Personal Development God's Way

Chapter 6: The Vision Grows

Have you ever been at a place in your life where you just knew you were meant to be in a certain place? After the first several months in Cuernavaca it was time to return to New Zealand to visit my family and friends. I had been away for 2 yrs already.

During my stay in New Zealand, Anna Lee’s husband died (Anna Lee Carlton is the founder of the magazine, Bread For Children, that I was working with) and this created a need for help at the head office in Florida. I was asked to return to Florida for a time, rather than to Cuernavaca. However I had received a very strong impression during my time at home, that was to go to McAllen Texas.

Florida
I returned to Florida where Anna Lee assured me that as soon as it was possible, she would release me to go to McAllen where I could also be supportive to the work of the magazine since McAllen is a city on the border of Mexico.

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Chapter 4: My Favorite Parable – The Sower

From Cuernavaca I went back to New Zealand for my first break (known as “furlow”). During this time Anna Lee’s husband passed away (director of Bread for Children) and I was asked if I would consider returning to the head office in Florida to help out there for a time (rather than returning to Mexico).

There I had the opportunity to gain more experience working closely with the printshop, and doing the layout of the English magazine (Bread for Children).

Part of my job description was help with the proof reading but there is such a conflict between the written British English and American English, that I gave that one up and told them to just give me the copy once it was “correct”.

In my spare moments I began “playing” with some ideas for sketches and came up with a series illustrating my favorite parable – The Sower (Mark 4:1-20).

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Chapter 3 – The Surprise (or “Surprize” as we spell it in New Zealand)
The three months spent in Florida preparing the first edition of Pan Para Los Hijos was not uneventful. The girl from Argentina decided to go her way after a personality conflict with the director of Bread For Children and two girls, one from Colombia and one from Georgia, were brought in.

What a diverse team, a Colombian, a Kiwi and an American!

Anna Lee and her secretary had visited Mexico City previously and had been connected with a magazine distributor in Cuernavaca Mexico (Trine V.). Trine had introduced Anna Lee to a printer and she was in the process of transferring to another area, leaving her apartment vacant in Cuernavaca. The stage was set!

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Chapter 2: The Beginning
If you have not read the first chapter of this series you might want to look it over before continuing here: A Dream Comes True

As I mentioned in the first chapter, one of the things I noticed during my first months in Mexico was the lack of Christian literature available for children (this was in 1977). At the time I was helping oversee a dormitory in a boy’s orphanage near Monterrey.

At Christmas we went into the city to look for some books to give the boys for Christmas and were horrified to find there was so little to choose from.

I always had the publishing side of missionary work on my heart.

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