The Gideons
At one of the first booths in the pavilion, standing behind a humble booth, behind a stack of tiny Bibles was Mr. Virgil Walsworth, a Gideon and a Deacon at First Baptist Church Delray Beach. Mr. Walsworth was at the South Florida Fair to give away free Bibles from the Gideons to anyone who wanted one.
What began as two businessmen, putting copies of the Bible in hotel rooms has now become Gideons International, a worldwide organization that has provided over 2 billion Bibles in over 95 languages to over 200 countries, and Mr. Walsorth and many other Gideons are presenting them at our county fair.
Right to Life
Many people stopped by the Right to Life booth to see the display of the stages of pregnancy represented in three dimensional, true to size figures.
Members of the organization were there to spread the word about the reality of abortion and better alternatives.
One couple stopped by and brightened the day of the Right to Life workers, sharing their own story of Life.
The couple, trying unsuccessfully to conceive, encountered a young pregnant girl on Facebook, who was contemplating abortion, but instead she decided to carry her baby to term and give her child to this lovely couple. They were there holding this precious one year old child in their arms as they told the story.
Rock of Israel Ministries
Doug Carmel, a 24 year staff member of Rock of Israel, was busy engaging with patrons of his booth, which offered a large selection of religious merchandise. Based in Deerfield, Ohio, Rock of Life staff member, Mr. Carmel and others travel to about six fairs a year, including a stop in Tampa.
Mr. Carmel explained, “We do two things. One is we want to talk to Jewish people about the Messiah, and the other thing is we want to help Christians understand the Jewish roots of the faith. You can’t really understand the Bible, what Jesus was saying and what the Apostles were saying unless you go back and understand the Jewish roots. Jesus quoted Moses left and right. In order to understand what Jesus was saying, you have to understand what Moses was saying.”
The Little White Church in Yesteryear
Tucked away at the far end of the South Florida Fair grounds is a little white church in the village of Yesteryear.
Every weekday evening, Gospel music singers lead worship from 5pm to 10pm and all day on weekends.
Fair-goers stop in to sit in the old fashioned wooden pews, stocked with with hymnals from the early 1900’s, and sing along.
