How & Why I Began Writing

“Would you like to move back to Iraan,” Jerry asked me. “Tommie & I have been praying about it ever since I made the decision to retire. We believe that now is the time, and God is calling us into full-time prison ministry. Do you want to join us?” I had been working with Jerry & Tommie in prison ministry ever since they started … 15 years, at that point. So, of course I said, “Yessss!!!”

So began a long series of events which led to writing my first book, “One Foot On A Banana Peel.” “One Foot…” is a description of grief and an expression of the hope and healing that lie beyond trauma and tragedy. The simple experience of moving in itself can be a cause for grief, and I’m not so sure I wasn’t actually experiencing some of those emotions at the time. I had been widowed in March of 1988. Raising two young children, working and moving three times during the course of those years ~ yes, I wanted to continue in prison ministry, but I was also sure I was feeling some “trauma” over the upcoming move.

Shortly after I moved back, Tommie came to me with an offer. She felt it was time to expand our ministry and move into the area of counseling in the “free-world,” (A term used by those in the prison system, referring to anyone who is not incarcerated). She asked if I wanted to join them in taking some courses. So, off we went to Crockett, Texas, to attend school at Therapon Institute, where we later became licensed belief therapists. During the course of our schooling, we had to write a 10-page paper on any subject for which a person might come to us for counseling. Up to that point, there had been 11 deaths of my immediate family members in about 7 or 8 years. So, it seemed appropriate for me to write on the topic of grief. My 10-page paper turned out to be 29 pages long! The Director of the Institute said it was a good work, and that I should turn it into a seminar. So, I spent the rest of that year and part of the next, writing and re-writing. Condensing and expanding. Dealing with life’s problems, and adding what I had learned to what I had already written. One major thing I learned in the process of all this, was that it seemed most people had the idea that grief only occurred when a loved one passed on. This is just NOT TRUE, nor is it Scriptural. There are a multitude of causes for grief, and there varying degrees of its intensity. Most of us experience it to one degree or another, and usually more than once during the course of our lifetimes. So, what about it … is there any hope?

Well, of course there is! And hope was what I wanted to share in the writing of that paper. Hope is still what I want to share. The hope that can come through even that long, dark tunnel of grief. The hope and healing that lie beyond trauma and tragedy. There have been many other trials, temptations and struggles in our lives since the deaths of all those family members, all of which produced symptoms and stages of he grief process in varying levels and degrees. Any one of these events could have had major destructive power in my life.

But the inspiration for the writing of “One Foot…” came to me one evening shortly after that when my sister (my only sibling) called to inform me that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer. My reaction to her dilemma surprised me. I was REALLY angry! I felt that ONE MORE TIME my hands were tied. Here was ONE MORE TRAGEDY that I could do nothing about. While I definitely do not have one foot on a banana peel and the other one in a grave, the reality of the situation was that I was too old to start over again … become a doctor so I can “fix” this situation, or begin in research to find a cure for cancer so my sister could be healed.

At some point during this tirade, I began to pray. It was while I was thinking about all these things and praying, that God spoke to my mind and heart. He said, “Take all that you wrote about grief and put it into book format. Reach as many hearts as you can with the light of HOPE.” Thus began my writing career, and my first book, ”One Foot On A Banana Peel,” was born. My Heavenly Father sustained me through all of those experiences that could have devastated me and my family. He sustains me still. He was the One who created hope in the first place. It is He who planted hope within my soul. So, I give honor and glory to him through the writing that I do. But it is YOU that I’m writing for. It is YOU who I pray finds hope within the pages of the books and seminars I write. It is YOU whom I know that God wants to bless with peace and HOPE. He sustained me … and He will sustain you.

http://livinghope.tatepublishing.net/
http://www.gentlespringsofhope.org/

"One Foot on a Banana Peel" With so much pain in the world, "One Foot..." is a breath of fresh air and a light of hope. "One Foot..." is a description of grief and an expression of the hope and healing that lie beyond trauma and tragedy.