Two thousand six hundred ninety-five (2,695) more subscribers were added to the readership of The Good News magazine from the latest series of exhibits held at the SM City malls in Cagayan de Oro City (July 1 to 5), Bacolod City (July 29 to August 2) and Cebu City (August 5 to 9). This is in addition to the first exhibit held at the SM City mall in Davao City three months ago (May 29 to June 4), which brought in 679 new subscribers.

Featured on the exhibits were past issues of The Good News and some selected literature. Among those featured were: Why Does God Allow Suffering?, Are We Living in the Time of the End?, Creation or Evolution, Marriage and Family: The Missing Dimension, Making Life Work, The Middle East in Bible Prophecy, The Book of Revelation Unveiled, and The United States and Britain in Bible Prophecy.

The Good News mall exhibits are just one of the many ways in which the Church fulfills its commission to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom of God as a witness to all the nations.

Coming Up with the Plan

The proposal for a mall exhibit for the Good News magazine had been in existence for quite some time now. It had been put on the table for discussion and shelved for refinement and use at a proper time. The logic for launching a mall exhibit was simply the fact that most people go to the mall every now and then. It really does not matter if you are young or old, rich or poor, male or female. You still go to the mall—and there is probably nowhere else in the world where malls are more famous and where people want to go to malls than among Filipinos in the Philippines. It is said that “school is considered the second home, and the mall considered the third.”

Advertising the Good News magazine through mall exhibits harnesses many of the strengths that newspaper, radio, and television provides; plus it adds a dimension for personal interaction at a much lower cost—P45.06 ($0.96) per new subscriber.

When David Baker, the Senior Pastor for Asia, and the National Office staff sat down to discuss plans for GN advertising earlier this year, this idea was revisited, and plans were made to launch the exhibits nationwide through six strategic SM malls throughout the country. The goal was to get at least 3,000 new subscribers added to the mailing list (with a target of 400 to 600 subscribers per exhibit) so that there could be 10,000 subscribers by the time the November/December 2007 issue is released at the end of the year.

Cagayan de Oro Exhibit

The Good News exhibit at SM City Cagayan de Oro produced 408 subscribers from July 1 to 5, 2007. The Good News booth was located at the ground floor of the mall’s main wing, near the entrance of the mall’s supermarket and department store sections. With benches and a snack stand nearby, the booth had a very good location in the mall.

The booth was installed after mall closing hours on June 30 by Edmond and Charles Macaraeg and assisted by Sally Lou Cambare, Stella Mae Cambare, Boniff Morales, and Meryl Macaraeg.

Learning from the previous exhibit in Davao City, where the featured magazines were hardly visible from outside the booth and subscribers did not have much space to fill out subscription cards, Edmond Macaraeg, who designed and constructed the GN booth, refined the design by adding mounted tables elevated three feet above the floor on all four sides. This gave the booth a better look and provided adequate space for a display area and for people to fill up subscription cards.

The main attendants at the booth for the five-day exhibit were Sally Lou Cambare and Meryl Macaraeg, with Boniff Morales, Stephen Tuario, and other members helping when they can.

Sunday was the best day with 100 subscribers. The three most popular titles among the featured literature were: Marriage and Family: The Missing Dimension, The Book of Revelation Unveiled, and Creation or Evolution: Does it Really Matter What You Believe?

There were two major challenges that the Good News exhibit had to face in Cagayan de Oro City. The first was that the mall was located away from the city’s center and was not as accessible to people as the other more prominent malls in the downtown area. As a matter of fact, the SM City mall in Cagayan de Oro City is the smallest and least popular of the SM City malls on this year’s GN mall exhibit circuit. Second, Cagayan de Oro City has a relatively large population of non-Christians, which means that exhibits that are Christian in nature do not hold much of an interest among them.

Taking all things equal—with the challenges faced, benefits made available, and improvements added to the Good News exhibit booth—the quality of the responses gathered and the invaluable data we were able to collect made all the money and effort spent very much worth it.

Bacolod Exhibit

The Good News exhibit at SM City Bacolod produced 1,179 subscribers from July 29 to August 2, 2007, during their annual Magazine and Book Fair. The Good News was invited by SM City Bacolod to put up an exhibit due to the fine impression left on the SM management from the past two exhibits in Davao City and Cagayan de Oro City.

The Good News booth at SM City Bacolod was located on the second floor of the mall’s South Wing at the end of the West Bridgeway overlooking the Bacolod City bay area. The location of the booth was exceptionally good because it was at a high traffic area—between the top foyer of the southwest escalators and the passage to the West Bridgeway.

The ingress (set-up) started at 9 p.m. after the mall closed Saturday night, July 28. The booth took three hours to set up. Those present at ingress were: Charles Macaraeg, Beltran Sison, with his daughter, Florbelle; Kenneth Tiu, Andrei Siopan, Timothy James Siopan, Kim Julag-ay, Dexter Julag-ay, Hazel Julag-ay, Ronel and Ivy Verde, and Romeo and Veronica Cainglet, together with their son, Reuel.

The main attendants for the five-day exhibit were Nida Jain and Leizel Siopan. However, apart from them and those names already mentioned above, the Betoy family, Ruperta, with her sons, Robin and Jonathan, and daughter, Sarah; Norman and Teresa Julag-ay; Florlin Sison; and the pastor of the Visayan congregations, Florante Siopan, with his wife Lina, also came by to help attend to those who wanted to subscribe to The Good News magazine.

Out of the total number of filled up requests for the Bacolod GN exhibit from Sunday to Thursday, Sunday— as in all of our previous exhibits—was the best day with 352 requests. The top three titles picked were: The Book of Revelation Unveiled, Marriage and Family: The Missing Dimension, and Creation or Evolution: Does it Really Matter What You Believe?

Below are some SMS or text messaging comments received from people who subscribed through the GN exhibit in Bacolod:

“Good evening. I am the one of those who got your free booklet. Thank you so much for inspiring us about the Good News.”

“Good morning! I newly subscribed to your Good News magazine. I really like it. I thank God for all of you. —Bonna, from Bacolod City, Negros Occidental”

The excitement and overwhelming support from the Bacolod brethren was very much encouraging, true to the saying that Bacolod is the City of Smiles.

Cebu Exhibit

The Good News exhibit in Cebu City yielded 1,108 subscribers from August 5 to 9, 2007. The exhibit was held at the Upper Ground Floor of the SM City mall in Cebu City.

Ingress started at 9 p.m. on August 4. Present were: Charles Macaraeg, Florante and Lina Siopan, Aida Jarvie, Niño Gomez, Karl Mark Gomez, and Fernando Cabalquinto, together with his son, Ariel.

The main attendants at the booth were Aida Jarvie and Nelda Lumbiano. Ivy, daughter of Nelda Lumbiano, also volunteered on many occasions when her job allowed. Mr. and Mrs. Siopan and Charles Macaraeg were also on hand to attend to any questions or problems that may arise.

The highest day of the exhibit was Sunday with 265 responses, followed closely by the last day with just 10 responses less. Due to the size of the mall and the location of the booth in the mall, the flow of people subscribing in Cebu City did not come in waves, but was more or less steady and constant.

The three most popular booklets were: Why Does God Allow Suffering?, The Middle East in Bible Prophecy, and The Book of Revelation Unveiled.

One comment from a person who received a free subscription and magazine, read, “Good PM. Thank you very much for giving us THE GOOD NEWS MAGAZINE for free. I just finished reading the magazine that you gave to me four hours ago at SM. Marriage and Family: The Missing Dimension is the title.”

Looking Back

As mentioned earlier, the shelved idea of a Good News mall exhibit was revisited and discussed. It was agreed among Mr. Baker and the Good News staff to launch the exhibits nationwide through different SM malls in the country, with a goal to get 3,000 additional subscribers so that there would be 10,000 subscribers by the time the November/December 2007 issue is released at the end of the year.

With the help of God, the prayers of the brethren around the world, and the overwhelming support from the local congregations, this goal was not only realized, but surpassed—with two more exhibits still to go. The current (July/August 2007) issue will be sent out to 12,127 subscribers throughout the Philippines, a wonderful 41 percent increase over the previous issue.

From the first exhibit held in Davao City from May 29 to June 4, Cagayan de Oro City from July 1 to 5, Bacolod City from July 29 to August 2, Cebu City from August 5 to 9, the Good News exhibits have added a total of 3,374 new subscribers in only 22 exhibit days.

Below is a chart showing the exhibits from Davao, Cagayan de Oro, Bacolod, and Cebu with their respective responses per day (Total: 3,374).

If you will divide 3,374 subscribers by 22 exhibit days, you will get an average of 153 subscribers per day. As we are to be “fishers of men” (Matthew 4:19), it is interesting to note that Jesus’ disciples caught exactly 153 fish in the example recorded in John 21:11.

Please continue to pray for God’s blessing and guidance as we continue to move forward in preaching the Gospel of God’s Kingdom through the Good News exhibits, especially for the last two exhibits to be launched in Metro Manila and Baguio City after the Feast of Tabernacles.

© 2007 United Church of God, AIA - Pilipinas