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To
those who serve in hidden places
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Acknowledgments
“Never start a writing career by writing a book."
Whoops! Too late. The popular author who offered this advice knew what
he was talking about. By the time I heard it, however, I had gone too
far in the process to turn back.
It started when my husband, Neil, and good friend Hyatt Moore co-authored
a book about translating the Bible into the Folopa language of Papua
New Guinea titled In Search of the Source (Multnomah, 1992). People
asked me teasingly, "When are you going to tell your side of the
story, Carol?" Neil and I laughed and I replied, "If I did,
it would be a very different tale."
The final nudge came at the tri-annual Urbana
Missions Conference in 1993, a gathering of nearly twenty thousand young
people on the campus of the University of Illinois. I remembered that
God has a sense of humor when Neil and I were assigned to speak at a
seminar called "Working Together as a Married Couple." Rather
than try to fool the young generation audience, which was impossible,
I opted for openness about our struggles. In response a great number
of women came to me afterward and begged, "Please write a book.
We haven't been able to find anything on the subject of the real live
experience of women missionaries."
Although I got in way over my head with this
book, I am grateful to the many who encouraged me to write it. Not only
did it tell my side of our experience and provide information for would-be
missionaries, but writing my story has been a way to verbalize and finalize
a great work God has done in my life. It has made me sit down and ask
myself, “O.K. what has God done for me?" The answers have
been mind-boggling.
I am also grateful to all my family and friends who read the manuscript
in its various stages and offered feedback, suggestions and encouragement.
To my now very literate daughter Heather, whom
I taught to read and write but who sent me back to my desk to write
major revisions, thanks for being willing to teach Mom.
Jane Campbell, my editor at Chosen Books, helped me gather my scattered
thoughts and make the book actually say something. Her visions, affirmation
and wise advice made all the difference.
Finally I am grateful most to God Most High, who took hold of my hand
for the duration of the task.
For I am the LORD, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says
to you, Do not fear; I will help you.
Isaiah 41:13
©
1998 by Carol Lee Anderson
Originally
published by Chosen Books a division of Baker Book House Company P.O.
Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
Printed
in the United States of America
All
rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored
in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means-for
example, electronic, photocopy, recording-without the prior written
permission of the author. The only exception is brief quotations in
printed reviews.
Library
of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Anderson,
Carol Lee, 1946Do you know what you are doing, Lord? : a jungle journey
in search of God / Carol Lee Anderson.
p. cm.
ISBN 0-8007-9261-0 (paper) 1. Anderson, Carol L., 1946- . 2. Anderson,
Neil, 1944- .
3. Missionaries-Papua New Guinea-Biography. 4. Missionaries-United States-Biography.
5. Folopa (Papua New Guinea people)-Missions. 6. Folopa language-Translating.
7. Wycliffe Bible Translators. 8. Anderson, Carol Lee, 1946- . I. Title.
BV3680.N52A3 1998 266'.0092'2 [b]-DC21 98-21482
Scripture
quotations are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®.
NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society.
Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.
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