Greetings from Sarah Sundin! Today we have a treat for you—an interview with multi-published author Rebecca Ondov, who tells tales of adventure and faith. Tales involving horses!
Welcome, Rebecca! Please tell us about your featured book, Horse Tales from Heaven: Reflections Along the Trail with God.
Horse Tales from Heaven brims with my Wild West adventures, which are wrapped up as a family devotional to help you and your family become empowered from the inside out.
What inspired you to write this book?
I believed that I needed to share the timeless treasures God taught me during the years that I worked doing horse pack trips in the Bob Marshall Wilderness of Montana. I don’t know too many contemporary gals who lived in the wilderness, packed their water in buckets from the creek, rode their horse and packed their gear on mules as their only transportation over narrow craggy Rocky Mountain trails, and lived in a tent in the wilderness for the better part of 15 years. Every day was filled with excitement, adventure—and fear. I loved the raw beauty of the mountains, but to enjoy it, I faced grizzly bears, fell off cliffs, and got caught in a 240,000 acre forest fire.
My days were very similar to the uncertain days we’ve had over the past couple years. I never knew what was coming, but through these adventures I discovered that I don’t have to face the uncertainty and fears of life by myself. I don’t have to do life—alone. Instead I learned to live each moment with Him. God taught me how to be empowered from the inside out and I wrote this book to share how He helped me build my faith, so that the reader can apply these same principals to their lives, empowering themselves from the inside out.
Most of us have never fallen off a cliff or faced a grizzly bear (thank the Lord!), but those are lessons we all need. From all those stories, which was the hardest to write?
While writing the stories of being caught in the 240,000-acre wildfire, my body literally shook, my heart pounded, I dripped sweat and could hardly breathe because of the fear I experienced when I relived it—in order to write it.
I can’t even imagine writing that—or living it! On the flip side, what was your favorite story in this book?
“Grizzly in Camp” is still my favorite story of how God taught me the miraculous power of His protection through His Word in Psalm 91—over grizzly bears.
What would be your ideal writing place? And…what’s your actual writing place like?
On my little farm I’ve built a cottage which has a loft office with a covered deck where I can gaze at the Sapphire Mountains and peck away at my keyboard while enjoy a morning cup of coffee.
That sounds beautiful! So, when did you first recognize God’s call to write for Him?
Decades ago, God impressed on me to write a story for a Guideposts’ competition. They would fly the 15 winners to New York, put them up in a mansion on the Long Island Sound and have some of the top Christian authors personally tutored them for several days. Instantly I told God that He had the wrong gal—I was the one who would turn in papers typed in black ink, but instructors retuned them filled with red. After arguing with God for weeks, I finally wrote a piece and mailed it with the words, “God, I did this for you. Don’t ask me to write again.” The blood ran out of my face when Guideposts called and told me that I was one of the winners. I cried and cried…but went. Over that week I discovered that God was asking me to do the impossible, so that I would totally rely on Him for my ability to write.
I love stories of reluctant writers who become obedient authors! So, what talents do you have aside from storytelling?
I have wild imagination, a robust sense of adventure, and love to experience and learn new things, which is how I ended up working in the wilderness for 15 years. And how I ended up brokering lumber as my current day-job. Brokering lumber is a crazy, complex and challenging job for a gal.
What do you read for pleasure?
The Bible.
Right answer! (The rest of us all answered wrong). And what are you reading right now?
God’s Smuggler.
This seems like a silly question for you, but do you have pets and do they inspire your writing or hinder it?
Yes! My 10 acres brims with critters: my 13-year-old golden retriever attempts to keep my seven-month-old German shepherd puppy in line; Stealth, my formerly Tom cat that I got at the pound, oversees the barn where my horse and mule hang out; and two chickens regularly lay eggs for my breakfast. They all end up in stories I write for my books and Daily Guideposts’ Walking in Grace.
Your farm sounds absolutely delightful! Thank you for sharing with us, Rebecca!
To learn more about Rebecca and her books, please visit Rebecca’s website and Rebecca’s blog.
Writing for Him,
Sarah Sundin