MAI International Board members Christine Sloat and Ellen Hsu share their hopes for MAI for the next forty years, what they love about Christian writing and publishing—and how their own journeys began.
Please share a bit about your journey and how you became involved with MAI.
Christine: I was born in Peru and grew up in Chile and Panama, where my parents worked in literacy for indigenous people, helping them develop a body of literature in their own language. The idea of local Christian writing and its importance for the church was very much part of my growing up.
I first became involved with MAI as a college student, when I responded to a job posting for a writing internship—which fit perfectly with my international background and interest in writing and editing. I was very excited to learn more about MAI and its work around the world—and that has continued ever since! I’m now a fiction writer, and I’ve been on the MAI International Board for five years.
Ellen: I’ve been working in Christian publishing ever since I graduated from college—over 25 years now! I specifically work in international rights and licensing, and with international publishers on a regular basis.
Throughout my career, I heard a bit about MAI from some of the international publishers that we work with, as well as about LittWorld and the value that it has for publishers.
A few years ago, Christine Sloat—who goes to church with me—asked if I’d be interested in serving on the Board. The more I learned about MAI, the more I came to appreciate the work. So I accepted, and attended my first LittWorld in November 2024. I got to see some of the work that people put into publishing, the learning they need, the encouragement they get—and the connections between different people in publishing globally when they’re gathered together is just fun.
What have you been encouraged by in terms of Christian writing and publishing over the last year?
Christine: I love hearing what’s happening in MAI’s regional groups. I’m so encouraged by the different events that have happened in Africa, Asia, Europe—and especially Latin America. As a writer, I get particularly excited about other writers receiving training and coming up with their own materials!
Ellen: It’s encouraging for me to see publishers we’ve worked with for years that are persevering and finding ways to continue and grow. In the course of just talking about the regular work of MAI, I’ll hear about a publishing house that I have worked with, or a person in publishing that I’ve been in communication with. I’m so happy to see the work that they’re doing. They may not have continued with my company, I may not be in contact with them much anymore, but just to see the work that they are doing and the ways that MAI is supporting and resourcing that work is encouraging.
Having more knowledge about what MAI is doing, I can encourage people and say, “Hey, there’s an organization that you might want to be paying attention to because they can really help you, so that you’re not needing to rely on books translated from English, but they can help you develop local authors so that people in your own country can be writing.”
What are some of the needs that you hope to see MAI’s communities start to meet?
Ellen: There’s always a need for developing new authors. You always need new voices. You always need new people who have something new to say. You can’t rely on the same people to continue writing new books. There’s always a new generation. And what is needed for one generation is not always what is needed for the generations coming up behind us.
So it’s important to have fresh voices and to encourage younger people as they’re hitting their strides to be doing excellent work. Let’s help emerging authors find ways to communicate the gospel, what they are learning, and what is valuable, in ways that resonate with their own generation and with current society.
Some ministries are able to be around for years, but even organizations that are around for generations need to be continually adapting how we do our work and paying attention to what’s happening in the world and in our own cultures, how people are communicating, what’s resonating. There’s always a need for training publishing organizations as we continue our work and adapt. Having resources to train new people or new publishing houses is important. There’s always something for us to learn.
Christine: I’ve been reading Christian books to my baby, and I love how they speak to her of God’s love in a way that draws her in, even at her young age. There’s a wealth of amazing Christian books in English and Spanish that engage her, even at six months. It’s so fun to see.
I know people are developing Christian books for children in different parts of the world, and I hope more of that happens. Books that can speak in a particular way of God’s love, that children can understand, books that journey with them as they grow…I hope MAI’s community can continue to work on that in different languages, cultures and parts of the world.
What are you praying for God to accomplish through MAI this next year?
Ellen: My prayer is that the Lord will accomplish His purposes for and through MAI. I ask Him to guide our staff and board to make decisions that help us to identify trends and needs and to appropriately meet them, and to guard us against going in directions that are not helpful. I trust that God knows much better than I do what it is that we need to do. We might not always realize we’re doing what it is that God wants us to do, and we still might actually be doing that very thing even when we don’t feel confident about it. I trust that His ways are higher than my ways—and expect that He will lead.
Christine: I’m praying for God to continue His faithful work through MAI. God has promised to be faithful, and MAI has been doing a lot of great work around the world, and I’m just praying for more of that—particularly for more connections with people in the Middle East. I’m so inspired by stories I hear coming out of Lebanon and Jordan of Christians who are being faithful, and so I’m praying for more connections and more networks in that region. I’m also praying for more fruit in the new Latin America region, which is near and dear to my heart.
On the year of our 40th anniversary, what are your hopes for MAI’s next 40 years?
Christine: I’m eager to see all the books, articles and different sorts of media that will come out from around the world. There’s so much wealth of knowledge and experience of God in different parts of the world. I’m eager to learn from Christians who have lives very different from mine, but who know something about God that I want to hear. If they can share their experience of God, that will minister to the rest of the global church.
Ellen: Continuing the work of equipping and resourcing authors and editors and publishers while adapting to current needs and technology. Developing training that can be recorded and used over and over in a way that we can adapt it as things change. Having a great balance of things that are for the moment and timely, as well as resources that are core and likely to last. Having that mix of interpersonal and immediate. It’s great that Ramon is doing consultations with authors and publishers in-country. That is still needed.
What words of encouragement would you like to share with Christian authors and publishers?
Ellen: When we write something down, it lasts beyond our own lives. Think of the authors that we still read that are still so formative for us. You may or may not experience what feels like success while you are alive—yet you may also still be doing exactly what God has called you to do. We don’t always know if what we’re doing is going to have its greatest impact while we’re alive, or if God is going to do something even greater with it after we’ve died. So be encouraged. Do the work that you are sensing God calling you to.
And even if it doesn’t feel like you’re reaching very many people, who knows what God is going to do with it in ways that you may not even know! He may be doing things you don’t know are happening now, because that’s the other thing that happens with books—they go out in the world, and you don’t always hear back from everybody who’s read the book. Yet it can be important and good work.
Christine: There are so many ways in which God’s spirit can move. There are so many different opportunities in different communities. As a writer, I want to say—whatever God is calling writers to write, I want them to be able to do that.
Related stories and resources
- “How the Lord does things”: 40 years of MAI
- Until there are no ‘hard places’: 40 years of MAI with John Maust
- What we love about global Christian writers and publishers