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The Chilean Book Fair Report 2012
Follow Me - Sígueme
"To
'follow Jesus' means to personally share his religious faith and to
enter into the spirit of the Master's life of unselfish service for man.
One of the most important things in human living is to find out what
Jesus believed, to discover his ideals, and to strive for the
achievement of his exalted life purpose." [196:1.3](P. 2090)
From October 25th through November 11th a Team of dedicated and unselfish Urantia Book readers
descended upon the 32nd Santiago International Book Fair; held at the
Estación Mapocho Cultural Center; an old modernized train station.
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Lissette Ascenjoa and Marcelo Galaz |
There
were so many first, biggest, longest, bests, etc. it will be difficult
to mention them all. Let me start by saying this book fair was our first
successful collaborative effort between the Urantia Foundation, the
Urantia Association International (UAI), and the Urantia Book
Fellowship. The Foundation provided half the expenses for the booth
and the UAI provided Chilean readers to help staff the booth.
It was the longest book fair in which the IFC ever participated - 17 days - for a total of 161 hours of required booth staffing. But we had a truly remarkable Team functioning with good cheer, including:
Flor
Robles, Mexican, American living in Chile, and primary leader; Agustin
Arellano, Mexico; Nelida Oliver, Ecuador; Lissette Carmen Mancill
Ascenjoa, Chile; Marcelo Galaz, Chile, Husband/Wife; Daniel Octavio
Espinoza Cruz, Chile; Pablo Alberto; Segovia Egas, Chile; Pradhana
Fuchs, Chile; Jon De Toy, Chile, Colorado, USA; Joy Brandt, Oregon, USA,
traveling throughout South America; Tim Hobbs, Colorado, USA; Lynda
Tarufelli, Colorado, USA, Janelle Mazza, Neveda, USA (a YaYa girl); Buck
Weimer, Colorado, USA.
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Nelida Oliver, Tim Hobbs, Buck Weimer, Agustin Arellano, Lissette Ascenjoa, Janelle Mazza, Joy Brandt, and Marcelo Galaz |
The
booth was set up by the early arrivals, under the direction of Flor.
The painting of Jesus titled "Follow Me" by Jon De Toy had a prominent
position. (Later, the Spanish equivalent Sígueme was added to it.) Along with the El Libros, there were four secondary works on the shelves: (1) "Index de El Libro de Urantia" - Marcelina Ramirez; (2) "Lo Básico de El Libro de Urantia" - Mary Livingstone, translated by Agustin Arellano; (3) "Veintiún Pasos" - "21 Steps" by the Michael Foundation, translated by Angel F. Sánchez-Escobar; and (4) "Los Mundos Habitados" "The Inhabited Worlds" Paper 49 . We also displayed copies of The Urantia Book
in Korean, German, English, Portuguese, and French; as well as several
Jesus Timeline posters (Spanish), and the Jesusonian There is Life After
Death (English).
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Buck Weimer, Agustin Arellano, Janelle Mazza, Flor Robles, Tim Hobbs, and Joy Brandt |
We
also had plenty of giveaways. There were several variations on
brochures - all of which had to be reprinted several times. And everyone
loved the "Un Dios - Un Pueblo" "One God - One People" buttons we had (Thank you Charlene Morrow). Of course, the big thing was the handing out of Spiritual Vitamins. And, depending on whose estimate is accepted, we handed out more than 10,000 Vitamina Espirituals
to inquisitive minds coming to our booth-which, fortunately, was
located adjacent to the entertainment stage. We all learned the Spanish
mantra: "Quieres una Vitamina Espiritual?" Then added the required: "Para leer." (For reading.); "No para comer." (Not to eat.) then added the humorous "No para fumar" (Not for smoking.).
![]() | | Flor Robles & Agustin Arellano |
We
did not sell one book! Flor made a verbal agreement with the vendors of
3 other booths at the Fair that we would not sell the book because we
would be selling them much cheaper than they could. So we acted as an
advocate for the Revelation and simply referred potential buyers to the
other booths. We have a picture showing the El Libro de Urantia
showing prominently in the front window of one of the book stores
stocking the book. The price shown on the book: 41,950 Pesos = round
about US $87.00.
Agustin was amazing! One day he conversed with woman about The Urantia Book in French; on another day he communicated with a deaf Urantia Book reader (of about 3 years) using sign language; all the while, being a constant source of translation from Spanish to English.
But
regardless of who or how many staffed the booth, there was a constant
production of cutting, rolling, and taping Spiritual Vitamins; and the
fun of handing them out.
We
organized and conducted two conferences - both on the last day of the
book fair. The earlier one was held in a meeting hall within the book
fair building. And it was sparsely attended - around 15 readers and
potential readers. But the second conference, held within the complex of
our hotel several miles away, was attended by 45 or more people. The
Chilean readers were cheered by this because the majority of this group
was new readers - most of who had heard about the book at the Fair. Nina
Bravo, a retired long-time reader, traveled a great distance to give an
inspiring talk and fielded many questions.
A
few words must be said about the YaYA involvement. Janelle Mazza, from
the University of Nevada at Las Vegas who has attended a study group
from the Sunrise Society of Nevada, was our first volunteer. She was
financed by the generosity of the Northern Light Society's fund raising
campaign designed for this purpose; and with some additional funds from
Marvin Gawryn and Gard Jameson. It took a lot of courage for this young
lady to leave the confines of her comfort zone and travel to Chile,
South America without having actually met any of us - except via
telephone and e-mails. But she jump right in, began learning Spanish,
handed out Spiritual Vitamins, and joined us most mornings for the
hotels' breakfasts. With the exception of one bad day (she lost her
passport, we helped her get a temporary one, then she took a bus to the
beach without telling anyone), I personally considered her behavior to
be exemplary. Please view the video of the experiences on YouTube "Urantia Book Booth Santiago Chile International Book Fair". Janelle's written report is available upon request.
It
is the hope of the IFC that we can continue - with your help and
support - to add at least one YaYA person to our Team in 2013. The
Manila, Philippine Book Fair would be ideal.
There are so many gifts of gratitude to go around:
- To each and every Team member - especially Flor Robles;
- To the Urantia Foundation - especially Mo Siegel;
- To the Urantia International Association - especially Gaétan Charland;
- To the Northern Light Society - especially Tony Finstad & Barbara Maier;
- To the Urantia Fellowship - especially Lila Dogim;
- To all our unseen spirit helpers from around the world;
- To the entire International Fellowship Committee for their undying devotion.
This
passion we have for getting this Revelation and the Gospel of Jesus to
foreign lands is something difficult of description, but for those of us
who have it we merely have to peer into each other's eyes and know that
we know it is there - within.
In eternal gratitude,
Buck Weimer, Chair
International Fellowship Committee
"Of all human knowledge, that which is of greatest value is to know the religious life of Jesus and how he lived it." [196:1.3] (P. 2090)
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