The Words of the Bowles Family
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The Words of the Bowles Family |
Janice
Johnson -- designer Claire and Bowles -- associate editor
...Moonie group and see if they can help us? They know all about campaigns." Nicole on one side of me and Kayse on the other side tried to suppress their giggles. I put my hand to my mouth. It's true, we do know a lot about campaigns, although our strategies haven't always brought favorable responses. Nicole often asked my advice, and I realized that even though I was a journalistic bystander and later a missionary, during our church's great campaign era, I had picked up something of value.
I view putting out a magazine, or a mailing, as I explained to Kayse, as a series of interrelated steps. Each step has to be understood and done in order. Also, I make a contingency plan for every step, because, as old Murphy said, "If anything CAN go wrong, it will." Somehow, the magazine, or the mailing, gets done. It's an adventure, of course, because you never know at which point of the process a mishap will occur. The time the printing press caught fire just before the plates were to be put on it really stunned me; that was one emergency I had never thought about or planned for!
I was grateful, too, for the advice of home church veteran, Janice Johnson, who was staying with us while doing the design for the August Today's World. "Just keep serving them," she urged me, whenever I got glum and felt I would never be able to reach them and win them.
Janice helped in many ways. We had time to share more deeply, person to person, not just as editor and designer. Janice reported on her experiences at Camp K and the life-giving lectures of Jennifer Hager. "Everybody, in order to grow, needs unconditional love and support," Janice told me that this thought was one of the undergirding emphases of the Camp K workshops.
Of course, who of us wouldn't like to receive unconditional love and support? But often, there's too little time for that. I recall with gratitude that Rev. Kwak would always make time for a conference with me, especially regarding the magazine. There was the time that he defended me when my error of judgment resulted in some severe criticism from some friends of our church. Of course, when I use a wrong photograph, his criticism is just as harsh.
This was just the case last month. I heard about it from a distressed Claire Bowles, on the daily transcontinental phone call. I felt so bad I almost forgot the brownies baking in the oven.
"Brownies? Goodness, aren't you becoming domestic!" Claire exclaimed.
Apparently the word, or the smell, of the brownies got around in New York, for the next morning's call included a brownie order for my friend Anna Anaya at the News World.
There's not a lot I can do from 3,000 miles away, to help Claire and Jonatha Johnson on some of the challenges. Rev. Kwak wanted add five new articles to the September issue at the last moment, but there are no sources of information on the West Coast so they had to work it out by themselves. Claire called once to get the typesetting codes designed for Rev. Kim's historical stories. I remember patterns, but in the heavy summer fog here, the details become fuzzy. She and Janice had to work it out, again, alone.
When I left New York, Jonatha said she couldn't figure out how the magazine came out each month. Claire and she make a valiant pair, and I'm sure by now they have discovered a way to do it alone -- with a little help from Michael Wildman, Robert Davis, Robert Morton, Robert Rattley, and many others.
Whether or not Joy was on betided knee when she asked Rev. Kwak for an associate editor to help her put out Today's World Magazine I'll probably never know for sure, but my instincts tell me that she probably was.
Creating a beautiful, 36-page, color magazine is no easy job, even if you've been doing magazine editing for years. Asking for another person to add to the tiny staff of two must have seemed reasonable... even to Rev. Kwak.
Joy has supernatural senses when it comes to the magazine and somehow she spotted me for someone who, 1) was interested in writing, 2) had an abiding concern for the foreign missionaries, and 3) was between missions, just out of 120-days training. Her senses were right, and 1 joined the team.
After a two-weeks crash course in Story hunting, Story editing, Photo acquiring, Permission getting, and typesetting on the News World's computer system (plus all the hundreds of other things that were required of me to learn in order to put a beautiful magazine together), I went to Oklahoma to visit my family, as all missionaries do when they return to their own country after a long stint overseas. I got back just in time for the Blessing, and by the time we were all finally back to normal, I had forgotten almost everything Joy had laboriously tried to teach me.
It was just about that time that Joy left for California.
I tried my best to make her feel that I could do it and that she shouldn't worry; I tried equally hard to convince myself of the same half-truths.
Jonatha, our editor's assistant, immediately became more than an assistant. She filled the position of associate-associate-editor, and was my life saver. She took care of the subscriptions, helped with the typesetting, edited major pieces, and kept a sharp wittiness for our frequent comic reliefs. That is, until she left for a family reunion in Arkansas.
In the 8 or 9 days that she was gone, Rev. Kwak and I had our usual monthly meeting to discuss the up-coming issue. Jonatha hadn't left until we had everything pretty well together, typesetting finished and just a few loose ends to tie up on the September issue. And it was almost right on schedule.
But that fateful meeting with Rev. Kwak changed everything.
"Even if the magazine has to be late, okay. These 4 articles are most important for this issue."
"But, Rev. Kwak, everything is finished. How about next issue?"
"Is it already at the printer?"
"Well, no, but it will be in a few days."
"These four articles are very important for this issue. Even late, okay."
"Yes, sir. Even late, okay." I started composing an apology to the subscribers and readers, in my head, before I even left the office.
But finally we managed to get it all together. There were times when I threatened to go back to Oklahoma for good, there were times when I over-stayed my allotted time on the News World computer, and there were times when Jonatha and I argued about articles for the next issue, and there were times when my husband would have gladly seen his grouchy wife go back to Oklahoma for good.
The News World, especially the FPI department, allowed me to work at and receive telephone calls from their desks, (Patrick Martin's desk in particular), use their computer terminals, and be a visible part of the news room.
Without the cheerful help of Robert Davis, Ken Owens, and David Hill, at New Future Photos I wouldn't have been able to find the beautiful photos that we use every month. Robert Davis was especially helpful in choosing photos.
News World Photos, Mr. Hitoshi, Bill York, Kevin McCormick and Anna Anaya often had to search for special photos for me.
Michael Wildman, Ewa Zeltman and Hildegard Gudmundsen were indispensable in the News World computer room. As each month passed I needed to run to the computer room less often, but they were never hesitant to help me out with a complicated code or to re-set, and re-set again, mistakes that I had made.
Janice Johnson, our lay-out designer, came back after a month with Joy in California and helped us a lot. It's marvelous to see all the strips of typeset stories take shape around the places where lovely pictures of True Parents, the True Children, and our brothers and sister will be shown. Seemingly without labor, beauty unfolds on her work-table.
World Mission Department is always helpful to give advice about the missionary testimonies or a needed photo of a missionary or mission country. Honda-san especially can always be counted on to take a moment or two to help.
Then there are constantly translations to be done, foreign names verified, places in Korea and Japan pin-pointed, old photos identified. For these specialized jobs there are people we can always turn to for help: Miss Chung Yong Wha, Hee Hun Oh, Mr. Ozaki and Mr. H. Tosaka.
I wish I could say that I'll be working with these wonderful people for a long time but after only 5 issues, June to October, I'll be leaving Today's World to join my Journalist husband, who is now in Asia. Of course, I'll still be a contributing part of Today's World, sending stories from other parts of the world to Joy and Jonatha, but it's not the same as being in the middle of the creation of such a purposeful and, more often than not, miraculously pieced-together work of art.
In order to join my husband, I had planned to work full-time all through the month of October, hoping to leave early in November. I spoke to Joy about this in one of our money-is-no-object transcontinental phone calls that were the only thing that saved me from a nervous breakdown.
"Joy, you know I have to work full-time in October. When are you planning to come back and take over full editorship?"
"I thought I'd come at the end of October."
"But Jonatha is going to Korea to cover the Blessing, who will put out the magazine if I'm working from noon to midnight at the restaurant?"
"Oh, that shouldn't be too difficult. You've got most of the material already..."
My eyes looked up to the heavens and I whispered a little prayer: "Father, would it be a sin if I didn't go see Rev. Kwak until everything is already at the printers?"