TOP STORIES OF 2008

Dewey: The book and the movie

By Russ Mitchell

Daily Reporter Staff

WHY THIS STORY IS NO. 3

Dewey Readmore Books arrived as a stray and became a local icon.

Now, people around the world have reached for an atlas to find Spencer, Iowa, because of the story of the Spencer Library's unassuming orange kitten.

His many friendships are played out in the pages of "Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat who Touched the World," by Vicki Myron of Spencer with Bret Witter. The longtime Spencer librarian's book has drawn comparisons to the hugely popular "Marley & Me." National news organizations have come to Spencer to find their take on the remarkable pet.

The life and times of Dewey, the library cat, put Spencer on the map in 2008 and warrants consideration as the No. 3 story of the year.

The cat was out of the bag in November.

Word leaked that the No. 1 best-selling book based on former Spencer Librarian Vicki Myron and her relationship with the library's cat landed at New Line Cinema for a film adaptation. Oscar-winning actress Meryl Streep has been linked to the lead role.

Reports from Hollywood say Pamela Gray, who wrote the script for another Streep film, "Music of the Heart" will write the movie adaptation of "Dewey: The Small Town Library Cat who Touched the World," by Myron and Bret Witter.

"Dewey" remained the No. 2 hardcover nonfiction book the Christmas Day edition of the New York Times Bestsellers list. It has spent 14 weeks on the list as 2008 came to a close. The book made the leap from No. 3 to No. 1 in November, after seven weeks on the list.

"Dog books are big," said Craig Wilson, a columnist and book section contributor on the staff of USA Today. "Oprah always has dog books. 'Marley & Me,' written by the columnist in the Philadelphia Inquirer is huge. Now, there's buzz in the publishing world that 'Dewey' is going to be huge. They think that it's kind of interesting that, if it does make it big and goes really big that it's a cat book instead of a dog book."

Myron decided to include more in her book than just the story of Dewey because the town, the cat and Myron herself were closely linked. "When we tried to write just a cat book it didn't work. We had to tell the whole story for it to make sense," she told Michael Crumb of the Associated Press, during a break from a book tour in Des Moines.

Dewey was discovered in the Spencer library's overnight drop box in January 1988. Myron bonded immediately with Dewey as she lifted the tiny kitten from the book drop that January morning.

"He was so cold and half starved and very dirty. He didn't look like much until I picked him up and he started purring immediately and he looked in my eyes with his eyes," Myron told Crumb. "He had the most gorgeous eyes I had ever seen and I felt a connection with him right away."

Myron was struggling back then to make ends meet -- a divorced mother trying to raise a daughter, working full time at the Spencer library and studying to get her master's degree. She had only been on the job for six months and had wanted to make the library more homey.

Patrons took to Dewey quickly, and, over time, visitors increased from 60,000 a year to more than 100,000. Many were suffering from the crippling economy that hit the farming community especially hard, and Myron thinks Dewey lifted their spirits and made them a bit more eager to stop off at the library.

"Dewey didn't bring jobs to Spencer, but there were a lot of farmers who came in to fill out the first resume of their life. They didn't know how to use the computer, they were having a tough time and were really down when they came in. Dewey won them over and put a smile on their face," Myron said, in the Associated Press interview.

Myron also told Crumb her book is a story of unconditional love, companionship and pulling yourself up by the bootstraps during tough times.

Myron recalls how Dewey's health began to fail in the year before he died and how, to help him put on weight, she would feed him cheese, scrambled eggs and roast beef sandwiches. "And he loved it!"

Dewey died on Nov. 29, 2006, at age 19. Myron was about to leave for a trip to Florida when she got a call from the library staff telling her Dewey wasn't acting right.

"He was fine when I left, or I thought he was, but when I went back down there I could see he was in pain," Myron said, in the AP interview. An X-ray at a local vet showed he had a large stomach tumor. She stayed with Dewey as he was put to sleep.

"It was heart-wrenching," Myron remembers. "I called all the staff and they came out to say goodbye, but it was one of the most difficult things I have ever done, but I knew I had to do it because he was suffering and I'd never let him be in pain."

His ashes were buried in the lawn outside the library. A granite marker was placed at the site.

Myron believes his legacy will live on with the expected movie deal. Streep was on board for the project regardless of the studio in charge, according to the former Spencer Librarian.

"She was attached before the film deal was made," Myron said. "She'll make it with us no matter which studio we go with. She loves the book and she wants to play the part, so that is very exciting."

Myron isn't aware of a working title for the film, but the movie has been referred to as "Dewey" and "Library Cat" at some Web sites. Myron thinks production is at least a year away.

"I always knew there would probably be a movie," Myron said. "We had planned that early on once we knew the book was good. But I guess I'm surprised at the Meryl Streep thing. I was hoping for her early on and she agreed. It's wonderful."

Myron suspects film crews will come to Spencer to film interiors and exteriors. Myron will serve as a consultant on the film.

"We don't know what that is going to entail yet. A lot of times they tell authors they have pretty much full control -- and all of my Hollywood contacts are saying 'don't believe that for a minute,'" she said.

A movie script isn't the only "Dewey" project in development. A deal on a series of children's books was in the works near the end of 2008. Preliminary plans call for two picture books for children and a novel tailored toward young adults.

No. 3 Feature Story

It's about the call

By Kris Todd

Daily Reporter Staff

(Photo submitted by Dave Petrick Photography) The Revs. Bob and Barb Van Wyk and their children: Austin, Stephanie and Cameron celebrated their final Sunday with Dayspring Assembly of God congregation members on June 1. The Spencer family is planning to serve as full time missionaries in Africa.

As Bob and Barb Van Wyk's family prepared for what was expected to be a bittersweet experience -- the co-pastors conducting their last official worship service at DaySpring Assembly of God Church in Spencer --

their heads and hearts had already been preparing for a career move anticipated to occur in 12-15 months. The Van Wyk family -- which includes Austin, 13, Stephanie, 9, Cameron, 6, and Schatzi, their Golden Retriever -- is readying itself to embark on the next adventure God has in store for them in Botswana, Africa.

It's a trek Bob and Barb have been preparing the last 19 years for.

"The exciting thing about DaySpring is there have been several people who have been raised in the church and gone on to be pastors. We're the first full-time missionaries to have been called from this church," Bob explained.

Recognizing their spiritual callings

Bob Van Wyk, who moved to Spencer in 1986 and served as a Johnson Elementary School teacher until the spring of 2000, met his future girlfriend and wife, Barb, in 1989 during the summer preceding her senior year of college. She was interning with the church's youth program, as well as further preparing herself for a life in ministry.

"The first time I felt a call in my life for missions was as a 12-year-old at Bible camp. I heard a missionary speak, and remember walking away from the campfire thinking, 'I'm going to be a missionary some day,'" the woman recalled. As Barb turned into a teenager, she became involved in her church and its youth group. But as she matured, Van Wyk began questioning whether ministry was going to be the path for her to follow.

"I was praying about it the summer between my junior and senior year, and just knew that God spoke to me very clearly. He said, 'My calling is the highest calling.' I knew exactly what that meant," she said. "It doesn't mean that a pastor or a missionary is any higher than anybody else, it was what God had called me to do. He spoke that to my heart. I understood it and never looked back. I knew I was going to Bible college and would prepare for a life of ministry."

While Barb acknowledged she had not received the specific direction to graduate from college and go to Africa in her calling, she suggested she has always been drawn to the continent.

"I've prayed, 'Lord, when you want me, if you want me, I'm available," the mother of three said. "Even my friends at college, a lot of them had grown up in Africa and were missionary kids. That further fanned the flame, where I came to love Africa and the people there."

Before marrying the church intern he'd fallen in love with, Bob Van Wyk also spent time in prayer.

"The Bible says, 'Pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.' As soon as I prayed that prayer, I heard an audible voice from God. I clearly heard God ask me, 'Will you be my missionary to Africa,'" he recalled. "Of course, my response was, 'Yes!' ... From that point, it's been: How is that going to work out? What does that look like? It's 19 years later now, and it's interesting to look back and see how it's all played out, up to this point now."

The first time in Africa

Bob and Barb Van Wyk had been married about six years when their call to mission work began stirring again. Along with their then-only child, Austin, the couple relocated during 1996-97.

"We had attended banquets and indicated to them (Wycliffe Bible Translators) that we were interested in missions work," Barb said. "We had been pursuing some other avenues, other missions, to do a short-term assignment with, but they were right there on our doorstep. So we applied to them, were accepted, went and served one year in Cameroon, West Africa."

While Bob taught science at the American School of Yaounde during that year, Barb remained active with music and youth ministry work while tending to their son. She deemed the yearlong visit a "fact-finding mission" for them.

"We knew about this career call to mission on our lives, but I'm not much of a bug or critter person," Barb admitted with a crinkled nose. "So we decided to go on a short term to see if we really were hearing God or if it was just bad pizza. God confirms his call through different ways; so we went for a year and really enjoyed it. And, I adjusted to the lizards on the walls."

The Van Wyks took every opportunity to get to know the Cameranian people and other missionaries who were working with them. In doing so, the couple sensed a need for the training of pastors. As they were departing West Africa, Barb remembers wondering if they could come back and do the same on a long-term basis.

"We both said that we could. ... But we also knew that he (Bob) had no credentials as a pastor," she said.

Shortly after returning to Spencer, the couple began exploring their options. A door was opened when the DaySpring Assembly of God pastor tendered his resignation.

In August 2000, Bob became lead pastor and Barb was named the pastor of worship and ministry development at the Spencer church.

Local ministry flourishes

"We became pastors then, with the idea that he would get his credentials through distance education while he was pastoring," Barb explained. "So, we were both pastoring along happily and, over the years, built this church."

As the northwest Iowa congregation grew, all the while becoming more "missions-aware and global-focused," the Van Wyks also found themselves settling, thinking maybe they'd answer their call by "raising up a great missions church."

"Then, early last summer, I began to sense that something was going to change," Barb conveyed. Bob, it turned out, was feeling the same thing.

By August, a brochure arrived in the mail. It disclosed a "9-1-1 call from Africa" citing a desperate need for help in the training of pastors.

"Coincidentally, we had just finished up all of his work to be ordained," Barb said. "We were both ordained (in April) through Assemblies of God. I had done all my work and could have been ordained back in '96, but we knew that he wanted to get his credentials too. So, we thought, 'Let's get ordained together.'

"What needed to happen in order to get an assignment like this was we had to be ordained and have pastoral experience," she continued. "We've now had eight years of pastoral experience -- and we just got ordained. God knew all the time that we were working at it. We didn't, though; we just knew we were pastoring like he had asked us to do -- not knowing when that missions piece would come back in."

In turn, the couple applied to become a missionary family last fall. The Van Wyks received word on April 8 that they'd been approved to serve by the Assemblies of God World Mission, which currently represents 2,051 appointed missionaries, 640 missionary associates and 1,400 missionary children scattered throughout 212 countries and territories.

Van Wyk walk of faith heading for Francistown, Botswana

Instead of transferring to Cameroon again, the family is opting to serve its first term of three years in Botswana, which was recommended by their area director when he heard of the Van Wyks' desires to help train pastors and to serve in the area of "compassion ministries," specifically with children and families affected by AIDS.

"The nice thing about (Botswana) is it's an English-speaking place. ... And, they're better off financially, economically than a lot of countries in Africa because of the diamonds and the gold mined there," Barb said. "But, the crisis there is in the health area. Up to 50 percent of the people are infected with AIDS or are HIV-positive."

"There are 11-, 12- and 13-year-old kids running households today because Grandpa and Grandma or Mom and Dad have died of AIDS," added Bob. "There is a huge need there."

Before being allowed clearance to serve abroad, however, the Van Wyks attended a three-week missionary school in Springfield, Mo. There, age-appropriate tracks were set up for their children, to further advance their understanding and embracing of their role in this process.

The family is now spending its time sharing its story with others throughout Iowa, Missouri, North and South Dakota, Minnesota and Michigan, and raising the funds needed to cover its work-related and personal expenses while in Botswana over the next three years.

Their first term is expected to center around building relationships with the area's pastors and finding out where the needs are.

"One thing they've indicated to us is they want to be able to establish more community-minded churches themselves, because they want to be able to help meet the needs and relieve the suffering in their own communities, and not rely on all the parachurch organizations to do it," Barb said. "...We find that very interesting because that's a lot of what our focus has been here as pastors."

Each member of the family, meanwhile, has expressed either a few conflicting emotions or questions in regard to their approaching trip to Africa.

"We're definitely leaving our comfort zone," Barb admitted. "But, we're excited about what we're doing because we know we're called to do it. ... We just have to trust that when God calls, he equips."

Cameron, the youngest of the five family members, attempted to summarize what he anticipates will be in store for them.

"We'll have to work hard to teach people about Jesus in Botswana," the 6-year-old said. "We'll have to do that because they don't believe in the God we believe in. So, we need to teach them about the real God that we believe in -- because he's the real one, and he's the only one that we can follow because he has more power than their god that they trust in."

Following their initial term abroad as missionaries serving the national Assembly of God church in Botswana, the Van Wyks are expecting to return to Spencer for one year before returning for another four-year term in Francistown, Botswana.

"This is a career move -- until the Lord changes the direction," Barb reminded. "But, this is definitely our calling for however long we have strength."