4WRD supplied Vida Plena (Fire Bibles in Spanish) for the graduates of Caribbean Theological Bible College in Puerto Rico through a grant from Assemblies of God Home Missions. This marks a decade of this partnership.

CAPE TOWN: Our travels to Cape Town in April/May found us sorting through 22,000 books and dividing them into 5 libraries.

RUSTENBURG: Glenna and I returned to Rustenburg in May to help finish setting up their library in preparation for the dedication of their new Academic and Resource Centre building. While there we processed an additional 1,000 books and set up an online public access catalog for student use.

BANJUL: Working with Africa’s Hope, we shipped out two pallets of nearly 5,000 books to The Gambia for their new Bible school. Glenna and I visited The Gambia in July/August to help set up the processes and procedures for that library. Revs. Scott and LaVonna Ennis were our contacts there and were awesome hosts. We were able to process and encode 1,445 books with the help of other staff while there.

Graduate Book Sets Container and Library Books

Our yearly container to India with Graduate Book Sets and books for libraries is on schedule to ship in November, or close to it. Pray with us as this project is complex. Over the years we have helped up to 28 schools provide graduate study sets to as many as 866 graduates.  This year we were able to provide 842 sets to students in 22 schools. This year 3 schools received over 1,000 books each for their libraries. You can help us fund a Graduate Book Set. The ESV Fire Bible costs us $12.50 each. The South Asia Bible Commentary adds another $11.50. Over the years our average cost for a GBS is $35 for close to $200 worth of retail books. Be sure to designate your gift for GBS India.

Bill Boyer, missionary to the Philippines, asked 4WRD to help develop a library for a new school in the island of Mindanao. So far we have packed 4,000 books. Our goal is 6,000. Mindanao Training Center breaks the mold of a slow growth library!

One of the weak links in theological education in Africa is getting French written resources into the Bible school libraries. After visiting WAAST (West Africa Advanced School of Theology) in Togo last year, I am burdened to help get some of the latest and best French books in to these strategically located schools that reach a population of over 290 million Africans. You will hear more of this as the year goes on.

In 4WRD ‘s warehouse are 13,000 books waiting for shipping to Malawi. Thirteen pastoral training centers in Malawi will get 1,000 books each. Another 30 training centers are planned and 4WRD trust that over the next year each of those schools gets 1,000 books each. These Assemblies of God training centers hope to prepare new pastors for the vast number of churches starting up each month!

4WRD is partnering with Word4Asia to help a seminary with extensions meet Chinese government accreditation standards. A container is planned to handle the volume of books needed. Taylor University donated 43 boxes, 4WRD packed over 1,000 books to date, and others are on the way. 4WRD’s warehouse is the pivot point by receiving, sorting, packing, loading, and shipping the resources. Our preliminary goal is to ship 15,000 books early next year.

We have a chance to ship into Uganda for the first time early in 2018. Already, we have packed 2,000 books for a lending/research library for pastors in the capital city. Since most pastors in this country lack study resources or personal libraries we are partnering with CBD (Christian Book Distributors) and a Ugandan national to supply books to a strongly conservative, Evangelical, lending library that any pastor can use.

Our ongoing service of providing new books at reduced prices for missionaries, national pastors, and Bible schools means that we are constantly shipping a few books here and a few more books there. Over the last year we have shipped to Tanzania, Philippines, Ghana, Nigeria, Liberia, Jamaica in the Caribbean, Singapore, Lesotho in addition to those mentioned in our newsletters.