If you hadn’t guessed, I write.
I like to write and my job involves writing. So I write a lot. But this year I had to write one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to write: the exegesis requirement of my masters degree. It was just one of the challenges completed in what has been an interesting year.
I don’t know about you, but for me 2017 has had lots of personal and professional challenges as well as good positive events. Personally, there have been family health issues, overseas trips, amazing weddings and mourning those lost—it has been a mixed bag.
I’m so thankful I’ve finished my masters requirements and await my results. I’ve had enough of writing (50,000 words later). So for this editorial I thought I’d get away from words and bring you the year in numbers.
So here it goes, 2017 by the numbers:
20 million
Seventh-day Adventist Christians across the world.
1,557,500
Staples used for Adventist Record in 2017.
778,750
Individual Adventist Record magazines printed this year at Signs Publishing Company and shipped out to Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific.
490,294
Seventh-day Adventists in the South Pacific Division at the end of 2016.
370,000
Page views on the Adventist Record website this year, our highest ever and a significant improvement over the old website’s statistics.
300,000
Seventh-day Adventist Church members in Papua New Guinea this year: a new milestone reached.
217,000
Sessions on the Adventist Record website.
144,000
Followers of General Conference president Ted Wilson’s Facebook page at one point this year.
125,500
Unique visitors to the Adventist Record website this year.
60,000
Seventh-day Adventist Church members in Australia.
20,000
Seventh-day Adventist Church members in New Zealand Pacific Union territories.
4000
Followers of the Adventist Record Facebook page: double that of last year and reaching the goal we set ourselves for 2017.
1760
Subscribers to the Adventist Record weekly e-newsletter.
500
Years since Martin Luther posted his 95 theses, beginning the Protestant Reformation and changing the world.
215
Countries from where people have accessed the Adventist Record website. [pullquote]
125
Years since Steps to Christ, perhaps one of Ellen White’s most important works, was published.
67
Different feature writers for Adventist Record this year (not including the Record team).
35
Days until the next issue of Adventist Record.
21
Days until the next issue of Adventist World.
3.5
Countries in our Division that use French as their official language.
3
Languages used in full Record articles this year—English, French and Tok Pisin.
2
Special editions of Adventist Record this year, highlighting God’s work through the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Papua New Guinea Union and the New Zealand Pacific Union.
1
Reader makes all the difference. That is you! Thank you for your support of Adventist Record this year. We hope that you’ve been informed, nurtured, educated, challenged, inspired—maybe even taken some action of faith or begun a ministry because of something you’ve read in the pages of Record. You are the church and Adventist Record exists to serve you, just as you exist to serve the world and to share the good news of Jesus.
There is much to be thankful for in those numbers, and I would like to thank God for His blessings as well as to thank the whole team—our printers, designers, content contributers, accountants and our families—that make the magazine possible. Have a safe and happy year end.
