Fatima and millions of new African Christians like her never saw so much as a Bible story book. Yacob and thousands of African pastors like him tried to teach and lead church people without even one study book to help. This was the reality that Jim Mason discovered when SIM sent him to Nigeria in 1957. We asked him to recount some of the ways he saw God provide resources for the church in Africa and beyond during the past 50 years. Here is his story:

	Jim Mason standing among bags of books at a Nigeria Pastors' Book Set conference

At a college mission conference in February 1954, I promised God that if He wanted me as a missionary I was willing to go. Two years later, in my final year, there had been no further confirmation from God. The college counselor advised me to make every breath a prayer until I had an answer from God as to the direction He wanted me to move. I began asking God hundreds of times each day, “Do you want me as a missionary?” Within six weeks I had my answer and applied to SIM. In 1957 I was sent to Africa, and I have never doubted God’s call.

The Right Question

My wife and I served nearly 20 years in the SIM bookshops in Nigeria, then moved to Ghana to head up Challenge Enterprises there. (English is the trade language for both of these countries.) Insufficient funding was the biggest obstacle. I wrote to a UK publisher I knew and suggested he clear out all the books that were not selling and give them to Challenge, who would pay the freight. It just so happened that this publisher had four warehouses in London that he was trying to consolidate into one. I had asked the right question at the right time. He sent 476,000 books which cost us only one British penny each, including freight!

Pastors’ Book Sets

Getting free books from publishers was fine, but publishers did not give away Bible commentaries, dictionaries, and study Bibles that African pastors desperately needed. God gave me a vision for Pastors’ Book Sets (PBS). Our first project was in 1980, and the set included 13 study books for the subsidized price of $40 in local currency. After this first PBS project, pastors asked often when we would have another. My answer was, “Never.” This was in the 1980s when inflation was high and interest rates were at 19%.

On a visit to Ghana, Kerry Lovering, former editor of the SIM magazine, repeated the question. He felt the Ghana PBS was the best project he had seen. Support was “bite-sized,” so any Sunday school class or individual could donate enough to provide a book set. I gave Kerry the same “never” answer that I had given the local pastors. Two weeks later, a woman in the USA sent a gift of $10,000 designated for “Books for Pastors.” I thought God was trying to tell me something, and indeed He was.

To date, PBS libraries with training conferences have been offered in almost 30 countries in five languages: French, Hausa, English, Spanish, and Quechua. The Amharic language PBS will launch in Ethiopia in 2008. The most recent (English) set contained two Bible computer programs on CDs and 60 books, 20 of them donated by authors or publishers.

	Jim and Leona Mason celebrate the launch of the Africa Bible Commentary

Africa Bible Commentary

The Africa Bible Commentary (ABC) dream came when I discovered that there was no longer a one-volume French Bible Commentary available. Meanwhile, the Association of Evangelicals in Africa had shelved their vision for a one-volume Bible commentary prepared by African scholars. I challenged SIM to consider this need.

We soon realized that it would actually be easier to produce both French and English at the same time, because there were more English-speaking than French-speaking African theologians. At the first planning meeting, it was decided that 25% of the commentary would be written by women. We were delighted to find at least 50 qualified African women theologians with doctorates, in addition to 450 to 500 men. SIM began its commitment to back this project in January 2001.

Five years and one month later, the finished English commentary went for printing, and now it is already into its second print run, with the French version soon to follow. Future translations are planned for Portuguese and Amharic.

New Literature Consultant

As Joel Purcell picks up leadership for literature around the SIM world, we all realize that the job is far from finished. In fact, it’s only begun. After 50 years of observing God’s faithfulness, I can assure Joel that he will continue to see God do amazing miracles of guidance and provision in the years ahead.