Christian literature is a cornerstone of our work.  Our library features over a thousand titles available for the public to read.  We sell hundreds of them in our bookshop, and provide our favorites without charge each month to a dozen reading groups across the country.  We have carefully vetted all our books to ensure that their theological perspective is sound.  Bibles, hymnals, commentaries, and volumes on doctrine, ministry, counseling, family, church history, spiritual growth, and trending issues . . .  We are humbly grateful for the wealth of Scriptural instruction we can offer to the African church.

Getting those books here is not easy!  We import them from overseas once a year.  Last month, I began that annual process by extracting stock and sales data from our bookshop computer.  I integrated information from last year to create a spreadsheet showing how many copies of each title we should buy, based on our current stock and the number we usually sell annually.

By e-mail and WhatsApp, I obtained current price lists from the fifteen publishers with whom we have relationships.  I standardized the formatting and pasted the entire catalogue of each one into my spreadsheet, consolidating data for the books that were already on my list and marking which are out of print.  I added columns calculating the cost for each volume, based on the list price, the publisher’s discount, our agent’s fee, and the estimated shipping charge, and converting from the purchase currency to the US dollars in which we receive donations, then finally to the local currency in which we’ll sell the book at our cost.

 

Stélio, who oversees the reading clubs to which we give free literature, sent me lists of books needed to supply the existing groups for another year as well as to start new ones he is organizing.  I added this information to my spreadsheet and informed him which are out of print so he could choose substitutes.  I also researched the availability and price of titles that several individual customers had requested; they paid 50% and I included those volumes in our order.

 

I sent my spreadsheet to my director and told him how much I expected the order to cost.  He selected several more books to buy, some in large quantities to give away at our next conference.  Once he approved the purchase, I filled in and submitted the publishers’ order forms, including a message from our overseas agent with details on payment and domestic shipping.  That was yesterday.

 

Next week, I expect to receive, verify, and approve invoices from each publisher, noting on my spreadsheet any requested volumes that are unavailable.  Then they will send the books to our agent.  He’ll prepare a consolidated bill, which our American treasurer will pay.  Then he’ll deliver the entire order to the shipping company, which will produce its bill for payment in dollars as well.

 

After inspection by Customs, the books will travel by plane to the capital of our country.  Our clearing agent there will oversee the importation process, then his associate will drive them from the airport to the bus station, where they’ll be loaded for road transportation to our town.  When the bus company calls us to say that they’ve arrived, our driver will take our truck to the local bus station to pick them up.

 

Stélio and his team of volunteers will then unpack, count, and sort the books.  He’ll add the appropriate quantities to our library and bookshop stock, and distribute others to the reading groups.  Our customers will pick up their backordered titles after paying the balance.  Please pray that every single volume will arrive safely, and that readers will grow in their knowledge of the Lord and understanding of His Word through this treasury of Christian literature.

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