The Expo- a success?

It's hard to judge if the Expo was "successful". We didn't have nearly the attendance that we hoped and planned for. After Day #1, much of our team was downcast after working so hard, and yet not seeing a reward (of a good turnout). Over and over I've been told that it's our job as Christians to do the natural, and let God do the supernatural. Well, we did all we could. We planned for every detail. We had umpteen meetings and gazillions of emails. This thing was advertised like crazy. Teri was interview on several radio and TV shows. Ads and fliers were in the newspapers. We had commercials on TV and radio. We had posters and fliers literally all over the country (which at one point is only 4hr from one side to the other.) We had billboards and banners in key spots along the roadways. You name it, and we did it. Yet, the people did not come. I asked God to not let it rain water during the Expo, but to instead rain people. He indeed help off the rain until late at night during the last event (which was indoors)of the Expo. Why didn't God send folks? I can't tell you. Teri felt like this Expo was something she was supposed to do. She never wavered and never lost her peace about it. So maybe God just wanted to see if she and the ministry would be obedient. Or maybe God knew that if we got the 4000-6000 people that we dreamed of, then we would be in over our heads. Or maybe God measures success differently then we people do, and He brought to the Expo exactly those that he wanted there. I don't know. Maybe I'll ask Him one day.

But there were some very interesting results/comments. We had 100 booths in our exhibit hall. We sold all 100 booths to 58 vendors (some vendors rented 2 or 3 booths). The vendors were Christian publishers, Christian radio & TV stations, or Christian businesses (selling their wares and/or food), etc. Much to our surprise, those very vendors, that are well aware that they did not sell much, were extraordinarily positive about the experience. They wrote or verbally responded in the following ways: Lots of people have wanted to see this type of event here in El Salvador, but nobody has ever had the courage to do it. These sort of things are always small in the beginning, don't worry, you did a good job and it'll be great next year. This needs to be much longer than 2 days. Well done, seldom have I seen things this organized and prepared. Even the smallest of details were covered.

Big financial supporters, publishers like Tyndale and Zondervan, and the Baptist Publishing House were very positive and supportive. These publishers were the ones who paid to bring in workshop and main speakers. One said they'd bring in author Randy Alcorn to be a speaker next year, another said they'd bring in Gary Smally in 2009 and Josh McDowell in 2010! Wow! Those are HUGE names in the Christian book world! Good grief! We haven't caught our breath from this one, and the vendors are wanting dates for the next 3 years! So, help me...was this a successful Expo?

This past week we've spent organizing, getting stuff put away, getting the office back to normal, and evaluating things. As far as I know, Teri hasn't yet pulled together all the financial numbers to see just how bad things look. She did hold a formal debriefing meeting on Wed to evaluate in writing what went right, what went wrong, where we missed opportunities, how could we do things better, and what does the team thing about doing this again? It was a very productive mtg. The group decided they would like twice as much time, 8 months, to prepare for the next Expo. They also found out that August was not the best month for this event and chose June, even though this means they will have to start working on the Expo in just one month from now, Oct. Surprisingly, the team is quite excited. They feel like they learned a lot and look forward to having the time to do it better. To be honest, I don't know how they pulled if off with only 4 months of prep work.

Latin Americans generally work a 44hr/week work week. It's normal to work every Saturday from 8a-noon. Due to all their hard work and many extra hours of work, Teri gave everyone Friday and Saturday off, and will take them to the beach in 2 weeks (which is Independence Day here- Sept. 15th.). I did errands yesterday with Teri, but I had today off. Plus Teri knows a physician who has offered to let us use his very nice beach house with a pool for this gathering.

As soon as I can catch up on a few things, I'll try to add some photos on the blog of the concert. Taking pictures was a blast, and quite an opportunity. I'd love to do more of that sort of thing, but I need to learn a lot more to be any good at it.