Letter from a teacher

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A couple of weeks ago, I had the privilege of visiting a classroom of elementary students who had read together, as a class, a  preliminary copy of Witness Men, my most recent book and #3 in the Hidden Heroes series. It was a delight to talk with them. Later I received an encouraging letter from the teacher:

After the chapter toward the end where the missionary was martyred, we discussed martydom, Jim Eliot’s life, and the cost of following Christ.  We were all always close to tears as we finished a chapter, and did end up in tears as we read the last two chapters.  The responses were always that they loved each chapter better than the last, and they wouldn’t change a thing. I think we proved more valuable as admirers than critics.

I hope knowing that you have captured nine precious little hearts will make up for our lack of more formal critiquing.  And in capturing them with your writing, you have opened up new worlds to them, challenging those precious hearts to pray harder, to witness more diligently, to be more appreciative of their material and spiritual blessings, and to be open to being used as these missionaries have been.  Hopefully, their response and positive reception of the book is a good and encouraging sign to you of how well it will be received among children as well as adults. 

We pray for you and look forward to holding the finished product in our hands as soon as possible!

Praising God that He is already using these stories in the lives of children. I’m excited about working through the process of publication.

Nabelan Kabelan? (Witness Men ch 5)

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I’m posting one chapter a week of my newest book, Witness Men, which has just been accepted for publication. Chapter 5 has been removed from the blog (it was up for a week), but here is a brief excerpt.

“My son-in-law says that this Jesus will give life that goes on and on,” Lalok said anxiously. “Will my son-in-law live forever?”

“He won’t live forever on this earth, but after this life, he’ll have eternal life with the great God, Jehovah. That’s because Den no longer holds to his power pieces, but he looks to Jesus only for his power.”

“So maybe this is the nabelan kabelan of the Dani,” said Lalok.

“Tell me about nabelan kabelan,” said Gordon.

“The bird dies, of course. But the snake lives forever, as we can see by the new skin he gets again and again. Long ago the snake and the bird had a race, and the bird won the race. Our ancestors foolishly followed the bird and lost the way to live forever. But we believe that someday we will again find nabelan kabelan, my skin your skin. That is the forever life that our ancestors lost. Then we will have no more death, no more fear, no more hard work, no more war. Maybe what you tell me is this.”

“I can’t promise no more hard work. I can’t promise that you won’t die. But I can promise that in Jesus Christ you can have no fear. I can promise that in Jesus Christ you no longer have to have these terrible wars. I can promise that in Jesus Christ you can live forever after death.”

Identify this missionary kid . . .

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Who’s the taller one in front, the ten-year-old?

One evening last summer Tim and I were both lounging in bed, both reading. Suddenly I said, “Hey, look at this.” I covered the caption of the picture and showed him. “Who do you think that goofy (but loveable) looking ten-year-old boy is?”

Tim barely looked up from his engrossing novel. “I have no idea.”

“No, seriously!” I said. “Look at him! Can’t you tell who it is?”

“Am I supposed to know?”

“Yes! You should be able to tell!”

He sighed. “Give me a hint. What year is it?”

“It’s 1973.”

Tim squinted at the picture and acted like he was going to turn back to his book again. Honestly, I couldn’t get his attention away from it for two seconds.

So I reminded him that I was reading this book as part of my research for Witness Men. Then I showed him the cover. It was Torches of Joy, by John Dekker, a missionary.

“All right. Now, who’s that boy?” I raised my eyebrows in anticipation.

“Is it Ted Dekker?”

“That’s it! Ted Dekker at ten years old! Remember, his parents went to work among the Dani people in Irian Jaya, I mean Papua, and he says that growing up in that jungle is part of what gave him the background for his. . . .”

But Tim had already turned back to his gripping novel. I think he didn’t even hear me.

What was that compelling book that drew him like a magnet?

Oh, yes. It was Obsessed.

By Ted Dekker.

Power Pieces (Witness Men ch 4)

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“Tuan!” the boy called. “Tuan Botemon!”

Tom Bozeman came out of his little pole-and-bark house to see the bright-eyed boy. Tom had lived here among this Dani tribe a few months, and had learned enough words to begin teaching the people a little bit.

“Greetings!” he said, snapping his fingers with the boy’s. “What’s your name?”

“I’m Hilitu,” the boy said. “I saw you at the cannibal feast yesterday.”

I’m posting one chapter at a time of this children’s book of true stories. Each chapter will be up for about a week and then will come down. Read along with me to get a taste of what the book will be like when it’s published!

Thirsty yet?

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[Reprinted by request from January, 2011.]

Ho! Every one that thirsts! Come to the waters . . . Drink!

New Year’s Resolution #2,012: Drink more water.

Have you ever noticed that you can systematically drink less and less water, way less than your body needs, without feeling thirsty? Counterintuitive, I know. But that thirst mechanism behind your throat sort of atrophies or something.

And lots of people, when they do feel any thirst, go to coffee or soda to try to assuage it. Of course those beverages actually drain water from your system.

And as that thirst mechanism shrivels up, sometimes when people are thirsty they think they’re hungry, and then they eat . . . and eat . . . and eat . . . while they’re actually dying of dehydration.

Thirsty yet?

My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; when shall I come and appear before God? . . . O God, You are my God; I earnestly seek You; my soul thirsts for You; my flesh longs for You, as in a dry and weary land without water.

At eleven years old, I developed a life-threatening kidney condition that hospitalized me for two weeks. My parents made me drink two quarts of water a day, and I became the healthiest I had ever been in my life.

Did I mention that I was a very sickly child? Besides asthma and stomach problems, I had this weird skin disease all over my hands and feet that made me become unable to walk normally or do pretty much anything. I dropped out of sixth grade. My mother took me to one doctor after another. I suffered much at the hands of these physicians, and rather than growing better, I actually grew worse.

But then I got the kidney disease and got well.

It was only as an adult, married to a man who knew the importance of water, that I understood what had really happened. Throughout my childhood, I never drank water. I mean I never drank water. Since I was almost never thirsty, I drank one or two cups of milk a day, and that was it. I was dying, and my skin was trying to let me know. Finally my kidneys gave the red alert.

None of those wise skin doctors, with their pills and potions and lotions and creams and plastic bags and soaking solutions ever asked my mother, “How much does she drink?” Never. Nope. Not once. Even though probably every last one of them knew that the skin is called the third kidney.

Thirsty yet?

As an adult, when I drank more and more water, I found myself becoming thirsty more often. Drinking even more. And becoming more healthy.

Jesus stood and cried out, saying, If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. . . . Everyone drinking of this water will thirst again; but whoever will drink of the water that I will give him will never ever thirst, because the water that I will give to him will become a fountain of water in him, springing up into everlasting life.

Oh, my soul, be Thirsty. Be very Thirsty. Don’t forsake the Living Water to hew out broken wells that can hold no water. Drink the Water. Long and deep.

Through the written Word, drink long and deep of Jesus Christ. You’ll find your Thirst Mechanism kicking in. And your Thirst can continuously be satisfied, because the Water will always be there. The Living Water. Drink, and find that you become a river.

Ho, everyone! Are you Thirsty yet?