What Surprised Me about Helping Mogama's Refugee War Journal

Mogama, Refugee Was My Name

Jean Purcell
Twitter @opinaripeople

I have been wary in the past about helping personal narrative writing projects. So it surprised me when I agreed to take a serious look at a recommended author's personal story of life as a refugee.

     It became a life-affecting experience to let down my editorial guard of doubts and to enter into another writer's life experience once again. 
    I knew about refugee needs and issues when we started working together, because my husband has been involved for decades in this area. I began to think that God, in His great Providence, might truly have been part of bringing Mogama and me together as collaborators. 
   The more I realized that the time seemed right for the author and as I began to trust his character, then his personality and faith helped me relax, pray, and trust. 
   That kept me going with a long and testing process for a marvelous writer. Mogama loves his homeland of Liberia, and from the U. S. he keeps up with events there and is now helping with a new mission undertaking. 
    In the process of over two years, Mogama's patience and graciousness helped me. My personal and family considerations drew me away from our work for a while, as my dear mother-in-law was ending her life in home hospice with my husband and our family. The steady patience and caring that Mogama showed helped me there, as well. 
     In the situation of continuing to work with Mogama, I found an author of Christian discipline able to work toward a meeting of minds and frank discussion. I began to want our families to meet, as well.  
     It is about lives, in the end. Does this mean that I will work on another personal narrative book with another author? I have no idea. I leave that in God's hands. He will show the way.