of miles? Once the interest was cre ated, there was the problem of insur ing regular and prompt delivery to villages where no postoffice existed (usually one for every 60,000 people). In 1958 an elephant almost interfered with the production of the Trumpet when it near-fatally injured the editor and laid him up for a month. Promotion is needed for success even in Africa, and Ruth and Bill p u s h e d th e Trumpet with every means they had. Christians coming to buy literature at the mission sta- tion were urged to buy subscriptions. Announcements were made in the churches. Addresses of local people who had moved were solicited and sample Trumpets were sent to them. Hundreds of storekeepers and truck- drivers were not overlooked in the mail. Every one of these means brought in subscribers, but it was the Trumpet which really sold itself. The thousand subscribers appreciated getting their monthly “mail” and “news,” person ally addressed. It gave them some im portance in the village, set them apart, gave them something to talk to others about. So others began to ask how they too could get the Trumpet. Thus was bom the “ fan-mail.” By 1959 it was amazing. Crumpled en velopes, stamped with a costly 15- franc stamp (equivalent to a work man’s pay for two hours) began to arrive in the Samarins’ mailbox with every mail. One African Christian wrote, “The Trumpet is like the sweetness of honey to me.” A soldier wrote from an army post in Moslem and pagan Chad, “Up here (at the base) there are many children of God, but there is no church. We look to the Trumpet to help us.” With the letters began to come con tributions. At first they were just let ters of appreciation. Then there were attempts at trying to imitate the arti cles written by missionaries. And now writing to and for the Trumpet is a regular practice which makes it their paper. Three years after the Trumpet was launched, three years of patient, faith ful effort with a circulation of only 1.000 and then 1,300, the subscriptions finally exploded in 1960 to 5,000. The ceiling has not yet been reached. The years to come should see it climb to 10.000 with its present format. But once enlarged and improved along the line of the African Challenge, it should have a circulation of 25,000 a month. Mr. and Mrs. Samarin are gradu ates of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles.
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Attractive bulletin board literature display interests passer-by. Mrs. Samarin shows a copy of The Trumpet to native women.
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JU LY, 1960
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