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News, September 2008World Water Expo closes in Zaragoza15th September. Last night the 2008 World Water Expo closed in Zaragoza, an Expo with the theme Water and Development. Hopes for up to 8 million visitors were too high and in the end some 5.5 million came. The Evangelical pavilion, Agua Viva nevertheless met its expectations of some 300,000 visitors. On balance it is regarded as having been an important event for the city of Zaragoza and region of Aragón, also speeding up investment in new infrastructure. However, on the negative side is the fact that the Anglo-Saxon world (UK, USA, Canada and Australia) stayed away and even several important water related events took no notice of it, the World Water Week taking place in Stockholm. On the positive side, the Water Tribunal has seen many participants contributing to discussion on how to enable every person on the planet to have access to clean water. The presence of pavilions and delegates from most of the Arab and many African countries brought together those countries where the need is greatest. The conclusions of the discussion are available in the Zaragoza Charter (Pdf). Right on time, in a year marked by drought with no rain falling in Catalonia between May last year and 1st May this year, followed by the region's record month for rainfall... on the opening day the weather settled for the summer! Whether too little or too much, water is critical for life. And in a year of food shortages and in a month begun with the failure of the UN summit on food supply, the Expo again seems to have come at the right moment. In addition to all the other activities and events involving nations, NGOs and other groups, the evangelicals were very much involved in this event. The Agua Viva pavilion saw its expectations fulfilled, with 330,905 visitors coming though the doors, of whom 237,561 saw the Mirage video presentation. Besides the pavilion, the presence of the evangelicals extended to the stages of the Expo with two very well attended concerts. On 5th July a 320 voice Gospel choir sang to a large crowd. Then on 30th August, the Agua Viva 'day of honour', Latin Grammy winner Juan Luís Guerra sang to an even larger crowd, so large in fact, that the doors of the Expo had to be closed early for the first (and only) time. Outside the Expo area, the churches of Zaragoza, supported by many Spanish and international groups, ensured that throughout the summer the gospel was available to people all over the city. The churches got together in groups according to their districts and ran evening open air activities in the parks and plazas most evenings. The majority of the expenses for the pavilion were covered by donations from the local church membership. Some gifts were made by people in other parts of Spain and a major contribution came in the form of half a million gospels from a British believer. However, at the time of writing not all the costs have been recovered and there remain outstanding bills from suppliers of evangelistic and other materials as well as part of the builder's bill. This is partly due to the fact that the building work had to be done by a firm recognised by the Expo authorities and could not be done, for example, by volunteer work teams. For evangelicals worldwide, it is clear that caring for the needy is a major part of our calling. And they are well represented among the groups doing development work in poorer nations. Several evangelical NGOs were be represented in the Evangelical pavilion, which had the title Agua Viva 2008 (Living Water 2008). In addition to giving publicity and getting support for these NGOs, the name of this pavilion clearly harks back to the words of Jesus, who said 'whoever drinks of the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I will give him will become a spring of water welling up to eternal life.' (John 4:14 NIV) Again in John7:37-8 he said: 'If a man is thirsty let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.' It is clear that the words of Jesus were mainly used in a spiritual, rather than material sense, referring to the blessings of knowing the risen Lord Jesus and the power of His Holy Spirit working within and through us. Much of the evangelical effort, involving not only the pavilion and events in the Expo, such as the mass 300 voice Gospel choir concert, but also outreaches based on churches around the city for the three months, emphasised the need of mankind for more than just physical sustenance, however essential this is for survival on earth. The Expo was open for three months. Links:
Official Expo web |