2016 - 2017 World Report Edition
RLD CLC CLC WW RLD clc.org.uk
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Your support allows us to make evangelical Christian literature available around the world. This helps thousands of people each day progress on their spiritual journey to know God.
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Current research* reveals that an alarming number of Christians are confused about basic biblical truths.
70% of Christians believe Jesus was the first being God created
66% of evangelical Christians say heaven is a place where all people will be reunited with their loved ones
54% of Christians believe everyone sins a little, but most are good by nature
9781496413550 HC | 9781496413567 SC | 9781496413604 LEATHERLIKE
The CHRISTIAN BASICS BIBLE equips readers with the tools they need to build their lives on a firm foundation: Basic Truths of the Christian Faith is an extensive topical guide that serves as a starting point for finding and engaging with the answers that God’s Word provides on many basic questions about life and faith. Foundation Notes address historical, cultural, biographical, social, practical, and theological issues in order to help readers connect biblical teachings to Christian beliefs. Cross-references direct readers to notes with more information on the passage they are currently reading.
Available this October at CLC
Book Introductions include a short summary of the book’s content, an outline of the book, a summary of the book’s content in more detail, and a guide to the book’s relevance for today.
*http://www.albertmohler.com/2016/01/20/the-scandal-of-biblical-illiteracy-its-our-problem-4/ and http:// lifewayresearch.com/2016/09/27/americans-love-god-and-the-bible-are-fuzzy-on-the-details/ TYNDALE, Tyndale’s quill logo, New Living Translation, NLT, and the New Living Translation logo are registered trademarks of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
A Note from our International Director, Gerardo Scalante: Literature is a powerful tool when it is used for evangelism and in all-age ministries. We are so convinced by the power of the written Gospel message, whatever its medium, because for over 75 years we have witnessed its transforming power. For this reason, our purpose is to make Christian literature available to all nations so that people can come to faith and maturity in the Lord Jesus Christ. In nearly 50 countries around the world, CLC is reaching thousands of people each day through our urban bookshops, websites, publications, and distribution to various ministries like churches, prisons, hospitals and schools. Wherever our ‘printed-page missionaries’ and digital resources go, there is a strong potential for people’s lives to be changed. In an effort to increase the spread of God’s message of love, we are now publishing in 24 languages. We also have a very strong ten-year plan in place that is helping us to double the number of titles we publish. There remains so much untapped potential
to reach the world through CLC’s literature ministry, yet it is just beyond our reach because we need more national workers, volunteers and missionaries willing to work in different and challenging cultures. Whether you are an accountant, marketing expert, editor/translator, bookseller, or incredibly tech savvy — we need you! Join our team of workers (and volunteers!) from various nationalities, who are working hard each day to serve their local community and distribute the Good News. Thank you Father for this committed group of people who act as Your hands and feet in an effort to see Your Kingdom advance. Journey with us through this special ‘World Edition’ issue of CLC World to discover how the Lord has been working through our ministry. See just how incredible our God is and don’t forget that there are three easy ways for you to be involved in CLC’s ministry: Pray, Shop, Serve! If you feel passionate about Jesus and you have a strong desire to serve God through the distribution of Christian literature, why not see if CLC is the place for you? Please note: Approximate population statistics shared in this magazine are from the CIA World Factbook and the precentage of Evangelical Christians are via Operation World.
CLC International
Mission Site: www.clcinternational.org CLC International Office (UK):
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clcusa.org clcbookcenters.com info@clcusa.org clcdonations.org
Inquiries: Donations: For Overseas Opportunities: To Subscribe:
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CLC Ministries International is registered as a not-forprofit 501(c)3 organization in the United States and as such can accept charitable donations and provide tax deductible receipts
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Magazine Editor: Amanda Lutes, Global Communications Director
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North America & The Caribbean: Antigua: Population: 93,600 Evangelical Christians: 19.9% Date CLC work began: 1961 Ministry: 1 Bookshop Director: Arah Martin Bestsellers: Prayer Reign, The Bible, Weapons of Warfare This past year has been one of great celebration for us. While CLC International as a mission celebrated 75 years of ministry, we in Antigua also had our 55th anniversary. One way our team celebrated was to take turns phoning our customers to personally encourage and pray for them. It was a real blessing for us as a team, and our goal for this year is to find more ways to reach out to our community. We thank God for being able to fulfil our responsibilities to our customers and suppliers each month this past year. Please pray that God will continue to help us be a fruitful ministry.
Monday - Antigua:
Please also join us in praying for our government, nation, and Week 27 especially for our youth. May God continue to help us to share His light each day with those we encounter. Please pray especially for our families and for more opportunities and events for us to share God’s Word .
Tuesday - Barbados:
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Due to the economic situation, many people are without work. As a result, our ministry is also struggling financially as we are unable to fully stock our shelves or fulfil customer orders. We also need to replace our roof and computer systems. Please pray for us!
Barbados: Population: 291,500 Evangelical Christians: 34.2% Date CLC work began: 1957 Ministry: 1 Bookshop Director: Wilbert Charles Bestsellers: My Prayer Book (Concordia), W. E. Vine’s New Testament Word Pictures, The Revised Common Lectionary This past year, the Bridgetown City Council placed a bus stop a few metres from our door. As a result, we discovered an increase in footfall outside our shop. Taking advantage of this, we placed a book table in front of our store. Along with seeing an increase in Bible sales, it has been so encouraging and fun interacting daily with those passing by, especially those who are desirous in having God’s Word in their homes and/or to replace an old worn Bible. It is our hope going forward that we will begin sponsoring conferences at local churches so that we may hold regular booktables at these events. We truly believe that, along with fulfilling our mission statement, we will also be able to increase our sales at this challenging time economically.
Wednesday - Trinidad & Tobago:
For ten years, our Port of Spain shop has been without piped water. A blockage exists somewhere in the pipes below our street, but authorities are hesitant to fix the issue as it requires digging up the entire street. Please pray that our request for this problem to be fixed would soon be granted.
Trinidad & Tobago: Population: 1.2 million Evangelical Christians: 20.2% Date CLC work began: 1951 Ministry: 5 Bookshops Director: Sandra Robinson Bestsellers: Prayers that Rout Demons, Rules of Engagement, Bait of Satan Our shop teams have been truly blessed by God this past year. A number of new opportunities for outreach have been made available to us. Trudy Martin, our Arima branch manager, was even afforded the time to minister in school evangelism, thereby impacting the lives of children for the glory of God. We are so thankful to God for the youth mentorship that is occurring in our Port Fortin branch. Here is an encouraging story: Rondell would visit our shop with another youth, but he would stand silently by while the other young man was being counselled and encouraged. One day, Christon (photo), a former youth who visited our shop for mentorship and is now one of our shop helpers, felt that the Lord wanted him to share the gospel with Rondell. This decision led to Rondell giving his life to Jesus! Rondell is now going to church even amidst the opposition he is getting from his parents. He regularly comes to our store where he is taught the Word and strengthened in his faith. What a joy to see his faith growing under our prayerful care despite what he is facing at home.
Dominica: Population: 73,800 Evangelical Christians: 16.8 % Date CLC work began: 1947 Ministry: 1 Bookshops Director: Davis Laudet Bestsellers: Prayers that Rout Demons, My Prayer Book, Five Love Languages This past year we had an event in our shop called CLC Bible Day, whereby customers came into the shop to read aloud their favourite Bible verses. It was also a time of shared testimonies and prayer, and some pastors even shared encouraging messages with those in attendance. A Christian DJ also provided musical entertainment and helped to further advertise the work of CLC’s ministry. This day has led to a closer relationship with many of our customers and helped them to better understand the importance of the work that we do on a daily basis. We are so thankful that many now visit us to pray a blessing over the store and to encourage us as we help to lead others to the saving knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus.
We are grateful to God for allowing us to help change lives, knowing He is faithful to finish the work He has started in each one.
We are also incredibly blessed and encouraged because of the CLC and The Open Book ministry we have on a Christian radio station, Voice of Life. This 3 minute programme, led by the Holy Spirit and the Word of God, is to help encourage listeners to read and make godly choices for their every day life.
Thursday - Trinidad & Tobago:
for this answer to prayer!
In 2016, it was discovered that Trudy’s pregnant daughter and her unborn baby were both infected with the ZIKA virus. Once this diagnosis was made by doctors, prayer was immediately lifted up on their behalf. Earlier this year, they were tested again and the results for the ZIKA virus came back negative. We give God the glory
Friday - Dominica:
We thank the Lord for helping us to pay all our expenses this year but, due to the declining economy, it remains a daily struggle. Please pray for a way forward that would ease the pressure on our ministry and help us invest more into our future.
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Canada: Population: 35.4 million Evangelical Christians: 7.7% Date CLC work began: 1944 Ministry: Publishing, Wholesale & 3 Shops Director: Antoine Roberge Bestsellers: You and Me Forever (CLC) Bibles, My First Bible (CLC) We thank God that, in spite of the significant sacrifices we have asked of each team member this past year, morale, customer service and interpersonal relationships have continued to improve. In August, 2016, we thought closing one of the shops in January, 2017, was the best business decision. Yet, doing so would mean that a very large number of our customers would then need to shop elsewhere or, worse, they would no longer indulge in reading Christian books. On the same morning that we had to renegotiate our lease for another shop we decided to reverse that decision. With the four year lease expiring, we were concerned about what the landlord’s offer would be, knowing that he had the freedom to increase the price as he wanted. To our surprise, the owner offered to renew the lease for two years under exactly the same conditions. Praise God! In an effort to keep our shops open, we are working towards establishing a national organisation which encourages pastors to inspire their congregations to read more good Christian books.
The Weekend - Dominica:
Please pray for the homeless men and women who spend a lot of time in the area just outside our shop. We have a real heart for them but require God’s help with this ‘street outreach’. It is a challenge to always know the right course of action in working with them as, at times, they can become quite abusive towards our customers and staff. Please pray for God’s direction and a continuing softening of their hearts towards God’s message of hope and love for them. 6
United States: Population: 324 million Evangelical Christians: 28.9% Date CLC work began: 1947 Ministry: Publishing, Wholesale & 2 Shops Director: David Almack Bestsellers: The Magnolia Story, Jesus Calling, Fervent, Present not Perfect We thank God for the merger that added MultiLanguage Media (MLM) to CLC USA’s ministry. We thought that transferring the stock would take about two weeks but, praise God, it was done in just three days! We are so thankful to witness growth in sales each month within this new department. These books are making a huge impact with many immigrants to our country. We are also grateful for the remodel of the front office at our headquarters. This was long overdue and makes our entrance area much more professional for visitors. We also created office spaces for Gerardo Scalante and Amanda Lutes and welcomed the Scalante family back to our campus community in Fort Washington. This is the first time in many years that the International Director will work in the USA. Amanda is still waiting for
Monday - Canada:
We have three main subjects for prayer: first, to consolidate Week 28 our achievements of the past year and return to long-term viability; second, to make real progress in the field of publishing; and third, we have an organisation that depends on us on the administrative and legal front and, unfortunately, it loses large sums of money every year. We are working to re-establish this situation and need a lot of wisdom, skill and inspiration.
her visa to be approved. Please remember this situation in prayer! We praise God that early in 2016, Don and Betsy Veldboom were able to join the team in Thailand. They are the first overseas missionaries sent out by our team in a number of years. We are thrilled to report that they have settled in well and are really impacting the sales of English books. This past year we have published a number of exciting new books. Faith that Lasts has been incredibly successful, selling over a thousand copies in the first two weeks on the market. We also had a record turnout at our Clergy
Tuesday - United States:
Please join us in praying for God’s help with these ongoing challenges: – The need for new missionaries both in the USA and for overseas service; – Launching of two new websites (MLM & CLC USA); – Prayer for unity and wisdom as new members of our leadership team will be elected in April; and – The need to be relevant in a rapidly changing culture.
Please pray that our dedicated customers will continue to visit our other shops and website.
Wednesday - United States:
Please continue to pray for our BookLink project as we have plans this year to send second-hand books to Myanmar, Liberia, India, Dominica and other CLC countries.
9781619582439
Due to declining sales at our CLC ‘City Center‘ store, the decision was made to close it in June, 2017. This was not an easy decision for our team to make but one that we trust God will honour. We thank Him for allowing us to ‘finish well’ and for the years of opportunity to serve this inner city community.
Appreciation Breakfast in October and record sales at the Thriving Frequency Conference where we were the host bookstore. We thank God for these important opportunities to serve our community.
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Asia / Pacific Region India: Population: 1.3 billion Evangelical Christians: 2.2% Date CLC work began: 1954 Ministry: Publishing, Wholesale & 21 Shops Director: Justin Cheppellan Bestsellers: Bible Concordance, Pilgrim’s Progress (CLC), Dr. Ida Scudder, Ida - Torch of Life (in English) We’ve experienced a number of challenges this past year, including moving to a new shop location in Purasawalkam (Chennai) after being in the same place for 65 years! We are so thankful the Lord helped us to find a suitable shop nearby. We are also incredibly grateful for God’s provision that allowed us to open a new shop in the North East of India. This location, which is a long way from Chennai, is part of a Christian hospital campus. Another challenge this year was the overnight devalutation of currency. It was a great blow for our country, and this, along with the decline in those reading good Christian books, has affected our sales greatly.
Thursday - India:
As we own some property in Purasawalkam (Chennai) very near our old shop, we are praying to construct a building that will be suitable for a warehouse, new shop and conference hall. Please pray that God will make a way and help us in securing the necessary funds.
Friday - India:
We currently have a number of publishing projects pending. Please pray that we will soon have the financial resources needed to move ahead with these projects.
The Weekend - Indonesia:
Praise God with us! We recently received news that our grant for a Print-on-Demand system has
Indonesia: Population: 258.3 million Evangelical Christians: 5.6% Date CLC work began: 1954 Ministry: Publishing, Wholesale & 2 Shops Director: Donny Kairupan Bestsellers: Bibles and daily devotionals continue to be our bestsellers. Praise the Lord for His faithfulness towards this ministry. Even amidst various difficulties this year, we’ve been very blessed to be able to continue serving our loyal customers and community. In fact, our Regional Director visited us in October (2016) and encouraged us to look to the future to begin expanding our ministry through publishing and our website. We published our first book (a local biography) in 2015 and our second (a comic book by a local pastor) in 2016. We were encouraged to learn this past year about a grant we could apply for that would allow us to have our own Print-on-Demand system. This system would radically change our ministry! Local pastors and missionaries could print their own resources as needed and, with approval, we could print inhouse books by international publishers.
been approved and we hope to have our new system up and running in early 2018. Please pray that the equipment will arrive safely and for the training our team will receive to operate it.
Monday - Indonesia:
Please pray that people around the world and especially in Week 29 Indonesia will develop a deeper love for God, urging them to spend more time reading the Scriptures and other good Christian books. (2 Peter 3:18)
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Japan: Population: 126.7 million Evangelical Christians: 0.5% Date CLC work began: 1950 Ministry: Wholesale & 6 Bookshops Director: Satoru Nakano For quite a few years, CLC Japan has been struggling financially, mostly due to the fact that the margin of sales we are allowed to have on books is very low. Our team is continually trying to find creative ways to sell more so that we can continue to operate. Each year, however, it seems that this task becomes even more challenging. Please pray that a more permanent solution to this difficulty could be found. We pray for the members of our team each day that God will continue to strengthen us physically and spiritually so that we do not become disheartened by this ongoing battle. May the Lord bring a revival to our country that opens the hearts of many so that God’s Word will continue to take root and grow stronger.
South Korea: Population: 50.9 million Evangelical Christians: 16.8% Date CLC work began: 1975 Ministry: Publishing, Wholesale & 1 Shop Director: Young-Ho Park Bestsellers: Reading the Bible in Light of Archaeology, The Christ of the Covenants, Biblical Preaching Although publishing in South Korea seems to be suffering a 30% decrease, the Lord has truly blessed us in 2016 with an increase of 5%. This means we were able to publish 100 titles in 2016 — a new record high! Praise God! We are also so thankful to the Lord for the large increase in sales on our website as it now makes up 55% of our total sales! God gave us the vision for opening our own seminary and, in 2016, we celebrated having our first four students graduate. Praise the Lord with us! Our goal for 2017 is to publish 110 titles, and we would value your prayers for all the work involved in this process.
Tuesday - Japan:
Please pray that CLC Japan’s partnerships with publishers and churches will continue to develop and strengthen so that they can better serve one another. Pray for open hearts and minds to new ways of working together to further God’s Kingdom. Pray that the Japanese people will continue to develop a real thirst for God’s Word.
Wednesday - Korea:
We need more staff with professional skills who have a strong passion for literature ministry. As a 10
mission, we are unable to pay the compensation that would normally attract people with the highest skills. As it is our desire to publish books that captivate readers and help them to learn more about God, we would ask that you keep us in your prayers so that God would supply the necessary workers for the harvest!
Thursday - Myanmar:
We are in desperate need of a warehouse for all the books we are publishing and importing. Please continue to pray that God will find a way
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Myanmar: Population: 56.9 million Evangelical Christians: 5% Date CLC work began: 1992 Ministry: Publishing, Wholesale & 1 Shop Director: Jacob Mung Bestsellers: Bible Dictionary, Basic Bible Doctrines, Bible Prophecy Fullfillment We are grateful to God for allowing our leader, Jacob Mung, to attend CLC’s 75th Anniversary celebration in the UK. What a blessing it was to be a part of that time of joy and fellowship. We are so thankful that two of the bookstalls we held in rural areas this past year had sales that exceeded our expectations. This is a real encouragement to our ministry. Finally, we give thanks to God for enabling us to complete the translation work of the study notes for the first-ever Burmese Study Bible. We are nearly finished all the editing for this project, and it is our hope to begin printing an initial ten thousand copies this autumn. Praise God with us that the Lord has already provided $60,000 (£47,000) of the $100,000 (£78,000) needed to begin printing the first-ever Burmese Study Bible. What a real encouragement for the team who have been working so hard on this project. Please continue to pray for the remaining funds so that they’ll be able to print the initial 10,000 copies this year.
to make this dream a reality for us this year.
Friday - Papua New Guinea:
The Land & Garbage tax rates increased by 3.5% from the previous year, which has had a negative effect on our pricing. Our tax exemption application to the IRC hasn’t been successful, but we will keep applying and praying until we get a favourable answer. Please join us in prayer so that we can keep our Bibles and books affordable for the many and not just the few.
The Weekend - Pakistan: 12
Please pray for our building project which
Papua New Guinea: Population: 6.8 million Evangelical Christians: 25.7% Date CLC work began: 1959 Ministry: 1 Bookshop Director: Vere Babona Bestsellers: The Pocket-Size Good News Bible, The Purpose and Power of Prayer, Battlefield of the Mind 2016 was a year of blessings and challenges for us. We were so grateful for the five pallets of books sent to us from CLC USA’s BookLink project. These second-hand Bibles and books were desperately needed as many cannot afford to pay the full retail price of new titles. We are also thankful to God for the pallet of children’s Scandinavia Publishing books that arrived in time for our Book Week sale held at the local Salvos primary school. The children were so excited with the selection available for them. Recently, we’ve begun sourcing local greeting cards and gift items as importing these items is very expensive. We are so thankful for these local suppliers of Communion trays, Scripture wall art and frames. We are also working on producing framed Christian copper art gifts for the ministry. Thank you Lord for this provision. includes creating a second storey in our shop as it is still awaiting permission from the necessary authorities. This extension is desperately needed, so please pray for this situation.
Monday - Pakistan:
Thank you Father that you always hear our prayers and answer Week 30 us. This year the Lord saved us from all kinds of trouble and interrogation as a security agency was searching for someone who
Pakistan: Population: 202 million Evangelical Christians: 0.6% Date CLC work began: 1961 Ministry: Publishing, Wholesale & 1 Shop Director: Justin Javed Bestsellers: The Urdu translation of Henry Blackaby’s ‘Experiencing God Day by Day’ has had a great impact on our customers. We thank the Lord for His great faithfulness and mercy upon us during 2016 and for all His blessings. We praise Him especially for providing a peaceful atmosphere around the bookshop and for the current peace in our city. We continue to pray for our government and for the Pakistan army that the Lord will bless them. Thank you Lord for helping us to increase our sales, most of which comes through the Christian community, which is only around 2.4% of the total population. Our Lord has truly given us many opportunities to share His Good News through our personal experience with the Lord. Thank you Father for encouraging us through increasing sales and other fruitful works. Due to a variety of challenges, our publishing projects were at a standstill, but we give thanks that many of these issues have now be resolved. Please pray we will soon get them back on track as we have one reprint and three new titles from a local author in the works.
Thailand: Population: 68.2 million Evangelical Christians: 0.5% Date CLC work began: 1958 Ministry: 1 Bookshop Director: Yongyut Khanthaseema Bestsellers: Bibles, The Jesus Storybook (Thai) In 2016, we had to make the heartbreaking decision to close our Bangkok shop, but we are thankful to God that we did not lose any staff with this closure and that we have seen a growth in sales at our Chiang Mai shop. The English side of our ministry has grown thanks to two CLC USA missionaries (The Veldbooms) who joined the team in 2016. They have been a real blessing, adding encouragement and practical help from years of experience in the Christian book industry. Book tables at local mission conferences have increased our sales and exposure, helping new customers find our shop. Those missionaries serving here in Thailand have also shared how encouraging they’ve found the selection of books available. With the Thai Christian population being only 1%, we see many challenges, but we are optimistic for the future. We are thankful for the opportunity to see Christian literature helping so many share the Good News of Jesus. It is our prayer that it will lead to growth in the family of Christ in Thailand.
The families of our team members have been facing some health issues, especially Justin Javed’s family, but we believe in the faithfulness of the Lord our God who always take care of us. He is always with us; He is the all-knowing God and He is mightier than all our troubles. was known to shop with us. Thank you Jesus for protecting our team and ministry.
Tuesday - Thailand:
Please pray for the sale of our shop property in Bangkok as it is our hope that with its sale we will be able to open another shop on the south side of Chiang Mai. With a growing missionary population, a shop in that area will enable us to better serve their needs.
Wednesday - Thailand:
We’ve also recently begun publishing children’s
colouring books in Thai. Please pray for the Thai children who will receive these books.
Thursday - The Philippines:
Trusting in God’s provision, it is our hope that we will be able to open another new bookshop in 2017 as well as to publish 30 new titles! Please join us in praying for these endeavours. 13
Philippines: Population: 102.6 million Evangelical Christians: 12.3% Date CLC work began: 1957 Ministry: Publishing, Wholesale & 6 Shops Director: Romualdo Macinas Bestsellers: My Utmost for His Highest, My Little Pink Book series, The Outline Bible
some real challenges and concerns about areas of our ministry. One such concern is the future of our Cebu shop. It continues to show a decrease in sales and an increase in overhead costs, mostly due to inflation rates. Please pray that we can find a solution to this situation to enable this work to continue and be sustainable.
Thanks to an amazing grant and our supporters, in February, 2016, our Print-on-Demand (POD) system began publishing. It has been a huge asset to our ministry and has allowed new local authors a place to begin as well as give us the courage to publish the works of those not-so-famous authors.
Friday - The Philippines:
Due to this project’s success, events such as the Manila Book Fair and the hard work of our shop teams, our ministry had its best year of sales ever! Yet, even with all these blessings, we have
Please pray for the value of the Filipino currency. Last year’s decrease in value was the largest in history and makes it very difficult to pay our US suppliers. Even with our POD system, we depend heavily on the importation of stock, which makes this devaluation a great disadvantage for CLC Philippines’ ministry.
Please remember in prayer our team members who are working hard to further enhance our website. We hope that it will greatly increase our outreach to the people in the Philippines.
The Weekend - The Philippines:
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Holy Land Join renowned Israel expert and tour guide, Dr. Charles H. Dyer, on a spiritual journey through the Holy Land. These incredible devotionals will help you read the Psalms and the Gospels with greater imagination and understanding. Psalms ISBN: 9780802415691 Jesus ISBN: 9780802415721
Latin America Bolivia: Population: 11 million Evangelical Christians: 16.2% Date CLC work began: 2013 Ministry: Wholesale & 1 Bookshop Director: Gamaliel Padilla Bestsellers: Purpose Driven Life, A Woman After God’s Own Heart, The Power of a Praying Wife Thank you Father, that despite the economic recession, we’ve seen a modest growth in sales and distribution. We know God’s provision being able to participate in several important events where people were encouraged to read. We’ve noticed a significant increase in demand for Bibles, church resources and children’s books. We are also grateful to God for allowing us to share about our ministry at some missions’ and evangelistic events. These events enabled us to connect with other ministries working in Bolivia and learn how we can best serve, partner and fellowship with them. We thank God for His provision in allowing our Director, Gamaliel Padilla and his wife, to visit their family in Venezuela last year. With the country’s desperate financial situation, we praise God for providing the opportunity which allowed their daughter and son-in-law to move to Bolivia with them.
Monday - Bolivia:
Since opening our shop, the area around us has changed and we Week 31 now need to find a more suitable location. Please pray that God will give us the wisdom and resources needed to find the right property to better reach the public.
Chile: Population: 17.7 million Evangelical Christians: 18.4% Date CLC work began: 1958 Ministry: Wholesale & 7 Bookshops Director: Patricio Romo Bestsellers: 5 Love Languages, The Bible for Children (CLC), A Woman After God’s Own Heart, Purpose Driven Life We thank the Lord for the growth in the number of new customers, bookstores and distribution avenues this past year. Through the Lord’s blessing and the hard work of our team, God has given us many answers to prayer, such as: - Aresly, a man with great ministerial qualities, joined our Viña del Mar branch, while Juan S. followed God’s leading and moved his young family north to work with our Talca team. - Our Temuco team shared with us that “this year the Lord gave us sales unlike any we have ever seen, yet have always prayed for”. - We had very successful conferences with authors Ted Tripp and Darrow Miller. - God is really stirring up our customers to reach out to those in their communities. One such customer is a young woman who sells avocados to gather money and buy Bibles to give away. She has already bought more than 100 NTV Bibles for this purpose. Thank you Jesus!
Tuesday - Chile:
Please pray that the Lord will help us find the necessary funds for our Viña del Mar and Talca teams to have bookvan ministries that will further enhance their distribution areas. We also seek the Lord’s guidance in increasing our distribution and online presence through our website and other social media networks. It is our hope to open 15
Colombia: Population: 47.2 million Evangelical Christians: 7.5% Date CLC work began: 1973 Ministry: Publishing, Wholesale & 10 Shops Director: David Pabón Bestsellers: The Power of a Praying Wife, 5 Love Languages, Purpose Driven Life CLC Colombia celebrated 40 years of ministry in 2016 and our annual theme was ‘Transformed by the written Word’. It was a year of renewal for us as we focused on studying God’s Word and giving it the value in our lives that it deserves. We give thanks to God for these developments: - Our new CLC Express bookshop in Bogotá and the merging of two shops in Ibague so a coffee area could be created to further enhance its shopping experience. - Further development of our mobile book ministry and the ‘Freedom Online’ project, which is aimed at captivating the attention of younger readers. - Increasing the presence of our social foundation (FSCLC) in vulnerable populations, such as the Justicia y Paz (Justice and Peace) prison, as well as working with the indigenous and Afrodescendant communities of Chocó.
Population: 16 million Evangelical Christians: 8.5% Date CLC work began: 2001 Ministry: Wholesale & 5 Bookshops Director: Carlos Marín Bestsellers: 5 Love Languages, 5 Love Languages for Children We praise God that we continue to see His faithfulness to us as a ministry and in our personal lives. What a blessing to discover we had an increase in sales in each area of our ministry. One very special highlight this past year has been that the Lord enabled us to help support two Thompson Bible Seminars in Spain (Madrid and Barcelona) with CLC Spain and two others in Equatorial Guinea (Bata and Malabo).
Although we were the victim of a huge robbery of Bibles, this did not stop us from celebrating 40 years of ministry. We trusted the Lord and saw His faithfulness when the insurance fully covered the loss. Thank you Father for reminding us that we can always rely on you, no matter what!
Our hope for this year is that we will be able to maintain and strengthen the spirit and integrity of our team to continue the work of the ministry in this country. We also pray for ways to build up the relationships that we have with pastors and local churches.
another bookshop this year in Santiago, which is the capital of our country. Join us in praying for the right location, people and necessary funds. Thank you.
plan to focus this year on working more with special needs’ children and the elderly, who are often neglected by society.
Wednesday - Colombia:
With any new opportunities to grow, we always start by taking into account the Mission and Vision statements of CLC. For this reason, it is our hope to open more shops, particularly in cities, such as Choco, that have been hit by violence, and abandoned by the state. Please pray for God’s help and wisdom with these decisions.
This year, the Lord gave us the theme, ‘Renew Your Commitment’, to strengthen us personally, within our families and also as a ministry. Please remember us and our fellow teams in prayer.
Thursday - Colombia: 16 16
Ecuador:
Please also pray for our Social Foundation as we
Friday - Colombia:
17
18
Mexico:
Panama:
Population: 123.2 million Evangelical Christians: 8.3% Date CLC work began: 2014 Ministry: Wholesale & 1 Bookshop Director: Maria del Carmen Castañeda Bestsellers: Bibles (especially RVR Bibles), Created to be His Help Meet
Population: 3.7 million Evangelical Christians: 19.3% Date CLC work began: 1976 Ministry: Wholesale & 4 Bookshops Director: Sara de Gracia Bestsellers: The Power of a Praying Wife, 5 Love Languages, Purpose Driven Life
Thank you Lord for allowing us to partner with other ministries this past year, and please help us to find even more ways to collaborate. We are very grateful that we were able to economically improve the way we work administratively, as well as to see our hard work reflected in the growth of our sales and relationships.
We give thanks to the Lord for allowing us to take part in Panama’s 2016 International Book Fair. Over 100,000 people attended this event with around 60,000 spending time at our bookstall. Many attendees had never before been to a Christian bookstore or been exposed to Christian literature. It was an amazing time of sharing the Good News with people from all walks of life.
Here is an encouraging story: One afternoon a man and his wife entered the shop looking for philosophy books, not realising that we were a Christian bookstore. Upon making this discovery, the man began to browse while the wife asked us if we had any books on forgiveness. I handed her a copy of June Hunt’s How To Forgive When You Don’t Feel Like It. As the woman opened the book and began to read, tears filled her eyes. She shared how she never thought to find a book like this in a Christian bookstore. Seeing how emotional his wife was, the man returned to her side and joined the conversation and began asking questions about the Bible. After some time of discussion, they left our shop with a Bible, the book and a real desire to return at a later date. We have yet to see them again, but we trust that God is working in their lives. This is just one example of why having bricks and mortar Christian bookstores remains a key part of CLC’s ministry.
The Weekend - Ecuador:
We ask that God will help us to stabilise and strengthen the level of sales we have in each area of our ministry and also to improve the way we manage and maintain our website and social networks. Please pray that each day God will open our eyes so that we can see His power and work in our lives and ministry.
Another blessing from this event was that we were able to reactivate some of our publisher accounts. Please continue to pray for this situation as our sales this past year have decreased and we need to continue paying our supplier regularly to keep our accounts open. With increasing overhead costs and decreasing sales, this is a real challenge, and we ask for God’s assistance and creativity in this situation. We are also praying for the day when we would be able to purchase our own property to further decrease overhead costs.
Monday - Mexico:
Please pray that God will continue to develop, strengthen and grow Week 32 our team to be one that is wise, united and has a real heart for reaching areas in our country where there is little to no access to Christian literature. May God give us the creativity and sales needed to further His Kingdom!
Tuesday - Panama:
Please pray that God will continue to help us pay our suppliers. We thank God for the new addition 19
Uruguay: Population: 3.3 million Evangelical Christians: 6.2% Date CLC work began: 1948 Ministry: Wholesale & 2 Bookshops Director: Humberto Urrutia Bestsellers: 5 Love Languages, The Bible for Children (CLC), Lift Up Your Eyes Even though our country’s economy has seen many ups and downs this year that have greatly impacted everyone, we were very grateful to God to discover that our sales did not decrease as much as expected. We also give thanks that our new branch (the second in Montevideo) has been growing so well that it is already almost self-sustaining. What an encouragement to know that this shop was definitely needed in this part of the city as the majority of their customers are all new to CLC. It is located near a busy bus terminal, and what a joy to see so many discovering our shop and requesting materials. The years have passed very quickly, and we now have some long-time members of our team who are retiring. We seek the Lord’s direction in making the right decisions for new personnel and training them. With so many changes to the book trade, the new job descriptions need to reflect these changes as well as give applicants a real sense of our desire to reach the world through Christian literature.
to our team of a spiritually mature brother who has a lot of experience in sales and firmly believes that he was called to CLC by God.
Population: 30.9 million Evangelical Christians: 10.8% Date CLC work began: 1970 Ministry: Publishing, Wholesale & 10 Shops Director: Yohel Peña Bestsellers: Life Application Study Bibles, (Biblia), The Love Dare, 5 Love Languages 2016 was a year of many difficulties for our ministry as our country is in an economical crisis, creating many political and social problems. Despite all this, we’ve seen God’s faithfulness to us. Many companies and other Christian bookstores have had to close, but our team’s determination to go ahead despite the difficulties has been very evident to our customers as we remain fully operational. Each member has prayerfully and physically given their all to see this ministry continue, and we have seen God’s support of the ministry and in our lives. We continue on with the conviction that God is in control of everything— the country, the ministry and our families—and that CLC is a ministry that will transcend time to bless the Venezuelan people. Please continue to pray for us!
changes to our economy. Please pray for us.
Friday - Venezuela:
Please pray as we seek new staff and continually develop new partnerships, points of distribution and move forward as a ministry. We need people who truly have a heart for this ministry and feel God’s call to join CLC.
We thank God that during this difficult year we have seen our customers identify with our ministry, offering to support us in prayer. Their thankfulness to God (that we remain open) and their encouragement keeps us pressing on. What a joy to witness the fruit of our labour making a definite impact in communities.
Thursday - Uruguay:
The Weekend - Venezuela:
Wednesday - Uruguay:
It is our hope this year that we can increase our distribution and sales by 5%, despite the continual 20
Venezuela:
In order for us to pay our suppliers and remain open and a centre of hope for our communities,
Europe & Central Asia: Belarus: Population: 9.6 million Evangelical Christians: 1.3% Date CLC work began: 1994 Ministry: Publishing, Wholesale & 1 Shop Director: Lina Pinkevich Bestseller: Bibles, You and Me Forever (CLC) We thank the Lord for the many event bookstall opportunities we had this year all over our country. As we are the only evangelical Christian bookshop ministry in the country, we always feel so welcomed in areas outside of Brest where our bookshop is located. We thank God that these events allow us to share the Gospel to a wider audience and financially help our bookshop and publishing ministries. An Encouraging Story: For three consecutive days, we had a different woman visit our shop and share their lifestory. Each one felt the urgent need to purchase a Bible as they were looking for a book that would change their life and teach them how to forgive. One of the ladies, who just had a friend recommend that she start reading the Bible each day, came across our shop that morning ‘by chance’ as she was walking by. Thank you Holy Spirit for continuing to direct people to our shop when they are in need. May our words and actions always reflect your mercy, love and grace. Please help our nation to turn to you.
Central Asia (CA1): Population: Over 5 million Evangelical Christians: 0.7% Date CLC work began: 1996 Ministry: 1 Bookshop Bestsellers: 5 Love Languages Praise God that since we began ordering our resources from CLC’s shop in Moscow last year, we can now provide better customer service by getting new stock in regularly, easily and quickly . We also remodeled our shop area, creating a large separate area in the back for an apartment. We thank God for the generous gift that made this renovation possible. By renting this apartment regularly, we will be better able to sustain our ministry. Please pray God will help us to do so. We also give thanks to our UK friend who visited us last year and again this year to assist us with classes in English conversation. What a great blessing from God for my wife and I.
We have noticed a drop in customers visiting our shop and would ask for your prayers in finding new, innovative ways to draw people back in.
Tuesday - Belarus: we ask for prayer that would enable us to have better access to other currencies. At the moment, we are only allowed to purchase a certain amount of international funds a few times each year.
Monday - Belarus:
We give thanks for the growth in sales through our website. This Week 33 has become an essential part of our ministry as it helps to supplement the overhead costs of having a bookshop ministry.
Please continue to pray for our publishing projects and partnership with CLC Russia. We are seeking the Lord’s wisdom and help in choosing new titles, advertising our books and, finally, balancing all the work involved in publishing, shopkeeping and event bookstalls with our family life.
Wednesday - Central Asia (CA1):
Our sales are quite a bit lower than we anticipated and we have not been able to rent out the back apartment regularly. This makes cash flow a serious issue. Pray that we will soon 21
ing v i g Forrology
ISBN: 9781619582392
The heir of the Borden Dairy Corporation, William Borden, was considered “royalty” as his family had wealth. For his high school graduation, they gave him a trip and, while on the trip, he began to feel a burden for those less fortunate. He returned to America and enrolled at Yale University where he started a Bible study; founded a mission for those who were on the streets of New Haven; and shared the Gospel with orphans, widows, the homeless and the hungry, offering them hope and refuge. When Borden graduated from Yale, he entered Princeton Seminary and, upon graduation, set sail for China, intending to serve Christ there. Along the way, however, he contracted spinal meningitis and died soon after. When his Bible was discovered after his death, six words were found written on the inside page: “No reserve, no retreat, no regrets.”1 Denying self, he gave up his earthly wealth to follow Jesus and serve those in need. Denying self, taking up the cross and following Christ describe three different ways of living for God and others. As a community of people who deny themselves, take up their crosses and follow Christ, we are called to live in radical opposition to the powers of evil, showing forth a new way of
andNeighbo g inrpt from m o lc exce We An
living. Tenth Presbyterian’s Mercy Ministry is made up of many people who sacrifice their time, talent and resources to love their neighbors. These neighbors live on the street, in shelters, in “abandominiums,” in nursing homes and in prisons. They are all either brokenhearted or broken down from experiencing much hardship in their lives. A recent phone call from one of my ministry coordinators reminded me of the powers of evil that are against us. Commenting on a Sunday Bible study with our homeless neighbors, he listed three times in ninety minutes where there were spiritual attacks. These disruptions from just one guest included false gossip about a leader, a physical threat against another guest and a personal threat against the coordinator himself. How should the coordinator respond? It is our calling to live out the communal life in radical obedience to the One who is our model.2 Our modeling Christ is evidence that as good neighbors we have the hearts of servants. 1. Anthony J. Carter, Blood Work: How the Blood of Christ Accomplishes Our Salvation (Sanford, FL: Reformation Trust Publishing, 2013), 105. 2. Richard J. Mouw, Called to Holy Worldliness (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1980), 88.
Excerpt from Dr. David S. Apple, Neighborology: Practicing Compassion as A Way of Life (Fort Washington, PA: CLC Publications, 2017), 52–53. Used by permission of CLC Publications. May not be further reproduced. All rights reserved.
22 22
Books for the Deeper Christian Life
CLC Hungary CLC Korea
CLC Italy
CLC Russia CLC Bulgaria
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CLC Netherlands
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CLC Poland
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BAKER COMMENTARY ON THE OLD TESTAMENT WISDOM AND PSALMS
CLC Italy
CLC USA CLC Romania
CLC France THE COMMENTARY OF REVELATION
CLC India
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CLC Kenya
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Pub. No. 360 - TAMIL
CLC Colombia
트렘퍼 롱맨
CLC Russia
욥 기 주석
CLC Canada
CLC Philippines CLC Colombia
BCOTWP
CLC Philippines
CLC Korea CLC Bulgaria
CLC India
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Making evangelical Christian literature available to all nations, so that people may come to faith and maturity in the Lord Jesus Christ
*Visit clcinternational.org for information about these publishing CLC countries and more.
Bulgaria: Population: 7.1 million Evangelical Christians: 1.9% Date CLC work began: 1993 Ministry: Publishing, Wholesale & 1 Shop Director: Lidia Dimitrova Bestsellers: Prayers that Rout Demons, Crazy Love (CLC) 2016 was full of many challenges for our team, but the hardest was each member losing a loved one(s). We had to find our consolation in the Lord and trust Him to help us move forward. His mercy, care and love was so evident in our lives, and we are so thankful. We also discovered the delight of unity with Him and as a team, which has greatly influenced how we serve others as a ministry.
Customer Testimony: A woman shared, “Recently, my daughter has been avoiding me, and our communication is quite difficult. She has lost a lot of weight, and I suspect that she has anorexia. I don’t know what to do!” We started suggesting different books that we thought might help her situation, and she made her selection. She returned later to testify that a couple of the books she had read had challenged her personally to change. This then brought about a change in her daughter and in their relationship. Today her daughter is quite social, healthy and bears the testimony of Jesus. Praise God! It is so encouraging to hear customers share what God has done in their life and how books have helped them. It is also great to hear that they feel the special atmosphere of His presence in the shop, which has always been our prayer. find a better rental situation for our flat. Pray also that the Lord will bring new customers and help us better connect with local pastors and churches.
Thursday - Bulgaria:
Our prayer is for God’s wisdom and guidance, 24 24
Central Asia (CA2): Population: Over 9 million Evangelical Christians: 0.2% Date CLC work began: 1997 Ministry: 1 Bookshop Bestsellers: 5 Love Languages, The Power of a Praying Wife, Lies Women Believe One highlight for us this past year has been the two new team members that joined us last fall. Both are very hard workers and committed to the ministry. Another would be the largest special order we have ever received! As many other businesses struggled financially, the Lord provided for our decline in regular sales by this large order from a university. Last summer was an especially hard time for the team as there were a few incidents of suspicious men following employees and watching our store. In the end, however, the Lord used it to show our team His strength and character and we haven’t had another incident since. We pray for wisdom to follow God’s leading and will so that we might be more active in making Christian books available in the local language. We also hope our local team will soon be able to run the store without assistance from CLC USA.
especially in our relationships with our suppliers. Let us be led by His love and not try to solve our problems by our human efforts. We praise God for the publication of Crazy Love in 2016 and also ask for prayer concerning two upcoming projects: You and Me Forever (The Chan’s) and Not a Fan (Kyle Idleman). Thank you!
Friday - Central Asia (CA2):
We pray for wisdom to follow God’s leading and will so that we might be more active in making Christian books available in the local language.
Cyprus:
France:
Population: 1.2 million Evangelical Christians: 0.8% Date CLC work began: 1981 Ministry: 1 Bookshop Director: Eva Photiadou Bestsellers: Waiting on God, Absolute Surrender, Candles in the Dark
Population: 66.8 million Evangelical Christians: 1% Date CLC work began: 1951 Ministry: Publishing, Wholesale & 13 Shops (includes Guadeloupe and Martinique) Director: Hervé Lessous Bestsellers: God’s Promises, Pilgrim’s Progress
We are very thankful for the opportunities to share the Gospel and pray with the people that come into our shop. The majority are people from other countries who are either residents or visiting Cyprus for a brief time. We praise the Lord for a young couple who bought a good supply of English Bibles to take to foreign students in the ‘Turkish held’ Northern part of Cyprus. Also, a Russian lady from an international Church Fellowship in Limassol bought a variety of gift items to make available for her congregation. It is so encouraging for us to receive messages like: “Thank you! Through your quiet, faithful, dedicated work and service for Jesus and His people, you are helping those who are in need.”
A big highlight for our team this past year was the relocation of our Paris shop. This quick move and renovation was a big answer to prayer. Please pray our customers will continue to find us at this new location.
A man walked into the shop just to say, “Thank you for putting verses on the shop window. I have been so helped and encouraged, so please carry on because I am sure that I am not the only one, even if they don’t come in to tell you. I am usually in my car stopped at the traffic lights when I read the encouraging verses, but today, I was walking by and thought I should come in to thank you.” Another lady walked into the shop after reading the Scripture in the shop window and was thrilled with the Christian resources available. She has now become such a loyal customer.
We also hope our local team will soon be able to run the store without assistance from CLC USA teammates.
The Weekend - Central Asia (CA2):
We thank God for incredible opportunities like this: A group of people were looking for the Koran, but after discussing the holy books and prophets with them, they ended up buying a Bible. Praise God!
We thank God that we were able to increase our publishing efforts in 2016. This included partnering with the Swiss Bible Society to publish four large-print Bibles. May these Bibles be a blessing to many. In celebration of CLC’s 75th anniversary, each of our shops held an event at the end of 2016 where CLC’s global ministry was presented. We even translated the Forever Grateful magazine into French and distributed to those who attended. We thank the Lord for these opportunities to build stronger ties within our communities. We had two main projects last year, one where we partnered with CLC and Wycliffe in Benin and the other with a new Christian school in Montelimar, France. Over a set time period, one euro from the sale of each Bible published by CLC France was given towards these projects. We were able to send 2000€ to Benin and a further 1000€ to the school. Praise God with us that these funds will truly be a blessing!
Monday - Cyprus:
Please continue to pray for us as the economic situation is still Week 34 influencing so many lives and our sales. We pray that our emails will remind customers about what is new or back in stock and that our website will continue to reach people who wouldn’t normally visit the shop. 25
Hungary:
Germany: Population: 80.7 million Evangelical Christians: 2.1% Date CLC work began: 1948 Ministry: Wholesale & 1 Bookshop Director: Valentin Schweigler Bestsellers: Bibles, Hartl: In Meinem Herzen Feuer (Hartl: Fire in my Heart) Even though our workload remains the same, we have seen a decline in our sales. For this reason, we are investigating new ideas, such as changing our category system and product locations. Our hope is to find out if our resources will sell better if they are grouped differently or in a new location. Please pray for even more innovative ideas that can be easily implemented to improve our situation. Despite this economic challenge, we thank the Lord that our team remains optimistic and encouraging. This leads to an environment that is very inviting for customers and for us a team to try new things. We also thank God for the Christian residents who live in a nearby home for those with Down’s Syndrome. They visit us often, sharing with such joy and openness about God in their lives. It is a real amazement and encouragement to many of our customers who are timid in sharing their faith.
Tuesday - France:
The major highlight for us last year was the launch of our publishing department with Corrie ten Boom’s Prison Letters. It has been our hope and desire for some years to begin publishing, and it was so good to see the positive response from customers and other bookshops in Hungary. An exhibition and book event was held in connection with its release, which also received good feedback and media coverage. A highlight of the event were the two actresses who read from The Hiding Place. As the words came to life, they were charged with meaning and impacted all of us. It was a wonderful evening about the message of hope and forgiveness.
bring us a buyer willing to pay a good price. This, along with God’s wisdom, is vital in helping us find the best location for our ministry’s future.
Thursday - Germany:
Praise God that our team’s health and unity has remained strong despite the economic challenges we are facing. Please pray that this will remain so and that we will continue to be open to finding new and innovative ways of changing our situation for the better.
We are currently modernising our website and ask for prayer that we will implement changes that will attract more people. We also seek the Lord’s guidance as we continue to develop our publishing and wholesale department. We look after the distribution and logistics for a number of Christian publishers in France.
Friday- Hungary:
Wednesday- France:
The Weekend - Hungary:
The decision has been made to sell our bookshop in Martinique. We believe this is the best way forward for our ministry, so please pray that the Lord will 26
Population: 9.9 million Evangelical Christians: 2.8% Date CLC work began: 1993 Ministry: Publishing, Wholesale & 3 Shops Director: Annamaria Karpati Bestsellers: ERV Bible (Hungarian), A Dew of Grace, What it’s Like to be Married
We thank God as well for helping us to sell a house owned by the mission and that some of our debts were cancelled. What a blessing! Please continue to pray that we would further develop our publishing endeavour and marketing strategies to further stabilise our ministry financially. Annamaria Karpati became the Director for our team in 2016 so please continue to pray for her and the challenges she faces each day in her new role.
Purple.
The foundation of an influential trade in a Roman world dominated by men. One woman rises up to take the reins of success in an incredible journey of courage, grit, and friendship. And along the way, she changes the world. Riveting biblical fiction about Lydia, Europe’s first convert to Christianity. ISBN : 9781496406477
BREAD OF ANGELS BY TESSA AFSHAR — AVA I L ABLE FROM CLC T E S S A A FSHAR
is the Christy
Award–winning author of several works of biblical fiction. She was born in Iran and attended school in England before
“Achingly tender from the first flutter of romance to the last sting of betrayal, Bread of Angels is an intensely emotive and satisfying read.”
moving to the United States. Tessa
M E S U A N DREWS
holds an MDiv from Yale University, where
award-winning author of the Treasures of the Nile series
she served as co-chair of the Evangelical Fellowship at the Divinity School. She has worked full-time in ministry ever since. Visit her online at www.tessaafshar.com and follow her on Facebook.
TYNDALE and Tyndale’s quill logo are registered trademarks of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
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Italy:
Netherlands:
Population: 62 million Evangelical Christians: 1.1% Date CLC work began: 1956 Ministry: Publishing, Wholesale & 8 Shops Director: Samuele Di Ruocco Bestsellers: Radical, Follow Me, Porno Tossina (Toxic Porn), 5 Love Languages
Population: 17 million Evangelical Christians: 4.3% Date CLC work began: 1962 Ministry: Publishing, Wholesale & 1 Shop Director: Bertus Keuter Bestsellers: Songbooks, Bibles (in easy language), Bible Studies, War Room DVD
Our annual CLC Italy conference is a highlight each year as the entire team, including their families, join together for several days of fellowship, relaxation and to work through various ministry issues that are important for growth and sustainability.
We thank the Lord for the growth in partnerships between missions which enable us to serve and support one another. Please continue to pray for more events that will allow us to share about CLC ministry and partner with even more organisations.
We thank God for the continued growth of sales through our website and our publishing departments. The website is now our largest ‘bookshop’, and we are delighted to see that many of the titles we publish are becoming much-loved bestsellers. Along with being the official distributor for the film, October Baby, CLC Italy also published its novel. Doing so has given us a greater exposure to many Catholic churches and communities throughout Italy. We praise God for this new ‘open door’ as the evangelical community remains fairly small. It is not easy to distribute more widely as there remains a resistance to non-Catholic products in most Catholic shops. Our biggest challenge, however, is the daily struggle for growth in our bookshops. As more people shop online, an increased pressure is placed on our bookshops to cover expenses. We know the importance of keeping these places open, so we ask for God’s wisdom and help.
Monday - Italy:
We give thanks to God that Samuele Di Ruocco (photo) is now Week 35 the new Director of CLC Italy. He is the first ‘Italian’ Director for the team, and we praise God for the growth of this team throughout the years. It has been a blessing for many CLCers 28
We also give thanks for the growth in our publishing with the two new titles: You and Me Forever and A Quiet Center. After many years of service with CLC, Magda Hoogerbrugge and Els Oosterhuis (former Director) both retired. Thank you Father for these strong women and their guidance and help in advancing our ministry.
to watch them grow and mature as a team. Their leadership committee, including the Director, is now all Italian. Please pray for Samuele as he adapts to his new role and responsibilities and for his team as they learn to trust Samuele to lead them in following God’s will.
Tuesday - Italy:
Please pray for the work involved in our new publishing projects and that each new title will be a blessing to many.
Wednesday - Netherlands:
We ask the Lord to help CLC Netherlands to further mobilise the Church towards evangelism as well as
Poland: Population: 38.5 million Evangelical Christians: 0.3% Date CLC work began: 1991 Ministry: Publishing, Wholesale & 2 Shops Manager: Ewa Rymer Regional Director: Gary Chamberlin Bestsellers: 5 Love Languages, Not a Fan, Mornings with Tozer (CLC) Our main focus this past year has been on publishing, and we’ve been praying that our books will become wellloved bestsellers. It has been a real joy to see this become a reality with our last couple of titles. Praise God with us! To the delight of our team, we’ve been able to have book tables at various events in the Katowice area throughout the year. It has also been a real highlight to develop more collaboration with churches. Current Challenges: - Finding a way to get our books distributed to the Catholic community. - Updating our website to the CLC International platform is a must. Our hope is that this will be accomplished by the summer of 2018. - Our Katowice shop requires some renovations and sturdy shelves built to store our publications.
become more involved in it ourselves. Please pray that we can have bookstall in markets and events that will allow us to share with people the love of God and encourage them in their walk with the Lord, no matter what situation they are facing.
Thursday - Netherlands:
In the Land of the Blue Burqas by Kate McCord is a biography that is making a big impact in our country. Kate shares about her time working in Afghanistan and her love for those suffering. The book is very well written and takes away a lot of prejudice towards people from a Muslim background. Please pray that this book will continue to soften many hearts, enabling them to reach out to the lost and hurting.
Portugal: Population: 10.8 million Evangelical Christians: 3% Date CLC work began: 1985 Ministry: Publishing, Wholesale & 1 Shop Director: Carlos Cunha Bestsellers: Noite de Deus (God’s Night), El-Shaddai, Holiness without the Halo Praise God we had a huge growth in sales (+22%), mainly due to our publishing endeavours. Our top three bestselling titles were all CLC publications. Director, Carlos Cunha, gives thanks to God and the CLC International Office for the opportunity to attend the FLIC Bookfair in Brazil. This event allowed him to meet with almost all the Brazilian Christian publishing directors. We pray that these new contacts will lead to new publishing possibilities. A design and multimedia university in Coimbra has an internship programme that allowed us to have a student (and believer!) work with us for three months. She developed our first line of postcards, bookmarks and also helped create some publicity for the ministry. What a blessing for the mission and for the student who received high marks for her work with us!
Friday - Poland:
We hope to publish ten new titles this year, four of which are Christian Focus 4 Kids books translated into Polish (The 10 Boys and 10 Girls series). Please pray that we will be able to publish all ten titles and that each one will make a huge impact.
The Weekend - Portugal:
Please pray that our sales and publishing efforts will continue to grow so we can have another worker (part-time) to assist Carlos Cunha. There are many opportunities that could be further developed if 29
Romania: Population: 21.6 million Evangelical Christians: 5.4% Date CLC work began: 1991 Ministry: Publishing, Wholesale & 2 Shops Director: Ronela Micula Bestsellers: The Secret of Happiness, Tramp for the Lord, You and Me Forever, EnglishRomanian Bible for Children (CLC) For the last few years, our staffing situation has been a concern, so we thank the Lord for providing not one, but two new workers with a real love for CLC’s ministry. The Lord’s timing is always perfect as witnessed by one of the new workers starting just two weeks after our pregnant colleague, Andrea, had to go on early maternity leave due to health complications. With this new staff, we’ve begun improving our publishing process and its quality. It is our aim to continue to develop this aspect of our ministry as it is a key part for fulfilling our mission statement. A major concern for us is our website, which requires major updating so as to attract the many people who shop online. At one point in the year when we were feeling discouraged by the lack of staff, sales and the overwhelming amount of work to be done, God once again showed us how His timing is perfect. When we were at our lowest, He provided some unexpected special orders! These orders led to making 2016 the best year in terms of sales for CLC Romania. Thank you Father for this miracle!
we had more than one member of staff. Please also pray that we will once again be able to have a Christian intern from the local university to help with all the graphic design work.
Monday - Romania:
Please pray for our new website that Cristi Cotovan (CLC International Week 36 Office) is working on. This site will be a huge blessing to the ministry, so please pray that Cristi will be able to make it ‘live’ in 2017.
Tuesday - Romania:
Our shop in Brasov requires renovating. Please
Russia: Population: 142.3 million Evangelical Christians: 1.2 % Date CLC work began: 2006 Ministry: Publishing, Wholesale & 1 Shop Director: Nikita Sapunov Bestsellers: Children’s Bible, Life of Christ and the First Church for Children, Praying to Heavenly Father, Little Hands Learning to Pray
Highlights for 2016: - The publication of Little Hands Story of Jesus by Carine MacKenzie and Tramp for the Lord by Corrie ten Boom - An order for three thousand children’s Bibles - Despite a challenging market and economy, we had a growth in our sales which exceeded the previous year. Challenges Needing Prayer: - Taxes and other administrative mandatory costs are being increased to ‘stimulate’ our economy. This is a big concern for our ministry. - More political pressure is being placed on religious freedoms, greatly impacting Christian events and now literature distribution. For this reason, we had two unexpected inspections this year. We give God all the glory for His protection.
pray that we will find the right person to help us with this task. We are so thankful to the former CLC Austria team who donated their shelving to us. Please pray that we can make the most of this gift by implementing a new shop layout that will attract more customers. *CLC Austria closed in 2016
Wednesday - Russia:
After having a booktable at a local Lutheran Cathedral we are now in talks with them about opening a CLC kiosk in their church. Please pray for this new opportunity and for the partnership needed to see this idea become a reality. 31
Spain Population: 48.5 million Evangelical Christians: 1.0% Date CLC work began: 1966 Ministry: Wholesale and 4 Bookshops Director: Darwin Ashley Vergel Dueñas Bestsellers: 5 Love Languages, 5 Love Languages for Children, King’s Cross For quite a number of years our sales have been declining, but thanks be to God as we witnessed a growth in all areas of our ministry. God has not only been faithful to us as a ministry, but also in our personal lives. Thank you Father! Alongside CLC Ecuador, we were able to assist administratively and logistically with Thompson Bible seminars held in Madrid and Barcelona (Spain) and in Bata and Malabo (Equatorial Guinea). What a blessing to help train so many! Encouraging Story: Each year we give away a basket filled with Christian books and gift items available in our shops. In Madrid, the woman who won was an unbeliever who usually stops in to purchase gifts for friends and family. She visited us recently to share how she has been enjoying many of the books and has also shared some with her employers and family. We pray that these books will continue to reach places we’d never be able to go and impact the lives of all who read them.
Switzerland: Population: 8.2 million Evangelical Christians: 4.4% Date CLC work began: 2008 Ministry: 1 Bookshop Manager: Carlo Ciafani Regional Director: Gary Chamberlin Bestsellers: Battlefield of the Mind, Follow Me (CLC), War Room & God’s Not Dead DVDs Thank you Lord for new opportunities, such as the youth event where we shared some great methods for reading and studying the Bible. This two hour discussion was appreciated by all who attended, and we hope it is an idea we can further develop and repeat elsewhere. We also thank God for Ernesto Schmitt and Giuseppe Laiso, both of whom went to be with the Lord in 2016. These men were pioneers and a vital part of the evangelical community in Canton Ticino and are greatly missed. As the former owners of our bookshop, we pray that their legacy of love will continue through our ministry.
The Weekend - Spain: Thursday - Russia:
Our plan for 2017 is to publish three more titles and we ask for your prayers with these projects. We also hope to further develop our skills and talents as a team so that we can one day be seen as experts in our field and pass on our knowledge to others.
Friday - Spain:
Please pray that our team remains united in the Spirit and keeps a positive outlook as we advance our ministry. Pray also that we will continue to improve our relationships with local churches, and to increase and stabilise our sales and manage and administer our online presence better. 32
Join us in praying that each day we will be able to see the power and work of God in our lives and ministries.
Monday - Switzerland:
In 2016, Carlo Ciafani became a father. Please pray that God will Week 37 grant him wisdom, energy and a healthy balance between his work and family responsibilities.
Tuesday - Switzerland:
After many years of declining sales, we were up by 8% in 2016. Praise God with us, and also please pray that He will continue to enable us to grow and better equip those in Switzerland.
United Kingdom: Population: 64.4 million Evangelical Christians: 8.8% Date CLC work began: 1941 Ministry: Wholesale & 17 Bookshops Director: Neil Wardrope Bestsellers: Bibles, 5 Love Languages, Jesus Calling, Living Faith, RHP £1 Classics In 2016, we celebrated the 75th anniversary of CLC UK where we began in Colchester in 1941. The stand out event was the Celebration Day during the CLC International Council meetings bringing together friends, supporters, publishers and booksellers. Thank you Lord! 2016 was also the year of growth for our wholesale department. In 2015, we moved to new premises just outside Chester, and it proved to be a huge success – and a lot of hard work! Sales from the warehouse increased by nearly 50%, achieved across a wide spectrum of customers. The Lord has also brought to us some significant and gifted new personnel. This has made possible the new Kids’ Corner publicity directed at our younger readers. We also took over an existing shop in Tonbridge while closing another in Chatham.
9781619582415
This activity means more life-giving books and Bibles are being distributed around the world.
The biggest challenge was undoubtedly the strokes suffered by two of our senior leaders – Eddie Olliffe and Mick Goodman. This required a significant overhaul of our leadership, twice! As a result, priorities needed to be changed and some projects delayed, like implementing the wholesale’s computer system into our shops. Using Every Opportunity: Because of employment law, we cannot insist that workers in our warehouse are Christians. However, this enables us to share with our fellow team members. An agency worker in the period leading up to Christmas was so impressed by working for CLC that his wife bought him his first ever Bible for Christmas!
Wednesday - United Kingdom:
Although there are signs of improvement for our retail ministry, expenses also continue to rise. The London shop’s rent was increased by 50%, which made us seriously question whether to continue in central London. Please pray with us.
Thursday - United Kingdom:
With increased customer expectation, we hope to launch a new retail website this year that will enable our bookshops and website to have
Africa Benin: Population: 10.7 million Evangelical Christians: 8.3% Date CLC work began: 1998 Ministry: 1 Bookshop Director: Emmanuel Ladeyo Bestsellers: Bibles, 5 Love Languages, Couple et Complices, Power of a Praying Wife Our country is in an economic crisis and, as such, our 2016 sales were down over 12,000,000 CFA francs (over £16,000/$20,000 USD). Despite this, we praise God that our bookshop stands firm and without any debt! It is our hope that through bookstalls and other events we will find a way to make the public more aware of CLC’s ministry and also increase our sales. Please pray that the Lord will help us to find and make the most of these opportunities.
Encouraging Stories:
- We had a customer who bought 300 Bibles in one order. Praise God! - We were praying for the thief that stole a very expensive Bible from our shop. A few days later he returned to confess! We thank the Lord for showing His presence in this situation.
Population: 19.5 million Evangelical Christians: 8.9% Date CLC work began: 1991 Ministry: 1 Bookshop Director: Sami Luc Noufé Bestsellers: An Extraordinary Faith, The Fear of the Lord, 21 Spiritual Laws For the last two years, our ministry has struggled in the Gonghin area of Ouagadougou. Some days, our sales were even as low as 1 or 2 dollars! We thank the Lord for providing the opportunity to make an expedient move from that location last December. This relocation and hopeful ministry relaunch was made possible by a loan we received from CLC Colombia. Praise God! Please also pray that our loyal and new customers will find us at our new location. Please pray that we will faithfully fulfil our responsibilities, find new opportunities for events and bookstalls and wisdom in promoting CLC’s ministry. Through these endeavours and God’s blessing, we hope to be able to pay back our loan and move forward as a ministry.
exactly the same offers, and customers will be able to choose to receive items by post or to ‘click and collect’. We also hope to be able to add eBooks to the website before the end of the year.
own property and expand into other areas in the country. We also hope to digitalise our shop system so one day we can have a website.
Friday - Benin:
We ask the Lord for help in setting up a dedicated intercessory Week 38 prayer group for our ministry so we can become a sustainable ministry and someday open a secondary branch.
In 2018, we will celebrate our 20th anniversary of ministry in Benin. In preparation for the event we are planning to have next June, it is our hope that we will be able to renovate the shop front. Please pray that our sales will increase to allow for this.
The Weekend - Benin: 34
Burkina Faso:
Please pray that our ministry will not just continue in Benin but advance! It is our hope to one day
Monday - Burkina Faso:
Tuesday - Côte d’Ivoire:
Please pray God will best equip us to be able to help people find nourishment for their souls through healthy and edifying literature. May the
Côte d’Ivoire:
Liberia
Population: 23.7 million Evangelical Christians: 10.5% Date CLC work began: 1961 Ministry: 2 Bookshops Director: Martine Foto Bestsellers: Me and My Big Mouth, The Anointing of His Spirit, Powerful Thoughts
Population: 4.3 million Evangelical Christians: 14.6% Date CLC work began: 1947-95, 2012- Present Ministry: 1 Bookshop Director: James Cooper Bestsellers: The Pastor’s Pal, Led to Lead (CLC), How to Read the Bible for All its Worth
What a blessing it was for our National Director, Martine Foto, to obtain a UK visa in time to attend CLC’s 75th anniversary celebrations and council meetings in 2016. Another highlight for our team was to receive a visit from the Director of Livr’Afrique, Mr Eric Immer, with his collaborator, Virginie, and the Director of Vida (one of the major French publishing houses), Mr Jean Luc Cosnard. May God continue to help us build strong relationships with our partners.
Our team is to honoured to be equipping God’s people through His Word. Watching so many reach out to their neighbors, as well as witnessing marriages and families growing together in faith reminds us what a great privilege, responsibility and joy it is to be called by God to this task!
A major concern for us at the moment is the many pirated copies of popular titles being sold in our country. Our customers do not realise that this is the case and often complain about our high prices since we get the titles direct from publishers. We also pay dearly for customs when our books arrive by express delivery according to the supplier’s conditions. There is also stiff competition with other Christian shops, plus pedlars and freelancers, who attend every event in the country with their bookstalls with pirated books. We ask for the Lord’s wisdom and guidance through these difficult times.
Laban, one of our young workers, shared, “In addition to having a more intimate relationship with Christ, working with CLC has improved my morals and is helping me to become a more focused and responsible adult.” Praise God! Although sales have been down for the year, we give thanks to God that we received a very prompt service in the clearing and forwarding of shipping containers, irrespective of a great many hurdles. We are so grateful for our new Book Mobile. We are optimistic that sales will be better since we have several out-of-town trips already planned. May God help us to reach out to the many people who have never had the opportunity to come to Monrovia and take advantage of our products and services. Photo: Laban D. (Liberia)
Photo on the left: Martine F. (Côte d’Ivoire) and Liz P. (Regional Director) at Heathrow Airport, June 2016.
Spirit direct us to the titles which will best promote their spiritual growth and maturity in the Lord.
Wednesday - Côte d’Ivoire:
Praise God for the customer who was so moved upon hearing us discuss the importance of nourishing our souls with Christian literature that he purchased a very large number of books for himself and others.
Please pray that our situation will improve and that we will have a free, fair and non-violent election.
Thursday - Liberia:
Friday - Liberia:
This year there has been a huge decline in our sales due to the economic situation and the upcoming election. People are being extra careful with their funds just in case things turn chaotic.
We ask the Father to help us to continue to build and strengthen our relationships with churches and Christian events. May our new Book Mobile ministry allow us to reach out to even more
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Kenya: Population: 46.8 million Evangelical Christians: 48.9% Date CLC work began: 2007 Ministry: Publishing, Wholesale & 2 Shops Director: Patrick Omukhango Bestsellers: God on Fire (CLC), Church on Fire (CLC), Purpose Driven Life 2016 Highlights: - We give thanks for our new Finance & Operations Manager and Business Development Manager. We continue to pray for a reliable Sales and Marketing Executive. - We thank the Father for the healthy babies that were born in 2016 to two of our team’s families. - We were scheduled to move due to a sudden rent increase; however, the landlord changed his mind and allowed us to stay on with our existing terms. Praise God! - Thank you God for answering our prayer for some add-on upgrades for our POD system equipment. These extra features make our work so much easier and more efficient. We can now serve more authors each day as our daily output has increased significantly. - We are grateful to God for the improved interaction with Liz Patten and Petra Nemansky from the Africa Regional Office. These two ladies are an answer to prayer for the work in Kenya. - Thank you Father for the opportunity to start a book reading programme to train church leaders. We pray that God will continue to create more opportunities like these that serve both our nation and CLC’s minsitry.
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Monday - Kenya:
Thank you Father for answering our prayer enabling us to be the main Week 39 distributor of the Africa Study Bible in East Africa. Please join us in praying that the Lord will make this Bible a blessing to the church in East Africa and that it will be well endorsed and used by many.
Tuesday - Mozambique: people around Liberia with our books and Bibles.
The Weekend - Kenya:
Please pray that we will continue to find more opportunities for partnership, like with churches and authors. We give thanks as well that our ‘Author’s Programme’, which helps local authors through the process of publishing their own books with CLC, has been well received and is now growing. 36
Please pray that we will be able to increase our Maputo staff (nationals) from one to two so we can get twice as much done! We also hope to reach out to more Bible Schools all over the country with recommendations for their libraries.
Wednesday - Mozambique:
Our landlord has a plan to introduce photocopy services and this could mean a reduction in our shop space, which is already small. Please pray with us that an alternative can be found for the new service, or that the Lord will show us very
Nairobi Africa Study Bible Launch!
The launch of this Bible is an answer to prayer and a significant turning point in the history of Christianity in Africa. Built from the ground up over seven years by pastors and theologians in Africa who see the critical need to make scripture relevant to the everyday lives of their people, and with over 350 contributors from 50 nations who have written in excess of 2,600 features that concentrate on understanding and applying God’s Word in the African context, the ASB is truly ‘God’s Word through African eyes’. " For more information about this Bible, contact your local CLC branch or Mercy Muthoni of CLC Kenya at businessdevelopment@cblafrica.com
9781619582453
"Our attendance at the launch of the Africa Study Bible was a highly privileged occasion, with us being able to celebrate alongside a large number of Kenyans and others from surrounding nations, the emergence of a profoundly authentic Africa Bible. The Africa Study Bible is the first full Study Bible with notes written by Africans, for Africans. The idea was formulated after several years of consultation with African Christians, pastors and theologians who pointed out that in Africa over 400 million Protestant Christians are without a full study Bible written to address the spiritual needs
of their own culture. They said that it was essential to create a study Bible to reflect the knowledge, culture and wisdom of Africa for the world, bringing insight to global Christianity — and then they wrote the notes!
As we gathered for the official launch of the Africa Study Bible in a hotel in Nairobi one March morning, the sense of expectation and anticipation was palpable. Amongst the 200 or so guests present, I had the joy of sharing a table with Brian and Sheila Keel, UK missionaries working in Kenya and Rwanda. Brian and Sheila are faithful customers of CLC in Nairobi. This is what they had to say about the event:
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Mozambique: Population: 25.9 million Evangelical Christians: 11.1% Date CLC work began: 1966 Ministry: 2 Bookshops Director: Liz Patten Bestsellers: Economy Bible, Purpose Driven Life, Beloved Timothy We thank the Lord for being able to refurbish our bookshop in Maputo, using second-hand shelves from CLC UK, and also install air conditioning. We have received many appreciative comments from our customers. Please pray that we will also be able to renovate our storage and office areas in Maputo and our other shop in Beira. Praise God that we’ve sent out our first digital catalogue (booklist) to our small but growing email customer database. This is now a quarterly practice. Please pray that our database will continue to expand. We also give thanks for the generous gift we received from CLC Colombia. This gift enabled us to purchase a greater variety and volume of stock than we could otherwise have done. We know the Lord will greatly bless this team for their support. Even with this great gift, our two biggest challenges are the high cost of transporting and importing 95% of our stock from Brazil and the low customer buying power. This means we are only able to serve a small section of the Christian public. Thankfully, we have an idea that will help us begin to address this issue. More details found on page 42. clearly if we are to look for a different place. CLC Mozambique cannot afford commercial rents and our current bookshops (Maputo and Beira) are both located in theological seminaries.
Thursday - Sierra Leone:
We are still struggling with so many debts. It is our hope that we will be able to pay them all off by 2018. Please pray that the Lord will help us to find a way to achieve this dream. It would take a lot of 38
Sierra Leone: Population: 6 million Evangelical Christians: 3.9% Date CLC work began: 1966 Ministry: Publishing and 2 Bookshops Director: Donald John Bestsellers: Study Bibles, Purpose Driven Life, The Power and Purpose of Authority We thank the Lord for the opportunity to install book tables within some Anglican churches, and we hope to continue expanding this area of ministry. Even though we shut down our ministry in Makeni, we thank God that our presence is still felt in the region thanks to a local sales agent who sells our materials for a small discount. The second-hand books received from CLC USA’s BookLink project were eventually used as gifts for our customers during the month of December. Some customers are still returning to the shop and thanking us for those precious gifts. We were grateful and encouraged that the books were very meaningful to them.
pressure off us as a team and ministry.
Friday - Sierra Leone:
Praise God for the safe arrival of the Print-onDemand (POD) system we were able to purchase thanks to a special grant we received. This summer please remember our team in prayer as we install the system and begin our training.
The Weekend - Sierra Leone:
We continue to be greatly challenged by the unavailability of the popular titles that our customers are requesting. Please pray that we will find a way to meet their needs better.
FAITHFUL AND TRUE: These words remind us that God’s Word serves to reveal His character and will to us, transform our lives, and leave us in awe of His Glory. At LifeWay, we strive to be centred on the Word of God in all that we do, and we are passionate about communicating ancient truths to a contemporary audience. With this in mind, we are excited to introduce you to the CHRISTIAN STANDARD BIBLE (CSB). This fresh new translation resides in the sweet spot between meticulous fidelity to the original texts and the clarity desired by people today. Discover how CSB brings God’s transforming truth to life.
LITERAL VS. READABLE
OPTIMAL EQUIVALENCE
READABLE
Many good translations of the Bible are available today. Of course, the best translation delivers both linguistic precision and enjoyable readability. By employing a translation philosophy known as Optimal Equivalence, the CSB achieves this beautiful balance. The Christian Standard Bible shines by academic standards, yet is easy to use for personal devotions, group study, memorisation, preaching, corporate worship, and sharing with others.
LITERAL Available at all CLC UK Bookshops and CLC USA Bookcenters
The chart to the left was developed by Dr. Andi Wu of the Global Bible Initiative. It shows the results of a quantitative linguistic comparison of Bible translations. According to this analysis, the CSB provides the greatest combination of fidelity and readability. The full report is available upon request.
Connecting with Your Children Through Gameplay by Michael Ross My 14-year-old son launches into Minecraft gameplay—single player, survival mode. This means he’s all by himself in his virtual world, but he knows he’s never truly alone. “Creatures hide in the shadows,” he tells me, “so stay alert.” CLICK … CLICK … CLICK. With each tap on his mouse, an amazing landscape comes into focus: brightly coloured flowers and cocoa pods spawn (or spring up) everywhere, and just overhead is a tangled canopy of leaves and vines. I scoot closer to the computer screen and squint. “Incredible,” I tell him. “Indiana Jones would love this place!” “It’s called the Jungle M biome,” Christopher says as he pans around and gives me a tour, “and it’s my favourite.” “How many Minecraft biomes are there?” I ask. “Something like sixty-three,” he tells me. “Icy regions, deserts, mountains, oceans … everything! This one has the most resources, so I like to build stuff here.” Biomes … resources … adventure … stuff to build! I quickly clue in that this is no ordinary game. It’s more like a training ground for creativity! And everything is made up of cube-shaped blocks. As Christopher explores his surroundings, he knows he can’t waste a second. Nighttime comes fast in the game. “If I’m going to survive,” he says, “I’ve got to get busy.” So he collects wood and stone. He makes simple tools. He builds himself a shelter. And as the sun begins to set, his adrenaline starts to surge—the part of the game he enjoys most. “OK, Dad—better get ready,” Christopher warns. 40
“For the next ten minutes it’s going to be dark, which means … they’re coming!” “Uh oh,” I groan. “Do monsters invade?” “Armies of them!”he says.“But not just any monster. Look, it’s a creeper—a.k.a. Creepus Explodes. The only thing I can do is … RUN!” I watch as Christopher outmanoeuvres the threat, makes a series of good choices—and ultimately finds safety. “Impressive moves,” I tell him. “Creepers are fast and stealthy,” Christopher says. “If you’re not careful, they’ll sneak up on you. And then it’s game over.” “Hmmm … it’s kind of like life in the real world,” I add. My mind begins to reel with all kinds of connections to life, faith … God. As my son launches into new adventures, we both laugh and talk—and I take the opportunity to help him make some of those eternal connections.
Invade Their World (Without Invading Their Space)
Catching quality time with our children is always a top priority—and what could be better than invading their high-tech worlds? As I followed Christopher into the mysterious landscapes of his favourite game, I began to see firsthand what captivates his imagination. And, little by little, we connected in unexpected and highly creative ways. As we talked, I couldn’t help tying his virtual playground to life in the real world. But I didn’t stop there. The more we bonded during gameplay, the more I connected his world with the one God wants him to experience.
Actually, this is what motivated me to write a book with my son—Building Faith Block by Block: An Unofficial Minecraft Guide. Let’s be honest: family life moves at a frantic pace. Even our kids are scheduled down to the half-hour: school, church, sports, extracurricular commitments, birthday parties, sleepovers. Yet, as our ‘to-do’ lists keep growing, the time we have left to shape and influence them keeps shrinking. (Adulthood comes all too soon.) And like it or not, our kids must find their way through a labyrinth of choices. So taking every opportunity to spend time with them is essential.
Need some ideas? Try this … Establish a weekly family night or afternoon… and stick with it. Devote these times to having fun with your child, laughing and playing together. Your goal is to reinforce the bonds of family and faith. Opportunities to teach and guide them will flow naturally. (Trust me on this.) Connect through gameplay and social media. Don’t be intimated by keyboards and game
controllers. It really isn’t that hard, and besides, your kids know the ropes. They’ll be thrilled that you’re stepping into their world. Take these moments to listen to your child. Ask open-ended questions: “What is school like?” “Tell me why you like this game.”“Who is the bully in our neighbourhood?” Clue into their challenges. ‘Tweens’ and young teens (children ages 9 – 14) have real issues with self-identity, self-esteem and acceptance. Cliques form and rejection by peers is a big issue as well as excelling at school and meeting parental expectations. Having consistent family time— and fostering a culture that affirms and accepts them— can provide a safe place for them as they experience these significant challenges. Michael Ross is a husband and a father and the author of more than 38 books for parents and teenagers, including Building Faith Block by Block. ISBN: 9780736970853
CLC World Reviews: More Recommendations All the Pretty Things by Edie Wadsworth Review: Heather Cousins, CLC World Reviewer
320pp ISBN: 9781496403384
This book is a you won’t be able to put down and a must-read. This memoir of Edie’s life and journey involves many twists and turns, heartaches and joys. She is very candid and vulnerable in talking about growing up in a fractured and dysfunctional family, from poverty to alcoholism to crime. It is a story of God’s grace and mercy amidst pain, poverty, heartache and struggle. The beauty of this true story is that God our Father meets us in the middle of our ‘mess’ and never lets go. We can walk away, ignore His care, but He continues to reach out to us through each circumstance in our lives. This is a story of resilience, love, family and grace, and how God can make something beautiful of out of ashes.
Serving God in a Migrant Crisis by Patrick Johnstone & Dean Merrill
138pp Reviewer: Mark-Anthony Buchanan, CLC Dundee 9781910786567 (UK) / 9781941405246 (USA)
This must-read book is a direct call for all Christians to respond to Jesus’ words in the gospel of Matthew: I was a stranger and you welcomed me (Matt. 25: 35). Johnstone (Operation World) shares, “God has used migration for millennia to achieve His purposes for His people; He is doing so again in our time. The world has literally come to our doorstep... Will we open the door?” The book is divided into three sections: What’s Going On (an informed background to the crisis), What to Know (sensitising us to the historical and biblical perspective), and What to Do (the practical application). This information, plus the discussion questions at the end of each chapter, makes it an ideal book for small groups to read together. 41
Graphic from Daryl?
‘THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING!’ How would you feel if you were asked to pay £160/$200 for a Bible? And no, we
aren’t talking about a fancy, specialised leather Bible, rather the cheapest paperback in the shop. Unthinkable! Yet sadly, this is the reality in Mozambique. Given that the minimum monthly income is around £80/$100 and nearly all the Bibles are imported from Brazil, the accumulating costs (freight, customs, etc.) make even the cheapest Bible very expensive! (The proportion of minimum income required to buy a Bible would equate to £160/$200 in the UK / USA.) Although we’ve researched many possible solutions, such as subsidising the cost of Bibles, we know through experience that financial aid only lasts for a season. Once it expires, the Bibles once again become unavailable for extended periods. By the grace of God, CLC Mozambique has
devised a new Bible project we hope you will pray for. Joining forces with other CLC International teams, we plan to raise £33,000/$42,000 and purchase a print run of 10,000 Bibles from the Portuguese Bible Society. (This amount also includes the cost of transporting the Bibles, the importation process, and some plastic covers to protect the Bibles.) By selling each Bible a little above the cost price, yet at a price that many Mozambicans can afford, we will be able to reinvest these funds into another print run. In this way, we hope to ensure that this project will continue to fund itself for years to come.
Will you help us meet this challenge?
With your gift, an ongoing supply of Bibles can be made available for the growing Mozambican church. How wonderful to know you’ve helped to put a Bible in the hands of someone in need with a gift that keeps on giving!
Other ongoing CLC Projects include: • Myanmar’s publication of the first-ever Burmese Study Bible • CLC USA BookLink or Book Aid (UK): Second-hand books sent to countries in need • Support a CLC country or local team 42
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43 25
Celebrating 65 years of this Beloved Classic on Christian Belief
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