A Soul to Care: A Blessing that came from Trouble is a nonfictional story of an Original GIT (Gangster in Training) that came from the G code of Northwest Miami-Dade County. The book tells the tale of GIT's life post incarceration as a juvenile offender to rising above the obstacles in the street life to achieving a Masters of Science Degree in Nursing. The concept of a nurse being born and not made is shown in this book by starting with this young man's caring acts as a teenage drug dealer and his experiences in the drug game that shaped GIT into trusting his intuition and applying the standard ethical principles of honesty and integrity to gain the respect of others. With the supportive involvement of his father from behind bars and his elderly grandmother at home, allowed him to understand the demand of self-recognition in depicting that he can be the one from an unfortunate environment that can succeed against the odds, and not to resort to gun violence as a means of problem solving. The book focuses on how he identifies his culture of accepting prison and death as normalities for the young in the forms of drug-dealing, substance use and gun violence, and the need to show the power that education, a good heart, and faith in GOD will have within his culture.
What is a blessing? Do you have to believe to receive one? Can you doubt while you pray? And can you extend grace to others while still desperately in need of it yourself? Once a week Episcopal priest Adrian Dannhauser stands outside her Manhattan church beside a chalkboard sign that reads "Ask me for a blessing (because God knows you need one)." Passersby stop, chat, and ask for prayer: for a sick friend, an addicted son, an upcoming job interview, the state of our nation, or the grief of our world. Bus drivers sometimes open their doors for a quick prayer before the light turns green, and someone once took her to meet their doorman so she could bless him too. Half of those who stop are in crisis. Someone always cries. A few are simply curious. Through the heartfelt, frank, and sincere stories of her unique ministry, Dannhauser offers glimpses into the tender, holy, and sometimes hilarious moments of sidewalk prayers. With a potent blend of reverence and irreverence, as well as insights from Christian scriptures, she delves into the power that ancient ideas--blessing, forgiveness, miracles, and prayer--hold in a disenchanted world. For people of Christian faith, other faiths, or no faith at all, having spiritual conversations, even awkward ones with strangers on the street, can help us face our vulnerability, where we may discover a grace sufficient for all.
This is the story of God whispering, “What no one wants, I cherish.” The daughter of a mail-order bride and a busboy from San Francisco’s Chinatown, Bonnie Gray grew up never truly feeling beautiful or beloved. As an adult, she built her life to look pleasant and ordinary, with a wonderful husband, two amazing boys, and a thriving career. But despite these blessings, she still felt the tugging emptiness of a missing piece. At 39, a long-forgotten birth certificate in an old file cabinet sparked a curiosity Bonnie couldn’t ignore. Determined to uncover her family’s secrets and understand the home she was born into, Bonnie embarked on a quest that would leave her forever changed. Returning to the culture, places, and stories that shaped her, her search led her to soul-shaking discoveries about her identity, human kindness and what it truly means to belong. The profoundly moving journey of learning to embrace our true worth, Sweet Like Jasmine celebrates how God uses our unique and broken stories to create a beautiful mosaic of His love, one life at a time.
With his stunning debut novel, She's Come Undone, Wally Lamb won the adulation of critics and readers with his mesmerizing tale of one woman's painful yet triumphant journey of self-discovery. Now, this brilliantly talented writer returns with I Know This Much Is True, a heartbreaking and poignant multigenerational saga of the reproductive bonds of destruction and the powerful force of forgiveness. A masterpiece that breathtakingly tells a story of alienation and connection, power and abuse, devastation and renewal--this novel is a contemporary retelling of an ancient Hindu myth. A proud king must confront his demons to achieve salvation. Change yourself, the myth instructs, and you will inhabit a renovated world. When you're the same brother of a schizophrenic identical twin, the tricky thing about saving yourself is the blood it leaves on your bands--the little inconvenience of the look-alike corpse at your feet. And if you're into both survival of the fittest and being your brother's keeper--if you've promised your dying mother--then say so long to sleep and hello to the middle of the night. Grab a book or a beer. Get used to Letterman's gap-toothed smile of the absurd, or the view of the bedroom ceiling, or the influence of random selection. Take it from a godless insomniac. Take it from the uncrazy twin--the guy who beat the biochemical rap. Dominick Birdsey's entire life has been compromised and constricted by anger and fear, by the paranoid schizophrenic twin brother he both deeply loves and resents, and by the past they shared with their adoptive father, Ray, a spit-and-polish ex-Navy man (the five-foot-six-inch sleeping giant who snoozed upstairs weekdays in the spare room and built submarines at night), and their long-suffering mother, Concettina, a timid woman with a harelip that made her shy and self-conscious: She holds a loose fist to her face to cover her defective mouth--her perpetual apology to the world for a birth defect over which she'd had no control. Born in the waning moments of 1949 and the opening minutes of 1950, the twins are physical mirror images who grow into separate yet connected entities: the seemingly strong and protective yet fearful Dominick, his mother's watchful "monkey"; and the seemingly weak and sweet yet noble Thomas, his mother's gentle "bunny." From childhood, Dominick fights for both separation and wholeness--and ultimately self-protection--in a house of fear dominated by Ray, a bully who abuses his power over these stepsons whose biological father is a mystery. I was still afraid of his anger but saw how he punished weakness--pounced on it. Out of self-preservation I hid my fear, Dominick confesses. As for Thomas, he just never knew how to play defense. He just didn't get it. But Dominick's talent for survival comes at an enormous cost, including the breakup of his marriage to the warm, beautiful Dessa, whom he still loves. And it will be put to the ultimate test when Thomas, a Bible-spouting zealot, commits an unthinkable act that threatens the tenuous balance of both his and Dominick's lives. To save himself, Dominick must confront not only the pain of his past but the dark secrets he has locked deep within himself, and the sins of his ancestors--a quest that will lead him beyond the confines of his blue-collar New England town to the volcanic foothills of Sicily 's Mount Etna, where his ambitious and vengefully proud grandfather and a namesake Domenico Tempesta, the sostegno del famiglia, was born. Each of the stories Ma told us about Papa reinforced the message that he was the boss, that he ruled the roost, that what he said went. Searching for answers, Dominick turns to the whispers of the dead, to the pages of his grandfather's handwritten memoir, The History of Domenico Onofrio Tempesta, a Great Man from Humble Beginnings. Rendered with touches of magic realism, Domenico's fablelike tale--in which monkeys enchant and religious statues weep--becomes the old man's confession--an unwitting legacy of contrition that reveals the truth's of Domenico's life, Dominick learns that power, wrongly used, defeats the oppressor as well as the oppressed, and now, picking through the humble shards of his deconstructed life, he will search for the courage and love to forgive, to expiate his and his ancestors' transgressions, and finally to rebuild himself beyond the haunted shadow of his twin. Set against the vivid panoply of twentieth-century America and filled with richly drawn, memorable characters, this deeply moving and thoroughly satisfying novel brings to light humanity's deepest needs and fears, our aloneness, our desire for love and acceptance, our struggle to survive at all costs. Joyous, mystical, and exquisitely written, I Know This Much Is True is an extraordinary reading experience that will leave no reader untouched.
Drawing on a lifetime of pastoral experience, The Care of Souls is a beautifully written treasury of proven wisdom which pastors will find themselves turning to again and again. Harold Senkbeil helps remind pastors of the essential calling of the ministry: preaching and living out the Word of God while orienting others in the same direction. And he offers practical and fruitful adviceâ€"born out of his five decades as a pastorâ€"that will benefit both new pastors and those with years in the pulpit. In a time when many churches have lost sight of the real purpose of the church, The Care of Souls invites a new generation of pastors to form the godly habits and practical wisdom needed to minister to the hearts and souls of those committed to their care.
Do you battle fear? Or do you feel like your life is too ordinary? Or do you wonder if God really loves, let alone likes you? What if you could discover how to let God do the extraordinary with your ordinary by connecting with God in your everyday moments? 7 Days of Soul Care is a compact and powerful resource for life change. It is the voice of the wise friend offering counsel, providing real-life encouragement, and whispering the truth of your identity in Christ. This guide provides the practical tools you need to step forward and move deeper in accepting and living out the freedom Christ says is yours. -Jennifer J. Camp, author of Breathing Eden: Conversations with God on Light, Fresh Air, and New Things This compact book invites you to a deeper relationship with God through creative stories, thoughtful questions, and rich prayers. This book dares the reader to believe his or her amazing identity as God's beloved. Learn how to partner with God in your everyday moments. Holley Gerth, Wall Street Journal bestselling author of You're Already Amazing endorses this book: "Dolly's words help us stop striving and instead lean into the grace, love, and intimacy we truly need and only God can give." Let 7 Days of Soul Care kickstart a lifetime habit of connecting with God in your everyday moments so you can live a life with more hope, confidence, and joy. Don't settle for less than what God wants to give you, which is a fuller experience of His love for you. Let Dolly share with you what she's learned through her own journey of overcoming fear and the wisdom gleaned from her mentors.
"Anam Cara is a rare synthesis of philosophy, poetry, and spirituality. This work will have a powerful and life-transforming experience for those who read it." —Deepak Chopra John O'Donohue, poet, philosopher, and scholar, guides you through the spiritual landscape of the Irish imagination. In Anam Cara, Gaelic for "soul friend," the ancient teachings, stories, and blessings of Celtic wisdom provide such profound insights on the universal themes of friendship, solitude, love, and death as: Light is generous The human heart is never completely born Love as ancient recognition The body is the angel of the soul Solitude is luminous Beauty likes neglected places The passionate heart never ages To be natural is to be holy Silence is the sister of the divine Death as an invitation to freedom
How do we express the good that God wants for those we love? How do we experience blessing through pain and suffering? Why would we bless even enemies? How do we keep spoken blessings in sync with God’s will? And how do we integrate blessing, a concept woven throughout the entire Bible, into the fabric of our everyday lives? In Given, you will journey outside of your comfort zone, into a world of blessing as a relational calling—as a way God relates to you and a way you’re called to relate to others. You will travel across countries, cultures, and centuries of church history to expand your paradigm of a word ripe with significance. Along the way, you’ll be inspired to begin the essential Christian practice of being given by God as a blessing. Journey with author Tina Boesch to discover your calling to a meaningful way of living and relating to God and others, inspired by Christ, who gave himself on the cross so that we could fully experience God’s blessing.
When Jan Richardson unexpectedly lost her husband and creative partner, the singer/songwriter Garrison Doles, she did what she had long known how to do: she wrote blessings. These were no sugar-coated blessings. They minimized none of the pain and bewilderment that came in the wake of a wrenching death. With these blessings, Jan entered, instead, into the depths of the shock, anger, and sorrow. From those depths, she has brought forth words that, with heartbreaking honesty, offer surprising comfort and stunning grace. Those who know loss will find kinship among these pages. In these blessings that move through the anguish of rending into the unexpected shelters of solace and hope, there shimmers a light that helps us see we do not walk alone. From her own path of grief, Jan offers a luminous, unforgettable gift that invites us to know the tenacity of hope and to recognize the presence of love that, as she writes, is "sorrow's most lasting cure."
Catch the Fire explores the remarkable work of God known as The Toronto Blessing. Newspapers, television and radio reports have been buzzing with stories of whole congregations laughing, weeping, and falling under the power of the Holy Spirit. Its effects are rippling throughout the world, transforming individuals and local churches everywhere.
