Monday, May 2, 2011

Spring Street Fair

Our table under the blue tent
Yesterday we as a church participated in our second street fair held in Caselle.  (Go here to read about our first experience in December.)  This is an all day event and we are again thankful for the participation from many within our church to distribute the gospel of John, information about our church and other evangelistic materials.  Jonathan went to help set up at 7:30am and then stayed until around 1:30pm.  During that time they passed out about a couple hundred books of John.

Cinzia, Giulia and Pino
The top two reasons given for not accepting our gift was 1. "I don't know how to read" and 2. "I am on my way to church."  Maybe we should start to offer literacy courses at the center too. J  The second response I can only gather to mean that the priest will tell me what I need to know from the Bible.

Pino "chasing" people down.
We will get a better report of how things went in the afternoon and the exact numbers of literature given out when we reconnect as a group this coming Sunday for church.  (Jonathan left for Portugal today and returns on Thursday).  We pray that all who received this gospel will in fact take the time to read it, and that the Spirit would open their hearts to receive the truth of God's word and his gift of salvation.  Only God knows what seeds will be planted through this.

Lino placing bookmarks at John 3:16
I was unable to attend once again.  If Jonathan didn't have to get some much needed rest and prepare for his departure the following day, no doubt we would have gone in the afternoon as a family.  Next time... My participation was in preparations as I printed and cut out 300 business cards with our church information and made matching table cloths.  It was something that made me feel like a contributor at least to this very meaningful opportunity.

2 comments:

Stephanie said...

Noella, Your comment about the printing and cutting the business cards sparked a thought ... I've had full-color cards made for our church, women's outreaches, personal use, etc. through Vistaprint.com and usually I can obtain a coupon which allows me to get several hundred nearly for free. I've even had them shipped directly to Chile and the cost isn't all that exhorbitant - definitely less than what we would pay in-country here. Just a thought! in case it might be helpful. :)

Noella said...

Steph, I was totally thinking the same thing after hours of cutting...The only thing is when we order directly from the states we have to pay customs fees, which are usually high. Maybe it would be worth it. Thanks for the tip!