This week I’m hosting Sandra Orchard with Critical Condition (she will giveaway Deep Cover, a previous Love Inspired Suspense), Kathi Macias with Unexpected Christmas Hero, Laurie Alice Eakes with A Flight of Fancy, and Kelly Irvin with A Heart Made New. If you want to enter the drawings for the books, please leave a comment on one of the post during the week with your email address. I will not enter you without an email address (my way to contact you if you win). If you don’t want to leave an email address, another way you can enter is to email me at margaretdaley@gmail.com. The drawings end Sunday (October 21st) evening.
Interview with the hero from Unexpected Christmas Hero by Kathi Macias:
Rick, tell me the most interesting thing about you.
I have a family—somewhere—but haven’t seen them in years. I don’t believe they want to see me, even though they once considered me a hero when I first came back from Vietnam. But when my PTSD kicked in, everything changed. For the most part, I’ve been living on the streets ever since.
What do you do for fun?
I’m not sure I have much “fun” in my life, as most of my waking hours are spent scrounging for food and hoping for a warm place to sleep at night. At the same time, my life is full of joy because I have a strong faith in God and a meaningful relationship with Him. But meeting Josie and her kids, who were also homeless, added an unexpected element of joy to my life.
What do you put off doing because you dread it?
I try not to spend time dwelling on the past. That’s easier said than done. After all these years I still miss my family and I pray for them, but when I find myself slipping into depression about it, I push that away and try to focus on something else.
What are you afraid of most in life?
I believe I’ve faced most of my fears and, thanks to the Lord, made it through. My greatest fear now, as I near the end of my life, is that I would dishonor God in some way.
What do you want out of life?
I want to be able to stand before the Lord after I breathe my last and hear Him say, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Welcome home.” That last part is real important to me because I haven’t had a home on earth for a very long time.
What is the most important thing to you?
Serving Christ and becoming more like Him. All the rest is just fluff.
Do you read books? If so, what is your favorite type of book?
I love books and would read them more often except that I can’t afford them, and when I go to the library I’m recognized as homeless and usually run off before I can do much reading. I do have a small New Testament that someone gave me at a shelter, and I read that every day.
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
It would be to do away with the effects of the PTSD that caused me to lose my family.
Do you have a pet? If so, what is it and why that pet?
I had a wonderful German Shepherd before I went to Vietnam. He was so happy to see me when I returned and seemed to be the only one who didn’t care that I acted differently than before I left. I hated leaving him behind when my wife threw me out of the house, but I had no choice. I haven’t had a pet since then.
If you could travel back in time, where would you go and why?
My regrets would answer, “Back to the time I returned from Vietnam. Maybe I could have done something different and my life would have been so much better.” But then I think about how faithful God has been, even and especially while I lived here on the streets, and then I know I would say instead, “Take me back to that moment in time when the star shone brightly in the heavens and the angels announced to the shepherds that the King had been born in Bethlehem. I would love to have been one of those shepherds.