Spring 2014

Making disciples of all ages in Argentina

The call to joy and pain in China

Joshua Maule introduces the remarkable Isesomo

You can equip Cambodian pastors to meet the needs of a growing church

With your support Argentine children like Mateo will learn from God’s Word and put it into practice.

Fan the flames of faith

Ignite

revenue generated by sales is still not sufficient to finance both the reprinting of existing manuals and the preparation of new ones. Your provision of a publishing fund will enable us to meet the demand for this life-changing Christian literature.

Walking the talkOur New Bible Training program responds to the great need in local churches to encourage and enable children, adoles-cents and adults not just to study the Bible but also to put it into practice. We equip teachers to address the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of their students and encour-age them to engage with their families and communities.

Strengthening the work of the National Bible Teachers’ Network is a strategy that will change the lives of many children and families. Only by knowing the love of God and his Word will they have a future.

Will you pray that we will deepen their understanding of God’s Word and provide a solid foundation for the growth of disciples of all ages?

Viviana Barrón de Olivares is Director of Christian Education, Argentine Baptist Convention.

A R G E N T I N A

Teach them to observe all that I have commanded youWith your support, Viviana Barrón de Olivares will make disciples of all ages.

In churches across Argentina there is a growing desire to teach people about Jesus and encourage and enable men, women and children to study the Bible. The National Bible Teachers’ Network was formed in 2010 to encourage and train teachers throughout the country.

Our work includes personal contact with teachers and the production of printed Bible study guides for all ages.

A home-grown approachThis material supersedes numerous foreign teaching programs that failed to take into account the particularities of Latin American culture. It takes seriously the needs and interests of students and is distinguished by its local flavour, appropriate format and Biblical rigour. It is the fruit of broad and deep local teaching experience. The authors include veteran school teachers and notable Argentine Bible scholars Pablo Deiros and Carlos Villanueva.

Each magazine-style manual contains teaching for thirteen weekly meetings and worksheets that can be freely photocopied. Nine manuals are planned for each life stage: Step By Step for children up to six years old; Heroes for children from six to ten years old; and New Bible Training for adolescents and adults. The three series (twenty-seven manuals altogether) cover the entire Bible.

Tried and testedThe first two manuals in each series have been published, distributed and used by hundreds of teachers. The third manual in each series is currently being prepared for print-ing. The fourth is being edited and illustrated. However,

Lorena: ‘What I like most about the New Bible Training material is the way it involves the whole family. Parents see a worksheet being completed at home and ask their child what they are learning.’

$27kpublishing capital will finance the development of a comprehensive program for church-based Christian education.

motorcycle. My two older children rode a bicycle. In 1999 I completed a training course in Phnom Penh and became a pastor. In 2004 God called me to plant a church in my village. This was not easy because my family and a few friends were the only Christians. But God protected us and provided all we needed. We gathered together in our small house to worship God and we all helped to run the church. When we grew to 35 people we began to ask God every day for a bigger place; believing that God would answer our prayer. In 2008 by God’s grace a church was built. Finally, there was a church in the village.

God teaches me when I readI didn’t attend school as a child and only learned to read and write when I became a Christian. I am sixty years old now and God teaches me when I read the Bible and the Christian books you have provided. We continue to ask God to protect and support us; knowing that he will answer our prayers.

Will you keep us in your prayers?God bless you.

Huon Sophon pastors the New Life in Hope Church in Outdong, Kandal province, Cambodia.

C A M B O D I A

Perfect love casts out fearToday you can equip a pastor like Huon Sophon to meet the needs of a growing church.

My name is Huon Sophon. I never expected to become a pastor. I never even dreamed about this work. I was a Khmer Rouge soldier. My job was to kill the enemy. I knew only one rule: the strong live and the weak die. When there was no food and we could

find no animals to hunt we ate human flesh. Sometimes a dead comrade. Sometimes a weaker soldier.

We believed in bad spirits. We tattooed our bodies to protect ourselves from the enemy’s bullets. We prayed to idols so that they would give us happiness and strength. When I stopped praying or obeying them I got sick, or got angry, or lost control of myself and got into trouble. I felt that I wanted to fight everyone around me.

Good NewsIn 1980 in a refugee camp in Thailand a foreign missionary told me about Jesus. I heard the Good News, but I still believed in idols and obeyed the bad spirit. Every night in my dreams a person or a huge snake tried to kill me. I was in a desperate situation. No matter how often I prayed nothing improved because the spirit I obeyed was weaker than the spirits that terrorised me.

In 1982 I called on the name of Jesus for the first time. ‘Jesus if you are a mighty God, help me! I am scared. Please take away my fear and help me to sleep well.’ The bad spirit left my dreams and my life. I threw away my idols and turned to God.

Coming homeI returned to Cambodia in 1992 and began searching for somewhere to worship God with my family. I found a church in a neighbouring province. Every week I took my wife and two youngest children to this church on our

$38will subsidise the purchase of a $50, eight-volume book package by a pastor in rural Cambodia.

For a pastor in rural Cambodia, $5 is a significant amount. Add $38 from you, a SparkLit supporter, and a discount from local publisher Fount of Wisdom, and that pastor will own a theological library.

a book’s worth, I’m sure. But what he told me that night is the heart of the story.

I realised how much faith I had placed in my own pros-perity. Isesomo and his friends showed me that content-ment and joy in Jesus does not depend on the culture you live in, or the opportunities you have. Hope is based on the promises God has made. And God’s promises cannot be altered by the worst evils the world can devise.

Joshua Maule is studying theology at Moore College. His manuscript Isesomo won Second Prize in the 2014 SparkLit Young Australian Christian Writer Award.

Entries for the 2015 Young Australian Christian Writer and 2015 Australian Christian Teen Writer Awards close on 31 May 2015. With the Young Australian Christian Writer Awards, SparkLit discovers and encourages new writers.

A $2500 prize is given for the best unpublished manuscript by an Australian under 30 years of age. Supplementary awards include a $1000 prize for writers under 18 years of age. Entry Forms can be found at: www.SparkLit.org

You can follow the Australian Christian Literature Awards on Facebook.

A U S T R A L I A

A light shining in the darknessJoshua Maule investigates a boyhood hero.

As I hid my white skin from the passing headlights, I thought about the Congo I had read about in books. The deadliest conflict since the Second World War. A string of dictators who had sent the country through the paper shredder. Armed militia still

prowling through the forests, raping and pillaging. Our car had a flat tyre and as I stood in the dark by the road in north- eastern Congo, these facts impressed me more than ever.

Meeting my heroI first met Muhindo Isesomo when he visited Australia and spoke in my church. I was eleven years old. We were shocked by the suffering his people had endured. But we were dumbfounded to learn that Christians in the Congo were not utterly overwhelmed by such trauma.

After completing a degree in journalism, I emailed Isesomo to ask if I could write his biography. He responded enthusiastically and sent me a handwritten document detailing his life story. At that time he was working as an evangelist and provincial leader for the Anglican Church of Congo. Now, four years later, Isesomo is the Bishop of the Diocese of North Kivu.

I thought that my responsibility in writing about the Congo would be to highlight the pain and the darkness. It wasn’t until I arrived there that I began to understand the faith and convictions of Isesomo and the Congolese believers. Their faith outshines the darkness.

Hope on the roadIn that black night by the side of the road, I turned on my voice recorder and asked Isesomo if he ever loses hope for his country. Without pausing he replied, ‘I don’t lose hope because the gospel is the power of God for salvation’. There is much to say about Isesomo’s life and ministry. More than

Joshua Maule visits Muhindo Isesomo in the Democratic Republic of the Congo for the first time in January 2010. In December 2010 Isesomo was consecrated as Bishop of the Diocese of North Kivu.

I G N I T E S P R I N G 2 0 1 4

A fresh start in CambodiaOn your behalf I presented a pastor in rural Cambodia with a theological library. ‘I only learned to read and write when I became a Christian. I am sixty years old now and God teaches me when I read the Bible and the Christian books you have provided.’ Another pastor explained to me why he valued his copy of Preaching Mark: ‘I can’t go to Bible school, but Christian books can come to me. Even though I cannot go and learn with teachers and pastors, I can still learn from their experience.’

When the Khmer Rouge came to power in 1975 they put into effect their plan for Year Zero: the removal of all traces of civilisation so that there could be a fresh start. This included the elimination of property rights, money, and of course, books. Schools were closed. The educated were systematically eradicated. This four-year reign of terror successfully erased an entire national literature.

A new generation is hungry for new ideas, security and hope. This is a great opportunity for the gospel, and for Cambodian Christians to reach out with a message that has a sure foundation.

Partner publisher Fount of Wisdom is an indigenous Christian publisher helping the Cambodian Church to grow in faith, and to love and serve Jesus Christ. FoW publishes books that will strengthen Christian leaders so that they might be better equipped to teach, challenge and edify those entrusted to their care.

Fount of Wisdom is helping to rebuild a nation and recreate its culture. Its contribution is vital and unique.

SparkLit supports FoW and its aspirations. The chal-lenges are daunting but the opportunities are endless.

Will you pray that Chim Titmakara will lead the FoW team with creativity, courage and grace? Pray that SparkLit might provide appropriate and helpful support and encouragement. To God be the glory.

Michael Collie National Director Michael.Collie@SparkLit.org

Fount of Wisdom Director Chim Titmakara shares with Michael Collie the challenges facing Christian publishers in Cambodia.

You can fan the flames of faith today. SparkLit relies on the prayers and donations of passionate Christians like you.• 1 You can provide theological texts and reference works to students and pastors where commitment is strong but support and resources are scarce.

$5 will provide a pastor with a copy of the Simplified Chinese edition of The Call to Joy and Pain by Ajith Fernando.

$38 will subsidise the purchase of a $50, eight-volume book package by a pastor in rural Cambodia.

$60 will provide a Bible commentary and concordance to a theological graduate in the Philippines.• 2 You can nurture emerging publishers

by providing funds, expertise and encour-agement where life-changing Christian writing is needed most.

$15,000 will finance the publi cation and distribution of The Call to Joy and Pain in Simplified Chinese.

$27,000 will finance the publication of New Bible Training manuals in Argentina.

• 3 You can equip publishing professionals by investing in the training and development of promising Christian writers, editors and designers.

Donating = loving. To financially support the work of SparkLit and its partners in difficult places, grab your credit card and visit www.SparkLit.org or use the form overleaf.