My Birthday Bibi

As it is my birthday next week, my beautiful friend Jeana gave me some goats (or bibi, as our Tetun-speaking friends call them.) Of course keeping goats in South Geelong would be rather awkward. But these are not real goats. They are paintings of goats:


Bibi - watercolour on paper, stitched thread.

Aren't they wonderful? I think they will certainly find their way into the Jose book.

 

I shall frame them and hang them on the wall, and seeing them, shall be reminded that I have been a recipient of God's providence for 40 years.

For four decades, He has guided and guarded me.

Challenged me and bountifully blessed me.

Directed me, developed me.

Upheld me by His marvellous, omnipotent hand. For forty years.

 

 If that isn't worth celebrating, what is?

Designing a Book

One starts with raw text: in a word document, in Times New Roman, on an A4 page. The challenge is to turn that text into a beautiful book any child would enjoy reading.
So we sat down, Jeana and I, and we designed a book. We shared ideas and enjoyed each other's creative energy. We created a vision of what this book might look like.
There are so many decisions that need to be made: layout, font and font size, illustrations, colour,  cover design, continuity of illustrations, content of illustrations, borders, page numbering, typography style......
You didn't think it was easy, did you?
Continue to pray for us!

Her needle for the King

We are very excited to share with you that a new illustrator has come aboard Grasa Mesak. Jeana Blackert is a Geelong-based textile artist whose beautiful, poignant embroidery illustrations are perfect for the tender parable of the Prodigal Son. It is a big commitment for any artist to complete an entire children's picture book, but it is an even bigger challenge for a textile artist working in such a labour intense medium. But Jeana is also a committed Christian and for her this truly will be a labour of love for her King.

Please pray for Jeana as she does preparatory work for this project and don't forget to check out her website.

Some images from 'Miguel Nia Jardin'

We thought we would share some images from the book with you. If you don't already have a copy, please consider buying one, as we cannot publish another book for the children of Timor-Leste unless we raise the funds to do so. We sell the books in Australia for AU$10.00 which includes postage. Postage is not included for international sales, I am sorry.

If you are interested in purchasing a copy, or feel you may be able to sell multiple copies for us, please email us at grasa DOT mesak AT gmail DOT com (replacing 'AT' with '@' and 'DOT' with '.').

My son and I planted corn seeds in the ground with the intention of drowning them and photographing their demise. But monsoonal rains did it for us with perfect timing!

Scanned line drawings with photo collages. Corel PhotoPaint was the program I used for manipulating and cutting out the photos. The pages were put together in Corel Draw which I think works quite well for this type of publication.

I wanted to get a sort of tumbling downward feel to this. The line drawings have a touch of coloured pencil. The tree is the old mango that grew in our garden in Darwin and the snake is courtesy of my sister-in-law's father.

Book #3 - Miguel Nia Jardin

My son Michael is 8 years old. He collects seeds and loves growing plants. Michael lives in the tropics where tropical plants thrive - but the geranium seeds sprouted, flourished a promise of green but then promptly withered and died. Michael was disappointed....but the seed of a story had been planted!

Miguel Nia Jardin is the story of a little boy who plants some corn seeds but a heavy monsoon rain washes his little crop away. Naturally he is disappointed, but his mother tells him a story. A wonderful story about a beautiful garden and a man called Adam and a woman called Eve. Miguel Nia Jardin tells the story of paradise lost, but the promise of paradise regained through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The gospel story is a story of comfort, a story for all people. No parent likes to see their child suffering loss, sorrow or pain  - but the Bible promises us in the Book of Revelation, that one day there will be no more tears. Miguel Nia Jardin concludes with that beautiful passage of hope.

Perhaps the most important aspect of this publication is the translations. Not only is it translated into Tetun, but Miguel Nia Jardin also includes Mambai text. After Tetun, which is the national language, Mambai is the most common language in Timor Leste. To gain a clearer understanding of the extend to which Mambai is spoken in Timor Leste, have a look here.  There is very little, if any, literature available in Mambai, but I pray that one day there will be a complete Bible translation available in that language.

The Tetun text of the book was translated by Rev Arlindo Marcal, who is the moderator of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Timor Leste. The Mambai text was translated by Rev Carlos Marcal, of whom I have mentioned previously here.

The illustrations to the book are a combination of black and white line drawings and photographic collages. This was an exciting, rather novel approach for me and I want to thank the many people who made it possible, with modelling for photos or graciously sharing their own photos. As for my son Michael, not only did he inspire the story, but he was an excellent and expressive model for all my drawings.

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'