A Promise To Protect Interview

Today we're welcoming ASHLEY SAWYER, the heroine of A PROMISE TO PROTECT, written by Liz Johnson, a December release by Love Inspired Suspense. 

Wow, you've just had quite an adventure.   

1.  Tell us a little about yourself and how you came to be in the midst of such suspense.

I’m the director of a shelter for battered women and children, and I’m so grateful for the chance to serve these special families. Recently, I helped a young woman find a safe home out of town. Right after that, I began receiving threatening notes and someone tried to run me over. I wasn’t sure how serious it was until my brother sent his best friend to check on me, and we discovered a threatening note on top of my broken windshield.

2.  So, during the book you met Matt. Tell us a bit about him.  What was your first impression?  When did you know it was love?

I first met Matt when I was sixteen. He’s my brother’s best friend, and they met when they were in Navy SEAL training. I had a teenage crush on Matt, but after a bad relationship in college, I wasn’t interested in looking at Matt as anything more than a friend. When he showed back up in my life, it was a pleasant surprise, but I wasn’t expecting any romance. But no one told me he had grown even more strong and handsome since I’d last seen him four years before.

3.  What strengths/skills do you have?  What is your greatest weakness?

I’ll do anything to protect the women and children in my care. I’m vigilant and careful, and I rely on my own skills and strength. But I’m realizing that trusting in my own my strength may actually be a weakness.

         

4.  What scares you?

I’m scared of someone else being in danger because I can’t protect them.

      

5. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

I’d like to change my past. I wish that I’d never gotten to the point where my weaknesses put my brother in danger. That’s my greatest regret.

6.  Where are you in your faith at the start of your story?

At the beginning of the story, I love God, but I struggle with truly relying on his strength. I want to trust him, but I have to be strong at all times or risk putting one or more of the women or someone else I love in danger.

    

7.  Where are you in your faith at the end of the story?

By the end of the story, I’ve learned that God wants my weakness because it’s in my weakness that His strength is made perfect.

8. You've got a scripture at the beginning of the story.  Tell us why this scripture is significant.

At one point, Matt and I were unable to make it to church on a Sunday morning. Instead Matt led all of us in some Bible study. That morning we read 2 Corinthians 9:12, “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”

God really used that verse to teach me the importance of leaning on God’s perfect strength.

9. If you could be a dessert what would you be and why?

I think I’d like to be a chocolate dipped ice cream cone. The shell is hard, but the inside is soft and vulnerable.