CLTS has recently published Les Petites Rencontres avec Jésus by Harold Ristau and Jason Kouri, who have been working on the project for about 8 years. It is illustrated with pencil drawings by Katelyn Ristau. Inspired by the very popular English children’s devotional book Little Visits with Jesus, these French devotions for both congregational and home use offer a short devotion based on a household object, with a concluding prayer, following the Sundays of the church year.
The book includes a preface and endorsement from the confessional Lutheran church in France. 500 copies have been purchased by the Haiti Lutheran Mission Society and shipped to Haiti for outreach and Christian education. Several mission groups within the LCMS, including Lutheran Heritage Fund, have expressed interest in disseminating the books in their mission fields. One goal is to send a copy to every protestant church in Québec as a joint effort with LCC, as a way of both providing them with a good example of a solid Gospel-centric resource for children, and also to help increase exposure to Lutheranism in that province.
The book is written with both Lutheran and non-Lutheran audiences in mind. The authors have deliberately avoided any Lutheran-specific language—terms that only catechized Lutherans may only be familiar with—without compromising the Law/Gospel distinctions, sacramental theology, and liturgical contexts. Most French Lutheran material can be quite dogmatic in its language and, thus, although great in content, difficult for less-learned laity (and especially children) to comprehend. We have attempted to jump over that hurdle in this devotional and make it accessible to French Christians of all ages and situations.
See a free extract of the book, including five devotions, here.
Copies are available through CLTS at $4.00 CDA plus shipping. Contact Dr Harold Ristau (hristau@brocku.ca) or Sarah Cavanagh (scavanagh@brocku.ca), or order directly: https://clts.populiweb.com/router/bookstore/items/178693/show
Concordia Lutheran Theological Seminary 