Forbes 30 Under 30 Founder Alexander Debelov Is Putting a Bestselling Book Into the Hands of Malawi’s Poorest — For Free

The same book that hit #1 on Amazon is free in Malawi. A young reader with her copy, placed in her hands by a partner ministry and paid for by readers who bought theirs somewhere else. Full story: readtheprayer.com/malawi

An award-winning #1 bestseller sold worldwide is now a free gift in Chichewa, delivered in person through a ministry partnership in Malawi

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, UNITED STATES, July 27, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- This week, the devotional “The Prayer: Rise with Jesus” is a #1 Amazon Best Seller that fans lined up to receive at the record-breaking 2026 FIFA World Cup. But the man behind it, Forbes 30 Under 30 entrepreneur Alexander Debelov, is spending far more energy roughly 8,000 miles away — in the villages of Malawi, one of the poorest countries on earth — where he is putting that same bestselling book into the hands of people who could never afford it, and charging them nothing.
Debelov, the book’s co-author, illustrator, and publisher, has made Malawi the center of the project’s mission. Working with a local ministry on the ground, his team prints the book, carries it in by hand, and places it directly into people’s palms — one person at a time. Nothing is mailed to a warehouse. Nothing is left as a download link. Every copy is delivered in person, for free.

“Malawi is the whole point. It’s not a footnote to the book — it’s the reason the book exists,” said Debelov. “We didn’t want to send Malawi a link and call it charity. We wanted to put a real book into a real person’s hands, and look them in the eye when we did it. The same book that’s a bestseller everywhere else, we hand to Malawians for nothing.”

Malawians pay nothing. Readers everywhere else are the reason.

Here is what makes the free copies possible: the authors keep none of the money. Every cent of royalties from the paid editions — English, Portuguese, Italian, French, Spanish — goes back out the door. It funds the printing and the copies delivered across Malawi, including a full edition in Chichewa, the language spoken across the country, and it helps support churches there. When a reader anywhere in the world buys a copy, they are quietly paying for a Malawian to receive one for free.

“Prayer began as a silent conversation with God, in one of the hardest seasons of my life,” said Debelov’s co-author, Brazilian writer Stefania Leão, who first wrote the book in Portuguese and never intended to publish it. “I never imagined it would be read by anyone — let alone carried into villages in Malawi. The book was meant to reach the people the world forgets. In Malawi, it finally has.”

Debelov’s Malawi outreach is one of two missions funded entirely by the book. The second runs on the streets of San Francisco, where the team distributes food, water, and copies of the book to neighbors experiencing homelessness. One mission feeds the body; the other puts a book of hope into hands that could never afford one. Both are paid for by readers who will likely never meet the people they help.

A bestseller with the credentials to match

“The Prayer: Rise with Jesus” is not a small project. It arrives at this moment as a genuine phenomenon:
● #1 Amazon Best Seller in three languages — Christian Prayer Books, Religion in Portuguese, and Religion in Italian;
● Winner of three international book awards in 2025 — the Best Indie Book Award, the Storytrade Award, and Readers’ Favorite;
● Published in six languages — English, Portuguese, Italian, French, Spanish, and Russian — plus free copies for Malawi, including a Chichewa edition;
● Covered by editorial media across seven countries — including The Christian Post, Church Times of London, Vision Christian Media (Australia), Baptist News Global, and Revista Pernambuco (Brazil).

See it for yourself

The full Malawi story — with photos of the book reaching readers on the ground — is documented at readtheprayer.com/malawi. Debelov invites readers, churches, and journalists to see exactly where every dollar goes: a free book delivered by hand to someone the world rarely sees.
“The bestseller list is nice. Malawi is the reason we made the book,” Debelov said. “A number one ranking fades in a week. A book in the hands of a child in Malawi lasts a lifetime.”

“The Prayer: Rise with Jesus” is available now on Amazon in six languages. The full Malawi story is at readtheprayer.com/malawi. Review copies, high-resolution assets, and interviews with Alexander Debelov are available on request.

Alexander Debelov
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