2017 April
Week 14: CLC Global Events
Monday (3rd) – Philippines:
We thank the Lord for all who attended our annual Daily Vacation Bible School (DVBS) training workshop that was held on April 1st. It is our prayer that many children (and their parents!) will be reached during the months of April and May when most DVBSs usually occur. ~ Romualdo Macinas, Asia Pacific Regional Director
Tuesday (4th) – Panama:
We thank God that we were able to hold our first ‘Reading Circle for Children’ in March. Five sessions were held at the Vía España bookshop, and it is our hope that God will speak directly to the heart of each child in attendance. Join us in praying that each day these children will grow closer to Jesus. Please also pray that nearby private schools will continue to open their doors to our ministry. It is our hope that they will allow us to participate at their school fairs and events. We have a wonderful selection of resources that we believe would really impact their students, faculty and parents. ~ Sara De Gracia, National Director
Wednesday (5th) – United Kingdom:
It will once again be the Sunday School Prize Giving season in the UK throughout the month of May. The month is going to be especially hectic for the Highland Bookvan team as they are planning to do a variety of bookstalls with the children’s books for the Sunday School teachers, along with working in the Inverness bookshop and attending CLC UK’s annual conference. ~ Esther Dowey, CLC UK Trustee
Thursday (6th) – Switzerland:
Over the next few months, we are planning to attend at least four meetings at different churches, accompanied by Luca Durante, a Christian musician. Luca will perform a few songs that we hope will touch hearts, and share his testimony. We will also bring a bookstall along, and it is our hope that our visit will illustrate how much CLC wants to serve and partner with them. ~ Carlo Ciafani, National Director
Friday (7th) – Sierra Leone:
We will be celebrating our 50th Anniversary in February, 2018, so we are planning to have a whole year of celebrations. We launched our first celebration this past February (2017) at the Wesley Methodist Church. Please pray that we will continue to plan successful events that allow us to share the incredible testimonies of God’s goodness to us throughout the last 50 years! ~ Donald John, National Director
The Weekend (8th/9th) – United Kingdom:
CLC UK’s annual conference will be held May 21-23. Please pray for the UK team as they gather for the annual conference as this is the one occasion during the year when most of the team can meet together. Pray for a time of encouraging, learning and giving glory to God. It is not easy to maintain Christian bookshops in our cities, but this is our commitment. ~ Neil Wardrope, National Director
Week 15: Current Needs Around the World
Monday (10th) – Germany:
Currently, we mail out Christian resource catalogues fairly regularly to our customers. However, with the increase of internet sales and the rise of postage costs, we are beginning to wonder how long printed advertising will be the best way to reach our supporters. Please pray that God will help us to develop new ways of advertising so that we can continue to be the best stewards of the resources He has provided us with. ~ Valentin Schweigler, National Director
Tuesday (11th) – Mozambique:
The rent at our Maputo bookshop increased by 70% in January 2017! Since this is the first increase in five years, we cannot complain! However, clearly, this is a big jump. Kindly pray with us that we will indeed be able to meet this new financial challenge (through increased book sales) and that the Lord will help us to reach more people with Bibles and books. The bookshop is ideally located in a theological seminary and both CLC and the seminary are pleased with this partnership. ~ Liz Patten, Africa Regional Director
Wednesday (12th) – Panama:
We praise God because we were able to finalise 2016 without losses. However, in order for us to reach this outcome, we had to make a lot of cutbacks and changes. Currently, we still have a number of publisher invoices that are unpaid, and we are asking for prayer that God would help us find the right path forward. Above all, we wish to maintain good working relationships with our suppliers and be seen as a ministry of integrity. ~ Sara De Gracia, National Director
Thursday (13th) – Kenya:
We now have a new landlord and, if we do not agree on a new lease with them, we will be forced to move our operations to another location. In order to ensure the ministry is self-sustaining, we need to see an increase in our sales. Please join us in asking God for help in coming up with new and effective ideas. ~ Patrick Omukhango, National Director
Friday (14th) - Papua New Guinea (PNG):
Much-needed new stock was shipped to Port Moresby, PNG, from CLC Philippines at the end of 2016 and was to clear customs on January 5, 2017. To our dismay, we discovered in February that it had instead been offloaded in Lae (PNG), which is some 307 km from Port Moresby. The Lae Port officials are demanding that our team pay the additional shipping charges, in full, before they will ship our cargo across! This also means that storage charges are beginning to accumulate while we try to resolve the situation. Please pray for us as we need this stock in order to continue to generate sales and pay our suppliers. ~ Vere Babona, National Director
The Weekend (15th/16th) – USA & Canada:
Sales in the last quarter were much lower than expected for CLC USA and Canada. Please join them in praying that sales will rebound this quarter and that they will develop the wisdom to creatively attract people into their stores to see the variety of available resources. Please also pray that CLC Canada’s advertising efforts, particularly those associated with their Montreal Est/East store, will bear much fruit to help ease their financial situation. ~ Amanda Lutes, on their behalf
Week 16: Answers to Prayer
Monday (17th) - Chile:
In March, we held our annual CLC conference in Santiago. This was a time of coming together and prayerfully seeking God’s will for our ministry. By tradition, during the last two days of conference, we are joined by the representatives of seven publishers. Once again, we were incredibly blessed by their workshops, presentations and, most importantly, by sharing times of devotion and intercessory prayer. We praise the Lord for this time of brotherhood between ministries that complement each other in their spiritual work and fellowship. ~ Isaac Zúñiga, National Director
Tuesday (18th) - Mexico:
We thank God for the support we experience, every day, from the people of Mexico City for the ministry of CLC. We were so blessed to discover that our sales grew by about 50% during 2016. Praise God with us! ~ Maria del Carmen, National Director
Wednesday (19th) - Romania:
We thank the Lord for helping us to significantly increase the quality and number of great Christian titles we are publishing. We are also thankful that 2016 was probably our best year of sales in the last 10 years. With so many of our teams describing their struggles, we hope our story is one of encouragement in how God will make a way! ~ Ronela Micula, National Director
Thursday (20th) – Spain:
We thank God for the improvement in sales in all our departments (bookshops, online and wholesale). As many of you know, we have been struggling financially for quite a few years now, and this improvement is a real encouragement to our team. Please continue to pray that we are able to strengthen the personal and business relationships that we have with pastors and local churches. ~ Darwin Vergel, National Director
Friday (21st) – Canada:
A couple of our customers are thinking about starting a book club that would be associated with our Montreal Est/East store as they really want to help us keep it open! This initiative fills us with joy, and so we thank the Lord for this couple and the love they have for our ministry. Please pray that the Lord will continue to help us find the necessary resources (human and financial) that will permit us to advance and have a lasting impact in Quebec’s evangelical community. ~ Antoine Roberge, National Director
The Weekend (22nd/23rd) - Barbados:
We praise and thank the Lord for the Sheffield (UK) church that donated the necessary funds to retile our shop floor and for the much-needed shelving donated by CLC USA. We are also extremely grateful for the loan we received from CLC Colombia. Please pray that God will give us good sales so we can repay this loan as quickly as possible. ~ Jefferson Alleyne, on behalf of CLC Barbados
Week 17: Struggling Economies
Monday (24th) – Portugal:
Carlos Cunha, the Portugal Director (and only ‘staff member’), requests prayer for his family’s financial situation as they continue facing some difficulties due to Portugal’s economic situation. He says, “This situation is impacting a number of companies, including where Lídia, my wife, works. She has recently had a drastic reduction in her salary.” Please pray that the Lord will ‘make a way’ for the Cunha family.
Tuesday (25th) – Venezuela:
We continue to pray for our country, asking for economic and political stability. We pray for a solution to the current crisis that continues to affect the entire population. High inflation and prices have reduced the purchasing power of Venezuelans and, coupled with this, there is still a scarcity of many important ‘basic needs’. We need a miracle! Please pray with us that God would restore our nation. ~ Yohel Peña, National Director
Wednesday (26th) - Barbados:
Please join us in praying for the state of our economy as it is having a negative impact on people’s ability to purchase more than just their ‘basic needs’. For us, this means that although our customers are still visiting the shop (thankfully!), they are unable to purchase the resources they need. It is a growing concern as some days the sales are incredibly low. ~ Jefferson Alleyne, on behalf of CLC Barbados
Thursday (27th) - Switzerland:
Rapid advances in digitalisation are changing the rules and the risks of businesses in Switzerland. At the moment in our country, both the government and the postal service are improving their digital technologies. This means that we have to change our software in the most costeffective way while still keeping within a very tight budget. Please pray that we will be able to quickly choose the best software, learn how to use it and help our customers to understand its advantages. Please pray for God’s wisdom and guidance. ~ Carlo Ciafani, National Director
Friday (28th) - Uruguay:
Due to our economy, we have experienced a drop in distribution. This, coupled with the rise of the dollar, is making it very difficult to sustain our ministry budget. In spite of everything, God has sustained us and we are grateful. Our team is prayerfully seeking the Lord’s help to develop and implement new ideas and plans that will improve our financial situation without reducing our number of staff. ~ Humberto Urrutia, National Director
The Weekend (29th/30th) - French West Africa:
Please pray with us for a change in the difficult economic situations we face in French West Africa (Benin and Burkina Faso in particular). We know that even in the midst of such circumstances, the LORD will help us manage our bookshops well. Pray that our team members will continue to work together in a spirit of openness and Christian fellowship in these countries and also in Cote d’Ivoire. We also pray for the LORD’s leading and guidance so that in due course, we may be able to relaunch the CLC work in Togo, which sadly closed down a few years ago but which remains a much-needed and missed ministry. ~ Emmanuel Ladeyo, Director