Check out Experience Tells, memoir vignettes published in an ezine

Today we welcome guest blogger 

and my dear friend, Joyce Hyde, 

who, along with two friends, publishes memoir vignettes 

in an online magazine—or ezine. 

And what a coincidence: The ladies chose the same theme verse 

as ours here at SM 101, Deuteronomy 4:9!

Perhaps you’d like to choose this format 

for your stories, too. 

Check out Joyce’s post here and the ezine, 

Experience Tells. 

They will inspire you!

Welcome to SM 101, Joyce! Take it away!

For several years Carol Brinneman, Kristin Elkinton, and I worked closely together at a nonprofit to produce print and web communications. Carol is a highly qualified editor and writer. Kristin is a writer, and was, for many years, the manager of the department where I worked. I had written in the past, but in recent years I focused on graphic design using Adobe products such as Photoshop and InDesign.

We became friends and have much in common. We are Christians and have been missionaries most of our adult lives. We’ve all traveled a great deal and lived cross-culturally. Each of us has endured difficult times in our childhoods and adult lives as well.

In May 2015, I retired because my husband, for health reasons, needed me at home full time. Kristin had retired a few years earlier, but Carol was still working, though not full time.

We met for lunch, as we had done several times before, but this time the atmosphere was different. I don’t remember who brought the idea up first, but we started talking about wanting to do more with our lives. We all felt our calling from God was not over when our assignments ended, and we were not ready yet for a rocking chair on the porch!

The more we talked, the more the idea jelled that we should do something with the gifts God had given us. We had stories to tell of God’s blessing, correction, and provision. We felt we had survived it all and been privileged in the lives we’d led. Now we were concerned mothers and grandmothers who wanted to see our children, extended family, and friends thrive—in life and in a relationship with our Savior, Jesus Christ.

The timing was perfect. Adobe had just come out with Publish Online. This app allowed us to publish from Adobe InDesign and upload to the web at no cost. I told Carol and Kristin about this new possibility. We realized we had the platform, and the ability to do the magazine, but should we?

We went home and prayed, making sure this was something God wanted us to do. It was a huge commitment to publish a magazine regularly. We wanted to do an excellent job, and that takes lots of time. We met again and decided to go ahead, starting with the 2015 Christmas issue. We have now published six editions of our ezine, Experience Tells.

We chose as our theme verse Deuteronomy 4:9, “Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them fade from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them.” We hope we are accomplishing this goal with each issue.

I believe everything came together for us to start the magazine: timing, personnel, gifting, and desire. We have no idea how long we will continue, but when the time comes to stop, we will be grateful for the blessing of doing this together as friends.

All issues are on our Experience Tells website. Please visit our Facebook page, too, and like us.

Joyce and I and our husbands worked together 

for several years in Nairobi 

and explored the beauties of Kenya on our weekends. 

I can’t imagine living there without Joyce and Marvin—

our memories are indelible. 

Read about them in my memoir, 

Grandma’s Letters from Africa.