By Ron VandenBoom
Darby Author, Alan Maki, a pastor at the First Baptist Church in Darby, will be speaking at the Gildford Baptist Church on Friday, March 16, at 7 p.m. and will be doing a book-signing at Maranatha Christian Supply in Havre on Saturday, March 17, from 1:30 - 3:30 p.m.
Maki will be promoting his new Christian novel, "A Choice to Cherish," while at Maranatha's.
The book is a tender, compassionate story of how a grandfather and a grandson are reunited during the final days of the grandfather's life.
The book, the third Maki has written but his first Christian novel, was inspired by a compassionate novel by Richard Paul Evans entitled "The Christmas Box."
Evans novel tempted Maki to also try and write a compassionate story using his own name and many personal experiences.
This he succeeded in doing and "A Choice to Cherish" contains numerous autobiographical stories, or life experience stories, presented in the first person with only the names changed.
Maki believes he has been able to capture the reader in a real-to-life drama where discovery occurs to the reader at the same time it occurs to the story's main character.
"I wanted to write something that would be meaningful and important," Maki said. "Something that people would relate to."
Maki said he felt writing a book with themes of forgiveness and reconciliation along with love and even facing death and facing it well, would be an important statement and one that people could relate to.
Maki is working on another book he wants to call "Love the Second Time."
Maki has been the pastor of the First Baptist Church in Darby for 14 years and is married and has three children.
He is a winner of the Jefferson Award for his youth work in Darby and in May will be inducted into his Michigan high school's Distinguished Graduate Hall of Fame.
He has also raced in the New York City Marathon in 1995.
