Quad Day

Sunday the 23rd was Quad Day at the University of Illinois. (For those far away: the U of I is in Champaign-Urbana. The BEC is a mile from the campus. There are about 45,000 students, of which a very large number are from China, plus many other nations.) Quad Day is the day before classes begin, and every organization on campus (and some off-campus) has a booth. There are hundreds of booths, and thousands of people.

As we did last year, we had a booth. This year we don't have any U of I students, so we can't be a "registered student organization" and thus couldn't be right on the quad — instead we were on the street that runs on the west side. This location may have actually been better! The quad is a mob scene.


Sorry the picture isn't terrific — we all forgot our cameras, but fortunately Ray Pratt snapped this with his cell phone. We had just set up, and the crowds (and other booths) weren't there yet. At least you can see our brand new banner!

Three of us manned the booth, while the other three leafleted in neighborhoods. We handed out about 700 or 800 fliers at the booth, and the leafleters distributed over a thousand. We had also leafleted the previous day, and all told we handed out 2,400 fliers. The fliers were to promote our fall classes, which will start next week.

Many people simply took the flier (and the pencil, with our web address on it), but a number stopped to ask what we were about. One woman, who I think must be a Chinese grad student, signed up for one of the classes on the spot.

We now have 8 students signed up for How To Study the Bible, starting Sept 2, and 2 have signed up for God's Promises, starting Sept 3. We have 2 students signed up for the next courses, 1 each for Acts of the Apostles and Prophecy 101. In addition, 4 have signed up for the self-study God's Master Plan course. We hope that with last week's newspaper ads, and the fliers, we will see more people coming in and registering.

And of course, whether there are many or few, we pray that God will work through us for the good of all who come!