By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
JUNE 18, 2019 | When it’s your habit to rise every morning, and write down your thoughts, first saying, “Good morning, Father,” you eventually might decide to compile these thoughts together. That’s what Jeannie Barge LaBarbera of Lawrenceville has done recently, getting a book published with that title, Good Morning, Father.
She came to this position, you might say, naturally, since she was raised in the church. Her father, Harold Kilpatrick, was pastor of the Buford Highway Baptist Church in Doraville for 20 years. She says: “As a child, God impressed me with the idea of spreading the Gospel.”
For four or five years, Jeannie started writing her daily devotionals, something of a conversation with her God. Eventually she went to the Internet, posting her daily collection of thoughts on Facebook. As the number grew, she knew she wanted to see these thoughts all together in a book.
She says: “It sounded complicated, and I worried it for 6-8 months, but then the Lord said it was time to do it.
“Then I had to find a company to print them,” Jeannie said the other day. Soon she learned of Westbow Press, a strategic self-publishing alliance between HarperCollins Christian Publishing and Author Solutions LLC. “They helped me through everything, including editing. Now if I ever had to do another book, I am at least educated in this field.”
LaBarbera
The 240-page book sells for $17.95 softbound and $27.95 hardbound, through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other selected stores.
Will she do another of these books? “Well, I write every day. If God impresses me to do so again, I will. I don’t do this for making money, but to encourage others in Christ to have a stronger faith, and practice ways in life to help others.”
She’s considered Lawrenceville her hometown for 60 years. Over the years, she has been on short term missions of two and three weeks in such disparate places as Latvia, Ghana, Israel and Lithuania. She spent over a year in mission work in Buenos Aires. “When I was in other countries on trips, and especially when I lived in Argentina, I really fell into writing. My pen flowed like crazy. And today even at home, I write every day the ideas that God puts in my heart and mind.”
Jeannie’s first husband of 34 years, Glynn Barge, died in 1995 in a hunting accident. At Hebron Baptist Church, Jeannie in 2012 met Carl LaBarbera, who had been a missionary in India for three years. She and Glynn had known Carl and his wife, who passed away in 2010. “….when he returned in 2014, we were married and I went back to India with him.” They came back to Lawrenceville in 2015.
Jeannie’s book is easy to read. It has each daily devotional on facing pages. She starts out with her words with God, usually about a paragraph long. On the same page, she expands that, often with Bible verses, and giving other references to that day’s thoughts. There’s space on the facing page for the readers to jot down their thoughts on this subject.
Her topics vary.
- What’s on God’s mind?
- What is the limit of His forgiveness?
- Why did He choose the leaders of the nations?
- To whom does He reveal secrets?
Jeannie LaBarbera’s efforts is to point readers to God’s word toward the answers, and invites them to write their own questions or thoughts on the book’s pages.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
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