Synopsis

Veronica Belmonte and Jonathan Blanco are getting married… after 10 years of pure love. Practically the entire church community is drawn into the whole excitement, given the fact that Veron is the only daughter of His Heirs Christian Fellowship’s Senior Pastor Ramon Belmonte and Jon just happens to be one of the most sought-after bachelors in church. But if there’s anyone else more involved, stirred and affected by the upcoming nuptials, it would have to be the LEAPsters. All in their very early 30s – Heidi, Lovely, Val, Lisa, Hazel and their Shepherd Ruthie form the prayer group LEAP… Ladies Empowered & Assured by Prayer.

As Veron’s sister-in-law, Ruth Belmonte has lovingly volunteered to be her wedding coordinator. Of course, that goes without saying that she has brought in her LEAP sisters to help out with all the planning, coordinating and most of all ministering to the soon-to-be-new-wife. As each one takes on their humble role in assisting the bride, they find themselves tackling more than just a wedding as the events bring them to a myriad of discoveries and realizations…

Heidi’s honeymoon marriage is about to have its first taste of the bittersweet domestic life. Ruthie finds herself trapped at home with two toddlers while she yearns for mission work. Lovely is due to give birth to her first baby anytime now but is more pregnant with thoughts and emotions that would certainly cast a shadow on her perfectly pampered life. Lisa is having a post-partum depression. Hazel suddenly doubts whether she made a good decision to leave her love life years ago and focus on her ministry instead. And Val is on the verge of a major backslide.

The LEAPsters are about to be torn in pieces… but as they go through the painful shredding of their hearts and souls, will they ever still see how God can make them beautifully broken?

Preface

The Birth of "Beautifully Broken"

A Dream… A Whim (hope not)… I’ve always wanted to write (and publish) a novel ever since I started scribbling away my thoughts and the little fantasy worlds that my seven-year-old self imagined while sneaking away from those afternoon shut-eye required of any kid. I grew a corn on my right thumb because the pen never left my hand. I used my spiral notebooks, the ones that had “artistas” on the cover (remember them?) for my short stories and not for Math homework.

Back then I already pictured myself as a novelist when I grew up. I just really wanted to put on paper the stories and the characters I created in my head. Unfortunately, I wasn’t brave enough to put myself forward and compete with the literary elite of UP Diliman. I was but a big fish in a small pond back in High School when my short love stories were all the rage on our school paper. The real world was far bigger than I imagined… more akin to cliques and nepotism… I was nobody.

But I still have these amazing people in my head… my literary alter egos and the rugged fictional representations of colorful people I’ve met, befriended, and fallen in love with all these years… To say that a LOT of things has already happened in my 30 years of existence here on earth would be an utter understatement. I could have written and fictionalized all my experiences but why didn’t I? I guess it just wasn’t God’s anointed time.

Now that I have become a Christian, I finally understood why God didn’t let me shine in the secular writing world – He wouldn’t want His Gift to be used for nothing less than His Glory! I’ve been feeling his nudge to write something contemporary about the Christian Life. I asked Him, “Lord, what can I write about when I’ve just been in your care for no more than 3 years? Am I worthy?” Then He told me to write about Him in the way that I know… So what I do I know?

I searched deep inside then looked around me and I realized that a lot of wonderful stories are unraveling in my midst… Stories of young women like me dealing with their burdens, struggles, lots and crosses all waiting to be taken as inspiration for the written word… Tales of brokenness all made beautiful by the Grace of God.

One of my favorite Bible verses is 2 Corinthians 12:9: “My Grace is sufficient for you: for My strength is made perfect in weakness.”

This is a big task that I am about to tackle. I’m going to do this on top of everything else that demands my time: family, work, church ministry… I am excited as well. A Blog-Novela is certainly very unusual. I am overwhelmed but I know God wants me to write this story and by His Grace I’ll be able to start and finish this. I can’t wait to introduce the characters of this novel. Just a disclaimer though: ANY SIMILARITY TO ANY PERSONS LIVING OR DEAD IS PURELY COINCIDENTAL. :-) “Beautifully Broken” is fictional … its characters and their stories may mirror people you and I know but then again I've always believed that truth is stranger than fiction.

I am currently writing the 1st Chapter of my Blog-Novela. I will be posting the synopsis soon. Stay tuned for the premiere of “Beautifully Broken” in this blog.