A Thing Devoted

A Thing Devoted chronicles two years in the life of a Christian family devastated by adultery and divorce. Three, adopted, multi-racial children, struggle with the question of God’s seeming indifference to their pain. Ten year old Abster, a tiny spy in the house of loss and confusion, keeps a daily record of her observations. “If you attend church weekly, and on time, are attentive in Sunday school, get full immersion baptism, tithe more than ten per cent, volunteer in the nursery, pray for missions, and really, truly believe in God, shouldn’t you be protected? Shouldn’t He keep terrible things from happening to you? I understand my obligations to Jesus, but what are His, to me?” This intimate story of one family's journey through fire, considers the purpose of suffering, its defining nature, and ultimately its life giving power.

A Thing Devoted chronicles two years in the life of a Christian family devastated by adultery and divorce. Three, adopted, multi-racial children, struggle with the question of God’s seeming indifference to their pain. Ten year old Abster, a tiny spy in the house of loss and confusion, keeps a daily record of her observations. “If you attend church weekly, and on time, are attentive in Sunday school, get full immersion baptism, tithe more than ten per cent, volunteer in the nursery, pray for missions, and really, truly believe in God, shouldn’t you be protected? Shouldn’t He keep terrible things from happening to you? I understand my obligations to Jesus, but what are His, to me?” This intimate story of one family's journey through fire, considers the purpose of suffering, its defining nature, and ultimately its life giving power.

Lotis Melisande Key (SAG/AFTRA) has lived a life of wide travel and curious variety. She has raised horses in the Australian outback; skied the Alps; run tours through a tropical jungle; bought & sold antiquities. She’s been a restaurateur; a breeder of show animals; a third world church planter. She’s worked in an orphanage and run a ministry that puts children through school. After a professional theater début at the age of twelve, she subsequently starred in over seventy five feature films for the Asian market. She’s also hosted numerous television and radio shows. Upon settling in the U.S., she signed with Chicago, New York, and Minneapolis based talent agencies, expanding into on-camera and voice over narration, industrial videos, trade shows, theater, television, and radio commercials. Trying her hand at directing and producing, she founded MESSENGERS, a Christian theater arts group based in Minneapolis. As artistic director, she toured the company throughout the US, Canada, and Asia. She is a constant traveler and hours on the road push her pen to paper. Apart from regular essays, she has produced two novels: A Thing Devoted and A Song for the Wild Place.