Winter 2014

Better books in Arabic, thanks to you!

Pray Prepare Preach for church growth in Nepal

Supporting Philippine theological graduates

SparkLit Australian Christian Book of the Year shortlist

Episcopal Publishing House graphic designer Yasmin Talaat and Bishop Mouneer Anis.

Ignite

reading the books you helped us to publish.Right now, the focus is on translating and adapting

English-language books that are suitable for us in the Arab world. A major challenge for the Episcopal Publishing House is to nurture and develop local writers. This is still a dream. Will you help us realise this dream?

Facing challenges and tough days with prayer Our team is lean! Thanks to your support we are now contracting professional translators, editors and proof-readers. Our only full-time staff member is Yasmin Talaat, a graphic designer. The business is managed by one of our priests and his part-time assistant. The appearance and quality of our books has greatly improved.

Please pray that our publishing house will continue to develop and address the spiritual poverty of the Arab world. And pray for the Christians of the Arab world, that we will serve our Lord faithfully and spread the Good News, even when the days are tough.

The Most Revd Dr Mouneer Anis is Bishop of the Diocese of Egypt with North Africa and the Horn of Africa and Director of the Episcopal Publishing House.

E G Y P T

Better books in Arabic, thanks to you!With your support, Christian publishing in Arabic is flourishing under the leadership of Bishop Mouneer Hanna Anis.

We are so glad that you enabled us to make a fresh start and publish the books we so urgently need. Thank you for giving us the thumbs up! Founded in Cairo in 1900, the Episcopal Publishing House is being reestablished with a new management

team and a fresh vision. We are responding to the great need to educate and equip church leaders across the region and across denominations, including our Coptic Orthodox brothers and sisters.

You are helping to equip church leadersThe desperate need for good Christian books in Arabic has given the Episcopal Publishing House an important role in building up the church in Egypt. We choose titles that will equip our leaders in teaching, preaching, management and pastoral care.

Since our new start, we have published books on theology, biblical archaeology and pastoral skills as well as Christian classics such as St Augustine’s Confessions.

To Be a Christian, an Anglican catechism by J I Packer and others, will soon be available. Imagine! We have never had a complete Anglican catechism in Arabic, but now you have made it possible for us to publish this book. For our churches, this is crucial.

I Believe in the Holy Spirit by Michael Green is at the printer. We are currently preparing another twenty titles.

Our publishing initiative is not just benefiting Anglicans. Priests and lay leaders from the Coptic Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Presbyterian churches are also buying and

Thanks to your support, graphic designer Yasmin Talaat and Bishop Mouneer Anis celebrate the publication of the Arabic edition of the popular introduction to biblical archaeology, The Stones Cry Out.

$20kwill finance the preparation and publication of books in Arabic for church leaders by the Episcopal Publishing House in Cairo.

lines on how to prepare and preach a sermon from the Bible. Publishing a preaching guide for at least one book from each biblical genre (Pentateuch, history, wisdom, prophecy, gospel and epistle) as well as a biblical overview will enable leaders and pastors to preach from the whole Bible.

More books are neededThank you for praying for us and financing the publication of Preaching Philippians and Preaching Mark. Would you also help us to publish a Nepali translation of Preaching Deuteronomy and Preaching God’s Big Story?

Please pray that these books will help leaders and pastors to preach and teach biblical truth accurately, faith-fully and confidently to their congregations and fellowship groups so that God’s kingdom will grow in Nepal and beyond.

This year, our open-air Easter cele-bration in Kathmandu was broadcast live on national television for the first time. Unbelievable! Only a decade ago such things were unimaginable. God is on the move in Nepal!

Ram Kumar Budhathoki is the Principal of the Nepal Ebenezer Bible College in Kathmandu.

N E P A L

Pray Prepare Preach for a growing churchToday you can help Ram Kumar meet the needs of a growing church.

Early on Easter Sunday, in every district of Nepal, Christians march to a public rally. We gather together to sing hymns and songs of praise to the resurrected Christ. We hear God’s Word proclaimed. We give away gospel tracts. We pray for our country and our

government. We dance for joy.The growing church in Nepal needs to be fed solid

food. We are grateful that you continue to partner with us, helping us to translate and publish books in the Pray Prepare Preach series.

Preaching Mark is a successMotivated by the strong demand for our Nepali translation of Preaching Philippians, our hardworking team of profes-sional translators and editors began work on Preaching Mark in July 2013. Released in March this year, Preaching Mark has already been used in preaching workshops in Nepal and even Malaysia!

Preaching Mark uses down-to-earth language and clearly highlights the main ideas. Practical questions help people to reflect on the Christian faith and their day-to-day living.

Most churches in Nepal, especially in villages, allow someone to preach if he or she has a working knowledge of Scripture and has shown a good Christian testimony. Very few have training in theology or preaching. Preaching Mark can be used by anyone who is learning to preach and teach.

To preach from the whole BibleThe Pray Prepare Preach books are more than commentaries and references. They give principles, methods and guide-

$2400will enable the preparation and publication in Kathmandu of a Nepali translation of Preaching Deuteronomy by Paul Barker.

Publishing a Nepali preaching guide for at least one book from each biblical genre will enable pastors and leaders to preach from the whole Bible and nourish a growing church in Nepal and beyond.

my friend and I, and the life we led, we were received with much enthusiasm and accepted like members of a family.

I am touched by graceI realised how foolish I was to rely on myself all the time. Suddenly, everything I knew, everything I had achieved, and everything I thought was important was meaningless. I had to embrace grace on God’s terms.

I began studying theology as a form of escape. However I soon began to learn and grow. It has not been a smooth ride but it was fun. Everything makes sense now that I have been touched by grace.

Here I am, a fresh graduate. I am unsure if I want to be a priest. But I am sure that I want to tell people about the grace I have found.

Thank you for giving me a Bible commentary and concordance.

Please pray that reading about the God we know will always be a joy.

An open heart like yours is one of the reasons I enjoy being a Christian.

To God be the glory!

Terence Sauyen Yangyang is a graduate of St Andrew’s Theological Seminary in the Philippines.

P H I L I P P I N E S

High flyer falls for graceTerence Yangyang found grace where he least expected to find it.

I am Terence ‘Pecdasen’ Sauyen Yangyang, a member of the Aplai tribe of Mountain Province in the northern Philippines. From an early age I was obliged to take care of my siblings. While my friends played I did house-hold chores. At first I found comfort,

colour and joy in books but by the age of fourteen, alcohol had become my friend and refuge.

In the ugly world of the survival of the fittest, Christian truths began to look ridiculous and irrational. Power, money and popularity were more real to me than Jesus hanging on a cross. I decided that there was no higher power to tell me what I should do with my life. I set out to conquer the world.

Free at lastEach academic and professional achievement was a victory against religion and reinforced my attitude. By night I was a popular nightclub entertainer.

I was known as the man with a happy face but all I had inside were negative emotions. No one noticed that I was drowning in a sea of alcohol.

The higher you fly the further you have to fall. I was ill-prepared for the crisis coming my way. One friend died in an accident. Another died of cancer. Scandal ruined my career. My fiancée abandoned me. Our baby died. I was alone and death became very appealing.

Grace appeared in the most unlikely form. A childhood friend and fellow alcoholic told me about a new life she had found. She asked me if I wanted to see it.

I was surprised to be taken to my childhood church! The experience was surreal. Despite what everyone knew about

On your behalf a Bible commentary and concordance are presented to graduates at St Andrew’s Theological Seminary, the principal training institution of the Episcopal Church in the Philippines.

$60will provide a Bible commentary and concordance to graduates at St Andrew’s Theological Seminary in Manila.

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SparkLitPO Box 198, Forest Hill, Victoria 3131, Australia Telephone 1300 13 7725 | admin@SparkLit.org | www.SparkLit.org ARBN 119 800 645. Formerly the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge Australia and the Australian Christian Literature Society.

Join us at the 2014 SparkLit awards eventCelebrate the power of words with Simon Smart of the Centre for Public Christianity and performance poet Jessica Santosa. The 2014 Australian Christian Book of the Year, Young Australian Christian Writer and Teen Writer awards will be announced

and prizes presented during supper at 7:30 pm for an 8:00 pm start on Thursday 14 August 2014. Join the finalists at St Alfred’s Anglican Church, Blackburn North, Victoria, corner of Springfield Road and Koonung Road. $20 per guest. $60 per family. To book seats, grab your credit card and call 1300 13 7725 or write to: admin@SparkLit.org

You can follow the Australian Christian Literature Awards on Facebook.

C S Lewis and the Body in the Basement Kel Richards Strand

Eating Heaven Simon Carey Holt Acorn

In God They Trust? Roy Williams Bible Society

Love Is the New Black Cameron Semmens Crooked Nose Wisdom

S P A R K L I T A U S T R A L I A N C H R I S T I A N L I T E R A T U R E A W A R D S

2014 Book of the Year shortlist

On the Way to Faith Ken Manley Morling Press

Sorry, We Have No Space Joseph Wakim Connor Court

Tactics for Teen Ministry Scott Petty Youthworks

The Great Bible Swindle Greg Clarke Bible Society

I G N I T E W I N T E R 2 0 1 4

Sounds dangerous, let’s do it!My wife, Elspeth, and I worked for sixteen years with Spanish-language book publisher Certeza Argentina. Before we left Buenos Aires in 2007, my young colleague at Certeza, Walter Saucedo, told me how much he would like to visit Australia. Rather cruelly perhaps, I set him an impossible quest. ‘Sure!’ I said. ‘If you save up the airfare, obtain a visa and learn English, we will look after you in Australia.’ Six years later Walter turned up on our doorstep. This determination and diligence is typical of our partner publishers. Books in strange tongues regularly

land on my desk. They are the fruit of the vision, enterprise and courage of emerging indigenous Christian publishers in Cairo, Islamabad, Phnom Penh and Kathmandu. These books are equip-ping leaders with the skills and knowledge needed by growing churches. They testify to the outpouring of God’s infinite mercy and the proliferation of his kingdom.

Publishing is a risky business at the best of times. Publishing Christian books in hostile regimes and volatile economies is hazardous. Pioneering Christian publishers persevere because they reckon on God being with them.

Can Christian publishers also count on your encouragement? Let’s invest in strategic literature ministries and watch God use the written word to grow his kingdom. Where there is risk in our endeavours for God, we do not act alone.

Will you rejoice with Ram Kumar in Kathmandu?Will you stand in solidarity with Bishop Mouneer Anis

and his team in Cairo?Will you pray for Walter Saucedo as he resettles in

Buenos Aires following his six-month internship in Melbourne?

Michael Collie National Director Michael.Collie@SparkLit.org

SparkLit intern Walter Saucedo with National Director Michael Collie. You can watch Walter tell his remarkable story on YouTube. Search: ‘SparkLit Australia with God nothing is impossible’

You can fan the flames of faith today. SparkLit relies on the prayers and donations of passionate Christians like you.• 1 You can provide theological texts and reference works to students and pastors where commitment is strong but support and resources are scarce.

$30 will provide a theological graduate or pastor with a copy of the Africa Bible Commentary.

$38 will subsidise the purchase of a $50, eight-volume book package by a pastor in rural Cambodia.

$60 will provide a Bible commentary and concordance to a theological graduate in the Philippines.• 2 You can nurture emerging publishers

by providing funds, expertise and encour-agement where life-changing Christian writing is needed most.

$2,400 will finance the publi cation in Kathmandu of a Nepali translation of Preaching Deuteronomy.

$20,000 will finance the publication of books in Arabic for church leaders by the Episcopal Publishing House.• 3 You can equip publishing profes-

sionals by investing in the training and development of promising Christian writers, editors and designers.

Donating = loving. To financially support the work of SparkLit and its partners in difficult places, grab your credit card and visit www.SparkLit.org or use the form overleaf.