As disasters strike more frequently, how do we answer those who want to know why a loving and powerful God allows so much pain and suffering in the world? For centuries, people have attempted to answer this crucial question. Jane still remember while she was pondering upon the question, Dr. Rick Franklin recommended “Why Suffering” to her. You can tell how she was excited as she found satisfying answers in “Why Suffering?” Rick said this book may command an exorbitant amount of royalties but you should still give it a shot since it is such a great book!”  

As it turns out, they asked for a record-breaking advance royalty in Taiwan’s Christian publishing industry: 6% of the price for the first 5000 copies and higher afterwards. As “Prosperity Theology” floods in Taiwan, most seminaries do not even have Apologetics courses anymore. Such a high royalty will certainly lead to financial loss for the publisher. But prayer after prayer, Jane was only moved by the book even more. Jane chose to submit to God and sign the publishing contract for the Chinese version of “Why Suffering?”  

The Indian style English by Ravi Zacharias, one of the co-authors of the book, was even too difficult for our foreign translation consultants. It was no surprise that the translator misunderstood some parts of the book. Our editor, who demands perfection down to every single detail, lost her patience for the excruciating pain during the editing process. She even lost her temper and told Jane Hsu “I quit! Stop torturing me! Please retranslate the book yourself!”  Fortunately, the retranslated version was approved by our consultant and satisfied our editor. It was finally ready for printing!  

Originally we were going to use the original cover but had to give up since they demanded such a high royalty fee. After some prayers, Jane had the idea of asking her friend Jennifer Wu to help design the cover. The end result was even more impactful than the original cover. Once again, we experienced that God hinders us because He has something better in store for us.  

With tears in our eyes, we want to dedicate the soon-to-be-published Chinese version of “Why Suffering?” to God like our sacrifices to Him. We hope that God will use this book to help people finding Jesus, the real source of meaning and comfort when life doesn’t make sense.    

Thanksgiving—

1. We received the permission of publishing the Chinese edition of Sustainable Church by Walt Russell, Ph.D.
2. Joseph Kuo-Tsai Tan, Assistant Professor, Taiwan Baptist Theological Seminary and Nabin Hsieh, Assistant Professor, China Luthuran Seminary wrote endorsement for Why Suffering?
3. Dr. Rex Johnson and his wife, Eve, are willing to be the speakers of [Healing the Hurt in Your Marriage] Marriage Counseling Conference in 2017.

Prayer Requests—

1. Please pray that God will use Overflowing with Grace DVD to heal Chinese Christians, especially the brothers and sisters in China.
2. Please pray that God will use Living for Just One More Day, intended for people suffering with anxiety and depression, to help those in need.
3. Please pray that the Proofreading of Healing the Hurt in Your Marriage can be completed smoothly. All errors will be revised faithfully, fluently, and elegantly.
4. Please pray for more churches of different cities or counties in Taiwan to be willing to co-host "Walk out of Grief" workshop.