The work of the United Church of God in South Africa showed encouraging increases in most areas for the financial and tax year ending Feb. 29, 2008. Good News Distribution The Good News magazine subscription list stands at 15,500 subscribers, a 36 percent increase over the previous year. In addition, we also mail 1,600 copies to Zimbabwe, 930 copies to Zambia and 450 copies to Malawi. The Good News was printed in the United States until 2006 when the printing was switched to Australia. Due to numerous and increasing difficulties and delays in getting the magazine through South African Customs over the years, we received approval from the home office to print the magazine in South Africa. It has been printed by CTP Printers in Cape Town since May 2007. Media Efforts Over the last 10 years we have tried most of the available methods in offering the South African public a free subscription to the GN magazine, i.e., advertising in major magazines, including Reader's Digest, as well as counter displays and post office mail drops. Reader's Digest had been our most successful avenue in the past, with up to 3,937 responses per advertisement. But since the advent of major Internet search engines like Google and Yahoo, the South African National Council has settled on that direction as our main option. For 2007 we averaged 1,334 new GN subscriptions per month, an increase of 34 percent over the average per month for 2006. The cost per response has come down from 16 rand (US$2) using Reader's Digest to 10.60 rand (US$1.30) through Google Adwords. It is interesting to note that since March 2006, South African Internet surfers searching the Web using one of our 325 keywords in their search have viewed a staggering +12 million times a description of our Web site offering The Good News magazine and inviting them to click through to view the actual ad. Thus far, 54,208 people have actually clicked through (0.44 percent). Of those, 16,088 people (29.68 percent) have actually completed the application form and submitted it electronically to us. Those 16,088 subscription requests have cost 170,497.51 rand (US$24,356). We are indeed very grateful for this type of advertising that has enabled us, with such a small staff, to reach with such comparative ease and cost-effectiveness into so many South African homes with the good news of the coming Kingdom of God. Bible Study Course Requests for the 12-lesson course continue to rise. Mailing of Literature The number of booklets mailed out has risen appreciably over the years. In 2000 the South African office mailed out 6,592 booklets. In 2007 we mailed out 29,068. In 2001 we mailed out 6,968 individual envelopes. In 2007 that figure had risen to 19,081. By using the Internet rather than magazine advertising as our main means of reaching the public, the number of incoming individual envelopes has decreased dramatically. This has given our small office staff a big breather, as dealing with large volumes of incoming e-mails is obviously much easier to deal with than physical mail. Finance The 2007/08 financial year ending Feb. 29 has been a very good year for South Africa. The best ever, in fact! Expenditures were slightly over budget by 1.7 percent, but income showed a surplus of 15.6 percent above budget. The amount received from donors was 66.4 percent above budget, Holy Day offerings were 13.5 percent above budget and first tithe ended 27.1 percent above budget. This has enabled us to place a record amount on the 2008/09 budget for media efforts and postage. Consequently we have decided to increase, from six to 12, the number of GN magazines a subscriber receives before we send a renewal notice. This will have the effect of increasing quite rapidly the number of active GN subscribers from the present 15,500 to 20,000 or even 25,000 in the next 12 months. We are hoping that giving readers the opportunity to receive the GN for two years instead of one will result ultimately in more requests for ministerial visits than we receive at present. Congregations and Elders There are four congregations in South Africa: Johannesburg, Durban, East London and Cape Town. In 2000 181 attended the only Feast site in South Africa. In 2007 there were 293 at two sites. In Malawi there are congregations in Blantyre and Lilongwe, and one Feast site on the shore of Lake Malawi. There are five congregations in Zambia and two in Zimbabwe, with one Feast site in each country. At present there are eight elders serving the congregations in South Africa, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The work of the United Church of God in Southern Africa continues to grow in effectiveness, and we are praying that God will guide us in wisely using the record amount provided in the 2008/09 budget to reach many more people with His end-time witness. UN Neil Becker is secretary/treasurer of the United Church of God, Southern Africa.