The workload has been quite heavy at Clear and Simple Media in the month of May. We are completing printing projects of 50,000 Hindi books in India, working through translation projects for Bengali and Pashto in Central Asia and Gourmantché in West Africa, and initiating a German translation project for June.

Then, earlier this month, we received an email from Dr. David Durey of T-NET International (http://tnetwork.com). Through a mutual friend, Dave had become familiar with the research CSM has done in Simple English, the material we have produced, and the websites we have developed.

Dave explained that T-NET is currently working through a comprehensive review of their graduate curriculum. His email was to ask if CSM might be interested in helping them improve the readability of their English material. Because their material is also going to be translated into a number of languages in the future, they also would like help to make the courses more “translatable”.

T-NET is a training network that offers seminary level training to pastors and church-planters. They currently work in more than 27 countries with over 50 denominations. T-NET doctoral course-work is accepted for credit at such institutions as Dallas Theological Seminary, Bethel Seminary, and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.

While his request was certainly interesting, a look at the “to do” list for the summer, made us wonder if we would actually have the time to do what Dave was asking. But after some follow-up discussion, we thought this was an opportunity that we should not pass up. So, June 22-25, we will be meeting with the T-NET staff in Minnesota to review a sample course from a Simple English perspective. The revised material will then be prepared for field-testing in July during a course at Hindustan Bible Institute, a T-NET training partner in India. After the feedback from India is intergrated into

Our goal at CSM is to produce material that is theologically clear, linguistically simple, and biblically faithful. While this consulting work may be quite time consuming, it is one clear way to multiply the ministry. When we find like-minded partners like these, we feel like the extra effort will be well worth the investment.