Every one of the children we feature on this blog is in need of your financial support. Grace Village, the home where they live, is growing constantly and is working on improvements in the medical clinic. If you can’t do a whole sponsorship, or that’s not your “bag” give some thought to going to this link and donating to the clinic on site. Right now they’re fundraising for a digital x-ray machine for the dental clinic.
Bondja is a happy little boy with an infectious smile. Bondja loves to challenge the other kids at a game of basketball, soccer or just about any playground activity. Bondja is a good student who enjoys math and singing. Bondja loves when they serve rice at the feeding center and he is known to have a healthy appetite. Bondja wants to be an engineer when he grows up so that he can build things. Bondja’s prayer request is that he can finish school.
Bondja came to Healing Haiti in June, 2012. Bondja is an orphan who was rescued from an abusive situation.
Birth Info
Birthdate: Unknown
Place of Birth: Unknown
It is my hope that one of you will find your heart touched by this child and take up a bit of Christ’s work by sponsoring them for an extended period. My wife and I are sponsoring a pair of sisters and we took on the commitment based on having to only gave up a fast-food dinner each day to change the life of a child. God came through with a very lucrative bit of voice over work for me that covered the bill that same day, but it really is as easy as skipping a value meal. Healing Haiti will do the right things for these children and I have full confidence in their work. I am not affiliated with them, they don’t endorse this blog, nothing like that at all. I just love kids (can’t be Santa and not love children) and know that Grace Village is the difference between life and death for many of these children. Please open your heart and prayerfully reflect on the opportunity God’s giving us to sponsor these children. Some of them have come out of slavery and have some of the toughest lives you could imagine prior to Grace Village.
I’m out on the patio working on an edit of the first book I wrote. I knew that there were some flaws with the way it was written, but I had no idea how much I’d learned in the past three years.
That makes me wonder what I don’t know yet. It’s actually fun to find bad prose and fix it up. This blog is full of bad prose on a regular basis, but I don’t heavily edit before publishing it for consumption. That can’t happen when you hope to sell the work to a publisher.
One thing that truly gratifies me is the core of the work in that first book. I’ve always said, and still feel, that this book was given to me by God. I read the good parts and wonder how that phrase or description ever graced the keyboard of a rookie writer. I cannot take credit for the good parts, only responsibility for the bad.
Closing out this week I’d like to gloat about two things and then leave on a high note:
1. Gee, Benghazi seems to be flaring! I’d written that post yesterday long before the news came out about the CIA in Libya. Maybe I do know what I’m talking about in the Arab world. Those who criticized me last fall for my writing – eh, that would be churlish. I’ll just let my contention that the Obama Administration is lying stand on its own. When the Clinton News Network (CNN) turns on a democrat like that there’s trouble afoot…
2. The readership for this crazy blog has doubled again. It seems to be doubling about every three months. We just hit the 40,000 hit per month mark (edited to take out heavy robot traffic) and I’m optimistic that we’ll see 100,000 per month by the end of the year. I thank you, my readers, for putting out the word and telling your friends and associates. The number of tweets and Facebook postings is going up all the time. I realize that you are the ones making this all work.
With that in mind, I’d like to solicit your input about the direction we travel together. I will continue to write two-five times each week, but I’d like to know what sorts of things you’d like to read. There has been a great response to the short stories I’ve done, the humor pieces, and the political stuff. But by far the dog stories are what you all respond to most. Just leave a comment about what you want to see more of on this site and I’ll try and work it in for the future.
My thanks and appreciation to each of you. The journey is just getting interesting and I’m glad you’re along for the trip.
Benghazi isn’t going to vanish. No matter how long the administration slow-walks this ugly dog it will still be shedding fleas and slobber in our living room until somebody gives the thing a bath and sprays it with insecticide. Please follow me on Twitter, and “Like” the Facebook author page.
The White House had Monica Lewinsky’s former boyfriend’s wife over for lunch this week. Anyone who had hopes that she was there to beg Obama for permission to come clean on what happened in Libya last year is in need of some serious detoxification. The cover-up is in full swing and now it’s officially in the “Ancient History” box at the bottom of the dungeon stairs in Washington.
It is a disgrace and an insult to the American people that our government is still lying about what happened on September 11, 2012. Their refusal to disclose what happened is an abomination. I don’t like being lied to and ignored. So, because today is not an anniversary of the event in any way I am dedicating the blog to the men who lost their lives in service to this country in Benghazi.
Mr. President, I demand you do your job as Commander in Chief. I want to know where the chain of ignorance began and ended. I want to know why an attack that was in progress for hours on end wasn’t responded to in some military fashion. Not even so much as an alert force started moving. No jets, no commandos, no nothing. Unacceptable.
If I am wrong, tell me. But to continue to feed me horse droppings and expect me to like it is unrealistic. You, my readers, should not accept this either. Demand the truth. Post on your blog. Put up a note on Facebook. Send an email to the White House. Call your Congressional delegation and demand answers.
Do not let this terrorist assault on United States diplomatic personnel go unremarked and forgotten. They deserve better than to be ignored. Ambassador Chris Stevens, Ty Wood, Glen Doherty, and Sean Smith are the names you must remember.
To do less would be as disgraceful as the behavior of our administration.
There’s a broken railing at the widget factory where I work. It has been broken for over two months at this point. But there are some very important paper signs taped to it that say, “Do not use. Broken.”
Well, DUH. The fact that it hangs by two bolts and jiggles when you brush against it could be a clue. But it seems that the building authorities aren’t in a big hurry to get it fixed. That will change the moment someone grabs on to it when they slip and it finishes tearing out of the wall. The injured employee will have a dilly of a lawsuit just waiting to be filed. Assuming it’s not their estate that has to process the court papers.
I walk by that railing twice a day on my way into and out of the building. It’d be easy to fix if you had the time and the tools. I’m thinking about an hour to bore out the hole cleanly, fill it with quick drying concrete or resin, and it would require a new lag bolt in a couple of spots. Temporarily secure it in place with a sheet metal strap that can be removed when it dries and the whole thing is fixed.
The simple fact is that it hasn’t happened for two months because management is used to seeing it broken. And nobody has been hurt – yet.
Our spiritual lives often resemble that broken railing. We have a few loose bolts that we ignore every time we look at them. We skip church, don’t pray, don’t take care of the poor, don’t read scripture (guilty) as often as we should, and we don’t have a personal relationship with God. We spend our time convincing ourselves that that railing between the first and second floors is for other people who “really need it.”
The truth is that we all need to have that railing steady and supported. You can slip and stumble at any moment. While God has his hand out to you all the time in the form of a spiritual railing, if the foundation you’ve built for that railing is crumbling it won’t hold you when it needs to support your whole weight.
I stick to the other side of the stairwell where the railing is bolted solidly into the brick. I try to do that in my spiritual life as well. But one of these days, if I don’t keep those bolts firmly anchored, I’ll stumble and reach out for a support that just tears away with me and tumbles down. Maybe I’d best start repairing that railing today.
Are there railings in your life that have started to pull away from the wall? Where do you need to spend some time in repair work?
I wont’ go through the whole journey from the first time I picked up a pencil in first grade until this past week, but I do want to offer some words of encouragement to my fellow authors who are seeking to get published: Get out there and pitch!
I was still writing my first book three years ago. I never had any intention of publishing the work, it was simply going to be a birthday present for my wife. I’d had dreams of being an author for a long time, but after seeing several friends fail at making it in the industry I’d decided to concentrate on getting a paycheck at the widget factory where I work.
But God steps in and guides us when we’re sensitive enough to hear His words. I knew when I started that book that it would be something special. It often seemed like I was just a transcriptionist for God. I spent a lot of hours of prayer during the period when I wrote the book. I listened to Him and tried my best.
I was so proud to hand my wife the book on her birthday. I’d gone to an on-demand printer I’d found on the internet and made a single hard-cover copy for her. She loved it – probably as a result of loving me, because the work wasn’t all that great.
I printed some paperback copies to give to friends so that I could get some feedback. That is when, as an author, most people throw in the towel: the first bashing of your work by others. I was blessed in that most of the criticism was aimed at improving the book. Only one critic turned it into a personal attack. And that hurt more than I can even describe.
But I persevered and went through that process three more times. Just a few months later I entered the book in the Genesis contest at ACFW. The feedback was invaluable. Brutal. But not mean. I actually walked away encouraged. Terrible scores, but lots of new information on making it a better book.
That fall, 2011, I went to the ACFW conference in Saint Louis. I had no clue what I was doing and it showed. Thankfully they tag you like a wild animal with a sticker that says “First Time” so that people don’t laugh at you for your silly behavior.
Two things happened there in that hotel that have changed my life a great deal. First of all, I failed in my pitches to publishers and agents. That was cool, actually became friends with one of the agents and learned a great deal about the vast amount of preparation that needs to go into the pitch of a book. The agent helped me to get it in better shape and provided a great deal of encouragement over time. They elected not to represent me and that was good as well. It made me work that much harder on what I was writing.
The second thing that Saint Louis is memorable for is meeting Larry W. Timm. He’s now one of my closest friends and a valued associate in my journey. Interestingly enough, we were both signed by the same agency on the same day. God, again, with his hand on the tiller.
My work continued with a new book and several books in the works. Nothing popped with agents, publishers, or much of anything else until this past fall/winter. That’s when I finished in second place in the Athanatos Ministries Christian Novel Contest.
That gave me the fortitude to strut around the Blue Ridge Christian Writers Conference and really enjoy myself. I didn’t go to pitch my book but to learn more about my craft. And then God stepped in again.
One of the agents presenting at the conference struck a chord in my addled brain. She was looking for books like mine. The problem was that my gimpy leg didn’t allow me to move quickly enough to get on the sign-up sheet for interviews until it was already full. I assumed it was just fate and God didn’t have a place for me on the roster of authors quite yet.
The next night I was getting ready to swipe my card on a vending machine and get a soda. A woman’s voice asked if I’d hold on a second, she had already put some money in and wanted to finish her transaction. Seemed she was a quarter short and had stepped away to borrow it from a friend.
I turned and looked – it was the agent I’d wanted to talk with but couldn’t get a slot. I’m brash, and probably a bit nuts. My response was, “Sure. Go ahead. It will cost you an interview.”
She was kind enough to say yes. And, after we met the next day I walked away happy. She liked the idea for the book and we seemed to hit it off on a personal level.
Last week she offered to represent me. The next day my wife pointed out that this was a second career for me. And that she’d help by allowing me to carve out the time to do the work. I love my wife. She’s a great partner and my best friend.
It is with great pleasure that I embark on my new career. No longer just a member of the “I’d like to…” club, but now blessed with an advocate in my corner – Jessica Kirkland.
And the moral of the story for others who want to write? Don’t give up your dream. You will face criticism, adversity, failure, disappointment, writer’s block, personal humiliation, and any other obstacle you can name. I’m not published yet. But if I’d quit pursuing this goal every time something negative came up, I’d never know the answer to the question “Can I make it?” The answer is still pending – but I’m a lot closer today than I was a week ago.
What challenge are you facing that causes you doubt? Are you willing to forego sleep and time with your loved ones to pursue that dream? How hard will you work to spread God’s word?
One last thing: I’d really appreciate it if you’d all continue to pray for me. I’m no longer on the sidelines but I’m just lining up for the starter’s gun on this race. I need that spirutual warfare on my side as I try and move on to publishing that first novel.
