An Interview with BJ Hamrick

I met Bekah at Mount Hermon and immediately fell in love with her sweet personality and humble spirit. It amazes me that she’s still in college, and yet so accomplished and focused. She’s been writing for about six years professionally and was recently engaged to her amazing boyfriend, Ethan. She currently lives in North Carolina. I hope you enjoy getting to meet my friend, BJ Hamrick.

*What is your passion in life?
Last winter, I lay on the floor and watched the snow hit my window. Little pellets of ice... when they made contact with the window pane, they melted into tiny trickles of water.

That's the way I want my life to be.

I want everyone who comes in contact with me to be forever altered.

But I can't change their lives. I'm only the window pane... and God is the heating force behind that pane.

I want Him to give me His passion... His warmth... His love for the world...

*What was your main takeaway from Mount Hermon? How are you going to apply it in your daily life?

The biggest thing I learned at Mount Hermon was how to fish.

I know this sounds crazy, but let me explain.

The day before I got to Mount Hermon, I got a rejection from a literary agent who was going to be at the conference. "It's not about you," he said, "It's about me. I don't do books for teenagers."

"Are you breaking up with me?" I asked. "Because this sounds more like a breakup letter than a rejection."

Anyway. What does this have to do with fishing?

I was feeling discouraged after the breakup/rejection letter, and decided I wouldn't pitch to any agents at all during the conference.

Poor, pitiful me.

The fourth morning of the conference, I woke up and started to read my Bible.

It was the story about the disciples when they had been fishing all night without any success.

"Cast the net again," Jesus told them.

"But LORD," the disciples whined, "we've been fishing all night."

Apparently they realized Jesus was serious, because they decided to cast the net again. Out of obedience to Him.

As I read, God spoke directly to my heart.

"Cast the net again," He said.

"Excuse me?" I asked.

"You heard me," He said. "Cast the net again. Talk to another agent. Put yourself out there."

That night I sat at dinner with a literary agent whom I had been praying about pitching my books to for 2 years (talk about working up the nerve).

The moment I gave my pitch, the agent handed me her business card and told me she wanted to hear from me. Last week, she sent me a contract.

When I think about it, I'm amazed that I almost didn't obey. That I told the Lord I was tired. That I wasn't willing to cast the net again.

The biggest thing I took away from Mount Hermon was that God doesn't call us to fish without first giving us the strength to do what He's asked.

*How has being a writer impacted or informed your daily life as a Christian?
It overwhelms me -- every day -- the sense of responsibility God gives me as a writer. When my life is not in line with what He wants, it shows in my writing. My lack of relationship with Him affects not only me, but also those for whom I write.

*I hear you have some exciting news in your life. Care to share?
About one month ago, I was out on a walk with my boyfriend. We were off the beaten path when he got on one knee and asked me to be his little wife. Well, he didn't say it quite like that -- it was much more eloquent. And of course I said yes!

*What are you most excited about in being married? Most concerned about?
I'm most excited about spending the rest of my life with my best friend. I'm most concerned about not being able to express to him exactly how much I love him. Some days, it's just impossible to convey how much he means to me. There just aren't enough words... and I'm a writer.

*I'm doing a talk about envy next week. Just for fun, what's the silliest thing you've ever been envious about?
I am completely envious of Mary DeMuth's hair. Seriously. How in the world, when you're camping at Mount Hermon, can you get your hair to look that good? It's a mystery to me.

The Poetry of Movement

For those of you who do not already read The Master's Artist, I want you to go read this debut post by my friend Madison. Then come back and tell me your thoughts.

You're still here? Go! Go read it!

An Interview with Mick Silva

As promised, here is my last interview from Mount Hermon. I met Mick two years ago through my friend Jeanne. Besides just being an all-around nice guy, I was struck by his authenticity and genuine interest in people. At the time, I was feeling overwhelmed and way out of my league. I met with Mick to ask my naive little questions, and he made me feel like I was just as important as the accomplished (and published!) writers around me. As I've gotten to know Mick better through reading his blog, I also appreciate his challenging insights and thought-provoking comments. I hope you enjoy getting to know him better as well.

Mick Silva
Editor, married for 6 years, has 2 girls, been writing since age 17, currently resides in Colorado Springs, CO

How has your job as an editor impacted your spiritual life?
Just as a composer creates an emotional tone, I like to think I help create an emotional tone within an authors’ work. My passion is to guide the message of other writers into its greatest form, helping draw out the greatest ability to connect. This process is all the better if the writer is someone who understands that and gets the spiritual implications. As an editor, I am humbled to be entrusted with the task of guiding these authors. It’s almost like the role of a pastor—which is scary when I think about incurring the judgment of James 3:1 (“Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly”). But in Christian books, we are all teachers in some respect. It’s a heavy responsibility to stand before God with that. Yet this process of helping writers see what they’re missing grows me because I have to hone in on the core of the writer’s message and help them streamline their words so the reader connects quickly. Practicing this teaches me how to stay in the moment. It translates into efficiency in life—with conversations, emails and phone calls, in prayer or Bible reading time, just get to the core issue. But in order to do that, I can’t rush ahead of God. I have to stay on my knees to receive guidance. Overall, I think being an editor has made me do this more with gratitude and humility.

Palm Sunday celebrates the entry of Christ into Jerusalem. How do you celebrate His entry into your life?
My life forever changed when we had kids. I became a different person, particularly as I learned about humility. Christ was hailed as the great leader who would lead everyone into great power, but he rode in on a donkey on a road paved with palm branches and coats - the only things the people had. My kids serve as a constant reminder to me that I am not all that. We don’t all have these huge things to offer to God. I try to enjoy Him in what He is already doing. I celebrate that with my kids, telling them what I feel about them. I’m also keeping journals for my daughters about what God has done in our lives. I try to focus on humility.

You’ve talked a lot about humility. What brought you to this focus?
My cursed pride, of course! (Laughs.) Pride is one of the things that keeps us from experiencing the true spiritual gifts and rewards that God has for us, that he wants us to understand. We can’t experience everything He has for us unless we come with open hands. Pride makes up two of the three great sins, and yet we don’t focus on it much. We think we have to be strong (this victorious Christian living concept), and we use that as a license to be prideful. We need a willingness to be humble before God and others, otherwise you will never get past that starting point. I constantly need that reminder. The other part is that you give yourself worth from where God is leading. Your self worth is given to you through God’s work in real life, so when you’re trying to get it from this false sense of confidence - or whatever - that’s not really where you need to be. Ironically, God is a humble God. He came to us as a man, and we are to accept him willingly in the same spirit He had. The exciting part is we can come to Him directly. He wants to be a part of us, to fill us, and that gives us so much self- confidence. We need that connection to see how He sees us. For me, that’s the beginning of everything.

At this point in the conference, a sense of weariness is often setting in. How do you keep from getting weary?
I never have a problem keeping interested when I’m connecting, when I’m really getting at what the core of the message is with an author. It is tiresome when most of us are introverts, and yet we’re talking all day long and being “on” all the time. But I deal with it by not being “on” (again, related to humility thing) and being honest connecting with people. You don’t have to have this facade all the time. Having a good time is not tiring. I try to stay relaxed and in the moment. I must constantly remind myself, but it’s gotten easier. And that sustains you: love people, learn to listen and connect with them. That’s energizing.

As Christians, particularly Christian writers, we sometimes tend to be inwardly focused on our circle of like-minded people. Why do we create these Christian bubbles?
We’re strangers; we’re not accepted in this world and Jesus’ radical message is off-putting. It’s hard to be out in the world and be pushing - worse yet, peddling - the Gospel. We come to places like Christian conferences to refuel and recharge. That’s not bad; we need to do that. However, we also need to be aware that where we live gives the world a perception of who we are. If we isolate ourselves and don’t have a lot of contact with those who aren’t Christians, we create an impression that we don’t like non-Christians.

So, how do you and I make a change in that perception?
Do it personally. Be humble and grateful. We trust God that we can go out and have an impact through how He has gifted us and through our personalities. By employing these things he’s given us and within community, we become the hands and feet of God. We then use our restorative times (like Christian conferences) to actually equip us to then go back out. That requires trusting Him that He will be there. We don’t have to be afraid to go out and say what needs to be said because we are equipped with the Holy Spirit. We often think it’s presumptuous to say the Holy Spirit spoke to me, but that’s not true. He speaks to every Christian and employs us to spread the gospel to everyone. We don’t believe it happens because we aren’t actively doing it. But with just doing it, we take baby steps forward.

Photo: Me, Leslie, Jeanne, Mick, Bekah, Madison (2005) Credit: stolen and used without permission from Jeanne although I think TJ actually took the picture!

Mount Hermon: Bloggers

Okay, as I mentioned before, I have some unfinished Mount Hermon blogs to wrap up. First is a group of bloggers from Mount Hermon. We all met together one night for a Blog-o-rama, and shared tips and ideas on blogging. Here are the people who attended (and wrote their names/blogs down). Check out their blogs; there's some good stuff there.

Actual Unretouched Photo and The Amazing Shrinking Mom - Melodee Helms
Real Women Scrap - Tasra Dawson
Relevant Blog - Mary DeMuth
maxgrace.com - Bill Giovannetti
Christian Work at Home Moms - Jill Hart
Larry's Bible Blog - Larry Wilson
Parenting Solo Devotionals and Rebuilding Hackberry - Doug Mead
Moral Movies - Dean Anderson
Exploring Adoption - Laura Christianson
Writebrained - BJ Hamrick
Why didn't you warn me? and Sometimes I feel like a piece of bologna - Pat Sikora
Happy Feet - Jon VonHof
Goddess Worship - Susy Flory (who's doing a Christian investigation of goddess worship)
Mommy Life - Barbara Curtis

An Interview wtih Marilynn Griffith

At Mount Hermon, I had the opportunity to meet some amazing people, with wonderful stories to tell. I first saw Marilyn from across the room, and her smile immediately captured my attention. Her warmth and laughter attracted me, and I was determined to meet her at some point. I had the privilege of sitting at her table during lunch one day, and I asked her for an interview. I hope you enjoy getting to know Marilynn a little bit. I am currently reading her first book Pink in the Shades of Style series.

Marilynn Griffith
Freelancer, married for 16 years, has 7 kids, written for 7 years

What is your passion in life? Being a good friend, helping people be good friends, learning how to juggle all these things of womanhood (being a mom, a sister, an aunt, etc) and maintaining some sense of self, helping others figure out how to hold onto family and Jesus in one hand and their dreams in another.

How have you managed to do that in your life? I have a great husband. I enlist my kids to work with me as a team. Everyone works together as family; we see it as a family business. My kids participate in achieving those goals, so when a check comes in the mail we all celebrate.

What do they think about being a part of those goals? Sometimes they get tired of it, but really they love it. They give books to their teachers. When people ask them what their mom does, they love it to say I’m a writer. Of course, it has its ups and downs.

How has writing affected your spiritual life? Wow. I think that I didn’t realize how safe I was as a Christian. My writing voice wasn’t established as a christian, so my writing was raw but Jesus was there. I didn’t realize how many safe things I implemented in my life. I discovered a bigger Jesus - scary, but good, even though everything doesn’t always have a happy ending. God is still there, even if you don’t get anything you prayer for. It was a big self-discovery.

As Palm Sunday approaches, how do you celebrate Christ’s entrance into your life? At home we would attend a sunrise service. As a child, we used to even receive palm branches and wave them. I use the time to look back on the year and meditate on all the things God is showing me. It’s like a guidepost to stop at and evaluate whether I am moving toward Jesus or coming away. It’s a sort of new year, and a chance to give back that lordship that I might have taken.

Anything additional you’d like to add? I love to meet new people and hear from people. So if you are interested in reaching me, you can find me at my website: http://www.marilyngriffith.com or email me at marilynngriffith@gmail.com.

An Interview with Kay Marshall Strom

I met Kay two years ago, at my first Mount Hermon conference. She encouraged me greatly with her heart for the global Body of Christ, and her courage to travel around the world to gather the stories of persecuted women. She's written an awesome book called Daughters of Hope that I highly recommend. I'm pleased to introduce to you, Kay Strom.

Kay Marshall Strom
Freelancer, married for 8 years, written for 20 years, currently in Santa Barbara, CA

What is your passion in life? Actually, it has come out of my writing. My passion at this time is letting believers in this country know that they are part of the global family of God. They need us as much as we need them. It pains me that we don’t realize we’re part of a bigger family. Being a part of the Body does not just mean that we need to help our brothers and sisters around the world, but to realize that we need them just as much. We think we’re just depriving them, but really we are depriving ourselves, too. And we are depriving the Body of God.

How did this come about? That’s actually an interesting story. I love to read historical biographies. I was reading the story of Marie Antoinette. It’s amazing, she’s not as hard hearted as we think; she was just totally clueless. She had all the royal people over for a banquet, and there was so much food the tables were sagging - all while people in Paris were starving. After everyone left, she turned to the Emperor and said, “Let’s not throw away all this food, let’s spread the leftovers on the sidewalk.” As they stood and watched the people lick the sidewalk so as not to waste anything, she said “We are so good for the poor; they should love us.” The poor people of France heard this, clenched their fist and resolved to have her head. A week later, 9/11 occurred. At church on Sunday, an elder in church stood up and talked about the need to pray for the families of those who had lost their lives. Then he shared that he didn’t know how this could happen. “We are so good to the world, everyone should love us.” And I thought, we’re just like Marie Antoinette, and the world is going to have our heads. That became the inspiration to write Daughters of Hope (Kay’s book sharing stories of women around the world who are persecuted for their faith). I was in India interviewing women for my book, and as I normally closed my interviews, I asked if there was anything else someone would like to say to me. They asked me if I had ever been kicked out of my house for being a Christian, thrown rocks at, persecuted, hated, denied food for being a Christian. I answered, “No, we just don’t face that type of attack in the US.” Then they asked me if we did have to suffer, would we still be Christians? And I thought for a long time, and didn’t know how to answer. They said they would pray for strength for us. They would pray that if we did have to face persecution that we would endure it. And they asked me to tell everyone I spoke to that they were praying for them. When I am asked to speak - even at Rotary meetings - I share their story.

How has your writing affected your walk? It has changed it totally. It has changed my perspective on life and death, on my purpose in being here. The biggest battle is being patient with others. I know other people haven’t been where I’ve been. We complain about things here, but we’re so fixated on the wrong things. It is so hard to be patient with what I see in the American church. When you go and see, you can’t come back and be the same. I will never to my dying day, get out of my mind the pictures of the people in Sudan - the most wonderful people in the world - who bounced back despite the most incredible things. When I talked with them, they asked me, “Does anyone care about us?” No one asked me for money, they asked me to pray for them. They requested we pray for their children that they will stay firm to the faith (aka be willing to die, be persecuted). When we left them, they ran behind our bus as fast as they could for as long as they could keep up, saying “Pray for us” and then they disappeared into a cloud of dust. I still see that image in my mind. If only we would truly partner with our brothers and sisters around the world.

As Palm Sunday approaches, how do you celebrate Christ’s entrance into your life? I remember reading through the Bible as a 13 year old, trying to figure out how to get it all together, when I came to Micah 6:6-7, “With what shall I come to the Lord and bow myself before the God on high? Shall I come to Him with burnt offerings, With yearling calves? Does the LORD take delight in thousands of rams, In ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I present my firstborn for my rebellious acts, The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” And then comes the answer in verse 8. “He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God?” That’s how I celebrate and pray to celebrate - to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with my God.