My Biggest Phan- completed vision

I’ve learned a lot about myself over the years of being a professional writer and speaker. The most important is that I still have an issue with humility, and gracious as He is, God is really happy to help me with it. My most recent lesson took place two weeks ago with my self-proclaimed biggest fan at a marriage retreat.
I had the absolute pleasure of speaking at relationship conference on Princess Cruise Lines. I only had two workshops to teach and one evening session on a seven day cruise in the Caribbean. It was heaven! At one point I sat out on my balcony, this is the best perk of being one of the keynote speakers, and just said, “Thank you God! This is awesome! I have arrived. ”
Unfortunately, Mark couldn’t be with me this trip as he was stuck in Seattle working on yet another new property. It’s a little odd being on a marriage retreat without my spouse, but he was thrilled to be building the hip hop coffee shop, and I was happy to bring along my best friend, Rie, from London instead. I admit that I was pretty delinquent in my schmoozing duties. I only attended the functions I was absolutely required to be at and spent the rest of my time sunning by the pool.
I was starting to think that life couldn’t get any better when a gal came up to me as I was heading in to dinner. In broken English she said she just had to tell me how much my book affected her life. Phan was a sweet Vietnamese woman who declared that she was my biggest fan.
“You book, it change my life. My marriage save. Thank to you!”
I was feeling rather spiritual at this moment and Rie, herself a pastor, was standing by so I said piously, “Thank God. I just put on paper what the Lord gave me to say.”
“You write with your husband? “ She asked me.
Assuming that she, like a lot of non-native speakers , mixed up her prepositions I said,
“Yes, I write about my husband. Not only about him though,” I smiled, “about us and our marriage and how good God has been to us. How long have you been married?” I asked her.
She looked at me a little funny and then said, “I marry my husband for 20 year. But I no like him until 3 year ago when I read your book.”
I had to laugh as she began to tell me her story. She, like me, got married at a fairly young age, but she did it on more of a dare. Her father told her that if she cut her hair short, no man would marry her, so after she cut it, she said yes to the first man who asked her. He’d been in the military and they’d only been dating for a few short months. In her mind, if he liked her with short hair, he was far better than her father and at least that was a move in the right direction. Of course, knowing that you can’t build a solid marriage on a haircut, I knew her story would cruise downhill at some point. She said their first couple years were okay, but the fifth year to about the seventeenth year was pretty bad.
With shoulders shaking she said to me, “The only way we together is I no have time for new man. He take a lot of work to teach. When I read you book, I see how I talk to my husband is no good. He not like me to yell at him and call him fat. You book says to be nice, and he be nice, so I try. I say to him. You belly is not so big today as yesterday and he smile at me and say my hair not so ugly today neither. “
“Well,” I said, “It sure sounds like you understood the spirit of it. Good for you! Is he here with you? I’d love to meet him!”
“He having food. He say since we nice to each other now, he okay to be fat again!”
We spent the next fifteen minutes laughing with Phan and hearing her tell me over and over again how much I changed her life, saved her marriage even helped her with her relationship with her kids and especially her in-laws.
“Wow,” I told Rie after Phan left us, “I’m feeling pretty good right now. I never thought God would use my books on marriage to so drastically affect other relationships like that. This has been such a great trip; the Lord is really blessing me.”
“She did seem pretty moved,” Rie said, “especially the comments about how your book affected her relationship with her in-laws. Maybe I didn’t read that book or maybe I skipped over that chapter.” She said. “I don’t particularly remember any of your books dealing directly with other family members. Am I missing something?”
“It’s amazing what God will use when people start opening up their hearts,” I told her. “God can start by working on one relationship and before you know it all of them are transformed.”
I was in the zone. God was using me. I knew I had a gift and it was my job to share. I was the voice of my generation. I was about to share this with Rie, when I saw Phan waving at me from across the dining room.
“Oh, that must be her husband,” Rie said, “I’ll bet she wants to introduce you.”
Sure enough, Phan was pulling a rather bewildered man behind her still hanging on to his chicken leg. Slightly out of breath from pulling this larger man through the room she said,
“Meet the lady who change our life. She write with her husband,” she looked at me with her white shiny teeth smile, “Honey,” she said, “meet Leslie Parrot.”

Dr. Bill Bright

Growing up, Dr. Bill Bright had a huge influence on my life. I was inspired at his devotion to fulfill the great commission, and I was amazed at his passion and zeal to honor the Lord in every area of his life. He even wrote a contract committing all of his possessions to the Lord, which led him to be very generous with his possessions, and kept him from coveting material things. He and his wife founded Campus Crusade for Christ, and have seen countless people come to Christ both personally and through their ministry and work. He lived a very modest lifestyle, and several times, when he received large personal financial honorariums, he endorsed them straight to Campus Crusade for Christ. His passion and lifestyle would not be attractive to anyone with even a hint of worldly lusts, but to many dedicated disciples, he was a hero. I once visited the CCFC headquarters in Orlando and I met an employee who had a Harvard MBA and left a six-figure salary to work for Dr. Bright. At that time, my goals were directed to my personal success and reputation. This experience drastically changed my goals and dreams in life, and gave me a new example of what it is to be a servant leader. My goal is to have such a passion for Christ, that I will make bold decisions that will attract many others to Christ and the Great Commission.

Elizabeth's Painting

Jesse's Painting

One of my leaders

Karen Kingsbury is a leader in Christian fiction and I respect her as a writer and adore her as a reader. Though I don't write fiction, it's her heart that I most relate to. She has a heart to help relationships mend through her writing and she has a heart for foster children and adoption. Those are at the core of what I feel God's vision is for me. I really want God to speak through me and my writing to heal hurting people. I would love for God to speak to me the way Karen says He speaks to her. She says that God downloads the stories to her while she's sleeping and when she wakes up, she just has to put the story on paper. She can write a novel in two weeks. She says she cries at the end of all her stories because it's like saying good bye to a friend, which is why she usually writes in series'. I cry at the end of all her books too, so I guess we have that in common as well. If you've never read any of her books. I strongly recommend her.

Kyle's Painting

Overall the painting portrays a general explanation of vision the Lord has given me. I see myself leading many people to Jesus! My daughter and I pursuing the heart of God! Painting the Good News all over the world. Being a vessel that God can use to minister His healing, deliverance, and most importantly-love, to the ends of the earth! And, being people of prayer who are in tune with the ways of God's spirit that lives within us! Everytime i look at this piece though, i see more!

Lena's Painting

My picture is represented by my early poem called Precipice. I am standing on the edge of a cliff and I'm not sure how to get to the other side to fulfill my vision. On the other side is a group of people I will have the opportunity to speak to, as well as have my book published or at least visible to people so that as they read it, the Lord can use it to heal marriages. The grass is green and the rain is abundant on that side. On the side I'm standing on, the ground is dead and dry. I'm trying to figure a way to bridge the gap.