It's difficult for me to put last week in perspective. But I got dozens of emails and had several conversations with people who have read either In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day or Wild Goose Chase. I needed the encouragement as I get ready to enter another writing season and start working on my next book.
My prayer mantra as an author has been: Lord, put this book in the right hands at the right time. And we've had a team of NCCers praying for these books since day one. Wanted to share a few testimonies. But first a picture because a picture is worth ten thousand words. I felt like this picture--the books in the hands of a Kenyan woman--is a picture of that prayer being answered. A couple from NCC is working in the Kibera slum in Kenya and they gave a copy of the book to this woman. Pray for her. This picture was taken at the hospital after a man threw gasoline on her. She is recovering from serious burn wounds.
I view writing as an asynchronous ministry. You never know when or where or who you are ministering to, but someone is reading somewhere. In the hospital. At a coffeeshop. In a bathroom. On a plane. In a bathroom on the plane.
Here are a few stories from last week.
Someone told me they named their son Benaiah. Love it! Someone else told me about the tattoo they got because of the book.
I had a conversation with someone who told me he had been witnessing to a friend for several years without much result. This friend started reading In a Pit and emailed him last week saying it changed his life. He said, "We need to talk." By the way, the guy said I'd get half the reward in heaven if he gets saved. Nice. Heavenly profit-sharing. On a serious note, that was so gratifying because it is one reason I write. I view my books as 200 page evangelistic tracts. When people are reading their defense mechanisms are down. It's a safe way to have a dangerous conversation! So cool that I could tag-team with this guy to help win a friend.
Got an email from my friends, Marc McCartney and Brian Mosley, at rightnow.org. I reference their organization in Wild Goose Chase. It's a clearinghouse for missions organizations. I actually put their website in the appendix in hopes that some people would contact them. I guess they were contacted last week by a flight attendant who read Wild Goose and wants to go on mission.
Got another email about someone I met a couple of months ago. Actually signed her book as she was coming through Ebenezers one day. She read In a Pit and felt called, at age fifty-six, to go start an ESL school in Morocco as a way of reaching Muslims.
Here's the bottom line. I don't write for entertainment. I write for mind-changing and life-changing moments. I believe books are divine appointments waiting to happen. As a preacher, I trust the Holy Spirit to do His work somewhere between words leaving my lips and hitting people's ear drums. Same with writing. You never know how God is going to use what you've written. But I trust that the Holy Spirit can take one paragraph or one phrase and quicken it to people's spirits in a way that will change there lives. And that's why I write!
Thanks for letting me download a few of the stories. My blog is one way I keep track of prayer requests. But when God answers them, like He did last week, I want to give credit where credit is due!
My prayer mantra as an author has been: Lord, put this book in the right hands at the right time. And we've had a team of NCCers praying for these books since day one. Wanted to share a few testimonies. But first a picture because a picture is worth ten thousand words. I felt like this picture--the books in the hands of a Kenyan woman--is a picture of that prayer being answered. A couple from NCC is working in the Kibera slum in Kenya and they gave a copy of the book to this woman. Pray for her. This picture was taken at the hospital after a man threw gasoline on her. She is recovering from serious burn wounds.
I view writing as an asynchronous ministry. You never know when or where or who you are ministering to, but someone is reading somewhere. In the hospital. At a coffeeshop. In a bathroom. On a plane. In a bathroom on the plane.
Here are a few stories from last week.
Someone told me they named their son Benaiah. Love it! Someone else told me about the tattoo they got because of the book.
I had a conversation with someone who told me he had been witnessing to a friend for several years without much result. This friend started reading In a Pit and emailed him last week saying it changed his life. He said, "We need to talk." By the way, the guy said I'd get half the reward in heaven if he gets saved. Nice. Heavenly profit-sharing. On a serious note, that was so gratifying because it is one reason I write. I view my books as 200 page evangelistic tracts. When people are reading their defense mechanisms are down. It's a safe way to have a dangerous conversation! So cool that I could tag-team with this guy to help win a friend.
Got an email from my friends, Marc McCartney and Brian Mosley, at rightnow.org. I reference their organization in Wild Goose Chase. It's a clearinghouse for missions organizations. I actually put their website in the appendix in hopes that some people would contact them. I guess they were contacted last week by a flight attendant who read Wild Goose and wants to go on mission.
Got another email about someone I met a couple of months ago. Actually signed her book as she was coming through Ebenezers one day. She read In a Pit and felt called, at age fifty-six, to go start an ESL school in Morocco as a way of reaching Muslims.
Here's the bottom line. I don't write for entertainment. I write for mind-changing and life-changing moments. I believe books are divine appointments waiting to happen. As a preacher, I trust the Holy Spirit to do His work somewhere between words leaving my lips and hitting people's ear drums. Same with writing. You never know how God is going to use what you've written. But I trust that the Holy Spirit can take one paragraph or one phrase and quicken it to people's spirits in a way that will change there lives. And that's why I write!
Thanks for letting me download a few of the stories. My blog is one way I keep track of prayer requests. But when God answers them, like He did last week, I want to give credit where credit is due!
15 Comments:
thanks for writing what God has given you.
Thanks for sharing these stories. It is encouraging for all of us who write.
Thanks for sharing your gift of writing! "Wild Goose Chase" has made an impact on my life and what "cages" I need to work on. It has also touched a friend of ours who recently has really been set on fire by the Holy Spirit. We have been encouraging many of our friends and family to read it as well.
Keep writing Mark! And don't forget two factors. There are people who will you will never hear from because they just don't take the oppertunity to contact you. And then there are the people who thank the person who told them to read your book. You don't know how many people thanked me for telling them to read your book. Anyways, looking forward to your next book. Keep writing!
Mark, thanks for writing your books. I've read In a Pit twice now, and was changed twice when I read it. Thank you so much for your influcence.
Thanks for writing both of your books. They both give a fresh perspective to the believer's walk with Christ. Recently I gave the Lion book to all of our elders as we prepare for some new adventures as a church in 2009. God has give you a unique writing style -- please continue to craft for His glory.
'In a pit' is changing my life...or I should say God is changing my life through 'In a pit...'. 'Wild Goose Chase' is sitting on the table waiting for me to finish 'In a pit'. Thank you for being open & honest and willing to challenge. Keep writing whatever God puts on your heart! :0)
You write for pastors like me. Thanks for both books Mark but especially for Goose.
Relationship is the difference between information and transformation.
We can inform, but God can transform.
How does He use us to transform? Divine inspiration, used in revelation, for transformation!
Only by relating - authentic connection (be it in writing, speaking, or breaking bread) can we be the bridge of God's perfect work!
Keep it up! Be the BRIDGE!
-mike.
(theSanAntonioStone.com)
I saw you leaving EBZ today and just wanted to expand on my "love the new book" comment.
After reading the book, I have started a small book club of 3. Two quick notes -
First, I can't remember if this was in the book or in a sermon,but...I, too, have clapped because of God's greatness -- in Seattle while watching the sunset and most recently, while taking in the Amalfi coast. Bellissimo!
Second, The Madonna of the Future, shook me. In 98, I got a vision for an organization to focus on women and children. 10 years later.. I still struggle to move the vision from the paper to reality. Thank you for reminding me that if I do nothing, nothing will happen.
Many many thanks for rattling my cage(s)!
Great post, Mark. I am a blogger on hiatus right now, just because the demands of family, work and ministry have me going 50 directions at one time. In fact, I am about to move into a different area of ministry in the next month, full time! Hey, you in part inspired me to chase lions in Lakeland, FL (remember me?)
But I didn't comment here to tell you that. I too am a writer, blogs are really just the only outlet I have currently. But I have experienced both the joy and shock that something I wrote was divinely ordained to speak to someone as a "word in due season".. We just never know who we'll speak to, do we?
I wouldn't have accepted what was going to be a really challenging interim pastorate if I hadn't just read "In a Pit.." It was quite a battle, but now that it's over my faith has increased and I'm ready to find my next lion. Thanks Mark!
I'm training @ CBC to be a Church Planter and, like you, I feel God has called me to write but be a pastor first. I'm encouraged by your comments on your blog and at the half-hour lunch session you had here a week ago.
You said that writing began for you by compiling your sermons and editing them in to book form (whether it ends up getting published or not). I've had this idea before and now you've inspired me to actually do it. From now on, I'm compiling (and book-izing) my sermons.
Who knows, maybe my first sermon series as a church planter will become a wildly popular seller... I'll make sure to thank you in the introduction.
Hey Mark, I am reading ooh, sorry, I am listening to Wild Goose Chase. Bought it at Christianaudio.com and am being blessed, challenged and inspired greatly.
Thanks for writing and being a great blessing to a church planter in Mombasa, Kenya.
you don't "go on mission" - you are always in mission...you don't "have a mission" the mission has you...
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