Sweeter Than Honey update

For those of you who want know how the book project is going...

It has been an intense week! After meeting and working together with the missionaries and John for 10-12 hours for six days in a row, my brain is fried, but I thank God that much has been accomplished. He gave us wisdom, alertness, humility and unity of mind as we worked together. He has definitely answered all of our prayers, and yours too. Thank you for lifting us up to the Lord.

Here's a sneak preview of what went into this process:

First, we read through the book for accuracy. I had never actually visited the Manjui tribe in Paraguay, so as I wrote, I had to fill in many details with my own imagination. Peter & Leah went through the book with me and corrected anything that misrepresented the Manjui culture or what happened historically. We also discussed how to best communicate certain biblical doctrines to a broad audience.

Second, we worked on the overall balance of the book. We lay all the pages of the book on three long tables and looked at it from a bird's eye view it to make sure certain characters, themes and key words were evenly sprinkled throughout the book, so that the reader would not forget or lose track of them. We added and deleted content appropriately.

Third, we did a microscopic critique of each chapter. We read the story out loud and flagged any potential problem areas, whether pertaining to flow, accuracy or doctrine. We also trimmed out stories and details that did not help move the story along. Yes, it was hard to cut out some parts that I had worked so hard on, but the result is a vastly improved product. (Now I know that when you have a 100-page book, it was probably 500 pages long to begin with!)

I am happy to report that Sweeter Than Honey now has an ISBN number, so it is official! As I look back, it has been an amazing journey. Of course, it will still be many months before the book is actually printed. But please pray with me that, whenever that happens, the book will be an encouragement to those who read it and will glorify our Father in heaven.