These past few weeks I have felt a bit like an independent contractor who is in between jobs. Some significant assignments have been completed, but after a short while I will slowly get ready to start a new project .

After having been intensely involved with the FACING DOUBT project (in six different language editions), I spent a major part of the last twelve months—in between numerous other activities—with the writing of two new books. If everything goes according to plan, they will both appear around the end of this months.

I HAVE A FUTURE: Christ’s resurrection and mine is published by Stanborough Press in England. When I approached them with a proposal for a book about this theme, it was immediately received with much enthousiasm. For a considerable time very little has been written in the Adventist Church about this topic. There was, so I was told, a clear vacuum that needed to be filled. However, I was given the suggestion to treat the subject in a fresh way, and to write in such a manner that the book might also appeal to non-Seventh-day Adventist Christians. I have done my very best and the folks at the Stanborough Press, and others who have critically read the manuscript, feel that I have succeeded quite well in what I set out to do.

The marketing department of the publishing house does not only want to promote the book in its home market, but also in Anglophone Africa and in the English-speaking countries in Inter-America. In addition the books from Stanborough Press are also available in the Adventist bookstores in North-America and Australie. It is also hoped that there will be an interest on the part of Christian bookstores in the United Kingdom.  The Stanborough Press expects that several translations into other languages will follow. As I write these lines, the first edition is being printed in Belgrade. The Adventist Church operates a modern printing facility which offers very competitive prices and Stanborough Press has a lot of its printing nowadays done in the Serbian capital. All in all, it is quite an adventure and I hope the book will be a blessing to many.

I wrote the second book that is about to appear in Dutch and sent the manuscript a few months ago to Boekencentrum Publishers—one of the prominent Dutch Christian publishers that has recently fused with a number of other Christian publishers. Having looked at the manuscript they decided to accept it and to publish it under the combined imprint of Boekencentrum and Boekscout. This means that the book will be produced by the printing-on-demand-process but will be marketed together with the other Boekencentrum titles in the Dutch book stores.

The Dutch title of this book translates into English as: Thinking and Acting Christianly: How faith directs our life. In this book I wanted to target Dutch Christians in general. I certainly do not hide the fact that I am a Seventh-day Adventist Christian and am writing from that perspectieve. I try to explain in about 200 pages on the basis of my specific Christian tradition how our faith and our Bible reading enables us to find the right direction in our choices in the many different domains of life—choices in politics and in choosing our profession; choices in what we eat and drink and how we spend our time; choice in dealing with such issues as violence and peace and justice, and with problems regaring the beginning and end of life. I am, of course, very anxious to know how this book will ‘land.’ Will my Adventist point of departure perhaps keep people from prucasing and reading the book? Or will my Adventist readers perhaps feel that I am not ‘clear’ enough?

There is little doubt that before too long I will start work on another book. I have a few preliminary ideas, but want to take some time to let these mature. In the meantime I decided to spend some time this week in restoring some order in my study. No one needs to worry: there are plenty of other activities to keep me from becoming bored.