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Celebrating 20 Years With FaithWriters 1

by Janice S Ramkissoon 
02/26/25
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Welcome to the next chapter of Janice Simone!

Dear FaithWriters,

It's Storytime!

For those of you who have been journeying with me since 2005, I want you to know that I really do appreciate you and your input. You've encouraged me through seasons of discouragement and provided friendship when I felt alone. Having kept all my painful experiences hidden, I know your input were guided by the Holy Spirit. Therefore, I am even more grateful that you obeyed the prompting of the Spirit and reached out to me or shared that poem or article with me.

How Your Gifts and Friendship Impacted My Life: 

Through your articles and poems, God used your gifts of teaching and encouragement to help me navigate grief, conflict and life in general. It also brought laughter to help me re-ignite the joy that was buried underneath the sorrow, making the pain a little more bearable.

Through your friendship, you spoke life to me when everything around me and within me was dying: death of a career, death of a business, death of relationships through lack of maintenance (through the regular decline of invitations, particularly to overseas weddings, graduations, dedication/christening and other celebratory events I missed) or unresolved conflict, physical death of loved ones (and not being able to attend their funerals) hence no closure to those relationships. Then there were unresolved conflicts resulting in disconnection with extended family and church family, all of which affected the health of my marriage.

Marriage Guidance:

My marriage also took a further hit after the many miscarriages we endured as well as the breakdown of relationship with siblings and the whole fiasco of my birth father being made know almost 25 years into my marriage and 50+ years after I was born. In all of that I had no respite. Life carried on as normal at home, as a volunteer in my church and as an employee at work. My mind and emotions cried out for help but there was no one to hear my cry and no avenue to release the weight.

Nevertheless, I would come on FaithWriters and there would be a marriage article speaking into the area of lack in my marriage. There would be articles, poems or stories shared through a 'Challenge' piece that I could relate to. Generally, wherever the need was, it would be pointed out through an article and I would begin dealing with the issues arising that I needed to address in my own life. My husband and I would read some pieces alongside our night time routine as part of our devotional(s).

God spoke to my heart through those articles and brought teaching, correction, comfort, healing and in some areas warning of what was to come if we didn't change direction.

Reviewing The Years To Find Missionaries On The Battlefield:

When I look back on some of your comments on articles I’ve written (including ones I removed) as well as your messages here on FaithWriters, I am overwhelmed with gratitude. You spending time to send me a message or words of encouragement helped me to see God at work through you. One of my favourite 2023/24 song of praise was CeCe Winans' version of 'Goodness of God' and is fitting here as I have experienced the goodness of God in the land of the living.

Through you and other servants of His, sent my way during my dry seasons, I can say: God did not leave me lonely. He showed-up with comforting words of encouragement through you. He showed up as a friend through individuals like Jody R Goode, Helen Dowd and Christian Coutts. He even showed up through people like Thomas Kittrell to remind me that He is the Father I longed for; the Father I craved; the Father who doesn’t just show love, He is Love. He is the Father who corrects, and chastises those whom He loves. Never before had I thought about how a daughter may feel, until Thomas wrote a poem dedicated to me.

Sharing with you during those early years of parenting, provided me with a structure I didn't know I needed. I looked forward to breaking up my days with a time-out for writing and sharing all that was being given to me as I read Scripture. I didn’t understand the whole concept of gifting then. I simply thought this was a hobby I was using to pass the time while waiting for my husband to return home from work.

However, as you responded to the articles, poems and songs I was sharing, I began to see that it was more than just a hobby. I didn’t have parents to recognise the gifts God placed in me and help to draw them out. So I had no idea what was in me.

It was through serving in the church that God opened the door for this gift to be exposed. I didn’t have the capacity to comphrend it as a child, but in my adult years, a year before joining FaithWriters, my pastor’s wife (Brenda Rumble, Olivet Deptford Baptist Church, London) encouraged me to publish a poem I wrote. It was accepted for publication in an anthology. This would be the first my writing got published, outside of me contributing to a newsletter that my youth group produced sometime in the early 90s. 

My Pastor's wife was moderating for the upcoming Christmas service and asked me to write another poem, which I did. When I went up to present it, a song came out. I titled it: ‘A King is Born’ (Name Above All Names). I later looked back on the interaction between myself and my pastor's wife, based on the encouragement received through my friends at FaithWriters, and saw my writing as one of the vehicles God provided through which I could use the gift of encouragement. In some cases, I saw it as a means to use the gift of teaching.

Both the poem and the song highlighted those gifts.

The poem encouraged.

The song taught.

You Showed Me That I Am A Vessel In The Potter's Hands: 

I was a vessel in the Potter’s hands, unaware of the work He was doing in and through me. Had it not been for your encouragement, whether on those articles or via messenger, I may not have recognised any of those gifts.

Eventually, I began sharing articles I wrote. That gave more exposure to the work I was doing, as some of those articles were being published in traditional magazines, e-zines, newsletters and on websites. Some I was made aware of and was encouraged by.

I then began writing for a newspaper as a contributing writer. As a columnist producing monthly travel articles, poems and inspirational articles, I was approached by the host of a Gospel show on BBC Three Counties Radio to review books published by Authentic Media. I also had the opportunity to read some of the poems I wrote.

During that time, I was also working on ‘Embracing Forgiveness’ which was published in 2014. That propelled my writing to authorship.  At that point, I was not only pregnant with a vision, I was also pregnant with a baby that didn’t come to full-term. Some of the things I was working on had to go on the backburner.

My youngest Aunt (My mother’s youngest sibling) lost the fight with a heart condition. I also got news that the person I thought was my father, whose name I wore until marriage, died.

In the same time frame, I lost my Grand-uncle, the man who walked me down the aisle. Then all that could go wrong, went wrong between us and our extended family as well as the church family we were attached to at the time. I felt the loneliest I had ever been with no one to share my troubles with.

The rain just kept on pouring.

The storm arrived. A tornado hit, did its damage and left me to die.

Then everything went on pause.

 
>>>Continue reading part 2 of 'Celebrating 20 Years With FaithWriters'.