Roo Palmer's testimony
I grew up in an average suburban Melbourne family during the 1960s. Both my parents worked full time since the time I can remember. As I was growing up, I had always felt that I had to live up to other's success and achievements all the time, that I wasn't allowed to find my own direction and purpose. I was often called the 'slow' one, the one who was hopeless and couldn't do a thing right. I grew up constantly hearing “why can you be like so and so?”
Then, when my parents moved us to Sydney when I was a teenager, I was encouraged by some school friends to attend a church youth group and found being with young Christian people a positive influence towards coming to the know the Lord's value of me. I gave my heart over to Jesus in a quiet church courtyard, but I soon learnt more about God's love and grace just by hanging out with my 'church' family as much as I could. They saw value in me that others didn't.
For years, I struggled to find out where I was going in my life and where God was taking me, and what my purpose was. I worked in different areas of employment, but I still couldn't fit in with the system no matter how hard I tried. I longed for job satisfaction where my creative talents could be used. But I wasn't aware that God had given me a gift for writing until, one day, I felt inclined to just sit down and write something...off the top of my head. I remembered being creative with a pen at school but no one had encouraged me to get serious about it. So, when I realised that I really enjoyed writing, I began to become actively involved in the industry. With the Lord guiding me through the process, I created my first manuscripts, Poems of Revelation and Revelation Daily. I also had fun writing drama skits for a number of Christian camps and churches. But in the last two decades, my projects have been with my fictional series, a family friendly Australian novel series that deals with normal living but with added mystery and suspense. I wanted to write fictional drama but using love and God's grace in humanity as the theme of my series.
I had never felt any real value from anyone before, nor knew much of God until I found a loving family in my church. Coming to understand how much God values us all and that He has an individual purpose for all of us. He created us all differently, not to be 'like' someone else.
He has taught me a lot about value in human beings, so my fictional series tends to lean on God's opinion of us, not our opinion of God.
God has really shown me His direction in the last decade. That when doors close at certain stages of our lives, He will always open the best one at the best time...that no matter what others tell you, He has a unique purpose and it's up to us to come to know it.
If people want to view any of my books, you can visit My Storehouse at
http://www.lulu.com/roopalmer or
at my sites:
http://www.roopalmer.vpweb.com/
http://www.freewebs.com/roopalmer
Roo Palmer