Normandy Vision News Update
Issue: August 24th 2011
Expo-Bible 2011, Houlgate
The fourth annual Bible Exhibition held at Houlgate Evangelical Church right on the edge of the beach in Normandy came to an end on Wednesday, August 17th. The number of visitors this year was well down on previous years. The main reason for this seems to be the vastly reduced number of tourists and holidaymakers around in the Houlgate area this summer. Another major contributing factor was undoubtedly the weather. Some days the beach was almost completely empty, with more seagulls sitting on the sand than people!
In the four years that these Exhibitions have been held in Houlgate, we have now had around 2,500 visitors.
Despite those negatives, we were still able to welcome over 470 visitors during the three weeks - though one day we only had 6 people visit in the 7 hours we were open. We sold nearly 60 Bibles, together with about 80 other Christian books. In addition to literature purchased by visitors, as in previous years, a large quantity of Gospels, booklets and tracts were taken away by those who visited the Exhibition. As there was literature available in the foyer of the church for visitors to choose from, some people took Gospels and tracts who for whatever reason didn't enter the church and look at the Exhibition itself.
There were some interesting conversations. Such as the lady whose opening gambit was that having read the Old Testament she realised that God got it completely wrong when he created Adam, so wrong if fact that he had to wipe it all out and start again with Noah's flood. But then, if getting it wrong once wasn't bad enough, he got it wrong the second time, because the world is still a mess. The train of her conversation was interrupted before she could get to "If only God had come to me and asked me how to get it right, I would have told him..."!
Another conversation with a young man began with "Can you tell me the difference between the Christian Bible and the Protestant Bible?" An intriguing question! What he meant was of course that in his understanding of Christianity, Catholic equated with Christian, Protestant with non-Christian. After some further conversation with him, explaining about the Bible, and something of what it said, the point was made that spending 1.50 euros on a Bible was not all that big a risk to find out about eternal life. Well he bought one, said thank you and goodbye, and left the church. A couple of minutes later he came back in again saying "I've just made my first convert"! He had told his wife about his conversation, and she decided she wanted a Bible to read for herself. So we sold him a second one!
 
We were joined for a week by David and Nikki Hooke from Adoramus, a Christian choir and orchestra, together with their three sons, who provided an hour of music for meditation over five lunchtimes during the exhibition. The fanfare they sounded on the porch of the church was certainly noticed!
Please pray for all those who visited the Exhibition this year, that something they read, or a conversation they had, or a Gospel or literature that they picked up and took away, or a Bible or Christian book that they bought will be used by God to speak further to them. If already a believer, that it will encourage them in their faith; if not yet a believer, that the Lord will speak to them through his Word, and bring them to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
View video tour of Expo 2011 View a video tour of this year's Expo-Bible at Houlgate.
A report on the Exhibition, with lots of pictures, will be available on the Normandy Vision web site very soon. We will email you when it is available. In the meanwhile, we would like to thank all those who supported, prayed for and helped with the Exhibition. Your support and interest is always a great encouragement, especially as we see so many people yet again being brought face to face with God's Word.
Where can I get more information?
If you would like more information, visit Normandy Vision's web site at www.normandyvision.org or you can contact us at info@normandyvision.org.
You can also contact Normandy Vision by telephone on 0844 288 8844, or if ringing from outside the UK on +44 (0) 1245 223 392. The postal address is: Normandy Vision UK Trust, 13 Danbury Vale, Danbury, Essex CM3 4LA, United Kingdom.
Reaching the people of Normandy with the Gospel of Jesus Christ
Normandy Vision UK Trust is a charity registered with the Charity Commission of England and Wales, no. 1116858. Normandy Vision UK Trust can be contacted in the UK at: 13 Danbury Vale, Danbury, Essex CM3 4LA, United Kingdom.