Spirits Eat Ripe Papaya

By Bill Svelmoe

Philip Andrews arrives on the mission field with outwardly impeccable credentials. He's a preacher's kid and a lifelong evangelical Protestant who has been recruited to teach the seventh and eighth grade children of missionaries in the Philippines. What none of the missionaries who welcome him to Ilusan know is that he's also been expelled from Bible college for his relationship with the daughter of a prominent evangelist. Despite his shoulder-length hair, which causes him to be mistaken for both a woman and Jesus before he's been at the mission center for twenty-four hours, Philip's easy-going charm and skill at speaking "evangelicalese" soon win him a following, especially among the school children. But is Philip a bad seed, a wolf in sheep's clothing? Or is he an earnest seeker simply trying to find his way? Before this hilarious novel, which one evangelical literary agent said would never be published, reaches its shocking conclusion, every missionary at Ilusan and Philip himself will have to answer that question.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Release date: Apr 29, 2010
• ISBN: 9781621897026

Bill Svelmoe

Bill Svelmoe is professor of history at Saint Mary's College in Notre Dame, Indiana. He grew up in the Philippines where his parents were evangelical Protestant missionaries on Mindanao Island. He is the author of A New Vision for Missions: William Cameron Townsend, the Wycliffe Bible Translators, and the Culture of Early Evangelical Faith Missions, 1896-1945.

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Common Ground

Musings of Mind and Spirit

J. Michaels

2008.Resource_logo.pdf

Common ground

Musings of Mind and Spirit

Copyright © 2009 J. Michaels. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3, Eugene, OR 97401.

Resource Publications

An Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers

199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3

Eugene, OR 97401

www.wipfandstock.com

ISBN 13: 978-1-60899-069-6

EISBN 13: 978-1-62189-701-9

Manufactured in the U.S.A.

To all good souls yearning for Home

Preface

This was my first book of poems. It is the book that started me down a new and exciting path in my life. The first poem you will read is about the brothers Nicobod and Icobod or as I like to call them, the boys of similar name. The brothers appeared to me in a dream in the summer of 2008 and from there, my life changed. As I started to record the poems that came to me on an increasingly frequent and insistent basis, I realized that something deep within had indeed changed. I had made a connection; one I had hoped for and dreamed of for many years.

The poems did not emanate from a voice or a vision. They were not told to me as parable or narrative. Simply put, I had discovered a place where a greater mind than my everyday rational mind lived. And now, on these poetic occasions, I could travel there and bring back these wonderful pearls I have come to love and treasure so much.

I have written over four hundred poems since that first restless night in 2008. And yet not a single one has been planned, constructed, or composed. They were all simply known and delivered. To this day, they continue to come in the same manner. First a word, a title, or a line pops into my head. This is followed immediately by a knowing that I am to write it down. I write that first word or line and the story unfolds from there. At the beginning, I have no idea whatsoever what the poem will be or how it will be written. I simply start writing and as the words appear on the paper, I am always surprised by what comes from my pen. The ode ends when it is supposed to, and again, it is something that is just known. After the poem is completed, I go back and read it. And each and every time, I am amazed by what I have written. Each one is as much a surprise to me as it will be to you when you read it for the first time.

A friend recently asked me if I still read a lot and it gave me pause. After some thought, I realized that I did still read a lot, albeit only from A Course in Miracles and my own books. Since the poems began, I have become more interested in poetry in general but still have not found any I like as much as the words that are delivered through me. I believe they are gifts, as much for me as for everyone else who is destined to read them. Actually, it works out quite well as I am able to make minor adjustments as I read them for my own pleasure. Generally, they require minimal editing but I do come across some that I obviously did not scribe correctly. I will eventually receive the correct word or phrase in the same manner as the original and that same knowing will verify the change for me. When the editing process is complete, I feel