Former Drayton resident Christa Hesselink, author of Life’s Greatest Dare: Risking It All for the Abundant Life, read excerpts from her book and shared her message of transformation at an evening With the author here. There was a full house on hand at the Maryborough Community Centre for the June 16 event.
“I’m thankful for my cheerleaders from Drayton. It’s great to see so many familiar faces in the audience, including a former teacher of mine. I left Drayton to attend college in Michigan and took along many good memories of being a small-town kid,” Hesselink said.
Shortly before Christmas, in 1998, at the age of 24, Hesselink was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Hesselink described her journey as a long, difficult, toxic time where she faced her own mortality.
Tragedy struck again in April of 1999 when her brother Todd was killed in an automobile accident.
“Everything died for me. My faith and hope were choked out of me and I was fading away. It felt like God had sucker punched me,” Hesselink said.
During her struggle, Hesselink found “transformation” to be a large part of her healing.
“Transformation occurs when something needs to die before something else can be born. I had to be open to it and then surrender, to be able to experience God’s abundance, filled with incredible love, joy and peace. I knew I had to share about my transformation in a book.”
Spiritual walk
Hesselink continued by saying, “Rebirth was something I struggled with. I had a great life before, but now I had to deal with things like, I was no longer a sister. It took time to discover a new life but the deepest root and the one who grounds us is Jesus. “
Around her 40th birthday Hesselink walked a 32-day solo trek along the 800km Camino de Santiago in northern Spain. Known as a spiritual path and retreat for spiritual growth, it was during this time that she was contemplating her book’s publishing.
Hesselink never aspired to be a writer and didn’t even enjoy reading as a child. She chose to self publish her book as she admitted to being a control freak and wanted to give the proceeds from the sale of the book to Hesselink’s charity, the Love 2 Love project. Working through World Vision and the Mennonite Central Committee, this project focuses on helping the world’s impoverished peoples.
“My goal by the time I’m 50 is to give $500,000 to organizations that need assistance. To date I have given $20,000. I’m not sure where it is going to come from, but my book sales are a large part of the donations,” Hesselink said.
For more information on Hesselink, Life’s Greatest Dare or the charities she supports visit lifesgreatdare.com.
