Celebrating Our Ten-year Anniversary

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A Testimony to God’s Faithfulness

The month of March marks our ten-year anniversary – ten years that seem to have gone by in a flash! But by God’s grace much has been achieved and we hope our story of His faithfulness can encourage others, especially those entering into new areas of ministry and business.

Over the past decade Instant Apostle has been privileged to publish around 150 books, including award-nominated and award-winning fiction and biographies. In 2018, we were also delighted to be named Christian Resources Together’s Small Publisher of the year.

When we felt called to set out on this journey, we knew very little about the publishing world, but founders Manoj Raithatha and Bridget Adams trusted that those the Lord calls, He also equips. Soon after the company began, we were indebted to the expertise of Nicki Copeland and Nigel Freeman when they joined the team, and along the way many other experts have brought essential and timely industry experience as the Lord has nurtured our growth. Anne Rogers, formerly of Lion Hudson, and editor Sheila Jacobs deserve special mention, as do the Lion Sales Services team and Tony Collins. Our two wonderful cover designers have also done incredible work in helping our books to stand out.

But above all, a publishing company’s success comes down to its authors – and the Lord has blessed us with so many brave, creative and faith-filled writers of all genres. Many have vulnerably and honestly shared their own incredible stories of how God has worked in their lives, from church planters and missionaries, to a former Page Three girl and a one-time Hindu priest. From the start, we also felt that part of our call was to publish books addressing important social issues, and with titles on topics covering racism in the Church, to dementia care and the refugee crisis we hope to have fulfilled this in part. Increasingly, publishing quality fiction has been a priority as well. We believe that sharing the gospel implicitly rather than explicitly can be a powerful way for those closed to faith to start gently hearing God’s voice – if parables were good enough for Jesus, then novels can certainly be for us!

Nicki Copeland, who now heads up Instant Apostle, comments, ‘It was through working in a freelance capacity on one of Instant Apostle’s first books that I became aware of this new Christian publishing company, based not too far from where I live. I certainly didn’t anticipate that ten years later I would be overseeing the day-to-day running of the company!’

Nicki continues, ‘Christian publishing and bookselling is a wonderful industry to work in, even though it has its challenges, as we have particularly seen over the last couple of years. But God is faithful, and we’re still here, and very much looking forward to what He will do over the next ten years!’

We hope our story of God’s faithfulness will encourage others across the board who are sensing God’s call to step out into the unknown – the past ten years certainly encourage us as we look ahead to what we hope may be many more.

And if you think you might have a story that is worth sharing, do get in touch!