Читать книгу The Chest of Visions: Secrets of Caperston - Tim Ferguson - Страница 6

Preface

The story of The Chest of Visions began with an effort to bring the gospel in a creative way to a junior high/high school youth group in Deer Park, New York. We had been corresponding with a young lady on a year long mission trip by posting monthly letters we received from her on our Christian Youth website. The youth enjoyed keeping in touch with her in this manner.

Then her mission trip ended. After meeting with her upon her return from the trip, we went our separate ways. Since the youth enjoyed the monthly letters, a decision was made to continue a similar correspondence on the website, this time with young people residing in a faraway land, in fact, in another universe. It was the universe of Caperston where no one had a concept of God.

Letters from the faraway planet captivated not only our youth but many adults, who were visiting the website on which they were posted. Someone suggested combining the letters into a book and that encouragement was all that I needed. Then the idea of writing the gospel story, as if it happened in a different universe, emerged.

I remember reading a story of a mythical being when I was young. It was a relatively short story but what made it captivating were the illustrations that helped me visualize the story. A contact with the illustrator, Jose Carlos Gutierrez, found him enthusiastic about the project from the very beginning

Published initially in 2012, a continuation of the story was written several years later. Wipf and Stock Publications expressed interest in that story, “The Chest of Visions: New Pathways ‘cross Broken Highways,” but also wished to pick up the publication of the first book.

The Chest of Visions: Secrets of Caperston is now a revised version. What has changed? Some reviewers, who offered positive critiques of the book, expressed an interest in knowing more about the youth and adults of Caperston. In response, this revised version follows the initial plot but offers more details about the individuals, who follow Chihaysu as well as some, who oppose him. This revised edition also gives details about the customs of Caperston, similar to many customs on Earth but with differences, in part, due to only recently experiencing the concept of the existence of a God.

The revised version also has two additional lessons, for a total of twelve, for youth group leaders to use as youth read the story of Caperston in the Chest of Visions series.