Write His Answer

Two huge silver maples towered over the house in Chicago where I grew up. I remember sitting on my front porch looking up into those enormous trees and thinking about God. Instinctively, I knew He created everything, including me. I sensed He had a plan for my life, and I longed to discover what it might be. But He seemed far away and unapproachable. With a mixture of fear and awe I would pray to Him. Sometimes, when the breeze rustled through the leaves of my trees, I’d imagine He was whispering to me. If only I knew what He was saying – if only I knew Him.

My mother took me to Sunday school and church every week. My father wouldn’t go. He said he didn’t believe in God. That made me sad and frightened me, too. Although there was a lot I didn’t understand in the sermons our pastor preached, I knew my father couldn’t ignore God and hope to go to heaven.

The night my father died was terrifying. I felt as if he had been swallowed by a deep black hole. That blackness threatened to engulf me, too. I dreaded going to bed at night and facing the nightmares that always came. But the days weren’t much easier, especially when my mother remarried and we moved away from the home where I had always lived and from my two special trees.

“Your sister would like you to come for a visit,” Mother said one day. I hadn’t seen my half sister in years, but Mother was insistent. “She has another baby coming and needs your help.” And so the summer of my fourteenth year I spent in St. Louis. In ways I could never have anticipated, God’s plan for my life began to unfold.

Diane and Joe were devout Catholics. Every night they said bedtime prayers with their children. They prayed before each meal and attended mass several times a week. In my church the emphasis had always been on the empty cross and the risen Lord, but in their home and church Jesus was nailed to the cross.

One night, reading one of their children’s catechism books, I fell face down on the floor sobbing. I thanked Jesus for dying for me and asked Him to forgive me for my sins and to come into my heart.

When I returned home, I began reading the New Testament and attending my church’s youth group. The more I learned about Jesus, the more I wanted to tell others about Him. So I decided I would become a missionary evangelist. But something was wrong. I could picture myself proclaiming the Gospel to people in faraway lands, but I didn’t have the courage to witness to my schoolmates.

If only I could be like Billy Graham, I thought. I admired him so much and was thrilled when my youth group decided to go to the crusade he was holding at Wheaton College in the early 1960s. His message was compelling – and convicting. I knew I needed to go forward and publicly proclaim my faith in Jesus. But what would the kids I had come with think? I didn’t leap out of my seat and run down the aisle. But I did go forward, and that decision changed my life.

Truly, “his mighty power at work within us is able to do far more than we would ever dare to ask or even dream of” (Ephesians 3:20 TLB). Although I never became a missionary or even went on to college after the disappointment of not being accepted when I applied to Wheaton College, thirty years later I walked past that stadium on Wheaton’s campus where I publicly said yes to Christ’s Lordship over my life. The next day I had the privilege of teaching a workshop on writing inspirational articles for the Christian Writers Institute being held on the college campus.

God has indeed called me to be a missionary – a literature missionary! My work has appeared in hundreds of periodicals and even has been read on the radio in India. I’ve published twelve books and experienced the joy of publishing books for other writers through my small house, Ampelos Press.

For 36 years I’ve directed the Greater Philly Christian Writers Conference that I founded. And since 1997 I’ve been directing the Colorado Christian Writers Conference.

Although this year the coronavirus has made it impossible to hold the conferences, I am committed to keep on keeping on with the work He has called me to do of encouraging and equipping you to write about a God who is real, who is reachable, and who changes lives. May He bless you and your writing and keep you safe.

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Because of the heat wave, I worked inside today and cleaned files. I found a version of the above testimony that I wrote about 25 years ago. I’m disappointed I didn’t find it before I published my latest book, How to Write His Answer – Testimonies and Personal Experience Stories, several days ago. The book includes links to 4 hours of audio workshops and can be ordered through my website, https://www.writehisanswer.com, or Amazon.com. I know it will encourage you to write not only your salvation testimony but powerful stories that will impact your readers in life-changing ways.

Because next week would have been the 37th year of ministry for the Greater Philly Christian Writers Conference, I’ve reduced the price 37% through the end of July. (The reduced price is now available on Amazon.)