The new Sunday school book of the IELB in Spanish is published! Click here to download it!! I can´t tell you how proud I am of all of the contributors and the excellent work they did to make this book a possibility. Publishing the book is a year-long process and it goes something like this:
I pick a reading (mostly the Gospel) from the readings for each Sunday based on the liturgical calendar. Then, I pass the readings chosen along to Justin who identifies the Good News for each Sunday based on the reading. Afterwards, the CPD-IELB local team, Justin and I have a meeting to plan the book´s production and set deadlines.
Each local team member is then in charge of a specific section for each lesson of the book: Pastor Martiza- prayers, Pastor Erlini- music, Sister Leticia- activities, Justin- investigation, and myself- guided questions. We then decide how best to include other church members in helping with our sections and set working meetings with them. Once a section is done, it is passed back to myself and Sister Leticia, the co-coordinator. We put all of the sections together for each lesson throughout the year and then put the book together with the help of other collaborators adding things like: the song section, the glossary, the Small Catechism, etc.
Finally, we review the entire book, word for word, lesson for lesson, making sure that we turn in the very best first draft we can to the editorial. The editorial then sends it to corrections (grammar), we approve the corrections, it goes to the diagrammer to be put into its format, we approve the format and finally it´s off to the printer. During this, all of the songs used in the book are recorded and burned to CDs.
A few weeks later, we have the book in hand and the fun begins! The CPD-IELB local team begins planning local and national Sunday school professor gatherings to distribute and socialize the book in Bolivia, facilitate workshops, and connect Lutheran educators in the IELB. At the same time, we send three copies of the book to each Lutheran companion church participating in or possibly interested in participating in the ELCA- Equipping God´s People (CPD, acronym in Spanish) Project and do our best to raise funds so that more materials like it can be published in the future. We print the books because there are communities in Bolivia and other Spanish speaking countries that are still working on getting drinkable water and latrines, that do not own computers, know how to use them or have access to the Internet. Slowly, all of that is changing as our world becomes more global, however, in the mean time, it is important that everyone has access and therefore, the book must be printed.
We also upload the entire book and CD of all music (this year there are 133 songs!!) recorded to the CPD website for free because we recognize that many people do have and prefer to use technology. The purpose of the book is to be a support for Lutheran Sunday school professors in Bolivia and all around the world and the idea is to make it as accessible as possible. We share the book with a pay-it-forward mentality in hopes that other Spanish-speaking Lutherans around the world who create Christian education materials, whether they are for Sunday school, workshops, confirmation, etc. will want to do the same and share their resources with others as well.
How can you help?
I pick a reading (mostly the Gospel) from the readings for each Sunday based on the liturgical calendar. Then, I pass the readings chosen along to Justin who identifies the Good News for each Sunday based on the reading. Afterwards, the CPD-IELB local team, Justin and I have a meeting to plan the book´s production and set deadlines.
Each local team member is then in charge of a specific section for each lesson of the book: Pastor Martiza- prayers, Pastor Erlini- music, Sister Leticia- activities, Justin- investigation, and myself- guided questions. We then decide how best to include other church members in helping with our sections and set working meetings with them. Once a section is done, it is passed back to myself and Sister Leticia, the co-coordinator. We put all of the sections together for each lesson throughout the year and then put the book together with the help of other collaborators adding things like: the song section, the glossary, the Small Catechism, etc.
Finally, we review the entire book, word for word, lesson for lesson, making sure that we turn in the very best first draft we can to the editorial. The editorial then sends it to corrections (grammar), we approve the corrections, it goes to the diagrammer to be put into its format, we approve the format and finally it´s off to the printer. During this, all of the songs used in the book are recorded and burned to CDs.
A few weeks later, we have the book in hand and the fun begins! The CPD-IELB local team begins planning local and national Sunday school professor gatherings to distribute and socialize the book in Bolivia, facilitate workshops, and connect Lutheran educators in the IELB. At the same time, we send three copies of the book to each Lutheran companion church participating in or possibly interested in participating in the ELCA- Equipping God´s People (CPD, acronym in Spanish) Project and do our best to raise funds so that more materials like it can be published in the future. We print the books because there are communities in Bolivia and other Spanish speaking countries that are still working on getting drinkable water and latrines, that do not own computers, know how to use them or have access to the Internet. Slowly, all of that is changing as our world becomes more global, however, in the mean time, it is important that everyone has access and therefore, the book must be printed.
We also upload the entire book and CD of all music (this year there are 133 songs!!) recorded to the CPD website for free because we recognize that many people do have and prefer to use technology. The purpose of the book is to be a support for Lutheran Sunday school professors in Bolivia and all around the world and the idea is to make it as accessible as possible. We share the book with a pay-it-forward mentality in hopes that other Spanish-speaking Lutherans around the world who create Christian education materials, whether they are for Sunday school, workshops, confirmation, etc. will want to do the same and share their resources with others as well.
How can you help?
- Pray for the CPD-IELB local team for new inspirations, team work, patience, continued dedication and support.
- Download and share the book with your congregation and others from the CPD website. It would also be great if you could give the site a Facebook like. When you like the page it helps us share Lutheran Christian education resources in Spanish with others and encourages all participating in the CPD project to keep doing just that. Or, talk to the NC Synod of the ELCA if you would like a printed copy of the book.
- Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or comments!