A Note From the Editor, Amanda Lutes: First and foremost, I’d like to apologise for the extreme delay in getting this magazine out to everyone. Last May, as I was working on this magazine, I started experiencing migraines, which became a continuous pain, interspersed by major flare ups. By the end of the month, I was unable to work at all. Nearly six months later, I am finally seeing some improvement. Praise God! He has been so faithful to me during this difficult time, and I am so grateful to my CLC family for their prayers, love and support. A special thank you to Neil and Sheena Wardrope, Alessandra Plantania and Jacqui Burne for their major assistance in helping to complete this magazine. Thank you for your patience, and I hope you will find this magazine has been worth the wait!
Colourful. Diverse. United. Colourful, diverse and united are probably among the best words to describe the work of CLC around the world, and you will be able to feel that throughout the pages of this World Report. It’s delightful to see how people from 47 countries with varied cultural backgrounds and experiences and with different spiritual, social and economic realities can be united with the same purpose and vision.
Bible Distribution:
In many African countries, there is a need for affordable Bibles. Thanks to funds from several CLC countries and gifts from foundations and individuals, at the end of the year, a shipment of 10,000 Bibles in Portuguese was sent to Mozambique. Christians in the country were excited to receive these Bibles. We will now start similar projects for Spanish and Englishspeaking countries.
Global CLC Publications Project: The CLC
Project to double Global Publishing started in January 2014. At that time, our ‘publishing inventory’ was 2.000 titles, published in 15 countries and 16 languages. We provide ongoing training to ensure that our work is of a high standard. With some generous donations, we have been able to subsidise the publishing efforts in a number of countries. In the past three years, CLC has been able to cooperate with Josh McDowell Ministries to print many of his books in various languages—including the bestseller More than a Carpenter in Dutch
and Italian. Now our CLC teams in Italy, France, Russia and Poland are beginning to work on the translation of the updated version of Evidence that Demands a Verdict. Praise God that by December 2017, CLC had 2.865 titles in print in 22 countries and in 22 languages, a significant increase from just four years ago.
CLC Digital Project:
The digital world continues to be our ‘great challenge’. This year we have been able to take some concrete steps that we hope will give abundant fruit in the coming years. The digital project not only covers selling online—that is already a reality in many of our countries—but also the launch of a digital platform for the distribution of eBooks, and access to a Printon-Demand platform. In this way, we can face the new challenges with more confidence. We are very grateful to the team of people that is anonymously working behind these global CLC projects, and without them, this significant progress would not have been possible. We are also thankful that God has provided the necessary resources through people and organisations willing to support the extension of the Kingdom of God by these projects.
Gerardo Scalante, CLC International Director 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.
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