The manuscript for this Letters from Boerdonk was mostly finished (letters compiled and arranged in order) by fall of 2005. But HighPoint Publishing Company staff and I agreed� it would take a special and talented artist to bring into being the sort of book cover and chapter illustrations that we envisioned for this book. We were stymied for several months over trying to find the right artist.

In December of 2005 during the week of Christmas, a new neighbor moved in directly across the street from us in San Marcos. Because of Christmas busyness and because of being gone on a church ski trip to Colorado, Pam and I did not get a chance to meet the new neighbors until the second week in January. I met Larry Weston while we were both taking out our respective trash cans to the street in that second week of January. Larry found out from that conversation that he had moved across the street from a minister. I found out I now had a new neighbor that was an artist. We found out we had both been in the Air Force and we spent some time discussing airplanes and our affinity for Europe.

Pam and I soon were taking Larry and his wife Shirley out for dinner each week to introduce them to good restaurants in the area. It was a lot of fun to meet someone new and nice and to have the pleasure of dining at good restaurants with them. As the relationship grew, so did we four� literally.

Then I saw Larry’s paintings in his house. His house was a gallery of incredibly beautiful and stunning paintings� all done by him! I called Milena and Ken at HighPoint and said, “I think God may have brought somebody into our lives that you will want to meet.”

Letters from Boerdonk changed dramatically for the better that day in February of 2006. Larry had moved to “quiet” San Marcos from the Dallas area to paint and to be closer to the galleries around central Texas that carried his painting career as a fine arts artist and art instructor in oil and watercolor painting. Dusting off his graphic arts skills he poured himself into this book and the results are nothing less than spectacular.

When I showed Duane DeWald the manuscript for the Boerdonk book and asked him, as a life-long friend, if he was interested in coming aboard on the book project as a marketing expert, he seemed somewhat interested. When I showed him some illustrations that Larry had drawn for the Boerdonk book, then Duane got VERY interested and enthused. Larry’s art brought Duane in on the project. When Nelwyn Moore was handed the manuscript of Boerdonk to proof, I purposely showed her the then separate drawings (not yet integrated into manuscript) that Larry had done. Without even reading any of the manuscript, she commented immediately that she would buy the book simply for Larry’s artwork! At that point, neither Duane nor Nelwyn knew about Larry’s art background!

We are all deeply grateful to the One who brought our paths together with Larry and Shirley Weston.

  July 26, 2006