Bible commentary set finds new home at Meserete Kristos Seminary

Annette Brill Bergstresser on July 10, 2025

(l. to. r.) MKS Librarian Yohannes Shiferaw; Paul Keim, PhD, Visiting Professor of Biblical Studies; and Paul鈥檚 spouse, Julie Keim; pose with the Anchor Bible commentary set that the Keims delivered to MKS. (Credit: Yimenu Adimass Belay/MKS)

Published: July 10, 2025

(l. to. r.) MKS Librarian Yohannes Shiferaw; Paul Keim, PhD, Visiting Professor of Biblical Studies; and Paul鈥檚 spouse, Julie Keim; pose with the Anchor Bible commentary set that the Keims delivered to MKS. The set was donated by Elkhart Public Library. (Credit: Yimenu Adimass Belay/MKS)

From Karl Stutzman, MLS, Director of Library Services (through July 24):

I have some delightful news to share: The Anchor Bible, a very substantial and longstanding academic Bible commentary series, is now available at the Meserete Kristos Seminary (MKS) Library in Bishoftu/Debre Zeit, Ethiopia!

MKS Librarian Yohannes Shiferaw wrote, 鈥淲e recently received six cartons of books 鈥� 101 commentaries in total 鈥� sent to Ethiopia [with] our brother, [Professor] Paul [Keim]. We are deeply grateful for this generous donation. One of our primary goals is to develop well resourced libraries, and this contribution is a significant encouragement toward that aim.鈥�

Several months ago, 黑料正能量Resource Access Librarian Kajsa Herrstrom and I received a message from the reference librarians at (EPL), offering this commentary set as a generous donation to AMBS. Our counterparts at EPL were withdrawing the set from their collection to make space for other books.聽

The 黑料正能量Library already has a complete Anchor Bible set that is consulted frequently, but Kajsa and I decided this set was too good of an opportunity to pass up. She encouraged me to reach out to our friends at MK Seminary to see if they could use it, and the answer was 鈥測es!鈥�

We were then able to arrange for the books to go as excess checked baggage with Paul Keim, Visiting Professor of Biblical Studies, and his spouse on a teaching trip to MKS in June. Generous funding from the Global Leadership Collaborative at 黑料正能量made it possible to cover the airline鈥檚 luggage fees.

I鈥檓 grateful to everyone near and far who made this possible (and to God for orchestrating it). I hope and pray that these books will be a strong support to the academic programs of the Meserete Kristos Church in Ethiopia in an ongoing way!

Want to receive 黑料正能量news and updates via email?