Reader Mailbag: Readers Encouraged by ‘Prayers of a Stranger,’ ‘The Turning’ & ‘The Presence’

I love hearing from readers… and I hear from you often! Here are thoughts several readers shared with me, along with my responses:

Sarah writes:

I read Prayers of a Stranger while going through miscarriage, and it was so helpful and hopeful to read during that time. It really meant a lot.

Dear Sarah,

I am so very, very sorry to learn of your misfortune. Oh, how I wish it could have been different news that you brought. Just the same, I consider it a true gift from God that your heart found some measure of solace in my story. May the Lord bless you and your family, and bring to you both full healing and full peace.

Jane writes:

I finished The Turning last week. It was a fascinating book. I see so many of your other characters in that book. I especially remember The Presence. Although the two books are completely different, they are similar in some ways.

I don’t do much on Facebook, but I do follow you. The comment that the one lady made “God does not call the equipped, He equips the called” was one I had highlighted. That is how I have felt most of the time I have been married to my husband. When we were on the road with his music, I often felt that way. I had to learn to hear God’s voice a lot.

Right now I wonder if I can hear at all. I know that’s not true, but when things get really tough you wonder what’s going on. No one knows right now the extent of the struggles we are having, and I haven’t felt led to tell anyone and he hasn’t put anyone in our path to help. I think God is doing this for a reason and I’ll know eventually. Sorry about all that.

I am always amazed the directions you take with your writing. I’m not sure there is much God hasn’t equipped you to do when it comes to your writing. Hearing your voice I can sense the gentle yet strong spirit within you. I am just glad you listened to His calling. You have blessed many!

Dear Jane,

What a lovely, heartfelt note. Thank you so much for the response to my story, and for sharing this connection with your husband. Truly, this was a gift.

Margie writes:

I have a complete Davis Bunn Library with the exception of the books that have not yet been released! I was hooked when I read The Presence and have searched out every Davis Bunn book I could find since that time. I even have e-books of some of the paperback editions that I own. There are so many great stories in these books that I am surprised that more of them have not been made into movies!

Keep up the good work as long as the Spirit leads you, Davis Bunn!

Larry writes:

Linda and I just finished The Turning… or at least, that’s what we thought. But, “No!”  Now we are in Day 1 of 40 of the accompanying devotional, with great excitement and anticipation.

It is a blessing to be “invited” into such an experience as this with one who has become a good friend, despite the distance.

Thank you for being attentive, for listening to God, and for being a catalyst to propagate even more listeners.

God bless you in His work.

Elaine writes:

It seems I’m compelled to write after the completion of practically all your novels. When an impact of some kind has been made on my heart or my spirit, it’s impossible not to share it with the author!

The Turning replanted some hope in me at a time most needed. I’m one of those melancholy personalities, a complicated “C” in the DISC profiles, who all too easily fixes her eyes on what is seen rather than on what is unseen! One of the concepts most affecting me from the book was the joining together aspect. The drawing of the team in perfect unity under the Holy Spirit created a yearning in me that aches as I watch the atheists demanding their own military “chaplain” and a satanic black mass is scheduled on the campus of the formally God-fearing Harvard University.

The church we’ve belonged to for 14 years is being rent by humans bent on pleasing self rather than the Lord. This has been the #1 contributor to my loss of hope, because, even as every day the news shows America growing darker, the Church is supposed to be a safe place, a light in the darkness, a rock. I don’t know if you’ve ever been in an earthquake, but I’ve experienced three—the most serious being 6.9—and nothing is more disorienting than the ground underneath you suddenly being unstable.

Dear Margie, Elaine, Larry and Linda,

It is such a gift to receive this enthusiasm included in your words. I am currently working on a new project, and must take time out today to fly to Grand Rapids in order to present my new concept to the Baker-Bethany sales force. I carry the lovely sentiments of your email with me.