Prayer Focus 2017 - March
Wednesday (1st) – Sierra Leone
POD Update:Praise God! After many years of planning we have recently made the final payments owed to Publish4All, so that Sierra Leone will have a POD system of its own. We express our thanks to God and our appreciation to all our generous supporters, especially the CLC USA Team who embarked on an incredible fund-raising drive towards this great achievement. The new POD system will be implemented this April. Please pray that this process will go smoothly, and for Emmanuel Kamara, who will be responsible for the system and supervising all who will be working with him. Pray with us that with this system and a lot of hard work we will be able to meet customers’ demands with punctual and quality services. ~ Donald John, National Director
Thursday (2nd) – Mozambique’s ‘Missionary Bible’ Project:
We are working on a project to print 10,000 ‘missionary Bibles’ for exclusive distribution in Mozambique. At the time of going to press, we are still at the initial stages of planning. However, the idea is to have these Bibles available in a modern Portuguese translation and at a very low cost in order to enable (bulk) buying to give away, as well as serving those with low purchasing power. One of our customers has set herself a personal goal to give away several hundred Bibles and told me, “By the time I reach my goal, I think I will just continue because it will be a lifestyle to give away God’s Word”. She buys a few at a time, and has asked us to pray for her spiritual protection, as we know the enemy doesn’t want people to have the word of God. She also asked for prayer for those receiving the Bibles, that they may receive another gift - that of His salvation. Praise the LORD! ~ Liz Patten, Africa Regional Director
Friday (3rd) – Belarus Russian Bible Project:
Please continue to pray for this Bible project. Due to the economic situation in the country, the Belarus team was unable to do a reprint last year on their Russian Bible. Before they published CLC Bibles, they had February 27th - March 5thWeek 9: Print-on-Demand (POD) & Bible Projects to import them from Russia, and this was an expensive process, which led to having a very limited supply in their shop at times. It is really important that the people in Belarus have high quality Bibles at affordable prices, so please continue to pray for this project. So far nearly 9,000 Bibles have been printed and sold with some of the profits being set aside in hopes that one day a shop will be opened in Minsk, the country’s capital. ~ Lina Pinkevich, National Director
The Weekend (4th/5th) – Myanmar’s First Ever Burmese Study Bible:
Join me in thanking our Heavenly Father that (at the time of writing) I have just finished my final edits on Isaiah chapter 25. Time is quickly passing by and my team and I are hopeful to complete our first ‘final’ draft by March. This draft will then be sent out to about 20 different people to proof-read so please pray that we will finish on time. Please also pray that our proof-readers will be able to fully understand our translation and that they will have sharp eyes to pick up on anything we may have missed. ~ Jacob Mung, National Director
Monday (6th) – Bulgaria:
We have been experiencing relationship problems with some of our suppliers, as we mentioned in our prayer point last quarter, and already we are seeing that God is at work! Praise God that communications have improved immensely and one publisher has taken the first steps in an effort to improve the pricing politics we are constantly facing. There is still a long way to go with some of the suppliers, but we are blessed to witness the changes God is making. Thank you Father! ~ David Anachkov, on behalf of CLC Bulgaria
Tuesday (7th) – USA:
Praise the Lord for a successful two-year extension of our lease for the Moorestown, NJ store that begins in February. This lease negotiation resulted in a much needed rent reduction that will allow our team to continue to serve their community with Christian resources. ~ David Almack, North American & Caribbean Regional Director Thank you to Josh Street Design & Photography for taking such amazing photos of the multi-author booksigning event at CLC Moorestown
Wednesday (8th) – Liberia:
When Brother Isaac became too sick to continue working, Sister Nyenatee Appleton, a member of Providence Baptist Church, stepped in to fill the gap. She has been an essential volunteer for us over the past several months, especially on the days when Laban has his college classes. Please continue to pray that God will send just the right person to fill the vacuum Brother Isaac has left. ~ James Cooper, National Director
Thursday (9th) – Germany:
What a joy to witness many Iranian refugees in Germany coming to faith in Jesus. We are so thankful to see many of our Alpha resources being sold to reach out to them and help them understand just how much God loves them. It is such a blessing to see so many being baptised and integrating into our Christian community. ~ Valentin Schweigler, National Director
Friday (10th) – Indonesia:
We are so thankful that Tirianus ‘Teris’ Malyo, from Papua (East Indonesia) was able to join our team last year! He shared with me how grateful to God he is to have been able to join CLC and to serve people with Christian literature. Currently, Teris is also studying for his master’s degree at Theology College. It is his dream to one day begin literature ministry like CLC in Papua. Please pray for Teris and for the future growth of CLC’s ministry in Indonesia. ~ Donny Kairupan, National Director
The Weekend (11th/12th) – Côte d’Ivoire:
We thank the Lord for His faithfulness, without which we are nothing and can do nothing. The Lord has answered our prayers for the country’s stability without which we cannot freely exercise our ministry. We remain grateful to Him for the protection of each member of the team and for our strength that He renews each day. Thank you Father! ~ Martine Foto, National Director
Monday (13th) – Liberia:
March 13th -17th will be our annual Church Leaders Summit 2017. The summit has become widely recognized by senior pastors as a must-attend annual event. Each year this summit brings together participants from all around the country, mostly senior pastors, elders, deacons and staff, from various denominations with congregations ranging from 50 - 2,000 people. The purpose of this summit is to provide high quality, relevant pastoral and leadership training and to make people more aware of the ministry of CLC. This year we hope to have 500 participants. Please pray that God will grant us this desire. ~ James Cooper, The National Director Photo of the 2016 Summit
Tuesday (14th) – Indonesia:
Praise God for the opportunity to open a new book kiosk near the Petra Christian University, which is a well-known university in Surabaya. It is an incredible opportunity to further spread the Good News and reach out to more students. We are looking forward to sharing our mission with these students and hope that it will lead to more opportunities that will help our ministry grow. ~ Donny Kairupan, National Director
Wednesday (15th) – Benin:
Benin is currently in an economic crisis and we ask for prayer that we will find new opportunities for outreach and sales in our country. Although I am the National Director for Benin, I recently took on the leadership role of coordinating all of CLC’s French West African countries. Please pray that God will bless me with good health, courage and wisdom in working with these teams so that together can further God’s Kingdom in this area of the world. ~ Emmanuel Ladeyo, National Director
Thursday (16th) – Growth in Asia:
We hope to open a new CLC ministry in Cambodia and to reopen two others (Sri Lanka and Bangladesh). You may recall that we tried to reopen our ministry in Sri Lanka a couple years back but it was unsuccessful. Thankfully a pastor has reached out to us as he is very interested in establishing the work in his country again. Last year, due to financial issues, Bangladesh’s ministry was shut down but we are hopeful that it will be reopened this spring. Thank you Lord that You see the way before us. Please guide Romualdo Macinas and his team as they search for your wisdom in moving forward with these ministries. ~ Romualdo Macinas, Asia Pacific Regional Director
Friday (16th) – Philippines:
We will be having our annual Daily Vacation Bible School (DVBS) and Workshop on the 1st of April. Please pray that many youth workers will attend and that many children will participate. It is our hope that more churches will create outreach events such as these not only for children but for their parents as well. ~ Romualdo Macinas, Asia Pacific Regional Director
The Weekend (18th/19th) – France:
We are having the inauguration of our recently relocated Paris bookshop on April 22nd, 2017, with several meetings being organized in the afternoon. The musical group, Héritage, from Canada will be performing throughout the day, followed by a concert later that evening at a nearby auditorium. Please pray for our March 13th - 19th Week 11: Upcoming Opportunities
21team as we organise this event. We are hopeful that it will be wonderful day for all who attend as well as a great opportunity to share the Gospel! ~ Herve Lessous, National Director
Monday (20th) – Mozambique & World Relief:
At the time of writing, CLC Maputo has just served, with a book table, at a two-day leadership conference (Willow Creek) organised by World Relief. We benefitted hugely from the sessions and we were so happy to be able to resource the delegates, some of whom were not believers when they came to the conference. During the programme, an opportunity was given to receive Christ and also to commit to making a difference in this country of Mozambique. We believe we can add value to each other’s ministries though this kind of mutual support and we were delighted when the conference organiser told us that he would like us to come every year! Please also pray that our two bookshops in Mozambique can work together more effectively in 2017. Honestly this is difficult because of the great distance between Maputo and Beira, please pray that we can overcome this. ~ Liz Patten, Africa Regional Director
Tuesday (21st) – Papua New Guinea & The PNG Bible Society:
We are working closely with the PNG Bible Society for the wide distribution of the Bible here in our city and the surrounding provinces. The Pidgin Bible is a very popular translation and we have ensured a steady supply through our partnership with the PNG Bible Society. Please pray for an increase in sales as we make contact with schools and churches in the city of Port Moresby. ~ Vere Babona, National Director
Wednesday (22nd) – Uruguay & Churches:
CLC Uruguay continues with its work in the interior of the country by visiting and working with a significant number of churches in these rural areas. We ask for prayer for each one of these churches, and also that the Lord will continue to open doors with more churches in areas where we don’t currently have access for literature distribution and evangelism. ~ Humberto Urrutia, National Director
Thursday (23rd) – CLC & Thompson Bible Seminars:
Please pray for the many Thompson Bible Seminars that will be taking place in 2017. Already I have reports that two will be happening in Spain, one starting today (23rd – 25th) and the other next week (27th – 1st April). CLC Spain will also be doing another seminar in October in Equatorial Guinea! Throughout Latin America our teams have many seminars booked, including CLC Panama who has five booked for the year. Please pray that each pastor and church leader that attends will be blessed by this training and use it to impact the lives of their congregations. ~ Amanda Lutes, Global Communication Director, Photo from CLC Panama seminar
Friday (24th) – Switzerland & Open Doors:
At the time of writing, our team was blessed to have a bookstall at the regional Open Doors conference. There were two speakers, one from Iran and the other one from Niger. They shared the testimonies of persecuted Christians around the world and how we can best support them (examples: praying, writing letters, sending them food, etc.). As there were about 130 people in attendance, all of whom were very interested in being involved and learning more, it was a great place to have our bookstall of Christian resources. ~ Carlo Ciafani, National Director
The Weekend (25th/26th) – UK & Theological Colleges:
Thank the Lord for the increasing role CLC has in meeting the needs of Theological College students in England and Wales. Pray that the CLC colleagues running the book sales have timely access to the list of ‘essential’ books for each course, so that demand is met. And pray that as a result of our visits, college 22 libraries increase their ordering from CLC Wholesale now that we carry many more lines. ~ Phil Burnham, Events Mobiliser
Monday (27th) – Netherlands:
We are very thankful for God’s provision for us. We had to make some hard decisions in 2015, letting two long-term CLCers go because we closed the shop in Amsterdam. We thank God they are both now employed elsewhere and that after eight years of declining sales, our sales are now stable (even though the rest of the country is still experiencing an average loss of 10% in sales). After such a long period of cutting in expenses for survival, we are now looking ahead and taking some steps to plan for our future growth and investing in projects like publishing our own books. ~ Bertus Keuter, National Director
Tuesday (28th) – Poland:
We want to thank God for the steady expansion of our publishing program. In 2016 we published eight more titles including authors such as A.W. Tozer, Corrie Ten Boom, John Dunn and John Stott. Pray with us as we strive to market these important titles outside the typical Evangelical channels. We now have two established representatives that are trying to promote our books in the secular and Catholic bookshops. Please pray that God will open these doors for us so that these important titles and future ones can have greater impact. ~ Gary Chamberlin, Europe Regional Director
Wednesday (28th) – Romania:
We praise the Lord for the new shelves we received from CLC Austria as a result of the closing of the CLC Graz shop. This has given us the opportunity to renovate our shop, offering a better shopping experience to our customers. What a blessing it is to know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28 (NIV) ~ Ronela Micula, National Director
Thursday (29th) –Hungary:
Praise God that Hungary is having significant growth this year - about 30%! All three bookshops plus the internet sales have increased substantially. In addition, they published Prison Letters by Corrie Ten Boom. Please continue to pray for Annamaria Karpati who took over the role of National Director in April 2016. ~ Gary Chamberlin, Europe Regional Director
Friday (30th) – Belarus:
Praise God for two new records set in 2016! In July, we had the best-ever sales in our bookshop and, in October, we had the best-ever sales via our online bookshop! We are so thankful to the Lord for the increasing number of internet customers, and for the CLCers who have pushed for us to have online bookshops over the years (Cristi Cotovan and Gary Chamberlin). The internet sales are especially encouraging as the economic situation in the country is still not great. What a privilege to see so many people turning to God during this difficult time. Thank you Father for the way You are providing for our ministry. ~ Lina Pinkevich, National Director
The Weekend (31st/1st) – Italy:
‘By chance’ an Italian policeman named Daniele entered the CLC Torino bookshop some time ago wondering what type of bookshop he had stumbled into. He was looking for books on counselling for various kinds of addictions. Gigi, the shop manager explained that we were a Christian bookshop and shared with him about God. Now we know that with the Lord nothing is ‘by chance’, but part of His divine plan. Daniele became interested in spiritual things, began to draw nearer to God and then dedicated his life to the Lord! Daniele and Gigi have become friends and he has invited Gigi to his baptism! ~ Gary Chamberlin, Europe Regional Director