Read Chris DeWelt's full article
A Worldwide Celebration...
Here are some comments from our Field Contacts:
Yeah GOD!...What an awesome accomplishment...There are many, many stories...Here's one...Through the books made available by LATM AIM has spent the last 18 months conducting monthly discipleship meetings for the pastors from 450 churches AIM has planted throughout Cambodia...The result: these 450 churches have planted an additional 150 in Cambodia...Wow....More specifically in November of this year 1,500 copies of the book Good News for You were distributed in a Cambodian military camp...One month later 1,007 men accepted Jesus as their Savior and Lord and were baptized...thanks for your faithfulness to God...He is using it in amazing ways. --Don Brewster, co-worker with Moses Samol Seth, Cambodia.
Congratulations! Glory to the Lord! --Sergei Golovin, Ukraine
Dear Bro. Phil,
Greetings to you from CICM in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
It is great to be partners with LATM. We rejoice with you as we have been partners from day one. We are grateful to God who has allowed us to work together. All these many books that have been published in India, for the 600 million Hindi speaking people, have been a great blessing to our churches, leaders, evangelists and Bible colleges. It is amazing to see how God has blessed the
ministry of LATM. We rejoice with you as you have reached this goal of publishing one million books. On behalf of all the coworkers, churches, young people and children we thank you for being such wonderful partners and allowing us to have thousands of books for the extension of His kingdom.
We are extremely grateful to LATM for our wonderful partnership from the very beginning of the ministry of LATM. LATM has played a significant role in many areas of the ministry of Central India Christian Mission. LATM has played a vital role in the evangelistic outreach, leadership training, Sunday school programs, training of the Sunday school leaders, reaching the unreached groups and providing the needed resources such as books with many effective sermons to our evangelists. We are grateful from the very depth of our hearts to you and Sister Susan along with the board of LATM. Please extend our heartfelt gratitude to all the supporters who have contributed towards the LATM ministry. We are grateful to them for reaching literally millions of people with the love and the life changing message of our Lord Jesus Christ. We also want to thank Bro. Chris DeWelt for his great example and willingness to share the burden of our hearts and having a significant vision for the ministry of LATM. I know that his father and our great example Bro. Don DeWelt has the same concern and compassion in his heart. We remember Bro. Don DeWelt with great respect and love.
May God continue to bless you.
Your coworkers in India,
Ajai & Indu Lall
I met Phil Casey at one of the National Missionary Conventions, sat with him, and presented the need to print Christian books in Kuki language. Through LATM, many books have been printed with funds donated by Believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. The last book printed by LATM is the Kuki Christian Church Hymn book 10,000 copies. Let us be thankful to God for using us, some for planning, some for donations, and many others to carry out the achievements. I am simply amazed how miracles have happened in our life time. Together we march on till the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. --T. Lunkim, Kuki Christian Mission, Imphal, Manipur, India
The TCM International Institute, with ministry headquarters in Indianapolis and Austria, gives God the glory and praise for the strategic and meaningful work of LATM around the world. In the case of TCM, God has used LATM to bring culturally relevant, Christ-centered textbooks to thousands of deserving Christian leaders, pastors and students in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Today TCM is providing graduate level Christian education to over 760 students in 19 different countries. If you have partnered with LATM in this endeavor TCM wants to thank you too. Your generosity and support of this worthwhile ministry has touched so many lives for Christ. Thank you LATM for bringing the books! --Dr. Michael J. Crull, European Vice President, TCM International Institute
Dear brother Phil,
I praise God with you on this accomplishment. Now to help you reach the next million...
Could you give me a project price for a Preacher's library where you would send, postage included, one copy of all of your books in Spanish to a preacher in Colombia? Thanks, that is a project I am considering launching and need a price to present to the churches. You guys would need to do the packaging and mailing. God bless, Dale Meade, Colombia
It is indeed a Praise God moment! It was inspirational and an encouragement to me to participate in that first 1993 meeting in San Antonio when you were trying to promote the writing, translating publication of books in Spanish for the cause of Christ. I have in my files that first picture of about 25 or so Christians from most of the Spanish world that were involved in preaching Christ and trying to publish or find books in Spanish.
Fifteen years later you have been able to produce one million books in 49 languages for dozens of countries. God be praised! Keep up your good work! ¡Gracias por tu dedicación! Merci Beaucoup! --Jaffet J. Perez, Puerto Rico
I am thankful for the way God has used LATM. You sponsored the publication of a very important book for Turkish Christians, and we are truly grateful for your kindness and generosity. --Steve Hagerman, US Director, Turkish World Outreach
Thank you for the outstanding work that LATM has been doing over these past years. We in Thailand have also benefitted from the assistance given by LATM for publishing nearly two dozen different booklets, commentaries and scriptural helps to help
strengthen the body of Christ in SE Asia. I am not sure who else will respond, but as I sit here I am thinking of the works run through our Thailand literature office, directed by David Morse, with materials written, or edited, or translated by the following folks: Jesse Yangmi, Andrew Aledin, Ron Morse, Jerry Thaprom and others, books which were typed and formatted by various team members and coworkers on our national staff to make these books print-ready. But without some substantial assistance from LATM, many of these books would be languishing on the shelf of "Need to Print" stack. But now, these books already printed are out and in use. At this time, we have additional books nearly ready for the printing phase, and we look for ward to partnering with you in the task of getting these printed and delivered to those in dire need of these Bible helps.
May the Lord bless, strengthen and supply every need that you help to meet around the world in many languages and people groups. Thank you for your commitment to helping those of us in foreign mission fields to have the means to get the books that have been prepared printed and into our dear brethren's hands. And now, may the Lord continue to strengthen your hands in doing this work in the year ahead of us as well. To all who have assisted missions work through LATM for the glory of God, we say, Thank you for your partnership through LATM labors and ministry efforts. May our Father bless and enable you to continue your support of LATM in the time ahead.
Serving our Lord hand in hand with you,
Ron Morse, Thailand
Dear Phil,
Thank you very much for your “One Million Books Celebration Report”.
I wanted to be a Christian publisher ever since I can remember. But I was the youngest son of a very poor country preacher living under a godless communist regime at that time. All Bibles and Christian literature were confiscated and we had no hope for any change in our lifetime. Nevertheless, some years later, I started publishing and distributing Christian literature underground. It was difficult, dangerous and limited.
After communism collapsed in 1989 I was praying for a new opportunity for my publishing ministry. And God sent you to be my partner. Maybe you remember the statement I made when you came to Poland together with Chris DeWelt: “I am
determined to do this book with you or without you. But I want you to be my partner.” Those words were not a very good expression of my kindness but surely it was an expression of my deep convictions of my ministry call.
And we started a new chapter in Polish publishing that day. Working together we have published 18 textbooks for TCM International Institute study programs; 15 textbooks for the Correspondence Bible Study teaching program (some of them reprinted a few times); and 19 very useful textbooks for preachers, Sunday school teachers and all Christians (some of them reprinted). Some of them are very big with almost 1000 pages, some of them are very scholarly, some of them present theological fields never published in the Polish language before. Great work has been done.
Thank you Phil for your faithful partnership. Please pass our Polish gratitude to all LATM donors who supported us so faithfully. Awareness of so many national publishers working in so many different countries around the globe with common purpose in mind and heart is very encouraging for us here in Poland. Thank you to all of you.
But the most important is that we all are allowed to be partners with Him – for His glory and for His Church’s sake. What a privilege and what a hope for the future!
Yours in His ministry,
Michal Weremiejewicz, Director
Christian Bible Institute
Warsaw, Poland
Twice a year I used to participate in book fairs in Saint Petersburg and Kiev. Book fairs are times when you can “look at the eyes” of our customers and speak with them and understand them better. Most of the people who use our books are either pastors or students of Christian Colleges and Seminaries. This means that if we print 1000 copies of certain book, 1000 pastors or teachers will use it and 1000 churches will hear the message of our books! Principle of multiplication works and sometimes we can influence more people by literature than by any other ways.
Recently we found that in our country (Russia) the Christian book market is growing not because of Christians but because of unchurched people. In other words, people who don’t go to church for some personal or cultural reasons, are still interested in information about Bible and Christianity. That is why today we try to print books that have a high class quality (I am talking about quality of both text and cover and printing).
One of my unchurched friends (we are working on him to become a Christian one day) recently asked me about our book printing: “Is it a business or are you just a volunteer?” My answer was – “Neither one.” What we do I better qualify as service. It is serious as much as business, but it is not going to be self supported unless we have enough Christians to form the market. And because of it, service will need supporters. After some years I realized that our major supporter is God. He is the One who prepares hearts of some people to give, another people to write, translate and edit, and still other people to distribute and finally some to buy and use the books. Recently we had a dangerous situation, when printing cost of one of our books went up because of the devaluation of the rate of dollar. But then money has been found, book is going to be printed and people will buy it and read it. All because God supports the whole circle of printing and distributing. Isn’t it wonderful to be part of his plan?
Constantine Nazarov, Russia
Hi, Phil!
Wow, the millionth book! This is wonderful news. And yes, as you said in the Director's Report, there are many amazing things that have come together.
Blessings, brother.
David Morse, Thailand
In Nehemiah 8 where we see the story of the book of the law of Moses being read after the rebuilding of the Jerusalem city wall, the reaction of the people was so meaningful, even touching: "For all the people were weeping when they heard the words of the law."
I don't know if anybody to whom we have given books that were able to be printed through funding coming from LATM has wept to have the books, but I do know that some printings have gone out to many different provinces of China and been received with appreciation as concrete help in Bible study. Other printings have been a priceless tool in communicating and interpreting accurately truths in the New Testament that have been misunderstood by so many in China for so long. No doubt God is pleased.
Pressing on...
Danny Thurston, China
Dear Phil,
I want to thank you and all who have been supporting the ministry of LATM! God has used all of you for bringing great Christian books to many Christian leaders, to people in different Christian ministries, and even to non-Christians. Praise God, because with your support we have some great books in our Czech language that would not be otherwise printed in our country, also due to very small Christian books "market". May God bless you!
Your brother in Christ
Pavel Coufal
Czech Republic
Dear Phil,
We rejoice that LATM has passed the million books milestone. The church in Ethiopia has been a beneficiary your ministry in the Amharic translation of Fee and Stuart's book on Reading the Bible for All It's Worth. Just recently there has been a side blessing that was not expected.
When the proof copy of the translation (computer draft) was completed I worked with about two dozen of our evangelists and preachers for a full week in studying about biblical interpretation. In the process, we were editing the translator's edition. We were able to make substantive corrections.
I have been invited to return as one of the speakers for a conference that includes leaders from our churches in two language groups (Oromo and Gumuz) PLUS other churches in a broad region. The topic assigned to me grew out of our work on the book--biblical interpretation. So, Effie and I are planning to be there in July of this year for the conference and to visit many of the churches we have had a part in planting and equipping.
By the way, the invitation came from Kurt Michler. Kurt is facilitating the conference where church leaders from all the areas will recieve a book set including the one printed by LATM. Another book is being translated through LATM in partnership with SIM. That book is The Chronological Life of Christ.
Thanks, Phil and LATM. Because of your ministry far more than a million Christians have been blessed.
Love in the Lord,
Ray Giles
Dear Phil!
I have read about millionth book.
Congratulation!!!
May God bless you in further steps!
--[Name withheld], Kazakhstan