Gift Cards to Global Partners by JENNIFER GUTHRIE, EDITOR


Each year the Commission on Global Partnerships (CoGP) seeks to provide a book to each Global Partner unit to let them “know how much we appreciate your faithful service to the Lord!” In the past, books were cho- sen for their value to encourage or give practical help to the Global Partners. The gift is paid for from the FEBC's Global Partner Development account. This account is used to aid in ministry development of Global Partners.


Since technology now makes books and data more


easily accessible than ever before and our Global Part- ners reside all around the world, the CoGP was able to offer gift cards so that Global Partners could purchase and download books to read that would be beneficial to themselves or ministry. Since the FEBC did not have the added expense of shipping costs, money was able to go further in gifts towards Global Partners. This year, the CoGP recommended two books: “The Rest of God: Restoring Your Soul by Restoring Your Sabbath,” by Mark Buchanan, and “Reading Romans with Eastern Eyes: Honor and Shame in Paul’s Message and Mission” by Jackson Wu. While the CoGP does make book recom- mendations, Global Partners have the flexibility with the gift cards to choose a different book if they have already read the recommended books or if another book would be more beneficial at the time.


The first recommended book, “The Rest of God” is a


book focused on returning to the virtue of stillness and restoring the practice of the sabbath in our lives through practical advice and encouragement. In an Amazon description of this book, it states, “Stillness as a virtue is a foreign concept in our society, but there is wisdom in God’s own rhythm of work and rest. Jesus practiced Sab- bath among those who had turned it into a dismal thing... He reminded them of the day’s true purpose: liberation — to heal, to feed, to rescue, to celebrate, to lavish and relish life abundant.”


The second recommended book, “Reading Romans


with Eastern Eyes" received Christianity Today’s 2020 Book of the Year Award of Merit in Biblical Studies. Wu combined years of experience living in Eastern Asia with research from Asian scholars in this book focused on the letters of Paul to the Romans. This book provides West- ern readers with theological insight into Eastern culture, which may share more cultural values with the first-cen- tury Biblical world. In the Amazon description of this book, it states, “[Wu] argues that some traditional East Asian cultural values are closer to those of the first-cen- tury Biblical world...he adds his voice to the scholarship engaging the values of honor and shame in particular and their influence on Biblical interpretation.”


Emails were sent out to 64 Global Partners; 57 of


them accepted the gift card. Several Global Partners have already emailed back notes of appreciation and gratitude, stating, “Thank you so much for the Amazon gift card to buy books! We love adding resources in the form of books to our bookshelves to use for future ministry and edification for ourselves!”


Among those who sent us a note, three chose to


purchase “The Rest of God,” by Buchanan; three part- ners chose “Reading Romans with Eastern Eyes,” by Wu; and eight specified a different book because they already owned or had read the recommended books.


Many Global Partners had already read the suggest-


ed books and had positive things to say about them. One Global Partner stated, “Thank you so much for the gift card! Since we already own 'The Rest of God' by Buchan- an (excellent book), I was excited to locate two used books from my ministry books wish list.” Another Global Part- ner said, “I have read 'The Rest of God' by Mark Buchan- an. It is excellent! I like Jackson Wu very much but haven’t read 'Reading Romans with Eastern Eyes.' I think we will order that one when the gift card arrives.”


For anyone interested in reading either of the books suggested by the CoGP, they can be found on Amazon in phyical copies and Kindle editions.


1: “e Rest of God: Restoring Your Soul by Restoring Your Sabbath,” by Mark Buchanan 2: “Reading Romans with Eastern Eyes: Honor and Shame in Paul’s Message and Mission” by Jackson Wu


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