ABOUT
About the author, illustrator and the donkey
CINDY NEPTUNE
ELLA JADE MAGRUDER
GILMORE
In 2013, my friends, home and town that I had grown to love for 33 years was uprooted from me. My husband received a job offer that he couldn’t turn down. But since I said yes at the altar in 1981, I had to say yes again to my husband and to honor his new job opportunity. But leaving Bartlesville was so hard. I had to say no to continuing to work part time for a job I loved at Oklahoma State University, leave the position of chairman of the Bartlesville Ladies Connection (which is a Stonecroft Ministry) and leave a jail ministry that God laid on my heart (that’s a whole other story) and move to Texas, where I knew 3 people. But God had other plans.
November of that year, after moving to Texas, I was sitting in my grandma’s 130-year-old rocking chair. As I was searching on the internet, everything was commercializing Christmas. I felt a nudge on my heart, “write a book about what Christmas is really about for families”. My thought was, “That sounds okay, but I am not an author”. God directed my paths, from the name of Gilmore, finding my 14-year-old artist who lived in Africa, to finding my page designer and to finding a company to print a small quantity of my book. God directed my every step.
I tell my friends that it shouldn’t say that I am the author, it should say God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit should be the author. God laid the book on my heart, the story is about Jesus and the Holy Spirit kept nudging me to get it done. There were many times, I put it away, but the Holy Spirit would remind me to work on it. Even after 30 rejection letters from publishers, the Holy Spirit made me give it one more try. So, with much joy, on November 8, 2019, I received 150 copies of, The Gift-The Heart of Gilmore’s Journey. I hope my book brings your family a lot of fun Christmas memories as your family shares Jesus’ love with many people.
Ella Jade Magruder was 14 years old when she began drawing the illustrations for The Gift-The Heart of Gilmore's. She was born in China and at the age of two was adopted by her American forever family. She lived in Nairobi, Kenya while working on the book. Maylasia is now home to Ella Jade, where she will finish her high school years. She has always loved horses and began drawing them as soon as she could hold a pencil. Ella Jade loves western riding and art of all types, but drawing animals most of all.
Did you know, the donkey is a central, but often ignored hero in the nativity scene? Did you know, that donkeys have a strip of hair on their backs that makes the shape of the cross? All donkeys are born with this mark of the cross, displaying the true story of Christ's love for you. The reason I chose a donkey named Gilmore to tell this story is so that you could look through his eyes and see his pure heart and Jesus' love for all of us.