Your prayers and interest in this ministry are greatly appreciated. Thank you for the role you play.
Over the years the Lord has led in many different ways. This is particularly true in the matter of getting books published.
The very first books I wrote in the early 90's were written in French, printed on my dot matrix printer, photocopied and bound with staples. All ten copies were distributed to members of the church on Réunion Island where I was pastor at the time.
When we returned to Cape Breton in 1994, the burden to write continued. I would print a single copy of each book on my office printer and bring it to a local print shop for duplication. They would make 100 copies of each page and Diane and I would then put the pages together and take them to another print shop in Sydney to be bound.
Later, a local Christian book shop manager introduced me to Essence Publishing in Bellville, Ontario. Essence Publishing is a short run book publisher that allows an author to self-publish limited quantities of their titles. The author pays for the books up front and is responsible for sales and distribution. Essence takes care of cover design, layout, printing and binding.
I submitted a manuscript to them and Essence Publishing agreed to publish my titles. In order to keep the cost per book affordable I needed to print 500 copies of each title. This meant finding space on my shelves for a growing number of titles.
After joining Action International Ministries in 2003 I received an email from Gabriel Publishing in the USA (later known as Authentic Media and more recently Biblica). This email requested that I send them sample of my work for possible publication. I sent some books to them and they offered to publish the entire series of Bible commentaries at their expense.
Over the next few years we worked together on 18 titles. As the author, I was able to purchase books at highly discounted rates for distribution to my overseas contacts. This was a tremendous blessing from the Lord. It also meant that I did not need space on my shelves for hundreds of copies of each title as I could purchase them as needed.
As the years went by, however, two things took place that challenged this partnership. First, Authentic Media was not seeing the sales they would have liked from the books. Second, the company was undergoing a series of changes and mergers that would shift its ministry focus. In the end, they offered me the possibility of buying out the remaining stock of titles I had written at a fraction of the cost I was getting them for as a author. I agreed to do this and they sent me over a hundred boxes of books.
This was both a blessing and a challenge for me. The blessing came in the fact that I had thousands of books at a very affordable price ready for shipping to needy Christian around the world. The first challenge was to find a place for the books in my office. The second was that my source for printed books was no longer available. With no source for the printing of the dozens of titles that were then available I found myself asking the Lord what He was saying to me about the ministry.
I wondered if this was the Lord's way of closing down the ministry. As I prayed about this, however, letters from believers overseas and the burden the Lord put on my heart convinced me that I needed to invest all I could into making this ministry work.
I do not have space in this update to share how the Lord began to put the pieces together in the months that followed. Gifts began to pour in not only to build a new office with the room I needed to store books but also to purchase all the equipment necessary to print and publish the books myself.
Today I publish my own books on a "print on demand" basis. That is to say, I only print enough copies of each title for what I need at the time. Generally, I will have 10-30 copies of each title on my shelf. I replenish the stock each week as is needed. You can watch a short video clip of how I make the books by clicking here:
www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=5bxuVxhISxg
The challenge this year is to distribute the remaining stock of Authentic Media books I bought out and take over the publishing of these titles. I am going through each of these eighteen books, making any necessary revisions, redesigning the covers and preparing them for printing. Five out of eighteen books are now ready to print when the remaining stock of Authentic Media books is exhausted.
The advantage to doing my own publishing is that I now have all rights and can give permission to translate and print in other countries and languages. In the last four years the Lord has opened doors by giving me overseas partners in Cuba, Korea, Pakistan, Myanmar, India and Tanzania. These individuals translate books, have them printed locally and distributed in their country. We have also had books printed in Colombia and the Philippines.
From the ten studies photocopied in Reunion to printing now in different languages and countries, the Lord's hand has continued to guide. The Lord has led in wonderful ways but there is so much more to be done -- so many languages that don't have adequate Bible study material for pastors and Christian workers. Pray with me that the Lord would continue to open doors and provide so that many more will be reached with the truth of His Word.
HOW TO PRAY
Praise:
* For the way the Lord has been leading in the publishing of books and how He has provided all that is necessary.
* For the various people and organizations the Lord has used over the past 19 years to make this Bible study material available for believers around the world.
* For the open doors to have material translated and distributed in a variety of countries.
Prayer:
* For wisdom and provision as I coordinate the translation of material in different languages and provision for each translation project.
* Ask the Lord for wisdom and discipline as I revise the eighteen titles printed formerly by Authentic Media.
FREE MONTHLY EBOOK (PDF):
This month I am offering my commentary on Daniel, Hosea and Joel. I trust it will be a blessing. Feel free to share this link with others as well. Click here to go to the page where you can download your free PDF copy:
www.ltmp.ca/ministry/free-download.htm
Pray with me that this book will be a blessing to those who download it.
Thanks again for your interest in this ministry of opening up God's Word to the nations. Your prayers and support has made this possible. Thank you very much.
God bless,
F. Wayne Mac Leod
LIGHT TO MY PATH BOOK DISTRIBUTION
153 Atlantic Street,
Sydney Mines, NS CANADA B1V 1Y5
WEBSITE: http://www.ltmp.ca
BOOK STORE: http://www.ltmp.ca/store
Sent from my BlackBerry device on the Rogers Wireless Network