Our faith, however, is nothing if not practical and real. The truth is that we in the western or northern hemisphere can lose sight of the plight of our brothers and sisters in poorer, less developed parts of the world. We can also have a narrow focus and imagine that our help and assistance of our brothers and sisters in these countries is limited either to emergency aid or development programmes. As noble and necessary as aid and development are, so often a very simple and practical resource which builds and encourages people in their faith is cherished and valued beyond words.

Since we launched Bible Alive’s International Faith Outreach your generosity and kindness have been, frankly, overwhelming.

Because of it we are able to send subscriptions to Bible Alive, Bibles, books and other resources, in a gesture of love and solidarity, to our brothers and sisters around the world.

Their appreciation and thanks for your generosity is both real and very moving.  They speak from their hearts, out of a deep sense of gratitude, wanting to express their thanks to you for your kindness to them.

• I wish to say a sincere ‘Thank You’ for regularly sending me every month Bible Alive. It helps me a lot in the preparation of my daily homilies. God bless you for the great work you and your team are doing to spread the Word of God.
Fr Rodney Hart, Philippines

• Please keep up this good work. Your publication will go a long way in helping us properly commit our day to God in genuine meditation on the beauty and power of his Word.
Rev. Fr Jude-Marie Ezeigbo, Nigeria

• With a grateful heart I sincerely thank you for your thoughtfulness and kindness towards our community when sending three Bible Alive books.
Sr Christine Mendis, Sri Lanka

• I think your vision, mission, goal and purpose are laudable: providing Bible Alive magazine and other faith resources to evangelizing agents the world over. Please keep it up.
Bishop Gabriel Justice Anokye, Diocese of Obuasi, Ghana

• We sisters (Franciscan Missionaries of the Divine Motherhood) in Fatima Mission are delighted to receive the Bible Alive every month. We thank you also that it is now reaching us more punctually, generally arriving before the month begins. We are truly blessed to receive three copies each month, one copy of which we give to our Franciscan Fathers next door who appreciate it greatly.

A kind donor used to send us Bible Alive monthly to the training house for the young friars in Bulawayo. This good lady died, and the friars are now sadly missing this publication – excellent in the training of young Capuchin friars.

One of our sisters in Fatima, Sr Elizabeth Miller, receives her own copy of the Bible Alive. She would be very happy if you could kindly send her copy to the friars in Bulawayo instead of sending it to her. I do hope that this is not giving you too much inconvenience.

Truly your monthly publications are a God-send to us all. Your reflections are thought-provoking, inspiring and orthodox – in these days of rather strange theology. May you keep up this excellent standard which helps us all to grow in our faith.

With sincere gratitude, and asking God to bless and prosper your good work.
Yours sincerely in Jesus Christ and St Francis,
Sr Clara FMDM,
Zimbabwe

• I am a young man in the seminary. I have been sharing some reflections from your company and I have been fascinated by your work namely ‘daily reflections’. Therefore I am kindly asking to join in the reception of your books. At the present moment I have the problem of finance to be paying the subscription fees. I will be very happy if you accept my request.
Thank you.
Lubasi Ndolvu, Zimbabwe Seminarian

• Sir, with great regards I would like to thank you for being so thoughtful of sending me Bible Alive for Lent. I received all three books on time. I would like to request another extra one for our parish priest who took keen interest in reading last month’s reflections. The book of Bible Alive is a book which lifted my life a lot. That is not only my experience, but my sisters in the community too agree with me. Thank you so much for sending me the books. As I’ve requested in my last letter I hope you’ll pay your kind consideration when sending me Take & Read the Four Gospels. May the Good Lord bless and reward all your efforts.
Yours lovingly in Jesus,
Sr Christine Mendis, Sri Lanka

• I hereby kindly request to receive on a regular basis your Bible Alive magazine. I came across copies of this magazine in a library at the Bishop’s House, Gokwe, and enjoyed the spiritual insights contained therein. Being a young priest working in a strictly rural parish, I will be very grateful if you send me copies of this magazine.

I hope my request will be considered.
Yours faithfully in the Lord,
Fr Tadios, Zimbabwe

• Peace in Christ. I thank you for sending me Bible Alive of September 2009. It is not only good for my personal reflections, but I immediately thought of our Archdiocesan Secretariat which conducts Bible studies and reflections, especially with the youth, and our major seminarians.

I therefore kindly request you to send Bible Alive to us.

Wishing you God’s blessing on your work, I remain, Yours sincerely in Christ,
Archbishop Abune Berhaneyesus D. Souraphiel, Archbishop of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

• Dear Director, this is thank you for sending me your excellent Alive publication. It is very useful for priests in their pastoral work and also for their prayer life. Congratulations.
Thank you and may God bless you.
Bishop Thomas Sanundaranayagam, Bishop of Diocese of Jaffna, Sri Lanka

• I am kindly requesting you to send me your spiritually edifying magazine: Bible Alive. I am a young nun who is interested in reading especially spiritual material like your magazine.

I will be very grateful if you send me this magazine. May God bless you in your work. I thank you in advance.
Yours sincerely in Christ,
Sr Christine Ajasi, Zimbabwe

• I am a Catholic seminarian in Zimbabwe currently doing my second year of theology. I would like to receive Bible Alive reflections.
Achim Sidakara, Zimbabwe Seminarian

• We the sisters of Bethany Congregation working in the diocese of Bishop Martin Happe-Nouachott, Mauritania are pleased to go through your sample copy of Bible Alive and would like to benefit from receiving Bible Alive for three of the communities working in the diocese.

Thanking you and looking forward to your positive reply.
Yours sincerely in Christ
Sr Benignus, Mauritania

• Very many thanks for your kind letter to me of 19 March, welcoming me to Bible Alive. It was good of you to write.

I am already familiar with Bible Alive and am greatly impressed by this publication. Our sisters and the Franciscan Capuchin Friars (from India) who live next door to us, eagerly await the monthly copies. The publication is colourful, lively and attractive to people of most age groups. In Africa people love the Scriptures. The various sects, which seem to monopolize our country, know the Scriptures by heart and love to quote (or misquote) them. To have Bible Alive is to have God’s Word explained simply, clearly, authentically and in a way applicable to our lives. This has great appeal to the majority of people here of any church or sect. Thank you very much for that, and for all the effort that goes into writing, preparing and publishing the booklet. The stories are also interesting. It does a huge amount of good here.

Unfortunately post in this country is not good. We received our May copy on May 21 (together with Christmas mail posted in November!). I don’t think there is much that you can do about this – but thank you very much for trying.

One of our sisters, Sr Eileen Byrne, who retired recently, is visiting hospitals in Bulawayo, to cheer up the lonely, especially the bedridden, some of whom have lain in bed for years ‘just looking up at the ceiling’. Sr Eileen was wondering if your readers might have old copies of Bible Alive that they no longer want. She would be so grateful if people could kindly send her some old copies, to help these disabled people and to cheer them up.

Yours sincerely in Jesus Christ and St Francis,
Sr Clara FMDM, Zimbabwe