When you want to pray thoroughly for a ministry and the workers in it, it is helpful to have a general guideline, as well as the specific requests for individuals and special circumstances.

Guidelines for Prayer

Remember that partnerships can become strained and even break, so pray about;

* poor health and family problems

* Conflicting work priorities

* Delays and poor communication

* Misunderstandings

* Satan's lies

* Mistrust and criticism

* Dependency culture

How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity! Psalm 133:1



Manna's Bible Commentaries

are sent out free of charge from the UK in ready-to-print form to help people in developing countries start publishing and distributing their own Christian literature. The administration costs are kept low to provide more money for the booklets overseas. Typically, £1 donated in the UK pays for the printing of 7 Bible commentaries in a developing country.

Manna Publications (UK) is non-profit making, and is staffed by unpaid volunteers.


Gifts

Gifts can be sent by cheque to the treasurer,
David Page,
48 The Crescent,
Kettering, Northants,
NN15 7HW,
made payable to Manna Publications UK

If you are an income tax payer in the UK and wish Manna to reclaim the tax on your gifts, then please make cheques payable to International Mission Project who will reclaim tax on their behalf (Registered Charity No. 1017386).

A Malawi woman, reading a Manna book

Bible Commentaries in easy-to-read English
for Printing Overseas

This is a unique publishing organization. Rather than being out to create profits for its founders or share-holders, the founders work to provide the manuscripts in a camera-ready state to Christians in third-world countries, ready to be printed and sold, if a good manager or distributor can be found for that area.

The Distributor must seek out the best printing quotation from a local printer, and once the best deal is negotiated, Manna Publications will pay for the first print run. It is then up to the Distributor to sell the Bible study commentaries and books at a price local people can afford, thus making simple commentaries available to many people. By selling books at churches, conferences and market stands operating costs are minimal. Sales money goes toward reprints and sometimes new titles though usually Manna pays for each new title in the target country. Thus, a cycle is begun that will keep providing good Christian study literature in areas where that is needed, and is hard to find.

This literature is mainly for fellowships which lack teachers and teaching materials. They nurture new Christians and help those who are studying Scripture at school and college. Pastor's who lack Bible Commentaries are also helped by extra study notes provided. In the past Manna has published a free evangelistic handout paper called the Good News Paper, a simple English broadsheet based on Mark's Gospel which also promotes the Bible Commentaries. Individuals have come to faith in Christ through reading the word of God in this format.

Guidelines are offered to those overseas, who partner with Manna Publications, for setting up these micro-publishing organizations. Usually such individuals are recommended by local missionaries and the author's personal contacts on the Mission Field. The goal is to see them become commercial and self-sufficient and able to continue a literature ministry on their own.

Manna's needs are mainly administrative, and financial with minimal costs. They fund the printing of 500 to 2000 copies of each new title. No money ever comes back to the UK or USA from the overseas sales. The distributors are expected to plan sales in such a way as to cover costs and pay for reprints.

Poverty

Sudan, just recovering from the aftermath of war is still an extremely poor country. A group called "The Association of Christian Resource Organisations Serving Sudan," (ACROSS) based in Nairobi have partnered with them and have published three of their titles in Dinka, and two in Bari languages. ACROSS take responsibility for finding a translator, arranging printing and sending books overland to Sudan, and Manna Publications supply funds.

Examples

In July 2006, a first printing took place in Sierra Leone, the 20th country in which they have made such partnerships since Manna Publications began operations from the U.K. in 2000.

Uganda is an example of a partnership, where good sales have been briskly taking place over six years, leading to that organization's self-sufficiency in publishing books for Uganda, and for neighbouring countries also.

Where Our Help is Needed

Although Manna aims for self-sufficiency in each local region, many countries are too poor for significant sales. Often the books are given away free, or at very low costs. This means more donations are required from Believers in better-off situations.

Specifically funds are always needed and welcome for:
1. Start up costs for printing Manna books in English and French speaking countries.
2. Translation costs for titles in local languages.
3. Subsidies for reprints when necessary
4. Outreach using free copies of the Good News Paper based on Marks Gospel* which promote Manna Bible commentaries.

Could You Volunteer?

Volunteers are needed to proof-read and advise on easy English and French titles by persons experienced in TEFL or overseas literature.

Publications Designer: If you are computer literate, have time on your hands, and want to serve the Lord as a volunteer in publishing, we have a job for you. You will be learning layout and design for small books and pamphlets, communication by email and telephone.

Jim Norman, the typesetter, lives in Bedford, UK, has spent a lifetime in publishing and has worked long past retirement age. He would be pleased to hear from anyone seriously interested. (Mention this work and Jim Norman's name in the contact form below, and Jim will be happy to correspond with you).

Pray-ers Please!

Pray for the UK support-team and the publishing partners abroad according to the requests in Manna's bi-monthly newsletters and prayer letters. This is where the prayer requests are shared. You may subscribe to it for free. (Use the contact form below).

Our Newsletter is so full of prayer and praise items that you could organize a small prayer group to meet regularly full of prayer and praise items that you could organize a small prayer group to meet to pray over the items.

Manna provides feedback for supporters and volunteers with this bi-monthly newsletter, and a bi-monthly prayer letter (if requested). At present they have a small mailing list of 200 and some church contacts, but they would be happy to multiply this many times over around the world.

About the Founders

Fred Morris (USA), a retired missionary and author became aware of the great need for producing Bible commentaries in easy English for those to whom English is their second or third language.(Also, recently, easy French). Fred took a course in teaching and writing in simple, basic English through a workshop with Frank Laubach, the well-known linguist. Right away Fred knew that he must get involved, and came up with this kind of plan.

Fred has written over a 100 books in easy to read English and is sharing the funding and organization with Manna Publications UK.

Fred met Peter Skinner (UK) in 2000, when Peter and his family visited him in South Carolina, USA. At the LITT World conference, in England in October 2000, editor David Page joined the team and it was agreed to form Manna Publications, and for Peter to take on the role of Director. Peter had been working the previous seven years for the evangelistic paper SOON.

David Page, a freelance editor, joined them, and took responsibility for building an editorial team. A high standard of simplicity and good content is maintained by putting the material through the scrutiny that many pairs of eyes provide. He also composes prayer letters to keep the prayer requests before supporters.

God has expanded the work through "LITT world" contacts and those that Fred had made over his long career as missionary in Asia and Africa. There are currently some twenty overseas publishers and distributors.

Further Reading

Permission has been granted to give you a free download of the booklet that Fred Morris wrote to explain in his own words how God led in his life to being this work, and just how Manna Publications was formed, and what it is all about. This is excellent reading. Simply right-click the title here to download, and click "Save image as" on the little fly-up menu.

What is Manna Publications?

Guide the next window that comes up, to the folder on your computer where you like to store such files. Perhaps your e-Library? Then click "save" or "Open" for the download to take place.

If that gives you problems, do a straight double-click on this zipped file to download. What is Manna Publications? (.ZIP) It is compressed, so you will need to use an UnZip utility to unpack the file to it's .pdf extention/format. Then again...

You will need a PDF reader such as Acrobat Reader. If your computer doesn't already have it, You may go download All Versions here (If you are on dial-up you may prefer a smaller version).