MAY, 2007
Dear Lamplight Family,
We know that many of you are
praying for us. We also appreciate your
financial support. We love you and
bless you in Jesus’ name.
COMMENTS FROM PEOPLE WHO HAVE
BEEN HELPED BY OUR
PUBLICATIONS
We
are pleased to share these comments with you each month. If you would like to see the effect of your
contributions, please visit our website at www.lamplight.net
to see 525 comments from people in 39 different countries who have been helped
by our books and Scripture cards.
A WOMAN FROM RUSSIA WOULD LIKE TO TEACH
FROM TRUST GOD FOR YOUR FINANCES IN
HER ADVANCED ENGLISH CLASS. Olga
Malova of Puschino Maskovskaya in Russia said, "I have read the Russian translation of
your book Trust God for Your Finances. It is great. I am a Christian English teacher and I have a group of advanced
English students. It would be great, I
think, to read and discuss your book in our English classes. Could you please help me somehow to find
your book in English? It would be funny
if I have to translate it back into English myself. God bless you!" (We sent Olga a copy of Trust God for Your Finances by airmail)
A WOMAN IN THE PHILIPPINES SAID THAT EXCHANGE YOUR WORRIES FOR GOD'S PERFECT
PEACE HAS HELPED HER TO BELIEVE GOD FOR EVERYTHING. Nee
Nee Chavez of Lapu-Lapu in the Philippines says, “For generations our family
has been raised in the Catholic church.
We have done our best to live good lives. Although I have never been a bad person, I felt like I was always
lacking something in my spiritual life.
Reading Exchange Your Worries for
God's Perfect Peace gave me a firm foundation on what to believe God for –
EVERYTHING. Yes, I now believe God for
everything – a job, a home, good health and happiness. I still do not have a lot of personal
possessions but I now have Jesus for real in my life. I am so glad that I now know how to get results to my prayers. Thank you.”
A MAN FROM NIGERIA SAID THAT NEVER, NEVER GIVE UP HAS HELPED HIM TO
FIND A CLOSER RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD. Steven Ayiva from Kaduna State in Nigeria said,
“Thank you for the books you sent me.
These books are so inspiring. Never, Never Give Up has encouraged me
to stand firm when everything is going wrong and I am going through some
adversity. This book has helped me to
find a closer relationship with God. No
matter how difficult my life is I am learning to abide in a continuous
consciousness of my Father’s love for me.
I wish your ministry great success and prosperity.”
AN INMATE IN A FLORIDA COUNTY JAIL LIKES
EXCHANGE YOUR WORRIES FOR GOD'S PERFECT
PEACE SO MUCH THAT HE CANNOT PUT IT DOWN.
This
man said, "I have been attending a class on your book Exchange Your Worries for God's Perfect Peace. This book is wonderful. I can’t put it down. It really makes me think and remember
God. Your book is full of messages that
help me. I have been lacking on praying
and I now pray a lot more. I will pray
for you. I really hope things are good
for you. Thank you!”
COMMENTS FROM JACK HARTMAN
The status of our next book: Judy and I have worked diligently on our next book
that is titled The Supernatural Power of the Living Word of God. We came upon six or seven Scripture
duplications that we did not pick up before.
As a result we are going to have to do one additional draft of this
book. We thought that we would be able
to go to the final draft soon, but we now have decided that we must completely
finalize these Scripture duplications as well as the intensive study guide that
is at the end of the book that is titled “What Did You Learn from This Book?”
We now believe that this book will be completed and
go to the printer in July. We believe
that the book will be published in September.
We are receiving excellent comments from people who have read a copy of
the manuscript of this book.
A significant change in our ministry:
We know from emails and
telephone comments that many of you care about what we are doing. We are very grateful for your prayers. God is doing something in this ministry that
is overwhelming. I want to share this
with you. I have shared with you in
recent newsletters how God put on my heart in January to have 2,000 Scripture references
categorized by topic by my 76th birthday on July 7th. I now have more than 1,400 passages of
Scripture categorized. This project is
extremely hard work, but it is a labor of love.
When I first started this project I thought I was
compiling all of this Scripture for my personal use and as a reference for our
books. However, during the past several
weeks God has put it on my heart to have this project published in a book. The tentative title of this book is God's Instructions to You.
This book will consist of approximately 1,500
Scripture references that are categorized under approximately 100 different
topics. Each categorization will have
between five and twenty scripture referenced.
Each passage of Scripture will be preceded by a simple and
easy-to-understand explanation from Judy and me of what the passage of Scripture
contains.
This book is extremely comprehensive, but at the same
time it is very simple. Any person can
pick up this book at any time and receive bite-sized pieces of spiritual food
from the Bible. Judy and I are very optimistic that this book can help many
people around the world.
We have one problem.
We cannot self-publish this book.
We are able to publish books utilizing The Amplified Bible as long as our books contain less than 500
Scripture references from this version of the Bible with a maximum of 25% of
the book consisting of Scripture. This
new book should have almost 1,500 passages of Scripture. Approximately 75% of this book will be
Scripture. I doubt that we could get
permission from the publisher of The
Amplified Bible to self- publish a book that has such a high percentage of
Scripture.
I discussed this situation with Bill Keller. Bill suggested that I send him preliminary
information on this book. He knows a
man who is the president of a large Christian publishing firm. Bill believes that this man could get
permission for his firm to publish this book.
As this newsletter goes to print we have just sent
Bill an email explaining many facts about the proposed new book with the hope
that he will pass it on to the president of the publishing company. Please pray that we will receive favor from
this publishing company. Please pray
that they will see the vision for this book and understand how many people can
be helped by it.
Judy and I have authored or co-authored seventeen
Christian books and ten sets of Scripture Meditation Cards. Our website is filled with comments from
people who have been helped by our publications. We believe that we offer an attractive option to a Christian
publishing company.
I never thought I would be going to a Christian
publishing company began. A Christian
publisher approached me about 20 years ago to discuss publishing two of our
books. We ultimately ended up
publishing two books with his firm.
However, this experience did not work out well. We have self-published all of our books
since then.
The possibilities for this new book are
overwhelming. I believe that God in His
infinite wisdom wants us to use a Christian publishing company that will be
able to distribute this book on a much larger scale than we can. Would you be willing to hold this project up
in ongoing prayer? We need your
prayers. Thank you and God bless you.
COMMENTS FROM JUDY HARTMAN
Our
lives become more and more exciting. We live expectantly. We trust that your life is the same, vibrant
in Jesus Christ. God has so much
planned for us. We must be tuned in or
connected directly to Him in order to receive the assignments He has for us. How very sad to miss even one divine
appointment. Father, help us to listen
to You and to obey You.
We
raced against the May 14th deadline for the increase in postage and
the elimination of surface M Bags (a huge canvas bag that could be filled and
sent to foreign nations). Our team
consisted of Naomi Licek, her daughter, Annette Fillipini, Steve Burns, Judy
Mangle, Tina Gustafson, her son, Nathan, Elizabeth Sokolik, and me. Annette and Steve worked the evenings late
into the night and sometimes into the early morning preparing the boxes. Naomi, Judy, Tina, Nathan, and I prepared
the boxes during the day. Elizabeth
helped us with everything in what is usually her private domain, the shipping
of books from our ten feet by fifty feet office/warehouse (yes, rather narrowJ) At first
Naomi and I were loading the boxes into her van and then unloading them onto
carts at the Post Office. Then we
lifted them onto the counter.
Whew! We asked for help and
Nathan came to our rescue. He loaded
and unloaded the M Bags for us and did a great job.
We
created quite a stir at the Post Offices the week before the changing of postal
fees. We salute both the Dunedin Post
Office, especially Sam, Frank, and Lisa and the Palm Harbor Post Offices,
especially Bobby and Julie, for their kindness to us.
We
kept receiving requests from the nations for more M Bags. We had to stop sending them on Saturday, May
11. We have some disappointed
pastors. If God can provide the money
for all of the M Bags we sent out, He can continue to provide money for sending
Air Mail M Bags, our only option now.
These cost about twice as much to send.
The pastors are waiting. We know
God will provide. Our goal is to send
as many each month as we are able. We
will continue to send packages of two or three books as well, even though the
cost for them has doubled as well. God
always provides for what He commissionsJ
As
I mentioned in our last newsletter, we are blessed by our association with Jana
and Steve Ratliff and Walk Thru the Bible. Jana and Steve were my sponsors for
the Walk Thru the Bible Presidents’ Council at Indian Wells, California. Jana
and Steve read Trust God for Your
Finances over twenty years ago and have been ordering books ever since.
This
month we received an email from Brett Farley, whose wife works for Jana and
Steve. Brett saw Trust God for Your Finances in the lobby of Jana’s office, read it, and contacted us. We are blessed to meet him. He is connecting us with a publisher in
Oklahoma who exists to serve authors.
We believe this is a divine appointment. We ask you to pray about this
potential partnership.
As
you know, Jack and I write the books, administer the daily operations, and
oversee the sending of our books to the nations as well as communicating with
the pastors and leaders in these nations. We have not been able to focus on
marketing our books.
We
know that our books, tapes, CD’s, and Scripture cards help people to come to
know Christ Jesus and to reach maturity in Him. Our writings are instruction in righteousness in the Lord. If a company helps us to place our books
strategically across the nation, around the world, and on the Internet where
people can find them, that company will be helping us to fulfill our mission
from God. We are excited about this open doorJ
At
the same time we are sending a set of our books to Chip Ingram at Walk Thru the
Bible to see if our publications can be a blessing to those native missionaries
already in place around the world. God
is so wonderful at bringing His people together for His glory.
You
can see that we’re excited. What will
happen next? We thank you for your
prayers and your support that lift us up and enable us to do so much. Thank you just begins to express our
gratitude.
We
love you. We are so glad to hear from
you and learn what God has on your heart.
If we can help you in any way, please let us know. We are here for you,
our Lamplight family.
Serving
our Lord together with you,
Jack and Judy Hartman
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