Insight Special Issue Reaches 100,000 Super Bowl Enthusiasts

Story By Kim Peckham​

Dwain Esmond, editor of the youth magazine Insight, had an idea: What if everyone who came to the Super Bowl had an opportunity to meet Jesus? It was a big dream and he had no idea how it could happen, but he took the first step—he began planning an issue of his magazine that would tie in with the biggest sports event in North America.

Esmond’s dream was encouraged by other youth leaders around the country and by the new General Conference president, Ted Wilson, who raised donations to print 100,000 copies of the special issue at the Review and Herald Publishing Association in Hagerstown, Md. The special issue of Insight included a cover photo and interview with football star Jason Witten.

In early January, the word went out that churches and youth groups could request free copies of the Super Bowl issue. “My email was just popping,” says Steve Hanson, director of Subscriber Services at the Review. “I received a total of 285 requests, and within a week all 100,000 magazines were spoken for.”

Lay people from Arcadia, Calif., to Jamaica, N.Y., distributed the magazine in their neighborhoods. The day before the Super Bowl, Allegheny East Conference’s Sharon church in Baltimore took a score of young people downtown to offer the magazine to pedestrians. “The young people were on the forefront of this,” says Karen Lall, who organized the event.

In Lynchburg, Va., Mike Little and Angela Mason handed out magazines at the Salvation Army, a drug rehab facility, the YMCA and Lynchburg's main bus stop. “We do not yet know what the outcome will be, but we do know that about 500 people in Lynchburg have now had the message of Jesus shared with them, some of whom may not yet know Him,” commented Little.