I'm writing this message from beautiful sunny Phoenix AZ. Its been chilly here - all of 65-70 degrees (eat your hearts out).
Please note that I am using an unfamiliar computer system and that I do not have access to spell check as I write this. Offer me a little grace if anything comes through "funky." Thanks.
I am writing to ask for some special prayer. It seems that anything bad that could have happened, did happen and yet, God is moving in some AMAZING ways. I am not a person who sees demons under every rock but I know that spiritual warfare is real. Satan is trying very hard to rob me of the joy that I should be feeling about all that God is accomplishing right now. Pray with me that I can honor Christ in both word an deed.
Here is the low-down
As you know, two day before I left for my tour I came down with a 'bug' (fever, chills, aches, cough, etc.)
I took one day off but had to go to work on Thur to clean up some last minute things. I started to feel a bit better and left for VA on Friday afternoon.
Got to my son's house in VA on Friday and by then my voice was almost non existent. He & my sweet d-i-l pampered me and I went to my booksigning on Saturday with great anticipation. When I got there the bookstore told me that they no longer had any of my books in stock and they wanted to know if I had any copies of my book with me to sign. AHHH. My d-i-l had dropped me off at the store and left to take her car for inspection so I called my son (still at home) and asked him to dig a few copies of my old book out of my suitcase (Grace by the Cup) and bring them to the store. He did that and then called his wife to stop at every Borders and Barnes & Noble in the area. She bought every copy of my new book (Faith-Dipped Chocolate) that she could find and brought them to me as well. They arrived about twenty minutes later with books for me to sign. I was a little upset and had to pray my way through the anger that kept creeping up. How can a store ask an author to come for signing when they have no books to sign?
My voice was little more than a whisper at this point but I managed to smile, listen a lot, and chat a little. Despite it all, God brought three separate area church leaders to me who offered me their business cards and asked me to do future speaking engagements at their churches. All offered substantial compensation as well as offering to pay my expenses (transportation and hotel fees). God has an amazing sense of humor. I could hardly speak five words in a row and He gives me SPEAKING engagements. LOL I also had a wonderful chat with Tom Lacy from CWG and I met with Ivonne (also from CWG) for lunch. What a blessing both of those writers are!
When i flew out of VA to Phoenix I was exhausted but happy. Got to Phoenix and things just kept going down hill for me physically. My voice got a little better and then got worse again. My niece was just coming home from the hospital where she had been struggling with kidney failure. My sister seemed so angry at me. I thanked her a thousand times for offering to drive me around to the signings and for letting me stay at her house but I also told her I would understand if she couldn't do it. I told her I would just take a cab if it was too much right now. I know that she accepted Christ many years ago but she does not always walk the narrow path. The more I offered the madder she got. Finally I just backed off and tried to stay out of her way - that made her angry too. Sigh.
My first signing in AZ was a replay of VA - no books. Am I crazy or does this seem strange?? Fortunately this time I came prepared. I had a half of a case of books in the car because I ordered books shipped from my publisher directly to my sister's house - just in case. God is good. My relationship with my sister continued to slide downward. She wanted me to take some vitamins she bought for me. I took them and proceeded to get a major case of diarrhea. With two more signings and a church speaking engagement still to go, I stopped taking the vitamins. She started screaming at me (along with name calling and obscenities) that I thought I "knew everything" and that a few days of diarrhea was good for me because it was cleansing my system. Sigh. The bottom line was I could NOT afford the dehydration in my less than healthy state and could not run to the bathroom every five minutes while working these events. My sister then told me it wasn't about me not taking the vitamins and that I "knew" what it was really about. Very Big Sigh. I honestly have no clue what she is talking about. On top of all this I was running a low grade fever every night, coughing my brains out, and trying to run interference between my mom and my sister, and my mom and my niece. My mother tries to 'fix' things - which only makes things ten times worse.
Tomorrow I fly to Michigan for the last leg of this tour. My voice is finally back. My sister apologized by saying she was sorry that "I couldn't see she was only trying to help" and that I was not "more open to new ideas" (sigh).
The good news from Phoenix? My neice is home from the hosptial, back at high school and she started her first part-time job. She is SO happy about that. At one of my signings I met Jeannett McDonald, a wonderful Phoenix area writer from CWG, and I was blessed to meet dozens of other sweet generous people. The individuals at my signings blessed me over and over with stories about how my first book touched their lives. God is still a God of miricles. At the First Christian Church of Phoenix, God provided me with a voice just for that evening's speaking engagement
Satan is trying to rob my joy and I'm ashamed to say that I've allowed him to do it to some extent. But I will not let this settle into my spirit. I am making a deliberate choice to LIFT CHRIST and PRAISE HIS NAME for all the good that is coming out of this -- whether I see that good right now or not is immaterial.
Please continue to pray for me and my tour. Please pray that God's will is done and that God will be honored by my words and my actions. Pray that I will have His strength and not try to do this on my own.
So far this trip seems to be a wild roller coaster ride, but the up's are out weighing the down's a thousand to one.
I am looking forward to the next NJCWG meeting and hope that many of you can be there to hear the "final" story. Please, please, please continue to pray and know that the NJCWG is always in my prayers as well.
God Bless
Louise Bergmann DuMont
Writing from her Faith-Dipped Chocolate Tour
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