We here at the Voice of Prophecy wish to express our appreciation to all our workers for their cooperation and support so freely given in our efforts to broadcast the gospel message and to carry on the Bible correspondence schools connected with our program.
We like to consider every worker in the Seventh-day Adventist Church a part of our Voice of Prophecy evangelistic organization. We feel that we are carrying on a continuous evangelistic campaign week after week and month after month.
Our great objective right now is to reach the millions of North America, with a population that is increasing faster than our church membership is increasing. With a little over 300,000 church members in the midst of nearly a 180-million population, we have a tremendous work to do.
These millions of people need to hear the gospel of Christ. They need to hear our special prophetic message for this time. We feel that radio is an increasingly powerful means by which to reach them, along with television and the printed page. None of these agencies are being used to the extent that they should be, but great advance has been made, and our workers are more and more cooperative as they see the opportunities and also the great needs with which we are faced.
The radio broadcast has been expanding into more and more towns and metropolitan areas across the United States and Canada. A year and a half ago we were forced to cut off nearly one hundred stations in order to keep within our budget, but as the result of our special appeal last year, we were able to restore most of these stations. This appeal would not have been heard by our people to any great extent and would not have been answered in such a wonderful way had it not been for the loyal cooperation of the ministers and elders in the churches. For this we express our deepest thanks.
We are glad to report that several powerful 50,000-watt stations have lately been added to our radio log. Not only are they covering great urban areas but they are also carrying the message into important, heavily populated rural regions that otherwise could not hear the message at all. We need to be on a far larger number of these powerful stations to cover the areas between towns and all the hundreds of smaller towns in which we have no radio outlets.
Something new has been added. It is our daily broadcast, which is bringing a strong impact in a number of areas where it is aired. We find that a message going into the homes seven days a week creates a tremendous interest and a desire for our Bible correspondence courses. Thousands of new students enroll who will eventually become interests for pastors to meet, with the hope of baptism later.
These daily broadcasts are not included in our regular Voice of Prophecy station cost budget. They are financially sponsored by individuals, groups, and even by churches or conferences interested in day-to-day radio evangelism. We wish this could be spread over the country. In fact, we wish the program could be on coastto-coast every day, for it would truly arouse hundreds of thousands of new interests.
Once in a while I meet a minister who says that he has received names of interested persons from the Voice of Prophecy, but that none of them have made real decisions. This, of course, grieves me, but it also surprises me. I realize that sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. It may be possible that all the names that come to the attention of a worker as interests will prove to be no interests at all. But this is very unlikely. Almost all the ministers with whom I have talked testify that they are glad to get those names, and that many of them are later baptized under their ministry and become church members. We have thousands of letters from our ministers all over the country to prove this.
Here is a sample from one of our strong evangelists. Writing about two families he had just baptized, he states: "These are two super-lovely families. They were fully indoctrinated and believed the message, but just needed to make a decision. They took their stand and were baptized, and seemingly none of them have any problem with their jobs." From the same letter we quote: "Mrs. _______ is another lady that you folks can be proud of—a former student of the Voice of Prophecy. She is one of the finest ladies one could meet anywhere. All she needed was a decision, which she made. She will be a first-class member in our church."
Such reports as these are multiplied thousands of times in letters to us, so we know that God is blessing the work.
All of us here at the Voice of Prophecy wish to say a big, big Thank you to our church pastors, elders, and other workers for uniting with us and adding a rich harvest of souls to their baptismal records.
Many of our faithful co-workers find genuinely interested people among the names they receive from the Voice of Prophecy and are faithfully following them up with Bible studies, prayer, and real Christian interest. Of course, we must all admit that we could do better. We could do better here at our end of the line, and so could many in the various conferences in following up these interests. We will try to cooperate better in these matters so we will not get the sorrowful letters that so often come from those who have been neglected, never visited or cared for. We do not wish to say much about this, but only plead for still more loving Christian ministry for these interested people. Christ would have come to this world and died for even one. How can we neglect one, two, three, or dozens, hundreds, or thousands of them? The follow-up of interested persons by our church pastors is a rewarding work, and may God bless our dear fellow laborers as they do it.
We are happy to mail out invitation letters to Voice of Prophecy students when requests come to us from conferences where evangelistic campaigns are in progress. The results from such letters have been gratifying. One well-known evangelist writes:
"For the past nine months I have been putting no ads in the newspaper at all. I had been spending three to four hundred dollars for such ads and on the opening night would ask the audience how many had come because of the ad. Sometimes in an audience of five or six hundred perhaps as few as eight or ten hands would be raised indicating that they had seen the ad. When I asked how many had received the letter from the Voice of Prophecy inviting them to come, from one half to two thirds of the hands would go up. The same has been true with Faith for Today letters. Frankly, I would feel lost if I had to go back to newspaper advertising."
I am not urging a change in the advertising methods of my fellow workers, but simply quote this to show that one minister gets excellent results by working especially for Voice of Prophecy interests. In this way interested people are introduced to the worker and the way is opened for a personal contact which, in many cases, leads to decision for Christ.
Many are following the Prophetic Bible Class method. We have enthusiastic letters from many of our successful men in which they express their appreciation of this special plan.
We invite workers to visit the Voice of Prophecy headquarters, to write to us, and especially to pray for us. We wish to work with you, and together seek a mighty outpouring of the Holy Spirit that we may do our part in carrying Christ's message to the millions.
