The first two weeks

The BEC has been open for two weeks now. So how's it (or "howzit" if you're in South Africa!) going so far?

Our traffic has been fairly light – we intentionally did a "soft" opening to see how things went. Our advertising will ramp up in the coming week:

• As of today, signs should now be up in all 87 buses in the Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District. (We haven't had anybody check yet.)
• We will have a good-size ad in the News-Gazette twice next week, Tuesday & Friday.
• Next weekend we will have a booth at the University of Illinois Quad Day.
• Very soon (maybe starting next weekend) we will begin putting leaflets on the doors in the residential areas around Lincoln Square.

So, with none of this having happened, how did we do? In the 7 days we were open (Wed, Thu, Sat last week, and Tue, Wed, Thu, Sat this week):

• We've had a total of 33 people come in, ranging from 3 to 8 per day.
• Many of those who came in have applauded what we are doing. Several have taken our card to pass along to friends & family.
  
• We have registered 4 students, a couple of whom have signed up for both self-study and an on-site class.
• No lessons have been returned by the self-study students.
  
• One student (not registered) has now had 2 one-on-one classes, besides the initial contact in the shop.
  
• We've sold one concordance, no Bibles, and no other books. (Except for a couple bought by a volunteer.)
  
• We've researched availability of Bibles and other books for 4 customers.
• Besides the registered students, we've had a handful of people who have given us their contact information, so we can provide them with information.
  

All of us who have worked there have wished more people were coming in, but we've had a number of good conversations, and overall we are encouraged by the initial response. And we're very hopeful that more will come in as they hear about us.

We've noticed a definite pattern, that few people come in during the morning hours, and both weekdays and Saturdays we get more people closer to closing time. The one day we had 8 people was the day Norm stayed through the afternoon – otherwise there would have been only 2. So, we are giving consideration to whether to change our hours so we open later, and stay open later. We have to decide really soon, because we'll be printing the fliers for the booth and the leafleting in a couple of days. We seek our Father's guidance!

Thanks to all those who are praying for this work! And big thanks to the volunteers!