Just a couple days after my dad told me he had aggressive terminal cancer, I began writing. I didn’t know what else to do. This was four years ago… September 25, 2009. I wrote about all of it: the good and the bad; what me, my dad, and my sister were struggling with as well as all the adventures we suddenly found ourselves taking in pursuit of fulfilling my dad’s “bucket list.”
Dinner parties with friends, buying me and my sister a cross to wear, going to church in an effort to nurture and encourage our faith…
And here I was, documenting all of it without any understanding that what I had actually been inspired to record was the beginning of my own testimony. God was finally moving to slip past the apathetic and prideful walls of my heart.
It wasn’t long into the story that I began to suspect there was something bigger going on. Something was telling me that this was more than a therapeutic habit for me. My heart wasn’t entrepreneurial or bent on making a buck. It was more like a vision of my (future) kids reading the story one day and maybe learning a thing or two about their old man.
The vision kept getting bigger. Like, uncomfortably bigger. By the time my dad had succumbed to his disease and I had eventually decided to follow Jesus Christ for myself by signing onto The World Race, I felt like God was telling me that His plans for my story were more grand than I could ever imagine.
Well… today, my story was published. And the only explanation I have for any of it is that God has had His hand on it the entire way.
The official release date is set for September 25, 2013. I can’t think of a better way to honor my father and to glorify God for how He turned my tragedy into a reason for celebration than to have the release date of my book fall on the fourth anniversary of when the entire journey began.
THE SCOOP:
Just a year before, Kyle had lacked the boldness in faith to even bring Jesus into a conversation. Eleven months of various international mission work would have been a ridiculous waste of his youth and pleasures. But that was before his father died from cancer, leaving him to examine how his life matched his beliefs.
While providing fatherly care for a group of orphaned babies and toddlers in Johannesburg, Kyle shares what God has taught him on his journey thus far. His experiences throughout the month serve as natural platforms to jump back to the year before…back to when he was helping his father cross items off his bucket list and before the urgency to finally acknowledge his faith had taken root. The two heartrending stories of past and present blend together, inviting readers to pursue their own adventures with God as they witness Kyle learning to follow his Father’s Son.
Pre-orders are now available through the book’s web site for a special limited time price of $10.99. You can also visit the Facebook Page to read snippets and see some relevant photos from the story. Don’t forget to like it while you’re there!
I can’t wait to see how God continues to use the story He began in my life to reach other people!
