Book #2 - Mundu ne'ebé Maromak halo

God made the world. The children look around them and everything that they can see has been made by God. Grandmother tells them the story of creation....

This is my second book - Mundu ne'ebé Maromak halo – or The World that God made. It represents a dramatically steep learning curve for me, because I decided to publish this book 'properly'. I had to learn what it means to become a publisher. I had to learn all about ISBNs and how to use them. I needed to know the legal requirements for published matter and I had to learn to talk to printers. By the grace of God, the cheapest quote I had was from a local man who had a vast deal of experience in printing for Timor Leste and could advise me on many aspects of the job, including choosing suitable paper.

I decided to print under the imprint Grasa Mesak, which I have already translated for you here. The print run was very small, just 500 copies, but was funded exclusively by a very special group of people: the tiny congregation of Seaford Presbyterian Church. Their support was invaluable!

God made the birds and fish.....

The book was translated by Samuel Marcal, the man who translated the first of my books. It concludes with a Tetun translation of Psalm 8. The illustrations were done entirely on my computer using Corel Painter - a program that imitates artist's media and methods. It was tremendous fun but took a lot of hard work.

I was very blessed in that I was able to take the entire print run to Timor myself, thanks to the generousity of friends and family. It was wonderful to be able to meet some of the people to whom I had only previously communicated by email. I also met some very friendly children who patiently talked with me, despite my slow and awkward Tetun. It was much harder to understand the adults, who spoke too fast, but in Timor, so many people will respond to the minimal amount of dialogue. Everywhere I went, people would smile and respond to 'Bondia!'

In Dili, I handed out copies of the books to children in Sunday School. In Liquica, a young boy delighted me by reading my book to me in Tetun. In Gleno Town, a group of little boys were itching to peek into the box I brought.....full of books.

A girl in Dili reads her new book

Boys in Gleno Town examining
'Mundu ne'ebé Maromak halo'

Book #1 - Timotio Nia Istoria

Kindergarten children at Gleno Town with new books!

In the New Testament there is a young pastor who has been faithfully taught the Word of God by his mother and his grandmother. The young man's name is, of course, Timothy, and those two godly women in his life are still remembered today, 2000 years on.

All over the world, and throughout generations, women of God have taught their children and grandchildren the story of God's plan for our lives. It is this wonderful oral tradition that is celebrated in 'Timotio Nia Istoria'. Timotio's grandmother tells the children the story of Christmas, of the birth of a Child who becomes our Saviour. As she tells the story, young Timotio becomes increasingly aware that this story is personal - it is his story too.

For many children, this was the first book
they had ever owned.

This book, my first, was completed in a relatively short period of time. A group of men from Australia were travelling to Timor and it seemed good that they take copies of this book with them as gifts. The men were Rev Robert Benn, Rev Gary Ware and Rev Rob Duncanson. You can read all about that trip here. Gary's blog presents a richly detailed daily account of their time in Timor - certainly recommended reading!

The book was funded by the Education Committee of the GAA of the Presbyterian Church of Australia - and I thank them for that.

In an interesting cultural aside, the book features traditional Timorese motifs on some of the pages. At the time of illustrating the book, the Museum and Art gallery of the Northern Territory was holding a fantastic exhibition of traditional arts and crafts from Timor Leste. (For all you arts and crafts lovers, the exhibition was this one)

Crazy idea . . . but a good one!

Bondia friends. As I organise the printing of my third book, I feel it is time to tell the story of this ministry.

It all began...when the formal Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Australia, Rev Robert Benn, came to Darwin to talk to us about the newly formed Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Timor Leste. Like many Australians, my knowledge about Timor Leste was dreadfully inadequate. They were little more than an item on the news. We saw the horrific images, we heard the stories of their fight for independence but we knew so little about who the people really were. We didn't even know what language they spoke. Sure, we knew that they suffered in WWII as a result of helping our soldiers, but even this history failed to become part of our popular culture like the tales of Kokoda and the people from Papua.

Maybe because of this ignorance, because so much research had to go into the basic things like literacy, languages and resources, it wasn't until several months later, in December 2008, that I decided that the only way I could send children's Christian literature in a language that both the children and their parents could read, was to send books in Tetun, the national language. As there were no such books in the world, they had to be produced from scratch and translated into Tetun. I threw the idea at Robert Benn and his reply came back...: "Crazy idea . . . but a good one!"

And so began...'Timotio Nia Istoria'.