EPI Video Scribe: An "illustration" of EPI
Our Past
As a young man, Ed Harlow paid for his education, including three years of Bible College, by working a variety of jobs. Many of those early jobs also prepared him for the mission field. In July 1935, Ed Harlow and his young bride Ella Margaret followed the Lord’s leading and arrived in the Congo to work alongside the established missionaries there. The Deans had started a Boys Bible School to train young African men in evangelism and Bible teaching in the rural areas. The Harlows soon began a Girls Bible School to train young African ladies to train other young women. With both a Boys Bible School and Girls Bible School underway, life was very busy. They kept in touch with many from Canada including the Tathams who let them know that there was a strong desire to expand the current Summer Bible classes at Guelph Bible Conference Centre into a full time Bible school. They strongly encouraged the Tathams and prayed earnestly that the work would move forward.
In 1941, the Harlows returned to Canada for a furlough but also with a growing burden for the young men and women of North America. The goal was to train young people in the Word of God, so that they might serve more effectively in their local churches and be prepared for service on the mission field. That same year the Guelph Bible School moved to Toronto and was renamed Emmaus Bible School by the three founders, Ed Harlow, John Smart and Ernest Tatham. The following year the Emmaus Correspondence school was established for those who could not come to Toronto. More than 75 years later both of those ministries continue to meet the needs of believers in the US and around the world.
Harlow
In 1964 Dr R.E. Harlow and his new wife, Gertrud, started a small publishing work called Everyday Publications Inc. (EPI) to provide Bible study materials for believers in Africa. A complete set of commentaries on the entire Bible is now available in Everyday English, with over 400 other titles. Additional books have been translated into Swahili, and into other languages as well.
Everyday English
In the early 1950s the Harlows took a two year leave of absence to promote the Emmaus courses around the world including in their much loved Congo. They rejoiced to see the steady growth of the believers there but were troubled that the believers had so few resources in their own language. Most of the believers had limited English and struggled to understand the more difficult textbooks from the West. The Harlows immediately began writing materials in Everyday English, a style of writing developed by Dr. Harlow. Everyday English was scientifically based, not so much on a limited vocabulary, as on the concept of short, uncluttered sentences and simpler words. As an educator, Dr. Harlow found that Everyday English made concepts easy to understand and also aided translation into other languages. As new resources were developed in Everyday English, they were quickly translated into Swahili and a number of other languages. During this time, Ed Harlow’s dear wife went home to be with the Lord. He later married Gertrud Koppel who shared his burden for the people of the Congo.
Authors
The Lord has led authors from all over the world to write books to see the saints grow in there faith through EPI. These authors have written books not for monetary purposes as they receive none but out of there Love for the Lord.
Our Present
Since the beginning of the work, nearly six million books, brochures and tracts have been printed and distributed in North America and around the world. This is a significant number and in some parts of the world, the impact is felt even more where books are read, shared and then passed on to family members, friends or colleagues at school. We thank the Lord for the potential of these resources to point people to Christ and to help believers grow in their faith. But we recognize that over the past 55 years that Everyday Publications has been serving the Lord, the world population has grown by more than 2 ½ billion souls. Our prayer is that the Lord will multiply the blessings found through these resources to thousands as He did with the few loaves and fishes from the lunch of a young lad who was willing to surrender them to the hands of the Master. Many missionaries have undertaken, at their own expense, the daunting task of translating and printing EPI books into the local language of the area where they work.
1 Thessalonians 2:12
“... Encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory.”
Our Future
As the Lord provides the funds through His people, shipments of books are sent free of charge by container to commended missionaries and national workers in 3rd world countries. Books in easy-to-read Everyday English are sent to commended missionaries in Botswana, Kenya, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, the Philippines, Zambia, Colombia, Peru, Norway and Ireland. Thousands of books with test booklets in Everyday English have been sent to prison ministries in the U.S. and Canada. Several correspondence ministries use the EPI books in English. Many missionaries in Central and South America as well as in the Caribbean islands use the Spanish books and test booklets. Missionaries from Angola, Mozambique and Brazil use the Portuguese materials. Some of the Everyday English books and tests are even used by a correspondence ministry in Pakistan.
EPI books have been sent to almost every country and continent on the globe. Students of the Word from Cuba to Siberia have requested books from us. Books have been sent to the islands of the sea: the Virgin Islands, the Canary Islands, the Bahamas, Jamaica, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.