Recently a doubting JW asked who else did worldwide preaching. I gave examples of the Mennonites and the Society of Friends (Quakers). Last night while watching TV, I saw a profile on the show Mediatelevision, a show about the various media and methods of persuasion ( http://www.citytv.com/mediatv/) about Trans World Radio ( http://www.gospelcom.net/twr/), an evangelical group that preaches, via radio, throughout the world, "even if they have to skirt anti-evangelical laws, and risk offending other world faiths in the process."
Representatives stated that radio was a very cost-effective means of reaching people, most especially the poor who often don’t have access to computers, televisions, or due to where they live local churches. The radio also was an excellent tool for the world’s illiterate, who were immune to attempts at conversion through printed media (although the ministry uses publications and tracts in various languages as part of their means of conversion) and who often have a strong oral tradition that made radio a viable and successful media for conversion and for whom radio is often their only means of contact with the outside world and their only form of entertainment. Much of the footage was of Latinamerica, with a Christian population of 450 million, many of whom are dissatisfied with the Catholic Church, and Africa, both large markets for the Watchtower as well.
But in contrast to the Watchtower, Trans World Radio puts much effort through radio into countries where they are not welcome – the Arab world, China, the former Soviet Union, etc. To evangelise by other means in these areas would put the missionaries in grave danger, up to and including loss of life.
It appeared to me that Trans World Radio, through radio supplemented with printed publications and missionaries, was far more successful in their ministry than are JWs through their door-to-door work. I could be wrong, but while living in South America for a couple of years, I often came into contact with Evangelical groups, but other than my wife (who wasn't a JW at the time), never knowingly spoke with a JW.
CPiolo
The worst vice of the fanatic is his sincerity. -- Oscar Wilde