6 days per week over
2
two week period.
Our phone number was included in the ads, and some
of our members were able to help the office staff man the phones as
hundreds of responses came in.
Simultaneously, we advertised extensively
in the national press.
Combined with this series of promotions, we
dropped a card offering "The Dilemma of Drugs" and the Plain Truth into
515,000 letterboxes throughout the country -- reaching about half the
households in New Zealand.
We plan to cover the other half of the pop
ulation in early May.
The response to these promotions has been astounding!
By the end of
March, over 11,000 Householder Cards had been returned, as well as over
1500 replies to the radio and newspaper ads.
Hundreds of additional
responses are still flooding in every day.
All of these people will
begin receiving The Plain Truth magazine for the very first time.
Meanwhile, Church attendance is also creating new records, running about
15% ahead of figures for last year.
Baptisms and new prospective members
are also up significantly.
A series of campaigns in the south Island
cities of Christchurch, Dunedin and Invercargill have been very success
sul, resulting in 65 new people attending a Church service for the first
time.
Church attendance in this area of the country is running almost
100% above that of last year.
i\ustr:-alia
Mail for March was a record.
postal strike which seriously
In spite of this, mail income
to-date percentage to +27%.
19,303 letters were received -- despite a
disrupted mail the last week of the month.
was up 55% for March, bringing the year-
Over 62,800 booklets and articles were posted out -- smashing all pre
vious records for outgoing mail.
rtesponses to our ads in national magazines and state newspapers, offering
a free subscription to The Plain Truth magazine, continue to come in at
a most encouraging rate.
A total of 8,843 responses has been received
since we commenced advertising some six weeks ago.
Church attendance was again very encouraging.
Last month we reported
a record breaking attendance of 4,545.
At the time of this writing with
some weekly reports not in because of the postal strike, our attendance
for March stands at 4,742 -- almost 200 more than our record-breaking
attendance last month.
Christ said to Peter and Andrew,
"Follow me, and I will make you fishers
of men."
Those who fish for fish know that it takes many different kinds
of bait (and methods) to catch the many different kinds of fish.