You may or may not recognize the cover of my book. My only published work was twenty-five stand-alone devotional chapters revolving around family-school-home-church. It has yet to appear on Oprah or any other prestigious venue but I think it has its merits. The title comes from Luke 1:66 where the people in the Judean countryside are marveling about the miraculous birth of John the Baptist. You remember; too old parents, appearance of the angel Gabriel, the priestly father to be loses his ability to speak, etc. These out of the ordinary circumstances rightly predicted an out of the ordinary child and were these friends and neighbors of Zechariah and Elizabeth amazingly correct!
When my good friend, Paul Nance, designed the book's cover, he provided space for four of our students to be featured. I decided to try to accurately portray the makeup of our school which is kindergarten through twelfth grade; two boys and two girls; two older kids and two younger; the four predominant ethnic groups which are, alphabetically, African American, Asian, Caucasian, and Hispanic. The four kids I selected that fit the criterion were, from top to bottom on the cover, Veronica Phung, William Washington, Stephanie Castillo, and William Long. Three of the four moved along with the inevitable graduation but William Washington is still with us, finishing his sophomore year in my Gospels class, sixth period. I remember William when he was little would come sit with me at worship services. You want to know how grown up he is ten years later? This weekend, William won the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools championship in the shot put at the Class 4 A state track and field meet in Waco. I'd say that's pretty grown up! William wants to play football at The Ohio State University when he finishes his senior year at WCS. On top of that, he's a pretty neat kid. So to answer the question, What Then Is This Child Going To Be?, sometimes the answer is a state champion. I like to think it all started with a book cover!
If you want to read excerpts from my book or even order a copy, please click the link for my website, www.hawleybooks.com. THANKS!
God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1
www.hawleybooks.com
E-mail me at steve@hawleybooks.com
2 comments:
I've been in the sunday school ministry (teaching sunday school to kids)for 24 years now. i started when I was only 17 (Don't add that). Most of my first students then are now married and have their own family.. a few from this church that I've been teaching in have now become our youth leaders and musicians.
IT's nice to see them continue in the faith long after sunday school, knowing you've been a part of their molding is one of the great rewards.
Over the years I've thought a lot about the book's title. I'm thankful for devoted teachers and mentors like Steve, who - with God's help - can help remove the question mark from the sentence. Perhaps a more fitting title for those under Steve's tutelage would be: "With God's Help, This is What a Child Can Be."
Keep up the great work, Steve. You are an inspiration to "children" of all ages.
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