The savage murder of 78-year-old Bible teacher Ruth Pelke by four teen-age girls was the beginning of Bill Pelkes Journey of Hope...From Violence to Healing. Initially Bill did not object when 15-year old Paula Cooper was sentenced to death for his grandmothers murder. Through the power of prayer and transformation, he moved from supporting her death sentence, to working to have it overturned, to dedicating his life to the abolition of the death penalty. This is the story of Bills journey, the obstacles he overcame, and the amazing, loving, forgiving, committed people he met on the way.
After eighteen years of devout, okay, unwilling bachelorhood, Robert Forde finally met Iona, the woman of his dreams. With a great job and a perfect wife what could possibly go wrong? Fate, of course, was more than happy to answer that stupid question. Life was going swimmingly until the time arrived to start planning a family but little did Robert or Iona realise just what lay ahead for them both. Against a backdrop of the credit crunch, union strikes and erupting volcanoes they find themselves entering the incredible world of in-vitro fertilisation. Along the way they have to struggle against hideous bureaucracy, terrible incompetence and all those nasty little surprises that life can throw up as well as those quirky incidents you simply cannot make up! The Journey of Love and Hope is the story of a book. It is a very particular book of which but a single copy exists and which is aimed at a very exclusive audience. It is the account that Rob Forde wrote for his child-to-be explaining not only the motivations that drove him and Iona on but the struggles they had to endure in their quest to have a child. It is a message through time, a record of events to a very special person, a book which may never be read written for a child who may never come into existence. The Journey of Love and Hope is a fascinating bitter-sweet insight into IVF, written from the point of view of just your regular kind of bloke.
On December 14, 2012, Scarlett Lewis experienced something that no parent should ever have to endure: she lost her son Jesse in an act of unimaginable violence. The day started just like any other, but when a gunman opened fire at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Scarlett’s life changed forever. However, this isn’t a story about a massacre. It’s a story about love and survival. It’s about how to face the impossible, how to find courage when you think you have none, and how to choose love instead of anger, fear, or hatred. Following Jesse’s death, Scarlett went on an unexpected journey, inspired by a simple three-word message he had scrawled on their kitchen chalkboard shortly before he died: Norurting Helin Love (Nurturing Healing Love). It was as if he knew just what his family would need in order to go on after this horrible tragedy. Bolstered by his words, Scarlett took her first step toward a new life. And with each step, it became clearer how true Jesse’s message was. She learned that love was indeed the essential element necessary to move forward and that taking the path of love is a choice. We can live in anger and resentment, or we can choose love and forgiveness. With her decision made, she found some peace and began to believe that choosing love was the key to creating a healthy, safe, and happy world. She began the Jesse Lewis Choose Love Foundation to develop programs to teach children about the power each of us has to change our thoughts and choose a life without fear and hate. Nurturing Healing Love is Scarlett’s story of how choosing love is changing her life—and how it could change our world.
In the midst of suffering and trials in life, we can feel lost ... abandoned. Life's unexpected twists and turns cause us to focus inward. Shut down and just survive. But there is hope. Finding Hope in the Journey is written for anyone who has felt despair, yet yearns for assurance. Experience with depression, chronic pain, a son returning home early from a mission and other difficult journeys gave author Heidi Tucker reason to lose faith. But through her struggles she found healthy patterns which positioned her heart to see God's hand in her life. Finding Hope in the Journey teaches us how to see, hear and feel those quiet, tender moments of hope. The friendly style of writing is easy to embrace as principles are taught and reinforced through true stories. This book will inspire you to rise up and find new strength, courage and determination to move forward as you implement tools to recognize messages of hope from God.
This anthology of poetry and stories are insightful reflections of life written by residents of Carmelitos in Long Beach, CA. The project demanded the entire year of 2016 to complete and it revealed how the power of a shared community goal intrinsically motivated members to persevere and get words to paper. The group wrote tirelessly and the process generated confidence that their poetry and stories mattered to the world. The written words inspire, and bring hope and strength to those in despair. In the end, the reader appreciates that courage and faith in God is required to restore true and sacred living. The pain we all are vulnerable to experiencing lifts when we no longer feel hopeless and trust that God remains our secure, spiritual base and lifeline. The poetry in this anthology will reveal how one discovers insight into the real self, how we search for light in our passage out of darkness and find the courage to reinvent ourselves. The aging process, what it reveals to us and how to appreciate the beauty of Gods creation can be healing. The art in the book captures the world as the artist sees it. In the end, this anthology will be instructive and compel the reader to conduct a self-analysis to enhance self-awareness and meaningful living.
Faith, Hope, Love is a journey that inspires you to find a deep faith in God, a profound hope in the future, and a deep love of Jesus and the church. It is a 28-day challenge that encourages you to persevere in times of trial, to put your hope in Christ, and display God's love to the world. This devotional is for those seeking meaning in life and hope for the future. Author Zach Maddox shares his experience of facing hardships and forming a steadfast faith in God. He understands what it takes to move from routine to radical living. Faith, Hope, Love will confront your unbelief and lead you into a more intimate walk with Jesus.
On a rainy August night, two female bodies are found on the side of the road. An unplanned night of underage drinking leads to a single car crash that has life-changing consequences. The driver, Melissa Ann, is left paralyzed from the neck down, forced to face life at 18 in a new body she wasn't prepared for. After a series of destructive decisions as a teenager, Hope, Love, and Me, walks through the next decade of a young woman's struggle for a new life, highlighting her humor and tenacity. Hope, Love, and Me is the story of a fight for redemption as Melissa Ann struggles to maintain her worth and identity in a physically driven world. Left in a culture focused on comparison, she is left to fight the hopelessness the world offers her. Behind every face is a powerful story, and nothing is ever quite as it seems.
Are we ever ready to say goodbye? She looked out into the yard sprinkled with spring dandelions. “Yellow flowers,” she said, searching for her words. We knew something wasn’t right. That’s when things began to fall apart for our family, when our longest goodbye journey began—the defining before-and-after moment. And now, looking back, it’s been almost a decade of slow loss and drawn-out grief as we slowly let go of our beautiful mom. In the middle of it all, though, we have learned to look for hope and chase down joy, discovering that, in spite of our pain, there are always gifts to be found, even on the hardest of days. Alzheimer’s disease affects almost fifty million people worldwide. It touches people across every walk of life. So, how do millions of people figure out how to love as they let go? The Longest Goodbye is a collection of stories and moments not just about the clinical side of memory loss–but the emotional heart journey. It is a story that shows how joy and grief are often intertwined and wrapped up together in the glorious mess of life. The Longest Goodbye encourages readers to remember the ones they love while they are still here and to intentionally celebrate and live through the pain and hard days. It’s filled with tears, hope, and bitter-sweet moments all held together by the beautiful love of a mother and daughter holding onto a life filled with memories, while learning to let go and say goodbye.
