George Frederic Handel is said to have told a nobleman friend the reason he wrote Messiah: “I should be sorry,” Handel remarked, “if I only entertained them. I wish to make them better.” He dared to speak with the confidence one has when they are certain that their work will help clear the way to help others enter more deeply into God, providing a feast. After all, the work was a gift to him as much as it was to the greater world. This is the hope and confidence I have for my new and first book, Running into Water: Women Immersed in the Pursuit of God
Research proves that women are the spiritual backbones (think in terms of a backbone being a strong supporting structure) of families, thus of entire nations. If they falter in their depth and dedication to Christ and their children, the global generations are at stake. Research, as well as my personal experience, also proves that women are thirsty for more than the common feminine fare offered in the buffet of Christian/Inspirational bookstores; they want their intelligence challenged and their dignity renewed. They desire that their identity not be defined in their roles, but in the depths of God. They need words to put to what is often the theoretical fact that in their unique standing as women and in their mothering they are a part of something bigger than themselves; they want to live with vision and a sense of freedom and hope, their following after God clarified in new ways.
Because of these felt needs, I believe this book can stretch across cultures and denominations. Useful personally as well as in small groups, this book can be explored in book clubs, handed out at pregnancy resource centers and adoption agencies, sold at conferences directed towards thoughtful women who are mothers, used as part of missionary training for women and given as gifts to daughters, friends, missionaries, wives, grandmothers and all those who work with women and children.
The metaphor of the book is water. Therefore, it is fitting that a portion of all royalties should be directed towards the water crisis facing women and children globally through the work of Living Water International.
May you find the work itself to be beyond entertainment…may you find in the reading Christ more deeply, just as I did in the writing.
~Angela Blycker
ANGELA BLYCKER 