DECEMBER NEWSLETTER

Christmas is on its way and we are giving you some Christmas cheer!

Please note, there are several postal strikes in the UK at the moment so please don't leave ordering your graphic novels to the last minute!

Free Matthew Kindle eBook

To celebrate Christmas being on the way we have made our Gospel of Matthew Kindle ebook completely FREE for 5 days! (Ends 6th Dec). The book includes the nativity story so if you've got friends who don't know about the comic this is a great time to get them into it. Send them the link and they can download the whole book.

USA: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08KLX7Z7G
UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08KLX7Z7G

Metal Christmas Playlist

Last year I sent you a playlist that focused on the Nativity, this year I'm giving you my selection of the best Christmas songs but heavy metal covers.

PLAYLIST: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4blnUIKLARtMjVpTsf7DWw?si=f7aadd35a9a04e96

Christmas Cards 

No Rudolfs or penguins here! We've got two sets of Christmas cards available. Each pack has six cards with three different designs. Each one has a Bible verse and a picture on both the front and the inside of the card that make a little 2-panel comic :)

It's a great way to remind people what Christmas is all about and introduce them to the Bible comic.
https://www.wordforwordbiblecomic.com/buy

Prayers 

Christmas Books: Over 1000 Christmas books went out with the Kickstarter last month. Please join us in praying that these gifted copies bring many people to God's Word and ultimately to salvation!

NOVEMBER NEWSLETTER

Christmas is on its way and so we've got some offers to help you on the way.

(Sorry, I forgot to repost the newsletter here on the blog for the last 2 months. If you want to have it emailed to you sign up here: https://squarespace.us11.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=326ea81d61b23ca05be019dea&id=54f0e1c961)

BLACK FRIDAY DEALS

We are giving 30% off our brand-new release The Gospel of Luke for a limited time only! Ends Dec 1st. Also available for the Spanish: El Evangelio de Lucas

For Luke use Discount Code: BLACKFRIDAY22
For Lucas use Discount Code: BLACKFRIDAY22ESP

Christmas Cards 

No Rudolfs or penguins here! We've got two sets of Christmas cards available. Each pack has six cards with three different designs. Each one has a Bible verse and a picture on both the front and the inside of the card that make a little 2-panel comic :)

It's a great way to remind people what Christmas is all about and introduce them to the Bible comic.

The Next Book and Patreon

I've been working hard on the new title and its pages and explainer videos will soon start to be posted on our Patreon page. Aside from early access, patrons get to comment and give their suggestions on the developments of the book and the pages before they are officially published.

Next week we are also having a Patron Hangout on Zoom, so if you'd like to join us you can become a patron today from just £1 a month.
https://www.patreon.com/WordforWordBibleComic

Prayers 

Christmas Books: Over 1000 Christmas books went out with the Kickstarter last month. Please join us in praying that these gifted copies bring many people to God's Word and ultimately to salvation!

Youthwork: This weekend I'm off to the national youth workers conference in the UK. I have a stand and every delegate will receive a colouring poster from us. Please join us in praying that many doors will be opened into youth ministries across the UK and beyond as a result.

AUGUST NEWSLETTER

The summer has been punishingly hot, and for the last 2 weeks, our family has been suffering from COVID, which we are coming out of now. September to December is our primary bookselling season so we are really looking forward to getting The book of Ruth and Luke's Gospel onto the shelves worldwide!

The Book of Ruth NIV and NVI!

The newest edition to our NIV and NVI collection hits the shelves on September 6th! You can preorder your copy now on our website!

Breaking into the T-shirt game

We've recently added our first t-shirt items to the website! We have one with our logo and a brand new one with the design below!

UK SHOP: https://www.wordforwordbiblecomic.com/buy-uk
USA SHOP: https://anchormerchandising.com/word-for-word-bible-comics/
We plan to add new t-shirt designs regularly and you can "have your say" on the ones that come out by voting on polls on the Facebook group.

Go to the Facebook group now to vote on a limited edition t-shirt with a design from the Book of Ruth...

PS: If you are waiting for your Kickstarter exclusive t-shirt, they have recently all been ordered and should arrive at your door in the next few days. 🤞

Prayers 

We have a great opportunity to get our colouring books into a lot of prisons in the UK, but we are hitting a few hurdles. Please pray that we can find a way around these and make this happen, opening the door to get the Bible comics into the prison libraries.

In September we launch Ruth and then in October we launch Luke's Gospel into the USA in English and Spanish, please pray for lots of orders and customers discovering the Bible Comics.

JULY NEWSLETTER

The Gospel of Luke and all the new NIV Books of Ruth have arrived and been sent out and now it's time to think about the next instalment!

What is the next new book? 

We are currently weighing up options about what the next book that I will be illustrating will be. If you are a member of the Facebook Community you'll be able to vote in a poll with your opinions and help shape the next book! Join the FB group

Fulfilling the Gospel of Luke Kickstarter!

All the new books arrived on the 5th of July, and after much hard work from my wife Sian, 94% of the items are now in the post or already with backers (the other 6% are people who haven't filled in their shipping info)! The day before yesterday I sent out all the digital rewards so they are now with backers on the Kickstarter Update the email.

The Book of Ruth

In addition to the brand new Gospel of Luke, some backers also received the brand new version of the Book of Ruth featuring the NIV (or NVI) translation before it's release! This will be hitting the shops on September 1st!

Events

The Gathering!

It was great to see so many people there who've been supporting the project for so many years topping up their collections! I was super blessed as the table next to me was vacant so I spread out to fill 2 tables, meaning I could display the T-shirts, collector's editions and the art portfolio too. A special welcome to all of you who joined this newsletter there!

This year we are not doing a million summer events, I believe our next exhibition will be a comic con in autumn.

Prayers 

Thank you to everyone who prayed the books would not have misprints! During the proofing stage, we find several minor errors to get ironed out and I believe that was thanks to this intervention.

Thank also to those who have been praying the door for the books to get into the prisons would open, we believe there's been a big step forward with this recently so watch this space for more news!

Please continue to prayer for the comics to be licenced into other languages and to reach more people around the world with the Word of God.

June Newsletter

The Gospel of Luke is being finished as we speak. All the comic pages are drawn, the colours are being added to the last few pages and I'm about to create the appendix pages at the back of the book.

Kickstarter Backer Surveys are out!

Recently I sent out the backer surveys for the Kickstarter of Luke. You need to complete this in order to give us your address, t-shirt size and whether you'd like to be given a thankyou at the back of the book, so don't forget to do it for the 12% of you who have yet to! You will have received an email or you can go to the campaign page and fill it in there.

Events! 

Big Church Day Out!

We just returned from BCDO22, it was great fun to be out showing people the books again! On the night before the start, I walked by the main stage where Rend collective where sound-checking and practising so I got my own private show:

I also ran into Adam who won our Easter competition a few years ago to be drawn into the Gospel of Matthew. Here we are with his panel:

I also saw Caroline who is drawn into the Book of Joshua as a daughter of Zelophehad who supported the project in the early days, and Maaike our newest colourist over from the Netherlands!

The Gathering: Christian Vision for Men: 24-26 June

This weekend event is to encourage and build men in their faith! It's a really fun event and if you haven't booked in there are still spaces available. Come and see me in the exhibition area!

Praefectus Pontius Pilatus

I'm currently creating fact pages for the back of the Gospel of Luke about "PONTIVS PILATVS". Here's one fact from my page about Pilate: A number of coins were struck during Pilate's tenure that featured symbols that would offend the Jews, such as the “Lituus," a Wand for Divination, and the “Simpulum," a ladle used to make libations during Roman cultic sacrifices.
To see more posts like this come and join our FB community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/wordforwordbiblecomiccommunity

Prayers 

Please pray the books of Luke and Ruth NIV are printed without errors and get to their destinations safe and that they go on to impact many lives across the USA, Canada, the UK and beyond!

MAY NEWSLETTER

The Gospel of Luke is being finished as we speak. All the comic pages are drawn, the colours are being added to the last few pages and I'm about to create the appendix pages at the back of the book.

Have your say: Pages on in the back of the book. 

I placed this poll in the Facebook community today. I'd love you to take a look and make your own suggestions on what topics you'd like to see covered:

Upcoming Events! 

Here are a couple of events we will be exhibiting at next month!

Big Church Day Out! 3rd & 4th June

This two day event is like a Christian music festival, this year featuring Matt Redman and Rend Collective among many others. If you are going to the event please come and see us in the "Big Church Expo" marquee.

The Gathering: Christian Vision for Men: 24-26 June

This weekend event is to encourage and build men in their faith! It's a really fun event and if you haven't booked in there are still spaces available. Come and see me in the exhibition area!

Prayer

Growing pains: As a business, we are now beginning to outgrow our current capacity to store the books, to manage all the various suppliers and capacity to deal with the marketing required for each tile and initiate. This is a good thing, but we are looking at options and solutions to level up. Please pray the Lord provides the right avenue for us to go down to keep growing.

APRIL NEWSLETTER

APRIL NEWSLETTER

This last month has been all about getting my head down and finishing the last pages. Trying not to get drawn into other things like marketing and admin.

Blogs 

I've recently written several blogs about some elements of the biblical research which I found particularly interesting. The middle one is about an exciting new discovery of a tiny lead tablet found at Mount Ebal. It was discovered by the Associates of Biblical Research and Dr Scott Spripling lead the team. By coincidence Dr Scott also recently gave the Bible Comic his endorsement:

Here are three of the best blogs:

• GOSPEL CONTRADICTION? "O JERUSALEM, JERUSALEM" WHO WAS RIGHT?

• LEAD CURSE TABLET SUPPORTS BIBLE'S OWN TIMELINE

• PROPHESY ABOUT JESUS FROM THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON

Progress

The 8 note pages at the back are not yet created but all the colouring has been done besides the final 7 pages yet to be drawn.

The Gospel of Mark Reviews

The Gospel of Mark NIV and NVI editions launched last month and we've had several great blog reviews for the Gospel of Mark recently, here are a few examples

• https://feedingonjesus.com/2022/03/30/a-different-kind-of-post-check-this-out

• https://adonaishalom.com/index.php/2022/02/18/review-gospel-of-mark-word-for-word-bible-comic-niv

• https://www.thisverticallife.com/post/the-gospel-of-mark-word-for-word-bible-comic-a-review

Prayer

Growing Pains: We are slowly growing as a company and that means our stock is outgrowing our space and the admin is outgrowing our current capacity. Technically these are good signs but please pray we can manage the growth well and make the right choices as we try to manage it.

Prisons: We are still very keen to get the Bible comics into prisons and we sense things might be moving in the right direction. Please pray for the Lord to remove any blockages or spiritual opposition to getting the Bible to those inside for the sake of redemption.

Prophesy about Jesus from The Wisdom of Solomon

In Luke 10:23-24 Jesus says…

Then he turned to his disciples and said privately, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. For I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.” NIV

When I was looking for specific Kings who had prophesied about Jesus I looked at Solomon…

Aside from allusions in his Psalms, Proverbs and other writings I discovered one which was very powerful but unknown to me as it is from a Deuterocanonical book: The Wisdom of Solomon.

This book is considered canonical by Catholics, Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox, but are considered non-canonical by Jews and Protestants. Most significantly it is believed to have been scribed in the first century BC in Alexandria, possibly from older manuscripts (although, its authenticity has its detractors). So while it may not have been written by Solomon himself it is likely it was written before Christ’s birth.

In any case, I found it very interesting to read. Why not check it out and come to your own conclusions…

Let us lie in wait for the righteous man,

because he is inconvenient to us and opposes our actions;

he reproaches us for sins against the law,

and accuses us of sins against our training.

He professes to have knowledge of God,

and calls himself a child of the Lord.

He became to us a reproof of our thoughts;

the very sight of him is a burden to us,

because his manner of life is unlike that of others,

and his ways are strange.

We are considered by him as something base,

and he avoids our ways as unclean;

he calls the last end of the righteous happy,

and boasts that God is his father.

Let us see if his words are true,

and let us test what will happen at the end of his life;

for if the righteous man is God’s son, he will help him,

and will deliver him from the hand of his adversaries.

Let us test him with insult and torture,

that we may find out how gentle he is,

and make trial of his forbearance.

Let us condemn him to a shameful death,

for, according to what he says, he will be protected.

— Wisdom 2:12–20 (RSVCE)