Interview and Give Away with Messianic Jewish Believer, Flora Reigada

I am so pleased to be able to feature Flora on my blog today. She has had some incredible experiences both growing up and as a Jewish believer in Jesus. Please join me in welcoming her!


Tell us first how you came to faith in JeThe kindness with which I was treated in that home, wrapped around me like the arms of my loved ones.  It is hard to believe these caring people were agnostics and atheists.  By the time I came along, the Jewish faith of our predecessors had long been abandoned in the old country.
It was not until age 18 when I began dating Dan, my husband-to-be, that I heard the words "born again" or anyone speak of the Bible as if it had authority.  Still, I did not believe and except for Dan, I had contempt for Christians.
This began to change as I experienced a series of traumatic events.  My grandparents died and we lost our beautiful family home.  After Dan and I married, his employer moved us from the northeast to southern Virginia in the "Bible belt"—a major culture shock.
Dan and I had two children in rapid succession.  Left alone in the country all day with two crying toddlers, I suffered a mental breakdown.  I began seeing a psychologist, who diagnosed me as a delusional schizophrenic.
With nowhere else to turn, I asked Dan to take me to church services at Thomas Road Baptist Church, in Lynchburg, Virginia, about twenty miles from our house.  You may recall its pastor, the late Jerry Falwell.  When the invitation was given, I went forward to receive Jesus Christ as my savior.
A few days later I had an appointment with the psychologist and I told him what had happened.
"I don't understand all that, he said.  "I only know that on your previous visit, you were a delusional schizophrenic.  Now you are not."
Shaking his head in disbelief, he showed me his notepad with the diagnosis.In the 30-plus years since, my life with Christ has been an amazing adventure.  Although with pseudonyms, my salvation experience is recounted in my Messianic mystery, "The Face Behind the Veil." 
Paperback: http://thefacebehindtheveil.comEBook on sale for 99 cents: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...
How old were you when you wrote your first real story and what was it about?            In the fifth grade, I was an unpopular and overweight student struggling with math, when my teacher Mr. DePalma, gave our class the weekly assignment that would change my life.  It was to write a fictional story on the subject of our choice, then read it aloud to classmates.
I tackled this assignment with enthusiasm, weaving classmates into my tales of adventure.  When they began to petition the teacher for me to read my stories, I emerged from obscurity.  I also realized that even though I still struggled with math, I could write.  I have been doing so ever since.

What do you want readers to take away from your writing and this book in particular?
Beginning and ending with World War II's Greatest Generation, "The Face Behind the Veil" is actually three-books-in-one, featuring three women in three periods of time: Naomi's Story, Rebecca's Story and Enter Teresa.  The book explores the mystery of the legendary birth veil, how each woman interpreted that mystery and how that related to her encounter with Jesus the Messiah.
I want the reader to join each woman in her world and see it through her eyes—to meet the brave warriors of World War II, to join Naomi in Times Square for the VJ Day celebration, but also to gather around the table with an eccentric, but warm-hearted Jewish family, for lots of love served with homemade chicken soup.


What part of this book did you enjoy writing the most and why?
My grandparents' beautiful Victorian home served as a model for the Victorian home in my book, "The Face Behind the Veil."  Writing about it brought me back to that warm house, with its crackling fireplace and the aroma of home-cooked food drifting through the rooms.  I wanted to make the reader feel welcome there, as he or she would have been in those more hospitable times.  In that safer world of yesteryear, we actually left our doors unlocked during the day.  Only at night, would my grandfather lock them.

What is your favorite comfort food?
Vaca frita, (Meaning in Spanish, fried cow) with yellow rice and black beans smothered in onions.  It is one of the playfully named, tasty dishes served at Roberto's Little Havana Cuban Restaurant in Cocoa Beach, Florida.

What is your favorite book by another author and why?            One of my favorites is the great Christian classic, Pilgrim's Progress by 17th  century English preacher, John Bunyan.  In the pages of this timeless allegory I received a promise from God that opened the windows of heaven for me, and can for others as well.  I wrote about this in my soon-to-be-published women's devotional, "Where Your Heart Meets God's."  
To purchase Flora's amazing book on Amazon (kindle or paperback) click here