Minty: "If that whole era was a preparation, I have to ask: What was it preparing Iboni the Author for? When you were sitting there capturing Yvonne's experiences with Jervien—the longing, the lessons, the growth—do you think Adonai was using that project to 'soften the soil' of your own heart?
Minty: "Did writing about someone else's journey home to themselves eventually make it easier for you to recognize the path when it was finally time for you to go home to Abba?"
[The audience is deeply intrigued, watching how the act of serving a friend's story might have been the very thing that saved the storyteller's own heart.]
Iboni: "'Soften the soil' of my own heart? [Nervously laughs] THAT I do not know. But capturing my friend Yvonne's experiences and trying to express it with words… that's definitely preparation for writing something personal to me, something intimate. [Looks at the floor while thinking deeply] It did help me recognize the path, but nothing beats the Holy Bible to it. Writing that memoir was a lesson both Yvonne and I needed to learn. And so we did."
[The audience responds to Iboni's nervous laugh with warm, supportive smiles. When she looks at the floor in deep thought, the room holds its breath. There is a sense that they are watching her process her own history in real-time. By giving the Holy Bible the ultimate credit while acknowledging the lesson she and Yvonne shared, she had shown that God uses both His Word and our real-world friendships to get us where we need to be.]
Minty: "I love that you didn't give a perfect answer. Sometimes the preparation is happening in the dark, and we only see the results after the season has passed. It sounds like that memoir was a bridge you and Yvonne walked across together—leaving the old lessons behind so you could step into the new ones with Abba."