Author John White is a Certified Professional Geologist who worked for over twenty-five years in the mining industry and over twenty years in heavy civil construction. He has served in a variety of roles in city, state, and university sectors, as well as volunteer positions in many organizations including local churches. His April 2026 release, Building My Faith: My Journey to an Abiding Relationship with God in Christ Jesus, reveals how “a worldly geologist, well-armed with the scientific explanations of how the earth and the life forms on it evolved through time” came to “recognize God’s hand at work in his life.” Look for John on his website CrossStonePublishing.com and his Amazon author store.
When readers turn the last page in the book, what do you hope they will take away from it?
This is a great question because it gets directly to why I wrote the book. There are four take aways that I hope for. First, God is real and active in our world. The stories I share in the book illustrate some of the many ways whereby a sincere Christian faith in God can result in experiencing God’s presence and interventions: direct answers to prayer, Providential protection, life-changing events, and divine inspiration, guidance, vision, and peace. Second, I hope this motivates the reader to seek or grow a relationship with God in Christ. In the last chapter of the book, I share the lyrics from three songs that I wrote. One of the songs titled “Real” talks about how the things I have experienced are the same as things I read about in the Bible. Rather than being some old difficult-to-understand or hard-to-believe-in book, the things I describe in my life are directly relatable to what I read in the Bible. The same life-changing power and faith we see in the lives of the first followers of Jesus are available to us today. This leads into the third take away, that upon reading the book, readers may reflect on their past with a heightened perspective that enables them to recognize times when God clearly was at work in their own lives.
Kiki, the lady I originally hired to help coach me through editing and publishing, did a final proofread after I finished fine-tuning the manuscript with my copy editor. Reading the book revived her dormant faith and moved her to reflect on her past. During that time, her father grew deathly ill and was lying in a hospital located in another state with an uncertain prognosis. She traveled to see her father and, motivated in part by the book, spent a week praying by his beside. To the surprise of everyone, at the end of the week he suddenly and remarkably recovered and quickly regained his strength to return home. She began to see in her past as well as in her present, instances of God’s activity and presence.
My fourth hope is that readers see their lives with an enlarged perspective and will be led to write down their own stories to share with others; and perhaps, publish them for the world to read.
What challenges did this work pose for you? Were you surprised by any aspect of the project as it unfolded or did it meet your expectations?
Writing for me has become a passion, something I feel compelled to do. The only challenge I experience with writing is finding periods of uninterrupted time. The greater challenges for me come in the process of publishing and promoting the book. Building My Faith is the second book I have self-published. In each case, I hired people to help with editing and formatting to place the books on Amazon, and in both instances, someone engaged somewhere in the process was unable to complete their task. These challenges led me to learn to do things that I had avoided and relied on others to do in the past. Beyond publishing, the next challenge is promotion of the book to make potential readers aware of my book. For me, this challenge is an ongoing learning process. As for surprises, I don’t think I was surprised by anything because I can’t say that I ever had any great expectations, largely due to how I was led into publishing the book.
When did you know you wanted to write and share your stories? What prompted the push to begin?
This book evolved over the course of many years. The starting point was in an adult Sunday school class meeting at the First United Methodist Church of Truth or Consequences on June 30, 2002. That day we were studying Psalm 78, particularly verses 5–8 that talked about teaching the stories of God to children of the next generation. During this lesson, one member of the class spoke up and said with enthusiasm, “We should write a book!” This started a project in the church encouraging people to write their stories of how they experienced God in their lives. Several people did so, including me. Most of those people have passed away by now, but their stories survive because of that project. A few years passed and I moved to Albuquerque and began attending another church. I had an opportunity to give a sermon one Sunday about my personal testimony. In preparation for my talk, I began to think of the many times and ways when I experienced God. I began to write them down and continued to do so long after that sermon. By 2014 I had a collection that constituted a small book. In March of 2015 I posted the book online at a site I created where you could read it for free at www.buildingmyfaith.net. During that time, I had also been collecting articles I had written as commentary on the political economics and morality in our American society. This had grown into another book by itself that I was not sure what to do with, but ultimately published as the book To Concerned Americans in 2022. Having gone through that process, I decided I should publish Building My Faith to make it more broadly available.
How is the book organized? What kind of process did you use to decide which stories to share?
The book is roughly organized chronologically. The things included in the book are stories when I could see God was clearly involved, or instances when I was inspired to say and do things motivated by my faith.
Did you ever worry about revealing too much about yourself or your loved ones through your writing?
There were times in the past when I was concerned about my image, what people would think of me, but I have come to be more concerned about being truthful, open, and honest about myself. When I tell my stories my goal is to be as accurate and descriptive as possible, avoiding embellishments and hyperbole. When it comes to loved ones, I am much more circumspect. Some of the more powerful stories include close family. I limit myself to tell just enough that involves them so the story can be understood and appreciated without speculation, judgment, or opinion. I seek to be truthful while avoiding any negative portrayal of anyone else.
Tell us more about how the book came together.
The writing process started 24 years ago. At that time my thoughts were not focused on writing a book of my own. My collection of stories grew with the building of my Christian faith. The collection that is in the book is from my life up through the year 2014, which is when I posted the book on my first website. The only editing done up to that point apart from myself was a read through by Jean Waszak, a friend from church who is a writer. She provided useful comments and encouragement. The manuscript lay dormant for several years until I got serious about publishing after I had completed publishing my first book. The editing took several months due to my editor Jennifer Bisbing taking extra interest in pushing me to clean up several passages for better reading, details, and clarity. I appreciate the care and time she took. The cover of the book I ended up doing myself. I had engaged the same lady that had done the cover for my first book. I had worked with her on the design. She had it drafted and nearly ready, but unfortunately, she developed a medical condition that prevented her from completion. She had also planned to be the person to format the manuscript and place the book on Amazon. I waited for a year to see if she would be able to recover and want to finish it all but eventually learned that was not going to happen. The drafts of the design were not in a useful format I could use, so I used the picture I had from my website for the cover. During the time I was waiting, I became aware of SouthWest Writers at a presentation at my church by several authors of Unbreaking the Circle. I joined SWW and at a monthly meeting I met Rose Marie Kern who coached and helped me get the manuscript and cover formatted and onto Amazon.
What was your favorite part of putting this project together?
I enjoy telling the stories of when I experienced God’s active presence in my life. Times when prayers of mine were clearly answered as well as when I became the answer to someone else’s prayers. Heart-changing events accompanied by indescribable peace and joy; occasions of life-preserving Providential intervention. I have had the privilege to share my story verbally and sometimes even dynamically with individuals, small groups, larger gatherings and congregations. With the publication of the book, these stories become available to anyone and are preserved for posterity.
Do you have a favorite quote from Building My Faith that you’d like to share?
“After praying at the altar I arose and ran toward home, following the trail along Cabezon channel north of the Westside Boulevard bridge. As I passed the pedestrian bridge at the Park Above, I praised God and felt moved to joyous tears. A little further on, I was completely overwhelmed with a joy I cannot describe. I perceived an instantaneous glimpse into paradise, a glimpse of who God might be. In those moments, I sensed an absolute love for my wife, Mabel. I recognized a level of love for her that I had never had before. I was completely awed and amazed. The sensations I experienced were beyond me, and they felt as if they came from outside of me. I hardly noticed the trail as I continued to run home. Since that day, I have more dearly loved my wife. I tell her I love her more often. I joyfully prepare her little healthy snacks because I want her to be well. Although she does not share my deep faith in Christ, I pray for her daily. I recognize how God has put her into my life, and how He has used her to deepen and grow my faith in Christ. I thank God every day for Mabel.”
What writing projects are you working on now?
I have a website, CrossStonePublishing.com, on which I periodically post articles and blogs on topics related to those of my two books. I also have a couple other books I am working on. One is written, titled Choices, that I need to format, the other is still being developed which right now has the title Love Truth & Spirit.
KL Wagoner loves creating worlds of fantasy and science fiction. Her current work in progress is The Last Bonekeeper fantasy trilogy and short stories in the same universe. A member of SouthWest Writers since 2006, Kat has volunteered as the organization’s secretary, newsletter editor, website manager, and author interview coordinator. Kat is also a veteran, a martial art student, and a grandmother. Visit her at klwagoner.com.
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