For weeks we have been concerned about coming to Aruba and not being able to sell books.
The government here had publicly said that the Logos Hope was not allowed to sell books because some local booksellers had complained that we were not following the law.
I flew over to Aruba from Curacao before Christmas to try and meet up with some of the booksellers and try to win them over, but it was not a successful visit.
We arrived in the island on Wednesday and met up with the local pastors to discuss what to do. The government minister who said we couldn't sell books - the Minister for Economic Affairs, was actually the guest of honour at our official opening. It was rather bizarre that she officially opened the book fair but then no one could buy the books.
On Friday, a lawyer retained by the local pastors made a petition to the courts to have the decision overturned. So at 4pm on Friday, myself, the ships Director and the Captain were all in court along with 4 local pastors to see the case presented before a panel of judges.
Thankfully, the judges agreed that we should be allowed to sell books under the responsibility of a local pastor. So within 5 mins of the court case ending we had called the ship and begun selling books. It was strange coming out of the court and facing several TV cameras and reporters who wanted to know the story.
Today we are on the front page of all the newspapers so the ban on the ship has really helped generate a lot of publicity.
Tonight we have 2 lads from our church arriving to join the short term programme onboard for 9 weeks. It is exciting to have them coming onboard and I know it will be a great experience for them.
1 comment:
I was very happy to hear a possitive answer of a profecional judge who know much better then a inmature Minister, who was ruled by the local book stores
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