Life in London in the 1980’s was a real challenge. I worked in the Shepherd’s School in Brockley part-time and then launched out into the deep to focus on the Diamond Books project exclusively. The Concordance of the Good News Bible had just been published and as we wanted to use a simple child-friendly version of the Bible, we decided to use this version as the basis of the project.

Early on various Scriptures had become very important, e.g. “…fill your minds with those things that are good and that deserve praise:things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely and honourable.” (Philippians 4:8 – GN) This was to become our key verse for the children we wanted to benefit from the books in this project and has become a motivation to reach children with what is good.

Also, God reminded us of his provision for this project and that He was in charge. Two verses in  1 Chronicles became very helpful, words that were said by King David to his son Solomon before he became the successor to his father, “Be confident and determined. Start the work and don’t let anything stop you. The Lord God, whom I serve, will be with you. He will not abandon you, but he will stay with you until you finish the work to be done on his Temple. The priests and the Levites have been assigned duties to perform in the Temple.  Workmen with every kind of skill are eager to help you, and all the people and their leaders are at your command.” (chapter 28:20-21 – GN) These verses have been so encouraging through the years and God has provided the willing workers to help with this vast project.

I also had dreams and words of encouragement that came in the form of a picture of 9 foundation stones. God showed me that these stones represented things in my life that God wanted to address by my doing the project. I realised that God was more interested in me than in the work he had called me to do. The first stone had ‘acceptance’ on it. I had had a real problem with self acceptance as a teenager when my parents got divorced and I was floundering emotionally with growing up. When young, I couldn’t face a camera and have my photo taken and shied away from being the centre of attention whenever possible. God used this to bring me to repentance when I was 17 years of age as He began to show me the sin in my life and my need of Him. Since becoming a Christian and being called to write Diamond Books, the Lord has been healing my person and has given me the confidence that I hadn’t believed was possible for me.

The other stones, I will share next time.

God so wants our children to have visions and pictures of him and even dreams (though these are more promised to older folk in Scripture – see Joel 2:28-29) as a means of Him communicating with them. The Bible is the one solid means that God uses to speak and guide us – hence this being the basis to this project.

God’s love for each of us is so amazing and when a child latches onto this dynamic, they will never be the same again. Look at Samuel in the Bible and his open heart towards God. We adults can lead our children into knowing that we can be confident in God as I became in the knowledge of how much I am loved.not for what I do but for who I am – a cherished, unique individual with a God-given purpose.

P.S. Just 980 days left to the finishing line for the writing of these books, God willing and enabling!