A single young woman is tricked by modern day pirates losing everything she owned. As she tries to figure out what happened to her belongings, her world crashes around her as government and private agencies treat her as a suspect. Determined to find the man who did this to her, she stumbles onto a government top secret. Finding this modern day pirate turns into a race against lethal forces.
I started with one of my favorite scenes from the musical 1776. Our founding fathers had to deal with just as much stuff back then, as our current administration does today. We are the United States of America.
I love the story of the American Revolution. Men had an idea of what freedom meant and chose to pursue it. They laid down ideals of what true freedom looked like and promised these truths to all men. They declared that all men where created equal and had certain inalienable rights in the eyes of their Creator. They did not say “landowners” “white men” “financially stable.” They said all men.
Today we take these truths for granted because it seems like they cost us nothing. We are standing on the shoulders of man who paid the price. Men like John Adams who scarified time with his family to help build a nation. A trip to a few national monuments will teach you the price that was paid. Our country does a great job of preserving our history and many of the tours are free.
Recently I have been watching the AMC series TURN which tells the American Revolution story from an espionage position. It gives me a sense of the danger it took to be on the side of the revolution. On our most recent trip we saw a copy of the Declaration of Independence. Once the man signed it, he had sealed his fate as a traitor. There was no turning back, because they had put an “S” on their chest making themselves targets for the British Military. But there was an ideal they believed in and it was worth dying for. A vote for independence.
I have spent some time traveling this great land of ours. It is an amazing country from the mountains to the plains to the beaches. The only thing better than the landscape are the people who make up these United States. Whether they are sitting on a street corner in Harlem selling goods or dressed in period clothing in Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia explaining history to tourist, they make up a great nation.
We are the experiment of what happens when you bring a little bit of everyone together and allow all of the cultures to combine. We do not know where one culture ends and another begins. We have created a culture that is unique to US.
If you took our DNA, you would find that we are all fifth cousins and our ancestors started in Europe, Africa and Asia. If you took our picture, you would find that we are as different as our personalities and that is the way we like it. If you tried to take our freedom, you would find yourself in for the fight of your life because it is something we take serious.
It is difficult to understand if you are not born here, but the desire for freedom starts young and stays. Whether you are black, white, yellow or red, it starts in our hearts. God created us with a desire for freedom.
Happy July 4th.
My last song comes from Les Miserables. (I know it is not about the American Revolution) But I think the song captures the sentiments of our founding fathers. They needed men who would stand with them and fight for independence
The full novel Destiny’s Dilemma is available on Amazon Kindle.
Destiny’s Dilemma
An African American woman moved home to take care of her dying mother giving up the opportunity to experience a world beyond segregation. Zoraida Hughes Williams finds that some things have changed about her hometown of Fort Worth, Texas while some have stayed the same, like Hell’s Half Acre, an area where saloons, prostitution and gambling runs wild. Like most of the residents, she wants to keep her head down and stay away from trouble, but it comes in the unlikely form of an Anglo Baptist preacher. He messes up everything and almost gets them killed.
My latest novel is a fun one. It is the story of a woman who has to decide on having a career or staying close to her family. You can get the first 6 chapters of this novel for .99 cents.
An African American woman moved home to take care of her dying mother giving up the opportunity to experience a world beyond segregation. Zoraida Hughes Williams finds that some things have changed about her hometown of Fort Worth, Texas while some have stayed the same, like Hell’s Half Acre, an area where saloons, prostitution and gambling runs wild. Like most of the residents, she wants to keep her head down and stay away from trouble, but it comes in the unlikely form of an Anglo Baptist preacher. He messes up everything and almost gets them killed.
My day started when I got up and prayed. I made my to-do list for the day. Lord bless this list. Change it where you need to.
One of the stops on my list that I thought would take hours took about 15 minutes. Praise God.
I went and walked afterwards. As I was heading to my car at the end of my walk, I ran into my cousin. (the one that is 30 years my senior and I can’t keep up with.)
I decided to do another lap with her.
My bible study time:
It made me wonder how many of you will I see in heaven. And I also thought about what it would be like when you first see Jesus ( Rev 4, Isaiah 6)
As I was knocking other things off my list, I got a call that interrupted my progress. I tossed everything to the side and went to the call.
I spent the afternoon with my aunt who is fading fast. She had on an oxygen mask, so we couldn’t talk like we have been the last month. We watched the Rangers lose. Sad I know.
A few hours later, other family members poured in. We sat, talked and waited.
I decided to leave. I needed to go home and check on my family.
But in the parking lot, a few of us started talking again.
I went back in.
This time it was my aunt who is fading fast, her best friend and me.
(This was one of those life changing moments so I don’t want you to miss it. Cause I almost missed it, but I listened to God and went back in.)
My Aunt’s best friend took her hand and began to pray. She prayed a prayer the reminded my aunt of all the things God has done in her life. Reminded her of all the amazing moments in life they had experienced. Reminded her of God’s faithfulness, mercy and His grace.
At the end of this woman’s prayer I heard the struggle of wanting your friend healed and wanting your friend to see Jesus.
When she finished, I prayed Lord, I want a friend like that. Someone who will remind me of your faithfulness.
After the prayer, my aunt kept looking up. See, she is looking for Jesus.
Like he said in the video, I know it is going to be an amazing experience.
He knows what’s coming. Allow Him to order your day.
In the year that King Uzziah died, Isaiah got the opportunity to see God in a whole new light. The fact that Isaiah hung on to the death of something in his life showed he had experienced great loss. There was something valuable to him that was there no longer. But what he gained was bigger and better than he ever thought possible. God gave Isaiah a glimpse of who He really is. Once you get a glimpse of who God really is, nothing else matters.
Isaiah needed that moment with God to fill his emptiness.
Once God filled it, Isaiah was ready to minister again. “Here I am. Send me.”
Like Isaiah, I have experienced great loss. I have nothing left to give. God has emptied my coffers so that all there is is me. But all the takers in my life are still trying to take. They are frustrated when there is nothing there to take. They want more of what they were used to getting, but there is nothing. He brought me to this season for a reason. God is my only source, and I have learned contentment. (Philippians 4:11-13)
In my 50th year of life, the Lord is teaching me how to fear Him. It is the beginning of wisdom. Once you get a good picture of who you serve, it puts everything in perspective. I don’t think that it is a coincidence that there are lots of thunderstorms and earthquakes in this area. God shakes our foundations to show us we don’t control anything.
The same God who loved us so much He sent his Son, is also the same God who turns up the earth in quakes and sends us running for cover in tornados. I serve a mighty God and trust Him with all areas of my life. He shut the mouths of lions for Daniel. He kept the fire from the 3 Hebrew boys. Ain’t nothing out there can touch me, less it go through Him first. If He brings me too it, then He will bring me through it.
If Noah had brought other people on the boat, they probably would have jumped off after 20 days because they didn’t trust what God was doing with Noah. He got to experience God as a destroyer of mankind and as a provider for his family. I know that when this season of life is over for me, I will be like Isaiah wanting to share all that He has done for me.
God is in control. He knows what He is doing. I believe that His children will not be forsaken.
The Queens of Freedom is a photography project that will tell the story of 17 women who did extraordinary things in the fight for freedom. If you are interested in being a model for the Queens of Freedom project please email me your headshot. If you have an idea which of the 17 Queens you would like to portray, tell me that and why.
My email address is uppcreative@yahoo.com.
If you need to send it snail mail: PO Box 11082 Fort Worth, Texas 76110.
I used to kick “Share Night” to the curb. I had made it through another year of bible study, so I was gonna sit at home and relax. Skip listening to other folks talk about what God had done during their year. I had collected all my points all year by going to class, doing my lesson and even sharing on the personal questions. That was good enough. I was in my 30s and didn’t get it.
Share night is the last night of the study. The whole group meets to hear what others have learned and experienced during the study. There are questions designed to prompt this sharing.
Needless to say, I did not do the last lesson which caused you to reflect on all that you had been through that year. I was so stupid, but God didn’t tell me that. He just continued to nudge me forward. I did not stay stuck on stupid. I did start to attend “share nights” and discovered the Living God working in the lives around me. When you are wrapped up in the media, you can miss what God is doing right in front of your face.
Share night puts God in your face.
One of my favorite share night memories comes from the South Fort Worth class. A majority of the women who got up to tell what God had done in their lives, first thanked Judy Brewington who invited them to join the BSF class. Judy takes the study of God’s word serious an shares it will all who comes into contact with her. She is an incredible woman of God.
Through the years of Share Nights, I have laughed and cried with many woman. Through this journey God prepared me.
What I have learned this year in Bible Study Fellowship through the study of Moses’ life is that taking time to reflect on your journey is a good thing. Whether you know it or not, you are on a journey. And all of the people who are travelling with you are not experiencing the same things as you, but you can still journey together. God will entrust you with a vision that not everyone will understand or comply with. Moses had to bury all but Joshua and Caleb in the desert because they did not understand God’s plan.
During the study of Moses I experienced the most loss I have experience in my life at one time: my mom, my job, some good friends and more. As God revealed the mortality of things on earth, he revealed the immortality of heaven. The joy is that God does not get old and frail. He does not become forgetful or weak. He can be all of the things we have lost. He has taught me He is the one thing I cannot do without.
My overall principle was He was with me. The Third Day song Spirit hit the nail on the head. When all else failed, His presence was always with me. He would always be my guide.
This year I prayed show me what He wants me to know and protect me from what He doesn’t. I choose to know Jesus Christ and him crucified. That is enough for me.
I want to say Thank you for supporting the Queens project to Bettye Merritt Wortham. You will help me tell the stories of women like Shirley Chisholm who ran for Congress in 1968 with the slogan Unbought and unbossed. She was the first African American woman elected to Congress. She represented New York’s 12th congressional district.
I want to say Thank you for supporting the Queens project to Ellen Renfro-Tabor. You will help me tell the stories of women like Bessie Smith who became a headliner touring in her own railroad car. She made one movie, St Louis Blues.
UPP Creative Media 