It was an enormous pleasure to see so many in attendance this last Saturday for our October LCW meeting, a truly full house with over 50 in attendance and a delightfully practical and interactive workshop from speaker Emily Chase. Emily has also left LCW with a fresh publication opportunity (see details below). A thanks as well to our own poet laureate Byron Smith, who shared a devotional challenge with the group along with his award-winning poetry. A congratulations to Byron for his poem, Sculpted, which was a finalist for Pennsylvania in the national 2012 Senior Poet Laureate Contest (poem included below for those who didn't get to hear Byron read in person).
Meanwhile mark your calendar for our next meeting, Saturday, November 17, 2012, at Lancaster Evangelical Free Church, 419 Pierson Rd, Lititz, PA, 17543 from 9:30AM-12 noon (registration opens at 9). We are delighted to welcome speaker and columnist Dona Fisher, whom many of you may recognize as director of Lancaster's National Day of Prayer Event. Dona will be sharing a workshop: "Write It From A Prayerful Heart".
Dona shares about this workshop, "Nothing more intimidating than a full mind and a empty page. Learn to be aware, ponder, deposit those thoughts, pray fully dependent, and desperately in need of cultivating God's viewpoint. Think in parables-earthly stories with heavenly meanings."
SPEAKER BIO: A native of Lancaster, PA, Dona Fisher serves as Vice President of Friendship Foundation, Inc. which provides Christian outreach events including the non-denominational Change of Pace Bible Studies of which she has been director for 37 years. She also chairs the annual Lancaster County National Day of Prayer. Among other publishing credits, Dona has written a column for the Matters of Faith section of Lancaster Sunday News since 2003.
On a personal note, I leave Friday Oct. 26th, for Nairobi, Kenya, where I will be on faculty at Littworld 2012, the global Christian publishing/writer conference that takes place every three years on shifting continents (www.littworld.org). One of my greatest delights is the privilege of mentoring writers across the developing world; this conference brings together more than 200 top leaders in Christian publishing and writing from across the developing world on all five continents. I would ask for prayer that God will grant safety in travel and right words in speaking. Above all, I am ferrying two suitcases of material and books earmarked for African Christian publishers and conferees. Please pray with me that this luggage will arrive safely to the conference.
See below for writing opportunities and Byron Smith's wonderful award-winning poem.
Blessings,
Jeanette Windle
President, Lancaster Christian Writers
www.jeanettewindle.com
http://lancasterchristianwriterstoday.blogspot.com
Jeanette Windle
President, Lancaster Christian Writers
www.jeanettewindle.com
http://lancasterchristianwriterstoday.blogspot.com
WRITING OPPORTUNITIES:
1. Emily Chase expresses appreciation for last year's participation by LCW members in West Shore Evangelical Free Church's Lenten publication. West Shore has again extended an invitation for LCW members to participate in their 2013 Lenten project, a book of daily offices with the working title Making Space: Learning How to Enjoy God’s Beautiful, Life-Giving Presence. 8 themes have been selected for the eight chapters; each chapter will have twenty brief essays, 300 words or so each. The eight themes are: 1) Silence (and solitude); 2) Sabbath (and sacred time); 3) Simplicity 4) Fasting 5) Prayer; 6) Worship; 7) Hospitality; 8) Community. The deadline for submissions is Dec. 1, 2012. Authors of devotionals published in the book will each receive a single copy of the book. All submissions can be sent to Emily Chase (echase@messiah.edu).
2. LCW member Evelyn Merriams, recently accepted for publication by Salvation Army's 132 year old publication War Cry (congratulation!), is sharing this opportunity with the group. Now a monthly publication, War Cry accepts unsolicited subscriptions on a variety of topics. Guidelines available at: War Cry Submission Guidelines
AWARD-WINNING POEM SCULPTED: BY BYRON SMITH, SENIOR POET LAUREATE, PA FINALIST
I moved freely Thud of mallet, chip
within the marble mountain of chisel, nick the
until the grinding gnaw surfaces of my vault.
bit into the face Studied persistent rasps
of our wall. lay bare my contours.
Depletion of our solid Air and light touch me
cliff seemed small. into rigid helplessness
Neglected attention Ogled and admired, I stand
caught me one day real as life, they say.
in a special block I return the stares.
cut from our domain.
Furiously, I fought He who has imprisoned me
the sudden limits of is praised, applauded.
solitary confinement. Can he know how much
Surrounding barriers of he doesn't understand
light and air of inside life exposed,
encompassed my tight cell. leaving me motionless,
Caged in a cube permanently not alive.
stolen from our mountain
I'm taken alone into a
curtained studio.
