What is it like for a young man from small-town Ohio to answer the call of God into mission work? What family, church and educational influences shaped this man into what he became?
How does one train to become a Bible translator? And how does one find a wife who will share the vision and a lifetime's journey? What exactly did it take for the Warlpiri people of Central Australia to get the Bible in their language so that they too could read and hear the Gospel in their language?
That's half of this story the second half unfolds slowly for the couple from the very earliest years of their missionary service among the Warlpiri. Together, from the early 80s until the present day, Steve and Bev Swartz have survived his mental health frailties manifesting as suicidal depression and bipolar disorder. Even now, it's one day at a time.
In Broken Pot, this powerful memoir informs, educates, entertains and challenges the readers to not give up on what God has started. Moreover, it is sincerely hoped that fellow-sufferers of the Black Dog and other forms of mental illness will come to realise that God has not abandoned them; that He can still use cracked pots to accomplish His purposes and that there is help for them even in the darkness.