I'm Gloating & Preening for an hour

Monday’s mail brought a package from Indonesia, the most populous Muslim nation on earth.

Wow, was I tickled! I’ve been expecting this package .knowing it would contain the Indonesian translation of a little book on prayer that I wrote years ago. I wanted to rip it open to see my work in this exotic language…

Really strokes my vanity to have my work translated into another tongue.

However, given the state of the world and what’s been happening in Indonesia recently, I decided it prudent to take the package outside, away from the house, before gently opening it. There have been some white powder mailings between Indonesia and Australia in the news.

But, nothing suspicious in this package, just two copies of my book in a language I can’t read – except for my own name on the cover.

I’m as pleased as a kitten catching its very first mouse and I gave myself permission to preen and gloat for one hour.

In English, the title of the book is: Why Don’t I Get What I Pray For? Or, in a more recent edition, I’m Confused About Prayer. It is a frivolous religious humor book with hardly any redeeming social value.

Yet the translators and folks who produced the book over there have been through Hell to bring this bit of froth into print.

In January the tsunami struck killing 200,000 people in Indonesia. February, an earthquake killed another 9,000. Since then, several humanitarian relief workers have been shot as they tried to help. Unsanitary conditions have spawned a polio epidemic killing over 50 children and crippling scores of others. A car bomb set off in a Christian market place killed 25 and mangled many others. Churches have been burned and Christians live in daily jeopardy. And yesterday’s Google news said avian flu has spread to Indonesia…

And here what I have to offer this troubled nation is a flippant bit of religious humor in a book which proclaims me as the World’s Foremost Authority on Unanswered Prayer because I’ve prayed for more things and didn’t get them than anyone else I know of.

Is that the sort of thing these readers need?

Maybe so. Maybe no.

I couldn’t swear to it, but it could be that God’s hand is in the timing. I’d like to think so, but I just don’t know.

Anyhow, if you are inclined to pray for this troubled land, please ask the Lord to use this little book to honor Himself and to help troubled folks in pain.

I’ve scanned in a picture of the book cover (below); I have no idea of how to pronounce the title.

If anyone wants to buy a copy of the English edition of this book, I’m Confused About Prayer, go to www.lulu.com/bluefish ;-- If you can’t afford to buy a copy, look in the left-hand column of my website, http://www.cowart.info/ under the title Why Don’t I Get What I Pray For? And you can read it on line for free. --- Same book, different editions.

Anyhow, I gave myself permission to preen and gloat over my beautiful book for an hour and that hour is over so it’s time to get back to work, there’s a filter to clean, trash to take out, and a customer service (HA!) representative to butt heads with. Real life goes on..



John's book on prayer in Indonesian
www.cowart.info