Oasis International

A Letter from Paul Mouw

Dear Friends of Oasis,

How many times have you been able to say with certainty, “This is of God”?

That’s my story, and that’s the way I feel about the Africa Study Bible.

Let me explain: Time after time in my life, whether it was finding my early employment, moving to a twenty-year career in Christian and Bible publishing, or transitioning to twenty-three years as a professor at Judson University, I have felt the gentle guidance of the Lord. A couple years ago, one of the greatest opportunities of my life came after asking the Lord, “What shall I do next?” I prayed that prayer on a Saturday, and on Monday the answer came: Oasis and the Africa Study Bible.

For the past two years, I have served the African editorial team. My publishing and teaching experience has given me just the right skills and perspectives, equipping me to help manage this complex project. It has been very gratifying to see the Lord put my unique background to use!

For example, one feature of the Africa Study Bible is the use of more than 500 African proverbs and stories. When I taught Media Studies, I constantly emphasized story-telling as a powerful medium for communicating truth. That idea is part of African culture. Africans naturally turn to “proverbs and stories” as a way to impart wisdom and values from generation to generation. As I read these illustrations, I am stunned by the depth and insight found in these sayings and aphorisms, and I see familiar passages in the Bible in a whole new light. The African church has an amazing heritage that will enrich the global church, east and west. 

Another connection I’ve made from my days as a Media Studies professor is the realization that the Africa Study Bible could only happen during this time of “digital revolution.” It echoes my experience from many years ago when I marveled at how my desktop computer could be used to create The Illustrated Bible, a first-of-its-kind color Bible that went on to be a best-seller across the world. Today, the Africa Study Bible project has more than 300 writers from multiple language groups and cultures across the vast African continent. They are writing, editing, and translating over 2,100 editorial pieces. Multiple times each day, I use electronic tools to recruit, guide, edit, translate, and project manage—a massive undertaking that would be next to impossible without the global connectedness and efficient workflows technology facilitates.

God is constantly reminding us that he holds all aspects of the Africa Study Bible in his hands. Here are just some of the things he has done in the last months:

• Need: Contributors representing the diversity of Africa.
  Answer: God has connected us to numerous writers from 42 countries! But we still need input from Mauritania, Seychelles, and Somalia—so we keep praying.
• Need: First-hand insights for Christians who are facing warfare or a national crisis.
  Answer: Twelve Africa Study Bible contributors are from war-torn South Sudan, five face the day to day chaos of Central African Republic right now, and eight are from the beautiful country of Rwanda that was torn apart by tribal genocide.
• Need: Content to reach Africa’s enormous youth and student population.
  Answer: The International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (InterVarsity) is crafting a study guide to use with the Africa Study Bible.
• Need: Electronic distribution of the Africa Study Bible.
  Answer: Tecarta, a Bible app developer, has donated a Gospel of John app. Download the free app at africastudybible.com/app.

These are only a few of the amazing answers to prayer I have seen personally.

Years ago, Barbara and I were accepted by African Inland Mission as missionaries to Kenya. However, the Vietnam War interrupted our plans. The late Jim Johnson, a passionate advocate for indigenous Christian publishing, prayed that someday I would assist in building African publishing. Forty years later, his prayers have been answered. I never dreamed I could be used in such a project, but here I am. God is using born-in-the-USA people like me to assist Christians across the African continent to produce this first-of-its-kind Bible.

I want to add my witness to what Matthew wrote to you a few weeks ago. Have you sincerely asked God what he wants you to give toward the ASB before 2015 comes to a close?

2016 is the year of greatest financial need as we finish the editorial process, print, and distribute the Bible. God is doing something special! Join us as we launch the Bible in Africa. You have the chance to be part of accomplishing something very special. Right now, we can give the gift of “God’s Word through African Eyes” to the 400 million Christians of Africa. We can only do this as you “prime the pump.” Your gift is critical.

After seeing what God has done so far, we know that he will bring this project to completion!

As I often end notes to our African writers—

Grace and Peace,

Paul Mouw
Director of Strategic Projects
Oasis International Ltd

Reports from the Field: Print on Demand in Demand

Keith Wiederwax, Director of African Operations

The arrival of the POD system was highly welcome in Jos and this is not just for Oasis Bookshop but for aspiring and local authors as well. Its existence was made known mainly through word of mouth advertisement and the fact that any quantity of a book could be printed made it really appealing.

For Oasis Bookshop, it helped greatly to print books that we are out of and new titles gotten from Publish For All’s website. One particular title was a hit among those we printed and it is Colour My World, a children activity book. Parents and teachers liked the book and we printed many of it but had to stop due to the laminating film problem we encountered. The Shop Supervisor for our Lagos bookshop requested we print at least 300 and send to them as soon as we solve the lamination problem. Even he couldn’t resist the book.

Aspiring authors used the opportunity to test run their manuscripts so we printed single copies of quite a number of manuscripts while some established authors printed their new books with the POD. The lowest quantity we have printed is 72 and highest is 300.

Reports from the Field: South African Connections

ASB Editorial Assistant Hannah Rasmussen

Recently, I had the privilege of attending a conference that the IFES, or International Fellowship of Evangelical Students, held in South Africa.My main purpose in attending was to recruit writers and partners for the Africa Study Bible. Fifty staff members who attended represented countries from all over the African continent: South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, and Lesotho. After presenting on the Africa Study Bible, I met with several other young leaders over dinner. Encouragement overflowed as I listened to the stories of how God using the youth of Africa to advance his kingdom. It was wonderful to build relationships and connect with these amazing leaders.

At this IFES conference, there were many different training sessions that addressed issues facing the African church. In the Southern IFES region, they’re confronting many false teachings (e.g. prosperity gospel), experiencing frequent staff transition, and trying to develop a local donor base. Health and sexual ethics are also on their minds, as they had sessions on how to respond to homosexuality, AIDS, and Ebola. The church’s involvement in politics was another hot topic. One speaker has been jailed for his activism against Uganda’s government corruption, and two delegates had to leave early to help with Botswana’s elections. We also visited the apartheid museum and mentioned South Africa IFES’ integration struggles.

I unfortunately had to leave the conference a little early, but before I left, I was invited up and presented with a thank you gift. I felt that I truly made a strong connection with the IFES staff, and I look forward to a long and fruitful gospel partnership between Oasis and IFES.

I Am Because We Are: Christian Parenting in Africa

With around 40% of the African population under the age of 15, the coming decades will prove deeply formative as these children come to age in a rapidly advancing Africa. The next generation will shape the face of their continent, for better or worse. 

However, millions of these children have been orphaned by war or disease. This burden weighs heavily upon the African church. Adults often care for dozens of children, and the struggle to raise so many young ones in accordance with Scripture and indigenous tradition is intense. Addressing these kinds of issues is at the heart of the Africa Study Bibleproject. The Africa Study Bible will feature detailed study notes written by hundreds of African scholars and pastors that connect Scriptural truths with the daily lives of Africans. This Bible will be an incredible tool for African Christians who face these and countless other issues that those of us in the West cannot begin to understand. 

Below is an excerpt from an article on godly parenting from the Africa Study Bible that comes at the end of the Gospel of John. The unique perspective on the concept of generational responsibility and the role of the church in childrearing are just one example of the illuminating truths that African perspective brings to Scripture. 

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Adapted from the article on Godly Parenting in the Gospel of John of the Africa Study Bible.

God places people in families, families in communities, communities in people-groups or tribes, and people-groups in nations. Since each of our children provides a link between one generation and the next, we protect the life of the child, both the born and the unborn. We uphold the sanctitiy of life since the newborn represents a collective rebirth or continuity of our heritage. To be alive denotes connection, generation to generation. Translated as "soul" or "breath of life" among some people-groups in Africa, moyo or mwoyo signifies offspring and descendants: the reality of being linked to the collective and the need to continue life through birth and childrearing....

....Grandmother Sara was mother to twenty-six children, all less than seventeen years old. When Gladys Mwiti met her in Rwanda three years after the genocide, she lived in a small house with all her little ones. "These are my children," Grandmother said as she introduced Gladys to them. A woman's trauma healing group became a safe place for her. The women in the group trained the girls for adulthood and asked Christian men in the community to mentor the boys. The church provided a place of worship and training in Christian living.

Sara and the other adults in her devastated community showed that the God of hope can use our resources to rebuild a traumatised community through shared Christian parenting. We all support the belief that every child should have a right to a family and home, but what happens to those who have lost both to tragic circumstances like war or AIDS? How do we parent those who are on the street as orphans and homeless? God calls the local church to model networking, community connectivity, and caring so that these little ones are not denied the basic need for parenting. 

This is the essence of Christ-centred parenting: to practice parenting that transcends our own family and children. We must undertake the training of a generation who whill follow after God's heart and who can, in turn, pass on godly values to the next generation. This is our hope for a continent that follows God's heart. The confidence to parent children in a new Africa is based on the fact that God is present among us, helping to shape our indigeous values in obedience to biblical principles. 



For more information on the Africa Study Bible project, visit www.africastudybible.com. 

Developing the Africa Study Bible: Spring Progress Report

Gathering together qualified African writers for the Africa Study Bible can be a challenge. In order to be truly representative, our writing team must have specific percentages from English, French, Arabic, and Portuguese speaking Africa, be equally distributed geographically, and have balanced representation from men and women.

Oasis International has been blessed with the estimable Janice Muchai to work as the Writing Coordinator for the Africa Study Bible project. A Kenyan, Janice has been involved in leadership development in Africa for over 12 years, and her work in coordinating the writing for this project has been phenomenal!

Here is Janice's full Spring report on the progress of the writing for the Africa Study Bible. To make sure that you receive notification of these reports, sign up for our Africa Study Bible mailing list at the bottom of this webpage. 

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JANICE: Every one of our weekly editorial staff meetings in February closed with a sense of “more” is needed. The project needed more writers, especially from North and South Africa. I had to find more women writers. More French speakers were needed! We needed funds to meet our monthly obligations. On the editorial front, with many writers sending in pieces at the same time, we began to experience a backlog of content in need of review.

Then came March. Through help from our tireless “friends of ASB,” I received contacts of North African writers [a difficult region to find writers for], and we were able to sign on a writer for one of the key Articles. That contact also produced two others, one from South Africa and one Ethiopia. They in turn have gone on to produce others… But it is not just writers who made the Spring outstanding. It was also the highly respected theologians who spared the time to write letters of commendation when we requested. It was the professors who volunteered the names of their students, and pastors who gave us their personal feedback and further contacts.

Spring also brought much excitement and relief in other areas. Much of the editorial work has been brought to date. I continued to receive responses from the more than 200 emails I sent out and in March alone we either began discussions to contract, or concluded the contracts with more than ten new people.

I solicit your prayers and assistance as my colleagues and I trust God to bring us more people who would commit to write. We pray that those who have been contracted send in their items on time and that the writers would adhere to given writing guidelines. Thank you for your continued support and prayer.

- Janice Muchai, Writing Coordinator for the Africa Study Bible Project

As part of our effort to keep you up to date on the progress of the Africa Study Bible, we will be bringing you regular progress reports on its development and production in the coming 18 months. 100+ African pastors and theologians are currently contributing to these study notes, and we are hoping to receive all of the written content for the Bible this summer!

Have a question about how you can be involved with the development of the Africa Study Bible? Email us at [email protected]. If you are interested in giving the the project, you may donate here.

Impacting a Continent for Christ: The Africa Study Bible

This post comes with two exciting announcements about the Africa Study Bible (ASB) project:

First, we are excited to see 5,000 copies of the Africa Study Bible's Gospel of John going out through the work of AIM in Southern Africa. God is using this project even before the completion of the Bible! Oasis was thrilled to complete the Gospel of John portion of the ASB in December of 2012, and it is incredible to see the hard work of African pastors and theologians already making an impact on lives. (If you are unfamiliar with this groundbreaking Bible project, stop reading right now and go here: africastudybible.com/the-project/vision)

Second, our President, Matthew Elliott, wrote this update for us on the Africa Study Bible project, with encouragement from fellow Kingdom worker Jim Mason: 

I wanted to share about a meeting I had last week. I was in Toronto for meetings and was able to spend a blessed hour before catching my flight with retired SIM missionary, Jim Mason. Jim is a large part of the reason Oasis started ministry in Africa in 1994.  

As a lifelong Kingdom worker in West Africa, Jim focused almost exclusively on equipping the church with literature. He saw many millions of books and Bibles go out in Nigeria and Ghana when living in Africa, and upon handing these works over to national leadership, God used his vision and energy to see hundreds of thousands of pastors equipped through the Pastors Book Sets and conferences. He is also known to us as the founding and driving force behind the landmark Africa Bible Commentary.

As we talked and he held the Gospel of John for the ASB, he said with confidence, "Many millions of these are going to go out to people in Africa. It is a wonderful project. There is a great hunger for content that speaks directly to the African context."  

There could perhaps be no greater endorsement and blessing on this great work.  In the midst of our struggles, discouragements and delays—we are greatly encouraged that this elder statesman of literature ministry in Africa believes in the potential and in our good God's ability to bring it to fruit.

Thanks be to God for these wonderful encouragements to the Africa Study Bible project! If you're interested in learning more about how you can become a part of this project, visit here. 

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!