If you picked up a book called Nowy Poczatek, you might be forgiven for thinking you’d never read it before. Chances are, you’d be wrong.

Nowy Poczatek is in fact the title for the Polish version of John Chapman’s A Fresh Start, which has been translated by a Sydney Anglican.

St Alban's, Rooty Hill member Margaret Thompson first read the book when she became a Christian at 21 while studying at UNSW.

"It is written in such an easy-to-understand way and deals with the most commonly asked questions about Christianity," she says.

Margaret decided to translate A Fresh Start into Polish in her early 20s when she realised that people from non-English speaking backgrounds have relatively few Christian resources in their languages.

"I was meeting a lady from my church and I remember telling her how fortunate English-speaking people are because they have so many Christian resources available to them," Margaret says.

"I pointed out to her that other ethnic groups and people in other countries are not so lucky. As a young woman from immigrant background I was still quite new to Australia."

Margaret was born in Poland and came to Australia with her family when she was 15. She became a Christian while studying at UNSW.

A Fresh Start in one year

The whole process of translating took Margaret around a year, as she spent one hour each weekday evening committed to the work.

Margaret, who is now a 35-year-old mother of one and a corporate research and development chemist, met John Chapman many years after starting the translation process.

"When I first started translating, I had not asked permission. I was too young and excited about the project to think about the legal aspects of it. When I met John and told him about it, he was happy for me to continue and wished me well," she says.

The Good Book Company in the UK, a sister company to Matthias Media, is publishing the Polish edition.

While Australia has a relatively small Polish population, there is massive immigration of Polish people to the UK, according to Margaret.

"Tim Thornborough [from The Good Book Company] was very interested in printing the book in Polish in the UK as there is massive immigration of Polish people to the UK. Suddenly we had a market," Margaret says.

To order a copy, contact St Alban's, Rooty Hill or The Good Book Company.