Dandi Did It Again

Such a delightful highlight approaches - the time of day when I go into my cocoon! Blissfully, I crawl under my crisp clean blue sheets. The overstuffed pillows stand stacked and fluffed behind me. The diffuser puffs sweet lavender oil into the air. Now for the moment I’ve anticipated - I open the cover to my wartime novel to see where in the world my newest friends find themselves. Drama in real life, love in the midst of war, I pick up where I last left off with hero and heroine.

With Love, Wherever You Are by Dandi Daley Mackall is a jewel of a read. Frank and Helen Mackall serve as doctor and nurse in the European theatre of World War II. Marriage weds their hearts; geography separates their lives. Following a whirlwind romance and wedding, deployment tears their togetherness asunder. Keeping their relationship alive depends on military leaves granted in the midst of combat; rendezvous occur in the most unusual places. As doctor and nurse, they ache for their patients; as newlyweds, they ache for each other. Will their fiery, fresh, fragile, beginning survive? 

Once upon a time (but this is true) I briefly met Frank and Helen Daley. Long before I knew their story, I knew their love for life, their love for their daughter, and most importantly, their love for Jesus. Their infectious smiles remained etched in my mind as I read page after page of their unconventional wartime romance.

Author and daughter Dandi Daley Mackall says, “This novel is a work of fiction, based on the stories and letters of Helen and Frank.” She found a trunk with letters, labored hard, and created for us a story worth the telling.

Known for exceptional writing, Dandi is the award-winning author of nearly 500 books for children and adults. Her novel My Boyfriends’ Dogs is now a Hallmark movie.

As Paul Sweeney said, "You know you've read a good book when you turn the last page and feel a little as if you have lost a friend." I understand this feeling, for my copy of With Love, Wherever You Are now sits completed and closed on my bedside table. Sigh

If you decide to treat yourself to a superb read, you can order on Amazon. Parenthetically, this would make a delightful Mother's Day gift. 

Thank you, Dandi. You did it again!

Living with eternal intentionality: What is your favorite read these days?

Go On a What?

A walk? “Would you like to go on a walk together?” As the church service ended, Walt and Pat Stuart approached us and extended the invitation; Larry and I eagerly accepted.

On this brilliant fall Sunday afternoon, the four of us set out.  Newly introduced, we relished the opportunity to get better acquainted. Ours was no ordinary walk - this was a Wanderweg.

Jogs, sprints, and marathons each have their place, but the European Wanderweg holds a category all its own. I speak of walking for the sheer joy walking; steady, rambling walking for the delight of the company you keep. (I miss it sorely.)

Our Wanderweg with Walt and Pat consumed the entire afternoon. Through the orchards, around the cows, near the sheep, we walked. Breathtaking, pastoral scenes, resplendent with fall foliage, unfolded before us in magnificent display.

Whether walking in pairs or walking single file, we just kept talking – ours was a rolling meandering dialog, just like our rolling meandering terrain. Various personal stories moved with us as we steadily moved forward – stories of families, dreams for our future, and passion for our common Christ-calling.  Conversation, contemplation, even commiseration composed the fabric of discussion.

We stopped at a Gasthaus for rich brown coffee and authentic Black Forest torte. This pausa marked our midpoint; the Wanderweg took us back home. Our foursome set out in the warmth of sunshine; we returned at a chilly dusk.

Reflections stayed with me from our classic Wanderweg, which started with an intentional invitation.

Peaceful - the experience was overwhelmingly bathed in peace

Purposeful - the focus was relational, getting to know each other

Pace - the one-step at-a-time trek moved us forward with deliberation, but this was not a race against the clock

Pauses - the pauses were as significant as the progress; we stopped at appropriate intervals to reflect, to ruminate

And, it is no wonder...

I still pause

when I read Genesis 5:24. Enoch walked with God.

Enoch. Walked. With. God.

That must have been quite the Wanderweg.

A Painfully Different Kind of Easter

We went through fire and water, but He led us to a place of abundance. (Psalm 66:12)

Rybnik, Poland, Easter of 1978

A young woman befriended these Americans and invited us to spend our first Polish Easter with her and her family. She attended the university in Kraków, but her home of origin was the mining mecca of Rybnik.

Not knowing what to expect, yet wanting to deepen our cultural roots, we accepted. On the appointed day we packed and drove the ­­­­128 bumpy kilometers from our home to hers.

In spite of her gracious, Polish-perfect hospitality, the joy of the resurrection failed to affect our mood. We missed our families, the food tasted strange, and the weather bore little resemblance of spring.

Larry and I took a walk with our toddler in an attempt to quell the smothering sense of cultural stress; outdoors provided little relief.

Our environment depicted the grim grayness of the Communist world. Buildings were constructed with the same dark bricks of the concentration camps. The air was thick with coal dust, and the streets were covered with the awful grunge of mud and melted snow. Mixed with the pollution was my concern for our little girl's bright yellow snowsuit -  how would we ever manage to get it clean again?

I remember saying to Larry, “What on earth would you do if Rybnik, Poland, was your ministry assignment?” 

His reply stopped me in my tracks, “Debby…Rybnik, Poland, IS your ministry assignment.” 

How riveting! I stood motionless, and took in my despairing surroundings. I felt extremely small.  

Reality rolled over me like an avalanche as I calculated the daunting challenge of ministry in another country, in another culture, and in another language. This missionary certainly had a long way to go.  Standing there on a cobblestone street, I wondered if could God ever use me in such a place as Rybnik, Poland.

Our visit ended; we returned to Kraków for our language studies, and the fledgling beginnings of a clandestine ministry. Months, even years, passed, but the memory of that Easter experience never left us. Our commitment to live out our calling to Eastern Europe spanned decades, and eventually we witnessed the historical Fall of The Wall in 1989.

Fast-forward 30 years to February 2008

While traveling from our home in Hungary to a church congress in Poland, we received an invitation to speak to a local high school in, yes…Rybnik, Poland. Imagine my feelings as I stood to speak to the audience gathered within just a few blocks of that original walk on that bleak Easter holiday so many years ago.

Using a power point presentation of the Four Spiritual Laws, we openly shared the Gospel with two hundred high school students. Along with their twenty teachers, these students were given an opportunity to receive Jesus.

February 2008, Rybnik Poland

The rare Rybnik visit also included a connection with our original hostess. Over a meal of delicious Polish cuisine, which we now relished, we rejoiced at God's astounding faithfulness in each of our lives.

Later, on a deeply personal level, and with a sense of worshipful awe, I reflected on the difference between my two visits – my first visit in 1978, and my current visit in 2008 - to this town buried deep in the coal-mining region of Silesia. God’s thirty years of miracles within the Communist government, and God’s thirty years of miracles within me, were equally shocking. Standing there on a cobblestone street, I celebrated the joy of His work in my life to equip me, and His gracious plan to use me, even in Rybnik, Poland.

 Despise not the day of small beginnings. (Zechariah 4:10)