LABC Team, from left to right sitting down: C. René Padilla (General Editor), Rosalee Velloso Ewell (New Testament Editor) and Milton Acosta (Old Testament Editor). Standing: Ian Darke (Project Coordinator) and Gilbert Montero (Assistant to the Project Coordinator).

Please share a little about yourself.
I was born and I grew up in São Paulo, Brazil in the Southeast. My dad is Brazilian, and my mom is from Northern California. She went down to Brazil 40 years ago for a summer missions trip and here we are! We grew up here in São Paulo, and I have one brother. My dad is a prominent evangelical leader and somewhat well known in Brazil for his expository preaching.

After graduating from high school in Brazil, I went to Westmont College in Santa Barbara for a BA in Religious Studies. From there I went to Fuller Seminary and did the MA in Theology. Then from Fuller I went on to do my PhD at Duke in Biblical Ethics and wrote the dissertation on the identity and mission of the people of God. I wish I had known about Langham back then!

In North Carolina I met Sam, my husband. We now have three children and we’ve been in Londrina, Brazil since 2003. We came down to teach at the South American Theological Seminary (SATS). Sam was on the faculty until 2006 and I taught New Testament, Theology and did administrative work at SATS until 2008. We still live in Londrina but now we’re involved in other projects.

How did you get connected to Langham Partnership and the LABC project?
Langham found me at about the same time I found Langham. The project had been a dream of René Padilla, the General Editor, and others, from a long time ago. Somehow my name came up in discussions about it. Though I had heard of Langham before, I got connected through the LABC. It worked out really well because editing and writing are what I like doing most. And to work on a project that has such an incredible vision, goal for ministry and for impact on the church, then it made it even more wonderful to be involved.

What is the greatest joy and the greatest challenge in this kind of work?
The greatest joy is meeting these Christians from around South America and Central America, and learning about how there are similar struggles, similar blessings, and what God is doing in the continent. Brazil tends to be isolated from Spanish-speaking Latin America. This project has really been instrumental in bringing leaders, theologians, and writers together even though they’re not physically in the same space. We have a web site set up where they can exchange thoughts with one another and prayer requests and that’s been really great.

The greatest challenge: You start working on these things and you just want to say “Why can’t Christians just get along?” Sometimes, but thankfully not often, it’s hard to find people who are willing to put their internal politics, seminary politics, or denominational squabbles aside and really think about what kinds of blessings this project can bring to the church in Latin America. We’ve been really fortunate. There are wonderful people working on the LABC. And there’s the financial challenge of raising funds for the project. In North America or Europe there is a tendency for people to think that Latin America is “doing ok” so they’re not as interested in giving to projects focused here. They don’t know, for example, that Brazil is one of the top 5 countries listed for its gross inequality or that Colombia has one of the highest rates of displaced peoples on the planet, and that violence and racism are rampant in Latin American countries and in our churches. I think it’s also hard for people to give because of the turbulent political and economic ties between the US and Latin American countries. Central and South America are a bit too close to home for many in North America. Related to this challenge is the one of raising funds from within Latin America. There’s a lot of money here but there isn’t a history of Christians giving to the church or to any other Christian project. It’s a challenge in Latin America and it’s a challenge with Christians who are connected to Latin America but who live in the States.

What kinds of resources are pastors using now?
It really depends on where they are. A lot of pastors are in urban areas…so those pastors, at least theoretically, have access to seminary libraries, bookstores, etc. For those pastors and leaders in rural areas, frankly I have no idea what they use. Most of the tools are old, dating back to the 50s and 60s, like translated Bible dictionaries from English or German. It varies by denomination but they usually don’t have much and pastors are on their own. A related problem is that some of them have never been encouraged to read or study in the first place. Strong biblical training in general isn’t necessarily valued as a tool for preaching.

In that sense the commentary project will be very useful because it will get people engaged again. Part of why there isn’t much interest is because even the seminary professors have so few tools to work with. You couple that with big publicity campaigns for what are generally pretty bad books and then you’re really out of luck. The prosperity gospel is huge, they have a lot of ads, they own TV stations, etc. For a pastor it’s a challenge to preach the truth because in the neighborhood there might be ten churches and nine of them are preaching prosperity gospel sermons, and that’s where people go because they want to hear that. The guy who’s not preaching that could lose his church just for lack of people. That all adds to the culture of not having many tools.

How will a one-volume Bible commentary impact the level of biblical preaching in Latin America and other Spanish or Portuguese speaking nations?
On its own, it will be a one of a kind tool. There is no such resource that is geared to the different contexts within Latin America and that’s written in a way (we’re being really strict with our writers in this sense) that will also help people fall in love with the Bible again. The idea is to get them to want to read, to study more and to see how that study can be incredibly transformative for their ministries. For example, one of the things is unique in the LABC is that we have three or four guiding questions right at the beginning of the commentaries that readers can use for Bible study, discussion groups, etc. They are meant to make people curious and to read on. Giving pastors and leaders a useful study tool that also encourages them to read more is one of the best features of the LABC and shows how it can most impact biblical preaching in Latin America.

Secondly, it will be very important for it to be used alongside things like the Langham Preaching programme because then you’ll have the best of both worlds. We’ll have the best literature and capable instructors that can explain to those small groups how to use the commentary, how to take their preaching to the next level, and how to develop things using this excellent tool.

How did you identify the contributors? Who are they, in broad terms?
They are evangelicals/protestants from all over the continent and their backgrounds vary a lot. But they are all in agreement with the vision for the commentary and with the Lausanne Covenant, our main theological measuring stick. We’ve worked hard at getting denominational and country representation. We will probably have at least one person from every country. They are all scholars but not all have PhDs (that would be impossible and it wouldn’t be a fair representation of the church) and we’ve also tried to represent all the major seminaries. Men, women, younger people, older people. Even the editors are from different countries.

Please share two or three specific prayer requests for the project.
a)    Timeliness. That people will continue to get their work in by the specified deadlines. We don’t want any delays or extra costs. We’re very aware of the need to get this done within the timeframe we’ve set out.

b)    Health and encouragement for the writers. A number of them have family members or who themselves are suffering from various illnesses. Some have cancer and others have lost loved ones recently. They are really excited and they are working hard but these matters weigh heavily on them. Some are stuck out in the middle of nowhere, and one of the reasons why they like this project so much is because all of the sudden they have people elsewhere praying for them. We pray for our writers every week in general and for specific requests regularly.

c)    Financial support from the US, Europe, but also from within Latin America, where a change in mentality is needed. People aren’t trained to ask people for money and people aren’t used to being asked for money. The prosperity gospel movement has dominated the financial ethos of church giving; and there’s already not much of a tendency to give. There is a lot of suspicion. It’s a big wall. But it’s important to raise more money from within Latin America so there’s a sense of ownership of the project by those in the churches that will benefit so much from the commentary. The LABC board is aware of the importance of that.

The East European Literature Advisory Committee (EELAC), now part of Langham Literature, has been assisting with the nurture and development of indigenous publishing houses in 11 Eastern European countries since the fall of communism. In Serbia we have been partnering with Soteria Publishing since the mid-1990s. Soteria has come a long way since its early days. It now employs four people and has a list of more than 80 key titles behind it. Sales have grown by more than 200% in the last three years alone.

Serbia is perhaps the most difficult country in Eastern Europe for evangelical publishing. Protestants are viewed with suspicion and the law is biased against them. It is commonplace for evangelical churches to have ‘spies’ in the congregation on a Sunday morning, watching for ‘subversive or heretical’ teaching. The Serbian Orthodox church forbids the reading of anything heretical, and this includes anything published by a non-Orthodox publisher. Given the strong and open hostility of the Serbian Orthodox church towards evangelicals, it has been a subject of prayer that Soteria should be protected and its ministry extended amongst Orthodox readers, who need to know what God says through the Bible. Thanks to God, we have seen at least three specific answers to that prayer:

1) CEO of Soteria Dane Vidovic noticed a recurring name on his mail order list that he did not know. The orders were normally for multiple copies of his Bible commentaries and theological resources. He was naturally suspicious that he was being monitored by the authorities. Then he received a phone call from the man asking if he could visit. Dane’s suspicions and fears grew, especially since he has been tracked down to his home phone. A few days later there was a knock at the door and when he opened it he was faced by three fully robed Orthodox priests, looking very official and complete with long black beards. One of them said, ‘I am the one who has been buying your Bible books. My friends and I have found this way of studying the Bible very helpful. Would you help us further by leading us in Bible studies?’ Dane has been doing exactly that. One of those priests was a trainee iconographer, about to devote his life to making icons for Orthodox worship. After a while he said, ‘Now I don’t want to spend my life doing this when the Bible makes it clear we have direct access to God through Christ who is alive.’ He and his friends are now preaching sermons to their congregations, using the commentaries published by Soteria. One of the others has told Dane that people have commented on how his preaching is ‘more real.’ One elderly woman asked him where he had found this new improved way of thinking and was amazed when he replied, ‘from the books of the evangelist Billy Graham.’ Surely God’s Word has an amazing impact when it is faithfully opened up and understood! We pray with renewed vigour that the Gospel of the Bible will be preached in churches of all types in Serbia and God’s kingdom extended by this unforeseen channel.

2) Shortly after the publication of John Stott’s Why I Am A Christian and a commentary on Genesis in the Bible Speaks Today Series, the fax machine at Soteria clicked into action with a completely unexpected letter of request. It came from the Monks of the Serbian Orthodox monastery on Mount Athos in Greece. Mount Athos is on a remote and inaccessible peninsula, populated only by monks in a string of monasteries, shut off from the outside world. The Serbian monks had somehow managed to get hold of these titles. They would normally be regarded as heretical writings by Serbian Orthodox people, but the monks were delighted to hear of new commentaries from Soteria. Indeed, they asked for copies of everything that was available because they found the books were making the Bible exciting!

3) As Soteria’s reputation for high quality and reliability has been established and grown, it has attracted the opposition of many Orthodox church leaders, but it has also attracted the respect of some. One in particular contacted Dane recently to say that he had taken on a new role as a publisher for the Orthodox Church. He has asked Dane if he is willing to mentor him in good title selection. They are now planning a joint publishing project which is a tremendous opportunity for Soteria as it will give this title, as well as others, significant credibility and approval.

Langham Scholar Gladys Mwiti is the co-founder of Oasis Africa (OA), an organization that has equipped people to counsel and train others in more than 16 African nations. Issues addressed by OA include professional care for those with emotional struggles; supervision for psychology and counseling students; training leaders, counselors and trainers; HIV and AIDS care and prevention; children-at-risk projects; trauma counseling; and research and publishing. Gladys and her organization have helped with trauma relief after the genocide in Rwanda, after the bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi in 1988, and recently, after the tension and violence in Nairobi last year. US based Langham Scholars Program project manager Tiffany Randall had a recent conversation with Gladys to uncover how her passion for the children of Africa developed into OA, and her dedication to Africa’s spiritual, mental, and physical health.

What led you into the field of psychology?

It’s quite a long story. As a teacher and a Christian working in Africa, automatically you want to care for the children. Wherever I went, I began a Christian Union, where I’d lead the students to the Lord, and then disciple them to live out their faith. I did a lot of my co-curricular work with kids in all sorts of clubs and projects. I joined the Kenya Students Christian Fellowship very early. When I was 19, I started the Meru Evangelistic Team, a team of students who would do outreach in the high schools. We preached a lot in many high schools bringing kids to the Lord. Then many children would want to talk to me because of problems in their lives. Once my husband and I were preaching in a school where so many kids came and received the Lord. Then we said, “If you have problems that you’d want to share with us or pray with us about, please, stay behind.” The students formed a line, and one after the other was talking to each of us and praying with us until 3 a.m. Such programs are called l “Weekend Challenges” starting on Friday and ending on Sunday. I began counseling these kids long before I knew how to counsel.

Training programme cunducted by Oasis Africa conducted post-election violence

One event finally got me out of the classroom to seek training in professional counseling. I was doing very well as a science teacher, heading the department, and was also deputy headmistress at a girls’ day school. One morning, just before I did assembly, one girl came running into school. I had led her to the Lord the year before and knew that she had many family-related problems at home. She came to me…and said, “My dad came home drunk last night, as usual, and there was a lot of tension. Then this morning my mom said, ‘Go get your things, we are leaving.’ And I asked, ‘Where are we going?’ ‘We are going to your Grandma’s, you and your brothers and sisters, she replied.”

“What about Daddy?” the girl asked. And her mother had replied, “Well, your father can stay if he wants to.” And the girl asked her mom, “Are you going to leave Daddy alone?” The long and short of it is, the mother looks at the child and says, “If you think you love me, you come with me. If you love your daddy, you stay with him.” The girl replied, “It isn’t that I don’t love you, but someone should stay with Daddy.” So the girl picked up her bag and ran over to school and looked at me and said, “Did I make the right decision?”

The Psycho-Social programme concentrated on trauma healing, teambuilding and reconciliation so as to increase productivity in various organisations among employees which were severely affected by the violence.

Nobody ever told me what to do with broken families. This was one of the many stories I’d bring home every day to my husband. Finally, he told me, “Why don’t you go back to school and get some skills if you want to help those children!” So that’s how I left teaching and went back to University. When I sought financial support to attend a private college, the only place offering psychology in Kenya, the ministry of education told me, “We do not need psychologists,” so they wouldn’t give me a salary or scholarship. For this reason, my bachelor’s degree was a big struggle, trying to feed the children and afford school fees at the same time. But by God’s grace, and my husband’s unrelenting support, I’m here. I graduated summa cum laude for my B.A. in Psychology, and went on to graduate with honors for the M.A. in Counseling Psychology.

What did you do once you received your Masters degree?

In 1989, I wondered what to do with my secular psychology degree…how would I integrate my faith with practice? I was then reading a devotional called, Every Day with Jesus by Selwyn Hughes in England, a renowned counselor who had trained with Larry Crabb in the USA. He accepted me and for four weeks I sat at his feet learning how to integrate psychology and Christianity. I went back home and founded Oasis Africa. I was the first integration therapist in the area, leading the organization for eight years, involved in the Rwanda genocide, HIV and AIDS, school and church-based counseling programs, among many other things. We trained hundreds of pastors and lay counselors for the church, schools and community. The need was huge.

How did your experience with trauma recovery in Rwanda help equip you for the post-election violence in January in Nairobi?

Actually, the Rwanda genocide equipped me long before the post-election violence. It is because of our experience in Rwanda that we were able, as Oasis Africa, to respond to the Nairobi U.S. Embassy bombing of 1988. When the bomb blew in Nairobi, my family was just getting ready to come to Fuller. I did not feel that I had the strength to get involved. I was very tired from packing, handing over to the staff at Oasis Africa, and so on. Then came the bombing. The staff we had went to the hospital to visit the injured people but we hadn’t done anything with what you call the “walking wounded,” those who had experienced the bombing but were not seriously injured, then the bereaved, the many who had lost businesses, rescue workers, the press, and so on. But I wasn’t going there; I didn’t have the energy. I kept quiet.

Kibera School kids receiving a pair of shoes and socks from Feed the Children.

Then my husband tells me, “Gladys, I know you are busy, I know you are tired, BUT, how can you explain it that when Rwanda blew up you were the first professional team to go there. Now, this has happened at your doorstep and you do nothing!” I went to my staff in my office and I asked them to pray. We have a very prayerful staff, and after a day or two, one of them said “Oh! We can use the same approach here that we used in Rwanda!” We went to the newspapers, television, radio, and we sent an ad that said, “If you have ever trained at OA, we need you for the bombing.” Through our Pan Africa Lay Counselors Training program, we knew that we had individuals working in churches, schools, NGOs, and the community; people who had received at least 150 hours of lay counseling training. With additional training in crisis response, these would help us run community groups for trauma healing post bombing.

The following week, we launched Beyond the Disaster Trauma Counseling Program, and the press came together with key leaders. Oasis Africa staff was there with registration tables and folders. We called the printing press and they had delivered 600 copies of the book I had written about the Rwanda event. By 9 a.m. there were 300 people sitting in the All Saints Cathedral Church in Nairobi. God heard our prayers. The counselors had come by bus; others walked long distances, while some rode of the night train from outer cities. They were ready to work, and that’s what saved Nairobi. Last year, we remembered that we had all these skills to respond to the post-election violence. We were ready to go, this time with professional M.A. Counseling Psychologists under my supervision.

Gershon Mwiti with the Kibera School kids during the prayer day for the kids on the eve of their final national exam.

We did both assessment and intervention. Now I have sets of data that I’m using with Fuller Seminary’s School of Psychology students for their writing projects and our professional writing at Oasis Africa as well. “What does traumatic stress look like?” The way you respond to a traumatic event now depends very much on your past experience and on your coping abilities and resilience. In our current study, we are looking at all these factors beginning from the Nairobi USA Embassy bombing. There are individuals who after last year’s post election violence find it very difficult to cope because they were also in the 1998 bombing. Others have lost children to AIDS, while others have been attacked by robbers in the streets. So we looked at all that traumatic stress in the post-election study and we have a lot of data. Findings will help us to understand how post-traumatic stress impacts people in this population.

What excites you most about the future of Oasis Africa and what are some growth areas that you’re seeing?

One of the growth areas is that we are seeing ourselves reaching out more and more to the rest of Africa. I have now three books in the field that are doing very well. Through using these books and other materials for training of trainers and counselors, we are seeing what we call the “Oasis Africa Ripple Effect” as trained people train others. Our core call is to equip the church to be a caring community, and this is happening. I just came from Mexico for the Lausanne Congress on Care and Counsel as Mission Consultation. The model this group wishes to adopt for the worldwide church is exactly the model you’re seeing in OA: empowering the church to use care and counsel as a tool of evangelism and missions. In this regard, I see the future of OA as planting seeds that will begin to germinate all over the continent, especially through Bible schools, seminaries, churches, schools, corporate, non-governmental organizations, and the general community.

One of my books, Christian Counseling: An African Indigenous Perspective (Fuller Press, 2006) co-authored with Professor Al Dueck of the School of Psychology, is doing very well in Africa. The challenge however, is to train pastors and Bible school instructors on how to use it as a training tool. What works best is to sit with a team of 20 to 30 pastors and go through the book with them for three or four weeks, after which they prepare action plans to go and train others. This way, the book comes alive. Besides the 2,000 copies that Fuller Seminary Press printed, we have requested permission to re-print it here in Africa through a local publishing company so that it can be easily available.

My other hope is seeing one seminary out there in Africa begin a school of psychology. Right now we are asking which one and finding out actually [how to] model Fuller School of Psychology, fully fledged, producing doctorates, down the line. My hope is that many people, both funding agencies and Christian psychologists, can come and partner with us and help produce local doctorates. Already the Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology is producing Ph.D.s in Theology. So we need to have another school giving us doctorates in psychology in the near future.

Then a big hope is to have an Oasis Africa Center, to house our training and counseling programs. Here, we can model how Africa should engage with indigenous cultures so as to develop a holistic relevant system of psychology. We need psychologies that are biblically centered, homegrown and professionally sound so that we can create sustainable programs in the continent.

Then a big hope is to have an Oasis Africa Center, to have a place of our own which becomes the counseling center, the training center and begins to model how Africa should engage with indigenous cultures. And actually coming up with psychologies that are biblically centered, homegrown and professionally sound, to reach the rest of Africa.

Can you comment about the difference between meeting people’s immediate physical needs and their psychological needs and why the psychological aspect is important?

First and foremost you need to know that I am so grateful to John Stott Ministries (Langham’s USA partner) and CISF for supporting me through school, more so because I think I’m the only Ph.D. in Psychology to have graduated from these two programs.

There is such a huge need for psychological mental health interventions. I believe that poverty is very much a psychology problem, although no one has found a direct cause and effect relationship. Poor families, especially those living in poor unsafe neighborhoods, have a lot of psychological struggles going on. This is because often, many children grow up in an atmosphere that is not safe, living in a violence-ridden community. And then if that violence is in the family, they are also affected. So safety in the family is critical, even though people have to live in poverty. The family is the foundation for a child’s mindset. If a child begins to believe they can succeed in life irrespective of poverty, they can make it because they begin to see hope. For example, if you look at Barack Obama, he did not grow up in a “normal” family with a mother and a father. He was a kid brought up by his grandmother. If that grandmother had unsafe habits like drug use and abuse, or domestic violence, this man would not be talking about hope right now. I trust that Obama’s “Yes we can,” is not coming from now. It must be a theme that he has used on himself: “Yes, I can” possibly arising from someone who told him: “Yes, you can!” At OA, our hope is that children in our slums can also say: “In spite of whatever is around me, in spite of what life has handed me, in spite of my father being an alcoholic, in spite of whatever, “YES I CAN.” In our Mashaka Children’s Centre, we are training these orphans and vulnerable children to believe that irrespective of their circumstances, they can grow up one day to be successful boys and girls, man and women. We also train parents to provide a safe place for the children because the environment itself will encourage the child to perform better.

Research indicates that if a child is living with a depressed mother, the child gets depressed. This means that the mental health of the child is dependent upon the mental health of the mother. It follows that if we can deal with factors that are linked to parental depression, the family can begin to plan together with the energy that was going into destroying one another becoming a creative force for the betterment of the members. The children learn to pick up whatever resources they have and do better than a child who has everything, but they don’t have mental health. Mental poverty can be dealt with whether in the slums or in the best suburb. This is because mental health is not dependent on material things but on the hope that the parents and the environment brings to the child. So the slum child, to me, actually needs more psychotherapy than a kid who has everything. And, this is what we at OA are about – providing psychological mental health services to the educated in high rise buildings and giving exactly the same quality assistance to the poorest of the poor in our slums.

I am convinced that sustainable poverty eradication programs would never be done without psychology and without counseling services. . When people are not behaviorally and cognitively empowered, development money can easily be likened to pouring aid money into a hole, a bottomless pit. Many communities have gone into a dependency mode, feeling that the humanitarian NGO is a “rescuer.” We need to turn it over and say: “You rescue yourself. I’m simply here to catalyze that skill, to throw you a rope and pull you out. But then when I pull you out and you get running on your own, then you can change your own life.” Sustainable development should include psychologists, counselors, coaches, and mentors who can empower the service recipients, open their eyes to see possibilities. This was, we break through the learned helplessness that characterizes many poor communities.

Gladys received her Ph.D. with support from the Langham Scholars program. For more information on how to support other Majority World scholars, visit:  langhampartnership.org.au/get-involved/donate

Here are some comments about the impact of Why Don’t We Read the Book That Christ Read?:

Letter received from a North African academic:

‘I was invited to teach a course in systematic theology in a Bible school in North Africa. I received your book on the Old Testament during a conference in Malta, and I was so excited about it so I decided to complete reading it in the plane on my way to present the course. I had prepared very well for the course and was ready to share it. When I arrived at the airport, I was told that the course has been already being taught. I was asked to teach another course starting tomorrow. I was totally devastated. How was I going to prepare for another course in such a short time? I had no materials and resources to use in preparation. Then an inspirational idea came to my mind: Why do not have a course based on Dr Kassis’ book? This I did! The outcome of my teaching time was great and very exciting. The chapters on wine, Song of Songs, and violence in the OT were so helpful to my students. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for such a helpful and beneficial book.’

An encounter in the Middle East:

Riad was recently at a conference center where “Mona” (not her real name), a qualified teacher in high school, approached him with her husband, who is a well-known physician. She greeted him warmly and both thanked him for the book. She added:

‘My two brothers are well educated but both had great difficulties accepting the Old Testament. One day we were all together in our summer house and I was reading your book. When my brother knew what I was reading, he commented satirically: “Are you still interested in the Old Testament?” I told him that this book will answer all your questions. You should read it! “No way,” he responded. After the vacation I went back to the city but left the book at the summer house. To my surprise my brother visited me after several weeks to say: “I read the whole book that you left at the summer house. As soon as I started reading it I could not stop. It has really changed my perspective on the Old Testament.”

Mona concluded:

‘I am fascinated with your book and I keep on buying copies from the Bible Society House to give it to my Muslim and Christian friends.’

Riad reports on his book’s impact on seminaries:

‘I am glad to inform you that my book is one of the required readings for Old Testament courses at the Arab Baptist Theological Seminary, Beirut and the Evangelical Theological Seminary of Cairo, Egypt. These are the two most strategic seminaries in the region. I am really humbled and grateful to God and Langham Writers Program for making it available for these future leaders as most of them read only Arabic. I was recently teaching an intensive course on biblical wisdom and Arabic proverbs at the Evangelical Theological Seminary of Cairo, Egypt. More than 65 students expressed their desire to have personal copies of my book, not just to read it themselves but to lend it to their friends to read it.

‘I am humbled as I hear comments from many of these students praising how much the book has helped them in their understanding of the Old Testament in a Middle Eastern context. A student commented: “This book is God’s gift to the Middle East. Please do write more books of this kind!”

‘In fact, my book is the only serious book in Arabic on Old Testament issues written by an evangelical. In my heart I have said: Thank you, Lord, for Langham Writers program! I do highly appreciate what you are doing.’

Read more about Riad Kassis and his book, Why Don’t We Read the Book That Christ Read?

Learn more about Langham Literature’s Langham Writers Programme.

These men and women had returned for the level 2 Preaching Programme with wonderful testimonies of God’s enabling during the past year as they had sought to teach faithfully, relevantly and clearly from His Word. Many of them had not only been a part of preachers clubs formed regionally from last year, but had invited others to join with them, passing on the training they had been given.

The participants greatly appreciated the input of Ma’afu Palu and Paul Barker for their gracious and wise teaching and leading — grasping the Bible’s big picture, with a focus on Preaching from the Old Testament.

You can view the 4 min presentation of last year’s level 1 programme “Eager to preach”.

Watch some of the wonderful testimonies recorded at this year’s level 2 seminar in Vanuatu: “Preaching the word clearly“.

Please contact the LPA office if you would like copies of either of these DVDs to share with others (Eager to preach DVD or Vanuatu 2009 testimonies DVD) [sent to addresses in Australia].

As some of you know, I am married to Elizabeth and we have three boys, Tevita (9), Freddie (4) and Albert born this April. We’ve been here in Sydney four years now, studying for a PhD – thanks to the generosity of Langham Partnership Australia and the Sydney Anglican Diocese.

I praise God that the thesis has now been officially submitted! I am grateful for the insights and encouragements of my supervisors, Dr Brian Rosner of Moore College and Dr Chris Fleming of University of Western Sydney. Awaiting the results can be a nail-biting experience; nevertheless, it feels as if a load has been lifted off my shoulders. In hindsight undergoing a PhD had always been a stepping stone, a means to an end. I believe that I will always be first and foremost a servant of Christ, burdened with love for the Tongans and feel that I can do nothing else but preach and teach them the love of Christ, the love that he had shown me whilst I was still a sinner. Therefore, the PhD had always been a means to qualify myself in worldly terms so that I can not only better equip myself for ministering to the Tongans but also to proclaim the gospel in any possible way that I can, whether it be in preaching or writing (as is Langham’s vision). I am forever grateful for the part that Langham has played in enabling me to reach this point.

Now as my family and I approach the end of our stay here in Sydney we are saddened and encouraged at the same time. Saddened to leave behind true friends, but encouraged that we will be putting into good use the newly acquired knowledge that we have gained here in Sydney.

At times it can be daunting to not be so sure of where we will be posted upon our return to Tonga but at the same time it is comforting to know that God is sovereign and He is in control of our future and wherever we will be placed he will use us to further his Kingdom. As an ordained minister of the Free Wesleyan Church of Tonga, I will be told what the Bishop wants me to do in June this year, during the Annual Synod of the Methodist church.

Before we came to Sydney for the PhD, we worked in the Tongan Methodist Church Bible College for four years. That was quite a tough experience for us. A lot of opposition was encountered simply for teaching students that the Bible is true and that Jesus is still relevant for us today. However, with the PhD, we hope that things will be somewhat better for us. There are only three other ministers with PhDs in the Methodist Church of Tonga at the time being – all of whom occupy positions of leadership in the church. We don’t expect a position of leadership in the more immediate future but must be ready to convince our church leaders of our progress in the faith. Please pray that we will trust in God’s sovereignty at all times especially when things are tough for us.

Paul and Barby Windsor

Paul Windsor, for over 10 years the Principal of Carey Baptist College in New Zealand, has joined the global team of Langham Partnership International.

At a service in Auckland on Sunday April 19, Paul Windsor was commissioned for his new work as Associate Director of Langham Preaching. Sharing responsibility for the development of the global programme, Paul will take a special interest in the development of training initiatives in Asia and the Pacific. Langham Preaching, one of three international programmes of LPI founded by John Stott, works with national leaders in over 50 countries to nurture indigenous preaching movements for pastors and lay preachers all around the world.

Paul and his wife Barby were brought up in India, children of missionary families with a long history of service in the sub-continent.  Paul pursued an MDiv at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in the USA, and is presently completing his DMin with the Australian College of Theology.  First serving as a pastor in Invercargill, New Zealand, Paul subsequently joined the teaching staff at the Bible College of New Zealand, where he taught Preaching to degree level as well as modules at Masters level. In 1998 he was appointed Principal of Carey Baptist College, during which time he has also taught at the University of Auckland, the Baptist Theological College of Western Australia (where he taught an MA module on Contemporary Biblical Preaching), and at the Bible College of Victoria, teaching the theory and practice of Expository Preaching as an MA/DMin module.

Paul Windsor at Marsden Cross, New Zealand

He is widely respected as a preacher and teacher, not only through his regular work with local churches but also at pastors conferences in Africa, Bible Conventions at Katoomba and Belgrave Heights in Australia, Preachers conferences and mission events. His wide mission interests are reflected in his involvement with many agencies, including Interserve, the Evangelical Fellowship of New Zealand (Vision Network New Zealand), the Asia Theological Association, and the Tertiary Students Christian Fellowship (IFES). But his real love is helping others in the work of preaching – something he has done both in the academic environment and amongst pastors and lay preachers in local churches.  Barby and their five children share Paul’s warm enthusiasm for this new opportunity of service around the world.

In a message of greeting read at the commissioning service, John Stott (founder), and Chris Wright (International Director) stated: ‘We are delighted that Paul will bring his exceptional gifts, experience and humble wisdom into the senior programme team.  It has been a particular encouragement to see the way in which Langham Preaching has grown, impacting so many countries in each of the continents of the world. It is a joy to hear reports of the warm response from so many pastors and lay preachers, often in places where the work of ministry is very tough and sometimes dangerous, and where resources and training facilities are almost non-existent.  Since the programme has been growing so fast under God’s clear blessing, it is a strategic moment for Paul to come alongside Jonathan Lamb to share the responsibilities of leadership. We are so grateful to God for Paul’s commitments to Biblical preaching, to the training of a new generation, and to the call to serve the churches in the Majority World. This mixture of vision, gifts and calling, already proven in New Zealand, will strengthen the work of Langham Preaching in the wider international arena.’

Pastors receive copies of the ABC from Flying Mission. (Read more on the Flying Mission web site)

Margaret Russell, volunteer with Flying Mission, writes, ‘We at Flying Mission were delighted that [Langham Literature] was able to supply us with ABCs. We have gradually presented them to pastors…we never forgot about the huge contribution you made to the lives of pastors (and congregations)…The pastors are from a variety of denominations, but all passionate about preaching and discipleship! So a HUGE thank you to you all for all that you have made possible in Zambia and Botswana!’

Flying Mission reports that after one presentation of the ABC, one pastor, visibly moved, said, ‘Thank you so much! I’m thinking of John 13:1, and I’m feeling the extent of God’s love for me!’ Another pastor added, ‘Thanks to the Lord for his provision for me. I’m looking forward to researching the teaching on prayer!’

Langham Literature is thankful to partner with such ministries as Flying Mission to maximize the efforts to equp grassroots Bible teachers with much needed Christian resources. For more information on how you can support the Langham Literature program, visit http://www.langhampartnership.org/get-involved.