By Ramón Franco, Florida, United States
Under swaying palm trees and rainbow-colored canopies, my Urantia Book study group and I spread the word of the fifth epochal revelation at the Miami Book Fair in November 2017. I am a reader from Colombia now living in Miami, and my team hosted the booth, sponsored by Urantia Association International. Urantia Foundation sent twenty-five copies each of The Urantia Book in English and in Spanish.
Celebrating its thirty-fourth year in existence, the Miami Book Fair’s mission statement says that it promotes reading and writing and seeks to heighten “an awareness of literacy and the literary arts in our multi-ethnic community.” The fair is held every year on the Miami Dade College campus in downtown Miami and draws over 250,000 visitors and authors from around the world.
This year’s featured authors included former Vice President Joe Biden, Isabel Allende, Salman Rushdie, the Bush sisters, Lawrence O’Donnell, George Saunders, and many others. The event began on November 13 and continued through November 19 with readings and discussions by authors each day, culminating in the Street Fair on Friday through Sunday in which publishers and booksellers exhibited their wares.
At our booth, we sold all twenty-five books in Spanish (but only three of the English) and registered sixty people including established readers and new readers. In addition, we delivered 1000 flyers in Spanish and 1500 in English.
Our group included Angela Alvarez, Jeannette Francis, Eva Castell, Luis Betancur, Raúl Pujol, and me. Over the Street Fair weekend, we spoke to hundreds of attendees under the cover of the orange canopy. We heard incredible histories of personal transformation from people who have read The Urantia Book. Without a doubt, this fair has been our best experience so far in sharing the supernal teachings of our treasured revelation.
Angela Alvarez, Sheryl Cira, Eva Castell, Ramón Franco
Luis Betancur, Raúl Pujol, Jeannette Francis, Ramón Franco