Oasis International

The Path is Made By Walking: Summiting the Africa Study Bible Project

By Hannah Rasmussen, ASB Editorial Assistant | Nairobi, Kenya

In January 1995, my family flew into Tanzania. Exactly twenty years later, I saw Tanzania from a bird’s eye view again—standing at the top of Mount Kilimanjaro.

This time, I earned the view. I walked.

I walked through a rainforest thunderstorm, over bridges lined with Seuss-like cacti, through a cloud in the artic desert. I walked in wet clothes, with aching muscles, warding off the equator’s sun with a hot pink sunhat. I clambered over rocks in the freezing moonlight.

“The path is made by walking.” In the hours of hiking up Mount Kilimanjaro, I told myself to focus on the moment, not the distance ahead.

My hike gave me perspective on the Africa Study Bible project. As far as we know, no one has ever created a study Bible with 250 different contributors, and certainly not with writers from over fifty countries speaking different languages. If you stare at the mountain ahead, it can seem insurmountable.

I doubted that I would make it to the top of Kilimanjaro. I’ve never climbed more than a hill—could I really climb the tallest freestanding mountain in the world? To my surprise, my upbringing prepared me. Living in Nairobi the past few months helped me deal with the altitude. My college years in “Minne-snow-ta” helped me differentiate between slippery and soft snow along the crater’s edge. 

The day my friends and I summited Mount Kilimanjaro, we walked a full day through clouds to the last hut. After two hours of sleep, we began the steepest part of the hike. My teammate in front of me wore a headlamp, but I walked by the light of the nearly full moon. I recalled the Swahili version of “My Hope is Built on Nothing Less.” One verse in that translation says, “If my path is long, he gives me salvation. If the clouds hit me, his strength is my light.”

The complexity and scope of the Africa Study Bible project have produced challenges and delays. But although the Africa Study Bible work seems like unknown traversed terrain, I recall what God says in Isaiah 42:16: “I will lead blind Israel down a new path, guiding them along an unfamiliar way. I will brighten the darkness before them and smooth out the road ahead of them. Yes, I will indeed do these things; I will not forsake them.”

The summit of the Africa Study Bible project is still months away, but as we grow closer, the trail is also growing steeper. I believe God is at work in the Africa Study Bible project. If we could accomplish it easily on our own, where would his glory be? But as we trust God with every step in the process, we blaze a new trail.

At the highest peak in Africa, I saw the sun rise in splendor, brighten tiny farms and towns out to the horizon, blind in brilliance off of pale blue glaciers and a snow covered crater.

With the Africa Study Bible, we are going to see Africa at its height. We will see the landscape from the heavens’ perspective. We will see that what God creates is magnificent.

So all of us—the hundreds of writers, partners, designers, and editors scattered across the continents and across languages—continue to make our path by walking, one step at a time.

Hannah Rasmussen is our on-site Africa Study Bible Editorial Assistant. She is based in Nairobi with our African editorial team.

Want to support the work of people like Hannah on developing the first study Bible written by Africans, for Africans? Give online here.

Read more about the project at www.africastudybible.com.

"Why Not Free?": Money, Charity, and Ministry in Africa

Keith Wiederwax, Director of African Operations confronts a tough question and shares his thoughts on the complexity of money, charity, and mission in Africa.

____________________

I recently sat in a small room here in Nigeria with group of busy, yet dedicated men and women. All of them love Christ and want to see the spread of bibles and Christian books throughout Nigeria and all of Africa. We were in a board meeting for our partner ministry that Oasis International founded here in Nigeria. The board members are Nigerian, and the ministry is currently growing in independence. Communication, cultural differences and ministry philosophy can be difficult challenges, but especially when ministries are at this phase of development.

One board member, honestly seeking to understand, asked, “Is it true that books that are donated to you for free you charge us for?” It was a great question and one that speaks to a deeper ministry philosophy issue for Oasis International. The answer was simple. “Yes, we do.”

On the surface, it doesn’t seem to make sense. If you desire to see as many books and Bibles reach Africa as possible, why would you charge for books that cost you nothing? Well first, those books and Bibles didn’t come without a cost. Someone has worked long and hard to develop a relationship that resulted in that donation. Second, and even more importantly, it’s because we seek to sustainably distribute Christian books and bibles. Oasis International has expenses and we want to be able to pay them and be around to continue to send resources to Africa next month, next year and, Lord willing, next decade. So in addition to standard shipping and customs fees, we do include a charge for donated books. However, it is much less than their retail worth. This price also still allows our partner to sell them at a profit to average Christians there in Nigeria who can still afford to buy them.

In this way everyone shares in the blessing of the donation—Oasis International receives a little income to help pay ongoing expenses and continue new initiatives, our partner receives good books that they can resell and use to pay local workers, and the Church in Africa is blessed with Christian material that was previously unavailable or far too expensive. Distributing things for free helps an immediate need, but can also perpetuate a culture of dependence that can do more harm than good. On the other hand, a Christian bookstore in Africa can help people discover the truths of the Gospel and be responsive to the needs of the local church for years to come while creating a good local business.

So if you feel led to give something away for the sake of the gospel, I hope this won’t discourage you to do so. Just realize that if you give books to Oasis, we will be charging wholesale and retail partners something for them. Why not free? Because we honestly don’t believe that "free" is in the long-term best interest for them, us, or the people we all want to see reached with the good news of Jesus Christ.

For more on this topic, check out 2 Major Reasons Why We Sell Books Instead of Giving Them Away.

Seeing the Future: E-books in Africa?

Keith Wiederwax, our Director of African Operations, just wrapped up a weeks-long trip in Ghana and Nigeria visiting our partners there. Here he shares his thoughts on the potential development of e-books in Africa and how this could affect Christian book distribution across the continent. 

_____________________________

What does the future hold for African Christian publishing and bookstores? That’s a good question and one I think about a lot.

As I sat outside at a restaurant and talked with the head of operations of our partner in Ghana we discussed this and what has been taking place over the last couple of years. Piracy has had a great effect on the Christian book market in places like Ghana and Nigeria, which have far more Christian bookstores than the majority of Africa. Pirates monitor what books are selling and can easily send a copy to a printer in India or China and have a large amount shipped in quite quickly. With corruption all too frequent, they can often avoid paying the normal customs and other legal fees. Other wholesalers then buy those books not truly caring where they came from. They just know that they are less expensive than what the legal sellers are charging and after all, “business is business." Combined with increased competition from shops that sell the most popular titles and young people spending more time on the internet than reading books, it is very hard time for Christian booksellers in Africa.

With the cost of smartphones and tablets continuing to drop, the rise of e-books in Africa will occur quickly too, I’m sure. While its still in its infancy right now, Oasis is working towards coming out with an e-book sales app that will let us sell e-books to customers in Africa and allow them to pay either a local bookseller or pay through cell phone credits. We believe this will be a great way to also help serve local conferences. Conference leaders could “bundle” a group of books by conference speakers and offer them at a heavily discounted price as e-books. The conference attendees download the application to their smartphone, purchase a card with a code for the amount of the bundle, put the code into the application and download the books. Voila! All that excellent content is now in the hands of a pastor or leader who needs it and the conference manager didn’t have all the work and hassle of ordering and shipping lots of copies of many different books to the conference location and distributing them.

Of course we know that there will always be a need for physical copies of books and that too is a good thing. With technology continuing to get better, the Print On Demand systems like Oasis is now beginning to roll out in Africa will help keep costs low and availability of various titles high. Titles that would not be available otherwise because they would not sell enough to be profitable in the old, “print in a foreign country and ship them in” method.

So while the current market is difficult, we need to expand ever further throughout Africa to serve the many countries where competition and pirates, much less Christian bookstores, do not yet exist. For our current partners, we want to serve them better through Print On Demand machines and work together to make e-books a reality down the road. As for the future… we’ll do our best and leave that to the One who is already there and knows our steps before we make them. It is He who is worthy of all our best efforts to serve the church with Bibles and Christian books in Africa and throughout the world. To God be the glory!

The Print On Demand System Has Arrived!

After a long journey, we are thrilled to announce that our Print on Demand system has just arrived safely in Jos, Nigeria at our distribution headquarters! But wait, some of you are asking -- what is a Print On Demand system, anyways? And why is Oasis so excited? 

Before you ask any more questions, you should probably watch the video embedded below. Our partners at the Publish for All Initiative with Bethany Press put together this awesome demo so that you can see just how incredible this publishing system will be for Nigeria (and the rest of the developing world).

 

Throughout Africa, books are inhibited from distribution by a number of barriers: Western-style prices, poverty, customs fees, trade restrictions, and limited bookstores all contribute to a striking lack of Christian literature. This system helps Oasis and other international minisitries to circumvent these barriers by putting the power of publishing directly into the hands of our distributors, and we couldn't be more excited about opportunities to respond immediately to the needs of the local church as they arise. 

In the coming days, we will be setting up and training the staff on the system. Stay tuned to witness how this project will change lives (and even boost economic growth) as it develops! 

Report from Evangelical Church of West Africa

Post Election Violence

Thank you for your prayers for Nigeria. We are grateful that it appears to have been peaceful over the last week and indeed since the last election on 26th April. There has been little of the violence we heard about after the presidential election on 16th April. However details continue to emerge of what happened at that time. In Nigeria, as a whole, hundreds of people have been killed. We know of at least 194 churchesthat have been burnt or otherwise destroyed, over 1200 houses destroyed and15,000 people displaced.

As far as ECWA is concerned, to the best of our knowledge so far, 3 ECWA pastors have been killed and at least 32 church members have lost their lives, with 62 members, including pastors, injured. 48 churches, mission stations or pastoriums have been destroyed and 106 private houses have been lost. Just think about what this means for those affected around the country.

In the light of this suffering in the North, we [Serving in Mission] continue to allocate funds in various directions. Early this week SIM Nigeria helped with some aid to many affected people in Southern Kaduna State area. Today we arranged for some funds to go to ECWA Bauchi district. We continue to look for other avenues to channel funds. Once again if you know of any organisation or individual who wants to contribute please ask them to donate to our Nigeria Relief Fund 96038 through the nearest SIM office. Let's keep praying for those who have been affected.

Update from Nigeria in the Time of Election

Well, the Nigerian elections are nearly over. There are still scattered ones here and there to be completed. Tomorrow they will vote in Kaduna and Bauchi States. I presume these were delayed in part to move security forces in from places like Jos before the elections took place. The security forces have done very well, and international election observers say that the voting was fair and well done, with significantly fewer problems. And it rather blunts the protests as the results were overwhelming for the current President. 

Here in Jos, the Governor was reelected. Results were given this morning—Thursday—and were met with large throngs of jubilant followers of Governor Jang. Some of our staff was delayed in getting to work as some of the streets were blocked by the numbers of people celebrating.

We are thankful that Jos was peaceful and that our staff and shop are again unscathed. Our shop was closed several days as required, and on our open days, the sales were reduced. But we are thankful for how peacefully it has turned out in Jos.

Thanks for continuing to pray.
Craig

Craig is our Managining Director of Oasis Distributions Limited - the headquarters of which is located in Jos.

What’s Going on in Nigeria?

As you know, our African headquarters are in Nigeria. The country’s central region experienced episodes of violence over the past few months, with targeted attacks taking place on Christmas Eve.    We receive weekly reports from our team in Nigeria and we follow news reports from the BBC, New York Times, CNN, and the U.S. State Department. The violence comes in waves, leaving our team to deal with a rollercoaster of emotions. The Lord continually provides wisdom and discernment about when to keep shop doors open. Fortunately, this ethnic, religious violence has not brought physical harm to any of our staff. However, each of them has been personally touched, having lost friends or relatives as a result of the growing violence.   These tension and trials challenge all of us to increase our faith in our sovereign God.

We are grateful that so many of you are praying, and we ask that you remain on your knees, asking God for peace in Nigeria. We periodically post updates to our blog from Craig Ewoldt, our Managing Director in Jos.  We specifically ask you to pray for Craig and his wife, Beth. You can find their latest personal report HERE.

Our Nigerian team is in need of your prayer support, and they are also in need some updates to technology. They are looking for gently-used laptops to supply to their support staff. Please keep this need in mind as you or a friend moves to new technology. You can contact our main office with any inquiry or contribution.

Let the Lion Loose

Our board chairman, Edward Elliott, wrote this a couple years ago after returning from Africa. He's had these same thoughts several times since. He recently found the piece he wrote and shared it with us to share with you.

Let the Lion Loose
Edward Elliott
October 5, 2008

 Some years ago – perhaps 35 – the young student sat in his West African seminary chapel.  Some days ago – perhaps 35 – that seminarian, after a lifetime in the pulpit, recounted to me words spoken in that chapel. “Let the Lion Loose.”  Those words roared into his spirit and provided inspiration and guidance over years of service to his God.

 Those weren’t the only words spoken by Kenneth Taylor, author of The Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes, translator of The Living Bible, mentor, friend, associate, publisher, writer of books whose words almost certainly impacted you as they have me.

 I picture in my mind an oasis on the plains of East Africa. The animals are alert as they drink.  For the lion is loose.

 Oasis International looses the lion of words.  Words about God, even the very Word of God.  The seminarian, the village elder, the young man struggling to find his way in the crowded, unfamiliar urban jungle, the school child, all listen to the words. Perhaps the words are quiet, gentle as a resting lion, perhaps they roar into his spirit, perhaps they sleep in his soul to wake years later as a call to follow the Christ.

All of them are let loose in Africa by Oasis with the prayer that men and women, young people and children, will find in the words the way to Christ, the inspiration to follow him, the motivation to serve him with all their heart.

 

Rwandans Healing from Inner Wounds

Pius Nyakayiro is our first distributor in Rwanda. We made our first shipment to him in 2009. A second shipment will arrive to him in just a few weeks. Pius shares our enthusiasm of bringing quality Christian literature in Rwanda. But books aren't his only ministry.

Pius is Director of Good News Jail & Prison Ministry (GNJPM) in Rwanda. GNJPM serves the country's correctional facilities by providing spiritually mature and equipped Christian chaplains for the inmates. 

Although they primarily focus on the Rwandan inmate population, GNJPM decided to take care of another group in Rwanda affected by the 1994 Tutsi genocide. Now 16 years after, Rwanda is still bandaging up its wounds and pain from this horrible experience. Those who were children during the genocide are now between the ages of 18 to 22. Many are orphans who have not dealt with the issues of pain, anger, and forgiveness for those who hurt them.

Their psychological, emotional, spiritual, and physical needs demanded the attention of GNJPM. They refined the mission of GNJPM-Rwanda to meet the needs of healing, reconciliation, and restoration of these survivors in addition to the original purpose and mission of GNJPM.

In May 2010, GNJPM-Rwanda conducted a four-day workshop on inner healing and forgiveness for the 55 genocide orphans living in Kinyinya - Kigali suburbs. Most were teenagers who survived the genocide but still suffered from many wounds. 

The workshops tackled different topics in order for the participants to experience real healing. The Bible-based topics ranged from: source of tragedies they endured, suffering before the God of love, the father heart of God, trauma and mourning, Jesus the pain-bearer, healing of the inner wounds and forgiveness. 

After spending time in these topics in a large group, they were given an opportunity to share their pains and sorrows in a small group setting. During small groups, each person was encouraged to write down all the pain they had experienced on a piece of paper. Together they crucified their papers on the cross as a symbol of handing their pains over to Jesus, the pain-bearer. Later on the papers were burned and buried as a symbolic act of releasing their loved ones they did not bury and so much more which had wounded their hearts. This was a time of weeping and incredible deliverance.

Their openness in sharing what the Lord was doing in them was confirmation of the inner healing. One powerful testimony came from a women at the workshops:

“I lost all the parents during the genocide, and remained with some relatives who raised me from childhood. When I was still in primary school, I felt they were helping me in everything they were doing for me; as I grew up, I begun thinking whether my parents had left any possessions or material goods. When I asked about this, it became a big problem with my caretakers and they said, ‘They had used my parents’ possessions to raise me up and pay my schools.’ This has brought much conflict and chaos between us, until I handed the case over to the Tribunal to be tried. The court has commanded both my caretakers and the perpetrators who destroyed lives and belongings of my parents to restore whatever goods were misused to the rightful remnants, but nothing has been handed over to me. Consequently, my caretakers chased me out, and I was homeless for 2 years; I could sleep wherever was opened for me, until I eventually got a shelter in this site.

I have endured a lot of hardships; it was too hard for me to get food and other basic needs, and while struggling with this kind of life, a certain man impregnated me. When I had given birth, the man renounced his social responsibility on the child. Because of all those trials, I became a very hopeless woman, and I was convinced that ‘there was no love, God, nor happiness in this world’. I decided to hate God, and all people especially males.

 But these 3 days I have been in this seminar listening to your teachings, my mind is being changed. I have realized that if God was not on my side, many things that were in my life would have killed me. So please, keep praying for me so that I may be changed completely, able to love God, my relatives, and all the people. I want to forgive those who hurt me, I want to care for my child, and I want to begin praying because I had abandoned to go to church, and all prayer matters.” 

Most of the participants were ready to go back to the community to face those who murdered their relatives, and express forgiveness to them. They were also determined to restore broken relationships with their remnant families that had chased them out, since they have believed that their future is in the hands of God Almighty. 

 

Prayer Request from Friend of Oasis--Earle Senn

May 28, 2010
Jos, Plateau State , Nigeria
 
Hi or Sannu abokinmu, Lafiya?
 
Have you ever cried in a library? Perhaps it was a sad story or article you were reading, or maybe as a child you got lost in such a huge place!? Imagine this completely different scene. We are approaching an old appearing building badly in need of a paint job, entering into a large room, also begging for new paint, with the bright, hot, tropical sunshine streaming in through broken, dirty louver windows. There are several long wooden tables with wooden chairs around them and along the walls are wooden bookshelves, with few books on them. “This is our seminary library,” the provost, Rev. Mathias K., was saying sadly, “It is in shambles.” He introduced us to the Librarian, and to the Academic Dean, Rev. Sunday Congo, and started taking us on a tour of the library at ECWA Theological Seminary, Kufai, Biliri.  
 
We had been talking with our long time friend, Rev. Dr. Siman Ibrahim, and our host, Danladi Bako, the evening before, and the subject of the Seminary at Kufai came up. They told us that the new provost at the seminary is such a humble, Godly man, and he has been given an impossible job of improving and updating the school within three years. It fell into disrepair over the last 8 years with poor management of funds and staff. The library is only one item in a six page “to do” list that the staff and board have crafted. There is little to work with, except the beautiful hills, valleys, and wooded areas where the school is located, the present staff houses, student housing, many of which need extensive repair– and that incredible sunshine!
 
Back to the tour of the library…The “Periodicals” section, the librarian was saying, has only one updated magazine there and that was a “Decision” magazine from Billy Graham Assoc. dated July 2009! The rest were ragged, various magazines and papers as far back as 1972! The “Reference” section, where instructors had chosen books for their students to read was very sparsely populated with ragged, tattered and torn pieces of paper that perhaps once were books. Most of the bookshelves in the “library” were empty, with a few antique theology books and some interesting thesis books on various topics written by long ago students. The encyclopedia set was from 1972, I believe, and there were a few good old classic theology books. Upstairs in the gallery, the same story, dusty, old, tattered books in the fiction, history, and biography shelves.
 
I cry tears of sadness for what others have lost because of lack of resources, I cry tears of apprehension, that the present students may never have the opportunity of expanding their knowledge beyond a few outdated, worn out scraps of paper still respectably called books, I cry for joy, when I see the possibilities of how much it would mean for them to receive books, many books, railroad containers full of books to stock their library with Bibles, commentaries, Bible study books, books on Christian living, Biographies of great men and women of God, Geography, Theology books, World History, dictionaries, Encyclopedias, and the list could go on, including a regular supply of current, relevant periodicals.
 
Rev. Mathias was so grateful when we said we would see what we could do to get books to him for the library. We told him that many of our friends would give books, give money for books, and look for churches, schools, libraries, publishers, etc. that throw away books because they are a few years outdated, but still perfectly good to use.
 
We are overwhelmed with the opportunities, needs, and the desire of so many Christian leaders to promote a culture of reading in this great country facing so many challenges.
 
OUR REQUESTS FOR PRAYER:

• For the Billiri, Kufai Theological Seminary Book Drive .
• Improvement in the shaky “peace” in Jos area. We were stopped in a long traffic line Saturday evening as soldiers were checking all cars for missing weapons. People are fearful, and incidents are still reported frequently. The 9 pm curfew has been lifted.

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR PRAYING!  
            
LOVE FROM SENN’S