Wednesday, December 19, 2018

Memoirs to be published?

After two weeks furiously writing up my final lectures on NT theology I have for the past week begun the final chapter of my memoirs. I wrote some 83,000 words within 2 months from September to October 2014 and then it was halted for more than 4 years. I am going to cramp everything in this final chapter of 7,000 words as I plan not to go beyond 90 thousand words in total. If the font size is right the book should be about 150 pages long. I doubt many within my circle of friends would read a book of more than 200 pages. I used to think any book less than 300 pages is too short and not sufficiently scholarly.
My book on Revelation has about 340 pages with the editors once insisted I reduced my thesis by at least 40 pages. At the end it got published with no reduction and is one of the longer volumes in the JNTS Sup series or library of biblical studies series. As a semi autobiography, my memoirs have all the elements of personal testimonies and it is largely about my work among the indigenous peoples of Borneo. Next year marks my 30 years as a full member and 25 years as a pastor. I think in my memoirs I have woven it to contain much of SIB modern history from the early 1990s to the present. I also wrote much about what the missionaries told me, especially Rev Alan Belcher the longest serving Chairman of the Borneo Evangelical Mission which was the parent body of Sidang Injil Borneo. It was Alan and his team that drafted SIB’s Constitution in the late 50s and there was much to learn from our pioneer missionaries. The final chapter is hard hitting but as usual I hope to retain a respectful tone without compromising what I see as the truth and the challenges confronting my denomination. Would it see the light of publication? I certainly hope so. I just need to find a friend who can do some drawing of the places or maps that I have been in Sabah, altogether more than 100 villages in all 35 SIB Districts statewide.

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