May 2014 1 Thu. Expolit – May 1st-4th Every May, CLC staff from Spanish-speaking countries attend ‘Expolit’ – a Christian book fair held in Miami. Pray that this time would once again prove beneficial in all sorts of ways. Praise God for the resources available and ask Him to guide us as we look at new material for distribution and make contacts with like-minded organisations and individuals. May all be done to His glory. 2 Fri. Expolit – From www.expolit.com “The purpose of Expolit is to promote the growth and development of the Christian industry on a global scale. We believe in taking the Word of God to all parts of the world through literature, music and any other product that spreads His transforming message. We encourage and motivate editorial companies, the music industry, ministries, distributors, etc. so that books, music, and similar products can be attainable to the public.” Please pray for everyone involved in Expolit. 3-4 Sat/Sun. UK – Trade Changes A major UK supplier, Trust Media Distribution, ceased trading towards the end of March. Please pray for the staff there as they cope with the loss of work and look for new jobs. Please pray also for the UK Christian book trade as it again adjusts to new conditions and works out where to get stock. Pray too for the CLC warehouse staff as they cope with the extra workload this has meant. May they maintain an efficient and friendly service.
5 Mon. – CLC Leaders Today a number of CLC leaders who have been attending Expolit in Miami will be meeting together for fellowship, prayer and a time of sharing and planning before they return home to their countries of service.
6 Tue. Colombia – CLC and Biblica “We are delighted to announce that an agreement has been reached between CLC Colombia and Biblica for us to act as their distributors in Colombia. This agreement will also allow us to print Bibles for all of the Spanish-speaking CLC countries. We are currently working on a project to publish a ‘missionary Bible’ that we will be able to distribute for a very modest price. Pray that this new arrangement will permit us to distribute the Word of God to even more people throughout the Spanishspeaking world.” Elsa Maria Sanchez 7 Wed. Bulgaria – Difficult Decisions Please pray for the CLC Bulgaria team in Sofia as they have a difficult administrative decision to make. It will affect the taxes we have to charge our customers and any of the options involve a lot of work, and have implications for our customers. These issues are not our ‘core business’ but they take up a lot of time and energy.
8 Thu. USA – CLC Publications Please pray for Dave Almack and Sherif Gendy as they represent CLC Publications and attend CLC’s International publishing conference in Korea later this month. This event will be an important time of collaboration between the various publishing teams from around the world with the goal of significantly increasing our publishing work in the years to come.
CLC USA’s & CLC Korea’s New Releases!
9 Fri. Papua New Guinea – Complications PNG suffers from intermittent power cuts and an unreliable power supply. In February a black-out caused CLC’s Point of Sale computer to crash and important sales data was lost, although thankfully it was retrievable. The same happened with the accounts PC but again, because of backups, the data was not lost completely. Reentering the data is a time-consuming job and Vere Babona, who directs the CLC work in PNG, would like to have new software installed to avoid this problem in the future. 10-11 Sat/Sun. UK – Customer Visits While the web sites sales are growing, many of the UK shops continue to see a decline in customer visits and sales through the shops. Many would echo the prayer request from CLC Chatham for an increase in footfall. Pray for the UK Leadership Team and Trustees as they steer the mission through another period of rapid change. 12 Mon. Belarus – Orders from the Ukraine Although CLC does not work directly in the Ukraine, many of us are praying about the current political situation in the country. A lot
of Christian books are published in the Ukraine - perhaps as much as one third of all Christian books in Russian - and CLC Belarus orders from these publishers. Even before the recent unrest and changes, we had problems in arranging shipments due to border controls and now it looks as if it will be even harder. Please pray about this situation – for CLC and for the publishers and their work. 13 Tue. Korea - Hosts Please pray for the CLC leaders and staff, from Asia and beyond, arriving in Korea for various CLC conferences over the next few days, from May 14th to the 22nd. Pray too for CLC Korea as the ‘host nation’ as the team welcome and look after the attendees. Pray for good fellowship and communication over these days. 14 Wed. International Publishing Today and tomorrow there will be a publishing conference for a number of our Asian countries together with some international delegates. Please pray that it will be an important time of learning from each other, and strategising for the future. The conference is hosted by our team from Korea who have CLC’s largest publishing operation.
15 Thu. Pakistan - Publishing Please pray for two titles currently in the process of being published by CLC in Pakistan. The Urdu edition of ‘I dared to call Him Father’ is being re-printed and Lee Strobel’s ‘The Case for Christ’ is a new Urdu title. Both books were due to be released in 2013 but with Justin’s co-worker, Sohail, being unwell for several months, the work was delayed. 16 Fri. Asian Regional Leaders From Friday until Monday the leaders from around Asia will be meeting outside Seoul, Korea. This is a time of vision, training and encouragement. Please pray for all the delegates that they will be refreshed and inspired. 17-18 Sat/Sun. UK - Conference The annual CLC UK conference runs from May 18th to 21st. Prayer would be appreciated for good fellowship and spiritual refreshment as staff and friends gather. Pray for Mick Brooks of CWR as he speaks at the three ‘Worship and Word’ sessions and others who will be contributing.
21 Wed. Regional Directors’ Meetings From today until Friday, the Regional Directors will be meeting in Seoul, Korea for their regular conference. Please pray for the issues and opportunities that need to be addressed. As this will be the fourth in a series of conferences held in Korea over two weeks, pray for the energy and inspiration to hear clearly from God regarding these important matters. 22 Thu. Cote d’Ivoire – New Management Please pray for our remaining two shops in Cote d’Ivoire, in Abidjan and Bouaké, both of which have been under new management since February. Pray that we can get the right stock at the right time and at the right price. Pray for Martine and her assistant Marlene (Abidjan - photo below) and Marie (Bouaké - photo above). Also pray that we can finally conclude the sale of our apartment in Abidjan so that we can settle a large supplier debt.
19 Mon. WEC Intercon Today, WEC’s International Council (Intercon) gathers for almost two weeks of meetings in Seoul, Korea. Please pray for our brothers and sisters in WEC as they spend this important time together. CLC grew out of WEC and we continue to have strong fellowship links around the world. 20 Tue. CLC @ WEC Intercon By a happy coincidence, having attended the CLC Asia meetings, CLC’s Regional Directors will already be in Seoul and have accepted an invitation to spend a day with our WEC colleagues (see yesterday’s information about Intercon). Pray for new and productive relationships to be formed between us.
CLC Abidjan Bookshop: Left: Martine (Manager) Right: Marlene (Assistant)
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23 Fri. Hungary – Worship Event “The annual music/worship event ‘This Is the Day’ will be held on the 24th of May. It will feature Newsboys, Martin Smith, Graham Kendrick and a number of Hungarian artists. To complement this there will be the Mission Expo, where many Christian organisations will be represented and CLC will have a book table. Please pray for us as this gives a great opportunity to make new contacts as well as very good sales.” Zsolt Karpati (Poster below: ‘Er az a nap!’ means ‘This is the day!’)
26 Mon. France – Livr’Afrique Hervé Lessous, the National Director for CLC France, is also a member of the Board of Livr’Afrique. Tomorrow, May 27th, Hervé will take part in the Board Meeting and General Assembly of Livr’Afrique. Please pray for wisdom and that the right decisions will be made. 27 Tue. Swaziland – Board Members’ Role CLC Swaziland is seeing a change of Board members as TWR missionaries Steve & Lorraine Stavroplous moved on to Benin this month. Please pray for the remaining five Board members, three of whom are new to this responsibility. Their role is crucial, especially during this prolonged period of having no bookshop manager. One of the new Board members, a Pastor, has offered to do colportage with the Study Bibles we stock. 28 Wed. Philippines – Staff Needs At the time of writing, two bookshops in the Philippines are in need of extra staff. CLC Cebu recently relocated and has a new manager currently assisted by a member of the CLC team from Manila. The Manager of CLC Davao, in the south of the Philippines, left CLC last month. This relatively new bookshop, with all new staff, needs someone with experience to manage the shop. Please pray for God’s wisdom and provision as the leadership team seek the right staff for these situations.
24-25 Sat/Sun. UK - Birmingham Give thanks for the greatly increased sales in the Birmingham shop in Stephenson Street now that the building developments in the area are largely complete. While CLC continues to run this shop until at least the end of the lease, pray for our new shop opening in the Carrs Lane premises, previously used by Wesley Owen. Pray for the staff teams running both operations in Birmingham. Page 4 (May)
29 Thu. Philippines – Transferring Staff “Transferring staff from one shop to another is very demanding as they have to adapt to a new culture and cross language barriers*. Also, the position they leave behind will be vacant and some team members will have to take on an added workload. Please pray that we can cope with these adjustments.” Romualdo Macinas *According to Wikipedia, there are some 120 to 175 languages in the Philippines, depending on the method of classification!
30 Fri. CA1 – 15 Years In June, our bookshop will be 15 years old. Please pray that, as we advertise and celebrate this milestone, the Lord would bless our sales and contacts. Pray too that we will be able to use this time to introduce, or re-introduce, people to the power of books to change lives. 31 Sat. UK – Christian Resources Together The CRT annual retreat for the UK Christian Book trade takes place June 2nd and 3rd. About half the shop managers and a team from CLC Wholesale will attend. As the book trade continues to face uncertainties and upheavals, particularly in the area of distribution, pray that this event will continue to bring together all parties in a spirit of mutual care, concern and support for the good of Christian literature in the UK.
June 2014 1 Sun. UK – Christian Resources Together (*Same as May 31st - See above.)
Edeltraud Heumann, who manages the shop, needs more time to be with, and to care for, her husband Armin who has been seriously ill for many years. Pray for God’s guidance in planning the necessary changes for this shop’s future. 4 Wed. USA – Team Trip “Please pray for a small team from CLC USA – Dave and Dianne Desch, Davy Montgomery and team leader Keith Beale - as they travel to Sierra Leone in June to help with the remodelling and renovation of two bookshops. This is a follow-up trip from the one that took place in 2012 when the main bookshop in Freetown was expanded and remodelled.” Dave Almack 5 Thu. Spain – New Madrid Centre At the time of writing, the date has not been confirmed but it is hoped that in these days the new combined bookshop/warehouse will be inaugurated in Madrid. A location has been identified and the necessary modifications are being made. This move will require changes in the way the staff operate the new centre. It is very close to our current bookshop in the heart of Madrid.
2 Mon. Indonesia – New Shop It was not ‘planned’ by CLC in Indonesia, but recently God gave the team an opportunity to take over an existing Christian bookshop that has been in operation for five years. This shop, a corner booth in a shopping centre, has been under CLC management since the beginning of March. It will operate under its original name until July when CLC hope to take on a full year contract and change the shop name to CLC. 3 Tue. Austria - Graz Marina Sautter has been helping in the CLC bookshop for several months but will be leaving when she gets married in July. Please pray for the wedding preparations and that God will guide her and her husband as they plan their future. At the same time,
6 Fri. Uruguay – New Mobile Bookshop Praise the Lord for a new CLC vehicle for mobile work. CLC Uruguay has a well established mobile ministry that covers much of the country and this van will be well used! Page 5
7-8 Sat/Sun. UK - Blackpool Pray for CLC Blackpool as they are now in the middle of their tourist season. Visitors to the town ‘do the shops’ and enter the bookshop to see what we have to offer. Pray that they may find it a place of peace and calm, and pray for Sheena Burwell and the team as they minister to believers and non-believers in this spiritually needy holiday town. 9 Mon. Mozambique – Bookshop Timetable “We are looking at re-structuring the bookshop timetable in Maputo, in order to be available when activities are going on at the Bible School where we are located. Please pray that we can recruit suitable staff with the flexibility to make this possible. Also, this bookshop is the registration centre for a pastors’conference in July. Please pray that as many come to register, they may find good things at CLC!” Liz Patten 10 Tue. Austria – Trade Contacts “At the end of June the representatives of our publishers are coming and we need to order all the material for the Christmas season. Please pray for wisdom in making orders and for some personal time with these people to encourage them and be a witness for Jesus. Some of them don’t know the Lord personally.” Edeltraud Heumann 11 Wed. Poland – Franklin Graham Franklin Graham will be holding an evangelistic festival in Warsaw on June 14th and 15th. He will also be visiting Katowice on June 12th for a meeting in the cathedral where CLC will be holding a book table. CLC Poland will have three Franklin Graham titles and two Billy Graham titles printed and available in time for this visit. Although we are not distributing the books at the Warsaw festival, we pray that there will be a very large interest in these titles across all of Poland! Please pray that they will sell well and that many lives will be blessed. Page 6 (June)
12 Thu. Brazil – World Cup The football World Cup in Brazil starts today and runs for the next month. Although CLC does not currently work in Brazil, many countries where we do work will be represented in the competition! There may well be some light-hearted chat between CLC members who follow this sport but, on a much more serious note, a lot of literature evangelism will be taking place around the games’ venues; please pray that this will make an impact for the Kingdom. 13 Fri. Portugal – Publishing Progress Carlos Cunha, who manages the bookshop in Coimbra, is starting a publishing arm of CLC Portugal. The first book will be Holiness Without the Halo by Stuart and Jill Briscoe. It was anticipated that the book would be complete by now, but delays mean it will not be ready until the second half of this year. Please pray for steady progress, and blessing from the end result.
Bolton Christian Bookshop (1964 - 2014)
50
years
of ministry & service
Join us Friday, 20th June at 7pm for an evening of celebration and thanksgiving to God
14-15 Sat/Sun. UK – OM/CLC Bolton Guest Speaker : On George Friday June 20th, CLC Bolton is hosting Verwer (OM) an evening event at Claremont Church with George Other Verwer of Operation Mobilisation Special Guests: The Bishop of Bolton - Rev. Chris Edmondson asCLC the speaker. celebrates the 50th International UK Director This - Phil Burnham Anniversary of the founding of the OM Event Location: Claremont Church, St.Georges Road, Bolton, BL1 2BYwhich is now run by Bookshop in Bolton, (Near the Town Centre - Good parking facilities) CLC. Pray for good numbers to attend and a joyous and inspiring evening.
16 Mon. Ecuador – Thompson Bible “We give thanks for the Thompson Bible seminars that have taken place in conjunction with CLC Ecuador recently. The seminars provide teaching and encouragement for those in ministry - pastors and leaders - and have been appreciated in the various cities where the sessions have been held. We also thank God for the benefit to CLC as we make new contacts and, of course, sell more Bibles.” Carlos Marin 17 Tue. Philippines – New Website Currently we are working on a new website that will be able to respond to new market trends. We trust that this new website will enable us to develop our ministry. 18 Wed. Colombia - Two New Bookshops CLC Colombia was asked recently to take over two existing bookshops in the city of Ibagué. Ibagué is about an hour’s drive from Bogota and is known as the music capital of the country. Both bookshops are now being managed by CLC staff; Kike Aguierre and María del Carmen Castañedas. 19 Thu. Cyprus - Limassol “A group of young Christians in Limassol is planning to start a mini library/Christian bookshop sometime in June or July. It will be run on a voluntary basis and will be open to the public as well as believers. As this group consider CLC an important ministry, they want to help us and so they asked if we could provide books and gifts on a sale or return basis, which they will sell for us. It is encouraging that those involved are young and have hearts to evangelise and the desire to see the book ministry develop. Please pray for this project in Limassol, a city with a large evangelical community.” Sotos and Eva Photiades (CLC Nicosia) 20 Fri. USA – CLC Publications Please pray for Kevin Walker and Dave Almack as they represent CLC Publications
at the International Christian Retail Show in Atlanta from June 22nd to the 25th. This is an important time of meeting with international Christian retailers and presenting CLC’s new books to a global audience. 21-22 Sat/Sun. UK – Ipswich ‘Talitha Koum’, an Ipswich based charity, was set up to help girls recovering from alcohol and drug addictions after 5 prostitutes were murdered in the town in 2006. A centre is under construction to house a ‘Christian therapeutic community’ for those recovering. CLC Ipswich had the privilege of donating 12 Good News Bibles to Talitha Koum. They were presented to Ken Donaldson, the project Director. Photo of Ken with Penny (CLC Ipswich) 23 Mon. ICRS The international book trade fair ICRS started yesterday in Atlanta and runs until June 25th. A number of our CLC teams will be represented – the USA, the Caribbean, India and the UK - and there is always opportunity for fellowship with each other, and with publishers and other distributors. Pray for key relationships to be established. 24 Tue. eBooks We continue to move forward in faith towards the development and implementation of our eBook platform. Please pray that we will fulfil the words of Matthew 24:14 through this tool for the digital age. eBooks give us the opportunity to reach people that have been outside our sphere of influence until now. 25 Wed. Ecuador – Wholesale Location CLC Ecuador is looking to relocate their warehouse. Please pray as, at the time of Page 7 (June)
writing, there is an opportunity to buy a plot of land belonging to a Christian radio station. The land is well situated in a commercial sector with good access and there are various evangelical churches in the area too. 26 Thu. France – Financial Analysis Tomorrow the Board will meet in France to consider the financial position of the ministry. The book industry is being challenged to change in many ways. Pray that the directors of CLC France will have a clear sense of direction for the coming months and years, being prudent with our resources while holding on to our vision. 27 Fri. PNG – Demand for Bibles “There is a high demand for Compact KJV Bibles for Christian School students this year, and for the Good News Pocket Bibles for public schools due to Religious Instruction classes being introduced in public schools in Port Moresby. This is encouraging, but we don’t have enough stock to meet the demand! Pray for us as we look for a better way to source these Bibles and at a reasonable freight cost.” Vere Babona 28-29 Sat/Sun. UK – Tour de France! The Tour de France cycle race is starting its 3rd UK stage in Cambridge on July 7th.
It starts just round the corner from the CLC Cambridge bookshop and goes past the shop very soon after. The cyclists will be going past quickly of course, but not as fast as they will go once they get on the route to London! Please pray as we hope to prepare an attractive window display, and work with local churches in using this opportunity to spread the good news to visitors and spectators. 30 Mon. Prayer Times Most, if not all, our CLC teams have regular prayer times – even if it is just one or two people together before opening the bookshop for the day. Please pray that in the midst of busy lives and work schedules, we will all give priority to prayer. Some teams get together to pray via a conference call. CLC Canada do this twice a week, linking the four shops, wholesale and office staff. Of course it does not need to be limited to local staff, other CLC members can be invited to join in and share CLC news for prayer from their country as well!
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