Zēk’s 37 owner authors two books to encourage readers
BY KADIE TAYLOR
THE LAFAYETTE SUN
LAFAYETTE — Veronica Roesly is expanding her title from co-owner of Zēk’s 37 to author of her two books, “Faith • Family • Food: From Dry Bones to Living Purpose: A Zēk’s 37 Story” and “The G-Club, Book One: The Group Activates.”
Roesly said when she began seeing the impact of the Zēk’s 37 Big Serve, she decided to begin writing about her experiences and the impact of the community outreach on LaFayette.
“I knew at the beginning when we were creating this that once we got to the year anniversary that we would want to be able to document that in some way for people who have been a part of this dream to be able to see that come to fruition, and for it to continue to inspire other people,” she said. “So throughout the year, I documented different stories of what we went through here as Zēk’s 37 was developing and becoming what it is today.”
Before Zēk’s 37 and the Big Serve, Roesly said there were decades of God’s hand on elements of her and her husband’s lives to lead to where they are now, and she wants to encourage those waiting to not give up.
“God had a lot of things that we needed to go through and to be able to prepare for this, but our time of waiting was very frustrating,” she said. “There are a lot of people out there right now that have a dream, and they're in that 'not yet' moment, and I want this to encourage them to continue to go forward, because 'not yet' does not mean that it's not going to happen; it means you're in the process.”
Since the release of her book, Roesly said she has appreciated locals’ excitement and support of her journey as an author.
“Last week, I had a couple of people who came in and asked me to sign the book,” she said. “So people have been very positive. This book focused on celebrating what God was doing, and we did it in a way that was devotional-driven. So, people can have things at the end of each chapter to think about, in regard to what they're going through, because a lot of people connect depending on where they're at and in their story.”
For Roesly’s children’s book, “The G Club,” she said the story came from memories of how she had created characters to explain Biblical concepts to her own children, and is now excited to share the characters and stories she created with her community and readers.
“In 2010, I was really frustrated with trying to not only learn all these concepts myself as an adult when I was really pushing into the Lord, but I was also frustrated at the material that was available to teach my young children these same concepts, and it was a challenge,” she said. “So, I started drawing these characters and putting these concepts to life to be able to help explain to them. The three main characters were faith, hope and love.”
Roesly said she plans on creating “The G Club” into a series where families can learn Bible concepts together.
“The first book of the series is ‘The Club Activates,’ and all it does is introduce the series,” she said. “The second one is on salvation and is so beautiful in regards to the storyline, and I'm working on uploading all of my drawings, so that it can come to life like this book. That book will talk about the salvation; how children see it, how they process it and what happens. It's pretty awesome. So that one's about a month and a half maybe two months away from being ready to go.”
To order Roesly’s books, visit www.amazon.com/stores/Veronica-Roesly. For more information, visit The G Club Adventures on Facebook. To shop G Club merch, shop TheGClubAdventures on Etsy.
“‘The G Club’ is really personal because it's something that I shared with my kids, and so it's so scary, but it's exhilarating at the same time to have author in front of my name,” Roesly said.
