I’m not sure that there are a lot of statements that I agree with Hillary Clinton except the phrase, “It takes a village.” Today I looked at the credits that my niece Merilee Barnard and nephew Bobby Pickett helped me with on the first audio drama that we have done. With the limited space on this cover jacket, only part of the story can be told. People may listen to this CD, but they probably won’t know what it took to get it completed.

I first got this hare-brained idea in the spring of 2019. I understood what audio drama had meant for my children. I saw the power that it had! After countless hours of Jungle Jam, Odyssey, Pilgrim’s Progress, Jonathan Park, Patch the Pirate, The Brinkman Family, and probably others that I’m forgetting, my children’s thought processes were influenced. It seemed that holiness biographical stories were missing in this list. I contacted Merilee and Bobby, and they felt certain that this could be done.

By May, Bobby and I had tweaked the Amanda Smith script to work for audio. Erica Bigger and a friend drove to Indiana from Cincinnati, and we were able to record her narrating and singing for the audio drama.

Then in October, my daughter Abigail and I flew from Kansas to California to help record all the raw voices. Gareth, pastor of the Bible Holiness church in San Bernadino, and his wife Regina Nickerson graciously opened their home to us. As I sat in the Nickersons’ upstairs packed with people, I was in awe! I could feel it in the air, it was no longer just my dream and project…it belonged to a whole group of people now! I started to feel self-conscious that so many people had gone out of their way to help…Merilee had flown in from Indiana, the Wheelers and Picketts had driven in from Phoenix, and the San Bernadino church people were coming in to record most of the characters! Gareth and Regina were cooking meals and helping solve problems. They didn’t seem to mind all the many people tromping through their house and the extra strain this put on their family of eight! It started dawning on me, that everyone had taken this on! It belonged to all of us now! It takes a village.

No, when someone listens to this audio drama, he or she will not automatically know that Merilee, Morganne, and Bobby gave up several weeks of their life to work on this, Austin Peachey drove to Kansas for several days to work on sound effects, Wayne spent two days getting us to and from the Los Angeles airport (including a flat tire), and everyone else who became part of this project! It takes a village.

It makes me think of when I told my local church people that I had written a devotional. I told them that my victory was their victory. They had been there for me the many, many times I went to the altar. They prayed for me, loved me, helped me, and talked to me during my darkest days of confusion. When I was down in a ditch, they got down in the ditch and did their best to haul me out! Any victory that I have is their victory.

Bro. John Preston, Sis. Elaine, and Sis. Charlotte used to sing at Texas camp “Somebody prayed for me. They had me on their mind. They sacrificed their time. They stayed down on their knees and prayed for me. They had no doubt that God would bring me out—that He would change my life and set me free. Oh, I’m so glad that someone prayed for me.”

Most of us don’t get our victories by ourselves. I want to say thank you! Thank you to the many people who made the audio drama a reality. It takes a village, and our victory is your victory!