UPDATE FROM MAIL PROCESSING
Number of Co-workers Up by One-third
We are seeing an encouraging increase in the number of co-workers, as the following table shows:
1983 - 1984 - Percent Increase
New Co-workers (year to date) - 15,848 - 18,308 - 15.5%
Total Co-workers - 40,752 - 54,396 - 33.5%
The reasons for this fine growth include greater circulation of The PLAIN TRUTH and The GOOD NEWS, as well as more people responding to Mr. Armstrong's semiannual letters. With nearly 200,000 more PT subscribers now beginning to receive The GOOD NEWS, we expect the co-worker picture to brighten even more in the months ahead.
GOOD NEWS Readers Inquire About the Feast
A surprising number of GOOD NEWS subscribers have asked for information about attending this year's Feast of Tabernacles after reading the September festival issue. The articles captured their interest in God's plan and inspired them to want to know how they could partake of the Feast experience. It is our policy to direct these people to our local ministers for more information about the Feast. Following are a few of the comments we have received from interested GOOD NEWS readers:
After reading your September issue of The GOOD NEWS and the Old and New Testaments, I am sure that the festivals are a required as well as needed religious "booster," so to speak. Could you please send me a copy of the sacred calendar and the locations of the Feast of Tabernacles this year, as I couldn't find it in the magazine and I must start planning for it right away.
J.C. (Muncie, IN)I am an avid reader of The GOOD NEWS and recently received the September issue. I would like to know where the Feast of Tabernacles will be celebrated. I would like to attend, but unfortunately, I am not aware of where I can participate in my area. Any help you can offer will be greatly appreciated.
C.S. (Brooklyn, NY)I would like to request a visit. Reading the last issue of The GOOD NEWS has gotten me excited about the Feast of Tabernacles, so we'd like to find out all about the Church and the feasts. My family and I would like to be included if possible.
Mr. & Mrs. D.G. (Canby, MN)
Church Literature Helps Those With Limited Education
Some who begin studying our literature have not had a great deal of schooling. Even though their formal education is limited, these people are eager to know more of God's Word and His ways. They appreciate our literature because it is written in a clear and understandable manner. We thought you would find the following letters from such readers interesting:
I would like to say thank you with all my heart for helping me to learn more about the Bible. I only finished the fourth grade in school so my reading and spelling are not that good, but I will try to write this letter the best I can and tell you how much it means to me to learn God's Word. Thank you for making it easy to read for me and many like me. Not that it is all that easy, but I hope you will know what I mean.
To write this letter I must take words out of your correspondence course and from letters other students sent in. I hope you don't mind. Please go on with your good work so that I may learn more about God.
F.W. (Bunnell, FL)Maybe you've noticed by now — I keep sending for more and more of your booklets. I only completed seventh grade, but certainly feel that I'm getting a good education now, thanks to God and to you people at the Worldwide Church of God. I keep all my booklets, magazines and Bible correspondence course lessons filed away, then go back and read them over and over. I just can't seem to get enough.
B.C. (Yadkinville, NC)I'm so very pleased with your TV program, as well as The PLAIN TRUTH. They are enlightening and make one understand how cruel the world has become. You bring us such divine wisdom and understanding so we can be well aware of what is going on. I often wonder why the big ones in Washington, as well as in the Kremlin, either don't care or don't have the common sense to see where we are going. I'm just a little foreign born Dane with not too much education and some lack of English, but I can still see that there is something wrong.
V.K. (Los Angeles, CA)I didn't get enough education in school — eighth grade was the highest we had living on the reservation back in 1940. Just listening to you over the radio and reading The PLAIN TRUTH, The GOOD NEWS and your other literature gives me the education I need for the world tomorrow.
E.C. (White River, AZ)I want to express my appreciation to the people who make all the information possible for people like myself and others that don't have a lot of education. We yearn to learn but it wouldn't be possible except for people like you Mr. Armstrong and your staff. I know it takes a lot of money and people dedicated to God's work to do it. I haven't seen so many ways to learn or so much literature for the asking anywhere else.
I went to a lot of different churches but it seems that there was always something missing. I couldn't understand why I didn't get much out of it. They would read the scriptures but couldn't explain them so most people like myself could understand. Thank God for people like you to show the truth in a way anyone who really believes in God can understand, if he takes the time and wants to learn.
W.H. (Clover, SC)I am so happy to read your booklets. I am starting a new life and you are making things plain to me and I understand. I didn't get very far in school, but I do understand your booklets. Pray for me as I've been listening to the wrong gospel.
B.T. (East Cleveland, OH)
— Richard Rice, Mail Processing Center
