Video: My NMAI Project
The story of my journey as a participant in the NMAI Artist Leadership Program 2012-2013. Video produced by my talented mama, Lynda Kay Sawyer of RockHaven Productions:
Are You Happy?
Long drives are golden when it comes to thinking time. On the way home from a short trip to Oklahoma, while my mom leaned back for a nap, I spent a few hours in the driver’s seat, thinking about the journey of my life so far.
Oklahoma
Events from eleven months ago had me spinning in more directions then I could see. My dad’s passing. Acceptance into the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian Artist Leadership Program. All within two days of each other.
Where had I been? Where was I going? Where was I now?
Are you happy?
The question caught me off guard. I debated it a moment, thinking I would have a quick answer. I didn’t. Instead, more questions came.
What is happiness? What I am pursing? What is the purpose in all this?
Since childhood, my desire has been to honor and glorify God. But does that make you happy? My mind attacked the very definition of happiness.
How does the world define it? How does God define it? How do I define it?
Few people in the world are happy by any definition. They wish they were married. They wish they were single. They wish they had their dream job. They wish they could go back to their old one.
Are you happy?
Am I? As the Oklahoma road wound up another climb, I asked myself the question over and over. How should I define happiness? Giggles in my stomach all the time? Unfettered laughter bubbling constantly from my lips? No more tears?
No. It’s something deeper than that. Something no trial or sadness in the world can touch when it swoops in to steal your joy.
It’s satisfaction. It’s knowing that in comparison to the thousands of years the human race has existed, yours is just a flash in time. It’s here and gone with a few rotations of the earth. It’s knowing in that time, you are living for the one thing that last, the one thing no amount of time or grief can crush.
Almighty God.
When I focus on Him, not my own desires or happiness, is where true satisfaction resides.
Well you may ask me if I'm happy
If I have sweet peace within
If I'm worried about tomorrow
When I reach my journey's end
When he was a young man, my daddy envisioned himself as the next Billy Sunday. In the last few years of his life, he sang at a small church. Nursing homes. The county jail. In those last few years, he said he felt he was doing what God wanted him to do. I believe he was satisfied.
And as I face the coming one year anniversary of when my world spun out of control, I know I am satisfied. I am happy.
When my eyes are closed in death
With my Jesus I'll be at rest
Then you'll know I'm satisfied
Are you happy?
Elizabeth Sherrill Master’s Writing Workshop—Tuesday
Authors of such Christian classics as The Hiding Place
Tuesday—Meetings and…Meetings
The whirlwind continued on Day Two. I couldn’t take notes fast enough, laugh hard enough, and thank God enough times for letting me sit and learn under master storytellers.
The joy and excitement bubbled over that evening when I hosted my group, Christian Writers Gathering. Yes, my mom picked me up from the Woodcrest facilities and drove home that evening for a quick shower and prep for the Gathering. I left the campus in such a tizzy I forgot to grab my makeup bag and hairbrush. Ah well. There are more important things in life.
April’s Gathering was special in that we celebrated our one year anniversary as a group with renting the historic Blackwell House and enjoying refreshments. I couldn’t stop myself from sharing story after story I’d heard in just two days, and I included Elizabeth Sherrill’s Seven Steps to Publication, and her manuscript evaluation formula.
Somewhere around eleven that night, I made it back to my dorm room. I settled in for another attempt at sleep, still pinching myself.
Next post I share a confirmation for my mission in writing. And also a picture of “Lake” YWAM.
Are you part of a writing group or book club? What do you share at it?
Elizabeth Sherrill Master’s Writing Workshop—Monday
Authors of such Christian classics as The Hiding Place
Monday—A Day with God’s Greats
I didn’t sleep much Sunday night. Much of the night was spent watching for the dawn, waiting for my alarm to go off. I was up getting dressed before it had the chance.
No one else at the dorms did much breakfast, so it was just me most mornings. I didn’t mind. It was good quiet time and a peaceful view.
I was the first in the classroom, straightening things and asking Joyce what she needed done. I folded name table tents and tried to meet people as they came in. I knew some.
I saw Elizabeth and John Sherrill when they arrived but was too busy lining out last minute arrangements to introduce myself. That was okay. I sat across from Ms. Elizabeth the whole week.
Phyllis, sister of Janice Cunningham Rogers and Loren Cunningham, led our first devotion of the week, regaling us with stories of their humble beginnings including the time she and her husband were down to their last set of wheels. It had carpet on the dashboard and they had to tie the muffler up.
“God took care of our pride real quick.”
Then Elizabeth Sherrill prepared to take charge. She didn’t care for the table set up, putting her at the head. She moved to the side, and we rearranged the other end so that everyone faced each other as much as possible. She called it the “editorial board.” All the writers were on it. She partnered us with the person on our left, to serve as their “editor,” the one who would start the evaluation of the manuscript.
Ms. Elizabeth passed the mic around for us to introduce ourselves, talk about our writing and what our ultimate goal was. I’d established mine some time back:
To meet someone in heaven who says, “I’m here because of the stories you wrote.”
I know Elizabeth Sherrill will have that. There were people in that room who had were saved and dedicated their life to ministry after reading one of the Sherrill’s books.
Right off that first day, my story came around for critique, to be used as a teaching tool, good or bad. I wasn’t nervous. Much. Just thought about stepping out of the room for the whole time…
Really, it wasn’t so bad. The main thing that came out was my lack of enthusiasm for research. Then I got to talk about my novel (Update: I finished the first draft in February, 2013). Everyone liked the premise, giving me another spur in the side to get it done.
That first day, I felt comfortable with everyone, with my place at the table. We were writers, trying to figure it all out and knowing we wouldn’t before our lives ended. But this was the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest Christian writers of our time.
Around noon that day, we had a special visitor, Loren Cunningham, founder of YWAM and the one credited with Is That Really You, God?: Hearing the Voice of God
I sat stunned at the stories that poured out of him, the laughter, and the connection between old friends. For only the second time ever, four special people were together in one place—the Sherrills, Loren Cunningham, and Janice Rogers.
After an hour and telling about the thousands of militants coming out of the jungle after YWAMers ministered to them, Mr. Cunningham leaned forward. “I said all that to say this—we need more Christian writers!”
I’ll never forget those words.
The day was far from over as we all packed up after dinner and headed to one of my mentor’s home, the one God used to get me in that week, Sandi and Scott Tompkins. There, we stuffed with desserts and sat around for an open questions time with the pros.
How do I describe such a mind-blowing experience of the stories that poured out, the theories about Christian media, trans media, filmmaking, writing, and culture today in America? Why didn’t I have a recorder?
The evening ended way too soon.
In the next post are details of how the workshop proceeded.
Special thanks to Scott Tompkins for most of these photos!
What’s your ultimate goal with the life God has given you? Do you realize you are one of God’s great?
Elizabeth Sherrill Master’s Writing Workshop—Introduction
Authors of such Christian classics as The Hiding Place
Sunday—New Friends
Last minute plans in place, a week’s worth of work done in a day, frantic packing, and then we were on the rainy road for the thirty minute drive to YWAM Woodcrest on that Sunday evening. I hadn’t been there before, but it wasn’t hard to find back in the lovely piney woods of East Texas.
My mama helped me unload at the building that contained the classroom, Resonate News office, and upstairs’ dorm. With no one around, we found the office with my new friend, the copy machine. After playing with it a bit, my other new friend, Joyce, arrived and showed me how to operate the machine we’d run manuscript copies through. I estimate we handled about 3600 sheets by the end of the week.
Finally, I met my roommate, Meliza. She settled me in my room, showed me where the important things were, i.e. restrooms and the separate kitchen building.
I spent an hour and a half making copies and stapling them together. Four manuscripts, 4-6 pages each, 25 stacks. This is what’s known as “working your way through.” I was blessed with that opportunity.
Too much excitement pumping through my veins, I laid awake that night, only imagining what meeting Elizabeth and John Sherrill in person would be like.
In the next post, you’ll read about the first day of the workshop and a special visit and stories from Loren Cunningham, founder of Youth with a Mission (YWAM).
Have you read one of Elizabeth and John Sherrill’s books? How did it impact your life?
Update: I recently saw on Facebook where the Sherrills were flying to London for their 65th wedding anniversary!