God's Writing Assignment

God’s Writing Assignment

For quite a while, I’ve been frustrated with the lack of new missionary stories. The ones of Hudson Taylor and Amy Carmichael are great, but I knew that God was doing great things in the world today. I knew there was a need for more stories.

I attended a translation workshop at West Hampden Baptist Church and heard Fernando Angeles give his testimony of how God worked in his life – bringing him to the place where God spoke to him through the reading of a Gideon NT, seeing that salvation did not come by good works, but by faith alone. I was strongly moved by Fernando’s story. I knew that God wanted me to write it. It was as if He nudged me and said, “This is the one I want you to write.”

I spoke to Christy, Fernando’s wife, and she was delighted. She said that many have asked him to write his testimony, but he didn’t have the time and he didn’t feel he could do it. She would be glad to give me any information I needed and gave me an email address.

I took the information that I had and emailed her a list of a dozen questions for more. After waiting months for an answer, I wondered if I had gotten caught up in the excitement for nothing. (I later found that she had broken her foot and couldn’t walk over the mountain to the town where they could use the internet. She didn’t know I had emailed her.)

I had a very rough draft started, but I needed much more information to fill it out. Months went by again with no word. The next year, after I had retired from teaching, I was asked to substitute at the school for a few months. I was told that Ross Hodsdon would be conducting a workshop with Fernando and Christy right in the very building where I was teaching. They allowed me to sit in with them each afternoon. I would write out questions about Fernando’s childhood and the village life in Mexico, and Christy would answer them in her free moments. I even got a chance to have a one-on-one interview with Fernando. I thanked the Lord for the assurance that He wanted me to continue working on the story.

A year or so later, again I felt stuck. I needed more information, and God did it again. He brought Fernando and Christy right to my own church! Fernando is a quiet man, but he finally began opening up and telling me short incidents that happened that I could include in the book. Again, I thanked the Lord for His provision.

I finally came to a good stopping place and finished the story. (The whole Bible isn’t translated into Tenek, but I chose this spot to show that God had answered Fernando’s prayers.) I let them read the manuscript and make any changes they wished. Since it was necessary to imagine some dialogue and descriptions, not everything is exactly as things happened, but Fernando has approved it, saying that it could have been that way.

This is God’s book. I am only one part of this ministry. I pray that this book will be greatly used to reach others for the Lord.

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