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.

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.

Josephine was fascinated by the problems faced by the Boni women of Kenya, whose society had swung from matriarchal to patriarchal in one generation. Emily had been a witness of the riots in Kenya in 2008. Lubungu had witnessed the devastation wrought by conflict in the Great Lakes region. David had dealt with grief as a theoretical construct, and then had to face it in his own family. Others were wrestling with issues affecting the young: How does the church help teenagers enter adulthood if it forbids traditional initiation? Should Christian parents ask a bride price, and should their children pay it? Still others were dealing with academic problems: What is the relationship between Christianity and politics in Africa? How does the Christian understanding of God relate to the traditional African understandings of who he is?

Participants of the Langham Literature Writers Workshop in Kenya, January 2009

These issues, and others like them, were close to the hearts of the fifteen academics from Kenya, South Africa, Congo, Zimbabwe, Nigeria and Ethiopia who met for a writer’s workshop sponsored by Langham Partnership International (LPI) and the Overseas Council at the Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology in January this year.

LPI and the Overseas Council recognized the needs of these and other Christian writers and students and combined forces to offer a writers’ workshop in Africa. Interest was high, but the numbers were kept down to ensure maximum effectiveness. The writers  met at the Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology in January this year. Each of the fifteen was under pressure to write, for they had signed a contract committing themselves to produce a book in two years.

Pieter Kwant and Isobel Stevenson of LPI helped the writers to sharpen their focus with questions like, Who are writing for? What do you want to tell them?  How are you going to catch their attention? (and, not least, How are you going to catch a publisher’s attention?). Tim Stafford, the author of more than 20 books and the vice-chair of the board for John Stott Ministries (U.S. office of LPI), discussed the practical details of living as a writer – and stressed the need to spend time at one’s desk, writing! Accordingly several hours each day were set aside for sitting and writing. Then the participants had to expose what they had written to their small groups for critique and encouragement. Some of these groups will continue to meet via the Internet until their books are finished.

The result? By the end of the week most of the participants had honed their ideas, produced an outline of the contents of their books, and drafted and redrafted their introductions. Now we can look forward to seeing their textbooks for seminaries, their manuals for pastors, their guidance for ordinary Christians. By training these authors, LPI is helping to magnify their effectiveness as pastors and teachers, and is giving them access to a far wider readership than they could have reached before.

By David Hoffman, vice president, John Stott Ministries

Stanley Clark holds up a copy of a commentary on Galatians.

Students at seminaries and Bible colleges in Argentina and across Latin America face a common problem: the cost of textbooks and study materials, an axpense that could mean the difference between finishing a study programme and abandoning their studies.  Langham Literature is doing its part with programmes that make resources available to majority World theological institutions, their libraries, teaching staff, students and alumni and to pastors, preachers and scholars.

“Many of our students would simply not be able to complete their studies,” said Stanley Clark from the Baptist Seminary in Buenos Aires.  “For example, in their first semester students take a course on Galations.  The Galationas books would cost a student $50, and with the Langham Literature subsidy programme, it will only cost them $25.  Without this programme they would not be able to complete their studies.”

The Additional Book Programme (ABP), know to Argentinean students simply as the ’subsidy programme’, is one of two literature programmes that Langham Literature operates in Argentina through agent Beatriz Buono of Certeza bookstores.  The second programme is Library Grants Programme (LGP) that in Argentina is know as ‘regalos biblioteca’, or gifts for libraries.  As a licensed book importer, Certeza is able to ensure that these two programmes can be offered to over 50 seminaries and Bible colleges throughout Argentina.

The Baptist Seminary is one example of how these Langham Literature programmes are helping.  With tough economic times, this school that was started by the Southern Baptist church now offers evening courses for approximately 180 students each semester andextension courses for another 100 students.  Students can earn a two-year basic degree or a three-year throu the LGP, and students studying the bible can benefit from the ABP when purchasing books related to these courses.  The same story was repeated by the leaders at the Seminary for the Assemblies of God and the large ecumenical seminary, ISEDET University Institute.

“Our graduates become pastors or missionaries”, says Stanley Clark.  “As missionaries they will serve mostly in Afganistan and Northern Africa as well as Latin America.  Over the course of their two years of study, each student will take 10 courses related to the Bible.  Thanks to Langham Partnership, they will save $250, which for most students will be the difference they need to complete their studies.”

Part of the editorial team for the Commentaire Biblique Contemporain (left to right): Tewoldemedhin Habtu, Samuel Ngewa, Issiaka Coulibaly, Solomon Andria, Yusufu Turaki

It was a historic moment when the launch of the French edition of the Africa Bible Commentary — the Commentaire Biblique Contemporain — took place on November 19, 2008, at the prestigious Palace of Culture in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. Langham Literature helped to support the project and was present to honor the hard work and dedication devoted to making it happen.

The president of Côte d’Ivoire honoured the invitation to attend the launch, sending the minister of Home Affairs as his official representative. The minister of Culture and the minister of Communication were also present, as was a representative of the mayor of Taeichville, Abidjan.

An attendant clutches her copy of the Commentaire Biblique Contemporain.

Yusufu Turaki, representing General Editor Tokunboh Adeyemo who, due to illness, was not able

to be present, and Solomon Andria, the French editor, joined nearly a thousand others who have been eagerly awaiting the launch of this one-volume commentary on the Bible in French. The original work was written by both French-speaking and English-speaking African scholars, with those portions originating in French translated into English. Over 50,000 copies of the ABC have been distributed since its launch in July 2006. The two years since then have been spent translating the English portions into French,

The Minister of Home Affairs, Cote D'Ivoire, receives a copy of the CBC from Solomon Andria, French editor.

much of the burden of the editorial activity falling on the shoulders of Solomon, who is much to be applauded for his excellent work. Further translations are already underway in Swahili and Portuguese as well as for Hausa and possibly Amheric. Serving In Missions and Langham Literature have supported this project for seven years and are delighted with the results.

The five hundred copies of the CBC available at the launch were very quickly sold out, with those who purchased them obviously very pleased to have one in hand.

Visit the LPI photo gallery for a slideshow of the event.

Exactly one year since WordAlive Publishers (WAP) commenced the translation of the Africa Bible Commentary into Kiswahili, and with about 75 percent of the translation already completed, the project has now entered the crucial editing phase in earnest. The Kiswahili ABC will hit the market in October 2009.

As part of the project, WAP organised a consultative meeting of translators and editors in Dodoma, Tanzania from 3 to 6 September 2008. The key agenda for the meeting was to review the work and to discuss issues that emerged during translation. During this meeting, the participants pledged to rededicate their efforts to ensure that the timelines are observed and that the project is completed according to schedule.

The meeting was also a forum to train in and hone editorial skills in readiness for the editing phase. Indeed, editing had been going on albeit at a slower pace due to shortage of personnel; almost 15 percent of the editing work had been done by August 2008. With the successful editorial seminar, six editors will now be joining the only four that are currently undertaking the exercise. We hope that this will speed up the process and complete the editorial phase by April 2009. While in Dodoma, we had the opportunity to meet some key church leaders at a dinner event. Among those who attended were officials from the Bible Society of Tanzania, Christian Council of Tanzania and Anglican and Catholic dioceses as well as lecturers from the theological colleges around Dodoma. This conference was part of our build-up to the 2009 release and subsequent distribution of the Kiswahili edition of the Africa Bible Commentary.

Meanwhile, we expect the remaining portion of the translation exercise, involving fifteen (15) books, to be completed by the end of November. Once completed, some of the translators will be recruited to join the editing team.

We continue to thank God for enabling the translation exercise to get this far. As we turn our focus to editing, we pray for additional strength so as to issue an excellent product that will significantly transform Africa and the world.

In August, one of the members of the translation team, Geoffrey Majule, was awarded a doctoral scholarship at Asbury Theological Seminary, USA. We congratulate him warmly and wish him well in his studies. At the same time, in September, Dr Catherine Ndungo of Kenyatta University joined the editing team. We warmly welcome her to participate in this ‘monumental’ leaders project.

We are greatly encouraged by the impressive progress that this project has attained so far. We are confident that we shall observe the timelines, which were re-examined during the meeting in Dodoma. The enthusiasm expressed by both the translation and the editorial teams will no doubt see us across the finishing line, expectedly well ahead of schedule.

Pray for:
1. The translators: for strength and clarity of mind as they work to complete the remaining portion.

2. The editors: for wisdom and insight as they continue putting the work together.

3. Members of the team, George Ndulesi and Sheila Ryanga, who were bereaved during the editorial seminar; for strength to bear the loss.

Editors Note: WordAlive Publishers acknowledges the successful consecration and enthronement of Canon Father John Simalenga as the Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of South West Tanganyika on 6th July 2008 at Njombe. He continues to play an effective role in the translation of the Kiswahili ABC.

Permission to reproduce this article granted from WordAlive Publishers (www.wordalivepublishers.org).

Langham Partnership and the Eastern Europe Literature Advisory Committee (EELAC) have agreed to a merger that will allow the aims of both charities to be enhanced. EELAC has had a 30 year track record of developing indigenous Christian publishing houses in Central and Eastern Europe. The merger with Langham Partnership will internationalise this ministry, enhancing Langham Partnership’s ability to partner with majority world churches in strengthening local publishing initiatives.

New Man Publishers in Bulgaria is a prime example of an indigenous publishing ministry which is now sustainable without further financing from EELAC. New Man will continue to strengthen the local church through much needed literature resources, which are Biblically rooted and culturally relevant.

New Man is one of several publishers, either planted or adopted by EELAC, which is now strong enough to help grow the smaller and younger publishers across the region. The model has proved highly effective and can now be taken beyond Eastern Europe.

Dr Colin Macpherson, formerly the General Secretary of EELAC, will become the Creative Director for Langham Partnership’s literature programme known as Langham Literature. Pieter Kwant, the International Programme Director for Literature noted that, “I have always had great admiration for the work of EELAC and I am delighted that the vision that has inspired it to such success will now reach even more widely within the Langham Partnership global network, nurturing many more indigenous evangelical publishing ministries to serve the Church’s needs around the world.”.

The objective of the SABC, according to the editors and advisors, is to “equip Christian leaders at the grassroots level – pastors, students and lay leaders – who under the guidance of the Holy Spirit can be instrumental in the establishment and nurture of a vibrant church in this region.”

Project Editor Jessica Richards
“The only commentaries that an untrained pastor, lay person or a theological student, without access to a good library would go to…are dated and not contextual,” said Jessica Richards, the SABC project editor. “They tend to concentrate more on the technicalities of the text and contentious academic questions on authorship and dating rather than on contextual application to realities and issues in the South Asian context.”

Jessica worked on several long-term projects such as the Dictionary of South Asian Christianity (DSAC) before joining the SABC team. Her experience with the editorial process, combined with her work on social issues in India, has primed her with the ability to take on the large project:

“My theological involvement and articulation are grounded in my multiple identities as an Indian/Asian Christian woman living in a gloriously pluralist fabric; a fabric which is also permeated by discrimination on the basis of caste, class, creed and gender,” she shares. “[I am] also constantly informed and influenced by the fact that I theologize from and in a context of globalization that has widened gaps – economically, socially and in religious terms.”

Jessica is working with several contributors and six general/theological editors, all from the South Asia region. “The opportunity that such a project affords to work with some of the best biblical scholars and theologians in this region is something that cannot be quantified. I know I will gain immensely in working with all of the contributors to the SABC,” Jessica says.

Langham Scholars as Theological Editors
Of the six theological editors, five are Langham scholars: Jacob Cherian, Finny Philip, J. Jesudason Jeyaraj, Havilah Dharamraj, and Paul Swarup. These scholars know firsthand the importance of getting an affordable Bible commentary distributed in this area of the world.

The general editors and developers of the South Asia Bible Commentary

“The one-volume SABC is a critical tool much needed for the numerous grass roots level pastors and evangelists who have had little or no formal theological education,” says Paul Swarup. “It can be likened to giving a huge number of assembly-line workers in a car manufacturing plant, the appropriate tools to put the parts together to bring out a beautiful and powerful car!”

“I am excited to think about the significance and impact this commentary will have for the church in South Asia,” says Jacob Cherian. “With the Indian subcontinent as the birthplace of key religious faiths of our world (especially Hinduism and Buddhism), and with India having the second largest population of Muslims in the world, topics such as “Jesus among other gods” and the legal and social (not to mention theological and communal) implications of ‘religious conversion’ are bound to serve the Church in a major capacity.”

The SABC is projected to sell 10,000 copies in the first year, with the Hindi edition expected to have similar sales goals. It is the latest in a series of Bible commentaries co-sponsored by John Stott Ministries-Langham Partnership International, beginning with the award-winning Africa Bible Commentary which has sold more than 75,000 copies to date and is in the process of several translations.

Look for more details about this exciting project in JSM’s upcoming newsletter, In the Gap.

Help partner with LPI to sponsor the SABC and other much needed projects…Visit the Get Involved page for more information.