Happy New Year everyone! May the Lord bless you this year with every blessing in Christ!
Thanks for praying
First of all, thank you all so much for praying during the month of December – I’m truly grateful to all of you who support and encourage in so many ways. Please don’t stop praying, because the Lord is doing amazing miracles, through our prayers. (The prayer requests are still here, in case you’d like to keep praying!) The very first item on the list has now been answered . . . 🙂 🙂 🙂 . . .
Beech Bank Girls, Every Girl Has A Story in Croatian
How about this? 🙂 This is something I have only so far dreamt about – Dernier books reaching children who don’t speak English. Please pray that many girls will be touched by this fab Christian book in the tiny country of Croatia, with an even smaller Christian minority. I met Josip and Momir from Kristofori, a small publishing house in Zagreb, at a conference for European Christian publishers last year. The book is beautifully produced; it’s a privilege to be able to partner with them in this way. I hope this will be the start of many translations, and many children touched by the good news through our stories all over the world – please keep praying! Greek translations are still going ahead . . .
Our books in Chad!
Some of our books have reached Chad, thanks to one of our supporters, Roy, who went out there in the autumn! Roy told me,”Two young Korean friends whose parents work and live in Chad, and who themselves attend school in Kenya, read a selection of Dernier books that I left with them in Chad. They have sent these photos of themselves enjoying the books. They are going to share the books (about a dozen) between their school and the Africa Inl
and Mission school in N’Djaména.” This is what the boys said about the books:
“I want to be an Airplane Pilot was an amazing book. It reminds me of how God is awesome. Under the Tamarind Tree is a great unforgettable story. Took me back to my childhood. Thank you so much for all the books. We enjoyed them a lot!”
Please continue to pray for our books as they go out all over the world . . . well, not for the books, for those who read them!
Are you off on a trip this year?
Are you, or do you know anyone going out to another country on a ministry trip this year? If so, could you buy a dozen or so books to take out with you in your suitcase, or buy books for someone else to take? In some countries of the world, children are starving for books to help them in their education. To have a Christian input in the stories is, of course, an added huge bonus – what a way to be a blessing, not just for this life, but the one to come! Alternatively, if you would like us to send a box of books to a school or children’s home, we can try to find the best way to do this for you – just let me know. Shipping is not cheap, but some places are easy and safe to send to. A supporter recently asked me to send a pack of books to a children’s home in Tanzania and they arrived just a week or so later. The recipients were absolutely delighted because they had been wanting to start a library! Some things that are expensive are worth it. Perhaps if you don’t have the resources yourself, you could raise some money with a coffee morning or something? 🙂 Our packs of books are particularly good value, you can find them by clicking here.
Disconcerting news about school libraries
Does your local primary school have a library? Last month I met up with Cheryl, one of our diocesan children’s and youth advisers. (We were due to meet by the lifts outside John Lewis at a local shopping mall – I waited half an hour on the ground floor while Cheryl waiting on the first floor – fortunately we did eventually get together!) I was hoping Cheryl would be able to point me in the right direction to get our books into schools, but the advice she had to give was disappointing. Although there may be some use for our books for ‘café theology’ (small discussion/study groups), generally speaking schools don’t have the budget to buy books and many no longer have libraries. Imagine that! Almost all teaching is now internet based, apparently, and books for reading are usually from a reading scheme. Some schools may buy a few extra books for classroom libraries, but these are likely to be popular best-sellers. I have long cherished the dream that children from any faith or none could find our books in their school library – but if there are no libraries, this isn’t going to be possible! Maybe your church could buy local schools a pack of books, or give our books away for a present for Easter, or to leavers in the summer? I’d be really happy to offer quantity discounts. If you have any other ideas, I’d love to hear from you. You can contact me here. (And many thanks to Cheryl for giving her time and advice, and for waiting so long!)
Supporting Bookshops
We love to support Christian bookshops, but our sales from them are getting lower and lower. In fact, at a trade event last September we gave away more books to bookshops as samples, than we sold to them in the run up to Christmas. This means we actually lost money. 🙁 There are less bookshops around, and many of those that remain are struggling for sales. Do support them if you can, and pray for them and for us as we work towards the same aim of getting as many books as we can into the hands of those who need to hear the good news, or to be built up in faith. Please pray for them, and for us, that we would both find creative ways to find more customers and make more sales, because there is still an urgent need to get books into the hands of our young people.
Thank you so much for reading this far! Must go, sorry I’ve kept you so long – may the Lord be with you!
Until next time, God bless,
Janet