Acknowledgments

THIS BOOK WAS NOT so much written as gathered. Its chapters began as homilies I preached and as teachings and reflections I offered aloud, across many years, to communities who prayed their way through these very questions beside me.

Three communities in North Carolina gave this book its first hearing, and I am grateful to them beyond anything I can set down here.

To the parishioners of St. Sophia Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Garner, and of Sts. Cyril and Methodius Byzantine Catholic Church in Cary.

To the members and teachers of Bible Study Indonesia. I am grateful, too, to those whose lives are woven through these chapters. I have kept their names hidden and tried to honor their trust, telling only what God had done and leaving the rest with Him. And to Him, last and first, who answered the prayer beneath all my prayers by giving me Himself.