Because Writers and Readers Reached Out

This week we’ve been involved in a discussion dear to my heart, Writers and Readers Reach Out 2012. Having the belles join me in it has been especially heartening.

For a number of years, my readers and I have reached out to the needy through an annual Thanksgiving drive. Designed to coordinate with the idea of 30 Days of Thankfulness, the challenge we accepted was to live our gratitude out loud. Last year, I saw the potential of multiplying our efforts by asking other authors’ to join their communities with ours. Writers and Readers Reach Out was born.

I love working hand in hand with my readers and knowing that one of our projects, a well we dug in Africa, continues to supply life sustaining water to an entire village even today moves me every time I think about it. That said, you might think I’d be gung ho when it came time to kick start this year’s effort, right? I wish! The truth is I was a foot-dragging mess.

Every time the drive dropped in my heart, I’d tell the Lord that I simply couldn’t do it this year. I’d offer all sorts of excuses, delivering a manuscript by January 1^st during an already crowded work schedule and holiday season topped the list. What’s more, I respectfully extended just as many olive branch alternatives, like personally donating to worthy causes and encouraging my family to join me. He kept asking, I kept stalling, but He never made me feel guilty. I honestly felt like my every excuse was met with His understanding—along with another opportunity to reconsider, until finally I did. This is the good part. Once I agreed to take it on, He breathed on the leftover dream that smoldered in me but refused to die and flamed it into a fire that gave me all the energy and desire I needed to get the thing off the ground. He never ceases to amaze me.

The other belles have introduced you to Kimberly L. Smith from Make Way Partners. I hope you’ve been by her blog and read about her work rescuing precious lives from human trafficking and educating the next generation to break the cycle of darkness. James says we don’t have because we don’t ask. To be sure, he’s talking about our prayer lives, but I think it applies horizontally, too. Would you consider making a donation today, and would you spread the challenge in your social media circles? I thank you, the belles thank you, Kimberly thanks you, and if they could, those whose lives will be changed because Writers and Readers Reached Out would thank you, too.

Thirty days isn’t a long time, but it’s enough time to do something grand together. ~Shellie Rushing Tomlinson

Our Request: That our readers would catch this vision with us and use the Donate button to live their gratitude out loud, too. It’s linked directly to Make Way’s donation form. Your donation can be “attached” to a favorite author by filling in the field asking where you heard about Make Way. Example: WritersandReaders/AuthorJaneDoe

Quick Facts:
Make Way Partners was founded by Kimberly L. Smith and her husband.

Kimberly’s blog

Download a free chapter of Kimberly’s book Passport Through Darkness.

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