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.