A Dream Come True!
Yippeee and hallelujah! Our first book is being printed in Kenya through our partners in Nairobi! Thank you to Grace and the team from CLC Nairobi, who have helped us to make our dream come true. Now we no longer have to ship books to this region. 🙂
We decided to start with I Want to Be an Airline Pilot. Children love this story, and I know many of you do, too. The first 100 books will go to Education Bridge Africa as a ‘first fruits’ gift. If you’d like to join us and add a book or two, or several, or 100, or even 1,000, please visit the ‘Donate’ page. Every book has the potential to touch many young lives, as they will be going to schools desperate for resources.
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In some cases, in deprived areas, the schools have no reading books! Not one! This shocking statistic shows there really is a desperate need. Education Bridge Africa have the vision to make sure every childhas access to reading books.
Your gift will:
1. Help children with their education, and so give them a chance to escape from poverty
2. Give them the joy of story
3. Show them they have a Father in heaven who cares for them.
The truth is, we can not give books away without your help. We just do not have unlimited funds. But we want to help, too, of course!
So we will match your donation. If you buy one book to give away, we will have two printed as a gift. If you buy one hundred, we will have two hundred printed. Every £5 you give will therefore supply two books.
You can visit the Donate page on our website for more details.
More Fabulous News – Mystery in the Snow in Croatian
There’s a bit of a story behind this book – I received a letter purporting to be from Parcel Force last week, saying they had a package for Dernier Publishing, but due to inadequate address details, they were unable to deliver it. I could ring the number and pay extra for delivery to another address… etc, etc… it sounded like a scam to me!
I decided to visit the depot and take the letter with me – lo and behold, there really was a parcel, which held two copies of Mystery in the Snow in Croatian!
As you know, Figulus, a Christian publishing house in Croatia, has published some of our books in the past… this is the latest.
This hardback book is a beautiful gift for any young reader – not just a lovely book with a fun story, but a story bearing good news, with characters just like them.
Please do pray for the Croatian children who read our books (Figulus have also published The Treasure Hunt and three of our Beech Bank Girls books).
According to the latest census, 86.28% of Croats are Catholic, 4.44% Orthodox, 1.4% are Muslims and 0.34% are Protestant. We pray that these little books will change lives!
(Quick question: do you think we should follow suit and bring out some of our books in hardback? Would you be more likely to buy a hardback than a paperback? Would you be willing to pay the extra cost? Let me know your thoughts.)
Writing Workshop
Attention writers of children’s stories (or anyone who would like to have a go): I am running a FREE writing workshop at the Eastbourne Christian Bookshop next Saturday morning (8th Feb), as part of their 50th anniversary celebrations. If you’d like to go, there is a phone number on their website for you to register your interest. If you’re anywhere near, do come – it would be wonderful to meet you!
Hand in Hand Children’s Ministry Conference
On the same day, in the afternoon I will be speaking at the Hand in Hand Children’s Ministry Conference, also in Eastbourne. The title of my session is Exploring and Discussing Faith at Home Through Children’s Books. Sharing our faith with children is a priority, but it’s not always easy. In this session we’ll be looking at three easy ways to use books to start discussions. I will be giving out a free goodie bag of books for every attendee, so if you have anything to do with children’s ministry, do come – it’s not too late to book!
I have also been asked to speak at‘MediaFest2020’ – a European Christian publishers’ event in Prague in April – more details in due course. Thank you so much for your prayers for all these wonderful opportunities to help equip others to share the good news.
I think that’s all the news for now – you can keep abreast of news in between these newsletters by visiting the dernierpublishing.com/blog any time. And do feel free to get in touch, with any comments or queries – it’s always lovely to hear from you. 🙂
Grace and peace to you in abundance,
Janet
P.S. My eldest son and his wife live in China. With all the uncertainty, I’d appreciate your prayers for them. Thank you.