Here I Am, Lord Send Me

Click the arrow above to play the slide show.

And the winner is....

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The contest officially ended at midnight on Saturday, the 17th. I had my Mom draw the winner out of a "basket" on Sunday evening, the 18th.

The winner of my book-giveaway contest is....

Biker Bob!

The following was Bob's entry -

1) Luke 10:25-37 -> Your neighbor is anyone you can show mercy to in times of need. Fortunately the answer is easy as every human being qualifies for that distinction at one time or another.

2) I will go to Guatemala in April with the Josiah Foundation to minister to my neighbor. I will be ministering to the long term missionaries that are organizing this mission trip, as well as the people in Guatemala that we will be distributing wheelchairs to.

Thanks to all of you that participated in my contest!

My daughter, Naomi, is also running a contest. There's still time, as her deadline isn't until April 30th! The prize is the same thing - a free copy of my new book!

Click here to view the details of her contest.


And, if you haven't yet purchased your own copy of my book, no worries! You still can get one. Just click here for details!

Remember....

Jesus commanded us to love our neighbors!

Ask yourself - Who is my neighbor?

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Purchase a Copy of My Book!

My 2nd book is available for purchase!

"Created for Relationship; Compelled to Kenya to Love My Neighbor" is a collection of short stories about my relationships and experiences in Kenya over a period of four years.

The sub-title is taken from Matthew 22:39. The first and greatest command is to love the Lord our God with all our heart and soul and mind. The second greatest command is to love our neighbor.

God, in his sovereign design has compelled me to the other side of the world - Kenya - to love my neighbor!

I believe you will be encouraged and challenged as you read my stories.

Click here to purchase a book.


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My First Book - Created for Purpose

A picture of me at Washington branch library in early 2004.
I'm printing a hard copy of my press-ready pages
to send to the printer.

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Frontenac, Minnesota

I had a great 6-day getaway in Minnesota recently. I visited some friends - Dave and Rose and met their delightful grand-daughter, Abby. It was great to get caught up with each other and to find mutual encouragement in our time together.

They live a mere 5-minute walk from a State Park. I thoroughly enjoyed the woods and ensuing solitude almost every day I was there. I viewed several bald eagles from a close proximity and watched several beautiful deer.

To cap it all off, I got to see a missionary friend from Kenya for a 4-hour lunch!

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A Lovely Bike Ride

After one of the most difficult winters in Omaha's recent history (a record 90 consecutive days with snow cover), I seized the day last week and did a 32-mile bike ride to Boyer Chute and Fort Calhoun. What a delightful (and warm) day it was!

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02 / 10 / 2010

NEWS FLASH! DRUM ROLL!

TODAY – at precisely 2:10pm on 02-10-2010, I shipped (via UPS) my 296-page manuscript to the publisher!

Hip, hip, hooray! I am so relieved!

I feel like I’ve turned a great big corner in my life! What a sense of accomplishment!

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How do You Eat an Elephant?

How do you eat an elephant?

One bite at a time.

How do you achieve a goal?

One step at a time.

How do you write a book?

One single letter of the alphabet at a time.

One letter plus a few more letters equals a word.

One word plus a few more words equals a sentence.

One sentence plus a few more sentences equals a paragraph.

One paragraph plus a few more paragraphs equals a story.

One story plus a few more stories… eventually equals a book!

Then, of course, there’s re-writing and more re-writing. After that comes even more re-writing.

There’s editing and proof-reading. And… even more editing and proofreading.

Pictures have to be selected. The manuscript has to be layed out in its final appearance.

After all of that… there’s more re-writing, editing, and proof-reading. Re-arrange sentences. Copy and paste. Delete.

Simultaneously, you must make sure each and every period, question mark, exclamation mark, and quotation marks are in the proper places!

Don’t forget to save often!

Check your facts. Google... and Google some more.

Somewhere in the midst of all that, you must select the title and perhaps a sub-title. Then you must tweak both of them.

You must select someone to write a foreword while you work on the prologue, introductions, preface, and epilogue.

Don’t forget to back it up… often!

You must insert the page numbers.

Then… you must do more proof-reading and editing of all the various components of your book. Sometimes this can be on your computer. Other times it should be on a printed hard-copy. Once you make all your red marks on the printed hard-copy, you must insert them into the digital file on your computer.

You must create a Table of Contents and a List of Photographs. And… in my case, a glossary.

Oh, and speaking of photographs… have they been converted to digital half-tones yet?

Are you still saving your work?

You must decide to whom (if anyone) you should dedicate the book. Who should you acknowledge? Have you written those two pieces yet?

You must study the publisher’s manual as well as their website. You must communicate with them to make sure you have all the particulars correct.

Are you still backing up everything? Every single day?

Then… you can do more editing and proof-reading. More copying and pasting. More re-arranging. More deleting.

And on, and on, and on, and on, it went!

I’ve struggled through some difficulties and delays, to be sure! I had to get past many overcast, cloudy, gloomy, no-motivation days and even weeks.

July 8^th (seven months ago) was the day I actually sat down and started. The seasons came and the seasons went.

I cycled to the downtown Farmers’ Market every Saturday, returning home with a load of produce on my back carrier. I planted flowers. I transplanted flowers.

Then… suddenly, summer turned to fall. There were leaves to rake. There were times I lost my momentum – especially when the sun seemed to disappear for all of October. I raked more leaves. I celebrated Thanksgiving with my family.

Then.. it was winter. There was snow to shovel and ice to chip. My computer crashed and died. Talk about depressing. Plus the sun rarely showed itself. I made a big pot of veggie and wild rice soup. I celebrated Christmas with the family. Then my new computer had issues. I bought yet another one. I endured no power and/or heat in the house off and on for a few days.

I shoveled more snow. I chipped more ice. I made a big pot of 32-bean soup. I cleaned up after a flood from a burst water pipe. I shoveled yet more snow and chipped yet more ice. I even “raked” 2-3 foot drifts of snow off of the roof. In fact, I’m basically still shoveling snow and chipping ice. I made a big pot of lentil soup.

Last night – again – I had insomnia. So… at 3:30am I was wide awake working on more proof-reading. Alas, today we had no internet in the house. Whew! Got that resolved.

Got all the documents and two cover photos in order. Converted the manuscript to a PDF file and saved it on a CD.

And... finally the long awaited moment arrived. I went to UPS and shipped it overnight!

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