By Randy Elliott, who serves with InFaith in Arizona
I started writing as a result of a series of disabling injuries suffered in mining accidents in the early 1990s. Not having a clue what I was going to do to provide for my wife and children, I figured I needed to improve my communication skills. I took a college writing class, for which I had a kind and very patient instructor. At the end of the semester, Mrs. Hassle said to me, “Randy, I have never had a student who worked so hard to learn to write well. I doubt I will ever have another.” Somehow, at the age of 37, I managed to get an A+ for the course. I had no idea what taking such a course would spark inside me.
A short time after completing my first semester of college, the Lord moved us 1,900 miles from very rural Arizona to rural Illinois. During our first year in Illinois, my wife, Rhonda, was working long hours trying to establish a business with a friend, our daughter was in junior high school and playing sports, and I was home alone on disability. We lived in a very small village, and everybody except me worked or went to school during the day. I spent my days studying Scripture, praying, meditating, reading, and pondering life, with no avenue for releasing my thoughts. So, I put together an email list of about twenty-five names of far-away friends and began to write as often as I had need. To my amazement, the list of recipients began to grow almost immediately as my friends shared my writings with their friends. My little mailing list has grown to several hundred, and I can only guesstimate how many others read my weekly writings.
Today, by God’s grace and thanks to artificial joints and a whole lot of physical therapy, I am no longer disabled and have become a modern-day circuit rider of a sort. I get to drive three to four thousand miles each month to pastor a rural church in the mountains; teach Bible college courses in prison; visit public elementary schools; provide counsel, help, and encouragement to many; and visit all kinds of interesting people along the way. Once a real loner, I now consider nobody to be a stranger. (God is just amazing!) I do a whole lot of thinking behind the wheel as Huck (my truck) and I travel and traverse the highways, byways, and dirt roads of Arizona in our adventurous pursuit to follow Jesus wherever He leads.
When I am not driving, speaking, teaching, counseling, or visiting, I am studying Scripture, praying, meditating, reading, pondering life, and experiencing the wonder of God’s creation. You would think all of the talking I get to do would be enough to prevent my being overloaded with things to say, but not so. I seem to have the “gift” of taking in an awful lot of information. Coupled with this gift is a compulsion to write. These writings consist of songs, poems, devotionals, a weekly update (Salt & Light) of my travels and the Lord’s doings, and more. As Holy Spirit speaks, reveals, and does, I am inspired to tell of His doing so. To cut off my writing hand would be to cut out a heart only the Lord can make. His truly is amazing grace!
Coming Saturday . . . a sample of Randy’s poetry
