When Reads the Heart with Sara L. Foust


In September 2017, I read Kelly Irvin’s contemporary Amish novel, A Plain Love Song. I am a huge Kelly Irvin fan, having been hooked by her Amish of Bee County Series. I love her writing style, descriptions, and the fact that she can keep me interested in a love story when I am not usually a reader of simple romance. I tend to like romance subgenres, such as romantic suspense. But, I love Kelly Irvin!

In the course of A Plain Love Song, her heroine Adah wants more than anything to sing music and be accompanied by instruments. She loves the sound of modern music, but her community of conservative Amish folk believe singing for any purpose other than to glorify God is wrong. She learns an important and life-changing lesson. God’s will for her life is more important than her desires. Not only does she learn to let go of worldly things, she learns the value of placing self aside in order to serve His higher plan. And finds the joy in doing so.

What a testimony Ms. Irvin was able to share with me through Adah’s story! I am a mother to five homeschooled children under the age of 12. As most moms can contest, my children are my world. Filling their needs and helping provide their wants is one of my primary goals, second only to my faith and my marriage (which is a post for another time, but I have not been perfect with this!). Upon finishing Ms. Irvin’s story, a strong sense of conviction overtook me. How many years had I been dreaming of being a missionary? How many years had I been pushing those thoughts aside with the excuse that my children were too young for me to leave? How many years had I been denying God’s calling to me, always saying, “Someday, God?”



Talk about some intense praying! I realized in an instant that I was putting my desires to be mom, and a continuously present one, above God’s desires for me. There is a reason the burden to be a missionary to a foreign country has always been a part of my make-up. I may not understand why, and for years fear kept me from acknowledging it out loud, but the important thing is this: God understands what we can’t. When He asks me to go down a path that is unfamiliar, and often terrifying, I am selfish to ignore His request.

So, in May 2018, I am traveling with a group of 7 others to Daet, Philippines, to work with a youth camp. I will be gone for 13 days. And I am petrified. I don’t want to leave my children for that long. I don’t want to leave my husband, either. I have never traveled beyond the ‘safe’ borders of our wonderful country. But, I am going because God is asking me to. I’m tired of telling Him, “Someday, God.” And, in part, thanks to A Plain Love Song’s strong message of following God’s will for His children’s lives, I am ready to follow where He is leading me.



Sara writes Inspirational Romantic Suspense from a mini-farm in East Tennessee, where she lives with her husband and their five homeschooled children. Her debut novel Callum's Compass won second place in Deep River Books' 2017 Writer's Contest. She also has a story in Chicken Soup for the Soul: Step Outside Your Comfort Zone. To learn more about her, please visit www.saralfoust.com. 

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