God’s Word touches visitors at Cairo Bookfair

EGYPT — This year’s Cairo International Bookfair had strong competition for people’s attention: the Africa Cup Games, which took place in a stadium right next door to the exhibition grounds. On the days when the Egyptian team was playing, the fair even shut down completely! This had a disappointing effect on sales, according to Ramez Atallah, General Secretary of the Bible Society of Egypt, but staff and volunteers were undeterred as they manned three indoor booths and a large outdoor one. And the anecdotes below illustrate just how important the Society’s presence at this large event has become.

New products

Among the new products that the Society displayed this year was the fourth video in the Kingo children’s series and the film about Joseph in the Heroes of the Bible series. Staff were encouraged by the number of people who took an interest in both new and old products and were eager to talk about what God’s Word means to them.

To help customers decide whether or not they want to buy our videos, we often let them view parts of the video on a TV at our stalls. A middle-aged lady was watching the part of the Joseph film where Joseph reveals his identity to his brothers. She was so moved that she started weeping loudly. One of our sales people came to comfort her and began crying himself. A second salesman came to see what was happening and he also began sobbing! This film has become very popular.

Wrong stall?

One man came in, looked around, walked out, looked at the sign, walked in again, looked around, walked out again, looked more carefully at the sign and then, with an expression of resignation, walked in again. This very committed church worker was sure that he was at the wrong stall. He walked out twice to make sure he was in the right place because he could not believe that the many non-churchgoers he was seeing were actually buying God’s Word!

A police officer was fascinated by the new Joseph film and asked if he could watch it. An hour-and-a-half later, after the first video had ended, he asked the staff if they could prepare the second one for him while he attended to some of his duties and said that he would be right back to see it!

Wide distribution

A couple arrived who did not look like churchgoers. Our salesman was keen on introducing them to the Jesus film. To his great surprise the lady said, “Oh, the Jesus film, we bought that from you seven years ago.” This is another reminder that the wide distribution of the Jesus film has reached many people, even those who do not seem to be the type who would have bought it.

“It is because of stories like these that we go to all the effort and expense of having a presence at this very significant event,” says Mr Atallah. “Please continue to pray that every person who bought God’s Word will be richly blessed. Also pray for our sales staff as they attempt to market this year’s new products all over the country.”

This report refers to project 75107. (WR 402/20 - 06.06)