2010: Books Come to Life . . .

I've been inspired by my friend Rod to up my reading ante this year. Rod completed 40 books on his list in 2009. Nice.

I really love books (clearly . . . I write them). Reading makes me happy. Reading improves my writing. Nothing satiates my imagination like a good book. The benefits to reading are endless. And yet I find myself surrounded by a gazillion books on shelves and in baskets on the floor of my room--all lonely and wishing I'd read them. I start them, and they feel loved and admired for a couple of days. And then they sit there lonely before I ever finish them.

Not this year.

And so I thought I'd blog about it and hope that knowing I've written it here will hold me a bit accountable. So I'm starting Hopscotch by South American (though born in Belgium) author Julio Cortazar today. There are two ways to read this book, and I think I'm going for the second way, which begins with chapter 73 and takes you on a haphazard journey of chapters to discover the story. I'll post more later.

I found this video of the NZ Book Council on an artist's blog the other day when I was looking up orizomegami (more on that art and what I'm doing with it another day), and I think it's appropriate for my year of books coming to life. And it's just pretty darn creative:



May you find time to let books come to life in your life this year . . .

Like Breath and Water: Praying With Africa

Well, someone reminded me this week that I have blogged a little about the book with great anticipation for its release, but I haven't said anything on here after it actually released. I have linked to the book on Facebook but nothing here.

So Like Breath and Water: Praying With Africa released Sept. 1, published by Upper Room Books. It was the featured book on their homepage for a couple of weeks. It's been picked up on Amazon where Jay Voorhees wrote a very beautiful review (along with a disclaimer for knowing me), and this is very exciting. It looks like Abingdon will pick up the book soon, as well, which means we'll get to be in their distribution at larger bookstores. We're going to possibly work on some book signings at Barnes & Noble in 2010. I'll keep you posted as this develops (I promise).

It's humbling to see this all come together--not just the book but also everything with Pray With Africa. Our film is complete and packaged, and our Tribes are on the road sharing it with the world. Our web site is up (with a few kinks still), and the prayer community is starting to get some prayer requests from the U.S. and Africa (and hopefully from people all over the world soon). People are starting to hear our Learn. Pray. Act. philosophy and are getting excited about living it out in all aspects of their lives and not just our approach to humanitarian aid.

So much of what Cary, Austin and I have been dreaming and shaping for the past year is now out into the world. I've given this huge piece of my heart and the hearts of my friends in Africa through writing Like Breath and Water. We've all done the same with the other pieces of Pray With Africa, as well. I hope that it speaks to people and that God is able to use it to bring us all closer to the Kingdom.

I'm so grateful for family and friends who continue to lift us in prayer and support Pray With Africa all the way . . .

So that's where we are now!

Thirty and Thriving! ;)

I turned 30 yesterday, and it feels good! My friend Beth asked me last night (after my roller skating party, which was uber funtabulous!) what goals I have for the new year. I have several: organizing my room (which is not my forté, as you've read in previous entries), really nailing down a good eating plan (which I think will be easier once we move into the new house, and I can start gardening; more on the new house later) and working on poetry collections more. Specifically, I want to submit more poems to magazines and maybe submit a manuscript, too. This past year has been a slow poetry year for me with co-creating Pray With Africa and writing the book, so I'm itching to focus more on the poetry aspect of my craft this year.



But the biggest goal of the year will be promoting Like Breath and Water: Praying With Africa. It's gone to the presses, and we should get a proof back soon. I'm very excited about it and can't wait to share the stories with everyone. I hope they will be well received and will honor the lives of the people who so graciously shared their stories with me. And I want to really get the book out there. I mean, we're talking Oprah, friends! :) Any ideas you have for promoting it, please send them my way . . . it's all so new to me.

We received two endorsements that will be printed on the book. I'll leave you today with those:

"Like Breath and Water is an inspiring look at the reality of the African
continent, in both its beauty and tragedy.
This story is not only a challenge of our conceptions and apathy; but even
more so, it is a testament to the unbounded power of prayer."

-Jason Russell, Co-founder Invisible Children

"This book dances. It lets us taste the salt in the tears of Africa,
and lets us hear the children giggle. But it goes even deeper.
Like Breath and Water invites us to see these faces across the globe as our
own family. The reality of that should fill us with hope, for we have
much to learn from them. And it should keep us up at night, for we
are still a very dysfunctional Family."

-Shane Claiborne, author, activist, recovering sinner
www.thesimpleway.org


Thanks to my friends for loving me through this book process! I appreciate you so much! And hugs to everyone who has blessed my life with their presence, their encouragement, their beauty and their love to me since 1979! 30 is a good year . . .

Pray With Africa Book Update . . .

Well, I've finished writing the book! It seems that even after I finished the last word on the Pray With Africa book, there's still so much work to be done. This part has been new and very exciting, though. We decided to change the title, and I'm very excited about the new title. Cary and I both thought of it as a title separately, and so I felt like it was a real confirmation when he told me his title idea, and it was the same as mine. The new title of the book is Like Breath and Water: Praying with Africa. In Africa, I realized that prayer is a life force for the people I met in Africa. They value it and depend on it as much as they value and need every precious breath and every drop of clean water. I think the title captures the essence of what I learned about prayer in Africa.

David Uttley is working on designing the cover and the inside of the book--including the photographs. I look forward to seeing what he does with our photographs; he's so talented.

We sent the book to several people today, hoping to get their endorsements and opinions. I hope that they will give us valuable feedback and reviews. Is it too outrageous to think that maybe Bono would really dig this book? We'll see . . .

It's all very special, and I look forward to publication. I'll continue updating as more develops.

In the meantime, here's our latest Pray With Africa media. It will tell you a bit more about our vision.

Also, you can visit our web site (the temporary one, that is; the new one will be amazing but not until September) and help us recruit people for the fall road tour.

peace.

Irresistible Community

I cried this morning as I sat on the porch of my new home. I did not cry because I do not like my new home. Nor did I cry because my home is so whelmingly beautiful and inspirational (although it is absolutely perfectly fantabulous . . . so much so that I'm inspired to write and *gasp* blog again). Instead, I cried after reading this paragraph of Shane Claiborne's book The Irresistible Revolution:

A married couple who were unable to have children happened to meet a woman who had found herself six months pregnant and homeless, so they invited her into their home. It proved to be such a beautiful experience that they decided to continue living together to help raise the new baby girl while the mother pursued her dream of going back to school to become a nurse. They have been living together over a decade now. They are a family, and the baby is now a teenager and the mom a nurse. A heart-wrenching twist to the story is that the wife of the married couple is now very ill with multiple sclerosis, but now the nurse living in her home is caring for her, just as she had cared for the nurse. This is the divine gift of mystical providence and radical interdependence.

I cried because I celebrate the will of God being done on earth, as it is in heaven, through this story. In a time when we are taught to be so fiercely independent, God's will reminds us that, as Daniel Ladinsky paraphrases St. Catherine of Sienna, "vulnerable we are, like an infant. We need each other's care or we will suffer." We are called to community, Communion.

We try so hard to have our "own children," our "own house," our "own healthcare," our "own money," etc., etc. We frown upon 30-year-olds living in their parents' homes and call them "losers." We help others, all the while keeping in mind when our charity is too abundant; soon the needy become "moochers" taking advantage of us.

The kingdom of God, however, looks like a little girl knocking on the door of a family who opened their home to me in South Africa. The child said, "Auntie Connie, we don't have any bread." Without hesitation, Aunt Connie, who did not have much herself, gave a loaf to this child. The kingdom looks like this couple, radically opening their doors to a needy pregnant woman and calling her "family" instead of a "moocher."

The New York Times posted a story today about how lonely U.S. citizens are.

As we face a lonely world telling us there is little hope, the kingdom of God reminds us that hope is in our community and our interdependence.