‘Significant breakthrough’ for Bible Society at Cairo International Book Fair

CAIRO, Egypt — The Bible Society of Egypt (BSEgy) is giving thanks for what it has described as “a remarkable answer to prayer”, which will allow it to sell audio and video cassettes during the Cairo International Book Fair - something that the Society was told in December that it would not be permitted to do.

“The bookfair authorities, while not rescinding their decision, have allowed us to sell cassettes and videos as long as we do not [play] them or attract undue attention to them. This is a miracle,” wrote a jubilant Ramez Atallah, BSEgy General Secretary, in a message sent to UBS last night. “We want to thank you for partnering with us in prayer for this significant breakthrough.”

The authorities’ earlier decision not to allow audio and video products to be sold was a real blow to the Bible Society, which had prepared an attractively packaged set of videos, entitled Abraham, in time for distribution during the bookfair. Mr Atallah had asked the Fellowship to pray for the decision to be reversed “or that we will find other ways to distribute Abraham and our other exciting audiovisual products.” (See Latest News #175)

As well as now being able to sell the videos during the fair, the Bible Society has also had a very positive response to an advertisement for Abraham which appeared on the front page of Egypt’s most popular daily newspaper on Monday (January 21).

“This was intended to [promote] our home delivery service and, by the end of the day, we had received 150 orders,” said Mr Atallah. “To my knowledge this is the first time that any Christian advertisement has appeared on the front page of a major newspaper in Egypt.”

Adding that the Bible Society felt “really uplifted at the beginning of the bookfair season,” Mr Atallah asked the UBS fellowship to continue to pray for the Society and the other six Christian publishers who are participating in the fair.

“Relatively few people have come to the bookfair so far but we are hoping for better crowds when the school holidays begin on Friday (January 25),” he said.