Why I Wrote a Book...

             So, as many of you may or may not know, I write – a lot. Not just missionary newsletters either. I usually write poetry and have been doing just that for the past 12 years. What many of you may not know is that about 8 years ago I almost published a book. It was going to be a random collection of poetry that I had written when I was 16 of about 100 something poems which I considered to be from my best writing streak. I had submitted it to an editor and it had been looked over and we had a meeting. Now, if he was just stroking my young and fragile ego I will never know, but he said that my work was really good and had quite an original voice. Part way through all that, it fell through and I ended up not publishing and less than a year later I ended up moving to South America and my life completely changed.  

                Did any of you know that my plans before that of becoming a missionary were to be a writer? I even started my first novel when I was 13 – not saying it was that great or anything, but I wrote it and I was 13. When God started guiding me towards missions I thought it was just something that I had to give up – you know give up my dreams and take on the dreams that God had for my life. I just didn’t get that God was taking away my dreams, but adding on to them. As the years went by and my professional writing dreams far behind me I actually started writing less in general. The thing is I hadn’t started writing with any intention whatsoever of people reading my poetry – it was a dream that came along later. I started writing because someone made an offhand comment that writing how I feel might help me to feel a little better. So, as I began to write less and less I really began to miss it. But these things are like muscles – you stop doing something for a while and it’s hard to start back up; you remember how but it takes time for your muscles to get back into shape.

                So as the years went by I tried and tried and tried to get back into writing and every once in a while I’d come out with something, but I just never really did get back into the swing of it. I kept trying nonetheless and then I felt God pressing upon my heart to finish what I had started. To take the idea I had originally for my book - which was to be an autobiographical poetry book about coming out of depression – and finish it and publish it. So that’s what I did

 

 This is the name of my first book - "Soul CPR" and it is a book of poetry about my journey with God through years of depression.