Dear Kirk,
Over the past years we have written several times about the ministry we have in digital publishing. This ministry makes thousands of Thai Christian resources available in digital format. Thai Christians can access these resources on several Thai websites. Most of these resources are no longer available in printed form because they were translated or written many years ago, however, they are still very beneficial.
Two months ago we received an amazing phone call from Tim Freeman, VP of Ministry Development at Bethany International. Tim visited our office in Chiang Mai in January and told us about a “Print on Demand” (POD) system Bethany was developing. They called it their Publish For All Initiative. At the time I was very interested in what he told me and felt, as they did, that Chiang Mai would be an ideal location for a POD system. Little did I know that a few months later Tim would call and tell me they were going to donate a Publish For All POD system to our Thai foundation. What a surprise! What a blessing! The POD system has been up a running for about a month now.
For those who don’t know what POD is, it is an expensive way to publish books without having to print hundreds at a time, as you do with normal publishing. A POD system can print ten books just as inexpensively as one hundred. What this means is authors, translators and schools etc., are able to get their books printed without spending a lot of money on printing excess books. They only order what they need.
We are now printing many of the digital books that are on our Thai website. Many of these books haven’t been in print for over 40 years. This will make the resources even more available for those who don’t use books in digital format.
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| Joel Vander Kooi from School of Promise |
Besides bringing Christian books back into circulation, we also are printing books for other ministries. One ministry that recently used these services is the School of Promise, in Chiang Mai. They developed a beautiful first grade Social studies workbook with over 200 pages. The book teaches 1st graders about the world starting with the creation story using beautiful pictures and drawings. The problem was they only needed to print 25 books. We were able to print the books for them and saved the school 90% of the cost of what they would normally pay. Praise the Lord!
Please pray for the School of Promise, their vision is to make these workbooks available to Thai public schools. If public schools where to use them, 1st grade students will be taught about creator God and not the karmic wheel of suffering as they do now.
If you know of any ministries in Thailand that could use these printing services please have them contact us.
Blessings,
Dwight & Mary Kay Martin
PS. We want to thank all of you who prayed that we would be able to get this equipment through Thai customs without any problems. Though it took longer than we wanted it to, God answered your prayers.
P.O. Box 16, A. Hang Dong
Chiang Mai, Thailand 50230
Email: dmartin@estar.ws
Phone: (205) 483-2221
Skype: dwimar
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