Minty: "You mentioned that reading the Bible is how you're deepening that relationship and finding your cure. As a writer, you spend your life creating worlds and making things happen on the page."
Minty: "In this season of 'Going Home to You,' does reading the Word ever feel like it's editing you? When you encounter a truth in the Bible that clashes with your human desire for that temporary validation you mentioned, do you find it easy to let the Word have the final say, or is there a bit of a creative negotiation that happens between Iboni the Author and Abba the Creator?"
[The audience is silent and curious. They're interested in how a professional storyteller handles the Ultimate Story when it asks for a rewrite of her own life.]
Iboni: "Oh, Minty! [points at Minty playfully]"
[The audience breaks into a warm, supportive laughter at Iboni's playful point.]
Iboni: "If I didn't know you, I'd think that you're trying to make me go against OUR Creator. [Laughs]"
Iboni: "Of course I'd let the Word of God have the final say. Because for me, The Bible is like a guide in this life that we're living. It is timeless. Why? Because us humans tend to repeat history and Abba knows it all too well. He existed long before He created us. And as the verse says—I forgot the book, chapter and verse of it exactly but it says: 'for I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'—so, yeah! I trust the plan of the One who already knows me long before He knit me in my mother's womb."
[When Iboni quotes the promise of a future and hope, they hear a few audible sighs of comfort from the crowd. A woman in the second row leans over to whisper to her daughter, looking visibly encouraged. The way she effortlessly woven Jeremiah 29:11 and Psalm 139:13 into her answer, even without the chapter and verse numbers, makes the audience feel that the Word isn't just a book on her shelf—it's the language she speak.]
Minty:[Laughing and holding up her hands in mock defense] "Guilty as charged! I promise I'm not trying to start a rebellion—I'm just fascinated by how a professional storyteller handles the moments when the story doesn't go the way she would have written it! But you're right, having a Designer who knew you before the first page was even turned is the ultimate insurance policy."