Love Has A Face by Michelle Perry

I have several missionary friends and I have heard so many wonderful stories of faith, and hope, and God's great ability to reach out and draw His children to Himself. This is basically all those stories in one sweet book. Michelle Perry has done a wonderful job in journaling about her experiences in the Sudan. She is disabled only in body, in mind and Spirit she is a mighty arm of God and I highly recommend this book to all Christians. You will be so blessed and you will be so amazed at God's power, peace, fruitfulness, and His all consuming love seen through the eyes of one of His missionaries.

You can read more about this book here.

Michele Perry is the founding field ministry coordinator for Iris Ministries in Southern Sudan under Rolland and Heidi Baker. Born without her left hip and leg and other birth defects, she endured 23 surgeries by age 13. A native of Florida, Michele studied at Baylor and has previously served in Bangladesh, India, and the inner cities of the U.S. She is also an artist, photographer, and poet. Michele wrote most of Love Has a Face on an old computer by a kerosene lamp in a bullet-hole ridden shell of a building in Southern Sudan. Her writing was punctuated by the occasional AK-47 shot.

Sacred Waiting by David Timms

This will be a must read for everyone.

We live in a 30 Second Society. I have harped on this until the cows come home... Waiting is not an American strong suit. We have credit card debt up the wazoo simply because we cannot wait for anything any more. Fast food, fast coffee, fast cars, fast this and fast that until our heads ache from the stress and fast pace. There is no one like Ferdinand the Bull anymore. You remember him, right? He liked to loll in the field, smell the flowers and then a bee stung him. He flailed about like a mad bull and they chose him to be in the bull ring where he promptly sat down and smelled the lovely flowers that filled the air around him.

We don't do that any longer. I see couples sitting at a table in a sidewalk cafe' but that is on commercials or in movies. Courtyard dining is a thing of the past. Gimme my Giant MacDougal, and gimme it my way...FAST.

David Timms reminds us that in the "olden days" back when Grampa Enoch walked the earth, he walked with God. Apparently, Grandson Noah (480 year old Noah) took all that Grampa had to say about God to heart because after another 120 years, God saved Noah and his family from the flood. Of course there is a lot to that concerning obedience and preaching about something no one has ever heard of before like Flood and Rain.

How would you like to wait 75 years to become useful to God like Abraham did? Or how about working 14 years for the woman you love? Or waiting 80 years to fulfill your mission like Moses did? It's all in this book and it is all about how this applies to our lives today.

I wish I had this sage advice back when I was a lot younger because I think my life and that of my children would have been a lot more peaceful and just perhaps, I would have been a lot more useful to God a lot earlier.

Waiting--the Key to Joy, Peace, and Abundance
No one likes to wait. Our irritation level rises in checkout lines, train stations, restaurants, and doctors' offices. We don't have time to waste. But Scripture constantly speaks of waiting: "Those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their
strength" (Isaiah 40:31).
The good news is that waiting on God is much more than watching the clock. Waiting plays a vital role in our spiritual formation as we draw closer to the Lord and respond to His leading. Challenging believers to rediscover this lost spiritual discipline, pastor and Bible professor David Timms reveals the hidden treasures of waiting on God--the peace and joy of being with Him.
The heroes of the faith all waited on God. And just like Abraham, Moses, and David, you'll find that your best moments arise from God's timing, not your own. Every covenant God made came at the end of a season of waiting. God's rewards wait for you when you learn to practice Sacred Waiting.

David Timms teaches New Testament and Theology and serves as chair of the Graduate Ministry Department at Hope International University in Fullerton, California. Australian by birth, David has been a church planter, pastor, and trainer of pastors for twenty-five years. He publishes an e-zine, In Hope, that shares his reflections on Christian leadership and spiritual formation. He and his wife, Kim, have three sons and live in Fullerton, California.

It's Not About Him by Michelle Sutton

Here is the kind of novel every teen needs to read. It isn't about what happened at the party, it's the 9 months after. It's about what's best for everyone. It's about raw feelings and about someone who doesn't have much self esteem so can't recognize true love when she sees it.

That was probably the most aggravating thing... the chick kept whining and thinking she's got to do all this alone. Which, in actuality, is what most of all women think. We've become so feminist that we abhor appearing weak or needy or reaching out for those close to us.

It's a good effort and one that I would recommend to every young girl. We should absolutely explore all possibilities. We should never assume we are always safe because we are not. Consequences will happen. Einstein taught us that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Stands to reason that we must suffer the consequences of our actions. This is what Sutton explores in this novel, and she's done a really good job.

This week, the

Christian Fiction Blog Alliance

is introducing

It's Not About Him

Sheaf House (September 1, 2009)

by

Michelle Sutton


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Michelle Sutton, otherwise known as the Edgy Inspirational Author, is Editor-in-chief of Christian Fiction Online Magazine, a member of ACFW, a social worker by trade, and a prolific reader/book reviewer/blogger the rest of the time.

She lives in Arizona with her husband of nineteen years and her two teenaged sons. Michelle is also the author of It's Not about Me (2008) and It's Not About Him (Sheaf House 2009). She has nine other titles releasing over the next three years.





ABOUT THE BOOK

Susie passed out while drinking at Jeff’s party and later discovered she’s pregnant. She has no idea who the father is and considers having an abortion, but instead decides to place her baby for adoption. Following through ends up being more wrenching than she imagined, but she’s determined to do the right thing for her baby.

Jeff feels guilty that Susie was taken advantage of at his party and offers to marry her so she won’t have to give up her baby, like his birth mother did with him. But Susie refuses, insisting he should he marry someone he loves. Can he convince her that his love is genuine before it’s too late? Can she make him understand that it’s not about him—it’s about what’s best for her child?

If you would like to read the prologue and first chapter of It's Not About Him, go HERE

The Carousel Painter by Judith Miller

I was watching Antiques Road Show and to my amazement they showcased some carousels in Spokane, Washington. Did you know that the carousel horses from circa 1910 are worth at the least $30,000? And the more rare ones, more ornate are worth $40,000 to $50,000 as long as they are in good condition. Then the exotic animals are worth upwards of $100,000.

Judith Miller, in her novel The Carousel Painter does go into the history of carousel wood working and painting, she also tells us that the exotic animals are very rare because of the costs involved.

But, what I found most interesting was how she explored the prejudice against women in the work place… especially the man’s work place. How hard it was for women back a century ago or even longer ago than that. History talks a lot about women who had plenty of money before they married but their husbands took over and left them destitute because once a woman married, all the money landed in the husband’s hands. That doesn't happen to Carrington Brouwer in this novel by Judith Miller. Nonetheless, the history in this effort is accurate.

This was a very well developed story. It got a little Soap Opera-like in the middle when the reader begins to thing “What else bad can happen?” Then the story coalesces into a rather neat mystery and is very enjoyable thereafter. It is written in the first person and very well done. There are lots of excellent observations that are very believable. Delicious villains, a cranky hero, a very warm hearted boarding house keeper who is a very bad cook, a most level-headed and quite charming protagonist all mix together in a happy recipe for fun reading.

Carrington Brouwer’s father is a fabulous painter in France, but passes away before becoming really famous. She has two of his paintings and off she goes to America to live with one of her father’s students until she can find work. Little did she know that her friend’s mother is extremely social conscious with little regard for a starving friend of her daughter’s. Fortunately, her friend’s father owns a carousel factory and, since she has all of her father’s talent and then some, she asks him for a job. An unlikely ally, her friend’s mother, pushes the issue and Carrington settles in to paint carousel horses. Then a very expensive necklace of the mother goes missing. Carrington must find the culprit, help save her friend from the clutches of a scoundrel, win, if not the affections, the respect of her co-workers, and fall in love with the very cranky carousel factory manager—all while trying to survive on terrible food.

This is a great, fast-paced story. I’ll be looking for more from Judith Miller!

That Certain Spark by Cathy Marie Hake

In Gooding, Texas there is no physican and no vet. The good people of Gooding hire one of each sight unseen. What they don't know is that Taylor, the physician, is the female of the twins and is quite ready to take on the monumental task of winning the males of the species over to the modern idea of a female doctor.

While she and her vet brother tackle the town, he woos and wins a wife. The cantankerous blacksmith finds out she's quite up to his verbal duals and she wins his heart. I have to say, that I got really tired of her way of thinking she had to do everything all by herself along about 1/4 to 1/2 of the way through this tome. I was quite surprised at this because Cathy is an old hand at writing, being an author of 25 novels.

One most excellent thing about this novel is exploring the trials and tribulations of a female physican. Back in the very lat 1880's and 1890's, the number of female to male going to medical school was about 1 to 3, about 25% of all medical students were female. Then the males realized this wasn't a very good thing for them. If they let this trend go on, soon the females would out number the males and this very manly profession would become female dominated. That just couldn't be. So then the medical schools' professors and deans and presidents (all male) decided to be more stringent against females in school, effectively steming the tide of female students. Some propaganda filtered out which caused a lot of hullabaloo concerning female physcians, thus further steming the tide. By 1925, female students numbered 5%. What a waste!

I have not read any of Hake's other novels, but frankly I was not very impressed with this one. If you like soap operas, then you'll like this novel. It has some Small Town flavor, but it could have had so much more.

Dawn's Prelude by Tracy Peterson

I have a huge respect for Tracy Peterson. She is such a prolific writer and has given us some truly wonderful stories. This one, however, is formulaic. After the first section which is excellent and has so much potential to be one of her best novels, she writes the girl into Alaska where it becomes the most predictable edition ever of her love stories.

I have loved most of her stories. They give great snapshots into Christian life, no matter which century the stories are set. Yet, this one is sadly flat. Frankly, I think Peterson should take a break for about 6 months and go live again. Shake the computer bytes out of her system and restart her engine with some refreshing adventure. Maybe try a different venue, or different genre, because the gal can write, make no mistake about that.

I want to be able to trust a Tracy Peterson novel. I want to be able to buy the things without having to read the back cover and decide if it's the kind of story for me... and without having to read the first 10-15 pages to see how she writes. Of course it's challenging. How can anyone write more than 80 novels and have every single one of them a fresh story? Well... Barbara Cartland didn't seem to have too much trouble, but even her well went a tad dry now and again. That is when Barbara changed centuries, changed continents, and it seemed to work. Agatha Christie did very well. Of course back in those days, an author had to really write. Today, it seems that a write merely needs to have some semblance of a story and they get published. That is NOT Tracy Peterson, but if she doesn't watch out, she'll lose her readers because once the trust is lost, it is rare to earn it back.

This week, the
Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing
Dawn's Prelude
(Bethany House - October 2009)
by
Tracie Peterson


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Tracie Peterson is the bestselling, award-winning author of more than 70 novels. She teaches writing workshops at a variety of conferences on subjects such as inspirational romance and historical research.

Ephesians 1:18 has become a cornerstone verse for a new non-fiction book she's been working on -- its also become a cornerstone in her life. The verse reads, "I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints."

Tracie and her family live in Belgrade, Montana.






ABOUT THE BOOK

Newly widowed Lydia Sellers discovers that through an unforeseen fluke, she is the sole recipient of her husband's fortune. But instead of granting her security, it only causes strife as her adult stepchildren battle to regain the inheritance for themselves.

Lydia, longing to put the memories of her painful marriage behind her, determines to travel to Alaska to join her aunt. Lydia's arrival in Sitka, however, brings two things she didn't expect.

One is the acquaintance of Kjell Bjorklund, the handsome owner of the sawmill. Second is the discovery that she is pregnant with her dead husband's child. What will this mean for her budding relationship with Kjell? And what lengths will her stepchildren go to reclaim their father's fortune? Lydia soon finds her life--and that of her child's--on the line.

If you would like to read the first chapter of Dawn's Prelude, go HERE