Dear Friend:

My name is Arlo Sullivan, and I am the publisher of this book.

I am still a relatively young person of 35 years.  I have had successes and failures in many areas of my life including school, business, sports and even love. 

I could tell you how I almost failed out of college after my first year. 

Or I could tell you about the many business ventures that I have entered into, and spent thousands of dollars I didn't have only to see them end in failure and drove me to the brink of bankruptcy.

I could tell you about my dreams of becoming a professional athlete only to be met with the realization that I had physical boundaries that kept me from reaching my dreams.

Finally, I could tell you about how I married the love of my life with great hopes of a wonderful life together, only to have her leave me for another life.

All of that is true.but there is a happy ending to the story that I'll tell you about in a minute.

Let me tell you about a woman, Eleanor Francis Witt.  Eleanor is 95 years old today (in 2004) and she still lives in California with her husband Fred who is 87. 

Eleanor was born and raised in Massachusetts as Eleanor Cullity.  She was a fiery little redheaded Irish girl standing about 4' 10".    She had a drunk for a father but a very sweet Irish Catholic mother that made sure that her and her sister and brother all went to church a couple times a year.

One Sunday, the Priest was teaching the Sunday school class and there was a quiz on verses from the bible.  Eleanor had the lowest score on the quiz because she didn't attend Sunday school very often. At the end of class the Priest pulled Eleanor aside and presented her with a book of Prayers that was published in 1916.

Eleanor was 7 years old in 1916. 

The book was a compilation of 365 short prayers that were compiled from priests to laymen to religious scholars.  Each of the contributors was asked to provide their best 60 seconds of spiritual inspiration. 

The idea was that it would be a guide for those whose early religious training, education and experience wasn't sufficient enough to give reverent expression to their spiritual needs. 

The hope was that the arrangement of prayers in calendar form would prove a constant reminder to them of their privilege to talk to their higher power at the beginning of each day.

It became Eleanor's most cherished possession.

Now let's jump forward to 1997.

I had met Eleanor through her husband who was in a service group with me.  I would visit the Witt household on a regular basis just to have coffee and learn a little about them.  Often times, her husband would be off in his workshop tooling around, while Eleanor would share stories of her past.

Eleanor and Fred never had any children, so in a way she was like a grandmother to me, and I suppose I was like a grandson to her.

On several occasions she told me the story of her "book of prayers" that she got when she was a young girl.

In 1998 I turned 30, and for my birthday, Eleanor presented me with a small package as a gift.  It was odd, because I didn't even know she knew it was my birthday.

I remember it like it was yesterday.  It was wrapped in a teal blue tissue paper with a small gold ribbon tied around it.  As I was opening it, I realized what it was.

Now, I've never been a very emotional person, but as I opened it I was speechless. I didn't know what to say, and my emotion overtook me as I began to weep.  I cried for a few minutes as she sat there and smiled.

It was the greatest gift of love I had ever gotten from anyone.

Now, here it is 5 or 6 years later, and I can tell you how much better my life is today.

I have remarried a remarkable woman that I love and who loves me.  We have a beautiful 2 year old son.  We have a home in a nice neighborhood with great friends and family around us.

My family is healthy!

We have a successful business that provides for us and allows us time and resources to give to our family and our community.

I am the luckiest man in the world.

Now I can't tell you that this book was the cause of all these great things in my life.  But what I can tell you is that this event was the turning point in my life.

I read this book often, even today.and I still visit the Witt's every week.

They still live in their home with a part-time caretaker to help with cooking and cleaning, but they are still as wonderful as ever.

I began to reflect this last year with my wife about how good our life is.  I talked about my 30^th birthday.  She knows how much I treasure this book.  Well, she suggested that I try and figure out a way to share it with the world.

So, I began to do a little research to try and locate the publisher.  After many months of research and phone calls and letters and considerable personal expense, I was finally able to get the rights to republish the book, A Minute With God.