International News at a Glance

• Portuguese Magazine Reprints Vertical Thought Articles
• May Marks First Anniversary of Beyond Today in Canada
• Australia Awards ABC Scholarship
• Australia Reports Strong Financial Condition
• Australia Adds $20,000 to Preach the Gospel

Portuguese Magazine Reprints Vertical Thought Articles

Linha Aberta, a glossy Portuguese-language Christian magazine published in Florida, requested permission more than a year ago to reprint articles from Vertical Thought magazine in their "English Section." Permission was granted, and a number of articles have already appeared in the magazine, sometimes as the only article in the "English Section."

Articles reprinted so far include "Christian Through College" by Ken Treybig, "How to Choose a Good Movie" by Amanda Stiver, "The Power of Habits" by Doug Horchak and "The Hole in Your Heart" by Mike Bennett.

Each reprinted article is accompanied with the following statement: "Reprinted with permission from Vertical Thought magazine.

Published by United Church of God, an International Association, P.O. Box 541027, Cincinnati, OH. www.verticalthought.org."

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May Marks First Anniversary of Beyond Today in Canada

The first program of Beyond Today went on the air in Canada on May 21, 2006. After one year the results are very encouraging. A total of 1,761 responses were received, an average of 34 responses per week. Of these, 66 percent (1,166) came by phone and the balance from the beyondtodaytv.ca Web site. Also, 1,283 (73 percent) were new additions to our files, with the remainder from those already on file. The new additions included 1,111 new subscribers to The Good News magazine.

The three programs with the highest responses offered our booklet Holidays or Holy Days: Does It Matter Which Days We Keep?

Programs with a prophetic theme were also popular among viewers. The vast majority of phone responses to the program have come from Ontario west to British Columbia—the five most westerly provinces in Canada.

—Ed van Pelt

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Australia Awards ABC Scholarship

The UCG–Australia Board announced that its 2007 ABC scholarship has been awarded to Renato Marozza of the Brisbane congregation. United News Australia reported that Renato is thrilled to have been awarded the scholarship but "is still in the process of obtaining a suitable visa. Your prayers for a successful outcome for Renato would be most appreciated."

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Australia Reports Strong Financial Condition

Allan Hambleton, treasurer of UCG–Australia, reported in United News Australia that "the Church is in very good financial condition as of the end of March 2007. Income is strong, expenses are in check and the balance sheet and cash position are in good shape.

"The bottom line results are a positive income surplus of $7,462 compared to a budgeted deficit of $91,004 producing a positive variance of $98,466…

"The Church's balance sheet looks very healthy indeed with $522,000 in current assets and only $92,000 in current liabilities, producing a very fine current ratio of 5.66. That is, we have $5.66 of current assets to pay every $1 of current liabilities" (all figures Australian dollars).

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Australia Adds $20,000 to Preach the Gospel

Due to the financial blessings mentioned above, at the March meeting in Sydney, UCG-Australia Board members voted to allocate an additional A$20,000 in this financial year to the preaching of the gospel.

As a result, the Board was presented with an initiative to promote The Middle East in Bible Prophecy in June 2007 in two advertising mediums—The Reader's Digest and the Consumer Information Centre catalogues.

In recent times, the Consumer Information coupon ads have been particularly successful. From January to April over 2 million households in Australia received their summer catalogue in which the booklet What Happens After Death? and The Good News magazine were offered. UCG–Australia received nearly 2,000 responses from this campaign, breaking all previous records for a single print ad, not only in the number of responses received, but also the cost per response, which came in at approximately A$4.

The target number for new Good News subscribers to be added for this financial year has already been passed, with the end-of-year target projected to be exceeded by at least 26 percent.

With the additional media initiative of $20,000, the target number for new subscribers could be exceeded by as much as 39 percent.

— Ruth Root

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