Little did we dream that a cow would be the answer to our prayers!

One day while living in Culdesac, Idaho, Dan went to help a fellow in our church with his cows. He was “working” cows — don’t remember what he was doing with them — but it involved moving them along a chute to give them shots and branding the calves. One momma cow didn’t appreciate being “moved”. Reminds me sometimes of people I know — maybe even that one I see in the mirror!

Anyway, Dan was opening and shutting the gate behind the cows. I think the farmer, Orland, yelled something at him just as he was shutting the gate behind one group. Probably something like, “Watch out! She’s an ornery one!”

It happened so fast Dan didn’t have time to register the warning. As she sensed the gate approaching her back end, the cow let loose with a tremendous kick with both hind feet, sending the gate flying back. Since Dan was standing close to the gate, preparing to lock it shut, he was thrown back, too.

He landed in a ditch in the mud about six feet away. The first thing he noticed was that he’d lost his glasses. A quick search, though, recovered them, and he was glad even though they were broken. (Orland replaced them!) Picking himself up, Dan inspected himself and found to his relief nothing was broken. He and Orland exchanged laughs and after Dan assured him for the hundredth time that he was okay, they finished the cows.

The capper came later. Yes, Dan was a little sore. But from that day to this, he has never suffered with back pain! That old cow kicked his back into place. We called her “the chiropractor cow” and were sad when Orland sold her.

An answer from a very unlikely source! How has God answered YOUR prayers? He has a sense of humor, He is very creative, and He delights to give His children “good gifts”. We praise Him for the answers He has given to us over the years, and especially for Dan’s healed back. Healed by a cow. Now that one has to go down in some annals of “unusual and funny things”!

I have been writing stories for over 30 years. I began when my children were small and my husband, Dan, and I worked as missionaries in British Columbia, Canada. I had a dream one night about a mystery and a young girl who solved it. And so I wrote “The Mystery of the Missing Message”, a teen novel that portrayed a young girl who gets involved in a case of a kidnapped baby and falls into danger when she tries to solve it. Based around the idea of a Christian Nancy Drew, I went on to write four more teen novels featuring Jodi Fischer and her friend, MaryAnn Laine, and had them published by Moody Press from 1985-1987. I thought my dream had come true and that I would be the next famous author and household name.

But it didn’t happen. After Moody discontinued the series, I continued writing but had little success in getting published. I wrote two teen novels, featuring a girl dectective by the name of Teri Michaels, an 8-12 mystery novel that took place on a sheep ranch in eastern Montana (also a mystery), and a historical novel about the bibicial character of Ruth.

Were these my “practice” novels? I do not know. They are still sitting in my closet, waiting to be edited and published.

One day I strolled the Christian book store Fiction aisle and noticed that almost all the published titles were historical fiction. Ah, I thought. I’ll write a historical fiction. The only problem was that my great love and passion is the medieval era, and I placed my book (Sirocco, The Wind from the East) in that time period, using a real-life person from history, Pricne Arthur of Brittany, as the springboard. I wrote and studied and edited like a fury, confident that at last one of my novels would see print because I had written what everyone was writing: historical fiction. Alas. I discovered several years later that most Christian publishers will not publish anything older than the Civil War and especially veer away from the days of the Crusades. My long quest to find a publisher finally ended with Xulon, a POD publisher in Florida. I am currently writing the sequel to Sirocco: Mistral, the Wind from the North.

Writing is the easy part, right? Finding a publisher is the hard part. I’ve been told that if you write well, your work will be noticed and you WILL be published. Do you agree or disagree? What does it take to be published? Why couldn’t I find a “traditional” publisher?

Please write to me and let me know your ideas, thoughts, comments and suggestions. Share your problems with the writing life. Maybe together we can find an answer.

Ginger (Virginia)

But the stories I have unearthed from this time period, true stories, are fascinating. My biggest problem in writing Sirocco Wind was to chose which stories to put in and which stories to leave out.

My favorite story (which I deleted after much thought and prayer) was the true story of a man nicknamed William Longbeard. I allude to his story in Sirocco Wind, but was forced to leave it out as it took up too much room and did not forward the plot along.

William Longbeard (I can’t remember his true name) was born of fairly high placed parents and went in for the study of the law. He was an honest man and was soon dismayed to learn that the common man in those days (England 1198) had no rights, that there were two sets of laws, one for the landed, wealthy and noble classes, and one for the poor and landless serfs, servants, and slaves. He rebelled against the system and gathered together many like-minded people among the lower classes. He preached his sermons of freedom and equality through the streets of England. Of course the nobles did not like it, and tried vainly to shut him up. They imposed taxes, tried to hinder the trade of goods, and locked down the roads into and out of England. William went to France and appeared before King Richard, complaining of the treatment he was getting and appealing to the king for relief from the taxes and from the restraints on freedom. Richard said he would look into it, but he never did. William returned to London and continued to stir up trouble. They had secret passwords and secret meetings. They smuggled weapons into London and hid them in warehouses. The mood of the people on the street was ugly. A big fight was in the air.

Then the rulers found out about it. One day they shut down London streets. They imprisoned a few brave souls who tried to move about. Unable to communicate with each other or to reach their store of weapons, William’s army was defeated before they were able to fight. William himself and a small group of followers were chased down the street. They took refuge in a church. The king’s men burned the church and flushed William and his men into the street where they were arrested. They beheaded his men, but William deserved a public trial. Of course the outcome was fixed. William was convicted of high treason. In front of a crowd of silent, despairing watchers, he was tied to a rope and then drug through the streets behind a horse. When he was almost dead, they untied him and then hung him.

They buried him, but the people had the last word on William Longbeard. They came by the droves in the night and took handfuls of dirt because they felt the dirt on his grave was hallowed. The soldiers tried to keep them away, but they came anyway. William became a hero, and his life and message began a much stronger movement in England, France, and throughout Europe against the injustices of the feudal system. Not much later, King John would sign the Magna Carta, the document that became the foundation for our freedom in America and across the world. I’d like to think it was party due to William Longbeard, for his courage, insight, and resolve to stand up against unthinkable odds for something he thought was important.

There are many lessons we could learn from the lives of such men as William Longbeard. This is only one story of many that I unearthed. Some of them are almost unbelievable. I will continue to tell some of them in this column.

If you have any thoughts on the medieval time period, please let me know.
Thank you for responding!
Ginger Work

Success is that elusive “something” out there that beckons to us like the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. And much like the pot of gold, success seems to diminish as we near our goal. Much of the Internet is based on who gets the most “hits” on their sites, how much money you can make, how popular your site is. What is your definition of success? Are you nearer it now than you were, say, ten years ago?

For a Christian, what does it mean to be successful? In the area of writing, what does success look like? Getting your book published? Getting a 6-figure advance on your book contract? Selling books like Rick Warren? Having publishers contact YOU to write a book?

What did success mean to Jesus? To Him, I believe it meant one thing: doing the will of God

How can we do the will of God in a more effecient way?

Last time I wrote, I mentioned running the race, and running it FAST. To be successful, to run the race as God sees it, we need to work at it. Success doesn’t happen automatically. How are you ordering your life to be successful for God?

The first letter of FAST is:

F: Fill your vessel (prepare).

1) Take some time each morning to allow God to fill your heart with His Holy Spirit. This involves confession of sin, reading the Word, praying. You know that we should do these things, but life gets so hectic, and there is little time for quiet prayer and commitment to God. I would like to suggest to you that unless you properly fill you vessel with God, you have no hope of success in your life. It’s like starting out on a long car trip with no gas in your tank. Or starting out to write a novel set during the medieval period without doing any kind of research.

Can’t be done. At least not successfully!

2) Prepare your mind for the tasks ahead, recognizing that it is God who enables you in each thing (even if it is something that you deem easy). For each situation that is going to arise that day, commit it to God in prayer. Do you have a meeting with a tempermental boss? Have you been called up for jury duty? Are you applying for a new job? Are you getting your hair cut? Whatever is on your schedule, pray about it, ask for God’s wisdom, and turn it over to Him. Admit you cannot handle it yourself. You need His guidance, counsel, wisdom, and direction. Look in the Word to see what He has to say about the issues you face each day. You will be surprised that even if you are reading in Leviticus, God can direct your thinking and touch your heart with His Word.

3) Each evening assess your day. Write down areas that are bothering you. Write down what you need to do for the next day. Lay aside the burdens you are carrying. You can’t go to sleep and sleep peacefully without relinquishing the cares of the day to God. Once you have written it down on your “to do” list, don’t worry about it. Leave it in His hands. He will give you a sweet sense of peace. You won’t have to take a sleeping pill. What does this step have to do with success?

If success for a Christian means doing the will of God, we must each seek to do His will and at the end of the day, give it over to God and rest in His love. We can’t go back and change what we’ve done. We can ask others to forgive us; we can ask God to forgive us when we have done something wrong. But the things you can’t change, a wise man once said, you must let go.

Fill your vessel, prepare your day, assess each evening. Step One in becoming a more efficient servant of God. DO IT. Do this ONE step and see if it works.

Write me a note if you did, and what changes it made in your life.

Next time we’ll talk about A=Assemble Your Tools.

Write me, please!

Ginger

But it didn’t happen. After Moody discontinued the series, I continued writing but had little success in getting published. I wrote two teen novels, featuring a girl dectective by the name of Teri Michaels, an 8-12 mystery novel that took place on a sheep ranch in eastern Montana (also a mystery), and a historical novel about the bibicial character of Ruth.

Were these my “practice” novels? I do not know. They are still sitting in my closet, waiting to be edited and published.

One day I strolled the Christian book store Fiction aisle and noticed that almost all the published titles were historical fiction. Ah, I thought. I’ll write a historical fiction. The only problem was that my great love and passion is the medieval era, and I placed my book (Sirocco, The Wind from the East) in that time period, using a real-life person from history, Pricne Arthur of Brittany, as the springboard. I wrote and studied and edited like a fury, confident that at last one of my novels would see print because I had written what everyone was writing: historical fiction. Alas. I discovered several years later that most Christian publishers will not publish anything older than the Civil War and especially veer away from the days of the Crusades. My long quest to find a publisher finally ended with Xulon, a POD publisher in Florida. I am currently writing the sequel to Sirocco: Mistral, the Wind from the North.

Writing is the easy part, right? Finding a publisher is the hard part. I’ve been told that if you write well, your work will be noticed and you WILL be published. Do you agree or disagree? What does it take to be published? Why couldn’t I find a “traditional” publisher?

Please write to me and let me know your ideas, thoughts, comments and suggestions. Share your problems with the writing life. Maybe together we can find an answer.

Ginger (Virginia)