Have you ever felt like everyone seems to know God better than you or that their day-to-day is somehow more Christ-centered than yours? Discovering how God can manifest His love in our daily lives is no easy feat. Early childhood provides a great opportunity to instill the idea that we can find God in everyday activities as long as we look in the right places. Children see God through their family and friends and have the opportunity to see their loved one's experience a personal and special relationship with God. This book shows firsthand that baseball, hot dogs, and lots of glitter can all be unexpected examples of God's love for us.
In rhyming text, a small raccoon describes how God's love for him and his father is seen in the world around them and in the way his father takes care of him.
"With eighteen Bible stories from creation through the life and resurrection of Jesus, My God Loves Me Bible shows children that they are precious beyond measure in God's sight. Each Bible story is supported by Scripture to bring out the truth it reveals. The stories are told both through words and colorful scenes and visual details young children will love."--Amazon.com
Honoring the female part of the divine, from a refreshingly modern perspective. Call Her Goddess--call her God the Mother--call her the Feminine Principle--Her children need Her, and our world deeply suffers the pains of Her absence. Through the warmth and the wit of poetry, this book is an invitation for all--women, men, of any religion or of no religion--to welcome Her home and set a permanent place for Her at the family table. Carol Lynn Pearson's poetry are accessible, thoughtful, and thought-provoking--the perfect balance of wisdom, humility, and humor. Carol Lynn Pearson has been a professional writer, speaker, and performer for many years. In addition to her volumes of poetry, she is well known for such books as The Ghost of Eternal Polygamy; Goodbye, I Love You, her autobiography; Consider the Butterfly, which was a finalist in the inspiration/spiritual category of the 2002 Independent Publishers Book Awards; and a series of inspirational books that began with The Lesson. Carol Lynn has been a guest on such programs as The Oprah Winfrey Show and Good Morning, America and has been featured in People magazine. She has a master of arts in theater, is the mother of four grown children, and lives in Walnut Creek, California. You can visit her at www.clpearson.com.
In 1996 I celebrated a year of sobriety and began a journey of rebirth. That year I developed confidence in myself that previously I never experienced. I took my personal collection of notes, diaries, and tapes from my year in Vietnam and begin to organize them into a book. In 1997 I completed the manuscript and titled it One Heart One Mind: one man's memoir of a tour of Vietnam. The book not only dealt with my year in Vietnam but with the emotional cost of the war on my soul and psyche. With assistance from Jonathan Shay M.D., Ph.D., the author of Achilles in Vietnam (a book about combat trauma and the undoing of character), I tried unsuccessfully to get my book published. In 1998 I legally changed my name from John Joseph to Janice Josephine and my writing now included transgender issues. I felt that I had come to terms with my trauma from the Vietnam War, and I was ready to move on. In 1999-2000 I wrote and performed a play "I Was Always Me." The two-act play is a monologue of my transition from John to Janice. In the fall of 2000 I had my first article published in the Transgender Tapestry Magazine. In 2001 I was the subject of a documentary: "TransJan" produced and directed by Katherine Cronin. Its premiere at the Provincetown International Film Festival opened the door for me and after each screening; I conducted a Q&A about transgender issues. The latest screening of "TransJan" was in 2002, when it was selected to be one of the films for the Tampa Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. In 2001, in Boston, while performing readings of my poems and rants at Slams, I met the writer Toni Amato. Shortly after that meeting I begin attending Toni's creative writing workshops at Women's Words and later attended one of her weekend writer retreats. That year I presented "TransJan" and sat on panels at the Transcending Boundaries Conference at Yale University and at Speak Out, a conference at Bunker Hill Community College in Boston. My most challenging event that year was the L/B/T/Allies Strategy Summit in Vermont, sponsored by the National Organization for Women. In 2002 I continued to do workshops using creative writing as a means of getting people to open up about transgender issues. I also put together a course of study on transgender issues called "Transsexuals are Human Also." I conducted creative writing workshops at the Midwest L/G/B/T/Allies College Conference. Out of this conference came my transgender monologue,' and, as "My Vagina Monologue," I performed this at the St Petersburg Metropolitan Community Churcher's Talent Show, and it was published in the summer issue of the Transgender Tapestry Magazine. This year I have presented creative writing workshops at the International Foundation for Gender Education in Philadelphia, the New Hampshire Transgender Resources for Education and Empowerment at the University of New Hampshire in Durham, and at Silver Threads, a weekend retreat on St Pete Beach. I have put together a collection of my poems, rants and essays that are directly from a transwoman's heart called "Purple Hearts and Silver Stars." One of my short stories was published as part of Mary Boenke's Trans Forming Families, real stories about transgender loved ones. Later this year two short stories will published in anthologies, Pinned down by Pronouns (http://www.convictionbooks.com) and Trans-lating Faith, Pilgrim Press, 700 Prospect Ave., Cleveland, Ohio. I am an active member of a local group of women artists called "Women Artist Rising" with whom I share my poems, rants and stories at various WAR events (http://www.womenartistsrising.com). My new column "Perspectives from a Trans-woman" that started in a local newsletter is now in syndication.
When 16-year-old Matt Baily is expelled from his evangelical Christian high school, he faces the prospect of going to public school for the first time. There he first experiences the world beyond the strict, conservative Christianity he has grown up with. When he befriends wannabe Warhol Superstar Michelle, he is finally able to share his deepest darkest secret with another person--he has always longed to be a girl. As he learns more about the world and starts to accept his transgender feelings, Matt’s doubts about his faith grow. Matt begins to wrestle with belief in God, his disintegrating conservative family, and the transgender feelings that won’t go away. Ultimately, Matt is forced to decide between his family and faith and accepting himself as transgender. Disgusta is about growing up in the suburban South in the 90s in high school. It explores themes of belief in God, LGBTQ identity, rebellion, and coming of age. Additionally, its setting provides a serving of 90s nostalgia and a realistic look at growing up queer in the evangelical community.
Though one in four pregnancies ends in loss, miscarriage is shrouded in such secrecy and stigma that the woman who experiences it often feels deeply isolated, unsure how to process her grief. Her body seems to have betrayed her. Her confidence in the goodness of God is rattled. Her loved ones don't know what to say. Her heart is broken. She may feel guilty, ashamed, angry, depressed, confused, or alone. With vulnerability and tenderness, Adriel Booker shares her own experience of three consecutive miscarriages, as well as the stories of others. She tackles complex questions about faith and suffering with sensitivity and clarity, inviting women to a place of grace, honesty, and hope in the redemptive purposes of God without offering religious clichés and pat answers. She also shares specific, practical resources, such as ways to help guide children through grief, suggestions for memorializing your baby, and advice on pregnancy after loss, as well as a special section for dads and loved ones.
The Hidden Dreams is about the power of the dream. It introduces the dreams of 545 students who were courageous enough to articulate their dreams so all of us can be aware of their goals and aspirations. These students tell us that it is all right to dream and that we can do so safely and securely. This book helps one to recognize that there are obstacles, but when a dream is ignited no obstacle is too great to be overcome and conquered! To succeed in our quest to fulfill our dreams, this book supplies the reader with a special map—the DreamMap. The map will help the reader to ascend the Pyramid of Success. The Author hopes that this book will help every person, young and old, to ignite the passion for his or her dream and to embark on a wonderful journey to live the dream and fulfill it.
The pastoral counselor brings God's presence to the counseling session. The counselor radiates God's enormous unconditional love and forgiveness to the client. Clients come in because they are spiritually broken and prey to the allies of darknessaEUR"fear of abandonment from God and those they love, resentment, frustration, anxiety, and callousness. He is the prodigal son. Through empathy, compassion, and counseling skills, the pastoral counsel connects them to the God who runs to meet him with joy, throws his arms around him, kisses him, forgives him, and makes him psychologically and spiritually whole again by giving him the signet ring. The pastoral counselor's role is to facilitate this occurrence.
