FAQs - Oasis International

How long has Oasis been working in Africa?

In 1994, Oasis began to serve the people of Nigeria with Christian books and Bibles. At that time, few resources were available to grow the Church. Oasis worked to revive and encourage the market, working with a chain of 23 Christian bookshops, two wholesale centers, and special projects such as distributing hundreds of thousands of Bibles to primary school children for their "Christian Religious Knowledge" classes.

Seeing the success of importation in Nigeria and the need of other nations, in 2004 Oasis developed an initiative to serve the economically-challenged majority of English speaking Christians across Africa. Few imported books are inexpensive enough to meet the financial needs of those making only a few hundred dollars a month. To meet these needs, Oasis began publishing low-cost editions of books for Africa. Ten years later, well over 100 titles were in print selling into fourteen countries, two titles selling over 500,000 copies each. Today, Oasis has seen over seven million books and Bibles go out to feed God's people in Africa. The majority of these books have been made available at under $5.00 retail, making books affordable for Africa's poor majority.

With limited resources, Oasis has helped to grow the faith of seven million people in Africa over the last two decades; we believe we can see tens of millions touched in the next decades. The Africa Study Bible was launched in 2017 and this, along with other African-initiated resources, can be the tools which allow Oasis to move from reaching millions to reaching tens of millions.

Click here to see a timeline of the Oasis Story.

Who founded Oasis?

Edward Elliott, an international Christian publishing executive, founded the Oak Foundation (which became Oasis International) in 1978 with his wife, Virginia. His founding purpose was the distribution of Christian books and Bibles on a sustainable basis to underserved regions of the world where economic poverty is pervasive.

Why does Oasis publish in English?

Our research shows an estimated 100 million English readers throughout Africa. We plan to start in English then continue into French and Portuguese which have another 160 million readers combined.

What is the Africa Study Bible?

The Africa Study Bible is a study Bible with over 2600 notes and features created by 350 contributors from 50 countries. The notes are put along side the New Living Translation. Visit africastudybible.com for more information and FAQs.