International News at a Glance

• U.K. Leadership Training Held
• Isle of Man Raises Funds for El Salvador Feast
• Young Adults' Leadership Week Successful
• Canada Breaks More Records

U.K. Leadership Training Held

Richard and Mary Pinelli and Lyle Welty traveled from Cincinnati, Ohio, to Manchester, England, to hold a leadership training program Aug. 24 to 29.

Forty men, their wives and a few family members met in the Hay's Conference Center, about two hours drive north of Manchester. There were members from Sweden, Holland and all parts of the United Kingdom. Peter Hawkins and his wife, Sonja, organized the five-day, 20-hour set of lectures, workshops and sermons. The classes ran from 9:30 a.m. until about 9 p.m. most evenings.

"The theme was developing our leadership at every level. The purpose of the classes was passing the baton of truth to others and developing ourselves to be better servants," said Mr. Pinelli.

"Many commented that they had never heard much of this material before," said Mr. Pinelli. "They were very warm and appreciative for all the help the home office had given them to make this possible."

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Isle of Man Raises Funds for El Salvador Feast

Fund-raisers to help brethren in El Salvador attend the Feast of Tabernacles have been sponsored by members of the Isle of Man congregation. These have raised 700 pounds (more than $1,300) in total, including 250 pounds from an auction of items made in Central America that was held at the young adults' leadership week in England.

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Young Adults' Leadership Week Successful

A young adults' leadership week was held in the village of Theddlethorpe All Saints, Lincolnshire, England, July 21 to 28. The event was regarded as a great success. Young adults came from the United Kingdom and Isle of Man, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United States. About 40 people from age 16 upwards attended. Also attending were two babies and two children under 10.

The friendly atmosphere was extremely conducive to forums that included topics on Sabbath-keeping, how to influence people, how to be a leader, what is meant by leadership and who can be a leader, to name just a few. These were often followed by informal late-night talks about personal choice, evolution and various related topics.

During the weekend, activities included playing pool, darts, Jacuzzi, Frisbee, swimming, beach trips, kite flying, DVD presentations and table tennis.

Sabbath services were held in a pleasant village hall. Split sermons were given by Bryan Ellams and Paul Howard. The songleader was Peter Hawkins.

After the weekend visitors left, a core group of 24 people remained to enjoy several outings to Louth, Skegness, Lincoln and Rutland Waters.

Ten-pin bowling, crazy golf, visiting historical monuments and stock car racing all took their place in the week.

A camp is being considered for December, and then in August 2007 at the home of the Kaspers in Belgium (the Kaspers have been firm supporters of the British camps for the last three years).

Hannah Ellams

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Canada Breaks More Records

Incoming mail in the Canadian office is setting new records. For the first time, we have received more than 1,000 pieces of mail per month for seven consecutive months. The previous record back in 2004 was for six months. Incoming mail for this year already exceeds the total amount of mail received in all of 2005. We received 2,115 pieces of mail in August, surpassing the previous record of 1,755 pieces received in January.

The Church in Canada also set a new record for the number of Internet and e-mail literature and subscription requests received in a single month. The previous record of 603 was set in March of this year. We ended July with a record 680 literature and subscription requests by e-mail. And August again broke that record with 1,030, a 51.5 percent increase over the previous month.

For the month of August we have averaged 1.5 e-mails per hour. For the year, the average is slightly less than one e-mail per hour. Over half of the new subscribers added recently have requested The Good News magazine and The Middle East in Bible Prophecy booklet (959 copies distributed in August).

Also included in the high volume of incoming mail are responses to the subscriber development letter that was sent out in late July and early August. A total of 4,408 letters were sent and we have received nearly 600 replies as of Aug. 24, giving a response rate of 13.2 percent.

Outgoing mail is setting records as well. We've already distributed more material this year than in all of 2005. The average number of items being mailed per month this year is 15,291—another record. That's about 516 items per day.

We're averaging just over 25 responses per week from the Beyond Today television program and the beyondtodaytv.ca Web site.

Anthony Wasilkoff and Edwin van Pelt

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