All I
ever wanted was to live a quiet, secure life in a little white house with a
picket fence and a rose garden, but my husband Dave—a free spirit who seldom
limits himself to coloring within other people’s lines—and our adventuresome
God (ditto) had other plans. Just when our youngest finished college, both Dave
and God hollered, “Africa!”
Stunned, I asked myself, How can
we leave our kids and parents and live on the other side of the planet?
For months, I waited for God to
convince me that He really wanted us to move to Africa. I gave Him every
opportunity to either show us green lights and send us to Africa or red lights
and keep us home—and He gave us only green. So I sighed, and turned, and took a
radical, outrageous, blind leap of faith.
A year after we
moved to Africa with Wycliffe Bible Translators, our daughter-in-law Jill gave
birth to our first grandchild and I discovered I was not the traditional,
quaint little grandmother I always envisioned. No, I had stumbled into
adventures most grandmas couldn’t imagine—a hippo charged me, a baboon pooped
in my breakfast, a Maasai elder spit at me, and I drank tea from a pot cleaned
with cow’s urine.
I decided to
write those stories, and more, in letters to my granddaughter, Maggie. I knew
she was too young to understand them then, but I also knew that someday she,
and my future grandchildren, would grow up and enjoy my tales.
When the right
time arrived, I gathered my old letters and emails and compiled them for the
grandchildren—six of them now—and for Grandma’s Letters from Africa, a memoir
about my first four years (of eight) in Africa working as a missionary
journalist.
But Grandma’s Letters from Africa is not merely an account
of adventure. And, unlike many missionary stories, this is not a record of
saving lost heathens. This is my story about balancing God’s call with
responsibilities toward my husband, children, grandchildren, and aging parents.
It’s my record of everyday life in a behind-the-scenes, yet
important, role.
It recounts hilarious incidents and frightful ones, joys and
heartaches, answered prayers and those God seemed to leave unanswered.
Grandma’s Letters from Africa is my story about falling in
love with Africa, its people, and the work—both official and unofficial—God
gave me.
Above all, it’s a chronicle of God’s heart, His delightful
creativity, and His amazing power to help those in need.
You can buy Grandma’s
Letters from Africa through your local independent bookseller, through Books-A-Million,
Barnes and Noble, Amazon, and other booksellers. Powell’s Books in Portland currently
has a special sale on the paperback (only $7.95).
Also be sure to
click on and “like” the Facebook Page for Grandma’s Letters from Africa: AMemoir. You’ll find additional sharing going on there.
