Oasis International

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.

Africa Study Bible Testimony: Dr. David Ngaruiya

Dr. David Ngaruiya talks about how the Africa Study Bible will benefit both pastors and laypeople in Africa.

When A Seminary Library Fits on 6 Shelves

Our organizational founder, Edward Elliott, recently received an email from a contact who is doing research in Angola, a largely Portuguese-speaking country in Africa. We have included excerpted portions of her email here. Her intense experience is a microcosm of the vast resource drought that affects seminaries, churches, and theological schools across the massive African continent: 

______________

Dear Ed,

I was in two minds whether I should send this email or wait until I see you in May. But two days ago I thought about you so much, that I decided I must send this email to tell you why.

Two days ago we arrived herein Dondi, to do the second fieldworker training. Dondi is the IECA seminary.  They drove us around, showing us the place.  Dondi started as a mission station in 1914 and was started by missionaries....And on this piece of land they started a theological seminary. 

Then in 1976 the Cuban soldiers came… And destroyed everything. The Cubans were violently anti-religion, so they burnt everything to the ground. The brick walls are all that remain....So now they are working at rebuilding it. They are at this stage only using one building for the seminary....

But here is the part that made me think of you. They showed us a building, fairly big. Only the walls remain, big trees are growing in it. It was a [former] publishing house, “the biggest south of the Saharah." The man showing us around used to work there when he was a young man…  And he spoke about it with so much pride and love.

Then they took us to the building they now use as the seminary. And to a room on which the sign on the door said “Library."  And  inside the big room was two small bookcases, painfully neat, each with three shelves, about one metre wide. That is all the books they have.  And only one shelf is Portuguese. The other has English books, which only two people are able to use.

This is the seminary’s entire library. They find it incredibly difficult to get books, for they need Portuguese books.

I thought about you so much, about what you shared in Nairobi about your passion for sharing and distributing the written word. I think I maybe at that moment had an inkling of the passion that you feel.

Wish you could have been here to experience it.

__________________

Below is a good visual description of the factors behind what our friend was describing. Click here to read a quick summary about how Oasis is working to alleviate the resource squeeze for African church leadership. 

Stories from Africa: "I Want to Share a Proverb!"

Imagine if the first time you read study notes about Scripture, they were written entirely for a foreign culture. You didn't understand the historical references, the examples, or even some of the language. Nothing made sense, and yet, there were no other study Bibles that you could find that paid any attention to your cultural context or identity. 

Then, imagine if one day, you were to happen upon a book display in the library. This display features a colorful copy of the Gospel of John. You open it, and read some of the study notes: and they make sense. It's like they were written for you. You begin to draw connections from Scripture to your own experiences that you have never thought of before. Imagine the thrill of understanding and the hunger to know more. 

This is exactly what happened at the student library at Africa International University, where Dr. John Jusu works. Dr. Jusu (known affectionately to the Oasis team as "JJ") is the supervising editor of the Africa Study Bible, the first-ever study Bible with commentary written by Africans, for Africans. He recently received the first advance samples of the Gospel of John, the first section of the Africa Study Bible to be completed. When he received the Gospels, he put a few copies out at the student library, to see what would happen. 

Just hours later, AIU students were knocking on his office door, overwhelmed with joy. They were saying things like "I want to share a story from my village!" and "I want to share this proverb from my region, that my grandfather always used to say!" 

The students were referencing the African Stories and Proverbs notes, which are commentary notes that specifically connect lessons in Scripture to African sayings and fables from all across the continent. When these students read Scripture in connection with this uniquely African wisdom, students personally understood Scripture in a new way. Even better, they were invigorated to add wisdom from their own regions in the hopes that others would also experience these sudden revelations of connection. 

Thanks, JJ, for sharing this amazing story! This is the exact spirit of the Africa Study Bible project, and we are excited about the future impact this work will have.

To see who else is involved in the Africa Study Bible, click here.
 
You can also watch a video below of some of our African partners explaining why the Africa Study Bible project is so vital for the African church.