Information from Donald John, CLC Sierra Leone

Tuesday (1st) – Makeni

Last year, CLC opened a fourth bookshop in Sierra Leone, in the northern town of Makeni.  Almost from the outset, there were difficulties in operating the shop particularly due to the serious outbreak of the Ebola virus in the country. Earlier this year it also became necessary to move location, and that was accomplished in March. Pray for Alie Kamara, the young manager of this little bookshop, as he makes contacts and looks for ways to make the shop known to local people and the surrounding churches.

 

Wednesday (2nd) – Bo

We are trusting God for His provision for our most desired project. We have been longing to acquire some land in Bo where we can build our own bookshop. The current bookshop belongs to a devout Muslim who has been increasing his rent because of the nature of our operations selling Christian materials. He has also been under pressure to evict us. If the Bo shop was owned by CLC, it would save us from all these uncertainties.

 

Information from James Cooper, CLC Liberia

Thursday (3rd) – Staff Housing
Isaac Dweh serves in the Monrovia bookshop. We have been praying about his housing situation, as his home was often flooded due to the temporary structure and the position of the land it was built on. Praise the Lord that through the generosity of members of the international CLC family, Isaacs’s long-held desire to build a home out of bricks has become a reality. Hopefully it will be finished by the time you read this.

 

Friday (4th) – The Ebola Crisis
The Ebola crisis has made a huge impact on the lives of everyone in Liberia.
Praise the Lord that, on May 9th, the country was officially declared free of the virus. Pray for this country, and CLC’s ministry, as life starts to return to normality. The outbreak won’t be forgotten, and people will still be looking for hope and security in life.

 

The Weekend (5th/6th) – Mobile Plans
Within the next 2 years, CLC Liberia is hoping to establish a mobile bookshop to meet the tremendous need for Christian literature in the country.  This mobile bookshop will make some of the Bibles and Christian literature currently sold at our Monrovia store available to other parts of Montserrado county and six other accessible counties in Liberia. We have identified areas where there are churches, Christian institutions and people who are in great need of the resources we offer, but currently have to travel long distances to make their purchases.

Monday (7th) – CLC Portugal with GLS
“We are blessed to continue our partnership with Willow Creek Church through the Global Leadership Summit events each year. By working with leaders from John Maxwell’s ministry, as well as partnerships with other organisations, we take CLC book tables all over the country, serving the church and communities.” Carlos Cunha, CLC Portugal

 

Tuesday (8th) – CLC UK with Eden
For almost a year now, Eden.co.uk – a Christian Internet retailer - has been hosting and operating the CLC UK Retail website. Give thanks that this has gone well. In addition, Eden will be sharing part of the new CLC warehouse. Pray for Gareth Mulholland, Eden’s Managing Director, and his warehouse team as they too settle into new premises. Pray that the two organisations, though different, can work smoothly together to increase the supply of Christian materials in the UK.

 

Wednesday (9th) – CLC USA with the College of Prayer
CLC USA has already hosted two of three College of Prayer modules at their HQ or at the neighbouring WEC HQ. They will host a third module in November in Philadelphia. These events take place over a weekend and around 100 attendees have the opportunity to get a university/seminary-level training experience on the topic of prayer over a three-year period. CLC author, Fred Hartley, is the President of the College of Prayer International.

 

Thursday (10th) – CLC and Author Francis Chan
Crazy Love by Francis Chan is an international bestseller. Little did CLC imagine that we would be able to secure the rights for his new title on marriage, You and Me Forever, written together with his wife Lisa. We feel thankful and blessed that CLC has been given the rights to publish this new Chan title in languages across the globe, including Spanish, Russian, Italian, Polish, Dutch, Burmese and Romanian! CLC Philippines was also given the rights to the English version for their country.  

 

Friday (11th) – Central Asia 2 and Fair Trade
We rent out a quarter of our shop space to a local fair-trade gift shop. The Fair Trade team are believers, but most of their customers are not.  Please pray for God to protect our relationship with them. The income and draw of new people to the store, that wouldn’t have come otherwise, have been a big benefit to us.  We need wisdom to know how to serve them well and reach out to customers together.

 

The Weekend (12th/13th) - CLC Korea and Dr Lim
Dr Lim, a pastor and author, has published a series of booklets explaining the Gospel. We have been able to translate and publish them in Chinese to distribute for free, and recently we translated his first volume into English. Dr. Lim is eager to distribute these booklets, or the text for translation, to any country, especially in Asia, and he will cover the expenses. Please pray for him and his ministry, and for any interested country that may contact CLC Korea as we partner with Dr. Lim in this venture.

 

Monday (14th) – Central Asia 2
We often pray that God would bring people in to the store with whom we can share the good news.  Recently three women visited us and our manager was able to introduce them to Jesus.  He will share with men and women alike, but is always looking for women he can ask to connect with these seekers, to encourage them to grow closer to the Lord. God, in His perfect timing, had a missionary lady, known to the manager, enter the store at just the right moment and the manager introduced these three ladies to her.

 

Tuesday (15th) – Venezuela
We want to thank the Lord that he answered our prayers and enabled us to legally register the names of the current CLC Venezuela Board. This may seem a simple task, but here in Venezuela it is very complicated and we have been trying since July 2014. The officials at the department made it very difficult and required many changes to our recorded minutes.  Finally, the official that was such an impediment was replaced, and we were able to complete the process. We give glory to God.

 

Wednesday (16th) – Dominica
For about two years now we have wanted to host a short programme on the Christian Radio station ‘The Voice of Life’. We are very pleased to report that, starting in March this year, we now have a regular five-minute radio programme that we have called ‘CLC and the Open Book’.  We use this opportunity to emphasise our mission statement and to encourage people from the Word of God. We also use the different themes to highlight the books we have available.

Thursday (17th) – Korea 
We have been praying for a capable person to join CLC Korea as a team leader for the Design Department. We are very happy with our answer to prayer – we have recently employed a lady, Paek Seol-hee, who is doing very well in the job.

 

Friday (18th) – Central Asia 1
Praise the Lord that another Christian organisation, that distributes books free of charge in the country, has agreed to work with our store to make us one of the points of distribution.  Right now they only want the books to be distributed freely but we pray that they would see the value of the shop, and the legitimate expenses involved in upkeep and salaries, and allow us to sell the books for a small price soon.

 

The Weekend (19th/20th) - Philippines
Importation of books has had to take a lower priority for CLC Philippines over the past year due to changing government regulations. Previously we only needed one permit from the Bureau of Customs but now we have had to apply for a number of other permits. Added to this there has been severe congestion in the ports that has affected the delivery of goods. Praise the Lord, we are now in a position to resume importing and, at the time of writing, orders have been sent and the final paperwork requirements are well underway.

Monday (21st) – Mozambique
“We are grateful to our landlords, the Theological Bible Seminary (OMS) in Maputo, and the AIM Seminary in Beira, for providing room in their installations for our bookshops. In the Beira Seminary we moved into a larger space last year, and in Maputo we have a new person, Abel Chau, running the bookshop. Abel is encouraging the students to take advantage of the resources and the student discount we offer.” Liz Patten, CLC Regional Director

 

Tuesday (22nd) – Europe
“Together with WEC representatives from various western European countries, I serve as a member of the board of the Cornerstone Missionary Training College in the Netherlands. I enjoy attending the board meetings because it not only allows me to be directly involved in the development of the college, but it also gives me opportunities to speak with students about their future involvement in mission. This raises the awareness of CLC and, hopefully, encourages them to establish links with the CLC ministry as they serve abroad.” Gary Chamberlin, CLC Regional Director

 

Wednesday (23rd) – Canada
“We have initiated a scholarship project that is named after Ken and Bessie Adams, the founders of CLC. This is a scholarship offered to Bible College students to help them with their studies and we also give them training in book selling. Our first recipient, Jepthe, is a 20 year old student who is already very enthusiastic about CLC and everyone is benefitting from the arrangement.” Antoine Roberge, CLC Canada Director

 

Thursday (24th) – Philippines
“For more than 35 years CLC has had a bookshop inside the Febias College of Bible. This bookshop caters almost exclusively to the needs of the college faculty and students - not just with literature but with other items such as toiletries etc.  Whenever the college holds events that are open to the public, we also have the opportunity to be present with a book table. Pray that CLC will be able to minister to these future pastors and Christian workers through the literature and other products that the CLC bookshop provides.” Don Tan, CLC Philippines

 

Friday (25th) – USA
“We have the role of ‘Mission Mobilizers’ for CLC and we love this work! It is always encouraging to meet with young people and encourage them in their desire to serve the Lord through service in CLC - using their interest in business. We have established relationships with several professors who teach business classes in the Christian Universities where we share about CLC. They give us a whole class session to share about 'Business as Mission' and how CLC does this.” Bill and Marge Almack, CLC USA

 

The Weekend (26th/27th) - UK
“Last year we began partnering with FORMISSION (formerly Springdale Colleges) by providing 'goody bags' for the national events that they attend and for events they arrange for church/mission leaders.  As a mission-focused Bible college, they have been sharing information about our ministry with their students and encouraging them to support us through praying, shopping or serving with us.  May this relationship continue to strengthen and bear much fruit in the coming years.” Amanda Lutes