In April 2008 Pastor Howard F. Faigao and I had the privilege to attend the Tri-Africa Division Union Publishing Director’s Council in Nairobi, Kenya. For 3 days we enjoyed the fellowship, ministry, the beautiful countryside, and warm hospitality of our African brethren.

The Tri-Africa Division Union Publishing Director’s Council is the first of many publishing council’s which will be held this year. During 2008 a Publishing Director’s Council will be held on each continent, reaching out to encourage, teach, and inspire our publishing leaders at the Division and Union levels. We seek to involve and educate all of our Unions directors throughout the world in the strategic plan voted by the World Literature Ministry Coordinating Board. In order to reach this goal we will:

1. Inform all the Union directors of the strategic plan voted by the WLMCB, and to train them in accordance with its mandates.

2. Listen to a report from each Union describing what they are doing to increase the number of LEs and the amount of sales. We want to know what their best methods for recruiting new LEs are, and how they plan to distribute the missionary book of the year.

3. Ask about their needs and the challenges they face in each union and conference and to help them find solutions.

At the Tri-Africa Division Union Publishing Director’s Council, April 15 – 17, 2008, four division publishing directors were present: Pastor Jules K.K. Lumbu from ECD, Pastor Oyeleke A. Owolabi from WAD, Pastor Super Moesi from SID, Pastor Michael G. Hamilton from TED. They were joined by all of the Union publishing directors from each division on the African continent.

Each division presented a report about the work in each of their Unions. It was thrilling to see how God is guiding through the many challenges each division and union are confronted with.

Today, the four major languages spoken on the African continent are: English, French, Spanish and Portuguese. Books, magazines, and other materials in these languages are imported from publishing houses from around the world. The biggest challenge literature evangelists face on the African continent is a lack of subscription books in local languages. We do not as of yet have subscription books to attend to this need. One of the best decisions decided at this event was to create a small set of three books which will be translated into local languages. Each set will be translated into the local language, the price will be set according to the local economy, and the contents of the books will be adjusted to reflect the local culture. These local changes will help an average family be able to afford to purchase the set. Also, during our meetings it was proposed to create an Africa Publishing Coordinating Board to be in charge of this project.

After the Publishing Council ended on Thursday, all of the union and division leaders stayed to attend a seminar conducted by Pastor Faigao over the weekend. Pastor Faigao trained the publishing leaders by example. As he taught a class on how to be a literature evangelist, the leaders observed his teaching methods. It was a very good way to train the trainers! Pastor Faigao also instructed the leaders on how to establish a seminary for training LEs in the Literature Ministry Seminary Program.

For Sabbath all of us were invited to preach in different churches in Nairobi and in other cities to help recruit new LEs and to promote the Missionary Book of the Year. Among other things we instructed the leaders on how to build an altar with the books and how to present a dedication service.

It is very inspiring to visit churches and to find a group of leaders striving to do their best, ready to learn, and eager to be used by God to do the work He gave us. This willing spirit was what we found in our African divisions during this trip. Praise God!



W. Hirle
GC Associate
Publishing Director