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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, JUNE 19, 1981
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the board, seven nights a week. Current plans are for this to be paid for
partially out of local funds, and the balance out of funds generously
contributed by the Canadian branch of God's Work.
Radio Ceylon currently broadcasts with 50,000 watts of power and its signal
is picked up by all the countries of the Middle East and East Africa, along
with Malagasy, Mauritius, and all of Asia east to Malaysia. Radio Ceylon is
due to increase the power of its signal to 100,000 watts in the near future,
making it one of the most powerful radio stations in the world.
The Church in Sri Lanka now numbers 30 baptized members, with an average
monthly attendance of 51. Services are conducted in three different lo
cations with weekly services in Colombo and fortnightly services in
Anuradhapura and Nuwara Eliya. The Church is taken care of by Mr. Mohan
Jayasekera who is an Ambassador College graduate and a local elder.
Jesus Christ is certainly blessing His Work in Sri Lanka. Local income for
the first five months of 1981 is running 407% ahead of the same period last
year, and new visit requests are piling up faster than Mr. Jayasekera can
take care of them.
Malaysia/Singapore Mr. Colin Kelly made his first trip to Singapore and
Malaysia this month as the new pastor of the Singapore and Kuala Lumpur
churches. Attendance in these congregations is 53 and 79 respectively, and
many additional members are scattered over a wide area. Once their resi
dence and work permits are granted, Mr. and Mrs. Kelly will move to Singa
pore permanently.
Apart from a brief period in which Mr. Guy Alnes pastored the Kuala Lumpur
Church, Mr. Kelly will be the first full-time pastor of a congregation of
God's modern-day Church that is in a nation which is officially Islamic.
This presents its own unique problems--especially since it is illegal to
baptize a Moslem into the Christian faith in Malaysia.
Spanish-language Activities
The "take one" cardholder
promotion has
yielded many La PURA VERDAD subscribers since its inception two and one
half years ago. After an initial testing in Spain and Puerto Rico from late
1978 to mid-1979, use of this promotional device has spread to the U.S.,
Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and
Portugal. (It is also being used to promote The PLAIN TRUTH in the U.S.,
where over 27,000 subscribers have been added in 18 months.)
In less than three years, the cardholders have produced a total of 21,000
new subscribers, or 18.6% of all new subscribers added via promotions
during that period. In Chile and Argentina, 87% and 50%, respectively, of
all new subscriptions added since 1979 have come on the PV list in this
fashion.
Since the beginning of 1981, the monthly average of new
subscriptions received from the following countries have numbered: 400 in
Argentina, 800 in Chile, 350 in Peru, and 150 in Guatemala.
These subscribers have also shown substantial interest in the Work for the
short time they have been on the PV list. To date there are three members,
six co-workers, 30 donors, 20 GOOD NEWS subscribers and 736 Correspondence
Course students within this group.