October 28, 2002

Dear Friends,

Many of you wrote to express your concern for our family during last week's terrorist attack on a theater in Moscow. We are all well, and as far as we know, none of our acquaintances were harmed, but our city is deeply shaken by this assault on its people. Early Saturday morning Russian special troops stormed the theater after Chechen terrorists began shooting hostages. Although more than a hundred people have died, it is a great blessing that many hundreds of lives were saved.

I am pleased to write to you that Narnia Center was awarded a first place and a third place at the exhibition for the best children's books printed during the last year. First place was awarded for our publication of Katherine Paterson's Jacob Have I Loved. Third place was awarded for a book called Ignatius the Little Worm and His Friends by Russian author Viktor Krotov. These awards have served to confirm for us a sense that we are moving in the right direction in our publishing work.

Attached you will find a picture of our Narnia Center staff in front of our stand at the exhibition as well as a picture of fellow PC(USA) missionary Garth Moller and his son Zacky, with whom we stayed in St. Pete, reading a copy of Ignatius the Little Worm. We made this book a gift to Zacky, and he would not put it down.

This year we have made tremendous progress in our work in publishing. We have published three books and expect to publish several more before the year's end.

We feel encouraged about a further accomplishment: We published the first copy of a news bulletin called Chronicle of Children's Ministry. We introduced this Chronicle in St. Petersburg. It includes children's sermons, suggestions for Sunday School teachers, suggestions for parents, books reviews, articles on ministry in orphanages, on the effect of alcoholism on children and much more. The response to this new bulletin in St. Petersburg was consistently positive. We met a number of people whom we hope will write for the Chronicle in the future. In order to make it known, we are distributing it free of charge for the first year. Thereafter we will operate on a subscription basis.

We have completed the final draft of our Manual for Training Sunday School Teachers and are hopeful that it will be printed before the end of the year. The cover is ready, and it is time for the layout work to begin.

Several other books will soon go to be printed. They include translations of Harriet the Spy, by Louise Fitzhugh, The Great Gilly Hopkins, and Bridge to Terabithia both by Katherine Paterson.

We now go into a planning stage for our next seminar of training leaders for children's ministry.

I am wonderfully encouraged by all that God has accomplished through Narnia Center this year. The Extra Commitment Opportunity number for the Narnia Center is 051800. And I am grateful for the generous support many of you have given to make this work possible. We have many things to do in the months and the years to come and we ask for your continued support and prayer.

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. Walk as children of the light.

Walking in the light,

Donald Marsden