{"id":22167,"date":"2025-12-01T08:00:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T14:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maiglobal.org\/?p=22167"},"modified":"2025-12-10T17:55:17","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T23:55:17","slug":"eternal-truths-in-new-words-the-next-40-years-of-mai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maiglobal.org\/pt\/eternal-truths-in-new-words-the-next-40-years-of-mai\/","title":{"rendered":"Verdades eternas em novas palavras: os pr\u00f3ximos 40 anos da AMI"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

\"\"MAI International Board<\/a> members Christine Sloat and Ellen Hsu share their hopes for MAI for the next forty years, what they love about Christian writing and publishing\u2014and how their own journeys began.<\/em><\/p>\n

Please share a bit about your journey and how you became involved with MAI. <\/strong><\/h3>\n

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.<\/p>\n

I first became involved with MAI as a college student, when I responded to a job posting for a writing internship\u2014which 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\u2014and that has continued ever since! I\u2019m now a fiction writer, and I\u2019ve been on the MAI International Board for five years.<\/p>\n

Ellen: I\u2019ve been working in Christian publishing ever since I graduated from college\u2014over 25 years now! I specifically work in international rights and licensing, and with international publishers on a regular basis.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

A few years ago, Christine Sloat\u2014who goes to church with me\u2014asked if I\u2019d 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\u2014and the connections between different people in publishing globally when they\u2019re gathered together is just fun.<\/p>\n

What have you been encouraged by in terms of Christian writing and publishing over the last year?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Christine: I love hearing what\u2019s happening in MAI\u2019s regional groups. I\u2019m so encouraged by the different events that have happened in Africa, Asia, Europe\u2014and especially Latin America. As a writer, I get particularly excited about other writers receiving training and coming up with their own materials!<\/p>\n

Ellen: It\u2019s encouraging for me to see publishers we\u2019ve 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\u2019ll hear about a publishing house that I have worked with, or a person in publishing that I\u2019ve been in communication with. I\u2019m so happy to see the work that they\u2019re 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.<\/p>\n

Having more knowledge about what MAI is doing, I can encourage people and say, \u201cHey, there\u2019s an organization that you might want to be paying attention to because they can really help you, so that you\u2019re 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

What are some of the needs that you hope to see MAI\u2019s communities start to meet?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"\"Ellen: There\u2019s always a need for developing new authors. You always need new voices.\u00a0You always need new people who have something new to say. You can\u2019t rely on the same people to continue writing new books. There\u2019s always a new generation. And what is needed for one generation is not always what is needed for the generations coming up behind us.<\/p>\n

So it\u2019s important to have fresh voices and to encourage younger people as they\u2019re hitting their strides to be doing excellent work. Let\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s happening in the world and in our own cultures, how people are communicating, what\u2019s resonating. There\u2019s 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\u2019s always something for us to learn.<\/p>\n

Christine: I\u2019ve been reading Christian books to my baby, and I love how they speak to her of God\u2019s love in a way that draws her in, even at her young age. There\u2019s a wealth of amazing Christian books in English and Spanish that engage her, even at six months. It\u2019s so fun to see.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s love, that children can understand, books that journey with them as they grow\u2026I hope MAI\u2019s community can continue to work on that in different languages, cultures and parts of the world.<\/p>\n

What are you praying for God to accomplish through MAI this next year?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Ellen: My prayer is that the Lord will accomplish His purposes for and through MAI.\u00a0I ask Him to\u00a0guide 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.\u00a0We might not always realize we\u2019re doing what it is that God wants us to do, and we still might actually be doing that very thing even when we don\u2019t feel confident about it. I trust that His ways are higher than my ways\u2014and expect that He will lead.<\/p>\n

Christine: I\u2019m 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\u2019m just praying for more of that\u2014particularly for more connections with people in the Middle East. I\u2019m so inspired by stories I hear coming out of Lebanon and Jordan of Christians who are being faithful, and so I\u2019m praying for more connections and more networks in that region. I\u2019m also praying for more fruit in the new Latin America region, which is near and dear to my heart.<\/p>\n

On the year of our 40th anniversary, what are your hopes for MAI\u2019s next 40 years?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"\"Christine: I\u2019m eager to see all the books, articles and different sorts of media that will come out from around the world. There\u2019s so much wealth of knowledge and experience of God in different parts of the world. I\u2019m 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.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0Having a great balance of things that are for the moment and timely, as well as resources that are core and likely to last.\u00a0Having that mix of interpersonal and immediate.\u00a0It\u2019s great that Ramon is doing consultations with authors and publishers in-country. That is still needed.<\/p>\n

What words of encouragement would you like to share with Christian authors and publishers?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Ellen: When we write something down, it lasts beyond our own lives.\u00a0Think 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\u2014yet you may also still be doing exactly what God has called you to do.\u00a0We don\u2019t always know if what we\u2019re doing is going to have its greatest impact while we\u2019re alive, or if God is going to do something even greater with it after we\u2019ve died. So be encouraged. Do the work that you are sensing God calling you to.<\/p>\n

And even if it doesn\u2019t feel like you\u2019re 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\u2019t know are happening now, because that\u2019s the other thing that happens with books\u2014they go out in the world, and you don\u2019t always hear back from everybody who\u2019s read the book.\u00a0Yet it can be important and good work.<\/p>\n

Christine: There are so many ways in which God\u2019s spirit can move.\u00a0There are so many different opportunities in different communities. As a writer, I want to say\u2014whatever God is calling writers to write, I want them to be able to do that.<\/p>\n

Related stories and resources<\/strong><\/h3>\n