Interview with Mark Sayers, Author of The Road Trip that Changed the World – Part 4

I trust you have been enjoying this series of posts where we’ve been interviewing Mark Sayers about his recently released book, The Road Trip that Change the World.  Love that title.  I would share the sub-title with you, but it would take up too much of the post today, so you will have to find it online. In this interview, I ask some more personal questions to Mark.

JR:  What was the most difficult part of writing this book?

Mark: The first big challenge writing this book was the practical challenges. My wife gave birth to twins, I faced some health challenges, my Church went through a real season of growth all at the time that I was writing this book. I look back and still don’t know how I did it. God was good, and his promise that when I am weak He is strong was so true for the writing of this book.

The book was challenging on an emotional front, two of the main lives it explored that of novelist Jack Keroauc and Japanese Christian and victim of the atomic attack upon Nagasaki, Takashi Nagai. When you explore lives in such depth you feel like you know them, when I came to writing about their deaths it was a strangely emotional experience. Being the father of small kids writing about Nagai’s last moments was especially moving.

I think also the great challenge of writing this book was holding together such huge themes, the book dips into theology, history, literature, film, art, and sociology so it was a real challenge to weave all those themes into strands of narrative, so it was great to see it all finally come together.

JR:  What are your hopes for the book?

Mark:  I really do hope that this book helps people see their lives their faith and the sweep of contemporary Western culture in a whole new way. I particularly hope that many who are caught up on ‘the road’ find in the book an escape from the incessant moving, and psychic homelessness of The Road. I also hope that I by writing this book, I have provided a compelling and engaging resource for those who do not have the time to research Western culture in depth. I would love for this book to be a cultural handbook for missionaries to the West.

Tune in next week for the final part of our interview with Mark, and pick up his book, if you haven’t yet.