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.
Through her own gripping story of escape from human trafficking, Rebecca Bender reveals the inner workings of the underground world of modern-day slavery and helps us learn how we can be a catalyst for change where we live. Born and raised in a small Oregon town, all-American girl Rebecca Bender was a varsity athlete and honor roll student with a promising future. Then a predator pretending to be her boyfriend lured her into a web of lies that sent her down a path she never imagined possible. For nearly six years, Rebecca was sold across the underground world of sex trafficking in Las Vegas. She was branded, beaten, told when to sleep and what to wear, and traded between traffickers. Forced into a dark sisterhood, Rebecca formed bonds with her trafficker and three other women, creating a false sense of family. During that time, God began revealing himself to her. And in the midst of her exploitation, she found the hope she needed to survive. After a federal raid, Rebecca escaped. Her life was forever changed as she felt the embrace of her heavenly Father guiding her to healing and wholeness. Rebecca soon began to use her own experiences to change the lives of others as she went back into the darkest places she had known--assisting FBI, VICE, and law enforcement across the country in some of their most difficult cases. Through Rebecca's incredible story of redemption, we remember that our past does not have to determine our destiny.
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.
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.
I've told my kids for years that God doesn't make mistakes," writes Mary Beth Chapman, wife of Grammy award winning recording artist Steven Curtis Chapman. "Would I believe it now, when my whole world as I knew it came to an end?" Covering her courtship and marriage to Steven Curtis Chapman, struggles for emotional balance, and living with grief, Mary Beth's story is our story--wondering where God is when the worst happens. In Choosing to SEE, she shows how she wrestles with God even as she has allowed him to write her story--both during times of happiness and those of tragedy. Readers will hear firsthand about the loss of her daughter, the struggle to heal, and the unexpected path God has placed her on. Even as difficult as life can be, Mary Beth Chapman Chooses to SEE. Includes a 16-page full color photo insert.
A story of a girl from a middle-class family in the year 1982, where she lived with her parents and younger sister who was 5 years younger to her. Being the elder daughter, she took all the responsibilities of her family as her mother was mostly unwell. She loved her family unconditionally, especially her younger sister but in return she could not get love and affection. She was lonely and depressed. Years passed gradually and she grew up taking care of her family. She was lonely and sad until she met a boy with whom she fell in love. Both their families accepted their relationship and they finally got married. Life changes every moment and noone knows what shall happen in future, though she was happy and planning her future with his dream man. The first part of the book describes her childhood and adolescent days and how her life changed. It describes her love life and later how she managed to face different challenges in her life. Her story continues in the second part of the book where readers can go through the second phase of her life, how she managed to cross all hurdles in life, still deprived of love. Will she ever get true love in her life? Will her dream ever come true? Will she be happy ever in her life despite of loving everyone whole heartedly? The book comes with lot of surprises and the challenges which she had to face her entire life.
Shannon's earliest memory from her childhood isn't a happy one about a birthday party, a holiday celebration, or a family trip. It's a memory from when she was nine years old; her face stung from the hand that struck her, and she felt her mouth fill with blood. In In Search of Love, author Shannon M. Paddock describes the abuse she suffered at the hands of her parents, while describing her search for love. At a young age, Shannon was sure God had abandoned her. This memoir describes that search for love and how it led her down the path of drugs, alcohol, and sex. After a failed suicide attempt, Shannon realized she had been searching in the wrong places and looking to the wrong people to bring her the love, peace, and acceptance for which she longed. She found God through Jesus Christ and was given all of His unconditional and unfailing love. In Search of Love, an inspirational and thought-provoking memoir conveys the message that hope and healing is possible.
In this widely popular, exciting story for the advent season, readers follow ten-year-old Jotham across Israel as he searches for his family. Though he faces thieves, robbers, and kidnappers, Jotham also encounters the wise men, shepherds, and innkeepers until at last he finds his way to the Savior born in Bethlehem.
Quest for Eternal Sunshine chronicles the triumphant, true story of Mendek Rubin, a brilliant inventor who overcame both the trauma of the Holocaust and decades of unrelenting depression to live a life of deep peace and boundless joy. Born into a Hassidic Jewish family in Poland in 1924, Mendek grew up surrounded by extreme anti-Semitism. Armed with an ingenious mind, he survived three horrific years in Nazi slave-labor concentration camps while virtually his entire family was murdered in Auschwitz. After arriving in America in 1946—despite having no money or professional skills—his inventions helped revolutionize both the jewelry and packaged-salad industries. Remarkably, Mendek also applied his ingenuity to his own psyche, developing innovative ways to heal his heart and end his emotional suffering. After Mendek died in 2012, his daughter, Myra Goodman, found an unfinished manuscript in which he’d revealed the intimate details of his healing journey. Quest for Eternal Sunshine—the extraordinary result of a posthumous father-daughter collaboration—tells Mendek’s whole story and is filled with eye-opening revelations, effective self-healing techniques, and profound wisdom that have the power to transform the way we live our lives. An inspirational biography of a Holocaust survivor overcoming depression and PTSD. An essential new addition to Jewish Holocaust history.
