«In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God» (John 1:1).

Literary ministry is God’s mission, a ministry in word and deed. It is preaching conveyed in the form of a variety of writings. “The sower sows the word,” says our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ (Mark 4:14).
In proclaiming the word from God is the primary mission of the disciples of Christ, who “is, and was, and is to come” (Revelation 1:8).
A good preacher is often also a good writer (of course, if he still has some time left for literary work).

A good Christian writer, in turn, is a good preacher. The point here is not the means that the evangelist uses to convey important information, but the message that the messenger of the Lord of the harvest conveys.

The publishers of the almanac are happy to encourage the authors, by the grace of God Almighty, to bring the good news to a wide readership, and the reader, in turn, to find “his authors” who are able to express what he is thinking or intuitively guessing.

Despite the fact that digital technologies are widely used today to transmit spoken and written fiction, many readers prefer the book in its classic form. The publishers have endeavoured to meet the spiritual demands and needs of just such an audience by working on this issue of the New Times almanac.

It includes literary works written in various forms and genres. These include poetry and prose, sermons and stories, reflections and personal testimonies.

We familiarise our readers with the works of well-known authors and discover new and unfamiliar names.

It is likely that many attentive readers will find answers to the questions that have been troubling them.

It is quite possible that our readers will discover in themselves a certain talent for literary creation, which, if properly treated, will ignite and bear fruit in the writing of their own stories, poems and testimonies.

An author without the reader’s feedback is like a bird without wings. A reader without an author is like a traveller who is lost in guesswork, without proper life guidelines.

In the fields of the gospel field, every worker is both sower and reaper. In the domain of the Creator we often reap what others have sown. And what we sow by the grace of our Lord, perhaps the labourers whom the Lord of the harvest will send into His field after us will reap. Let us obey the command of Jesus Christ: “Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into His harvest” (Matthew 9:38).

Today both he who sows and he who reaps rejoice, because together they contribute to the spiritual house-building of the mysteries of God (Ephesians 3:9).

As an editorial board, we sincerely thank God, who works all things according to His will (Ephesians 1:11).

The next edition of the New Times Almanac is a testimony of God’s grace for all of us – publishers, authors, readers.

Thank you all, dear friends, readers, authors, proofreaders and publishers, for your contribution in word and deed, advice and time, finances and prayer to the preparation of this edition.