© 2018 Esperanza Tovar and Andrés Ramírez
© 2018 International Urantia Association (IUA)
| 2021 Urantia Association International Conference – Peru | Tidings — June 2018 — Index | Spain National Meeting Report – 2018 |
The Bogota International Book Fair (FILBO) for 2018 was held in May over sixteen days. This was the 31st book fair to be organized by the Colombian Book Chamber and Corferias. This event is considered to be the most important cultural event in Colombia, and over 57,5000 people attended.
Year after year FILBO is a must date for everyone who enjoys culture and reading. Around 12,600 students from 114 state schools and 26,000 from 196 private schools from all over the country attended. Most attendees walked past the BogotaUrantia Association’s booth where a team of 43 very well-coordinated volunteers (8 of whom were under 30 years of age) served the Urantia revelation by displaying the book, handing out brochures and answering questions. Twenty-three thousand (23,000) information brochures with contact information and dates of upcoming activities produced many provocative questions. Five thousand (5,000) handbills with more detailed information were delivered to those who showed a deeper level of interest. A total of 70 books were sold, and we anticipate that many more will be sold during the year as a result of the contacts made during the event. One hundred and thirty (130) new email addresses were collected from interested people and four presentations on The Urantia Book were given in the conference rooms to approximately 70 people.
We are surprised by the fact that each year we meet more and more people who are already readers of The Urantia Book or who already know about it or have at least heard the word “Urantia.” Our efforts over many years are slowly but surely helping to familiarize people with the word “Urantia” and the book. We strongly believe that this is a great opportunity for volunteers to disseminate the teachings of the book as well as to get involved with the Association’s programs and experience the satisfaction of serving the revelation and forming strong bonds with fellow students of the book as they serve.
We are extremely grateful to both Urantia Association International and Urantia Foundation for their support of this project and we strongly encourage other associations to get involved in similar projects of service. The key words of Urantia Association are “teamwork” and “service,” and bookfairs are very good examples of projects where this can be put into practice.
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| 2021 Urantia Association International Conference – Peru | Tidings — June 2018 — Index | Spain National Meeting Report – 2018 |