Interviewing Wm. Paul Young.

Reading a book is like watching a movie, the difference is that in your imagination the resources are infinite, and the special effects are not limited to what technology can do, in a book, although you can't choose the script, you are responsible for all the details of the scenario. Great books gave rise to the Oscars winning films, and that's why Hollywoodeaqui.com wants to start 2013 encouraging the reading, and to brighten this article we have an exclusive interview with the author of the bestseller The Shack, William Paul Young, who fondly answered our request and granted us an interview to talk about his new book, Cross Roads. Check it out:

HEA: You consider your first book an "accident", you had no idea how great it would be, or how far it would reach. But when you wrote Cross Roads, you had something in mind? Which public you wanted to reach?

Wm.: I was with an aspiring writer a few evenings ago and asked her, "If your art, in this case writing, only touches one life, will that be enough?"  She thought before she answered and then said, "No, it won't be enough."  I told her, "Then you don't understand the value of the 'one', you would never leave the 99 to go find just the one (like Jesus would)."  She understood.

I don't write with an agenda trying to take people from one idea to another.  I would rather be in the creative activity of exploring a question or discovering and expanding creative space. Other people are able to hear for themselves.

HEA: All the dialogues in The Shack and Cross Roads are really touching, and full of wisdom, when you write as God, Jesus and Holy Spirit you consider as your own words or you think that you are a channel to transmit their words? 

Wm.: Instead of imagery and metaphor of channelling, I would much rather understand it as participation inside a relationship.  As human beings we are all growing and changing.  What you believe today will be considerably different in ten or twenty years, and yet you think you are completely right today.  I know that I am not.  I believe there is a God who not only invites participation but won't do many things without ours.  So we must assume that God is willing to participate with flawed and broken people.  After all, God participates with flawed people all the time in the creation of new human beings (conception) and then participates with them as they raise their children, and human beings make many mistakes as parents.  I don't write my books or raise my children by myself, but God does write them alone either...we participate together.  That is why life and creativity tends to be a mess, because you and I have been invited to participate.

HEA: Cross Roads was inspired in someone close of you? A relative, a friend? What was your inspiration to write this new book?

Wm.: Even though it is an 'accident' (not from God's point of view) that I have become a published author, I have always been a writer, especially for friends and family.  That won't change.  Inspiration is a community event.  No human being is an island to themselves.  Our histories together, our conversations, the music we listen to, the choices we make, how a rainbow touches us, our prayers, our ability to think about ideas...these are only a few of the influences that work together to inspire.

HEA: You visited Brazil in 2011 and had the chance to know your brazilian fans and openly talk about The Shack, do you have plans to come to Brazil this year to promote Cross Roads?

Wm.: I would love to come again, maybe this time with Baxter Kruger, the author of The Shack Revisited, who is a wonderful friend.  I loved both of my visits to Brazil and find Brazilians to among the kindest, spiritually sensitive and warmest people on the planet.  We will see.

HEA: And to finish, what you would like to say to all the brazilian teenagers, why they should read Cross Roads?

Wm.: I am not one to tell anyone they 'should' do anything.  Rather, I would invite you into the story and the conversation that it will raise both inside your own heart and also inside those in your community who have read the book.  Cross Roads is a story that explores and raises new questions.  I never set out with any sort of agenda such as 'life lessons'.  I would rather create space, or push out the walls of existing space and make room for others to hear within that landscape whatever it is that God might want to communicate.  Having said that, there are certainly themes in what I write, such as the value of each individual person, of a God who is good all the time regardless of our perception of the character and nature of that God, and that God is involved inside the details of our lives with great respect and affection independent of our ability to perform to religious creed or requirement. May we all become people who believe that life is bigger than death!

I've read The Shack and as Amber Sweeney said, "it's life changing." 

I'm currently reading Cross Roads and I'm speechless to compliment Wm. Paul Young,

the best I can do is to pray for God continue blessing his life. Thank you for reading. 

Se você é brasileiro pode ler a entrevista completa aqui: 
A Travessia – Exclusivo! William Paul Young e Sua Nova Obra

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It's a New Year, not "another" year.

Today has been a month since my last post, it's not like I don't have nothing good to share or too important to writing about. I had, actually I have. But sometimes we have to just enjoy the moment, appreciate the life, because it's short. In the last month our world faced a false alarm, an alarm that told us that this world that we live was about to ending. Maybe it didn't end to all the people, but to many people on this earth I am sure it did. Because our life is so fragile that we don't know what will be our last breath, if we are going to have the chance to say a last "I love you" or "Forgive me".

However, most of people on the earth received a new life, not because the Mayans say that this is a new cicle, but because it's a new year, you see the difference? We don't call it "another" year, we call it a "new" year for a reason, I am not so naive to believe that our problems just fade away of overnight. But if you receiving this new year as a new chance, a fresh start, you can finally face your problems from another point of view.
I decided to start my new year with a prayer, asking God not just to receiving blessing upon my life, but to I might be a blessing to as many lives as possible. I decided to change my goals, to pursue my dreams, but not forgeting who I am, and that doesn't need to change along the way. I decided not to complain about the struggles, but to get stronger after them.

And to finish, let me to share with you a little secret of myself: no matter how was your day always give thanks to God, and always start and finish your day saying: God I love you, Jesus I love you, Holy Ghost I love you. (they know that already, but just like you, they like to hear that sometimes).

P.S: Be ready! God loves to surprise us.

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Too blessed to be stressed :)

Sabe aquele dia em que você acorda e sente horrível.  Em todos os sentidos, você se olha no espelho e não se acha bonita, você só enxerga os seus defeitos, e só consegue lembrar das coisas ruins da sua vida, pois é, comigo não é diferente, eu também me sinto assim às vezes, mas sabe o que eu faço? Eu conto as minhas bençãos, eu paro e reflito sobre as coisas boas da minha vida, sobre as conquistas que obtive e sobre os sonhos que realizei, hoje eu gostaria de compartilhar com vocês um pequeno sonho realizado.

A mais de um ano atrás, mais precisamente no dia 23 de Setembro, eu tive a sorte de estar no lugar certo e na hora certa, eu estava no twitter (o que eu geralmente eu não fazia, não aquela hora da noite) quando o Demi Brasil twittou o link para assistir o retorno triunfal da cantora Demi Lovato (cuja a trajetória todos sabemos), eu mais que depressa cliquei no link e aguardei ansiosa enquanto o show não começava, mas para a minha surpresa muito mais do que o privilégio de assistir um show ao vivo da Demi Lovato pela primeira vez, eu conheci o trabalho de Cláudia Ciuffo. Da qual me tornei fã no mesmo dia, e comecei a acompanhar sua trajetória, ler suas matérias, e seguir suas aventuras, todas compartilhadas via twitter. 

Foto do twitter da Cláudia
quando a conheci.

• Se vocês lerem essa matéria verão lá em baixo nos comentários como essa amizade começou, sempre com muita gentileza e respeito mutuo, começamos a "trocar figurinhas" compartilhar estórias e gostos em comum, e assim eu realizei um dos meus sonhos, me tornar amiga de alguém cujo o trabalho eu admiro muito. Hoje tenho o prazer de fazer parte da equipe do Hollywood é Aqui, um sonho que nasceu no coração da Claudinha, e que ela compartilha carinhosamente com todos nós. 

Para concluir minha reflexão, gostaria de agradecer primeiramente a Deus que é o arquiteto de tudo isso, que traça nossos caminhos e nos une a pessoas para um propósito maior do que nós. Que realiza o nossos pequenos sonhos, que se importa com o que é importante para nós, pois não importa quão falhos sejamos, Ele sempre irá nos olhar com um olhar de amor.

E mais uma vez obrigada a você, Cláudia Ciuffo, por este ano no qual nossa amizade cresceu e se fortaleceu, que venham muitos anos mais!

Count your blessings!

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Você é mais forte do que imagina, acredite!

A vida é tão frágil que num piscar de olhos tudo pode mudar, se pro bem ou pro mal eu não sei, isso varia de perspectiva para perspectiva, o olhar com o qual encaramos as coisas, se encaramos as perdas como aprendizados, se aguentamos os fardos pesados do dia-a-dia como um exercício físico para fortalecer a nossa alma. Ás vezes me pergunto o quanto uma pessoa pode suportar?, quanta dor um coração pode carregar, sem que sua mente perda completamente a razão e o sentido da vida?

Ás vezes eu acho que nossa mente é tão auto-destrutiva quanto auto protetora, a mesma mente que é capaz de criar pensamentos negativos e nos matar com lembranças que reabrem feridas antigas, é a que se auto defende contra todas as noticias ruins nos fazendo acreditar que tudo ficará bem, nossa mente cria um campo de defesa e lá deposita aquilo pelo qual vale a pena lutar e seguir em frente, nesse campo de defesa nos sentimos seguros, como se nada pudesse nos atingir, nossa mente auto protetora desliga nossas emoções nos tornando por vezes até um pouco frios em relação a pequenas perdas e estresses do cotidiano, nossa mente amadurece e se torna capaz de suportar tantas coisas, que ficamos espantados quando por algum motivo viajamos no tempo e nos lembramos de todas aquelas dificuldades que passamos bravamente, não ilesos, mas vivos, vivos o suficiente para nos reinventarmos e tentar de novo.

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The Hurt & The Healer

Há momentos na nossa vida em que nos sentimos tão vazios mas tão vazios que isso pesa dentro de nós, e esse vazio se torna um fardo pesado de se carregar.. então eu me pergunto como isso é possivel? Como o vazio pode ser tão pesado?
E os dias se passam e esse buraco começa a se encher, enche-se com nossas decepções, perdas, derrotas, desanimo, temores e angustias, e então o que estava vazio se torna tão cheio, mas tão cheio que explodimos, essa explosão gera lágrimas, lágrimas salgadas, lágrima de dor, lágrimas de tristeza, 

lágrimas de luto.
Esse momento por mais doloroso que seja foi proporcionado pelo próprio Deus, é, por Deus, pois Ele não quer que sigamos mentindo para nós mesmos que tudo ficará bem, que estamos bem, quando não nos sentimos assim, enquanto não demonstrarmos que estamos feridos, machucados e fracos, Ele não poderá nos curar, feridas escondidas infeccionam, porém feridas expostas cicatrizam.
Deixe Deus curar as suas feridas.

~~* ✩ *~~

There are moments in our lives when we feel so empty, but so empty, that it weighs within us, and this emptiness becomes a heavy burden to carry.. then I wonder, how this is possible? 

How can the empty be so heavy?
And the days go by and this hole begins to fill, fill up with our disappointments, losses, defeats, discouragement, fears and anxieties, and what was empty once becomes to be full, but so full that we explode, this explosion generates tears, salty tears, tears of pain, tears of sadness, tears of mourning.

That moment, although it is painful, it was a moment provided by God himself, yes, by God, it's because He doesn't want us to follow lying to ourselves that everything will be fine, that we're fine when we don't feel this way, while we don't demonstrate that we are injured, bruised and weak, He can't heal us, hidden wounds goes infected, but exposed wounds goes to heal.
Let God heal your wounds.

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Meet Devon Haas!

Today's question is: who is Devon Haas?

Don't let this little girl fool you, behind of this cute little face there's a girl with a big voice, and she has no fear to using it.

One day I was on the internet and found Devon's twitter page, I started to read them and I remember I was amazed to know that she's only 8. 

Yesterday we had a conversation about politic, yes, you've heard right, a 20 years old girl had a conversation about politic with a 8 years old girl. 

And then I realized how special that kid was.

 Introducing Devon Haas:

At first sight you may think that she's Nina Dobrev's little sister (I thought that at the beggining) I won't blame you, they are so alike.  

And both have a special place in Ian's heart, haven't they?  

Devon's 8 years old, actress, model, humanist, activist, Kids Army founder.. And the apple of Ian's eyes (Writer's note).

The Kids Army


But what makes Devon Haas a special child is that she has been using her voice to a great cause. Everything began when Devon contacted ISF to make a donation, she donated her tooth fairy money because she wanted to change the world, but she knew that she didn’t have a voice. So, ISF gave to her a voice and a free pass to make her change. What they couldn't imagine was the acception that Devon had, she really did her voice be listened. Together with ISF, she created the Kids Army, a place where kids do have a voice! There they share their love to this planet and their care to the animals, they are really focused to heal this world, the world we (the adults people) screwed up. I said that and I also admit there are small cares we take for granted, we can't blame God, not even the mother nature for give us back what we did to her.

Recently, the East Coast faced the devastating Sandy, the hurricane that destroyed many places and left over than 110 deaths, since its begins in Caribbean. Hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes are nothing but the result of our lately actions. If we had the same spirit that these children have today, we could have avoided this. But, thank God there are kids like Devon that are caring for this planet, for their future.

I wish I had her initiative when I was 8, but it's never too late, we still can make the change, we just need to follow this small steps.

"Be the best version of you, the one that you can be proud of."

xoxo, Luana.

Kids Army on twitter:
Kids Army 
ISF Kids Army Texas
Kids Army Brazil 
ISF_KidsArmy_IT 
ISF Kids Army POLAND
ISFKids Canada
Kids Army PH
Raven Hayut
Kids Army AUS (Hope)
Find more here: Kids Army on twitter.

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My election review.

Every time I come here to write something I always ask God's permission, this because since I'm talking in the name of God, I have to be careful, because some people will see God the way I'm showing him. I want to make a quickly review about the election, I know that you're sick of listen/read about that, but what can I do if this matters and need to be clarified.

First of all: Why this matters?
Well, since the US is the big potency of this world and all the countries are focused on it, what happens there affect us. So, this election was important to all of us!
Second of all: Why this matters to Christians?
That's the point, the crucial point! This election seemed like the State was against the Church, this because Romney was defending the bible principles while Obama was focusing his campaign in freedom and equality, which means, same sex marriage and women rights including the abortion. (I wrote about here: Abortion)

 

The big question is: Why I supported Obama instead of Romney?
I have to admit that I was waiting for this election be over, before write openly about this. Because as a Christian I didn't agree with some Obama's proposals, because I can't deny what the bible says about the homosexualism, and abortion, and several principles that have been crushed by society. But I also can't deny that people voices is so powerful that not even Romney (with his principles) could avoid that some laws be legalized. That's the reason that Jesus said:  John 16:33

We can't run away from the troubles, we also can't fight back with violence, hate and discrimination. It's such a shame to me as a Christian, watching how disgusting is the way that some "christians" have been acting and reacting about all that. Jesus didn't taught us that. He taught: "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." Ephesians 16:12

So, if you are a true follower of Jesus Christ you shoud be loving more, and judging less. We don't have to compelling people to believe in what we believe, but we have to show them the truth, leading with love, show them a God full of love that gave His only son for love of us. And instead of criticize Obama, or his proposals, pray for him, pray to God give him skill to command this country, pray for this world.
"You don't need to go to the war, just pray and let God fight for us! Let God be God."

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The right to living.

Dear readers, it's amazing how Sophia Bush has been my inspiration to write about politics and polemics situations lately. I woke up this morning and as usually I logged on my twitter and read Sophia Bush's tweets about abortion and what would be God's point of view about that.

Honestly, I wish I had the answer to that question, but the Bible doesn't speak specifically about that, probably this kind of situation wasn't a issue in that time. Maybe because a child was always seen as a blessing from de Lord, not an accident or something that arrived at a bad time. The Bible says: "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you." Jeremiah 1:5 (NIV)


I believe that God has a plan for every child that borns, as the Bible says He knows us before that we born. So, my first answer is ABORTION it's NOT okay! A child doesn't have to pay for the parent's mistakes. If you got pregnant at a bad time, or you're not expecting that, accept this as a gift from God, let this child be a blessing in your life. The life is full of surprises.  

"You never know where the next miracle is going to come from, the next smile. The next wish come true. But if you believe that it is right around the corner. And you open your heart and mind to the possibility of it. To the certainty of it. You just might get the thing you're wishing for." 
  (One Tree Hill)


- But, (there's always a but) in case of an incest or rape? Well, in that case I honestly don't know, I think in that case there's no wrong or right answer, I mean, I agree with Sophia Bush, God doesn't plan that women be raped, but sometimes it just happens, maybe this child won't be the result of love between two people, but it's still a child, I guess that every child deserves to live, to be loved and protected, so if you think you can't give that, give to adoption, or to parents that will love this child, but don't deny it the right of living.

I'm not here to judge, I'm just giving my opinion, I know that every rule has its exception. Whatever you choose to your life do it with your heart and conscience about the consequences.

By Luana Mattos

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A little girl with a big power!

After writing my first article about politic, I felt so inspired to write more about this kind of things, I mean, I'm not so familiarized with this, but I think that as woman, as christian and as aspiring journalist I have to expand my horizons.

Today I will talk about a little girl with a big power. It's obviously that I'm talking about Malala Yousufzai. This name isn't unknown, everyone in everywhere must have heard about this girl and about her story - a school student and education activist, that was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman- however, I don't want to focus about her story, but about her legacy. Thanks God she has survived the attack, but what if she'd died? Would have others "Malalas" to fight for girls education?

Yesterday I wrote about the right of express our opinion. Well, here in the Americas, it's a right, but the other side of the world it's banned. Can you imagine yourself in this situation? Be unable to express your opinion or fight for your rights? I can't and I don't want even imagine that. But the truth is, your worst nightmare is in fact what some people are living daily. While you're living someone else is just surviving.

THAT'S WRONG! And Malala realized that, a little girl with such a power and ambition to change, to serve, to help! I don't know how far my blog can reach, I don't know who is reading this right now, if you're in the same situation of Malala was. But trust me, there are somethings that is worth to die for, I'm not sending you to a suicide mission, I'm just encouraging you to fight for your rights, for your right of living instead of surviving.

Take Malala's lesson and speak out! Fight the good fight and be what this world needs you to be.

Malala's Quotes on her blog.

Be someone else's HOPE!

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Your voice matters!

First of all I have to say that it's my first article about politic, I'm kind of nervous because I actually don't like to discuss subjects like this, but after all the happenings, I have decided to share my thougths. You're free to read or not, to agree or disagree, but remember, I'm free to give my opnion and I can do this without offend anyone, I hope you too.

As a brazilian and a third person opinion, I have to say that the elections in the USA matters no just to the country here in question but to all the world. So, I understand why people are standing up to defending their beliefs. As they use to say "this is America". 

This view of freedom of expression is something that has been used incorrectly sometimes, but what can I say, we're talking about human beings, ie, we talking about something that is prone to failure. It's not a system of machines that works in order and alignment according to our will, they have their own will, and I respect that, but sometimes express our opinion is more than a right, it's also a duty, a duty to be something useful, something right. If expressing my opinion includes desrespect other person, I don't think I shoud speak it out.

Last night we had the last debate between the candidates to the presidency, but this debate has created an external debate between the supporters of both sides, what could been something healthy (a nice talk) if rude words were not been included, but they were. Many celebrities are showing their support, not to try convince people to do what they want, but to use their voice to defend what they believe. So, this shouldn't be a reason to some people create a war, it's not people against people, it's people looking for what is gonna be better to the country as a whole.

Making use of my right of express my opinion, I want to clarify something about Sophia Bush, you might don't like her as an actress (what I think is impossible), but as human being she has been exceptional, fighting for women rights, children's better future, equality and more humanity. So, unless you're doing better, don't criticize, okay?

As a Christian, I have to say, I wouldn't put my trust in someone who distorts the word of God, not really. So, using Shantel Vansanten words: "Before voting inform yourself and  make a choice with your conscience, intelligence and heart! Your voice and vote matters!"
And if you're a Christian as I am, pray before you voting, let the people's voice be the God's voice as well.
Vote wisely.

by Luana Mattos.

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