P21The Curious Life of a Preacher's Wife

Plot: Premise

1. Setting: This story takes place in the Western Hemisphere of Earth. It starts in Paraguay, South America. The bulk of the story uses Texas and Georgia in North America and the United States as its canvas.

2. Protagonist: The main character is Azul Cara Pequeña Corazon Finalmente Gozo.
2b Flaws: Azul has lived with depression for the bulk of her life. Depression is both her worst enemy and her greatest confidant. Depression has become for Azul "a warm security blanket." Depression initially seems to her to be humility when in retrospect she learns, that it is an insidious form of pride.
2c Goals: Azul wants to return to her hometown of Sycamore, Georgia to spend her waning years in seclusion and rest. Since the blindness to her flaw has begun to transform into sight in the past few years, Azul wants time alone with the Lord to learn how to become a joyful Christian no longer beleaguered by her greatest besetting sin.

3. Conflict: Azul keeps having to deal with ministry opportunities before she can actually leave Paraguay to return back to the States. Plumbing and electrical problems bring repair people to her door. The Gospel is presented. One gets saved. The other calls the policia. Azul narrowly averts jailtime through fast-talking and aceite. The police are assuaged, but they urge her in no uncertain terms to leave the country post-haste. Azul flies from Asunción to DFW (the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport,) where she spends a few days walking around Seminary Hill on the campus of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. An old beau tries to change her plans entirely, but at her one evening she slips out, hastily buys a ticket at DFW, and in a few hours, she touches down on the tarmac at Hartsfield International in Atlanta. After a good night's rest in a hotel, she takes a cab to the nearest Ford Dealership, where she pays cash for a four-wheel drive, stick-shift F-150 truck. You've been holding out on us, Azul, she thinks to herself. We had no idea you were a standard, big truck kind of a girl, and at your age. Seriously? "I'm surprising myself," she's says out loud.

Finally, she makes her way home. Then, the real "fun" begins when she finds out that there are festering hard feelings among family members she inadvertently hurt years ago. Emotional hurts can change the dynamics of the family for years it seems.

4. Antagonist: 1 - Azul's cousin, Florine, is a real Southern belle, who has never had any time for God, and doesn't understand why Azul and Fuerza had to leave the family "to minister in South America."
2 - Azul's high school friend, Janie Jo, is a nominal Christian, who though not fully understanding foreign missions, still tries to be the go-between and peace-maker between Azul and Florine. Her own misunderstandings add to Azul's inability to find a place of peace and safety. Will I ever find time to be truly alone with God? Azul laments in her heart.

One-Sentence Descriptive: Azul Corazon learns the hard way, that the way to the Heart of God deals with boulders in the road.

by Jay O’Toole
on October 2nd, 2021