February 01, 1986 by

C. Ray Carlson, president of the Center for International Communications, spoke at a regularly scheduled Missiology meeting at the U.S. Center for World Mission. "Any mission executive who has not considered the use of video within his mission's strategy for the '90s is behind the times," he said.

"Many people have the idea that other countries ate too poor or too backward to be able to support the technology. They are wrong.

"Right now, only about 20 percent of all households in the U.S. have VCR's (Video Cassette Recorders). But in Kuwait that number is close to 98 percent, and in Japan, 60 percent or more. India, poor as it is, imports 25,000 VCR's a month, and Indian church leaders have actually stated tha, due to the proliferation of the medium, they believe production of Christian video programming is mandatory."

Carlson said that part of the reason why the U.S. is so far behind other countries in use of VCR's is the widescale use of cable '1W and satellite dishes here in the States. "We have other options here in the U.S.," he said. "But that is one more reason why we should be looking at video in missions. Many of the people we are trying to reach have the technology. What they are looking for and not raiding is quality programming. I don't see why we can't provide them with quality Christian programming."

Though television and video may look expensive when considered strictly in terms of dollars expended, they can be extremely cheap in comparison with other media, he said. Procter & Gamble, for instance, which does a lot of advertising, will not use TV unless the cost per thousand (CPM) of reaching its audience is $10 or less (a penny or less per person reached). "Tracts aren't that cheap!" said Carlson. "And when

we're talking about reaching illiterate populations (as many unreached groups are), there's no printed media that can approach the cost effectiveness of video."

Carlson is particularly attracted to children's programming. One of the advantages of children's media, he said, is that parents tend to watch the programs through the eyes of their children. Some of the barriers are down. "A person who might never be caught dead on the streets showing an interest in the Bible could very easily end up watching a video cassette recording of Super Book (a cartoon version of the Bible) in the privacy of his own home. His children are watching it. Why shouldn't he?'

The matter of children's programming led Carlson to another point: video is replayable. "Children play these things over and over again," he said. "With the Super Book series overdubbed into Telegu, for instance, we might soon find Indian children with a better grasp of the Scripture message than children here in America."

Navajo Bible Only Second for Native Americans

Thursday 2120 USCWM

Dr. James Buswell, head of William Carey International University's Graduate Studies Program and member of the Board of the Navajo Gospel Mission, announced today that the recently¬completed Navajo Bible is "only the second complete Bible for any American Indian group."

By American Indian Buswell said he was referring to Indian groups "every. where in North and South America,"

Qhadaffi Aids Christian Missions

Thursday t/16 USCWM

Dorothy Monsma, assistant to the director of the Institute of Global Urban Studies at the U.S. Center for World Mission, recalled for the staff today an incident that occuredjust a few years ago in Bamako, Mali, West Africa,

The Libyan government gave a television station to Mali," Monsnia said. "When the station first came on the au, Muammar Qhadaffi got on the station and said that one of the main purposes for giving the station was 'to help stop Christianity.'

"Only a couple of months later, the Malian government approached Christian missionaries to ask them if they wanted some free broadcast time on their new television station.

"God uses things meant for evil in order to work good!" Monsma concluded.

At Home & Overseas

Thursday 1/30 IJSCWM

At tonight's Frontier Fellowship meeting it was stated that there are more Cambodians in Long Beach, California, than there were in Pnoml, Penh at the height of the Pol Pot regime in Cambodia.

In other news, the speaker said that God is working mightily in Indonesia. Church growth is so great. we are told, "when the government of Indonesia released the results of the 1980 census, there was such a violent reaction on the part of Muslims that the figures were revised to reflect the 1970 numbers.

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(818)797 1111.