Prologue – Why I Wrote My Own World Record Book The day I received the email from Guinness World Records , I felt an odd mixture of triumph and irony. After years of travel, countless cups of coffee in sixty-five nations, and a lifetime of documenting the extraordinary hidden in the ordinary, their official reply finally arrived. It began with affirmation: “Yes, it’s a world record.” But the next line erased the joy: “—but not shocking enough.” Below that came the fine print—if I wished to be listed or celebrated, there would be a fee. Pay to be recognized. Pay to be published. Pay to be remembered. I sat before the screen and laughed—half amused, half brokenhearted. Was this what the world had come to? Even records of perseverance and faith must now pass through the tollgate of publicity and profit. In that moment, Kierkegaard’s voice echoed through my heart: “Truth is not in the crowd; it is in the single individual before God.” I realized I did not need the crowd’s applause or Guinness’s certificate to affirm what heaven already knew. So I decided to write my own world record book. Not for fame or verification, but for testimony. Not to be measured by the world’s scale of shock and spectacle, but to be weighed by the eyes of God who sees in secret. This book is not a record of achievement—it is a record of relationship: one life lived coram Deo , before God, in love, faith, and freedom. If the world says, “Not shocking enough,” then perhaps that is the best compliment of all—for the truest miracles often occur quietly, between one soul and its Maker.