A few years ago, my friend Melanie Stevenson (another BRRC author) and I were invited to set up a book table at what we assumed, since it was November, was a local Christmas market.

We were wrong. The venue was a bar, and the attendees, mostly men, sat around small tables, drinking beer and watching live local rock bands.

We walked in—me carting my Christian romantic suspense novels and her with her romance book and a devotional, and both of us started laughing. Definitely not our target market.

Gamely, we set up our displays on a small table in a cramped space along the back wall. For two hours and forty-five minutes, only the odd person wandered by our table. Few spoke to us and no one asked about our books. Shocker.

Then, just as we were thinking about starting to pack up, a young couple came over. The guy asked us what our books were about. Mel shared with him about hers, and I told him that the common theme running through every book I write is that, no matter what we are going through in life, we are never alone. God is always with us.

“That’s exactly what I’m looking for,” he said. “I can’t believe you’re here today.” He bought a few of our books and thanked us profusely before leaving.

Mel and I agreed that if that was the only reason we were there that day, it was well worth it.

I don’t know what happened to that man, if he read our books or was impacted by them. I leave that in God’s hands. What I do know, because I have experienced it personally, is that God uses stories to change hearts and lives. If we as writers and readers do our part to share those stories, even in the unlikeliest of places, we can trust that God will put them in the hands of the people He knows need to hear the message they contain. That might be a million readers, or it might be one guy in a bar searching for something but not sure how or where to find it.

All Mel and I needed to do that day was show up, take a seat, and wait to see what God would do.

 

Sara Davison is the author of the romantic suspense novel, The Watcher, and the romantic suspense series, The Seven Trilogy and The Night Guardians. She has been a finalist for eight national writing awards, including Best New Canadian Christian author, a Carol Award, and two Daphne du Maurier Awards for Excellence in Mystery/Suspense. Sara is also a Word and Cascade Award winner. She currently resides in Ontario, Canada with her husband Michael and their three children, all of whom she (literally) looks up to. Get to know Sara better at here BRRC author profile page or her website.