Mr. Davy Crockett sends this happy announcement:
On January 3rd a newly designed Tomorrow's World Web site was launched at www.tomorrowsworld.org. Our new magazine-oriented Web site showcases all magazine articles in addition to the Tomorrow's World telecast. This new design puts the whole magazine out front in an easy to read, searchable format. People will now be able to search all our articles and booklets by keywords or author.
The new Web site is the result of a lot of work by number of people at various locations.
Look for more exciting developments with our LCG.org and COGL.org Web sites in the near future, along with many other Web developments. – Steve Stiffler, Internet Coordinator
CHURCH ADMINISTRATION
Sharon and I had a wonderful visit with the San Diego congregation on December 25. There were 51 brethren in attendance for Sabbath services with a fine meal and fellowship afterward. I had very productive meetings with Mr. Mario Hernandez, Director of the Spanish Work, on the following Monday and with Mr. Harold Way, the minister in San Diego, on Tuesday. The dedication, warmth and hospitality of everyone we met on this trip was very encouraging.—Charles E. Bryce
TELEVISION DEPARTMENT
Mr. Wayne Pyle writes: This New Year's weekend we aired program #227, "2005 and Prophecy," which offered the booklet, Revelation: The Mystery Unveiled! (RU). From Thursday through Sunday, we received 2,719 phone calls, and we are expecting the total count to go over 3,000!
The Revelation booklet was offered seven times previously, averaging 2,089 responses per program. The response ranged from a low of 1,674 in December 2003, to a high of 2,883 in September 2004.
A new first was established last night when the TV-Internet response was "automatically" processed, thanks to Michael Thomas' excellent programming skills. We are still testing for possible bugs, but everything is looking good so far. If all works okay, as we are expecting, this will allow the Work for the first time ever to process literature requests DAILY. Even in our Worldwide days, processing was only done twice a week. Daily processing is an incredible advance, as it will greatly expedite getting our literature into the hands of our respondents within days, rather than weeks, depending on where they live. West Coast mail delivery will tend to take longer, but East Coast and Midwest residents should see noticeable improvements in their mail delivery.
Dr. Ray Cradock in England obtained a new "free phone" number for our UK telecast on Life TV. The number is 0800-587-3324, and it is active. Now, all we need are voiceovers form Kevin Lee and Steve Stiffler to do the final master editing. Our deadline for the first tape shipment is January 10, next Monday. We will need to ship the tape to New Zealand, where a company will convert the tape from NTSC format to PAL format for $US79, compared to most US companies which charge US$200 per tape.
COMMENTS
Mr. Roderick C. Meredith commented yesterday that the year 2005 seems to be off to a very good start in God's Work. For instance, the income is up, the gospel is about to go into Britain, the Internet door is opening up, the Hymnal is not too far away from distribution, and we are becoming more and more organized and efficient in internal systems and procedures. Thanks to all of you in the ministry and in the Church for helping this happen. We are not where we need to be yet, but we are making good headway with a full head of steam. So in spite of the catastrophe and ongoing tragedy from the tsunami in Asia, we can still be strengthened by what Jesus Christ is doing in His Work.
In Christian love,
Charles E. Bryce