© 2003-2008 Book Aid Charitable Trust
News Update No. 25
| TALK ABOUT FEEDING THE FIVE THOUSAND |
| Over a year ago Roger West, who had been a
Book Aid volunteer in London for several years, moved to Manila with his
wife Naeda. Having seen what has been done in supplying many other areas
of the world with affordable Christian books through our programme he
felt their mission was to do likewise for the Filipino people. The
following report of visits to Bible Colleges and Seminaries in the
greater Manila area is exciting: "The first place we visited was
the Baptist Bible Seminary and Institute at Taytay, just outside Metro
Manila. The president had warned us that the 250 students were pretty
broke and he thought that we might not do much business. We set up a
display of books in the shade of some trees and a trickle of students
emerged from their classes to browse. The trickle became a stream and
-very quickly- a flood!. Within two hours the books were practically all
sold and we were made to promise to come back soon. A week later we were
back with double the number of boxes. Same result! Talk about feeding
the five thousand! Don't ask us where the money was coming from - our
best guess was that they were dipping into their Christmas turkey funds!
We even had to make a third visit two days later with Bibles and
devotional materials. The motto of this Bible School is 'Equipping the
Saints for the Task' and, as wepulled out of the collegegrounds that day
we felt that our visits had contributed in some small way to their goal.
Praise the Lord
|
| HAVE BOOKS, BUT NO SHOES |
| "Hi, I'm Beb Pedrajas a graduating
student here in the Baptist Seminary. I would like to express my
gratitude for the books I bought from you. When I first saw the boxes of
books displayed with low, low price tags I was amazed, so without
hesitation I decided to divert the money intended to buy a pair of shoes
since I wore 'wear out' shoes then. But that was the smart decision you
know, because I enjoy reading the books. The fact is that I would not
have been able to buy some of those books if displayedin any Christian
bookstore with fourfold price tags. It is my prayer that God will bless
and enlarge your ministry to meet the needs of those students of the
Word who cannot afford to buy high priced books. May you continue
serving and distributing books in Bible Schools, Churches etc. God will
not forget the labour of your hands. Hoping you attend our 22nd church
anniversary on Sunday and bring some more books."
|
| OPERATION 50/50 |
| In a local Christian bookshop a young man,
Dhon Magtibay was perched on the edge of a chair feverishly reading and
taking notes. He was a local pastor preparing his Sunday sermon there
because he only had one or two books in his personal library. Dhon
pastors a small church in a less affluent part of Tagaytay City and we
were able to deliver him a selection of 50 books which we believe will
help him enormously in the area of sermon preparation and pastoral care.
It was out of this needy situation that the concept of 50/50 was born.
Our prayer is that God will lead us to 50 pastors in similar situations
to Dhon and that we can supply them with 50 good books to help them in
their ministry Roger and Naeda West
|
| Benches and Books in Zambia |
| I wish to thank every one at Book Aid for
your support of the SU ministry in Zambia. The shipment which we
received not only contained books but we were very happy with the some
other items as well, such as the benches, which are being put to good
use for our Youth meetings and Bible Study groups. It has been much
easier to organise these with the benches all around. But most of all
now the bookshop has shelves full of books and many customers go away
satisfied. The shop is active because of Book Aid
|
|
BUILDINGS |
| We are pleased to inform you that we are
almost through the huge consignment of books we received from Book Aid.
So far we have raised about EIGHT MILLION FRANCS from the sales. This
money has greatly assisted in the erection of three new staff houses on
our compound. We lack words to express our thanks for the love and
concern you have shown us. The entire seminary and the people of
Cameroon who have benefited from the books are very grateful to you and
for your endeavour to reach the whole world with Christian books. We are
sure that as our people read the books they will be enriched morally and
academically Travis Myers, Cameroon Baptist Theological Seminary
|
|
ZIMBABWE |
| The books are a boon and a blessing! We
had been asked to supply books for prizes at a Christian Primary School
and we opened your boxes and there were just the kind of books we needed
and all brand new. The second-hand Bibles were all snapped up as were
the lovely school satchels. It is great to have so many affordable books
for people struggling on salaries that can't cope with our rampant
inflation. Thank you very much for this ministry you have to help us,
and others. We have certainly benefited from it and look forward to
continuing business with you Inez Meadows, Literature Director, SU Zimbabwe
|
| THANK YOU... |
| The Bibles and hymn books you sent us are
wonderful. These will bring our church up to date and will allow all
visitors to share singing with us. We are so very thankful and wish to
pass on our deep gratitude Gordon McGetty, Thassos Christian Fellowship |