April 2004
Dear friends,
In
this newsletter we are able to report on the French-language conference in Africa and the ongoing work in Russian. We are grateful
for your continued support of the missionary work of Evangelical Press. We are also planning two more conferences.
The first is to be in Romania
and is being organized by Dinu Moga,
who has been working for many years in Romania, translating and publishing
Romanian books. This conference will take place on October 22 and 23rd,
and the speakers are planned to be John Blanchard and Gareth Crossley from the UK
and Paul Negrut from Romania. The second conference
(Russian-language) is to take place in the Ukraine, on the 4th and
5th of November when the speakers are planned to be Stuart Olyott and John Thornbury. Please continue to pray for these events as well
as the ongoing work in French and Russian (not forgetting that in English,
Romanian and Spanish).
With Christian greetings,
David Clark
French-language work
Jean-Claude Souillot, Europresse, Chalon-sur-Saône,
France
Bénin preachers’
conference
At the end of February
2004, I went to Bénin with pastor Robert Strivens,
from England, and to Cameroon with
Paul N’Goran. In Bénin we
held this year’s preachers’ conference at which twenty-five students attended.
We also had several men from the town of Bohicon. This was a very
profitable time with good food from the Word of God as well as an opportunity
to encourage the students to continue in the gospel and teach them directly. In
particular, Pastor Strivens gave us two powerful
messages on ‘The atonement’ which were a real help to all present. We were also
able to preach in several churches, which is always a joyful experience.
From Bénin,
Paul N’Goran and I flew to Douala, Cameroon,
where we met Jean Katla. I was bringing a motorcycle
tyre to Jean and was a little anxious as to how much it would cost me to get it
through customs. As I was waiting my turn to open my cases, a line of people
went by and the first man shouted: ‘Transit’ (i.e. ‘You
let these guys through’). Then he waved me through and ushered me out of the
terminal! Before I knew it I was with Jean and gave him his tyre – the Lord had
intervened!
Jean Katla
in Cameroon
Jean has been in Cameroon for nine months now, having had to
leave the Ivory Coast
because of the civil unrest there. Although he is originally from Cameroon, he
was abroad for many years. He and his family now live in Bafoussam,
the fourth largest city in the country, located in the mountains some 300 km
from Douala.
The climate is better than in many other places in Cameroon. They live in a nice
house, but Jean would like to move nearer the centre of town in order to open a
bookshop. He is gradually getting to know the situation and has already established
many contacts.
Cameroon preachers’
first conference
This visit to Cameroon gave
us the opportunity to hold the first preachers’ conference for this country.
Eleven men came and several others indicated that the distance and problems in
communication prevented them from attending. We met for two and a half days of
preaching and discussion. There were some fine men present with a strong attachment
for the gospel. One said that he had prayed for a long time to see this happen.
This conference was also the opportunity for Jean to establish contacts with
the various students and find new places to go to in his touring of the
country. We also met with Anatole Lordon,
who has been out of the country for some eighteen years. He has just completed
a theological course and has come back to his homeland in order to preach the
gospel of sovereign grace. He did preach well at the conference, and the time
of discussion we had showed us that he could be another element in the renewed
interest in the gospel which we saw. Thinking about this and events leading us
to send Jean back to his country; we can see how the Lord shuts and open doors
according to his plan.
Jean-Claude
Russian-language work
Slava Viazovski,
Minsk, Belarus
The beginning of 2004
marked the end of a number of projects we had been working on. First of all, we
completed publication of a seven-volume commentary on the Gospels by J. C.
Ryle. The final two volumes on the Gospel of John saw the light of day in
February. This is being published by Grace to Russia.
We also made progress on
the issues of distribution. We have exported the first order of our new titles
to Ukraine.
In former years the Ukrainian border seemed impregnable but we now have an
official way of taking books to our Ukrainian customers. This is an important
step because Ukraine
is currently our biggest market.
At the end of February
local staff had a meeting with the UK
staff (David Clark, John Rubens, Roger Fay) here in Minsk. We spent three
very interesting, intense and productive days! One of the results of the visit
was the decision to set up a new company which will be a legal Belarus entity
– so far we have been operating as the Representative Office of a British
company. This will make us more efficient in terms of book distribution to the Ukraine and Russia.
Two new titles have been
prepared for printing: Human Cloning:
right or wrong? by E. Davies, and From Nothing to Nature by E. H. Andrews.
We expect them to be printed by June. A number of other titles are also nearing
completion. By the end of the year we are planning to publish six more books.
One of our customers, Grace to Russia,
has also launched another big project: translation of Spurgeon’s Treasury of David into Russian. Psalm
119 has just been translated and we are editing the translation now.
This spring is a time of
study for most of our staff. It is important to develop the skills and
abilities of our workers. I am writing my master’s thesis in order to complete
the MA distance learning program from the Reformed Theological Seminary (USA).
Andrei has been taking English classes and has improved his English
considerably. Olya took classes in web-design as we
are going to be developing our Internet presence. Even our bookkeeper Leonid
(sixty-four years of age) is learning how to use MSN
Messenger to communicate with UK
staff! The language barrier is overcome by the electronic translator. I thank
the Lord for helping us to move forward in our literature ministry.
Slava