In my last Accidental Missionary Podcast I shared a bit of my testimony about how I came to know God and accept Jesus and my Lord and Saviour. As I stated in the podcast I feel like sometimes I have an easier time speaking things out than actually writing them down, which makes that I am about to say kind of odd.
I want to publish a book of testimonies from YWAMers!
I have written before about 
how important it is for us to tell our story and after getting some positive feedback from it I started to wonder again about how important and powerful our testimony is.
A few nights ago I was listening to the latest This Week in Tech and they were talking about a group writing project called The Diamond Club. Because of the content of the book (erotic fiction, similar to 50 Shades of Grey) it is NOT a book I want to read, or would recommend anyone I know to read, the idea of a group writing concept intrigued me.
Also the ease of publication that ebooks allow made me think that this may be something that YWAMers could do…
A Book with Four Sections
My thoughts for the book are to include four different sections:
- How I became a follower of Christ
- What God did on my Discipleship Training School (YWAM DTS)
- How God used me as staff in Youth With A Mission
- What God taught me after YWAM
The idea behind each section would be to highlight some of the different stories and testimonies of God working in our lives during those seasons that God leads us through.
Since our family moving countries in a months time I will most likely be sitting on this concept for a while. I’m still batting around the idea in my head and would love some feedback from others out there.
- Is this something you could see yourself participating in?
- Would you be interested in buying an ebook like this for $0.99?
Let me know what you think in the comments below and I’m thinking that this could be a good project to look at launching in 2013…
photo by -Wink-
Would you want your main readers to be YWAMers? It would be important to set this early so the focus of the writing from different writers would be the same. I like the idea. Multiply the message of God’s goodness and process in our lives!
I’m thinking that the idea would be to put the book together on a blog, http://ywambook.com/, with the four different sections being four different categories on the blog.I’ve written before how important I think it is for us to tell our stories, and how many stories are out there that people don’t read, and I think that providing a platform like this could be beneficial.It would also allow YWAMers who participate to pad their resumes as “contributing authors” and also potentially give them something that can give as a gift to supporters, friends and family.The first goal would be the ebook, but it could possibly also be made into a physical book down the track.
calvinhanson That is a good question that I had not fully grappled with yet.I guess in my processing of the idea so far I was thinking that the main readers would be people involved in YWAM, either at supporters, friends, YWAMers, etc.Like you said, the main reason behind it would be to multiply the telling of testimonies of what God is doing to bring encouragement and hope to others.
billhutchison This is a great idea and I think its on God’s heart for communicators and storytellers to collaborate and capture the stories of missionaries! I’m seeing this movement inside YWAM and in the Church. I’m trying to do essentially the same thing but in a magazine/e-zine format (awakenmag.com). The MOTA DTS is Herrnhut puts out a professional magazine every DTS on testimonies and injustices they saw and photographed. I love it all.
Bill, I love this idea and would definitely get behind it, not just to contribute but also to rally the people I know to be part of it too. Love it, great initiative!