Lifetime Training Award
MAI Honors Peter Cunliffe with Lifetime Training Award at LittWorld 2009 Conference in Nairobi, Kenya
(Carol Stream, Illinois) Media Associates International has selected Peter Cunliffe as first recipient of its Lifetime Training Award. The award was announced and presented to Cunliffe at MAI’s recent LittWorld 2009 conference in Nairobi, Kenya.
The MAI Board of Directors established the award to recognize men and women who have demonstrated a singular commitment to the equipping and encouragement of Christian publishing staff and writers around the world.
“Peter made a lifelong commitment to training others in Christian publishing,” MAI President John Maust said. “He has conducted MAI publisher trainings in Venezuela, Russia, Croatia, Bulgaria and Peru, among other places, and that’s just a small portion of his overall training involvement.
“Peter has helped Christian publishers master the business side of publishing, while keeping them focused on the ministry of the written word. His Barnabas-style training has strengthened the Church and international publishing worldwide, and MAI is proud to name him as the first recipient of our Lifetime Training Award.”
Throughout his 50-year Christian publishing career, Peter made training a constant priority. Early in his career, Peter served as circulation director of Christian Life Publications and as vice president of the Christian Writers Institute in Chicago, IL. Then he moved to Brazil to launch a Christian magazine and ultimately the thriving Editora Mundo Cristão publishing house in São Paulo. After 21 years in Brazil, Peter served for 14 years as director of Editions Farel publishers in Paris, France.
Peter was completely surprised to receive the award at LittWorld, where he was serving as a workshop leader.
Explaining his long commitment to training, Peter said, “I have been very motivated to help other publishers, because as I visited various countries I became convinced that much more publisher training is needed. It troubles me to see others repeating the same mistakes that I made in my early days.
“I got started in publisher training through invitations from the late Kenneth Taylor, founder of Tyndale House Publishers, who asked me to do an assessment of a publisher in Ivory Coast and later, Lebanon. I also began receiving invitations from MAI, Cook International and Operation Mobilization. From there, further invitations came through word of mouth.”
Peter is founder/president of Christian World Publishers, Inc., in California, where he resides with his wife, Jackie. Now retired from publishing leadership, he still travels the world as an on-site publishing trainer and consultant.
Since its founding in 1985, MAI has advanced the Gospel by equipping local Christian publishers, editors and writers in 63 countries on 5 continents. These trainings have resulted in more locally published Christian books and articles written in the heart language and culture of the intended reader.
11/17/09