Walk Worthy Press: Joshua's Bible by Shelly Leanne

Author Testimony

"I chose to accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior when I was in the 4th grade, and I remember so vividly how important my day of baptism was. Since then, Christianity has informed my values, shaped my world-view, and guided my life choices. But for me, the spiritual experience of writing Joshua's Bible has been a transforming one: it has transformed my understanding about the nature of God, has affirmed for me that I have learned how God speaks to me, and has helped me to develop a much deeper relationship with God. As I have learned through the writing of Joshua's Bible, there is a world of difference between believing God exists somewhere up there in the heavens, and believing that God is a living God who opens and closes doors, who speaks to us, who has a plan for our lives, and who wishes for us to seek to hear His voice and to follow His call.

I received a calling to write Joshua's Bible in 1996, at the age of 28. Had I intended to become a novelist before that time? No. Or certainly, I hadn't thought I'd write my first novel until I had had a wonderful career and had retired in my late 50s. Up until 1996, I had been on a fairly straight path toward my long-term career goal of starting an education company that would help to give disadvantaged, lower-income, and middle-income students the educational tools and resources they would need to reach their educational and career dreams. I had everything mapped out for myself. I completed my first step: securing a bachelor's degree from a great college. With hard work, I completed my second step: securing my doctorate from a top university. I also attained my third step: I secured a fat-salaried job at a leading management consulting company, refining my business skills by serving on teams advising the CEOs and CFOs of Fortune 100 companies. I was all set: with my blend of academic credentials and business acumen, I would soon be ready to launch my dream company. But then my calling came.

God kept speaking to me through people and through circumstances, and the message was quite clear. I was to write a novel. The vision was very clear also: the story line is the one that came to fruition in Joshua's Bible. I remember when I told my boss, a partner at our firm, that I was quitting in order to write a novel. He looked at me like I was crazy and asked if he had been working me too hard! But of all of the decisions I have made in my life, the one I am most proud of is that I heeded God's calling when it came.

Indeed, some ministers believe that the #1 thing that stands in between good Christians and God's Will, is that good Christian's willingness to alter their life and their own plans when God calls them to a task. The required adjustment is often rather harsh. For me, it was. In order to follow God's call to write Joshua's Bible, I had not only to put off for years my dream of starting my education company. I also had to give up my cushy job and to have faith enough to walk out the corporate door, taking a 70% pay cut in order to accept a job that would afford me the time I needed to write my novel to the standard I believed God would expect of me. My decision to make those adjustments in my life, and to bear the difficult financial hardships that ensued over the next 7 years, was one of the most important decisions of my life. My life has not been the same since. There is nothing like knowing you are living your life fully within God's Will.

As for my storyline, some people ask me, "how did you come up with Joshua's Bible?" The answer: it had been sitting in my heart for some time, though I had not thought to write the storyline into a novel. The storyline is inspired by my life experiences and my doctoral research. Since I spent over five years of my education and research years abroad--in England, South Africa, Kenya and Trinidad--I had become very acquainted with the global dimensions of racism against people of African descent. I had also become aware of the tremendous contributions that African Americans have made to freedom around the world, yet I had never seen this information reflected in the history books or novels I read.

During my doctoral work, which focused on African Americans and the efforts we took since 1900 to help free black South Africans from segregation and apartheid, I was again struck by how little is known about these efforts in any history I had ever been taught. Among the things that most moved me when I was researching my doctoral thesis, was when I read about how many African Americans had traveled to Africa as missionaries in the 1800s and early 1900s, thinking they were going to "civilize" Africans, only to discover that the African culture they had been taught to be ashamed of in the USA was beautiful and rich, and that the conditions Africans faced were racially oppressive. The beauty of this history was so deep; I found it inspiring.

This inspiration overlapped with another desire of mine: to share with the world the beauty I had experienced in Africa when I lived for a summer with a Luo family in western rural Kenya--an area with no running water, no electricity, no paved roads, no telephones. This Luo family, a Christian family, taught me so much about what it truly means to be Christian and to believe so fully in God even amid the most difficult of circumstances. Their home was a Christ-centered one that valued education. Each night, when the family gathered in a circle after dinner to sing Christian songs, the single question floating through my mind was: where is this image of Africa? I had never seen it in any book I had ever read. Why is it we see and hear so little about the beauty of Africa, or of the rich history between African Americans and Africans?

In 1996, I discerned quite clearly that I was being asked to write a novel that rolled these themes together, and which told the story about God's love, which transcends continents and races. I followed the calling based on faith, but I could scarcely imagine in 1996 how I would be able to develop the fiction writing abilities to produce a novel worthy of the themes God was asking me to write about. After 7 long years, Joshua's Bible is here. My only hope is that it is everything that God intended it to be.

I hope you will enjoy Joshua's Bible."

Shelly Leanne

Buy Now @ Amazon