Life for me began at age forty, when I became a believer in Jesus. I had been "churched" as a child, but with little understanding of how the Old and New Testaments fit together, let alone how God connected to me.

But on January 22, 1983, my husband and I walked into a new church. When the pastor, Ron Mehl, said, "My words mean nothing unless the Holy Spirit is here and runs you through with his sword." We both felt the Holy Spirit doing his work in us, and in one hour, we left the church totally different people. We didn't even know what had happened, only that it had. Finally, we gained sufficient knowledge to know we had both been "Born Again."

I began to recognize God's quiet voice nudging me in new directions. How do I recognize his voice? Well, it never goes against his word; it's always smarter than I am; his requests are always out of my comfort zone, and something I would never consider doing. When I faithfully follow his directions, doors fly open, and I have only to walk through them.

The Patchwork Path was written from one of his promptings. My friend of over thirty years lives two thousand miles away; she had never read the Bible. We spoke frequently on the phone. Whenever she expressed an interest in the Lord, I'd send her increasingly easy-to-read Bibles.

Finally, in April 2016, she said she'd never understand the Bible, and was giving up. I placed the phone down and whispered, "What now, Father?"

The answer was immediate. "You write her a Bible she can understand."

I laughed. "What? Have you seen how thick it is?"

"Just begin," he quietly replied, --and within minutes, I did. He guided me to patch together all the pieces of the Old Testament where Jesus is found, and how it all connects to the New Testament. This left out large chunks of history and many wonderful people who are in the Bible, but are not in the genealogy of Jesus. This eliminated a lot of "begots."

God guided me each day into the next portion I was to include. Often, I'd ask, Where do I find that? And when I'd open the Bible he led me to it, I'd either be on the exact page, or one or two pages away.

What emerged one year later was a tool anyone can use to gain knowledge of the point of the Bible, how it all fits together, and even clarifies today's current events.

So, who was this written for? I thought it was for my friend. But when God prompted me to have Patchwork Path published, the target reader greatly expanded to include anyone who is a skeptic; new believers who have never read the Bible; believers who have faithfully gone to church, but still haven't read through the Old Testament; home-schoolers working on getting the children comfortable with reading the Bible so they can easily understand it. But most of all, this book was written because God had you in mind and wanted to give you a hand.

If you begin on the first page of the Patchwork Path and read it through, you will gain some valuable insights, and you will gain a new familiarity and ease when you read your own Bible. God bless you as you begin this journey.