Since the last day of January, Charlene and I have made two
trips with four stops to promote her new book. We stopped at a church in
Kentucky on our way to the Freed Hardeman University annual lectureship, then returned
home before attending the Faulkner University annual lectureship and on to the Women
of Hope conference in Murfreesboro, TN. It has been a heady time.
Her book is a biography of Roberta, a friend of ours, who
was targeted and brutally murdered on the streets of Port au Prince, Haiti. She
was in Haiti raising abandoned children and feeding and educating many others. JoJo,
a four-year-old, was kidnapped during the same event and has not been recovered
since.
We chose these four venues because of people who would be
there who had known Roberta. At the Women of Hope conference Roberta was been
chosen as the 2010 Woman of Hope and had spoken several times through the years.
At that conference, at least two people at different times
saw the poster we had made of the book cover with Roberta’s name and picture on
it and stopped cold. They put their hands to their faces, said “Roberta” and started
crying.
Our intent in these journeys is not to make money. The books
are priced significantly below the going rate. Our hope is to use Roberta’s
story to inspire readers to aspire to the fortitude, perseverance, faith and
trust in God, and love for God’s children, especially the downtrodden, that
kept Roberta going through thick and thin – mostly thin.
Altogether we sold about 120 of the biographies and nearly
half that number of my most recent book, “Growing Up White in the Heart of
Memphis.” To see Roberta's biography check here.
Just an inspiring trip with many family/friend reunions. Here's praying we didnt bring any C-virus germs home!
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