Week 10: Encouraging Stories
Tuesday (1st) - Papua New Guinea:
A lady came into the bookshop looking for something suitable for her husband who was in prison. She wanted a good book that would encourage and challenge him. The staff member attending the lady looked through the shelves but could not find anything appropriate. She finally pulled a random title from the BookLink section (quality second-hand books) and when she turned the first page it had “TO THOSE WHO ARE IN PRISON” written in it!! God is good!
Wednesday (2nd) - Germany:
We have lots of testimonies from customers but sometimes God blesses us through our neighbours too. On one occasion there was a very sudden heavy rainfall in Hamburg causing flooding in some buildings and fire engines were on the streets to pump out water. In the bookshop, however, all seemed well with customers shopping or sheltering from the rain. Then a neighbour came and urged the manager to check the shop basement as she could hear a warning alarm coming from there! There was some water on the floor but it was discovered in time, before the water level became high enough to damage the stock and equipment stored there.
Thursday (3rd) - Cyprus:
We praise the Lord for all the opportunities to serve in the bookshop and some of these are particularly encouraging, like a young couple who came in to buy a good supply of Bibles to give to foreign students in the Turkish-held northern part of Cyprus. Another customer came in with anxiety and fear prior to sitting accountancy exams. We were able to pray with her and she calmed down, sat the exam and did well. More importantly, we were able to share something about the Lord and His salvation with her too.
Friday (4th) - USA:
Someone came into CLC Moorestown looking for a large pulpit Bible. She explained that it was to be left open on a table to keep the evil spirits away. As a staff member showed her various Bibles, he was able to explain that the Bible itself would not keep the spirits away, and that led to a conversation about the Gospel. The customer did not openly turn to Jesus at this point but went away in deep thought. A seed was sown.
The Weekend (5th/6th) - Giving Thanks (Venezuela):
The International Office building (Sheffield, UK) doesn’t receive ‘customers’ and our daily work seldom involves meeting people in person. Communication is almost always with Christians and normally via telephone or Internet! One day recently, however, in the space of one hour we were able to offer a comfy seat and a cup of coffee to a lady waiting for an appointment next door - a women’s counselling service. She had arrived far too early and no one was in! At the same time, someone from the solicitors firm over the road came to borrow a Bible for use in a legal transaction! Two opportunities to share about the CLC ministry, and show the love of Jesus to others.
Week 11: CLC in Pakistan, Myanmar and Japan
Monday (7th) - Pakistan Book Table:
Praise the Lord for the opportunity to take a CLC book table to the annual Sialkot Convention where countless thousands of people have been blessed and encouraged. It is always a daunting logistical task to get our books from our shop, in the south of the country, to Sialkot in the north but we are normally able to get there despite difficulties with transport and the rainy season. At the last convention Justin Javed, the CLC Director, was surprised and humbled to be asked to share the word of God with a group of at least 500 pastors! Pray for long lasting fruit from this event that was started by ‘Praying John Hyde’ in 1904!
Tuesday (8th) - Pakistan Property:
The CLC ministry here has gone through some difficult times recently but thank the Lord for His faithfulness through it all. A much-needed extension to our shop premises, owned by the Salvation Army, has been delayed for some years now due to legal issues beyond our control. Pray for a resolution to this if we are to expand and grow the work.
Wednesday (9th) - Myanmar Study Bible:
The CLC Burmese Study Bible is a big project for our team in Myanmar and it is taking time to go through all the translation and publishing process. At the time of writing, it is about half way through this process and the tentative date for completion is January 2017. Please pray for the team that they would have renewed enthusiasm, vision and strength to continue this laborious task. Praise God it will be such a blessing when completed and in the hands of Burmese people.
Thursday (10th) - Myanmar Help and Support:
Thank God for the ways in which He provides help and support for the ministry. In particular Jacob Mung, the Director in Myanmar, gives thanks for the safe arrival of a large shipment of books from the USA. Thank God too for Martin Manser and Pastor Mike Beaumont who have been involved in the Study Bible project and are giving freely of their time and expertise to help with the Burmese version.
Friday (11th) - Japan Financial Uncertainty:
The Japanese economy has been very slow for many years and, accompanied by a decline in the church, this has caused book sales to decrease significantly over the last 10 to15 years. Not just CLC, but other Christian booksellers and publishers have had to make significant changes in order to continue. It is uncertain how long this process can continue as we have already sold several of our assets to help cover costs. Please pray for a turnaround in the financial position.
The Weekend (12th/13th) - Japan Spiritual Strength:
While it is a continual struggle to maintain the finances of the operation in Japan (as mentioned in yesterday’s prayer point), please pray that our team would stay strong spiritually and be able to keep their eyes on Jesus. As with all our CLC bookshops, every day people come to us with all manner of needs. Pray that our team would be spiritually sensitive to help with words of counsel or just the right book.
Week 12: CLC Connecting with Churches
Monday (14th) - Shared Premises:
In a number of countries, for example in India and Liberia, we have bookshops situated in church premises. In other countries, in particular the Philippines, churches meet regularly in CLC properties. It is a real blessing to be able to cooperate in this way. Although we are interdenominational in terms of our staff and the books we sell, we are all part of the body of Christ – which is the true church of course.
Tuesday (15th) - France:
The bookshop in Marseille is trying a new way of preparing book deposits for churches: churches choose articles on our website, they send their order to CLC Marseille and the bookshop delivers the books to the church and leaves them there for about two months. Then the unsold articles are taken back to the bookshop and the next order can be delivered. Let’s pray that this new way of working with book deposits will encourage churches to work with us. This will make us better known in the South-East region of France as well as, hopefully, increasing our turnover.
Wednesday (16th) - Meadowhead Christian Fellowship (MCF):
MCF is a small church in Sheffield, UK, with considerable links with CLC! Many congregation members, past and present, have served as volunteers or staff in their local CLC bookshops as far back as the 1960’s! The previous and the current CLC International Directors have worshipped here and two current church members are CLC IO trustees. In addition, the church supports some CLC staff and, twice a year, gives their Sunday offering to CLC projects. Praise the Lord for church fellowships that take an active and prayerful interest in the CLC ministry.
Thursday (17th) - USA:
Every year CLC USA hosts a Clergy Appreciation Breakfast to celebrate the pastors and churches that we support all year long. This is a wonderful time of fellowship, learning and networking. Last year, Larry Smith, a new CLC author and local pastor, was the keynote speaker and presented concepts from his new book, Jesus Life. Over 80 people were in attendance and all of them received a gift bag with books from various publishers who had donated the items. Please pray that we would do a good job of celebrating and supporting the church all year long.
Friday (18th) - Canada:
We are implementing a new concept, for CLC Canada, which we are calling ‘CLC Counters’. This idea is a hybrid between traditional book stores and church book tables. They are located in a church or Christian institution in areas where there is no Christian book store. The counter’s primary mandate is to serve the churches in that region. We have already established three of these ‘counters’ and hope to install two or three more in the near future.
The Weekend (19th/20th) - Uruguay:
For many years now CLC in Uruguay has travelled into the interior of the country to visit churches and leave materials there for their book tables. This means we have a CLC presence in almost the whole country and sales represent almost 25% of the annual sales. In Montevideo there are some churches that have our material on show throughout the week and one church in particular has created a beautiful bookshop area with our stock.
Week 13: CLC Publishing
Monday (21st) - France:
At the time of writing, we are about to publish our first title by Francis Chan, You and Me Forever. Chan is a good and well known author and we are delighted to be able to publish this book in French. We are also very happy for the opportunity to cooperate with Copenhagen Publishing House and Scandinavia Publishing House with several projects regarding children’s Bibles and books with both publishers. We pray for continued partnerships and projects like these ones and, of course, for good sales.
Tuesday (22nd) - Indonesia:
CLC Indonesia wrote and published a new book last year based on the testimony of a family with a son, Jose, who was born with Spinal Muscular Atrophy. It was a big project to undertake with three CLC teams formed to interview the family, to manage the layout and cover of the book and to do the editing. The pressure was on to complete the book earlier than anticipated so it could be launched on Jose’s third birthday. Within weeks of the launch 700 of the 2,000 copies had already been sold. Praise the Lord!
Wednesday (23rd) - Colombia:
Gerardo Scalante (CLC RD for the Americas), David Pabon (CLC Colombia) and Dave Almack (CLC USA) were in deep discussion regarding the need for an overall sales manager for CLC Colombia’s publishing house as they sell throughout Latin America, North America and Spain. They looked at the profile of the person they would need and one name came to mind. Praise the Lord for His provision which came almost immediately as the person they thought of was in fact in the same building on separate business! After prayer and consideration, Alfonso Guevara accepted this appointment. Alfonso is well known to CLC and has much experience in the Spanish Christian book market, having worked with Vida (now part of Zondervan) and, most recently, with the Spanish Christian book market for Harper Collins.
Thursday (24th) - USA:
A few months ago, one of our new books, Stop Your Complaining by Ronnie Martin, got a great review on Tim Challies’ blog and that day the book went from position 164,000 in the Amazon ranking to just over 1800 in all books listed on that site! As a result, we sold over 70 copies of the eBook in one day and over half the total print run was sold in the first two months.
Friday (25th) - Netherlands:
In December 2015, our third book, You and Me Forever by Francis Chan, was launched. Please pray that this excellent book about marriage will be picked up by the media, so that lots of people will hear about it, read it and do it, in order to build stronger and happier marriages. This year we want to publish four books. That means we have to work harder in this new area and make wise decisions about investments.
The Weekend (19th/20th) - Portugal and Russia:
As well as the Netherlands (see previous prayer point) becoming increasingly involved in publishing, two other CLC countries are new to this area of ministry. CLC Portugal started publishing in 2014 and at the end of last year released their second and third book - Changed into His Likeness (Watchman Nee) and Holiness without the Halo (Stuart and Jill Briscoe) - and in CLC Russia they started publishing last year and their first book was Little Hands Learning to Pray by Carine Mackenzie. Pray for the newly established publishing work in these countries.
Week 14: Encouraging Stories
Monday (28th) - Hamburg, Germany:
“Quite often, we don’t always see the fruit of our labour but, recently, an elderly lady who regularly shops with us shared with me about the time she got a book from us, around 20 years ago, that completely changed her life! I never knew this, even though she is continuously buying books to give away to non-believers. What an encouragement to our team! Join me in praying that, some day, one of the non-believers she is giving books to will encourage her by sharing how that book changed their life, and how they are now sharing God’s love.” Valentin Schweigler, CLC Germany National Director.
Tuesday (29th) - Port of Spain, Trinidad:
In January, Gerardo Scalante, America’s Regional Director, and David Almack, CLC USA Director, visited the CLC teams in Barbados and Trinidad. After returning home, David shared that, “On the last day, we spent a morning with the Trinidad team leaders for each store, and with Sandra Robinson, the newly appointed National Director. We celebrated all the events that had taken place in the last six months since the sudden and unexpected death of the former leader, Marlene Ramroop. Each store received a facelift, a new store opened on the sister island of Tobago, and their Christmas season was better than that of the prior year. Yet, even with all these accomplishments and exciting developments, there was a clear sense that this was only the beginning of what God has in store for this team. We dreamed and prayed together about new technology that would ignite these teams with resources they did not have, resources for which their customers were asking and, most importantly, new methods of working together. Whatever happens in the days ahead, one thing is certain, our Trinidad team is facing the future with a holy anticipation of a new move of God that will impact this island nation for generations to come.”
Wednesday (30th) - Lugano-Agno, Switzerland:
“One day last December, a customer, upon entering the bookshop, met a friend. Speaking of this and that, the customer had strongly suggested the book Crazy Love, saying to his friend that this book had changed and challenged his life. Overhearing this conversation, another customer began asking questions about the book. As I myself find this book amazing, I was thrilled to discover that we sold four copies of the book that day. We love to witness when customers recommend good Christian books to their friends as their personal testimonies continue to be the most impactful.” Carlo Ciafani, CLC Bookshop Manager, Lugano-Agno.
Thursday (31st) - Barquisimeto, Venezuela:
A customer visited the bookshop and, while she was at the counter waiting to pay, she received a message on her phone and began to cry. When a member of staff asked what was wrong, she replied that she had just had confirmation of her divorce. She had come to the bookshop specifically to look for books that would help her in this difficult situation. The shop staff was able to recommend books that would help her, and prayed with her. She left the shop very grateful for CLC’s support.
Thank you for praying for our teams and projects around the CLC World - you are vital to our ministry!
Please note that there may be slight differences between these online CLC prayer/praise topics and what is available in printed form as we are able to add updates online after our publication has been released.