Preface

Wow, what a journey writing the Angelic Letters has been so far! I never would have believed that at this point in my life I would be starting a new career. I thought my life-long dream to write a self-help book or any novel for that matter was over. How wrong I was!

Seven years have elapsed since I first put pen to paper. It seems like only yesterday that I was sitting in the sun-room of our farm in the early morning hours of June 2005 when, all of a sudden, it came to me like a lightning bolt, that the unbelievable experience I had five years earlier had its origin in a love story involving guardian angels and miracles.

My initial purpose was to write a book about this extraordinary experience which I now call The Angelic Occurrence. However, within a matter of weeks the book began to take on a life of its own. The characters came alive and I followed them and their lives; we talked and laughed and cried together. They took me in directions that I never would have thought of on my own. They led and I followed.

After several months I began to realize what was happening. Through the lives of the characters in the book, I was writing a self-development book that I had aspired to write when I was in my thirties as a high school guidance counsellor. I was amazed by the revelation that life lessons and insights are far better absorbed intellectually, spiritually, and emotionally when revealed through a story than listing a series of do’s and don’ts. By writing it in a story format, readers would be able to identify with the decisions that characters made and witness themselves, the consequences of their actions. Countless e-mails from readers since, have told me how the lives of the characters seemed to have intertwined with their own and how helpful and inspirational these books have been for them.

The story line couldn’t have been made up of a more perfect combination. On the one hand we have a tender-hearted epic love saga that has blossomed into an intriguing plot, captivating the hearts and minds of so many readers. But on the other hand, we have the real essence of the story which are the life lessons revealed to us by the characters. Especially, Mr. Engelmann, an endearing and wise mentor who is living out the word of God. He has not only become a special person in Henry’s life but in the reader’s lives as well.

Very early on I realized that the story was a gift from God. I am still amazed by the effortlessness with which the story emerged and continues to do so. The chapters, their order and all the key elements seem to be guided. Thoughts seem to come out of nowhere, and everywhere, all at once. Countless times I wake up in the wee hours of the morning thinking about the story and a different plot, or some event happening to one of the characters. When this happens, I immediately get up and write it down lest it be gone from my memory by morning. Frequently I will write 8-12 pages and then go back to sleep. When I read it in the morning I am amazed at what I wrote and how it changes the story. Similarly, at times, after a long day of writing I shake my head over what I wrote. It goes way beyond just the creative gift and talent that the Lord gives to each and
everyone one of us. I may be holding the pen, but it is led by my guardian angel and the Holy Spirit. Often times, I am like one of the readers waiting for the story to unfold, who can’t wait to see what comes next!

In the Lord’s perfect timing He not only answered a long held dream and prayer of mine to write a novel, but He waited until I was ready and had drawn closer to Him. I would never have been able to write a story of such epic proportions at a younger age. And while much of the story contains my own life experiences and the challenges that I have either personally gone through or have had the opportunity to witness others going through, the rest is the creative imagination the Lord has gifted me with.

As I look back on what has transpired, I am amazed that it took three books to finally write about the experience that initially motivated me to write in the first place! At the time, it was clear that the experience or angelic occurrence was the main story and what would appeal to readers, and yet the story resulted in a series that has been overwhelmingly responded to by readers. The social media responses, the quantities that have been sold, the medals the books have won, all testify to the large appeal of the books in the series thus far. I would never have imagined that when I wrote the first sentence that I was about to begin such an epic journey. But then this is something I have learned over the years that if we step out in faith and act on a dream or a compulsion amazing things happen in our lives. Things like this that go beyond the abilities and gifts the Lord gives us; its faith building because we know its God at work in our lives.

When I tell people that I was guided to write this story, many don’t understand what I mean, One example was the idea of Jenny being raped and conceiving a baby. This idea came after I had finished writing the first draft of book one, Pewter Angels. As I began to read it over and came to the part where Henry and Jenny were walking home after the movie and were confronted by several boys, it came to me in a flash that the boys returned a second time and took Jenny to the park where she was raped. I knew such a change would literally take months to rework and weave into the entire story but I realized too, how much richer the story would be and create so many twists and turns and new possibilities! I immediately set about to incorporate this major new happening into the existing plot.

The consequences of this change become obvious; the conflict it sets up for Jenny to give her baby up for adoption and how she longs to reconnect with her daughter. It keeps Jenny and Henry connected through the series in a special way and also introduces a powerful way to bring Camilla into the story by meeting Henry’s son! In the final books yet to come, still further effects from this one change will become evident. This is just one example of an insight that comes along and takes the story ahead in a far stronger direction and has profound effects upon all the characters in ways we could never have imagined.

I believe that our own actions can have a similar ripple effect and touch so many people’s lives in ways we may never know, too. Seeing this come to life in the Angelic Letters Series may give us pause to reflect that our every thought, word and deed has consequences not only in our earthly lives but also our eternal lives as well. Accompanying such awareness changes us. We live with greater purpose and meaning because we know that everything we do matters. It is my personal believe that acts of love such as kindness, forgiveness, patience, compassion…last forever.

I realize it’s difficult for a reader not to have full closure in a novel. But I assure you the length of time between books is really a godsend. These times in between are when the story has strengthened and become much deeper, richer, and more powerful. Further, this time in between has allowed me to mature as a writer and improved my ability to express more clearly the purpose that the Lord had in mind when this all first began back in 2000. He wanted me to remind everyone of His words, and how they are not just words in a book, but “living” instructions as to how we should lead our lives, and “living” words of hope and healing for those who need it.

What I want you to know, dear reader, is that my connection to you through these books has been a treasure from God for me. I know that my life has been the richer for this experience. Not only have the Angelic Letters fulfilled a life-long dream to write, but they’ve also fulfilled a life-long dream and passion I’ve had to help others find meaning, direction and purpose in their lives. Not by me, but through me, as God works towards a far greater purpose than me or my story.

Henry K. Ripplinger
March, 2013

“Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

Matthew 6:21

“No one can be a slave to two masters: he will hate one and love the other; he will be loyal to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

Matthew 6:24

“The eyes are like a lamp for the body: if your eyes are clear, your whole body will be full of light; but if your eyes are bad, your body will be in the darkness. So if the light in you turns out to be darkness, how terribly dark it will be.

Matthew 6:22-23

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures upon the earth, lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven.”

Matthew 6:19-20

“What did we bring into the world? Nothing! What can we take out of the world? Nothing! So then, if we have food and clothes, that should be enough for us.”

1 Timothy 6:7-8

“But those who want to get rich fall into the temptation and are caught in the trap of many foolish and harmful desires, which pull men down to ruin and destruction.”

1 Timothy 6:9

For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil. Some have been so eager to have it that they have wandered away from the faith and have broken their hearts with many sorrows.

1 Timothy 6;10

“It is much harder for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.”

Luke 18:25

“For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul.”

Mark 8:36

“Do not love the world or anything that belongs to the world. If you love the world, you do not have the love for the Father in you. Everything that belongs to the world—what the sinful self desires, what people see and want, and everything in this world that people are so proud of—none of this comes from the Father; it all comes from the world. The world and everything in it that men desire is passing away; but he who does what God wants lives for ever.”

1 John 2: 15-17