An Interview with Narciso Zamora: A Modern Miracle Maker in Latin America

Interview with Narciso Zamora, author of Walking Man: A Modern Missions Experience in Latin America.

Your new book Walking Man: A Modern Missions Experience in Latin Americachronicles your life: from running away from your home in Peru to finding a new vision for your life in Christ, to founding many churches deep in the rainforests of South America. With so many adventures and experiences packed into the book, what are a couple of the highlights?

Out of all my adventures, certainly the trips in the broken down aircraft we used to take to bring merchandise to the isolated areas to sell and live on, preaching the Gospel and starting churches at the same time have to top my list. There were many times were I was literally lost and completely alone fearing for my life in the middle of the jungle. Also, I will always treasure the memory of my trip to Cuba and how it grew in me an appreciation for religious freedom.

Tell us about your experience when you first found Christ? How was it transformational? Was it a one time experience or do you continue to have it?

I should say first of all, that it took about nine months from the time I was first exposed to the gospel to the time I finally was ready to invite Christ into my life. I was completely oppositional to salvation at first and even destroyed the little chapel our community had built. The Christians, including the family I was living with, responded by praying for me. That messed with my mind! And it was the beginning of a realization that there was something to their experience.

Finding Christ meant such a radical change in my life. I quit smoking, stealing, partying and stopped sinning through immoral sexual experiences. Christ changed my life completely and I was just as grateful then as I am today. You can’t say that it was a one time deal because, just as any life changes, it meant adopting a new and better lifestyle. It opened my eyes to many issues and it has continued to transform me throughout my life.

You are still so active, both in starting new churches, but also in exploring new regions and countries. Why this book now?

More than anything, I think I just needed to document my experiences before I forgot them. I felt God leading me to share my experiences with others at the time I wrote the book. Very possibly, there may have to be a sequel to tell the rest of the story, because as you say, I am indeed still active. My current project is the most ambitious God has revealed to me and I'm humbled by it. I'm starting a school to train Latin Americans to be missionaries in Latin America. This project doesn't include much walking though, so if there is a sequel, we'll have to rethink the title.

Is there a sequel? What are you working on now?

No, right now I’m working on new books about the history of the church and dealing with sexual problems and abuse through God. I don’t discard ever writing a second part, but I'm plenty busy with the opening the school for training missionaries in Peru. For those interested in helping or learning more please visit my website www.walkingman.ws. I would like to add though, my wife has recently penned her story and if you thought mine was compelling, you've not seen anything. I have one chapter in my book dedicated to my wife's story and if you read it, you probably thought, "Why isn't there a book about this?" If I can convince my publisher to take another risk on yet another obscure autobiography, there will be.

Why Cuba?

Back then I was the secretary of the Inter-American Conference for Latin America and one of my responsibilities was to get to know the Church of God in Cuba and help them. I decided I needed to see for myself the situation so I could evaluate better the needs and offer practical solutions. It was an eye-opening experience.

What has been the most challenging aspect of starting a new mission?

I would have to say that by far the hardest has been dealing with the lack of faith. In Chile, for example, there’s a terrible lack of faith and religion is no longer important. I found many people who were individualistic and cold. In many parts of Latin America, evangelic Christianity is spreading like wildfire, but not in Chile. So after such ripe fields as Ecuador and Peru, working in Chile was a shock. The hardest thing is to try to reach someone who doesn’t want to be reached.

Obviously you are able to speak to the indigenous peoples in these communities. What has been their general response?

The indigenous people in the Peruvian and Ecuadorian jungle were a lot more accessible and open to receiving the Gospel than people from the city. I actually prefer to work with the indigenous people that are willing to open their hearts to God than with the racially mixed or white who are unwilling to accept God and live selfish lives in an immoral frenzy.

What do you say to someone who does not yet believe/know Christ? What is they are skeptical?

For those who don’t believe there’s nothing really we can do except to show them other people’s testimony. If Jesus hadn’t changed me it’s possible that I would be like a wild animal. The only way of making skeptical people see that God exists is through testimony. I had tuberculosis and after a morning prayer of a group of young people I was healed. This is the kind of testimony that opens eyes to God’s wonders. I feel like these people need more knowledge about Christ. They’re incredulous because they lack knowledge about the wonders of Jesus Christ. My publisher, Donna Lee Schillinger, has a blog, www.ibelieveinmiracles.info, on which she documents the work of God in her life. Every Christian should have some way like that to testify to the work of God in their life. We can't all blog about it, but we must let people know what the advantage of a personal relationship with the Creator of the universe is.

Thank you so much for the chance to interview you. I wish you and your book well.

Thank you and happy New Year to you!

Find out more about Narciso Zamora or get a copy of Walking Man: A Modern Missions Experience in Latin Americanow.

New Espionage Thriller Entices Readers: The Mind of a Genius

The Mind of a Genius

David Snowdon

The Formula That Could Change The World

Special Agent, Jason Clay from the MI4 is hired to find a secret formula that was invented by the famous British scientist, Malcolm Prince. The only weak element in Clay’s strategy to accomplish his mission is Laura Prince, the beautiful wife of the scientist, who Clay has to seduce in order to obtain the formula.

But the CIA, the Denmark Intelligence, the Australian Intelligence and many other very determined individuals are also after that formula, and can’t wait to get their hands on it. The competition is fierce, but who’s going to win?

The story develops as a travel through the world; with the action starting in London, then moving onto Copenhagen, Hong Kong and Australia.

Clay appears to be the right man for the job; extremely handsome and a natural charmer, nothing could be easier for him than seducing a beautiful woman in order to obtain a top secret.

For more information visit www.the-mind-of-a-genius.com, or pick up a copy now: The Mind of a Genius.

About David Snowdon

British thriller writer, David Snowdon was born in London, and lives in London. He started writing in 1983, and wrote his first book, which hasn’t been published in 1984. His first published work, Too Young to Die,was published in August 2006. And his second novel, The Mind of a Genius,was published in November 2007.

The Mind of a Geniuswas written in four months, but it took another four-and-a-half months for the book to be published. The initial research for The Mind of a Geniuswas done when Snowdon wrote another unpublished, espionage thriller in 1984. (Not his first unpublished work). Twenty-three years later, Snowdon decided to use the plot in his latest espionage thriller.

He decided to write The Mind of a Geniusbecause he wanted to write a current espionage thriller. And the book was set all over the world to make it more interesting.

To learn more about David Snowdon and The Mind of a Geniusvisit http://www.the-mind-of-a-genius.com and to learn more about his virtual tour in early 2009, http://virtualblogtour.blogspot.com/2008/12/mind-of-genuis-by-david-snowdon.html

Post comments on any of the blog tour stops and be entered in a drawing for a copy ofThe Mind of a Genius.

How The Art World Works: New Book Tells The Full Story

Curious about the art world? Have a daughter who wants to be an artist? Is your cousin graduating from college this year with an art degree? Well, then set them on the right path with Sarah Thornton's new book Seven Days in the Art World.

Hollywood, it has been said, is like high school with money: cliquish, catty and status-obsessed, awash in insecurity and plagued by conflicting desires to stand out and to fit in. The same might be said of the contemporary art world, particularly during the glitzy boom years chronicled by Sarah Thornton in her entertaining new book, Seven Days in the Art World.

A freelance journalist with a background in sociology, Thornton spent five years air-kissing her way through art fairs, auction houses and artists' studios as a "participant observer" intent on decoding the manners and mores of this globe-trotting Prada-clad tribe. What she learned, among other things, is that wealthy collectors buy expensive works of art for a variety of reasons - vanity, social status, an appetite for novelty and, most important of all, an acute excess of money. As one of her auction house informers bluntly puts it, "After you have a fourth home and a G5 jet, what else is there?"

The book is cleverly divided into seven day-in-the-life chapters, each focusing on a different facet of the contemporary art world: an auction (at Christie's New York), an art school "crit" (at the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia), an art fair (Art Basel), an artist's studio (that of the Japanese star Takashi Murakami), a prize (Britain's prestigious Turner Prize), a magazine (Artforum) and a biennale (Venice).

Thornton is a smart and savvy guide with a keen understanding of the subtle power dynamics that animate each of these interconnected milieus. In a vivid opening chapter, she captures the adrenaline-fueled atmosphere of an evening auction at Christie's, expertly parsing the status hierarchy of the salesroom seating plan (aisle seats for high rollers, private skyboxes for vendors, standing room for the press).

Get a copy of the book now: Seven Days in the Art Worldor read more of the review.