We praise God that the owner of the Milan bookshop, which we have rented for many years, wants to sell the shop to us at a very reasonable price. She is willing to sell, via monthly payments over several years and with no interest. It will be almost as if we were paying the rent. This will help us to stabilize the ministry even further, for which we are thankful. Pray for Daniele Sferlazza and his part-time helper Erika as they serve the customers, many of whom are from Africa and Latin America.
Monday (2nd) - Colombia:
Last January, two bookshops in Ibague, the ‘Music City of Colombia’, were taken over by CLC. Enrique Aguirre, the manager of the Ibague Central bookshop, writes: “We give glory to God because we have seen his blessing on the bookshops. Sales are steadily increasing, many previous customers are returning and new customers are discovering the shops. Both bookshops have already started running special events for the local churches. We have also arranged a ‘Thompson Bible Seminar’ which was appreciated by many pastors who have encouraged us to repeat this for other cities in our region.”
Tuesday (3rd) - Indonesia:
Early in 2014, CLC Indonesia took on the lease of a small bookshop in a large shopping centre (The City of Tomorrow Mall) in Surabaya. Praise God for the university students who buy books and daily devotionals from us - for themselves and also to give to friends. In the second half of the year sales were starting to decline. This could be due, in part, to students focusing on paying tuition fees, which have just been increased, rather than buying books.
Wednesday (4th) - Birmingham, UK:
The Carrs Lane bookshop, CLC UK’s second shop in Birmingham, opened in July 2014. Neil Maclennan, the manager, writes: “the bookshop was previously run by Wesley Owen and it is a delight to meet some of the former customers as well as new ones. There are many Christians, from all denominations, in this city and it is a privilege to serve the wider church with good Christian literature. There are also a large number of people from other faiths living here and we are encouraged that there is an interest in buying gospel tracts - and that there are Christians who are prepared to go and share the gospel on the streets.
Thursday (5th) - Mexico:
CLC opened its first bookshop in Mexico, in Mexico City, on November 10th, 2014. Maria del Carmen and Daniel Huertas, from CLC Colombia, are leading the team in Mexico and have applied for work visas. Please pray that Maria’s and Daniel’s visas are approved without problems and that they will settle in well to working in a new country and culture. Pray too that this bookshop, which is a CLC Colombia project, will quickly become established.
Friday (6th) - Miami:
In addition to recently opening in Mexico, CLC Colombia also prepared a bookshop ready for opening in Miami, USA, where they already have a warehouse. Preparations started in March 2014 to remodel the shop and over the following months a POS system was installed, shelving arranged and stock brought in. There were unexpected delays but, at the time of writing, it was anticipated that the shop would be open before Christmas. Jennifer Scalante, a second generation CLC member, is the manager.
The Weekend (7th/8th) - Makeni:
Makeni is Sierra Leone’s fourth largest city and a major commercial, educational and economic centre. The city is predominantly Muslim but has a significant and diverse Christian population. CLC opened a small bookshop on the outskirts of this city in June 2014. The early days have been difficult, mainly due to the unexpected and tragic outbreak of the Ebola virus that has been particularly active in Makeni and the surrounding region. Please pray for Alie Kamara as he moved from CLC in Freetown to pioneer the work in Makeni.
Monday (9th) - Finance:
We have two bookshops in Mozambique; Maputo (the capital) and Beira. The work is going quite well as we are in the early stages of being debt-free thanks to a combination of being released from a large loan and having worked hard to pay off other, smaller loans. Please pray that we will not only maintain this position but also develop sufficiently to be fully self supporting.
Tuesday (10th) - New Schedules:
Both of our bookshops in Mozambique are located in Bible Colleges. From January 2015, the Bible College in Maputo will be holding classes in the evenings. We plan, therefore, to have the bookshop open evenings as well as daytime, but this will require some new staff schedules. For some time, we have only had one worker but now we will need at least two. Please pray for suitable people to be involved; possibly even students from the College.
Wednesday (11th) - Booktables:
We are very aware of the need to reach out beyond the bookshops. Jose (Beira) and Jenny (Maputo) have made a real effort to do this over the past months, with book tables at services, conferences and other events. Please pray that we will continue to find good opportunities to take our Bibles and books out to new markets and especially to secular openings such as book fairs etc.
Thursday (12th) - Liz Patten & Petra Nemansky:
Last October, Liz Patten and Petra Nemansky moved from London to Maputo with the aim of developing the work of CLC in Mozambique, Swaziland and Kenya. They are living, and also helping, at a guest house for full-time Christian workers. Petra will spend time this year visiting and supporting the ministry in Kenya and Swaziland while Liz, as CLC Regional Director for Africa, will plan visits to other African countries. Please pray for these ladies, that they will be able to balance all their various commitments and still find time for rest and refreshment.
Friday (13th) - New Possibilities:
As we become more stabilised financially, we would like to begin investigating possibilities of opening in a third location in Mozambique. One town we are considering is Xai-Xai (pronounced ‘shy-shy’). We have a couple of contacts to follow up, so please pray with us that the Lord will open the right doors and that we will know God’s timing and wisdom in planning.
The Weekend (14th/15th) - Fixtures and Fittings:
Half way through 2014, we had to remove most of our fixtures and fittings in CLC Maputo due to the destruction caused by termites. However, CLC UK has kindly donated second hand surplus bookshelves and other useful items which will be shipped to Mozambique in the early part of 2015. We are very grateful for this, and for the funds that have been raised to pay for shipping, customs clearance and other associated costs. There are enough donated units to refurbish the bookshop in Beira as well.
Monday (16th) - The Distance Challenge:
The International Office is located in Sheffield, UK, but the IO team is spread around the world. The Regional Directors are based in the USA, Switzerland, Mozambique, and the Philippines. Support staff are based in the Netherlands (evangelism) Chile (website) and Sheffield (the International Director, administration, prayer news and communications, the training project, accounts and the internet – websites and eBooks). Please pray that the International Office team will work together efficiently, despite being physically separated, to provide a range of resources to help our national teams.
Tuesday (17th) - I.O. Focus on Training:
We are currently working on an internet based training platform that we trust will be of benefit to the CLC family. In time we hope to make this available in multiple languages and even to booksellers outside CLC. The intention is to provide training relevant to all levels of experience, both in the technical aspects of the work as well as communicating the vision and mission of CLC. Please pray that this will become an effective training tool.
Wednesday (18th) - I.O. Focus on Publishing:
We are encouraging our national teams to double our overall publishing output. In 2014 two conferences were held to provide training, and efforts are being made to coordinate the translation of material into multiple languages. The International Office is also working to produce evangelistic material that can be produced in many languages. Pray that these publications will bring people ‘to faith and maturity in the Lord Jesus Christ’, as we set out to achieve in our Mission Statement.
Thursday (19th) - I.O. Focus on Digital Resources :
An ongoing priority for CLC is the development of our digital capacity. In recent years many countries have been able to grow book distribution through websites and in some cases these sales now represent a significant proportion of total sales. A number of our publishing houses are also selling their publications as eBooks. The next stage in the process is to have our own eBook platform and App reader for mobile devices. We believe this will significantly increase the reach of our books as we will not be limited to physical bookshops. Pray that we will help fulfil the Great Commission to take the Gospel ‘to all nations’ with this new technology.
Friday (20th) - Europe Regional Director:
Gary Chamberlin is the CLC Regional Director for Europe and, with 16 countries to oversee, he travels extensively! Gary is working with a number of CLC countries to significantly increase their publishing, helping with the choice of titles and contacts with foreign publishers. He is also preparing the CLC European Leaders’ Conference which will be held in Poland this May. Please pray that Gary will have wisdom, sensitivity and good insight into the various situations that he has to deal with.
The Weekend (21st/22nd) - Asia Regional Director:
Romualdo Macinas is the CLC Philippines National Director and Regional Director for Asia. Not all the CLC countries in this region are directly under his care but Romualdo writes: - “I am glad to be able to support CLC in Thailand, Pakistan, Myanmar, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea and, of course, the Philippines. There are times when I feel inadequate for the task but time after time I have experienced God’s guidance as I fulfil my responsibilities. There is a phrase ‘God does not call the equipped, He equips the called’ and, though I don’t totally agree with the first part, I believe firmly in the second bit. God equips me because He called me.” Praise God!
Monday (23rd) - Antofagasta and Temuco :
CLC has 7 bookshops in Chile and the most northerly and most southerly bookshops, in Antofagasta and Temuco, are where we are most involved in mobile work covering hundreds of kilometres taking Bibles and books to villages, churches and into people’s homes. We are grateful for the support of local families who offer us hospitality; they have been a real help for us in our itinerant ministry. We give glory to God for His faithfulness and continue to pray for protection and ‘open doors’ concerning this part of our work.
Tuesday (24th) - Viña del Mar:
Please join us in prayer for this city, that more people would see the importance of Christian literature. CLC staff members Mauricio and Marcelo are frequently visiting colleges and churches to promote our mission and materials, but we are not seeing the result we anticipate in terms of interest in purchasing from us. In addition, we need to find a new location for the bookshop due to a significant rise in the rental cost recently.
Wednesday (25th) - Valparaíso:
We praise the Lord for the ‘Reading Club’ which is an activity that has developed in the Valparaiso bookshop. A practical workshop entitled ‘Knowing the Authors and their Work’ is part of the club and the objective is to make our resources known and encourage people to make the most of them. Because of the size of the shop, this activity is limited to a maximum of ten people at a time. Book Reading Club,
Thursday (26th) - Santiago:
All through 2014, a course on Hebrew and Greek was held in the Santiago bookshop. It was also run online for a small group of believers. This was led by two of the full time shop personnel, David Diaz and Omar Ramos, who are also both pastors. Praise the Lord for the way we can use our gifts in this ministry.
Friday (27th) - New Bookshop:
We have not succeeded in buying a property in the north of the country where we hoped to open a new bookshop. Please pray with us that God would enable us to continue saving and give us the vision to know when and where we should advance with a new bookshop and also a distribution warehouse.
The Weekend (28th/1st) - Book Projects:
We are very pleased to be able to distribute around 20,000 Bibles for use in an evangelistic project called ‘Share your Faith, Give a Bible’ We have also been promoting, especially among young people, the book Do Hard Things by the twins Alex and Brett Harris. Our goal is to distribute 12,500 copies. A young man wrote this about the book: “I believe I am part of the most ‘spoiled’ generation that has existed, and that worries me a lot because of the negative consequences that come with it. Through this book the Spirit of God is sounding an alarm bell and a call for reform to the younger generation of the 21st century.”