Herbert W Armstrong

For this package, we decided to test an airmail carrier envelope against the usual surface mail envelope, to see if this would make any significant difference in response. So far, the airmail envelope has brought in a higher response: 6.0% compared with 5.3% from the regular envelope.

All told, 5,338 pieces of mail came into the office during March. Mail income was 10.4% higher than for the same month last year, bringing the year-to-date increase to 1.4%.

Yet another hurricane closed in on Fiji, but our brethren there were protected from any injury. Here's what our minister in Suva, Ratu Epeli Kanaimawi, wrote to us immediately after the cyclone had passed:

Please convey our gratitude and sincere thanks to the brethren for their prayers for us in a frightening time of need. With three very strong cyclones coming through Fiji early this year, this fourth one was to be an experience of a lifetime!

Listening to the radio announcements on Saturday evening and Sunday morning, one could clearly detect the terror and intense fear in the voices of announcers as they described the path and intensity of hurricane Hina. There was no doubt that Satan was out to destroy us.

We are grateful to the Eternal for intervening and sparing us from real destruction and death. All previous cyclones that I know of travelled either in a straight line or a gentle curve through Fiji. It can clearly be seen from the maps published in the local papers that the hurricane continued to be pushed away from Fiji's coastline as it approached the western coast of our islands.

Winds of 120 knots per hour gusting to 160 knots or more per hour were 40 miles from the centre of our group of islands. The hurricane skirted Fiji at distances varying between 60 to 80 miles away — just enough distance from the centre to save the country.

We have, in a very dramatic and unforgettable way, seen demonstrated the dynamic power of the Eternal and how He is willing and able to answer His people's prayers. We thank you deeply for your part in praying for our safety. It has certainly brought us closer to one another in the unity that I am confident the Eternal is well pleased to see in the Church.

Recently, "The WORLD TOMORROW" broadcast was discontinued on two New Zealand radio stations. However, it is still aired weekly on three stations here, and one in Tonga, as well as on TV in Tonga. We are currently running a series of advertisements in the NEW ZEALAND LISTENER to direct people's attention to the broadcast. Responses increased dramatically in March, which was the biggest month for radio responses since 1978.

From Mr. Carn Catherwood: During the month of February, incoming mail to the Italian Department tapered off somewhat to 7,285, due to the fact that the response cycle to the previous month's major advertising was drawing to a close. Nevertheless, this figure represents a 194% increase over the same month last year! Regular mail, keeping stride with our growing subscriber list, has also increased a few percentage points over the previous months.

Also in February the first copies of Lesson 3 of the Bible correspondence course in Italian became available, of which we mailed out 713. Our list of donors has been growing steadily and had reached 252 by February's end.

Mr. Mike Caputo conducted a visiting tour in February covering Rome and the northern portion of Italy. He was accompanied by his wife, Leonilda. (Mr. Caputo, a native Italian more recently from Toronto, is currently a full­ time student at Ambassador College.) He contacted 17 people during the trip. Of those, about ten showed a genuine interest in being baptized. The remainder are good potential candidates for baptism at some later date. Overall, the tour was very successful and encouraging. Most new PMs are the result of viewing the TV program and consequent reading of the Italian language magazine and booklets.

Though the incoming mail figure for March was lower than February, the year-to-date increase as compared to the same three-month period in 1984 was 28%. A total of 1,785 booklets left our mailing room in March. We also received shipments of the first Italian copies of Lesson 4 of the correspondence course and the reprint "Is All Animal Flesh Good for Food?" Due to renewals, the PURA VERITA subscription list dropped slightly to 75,200 at month's end.

For the last year and a half we have been on TeleMonteCarlo, broadcasting the English "WORLD TOMORROW" program with Italian subtitles. TeleMonteCarlo (TMC) is located in the tiny country of Monaco and reaches Northern Italy quite well, as well as much of the western coast, including Rome. The response has been good and very encouraging.

In March another dramatic media break through occurred. The owner of one of the three largest independent TV stations in Italy, known as Retequattro, contacted us through the English office, offering us the opportunity to air on his station! The offer was brought to Mr. Armstrong, who directed that we should accept. Retequattro has five times the Italian viewing audience that TMC has and through a network is seen in virtually every part of Italy. (The broadcast will, by the way, continue to air on TMC.) Retequattro will begin broadcasting "The WORLD TOMORROW" in early May, and we are expecting a sizeable increase in the number of responses as a result. We will keep you updated on developments.

A two-page ad in the Italian version of READER'S DIGEST is being run in May. In addition, an ad will be appearing in the weekly news magazine EUROPEO about the same time. Also in May, we will be doing another direct mail shot, this time consisting of 250,000 letters to potential readers throughout Italy.

— Joseph Tkach, Ministerial Services