2015 - Around the CLC World

In common with other Latin America countries, CLC Colombia holds a Booksellers’ Conference. It is attended by 139 participants and 12 publishers.
CLC Uruguay opens a second bookshop in Montevideo. It is very close to the main bus station which connects to all parts of the country.

A first! In collaboration with the Bible Society, Hector Burke (Panama) and David Navarette (Ecuador) were able to present the Thompson Bible seminar in Cuba. 300 pastors and leaders attend the seminars in Havana and Matanzas.
CLC France grows its capacity to provide logistics for French publishers. This is a project that has developed over a number of years, and the warehouse has been extended to enable us to work with more publishers.
There is a big celebration as CLC Mexico is officially opened on February 28, with representatives from Colombia, USA and various publishers.

The Regional Directors regularly visit the countries in their region – more than 30 in total this year. Romualdo Macinas visits the India team.
Life in CLC varies greatly from one country to another. CLC Papua New Guinea has to struggle with limited electrical supply, leading to constant blackouts.
Many changes are taking place in the UK. CLC closes the shops in Guilford and Canterbury but takes over an existing shop in Tolworth, West London.

CLC Kenya receives a Print-on-Demand system that could revolutionise the printing and the time scale of delivery to customers. This is a big project for new Director Patrick Omukhango.
CLC in the Philippines and the USA combine to help out an author! Fred Hartley was due to speak in Manila but insufficient time was allowed to send the books from the USA. CLC Philippines was able to receive the electronic file and have the book ready for the conference. One happy author!

European CLC leaders meet in Poland for their conference.
CLC helps arrange concerts for Christian artists – the duo Heritage, who sing hymns in a contemporary style, in the UK; CLC Portugal puts on a mini concert in the shop.

During the Expolit book fair, the Miami shop is officially opened with a good attendance from Latin America.
CLC Belarus attends a youth conference with a book table, enabling us to communicate with a wider audience.
Liberia is finally declared free of Ebola – and Sierra Leone later in the year. This epidemic has severely impacted the economies of both countries.

The website techies from Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama and Venezuela meet together in Panama City for a week of intense training and practical work.
CLC Colombia opens their 4th shop in Bogota, their 11th in total. As an extra service on their website, they now offer door-to-door delivery service in and around Bogota.

CLC Cote d’Ivoire paints the Bouake shop in the colours of the CLC logo. Being Africa, it needs to be very colourful!

CLC goes digital! The eBook app for Apple is launched and CLC is able to offer a multi-lingual eBook platform.
Don & Betsy Veldboom (USA) accompany Neil Wardrope to serve at a large conference booktable in Chiang Mai, Thailand. This is a significant moment as Don & Betsy hope to return to CLC Chiang Mai early in 2016 to work with English books. This is a wonderful answer to prayer.
Last year CLC Philippines launched their VIP (Very Important Pastor) programme. This has now resulted in an order for 500 copies of Wilmington’s Guide to the Bible.

CLC Dominica suffers from the devastating storm that struck the island. While our property and personnel are safe, the island economy is badly affected and every-day life will take a long time to be fully restored.
CLC Italy installs new software, initially for their distribution warehouse. The plan is to link the new software to the existing website which requires cooperation from several parties.
CLC UK are also launching new software - on the same day as opening a new warehouse in Chester! The move takes place during the last week of August and ...everything works well!

CLC leaders from North and South America and the Caribbean gather in Miami for their regional conference. CLC author Christopher Shaw is the inspirational devotional speaker.
Authors Jim and Elizabeth George visit CLC Chile, speaking at a series of meetings, attended by hundreds of people. They are very well received. »
The small CLC Kenya team face the challenge of moving their headquarters to a new location. The new facility is perfect for our requirements and much better located as a retail outlet.

CLC Italy has the opportunity to offer their books for sale on the streets of Turin, along with many other booksellers.
Jacob Mung, CLC Myanmar, speaks at the Media Associates International LittWorld Conference in Singapore.
It was a dream of Marlene Ramroop to have a bookshop in Tobago, the smaller of the two islands in Trinidad & Tobago. Following Marlene’s homecall it was the desire of the team to fulfil Marlene’s dream. The bookshop in Scarborough is now open.
The bookshop in Graz, Austria closes as had been anticipated. However the website is still functioning and talks are continuing to try to re-open with the help of local Christians.

In the weeks leading up to Christmas, Eva & Sotos Photiadou visit many churches around Cyprus, preaching and supplying Bibles, books and gifts for Christmas.
10 years since his previous appearance in CLC, Gospel Music artist Kirk Franklin releases his new album in the CLC USA Cedarbrook Mall store. Kirk signs everyone’s CDs, staying for several hours.
The Uruguay team have their annual conference.
Our CLC Moscow team is very happy to release their first publication – a children’s book by Carine MacKenzie.
The long awaited annual ELS India Book Aid sale goes ahead. Customers anticipate this event each year and long queues form outside the main Chennai bookshop. There are many bargains to be had, and many grateful customers.

The CLC bookshop in Amsterdam closes on Dec 12th. Physical bookselling in physical bookshops continues to be very difficult in many places and sometimes hard decisions have to be made.
CLC Portugal publishes two new books – Changed into His Likeness and Holiness without the Halo. This is another big step forward for our bookshop in Coimbra.
Our Venezuela team rejoices in the news of a political victory for the opposition. Conditions in the country have become so difficult that daily life is almost impossible. And buying US dollars through official channels is impossible, significantly impacting our ability to make payments to US publishers.