16 • The Beacon April 1 , 2021

By Josie Sellers

John Piper was called by God at the age of 5 to work for a mission organization . He fulfilled that calling , but unfortunately , his exit from mission work was dramatic and painful . Piper shares his story and offers hope to others in his new book , “ The Wounded Christian : A Love Letter to a Broken Child of God .”

“ I had set my heart and goal on being an aircraft mechanic , and that ’ s what originally brought me to Coshocton to train with MMS Aviation at the airport ,” he said . “ I did my training with them and went on to work for an organization in England that flies aircrafts in

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John Piper ’ s book , “ The Wounded Christian : A Love Letter to a Broken Child of God ,” is now available for purchase on Amazon .

Africa . I fixed planes the missionaries brought back from remote areas .”

While working there , Piper became sick and had difficulty getting his illness diagnosed .

“ One of the things that caused my wounding was that the people I worked with said I was lazy ,” he said . “ It took me 10 years to find a doctor who would say something was wrong with me . They would say it was this or that , and then one said it was chronic fatigue . They couldn ’ t find what was wrong , so they labeled me with that . The people I worked with didn ’ t believe it .”

Piper ended up coming back to Ohio , where he finally found a doctor who was able to figure out what was wrong .

“ There are a lot of illnesses that aren ’ t obvious , and people question if you are really sick ,” Piper said .

Piper was inspired to write his story about a year ago after attending Winter Jam , a Christian music festival in Columbus .

“ There was a lot of talking about storms in life ,” Piper said . “ It was a reoccurring theme .”

Piper decided to write a Facebook post about being in ministry , being wounded and healing .

“ I got a lot of response from people who were in similar positions ,” Piper said . “ When you are struggling , you don ’ t always realize that others might be going through the same struggles . You think you are the only one in that situation .”

After that post he wrote on the topic every so often and joked about turning his story into a book . About a year later , that book is now available to readers on Amazon .

“ Once it was done , I had a huge sense of urgency to get it out to people ,” Piper said . “ I felt it could help people in similar situations heal .”

“ The Wounded Christian : A Love Letter to a Broken Child of God ” is 75 pages long and broken down into 16 chapters .

“ I tried to keep my story to a minimum ,” Piper said . “ It ’ s not about me . My story is just about justifying my right to talk about the topic .”

The rest of the book is a message of hope , healing and restoration .

“ The first half is about explaining why people wounded in ministry may feel like they failed , and the second part is that they didn ’ t and how they can start the healing process ,” he said .

“ The Wounded Christian : A Love Letter to a Broken Child of God ” is available on Amazon for $ 7 in paperback or $ 2.99 on the Kindle . If you have Kindle Unlimited , it is free .

“ I also have a Facebook page for the book , which has added inspiration for those who are in the healing process ,” Piper said .

For more information on Piper ’ s book , visit www . facebook . com / thewoundedchristian .

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