Although the genesis of Clear and Simple Media grew from a desire to assist grass-roots church planters in SE Asia, God has seen fit to use the materials around the world. Forty-eight people groups have at least one of the books in use in their language. We are in the middle of expanding that number.

One of the things that has been a pleasant surprise to us is the way that churches in North America are finding the books helpful. Because the world is on the move and we are experiencing a great Diaspora in our time, people involved in discipleship across languages and cultures in Canada and the United States are writing to tell us how our books have helped them. Here is a portion of one of those letters from a partner church in Central Canada.

 I first met Maggie at the Baptism Class I was leading after church on Sunday morning. It was clear early on that Maggie wanted to learn more about Jesus and was in the beginning stages of her understanding the things of God. She had developed this interest after coming to a friend’s baptismal service, and while watching her friend’s baptism, she found herself crying and she didn’t know why. When she told me the story, she wanted to know if there was something wrong with her for crying that way. I told her that perhaps what she was experiencing was God speaking to her and that was natural to respond that way.

Maggie knew that God might be at work in her life, but she had many questions about God, faith, creation, and many other topics as well. The Baptism Class was supposed to be one session long, but over the next several weeks, Maggie and I met for two to three hours to try and help her navigate both her questions and what was going on in her heart. One of the resources that I had handy to help Maggie was the book Simple Answers to Not So Simple Questions from Clear and Simple Media. I thought it might be helpful to Maggie as English was not her first language and the book addresses questions that she had. I gave her a copy of the book in our second session together. To my great surprise, she had not only read the entire book for our third session but had written her own thoughts and questions on almost every page of the book. It was clear that the book was a powerful tool for Maggie and that God was using it to help answer her questions.

At the end of our sessions together, Maggie did come to accept Jesus as her Lord and Saviour (which was so exciting to witness). She still has many questions as she navigates her new found faith, so if you are reading this story, please pray for Maggie that she would continue to grow in her faith and that God would bring her peace!

Please remember that those of you who partner with us are a part of Maggie’s story – and hundreds of other stories that we may never hear about until we hear them in glory. Thank you for your faithfulness. We (and people like Maggie) deeply appreciate it.