 Bulgarian publication |
VERSAILLES, Indiana—One day, back in 1989, as the communist regimes in Europe were crumbling, the then Pastor General Joseph Tkach asked me, “Do you think we should plan to have a Russian magazine?”
“No sir,” I said, “because I am afraid we would do too good a job, and the Russians would not trust it. Maybe if we wrote it out with stubs of pencil on toilet paper…”
Bulgarian publication |
I was only partly joking. People in the old Soviet Union associated slick, well-produced publications with propaganda, especially if they had the word truth (pravda) in the title. What was needed was what the Russians called a samizdat magazine, produced with limited resources as a covert operation. We, with our high production standards, could not do that.
But there was someone in Bulgaria who could. Nikolay Nikolov is a Christian, who for many years had helped operate a covert samizdat press. In spite of persecution and imprisonment, he and his friends had a burning desire to make the word of God known. He was already publishing a modest magazine.
When the Bulgarian communist
regime fell and the restrictions eased, Nikolay contacted our office in Germany
and asked for permission to use some of the articles he had found in our
publications. What he had in mind was a Bulgarian edition of
our magazine.
German director Santiago Lange and I
visited Nikolay in 1997. He showed us his press, tucked away in the basement of
his home—a memory of samizdat days. He was now free to publish, and he did. The
basement was swamped with proofs and galleys and printing plates. All he needed
was paper.
The German churches offered some financial and editorial help (and a truck load of paper). Today Swiata Istina is a flourishing publication, with a circulation of about 4,000. Many readers pass their copies on to others, and we suspect the actual readership is 10,000 to 12,000.
Swiata Istina is published six times a year. Although it can now operate freely, in true samizdat tradition, it does not waste money on frills. It is bearing good fruit in Bulgaria, and the hope is to also build a mailing list in Russia, which has a similar language and shares the Cyrillic alphabet.
If you would like to see what Swiata Istina is like, you can view it on the German church’s web site, www.wcg.org/ de.
While you are there, have a look at Nachfolge, a bi-monthly magazine in the German language published by the German church.
Nachfolge, which means “discipleship,” has a circulation of 8,700, mainly in Germany and Austria, but copies are also sent to 61 other countries, including Iran and China. The main purpose of Nachfolge is to strengthen discipleship, to give its readers a good biblical foundation, and to offer practical help in following Jesus Christ in their daily lives.
The magazine is produced in our office in Bonn, and then sent to a design studio for final touches. Mr. Lange is the overall editor, and Sylvia Mair takes care of the production and many other details.
Articles are a combination of professionally translated material from our English publications, original writing from members and specially commissioned articles by qualified people in Germany.
Nachfolge has no subscription charge, and is financed by voluntary donations from readers and church members.
Many old and sick people, who can’t visit a local church, depend on Nachfolge for their spiritual nourishment. Quite a few pastors from other churches and leaders from small groups have told us that they are using Nachfolge for their work and ministry.
While in Europe we should also
mention Lifeline, a bright magazine published six times a year by the
church in Holland. I say “bright,” because, as you’d expect from Holland, the
design is exceptionally neat and colorful. The content is mainly articles
translated into Dutch from the English publications, with some local material.
Jesse Korver is the editor.
Holland is yet another European nation that is becoming post-Christian in culture, and Lifeline lives up to its name—throwing a lifeline to people drowning in a sea of ethical and moral confusion. Take a look at it on the Dutch web site www. lifeblad.nl
In France, the church publishes
La Vie Chretienne (The Christian Life). Once again,
this is a
homegrown publication that began when it
became no longer possible to produce
the French language magazine (La Pure Verite). Donat Picard is
the editor, assisted by his daughter-in-law, Marie Angelique Picard.
Each issue focuses on a theme. The latest was Money and Mammon (you can check it out at www. lemondeavenir.com). Even though an accompanying letter did not request money, La Vie Chretienne received generous donations from readers.
The dedicated people who make Swiata Istina, Nachfolge, Lifeline and La Vie Chretienne possible will tell you that publishing, even a modest magazine, is not easy, and it is even more difficult to quantify the results. But letters from grateful readers show that it is more worth than it is trouble.
Next time we will look at the British magazine, and also see what is happening in Asia.
Copyright © Worldwide Church of God, 2004