International News at a Glance

• Canada Reports Income and Subscription Growth
• Beyond Today Spreading Across Canada
• Baptism on St. Kitts
• Fund-Raiser Helps Armenian Member Attend Feast
• Meekers' Round-the-World Trip Blog

Canada Reports Income and Subscription Growth

In Canada, income for the first three months of the fiscal year is ahead of budget, while Holy Day offerings are close to what was budgeted.

The Canadian office has added well over 2,000 new subscribers to The Good News magazine since January. Over 400 subscribers were added as a result of letters sent to those in our database who had received literature in the past but were not subscribing to the GN. Another program added nearly 170 subscribers. These were people who had not responded to the two subscription renewal letters that were sent nearly two years ago. They responded to a recent letter that was sent to all those who let their GN subscription lapse. Another large number of new subscribers came as a result of the Internet and various keyword campaigns.

In early July the Canadian office hit a new milestone in Internet and e-mail literature and subscription requests. We received more requests so far this year than we did in all of 2004. We're now closing in on the record of 5,116 requests that we received last year.

All the incoming mail is resulting in a lot of outgoing mail. In the first six months of 2006, we averaged 15,724 items per month being mailed out. Those items include magazines, periodicals, booklets, letters, CDs and DVDs. (From January 1999 to the end of June 2006, we sent out 833,250 items).

—Edwin van Pelt

[ back to top ]

Beyond Today Spreading Across Canada

The Beyond Today television program brought in 111 responses in Canada as of July 6. Ninety-four of the responses were from new people requesting a GN subscription. Another 30 responses came from the Beyond Today Web site (www.beyondtoday.tv).

As the Christian Channel adds more and more digital cable and satellite television providers, we hope to see the number of responses increase. The program can currently be seen on Vision TV across Canada and on Rogers Digital Cable TV channel 396 in southern Ontario, Star Choice Satellite TV channel 399 in all regions, Telus 158 in British Columbia and Alberta and MTS TV 21 in Winnipeg . New providers across Canada are being added monthly.

—Edwin van Pelt

[ back to top ]

Baptism on St. Kitts

Kingsley Mather's visit to the island of St. Kitts Jan. 13 to 21 was very eventful for that small congregation. A young lady, Samantha Smitten, was baptized.

There have been members of the Church of God on the tiny island for many decades, but regular Sabbath services were not held in St. Kitts until UCG began. The regular attendance is 8, but this, out of a population of around 40,000, might be the largest per capita attendance of any country in the world. Three people have started to attend services recently. Two of the men have requested baptism counseling.

This article first appeared in the June 2006 Caribbean newsletter.

[ back to top ]

Fund-Raiser Helps Armenian Member Attend Feast

Only nine days after being established, a special fund-raiser reached its goal to provide $600 for airfare for United Church of God member Mnazakan Poghassjan to attend this year's Feast of Tabernacles in Schluchsee, Germany.

Mr. Poghassjan is the only member of the Church in Armenia. He speaks fluent German, and his monthly salary is equivalent to about 40 euros ($50). Without additional help, he would never be able to attend a UCG Feast site.

This article first appeared on the www.ucog.org Web site.

[ back to top ]

Meekers' Round-the-World Trip Blog

Joel Meeker, Council member and pastor who serves brethren in French-speaking countries, and his family are recording their round-the-world trip to visit members on an Internet blog (www.ucg.org/multimedia/blog.htm).

"I save my airline miles and every few years we have enough to take our daughters, Fiona and Tatiana, with us as my wife, Marjolaine, and I travel to visit members of our church in other countries," wrote Mr. Meeker on the first blog.

The itinerary includes transiting through London and Ghana, visits in Togo, Benin, Cameroon, Rwanda, Kenya, South Africa, Mauritius, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Australia and New Zealand.

[ back to top ]