Ushering 2009 with Hope - Calendar

Published by
mei
at 31 December, 2008 in Designs with Adobe Illustrator, Personal and Church Ministry/ Volunteer. 1 Comment

I am ushering 2009 with a sense of hope and anticipation!

No doubt that worries of recession are at the back of my mind, but going into my 6th year of christian life, somehow I feel that it will be a year of change and therefore, a year to witness how God will work in my life.

I designed and printed this business card size calendar to give away. Yellow is the color of hope and this yellow is the Color of the Year. With this verse Psalm 31: 24 ‘Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the Lord.’, I will cross into 2009 with hope in a few hours time.

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calendar-2008.png

I printed 5000 copies of these calendars. 3,000 given to the church, 100+ to my colleagues, 200+ to my friends and have 1,500 left. Anyone who wish to spread hope with this calendar, do contact me.

My prayer that people who face changes in 2009 will hold fast to the hope that is in Jesus.

Swahili bible verse bookmarks in USA, blessing African ladies! (yeh!)

Published by
mei
at 7 December, 2008 in Church Ministry/ Volunteer. 0 Comments

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Thanks to my friend who provided this picture and I am so glad that she found my blog by ‘accident’! Need lots of prayer that God will use these bookmarks as a blessing; I only design and print them but do not know who they are meant to bless :)

Do you need bookmarks with Swahili bible verse?

Published by
mei
at 2 December, 2008 in Church Ministry/ Volunteer. 0 Comments

Swahili bible verse bookmarks are still available! for free!

If you read the link to my blog post above, I have printed 1000 of each of the 7 designs; so far, my friend had brought back to Tanzania about 700, I had sent 200 to Terry in Atlanta, US. I have passed about 70 to (African) foreign student ministry in Shanghai, my bible study group and family & friends.

Which means that I still have 6000 left! (latest update on 31 Dec 08, left with 5190! 600 off to Nairobi, 140 to church, 70 to a friend)

I am thankful that God has allowed Terry and Gina to find my site but today, I had the urge to see who is out there who is serving the Swahili-speaking community and let them know about these FREE bookmarks!

1. World Christians
This is a site with free Swahili bible studies for download, set up by DCI Global Partnership.
I found 2 email addresses, one of a Pastor Dastan Mboera and another of EAPTC School of Mission, Nairobi.

2. Mission Network News
This site provides news about missions around the world. Got the contact for Grace Ministries which is active in Tanzania, where I understand has the most population who speaks Swahili.

3. Grace Ministries
There are posts on missionaries around the world and you can donate directly to them.
I have emailed the missionaries who are in Tanzania!

4. FREE resources online
I found a few free resources online but I have yet to contact them because I am not sure if my bookmarks will go with the aims of these organizations. But anyway, for sharing sake, these are the sites:
World Missionary Press - free booklets in many many languages in many many countries

Revival Movement Association

Book Aid - this is a great ministry that collects old books and send to Asia and Africa. Maybe I should contact them to learn how to economize on sending books to missionary friends.

Knowing who God is

Published by
mei
at 2 December, 2008 in Personal. 0 Comments

As I am coming near to 5 full years in Christ and also close to completing my cover to cover one year bible reading, I am praying and thinking about how I should study the bible in 2009.

A thought that came to me is to study the bible with a focus on understanding who God is; this is central to the purpose of this blog (i.e. to bring people closer to God through graphic design in a light-hearted manner e.g. with cartoons) and incidentally, I came across my blog post 3 years ago also emphasizing on staying connected to God.

As to how to study (should I have a study plan or not be too regimental about it? Likely the latter will result in many hours recorded as wasted on my white board! (and yes, I do record my hours wasted as a reminder not to waste too much time!!), how to translate what I have studied to a blog entry and whether I will have daily design or cartoon inspiration to do that.., I really DON’T KNOW. Do pray with me on this issue as nothing can be more important than knowing who God is!

Christian books for Tanzania

Published by
mei
at 17 November, 2008 in Church Ministry/ Volunteer. 2 Comments

As I wrote in my introduction, one of my small project is to help set up a library for friends I know who are on missions.

My very first batch of 72 books were bought from Singapore, SKS book store, which I think is the biggest Christian store in Singapore. I selected the books based on:

1. Wide Category that included sunday school, easy to read (english) books, biography, sermon outlines, bible study (some tailored for women), thin books pocket sized books, classics by established writers (have purposely not purchased books by contemporary writers as most are geared towards america’s context)

2. Many books with low value and relatively thin and easy to read. The purpose is to diversify risk in case the books are lost and also more suitable than a thick book that takes longer to read and therefore one person may be hanging on to a book for too long.

I divided the books into 2 boxes, reason is to diversify the risk of one box not getting sent. Both boxes are by air and registered. They have yet to reach my friend and so I pray that she will get them soon! The books have arrived on 13 Dec! And praise the Lord that my friend only had to pay USD3 tax (versus what I understand that in Kenya, the taxes are exorbitant!)

I may be sending some books to another friend in India but somehow I think that this way of sending books by air does not seem to be a very cost efficient way. Anyone with advice, please let me know!

Swahili Bible verse bookmarks

Published by
mei
at 27 October, 2008 in Designs with Adobe Illustrator and Church Ministry/ Volunteer. 9 Comments

A quick update after a month long absence - The Swahili bookmarks that I have been working on have finally been printed!

I printed a 1000 of each design, refer to my christian shop for them.

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About 700 have been given to my dear friend to bring to Africa while the rest are currently FREE for whoever has a desire to bless and reach out to people who read Swahili. As these bookmarks are completed with the blessing of God’s resources, I want to make good use of them and therefore require whoever who wants these bookmarks to let me know the purpose of having them (i.e. not for your own use or to keep in the drawer).

I am not sure how these bookmarks will bless anyone but pray and trust God that they will be!