By God’s amazing grace, I have visited my 65^th country with a trip to San Jose Dos Campos to attend an intensive training on Publishing organized by Desiring God.

Rather than only sharing my impressions from my time in this beautiful nation, I would rather give you my main take-aways from the training, and from my time at Editoria Fiel with the other publishing ministries from around the world that were represented.  

2 missionaries, Jim and Aletha Denham, left California 60 years ago on a boat to go to China. After a few years there, with the advent of communist government in 1949, they had to leave and move to the jungles of Brazil. 

Then, health issues with malaria forced them to move to the city of Manaus where their son Richard and his wife Pearl joined them. In a divine encounter, they met Bill Barkley, “Banner of Truth Magazine” and started a Christian publishing ministry and a bookstore. 

The Denhams moved to the city of São José dos Campos in the 1980’s, where they founded Grace Baptist Church alongside two other families. Seeing the need for well-trained church leadership, Rich started the annual Fiel Conference for pastors and leaders which today attracts over 2,000 people each year.  In 2004, Rick and his wife Kimberlie moved to Brazil and took over the FIEL ministry.

Today, Thiago Santos heads a multi-branch ministry that thrives and serves the church in the Portuguese-speaking world. 

This abridged three-generation story provides us with a recipe for faithfulness and fruitfulness for a publishing ecosystem:

1-  Sovereign Bearing

The hand of God has been all over the Denham family. We can see God leading them, protecting them, directing them where He wanted them to be. The same hand directed the ministry as it developed and brought along all those who contributed to it.

The same sovereign God reigns over every minute and molecule today and forever.  The same sovereign God has decreed both the successes and failures of our ministry endeavors, all for His glory and our eternal good. 

2-  Small Beginnings

When Jim and Aletha arrived in Brazil, they didn’t receive the warmest of welcomes. They were not allowed to live in the Catholic houses available in the village. They had to ask military guards of 20 people to protect them as people tried to kill them. Joined by their children, Richard and Pearl, they moved to the city of Manaus as Pearl almost died several times of malaria.

Richard started a Christian Publisher with a bookstore called “The Bookstore of the Christian Home” where he sold booklets and paintings. He then acquired a print shop and a bus which he fitted with a glass window to project movies. The Denham family then moved to Sao Paulo, as it was the heart of the country. They wanted to be close to schools and universities where ideas spread. 

FIEL became a ministry of spreading ideas through conferences, media and books.  

The same sovereign God wants us to be faithful with little, trusting and depending on Him to take care of the breadth of our ministry to Him. 

3-  Sustained Blessing

The humble beginnings saw unremitting blessings and a strengthening presence of the hand of God in the ministry of Fiel. They were able to complete the building they are still using today in 2010. And the ministry is thriving through:

• Excellence and dedication of the team, at every level 
• Wise and tight financial stewardship, enabling them to be fully self-sustained
• Reaching out to both churches and individuals in need of Christian resources
• The prayers of many for God’s continued providence

That same sovereign God wants to bless those who are faithful. The fountains of God’s blessings will never run dry. His grace will always outgive us, if we stay faithful. 

4-  Steady Bereanism

The Scripture-centeredness of the ministry of FIEL is a rebuke and an encouragement to all believers. Despite the prevalence in Brazil of the Catholic Church and the prosperity movement, Editoria Fiel remains faithful to Sol Scriptura, uncompromising on truth, engaging theological differences with an irenic tone and respect, and thus being more known for what they are for rather than what they are against. 

The ministry also includes the Martin Buser Theological Seminary, where minds are renewed through the teaching of the Word, and hearts are bent towards affection for Christ through the applying of the Word to every circumstance of life. 

The same sovereign God commands us to be Ezras for our days, to set our hearts to study the law of Yahweh and to practice it, and then to teach His statutes and judgments (Ezra 7:10).

5-  Stewarded Broadcasting 

During our meeting this week, Pastor Yazan from Jordan gave the charge from 2 Tim 4:1-8 that publishing is not about producing written content but to proclaim divine truth. He called us to be faithful even if it costs us financially or causes some people to reject us and/or our ministry. Some titles may not sell as well as the others, but our target must be faithfulness to God and His Gospel. 

“People want what comforts them, not what changes them…they want comfort without cost!… Don’t be tempted to polish the books to please the crowds and boost the sales… The proclamation of truth is about Declaration not Decoration!”

Pastor Yazan Milkonian

The same sovereign God calls us today to proclaim divine truths, to spread as far and wide the name of Christ and His precepts, that He would be glorified unto the ends of the earth.

I am enthralled and grateful to see how God continues to advance His kingdom using the hutzpah and hardiness of those brothers and sisters involved in Publishing. 

At 3M Publishing, we pray to remain faithful to the charge and continue to spread biblical ideas to the glory of God.