Evangelizing through nature

Christians are called by God to spread the good news of the Gospels. This process called evangelization has taken many forms throughout the life of the Church. A local author has found a new avenue of this through a children’s book.
“I just felt like God was telling me to evangelize through children, and what better way through a children’s book to plant little mustard seeds in the hearts and minds of children.” said author and Ville Platte native Jo Ann Guillory Crumling. “It’s just my way of trying to be obedient to God and plant some little mustard seeds hoping that He would water them and let them grow as the child grows.”
For Crumling, the idea for Alex the Caterpillar came through a vision. “I got a vision about 15 years ago when I was in the garden, and I just thought it was so cute,” she said. “What I saw was little caterpillars climbing, but it was animated instead of real life.”
“Then I forgot about it,” she added. “When I felt like God spoke to me and told me to write this book, He brought that vision back to me.”
The message of the book is about handling challenges in life. “It’s about overcoming obstacles in life that we all face as a child or an adult,” she said. “It’s about following the right path and having the graces through faith to move mountains.”
The book follows Alex’s journey up a rose bush. On his way he faces sharp thorns that prick him. He later decides to join another group of caterpillars who are more interested in living it up than reaching the top of the rose bush. After making this bad decision, he pulled himself back up and continued on his journey. He reached the top and found a beautiful rose. Alex was then changed into a beautiful butterfly and became a new creation.
The message for us is quite clear. We are all a journey in life to the top of our rose bush that is Heaven. The thorns that pricked Alex are the crosses that we must bear on our journey. Our sins are the bad decisions we make that make us lose sight of our path, but we are called to pick ourselves up and to continue on the journey. The beautiful rose is Heaven, and we are changed into a new creation when we reach our destination.
“I’m having adults 40 and 50 years old telling me that it’s talking to them,” Crumling said about the book. “If it can do that, then I know God is the one who’s telling me to do this. I know it’s going to work because it’s His plan and not mine.”
Alex the Caterpillar is a 38-page soft cover book that can be purchased from the author. “I have a Website coming out called joanncrumling.com where people can go on and purchase the book, and I’ll ship it to them” Crumling said. “They also can find it on amazon.com and Barnes and Noble.”
Crumling said that books will also be available at Acadian Religious where she will be doing a book reading on September 9.