My mission was given to me by my Savior, Jesus Christ when He said: Matthew 28:19 “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
20 “teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen. (NKJV)
When I became a Christian in 1980, my life changed. I stopped serving my will and started serving my Savior. I didn’t know what that meant in 1980 and I didn’t know what it would look like. All I knew was that my life was not my own any longer and I needed to be obedient to Jesus.
How would I spread the gospel? I had no financial means to become a missionary, though it was my heart’s desire. I even tried, but was turned down. I didn’t have the knowledge at the time to present the gospel, only the heart. What I did have, God used. I could write and had been doing it since I was 8 years old.
In 1980 something changed in my writing. It was the time of learning, and writing down what I learned from the various ministries I listened to on the radio and the sermons in church. I kept notes of everything I heard. I used what I learned and applied it to my daily devotions. Within a couple of years, I started posting my devotions online to a Yahoo prayer group I belonged to. As my understanding increased, so did my devotions. Today, I am a world-wide missionary. I post my Bible studies here and to those on my e-mail list who want them. I do not rely on my understanding of Scripture, but on the Holy Spirit to guide the words He wants me to write. I get feedback occasionally from those I send my studies to, and it blesses my heart, especially when I believe I failed in the study, only to find how much the Holy Spirit worked in the hearts of those who read the devotion.
My mission to spread the gospel isn’t limited to my daily devotions. I had been writing since I was 8 years old. It wasn’t good. In fact, it was horrible, not worth the paper I wrote my stories on. However, God changed that too in 1980. The germ of a story started working its way into my mind. I let it germinate for three months until I needed to write it down. I also made a contract with God about my writing. I told Him, He was the author. I was the pen. If my writing didn’t honor Him, I wouldn’t publish it. That was a huge step for me who couldn’t write anything worth writing or reading. However, He worked in my writing.
The first thing I did was to learn how to write. I didn’t do well in English in school, so the idea of me becoming an author, my childhood dream, was laughable. I started by subscribing to Writer’s Digest magazine, and then to The Writer. I don’t know if The Writer magazine is still out there, but Writer’s Digest is and I still belong to it, though I don’t get the magazine anymore. I’m getting off track. It was through those magazines I learned what editors looked for from authors. I looked at the story that took me six months to write and started over, what I later learned was editing and revision.
Because God was the author of my work, I started seeing something in what I wrote. Themes and ideas I had written, I heard from the pulpit and realized how involved God was in the contract I made with Him. When authors in the magazines I read, said that if you have a manuscript sitting for a long time, toss it, I kept it. I continued to hone it and prepare it for publishing. I didn’t work on anything else, other than the daily Bible studies. Eventually, I took an online course to learn more about writing. The correspondence course was with The Institute of Children’s Literature. I needed to start somewhere, even though I knew what I wrote wasn’t children’s literature. I learned a very basic fact, all writing has the same root. What I learned, I used and still use in everything I write. I also got a good grade when I completed the course. I got invitations to go onto another course for those whom they saw as worthy. I couldn’t do it. However, God was and still is my teacher when it comes to writing.
My first book took 32 years from first word to published novel. Those who read Scarred, loved it. When I took the manuscript to my first Writer’s Conference, the editor I talked to asked if it was a series and wanted it when I had the full manuscript finished. It was finished, I just didn’t have it fully typed. That was in the days of typewriters, not computers.
I self-published Scarred in 2012. It has gone through three editions. I was still learning, and the first edition, though good, had multiple typos. I’m a typo freak. I can’t stand them, so I fixed Scarred and republished it with a local publishing firm. When I learned what kind of people I worked with, I took my work out of their hands and republished Scarred taking their logo off my book.
Today, I have nine books published. You can find them on this site, all available through Amazon. God is still the author and I am the pen. My books have received five-star reviews. I give all the glory to God for what He gave me. The ability to write.
Writing is my mission. What’s yours? Let me know in the comments below. Thank you for reading. The images belongs to me.
valerie writes 
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