I WISHED I HAD A DIFFERENT FATHER

By Novelist Christine Lindsay

One of my clearest memories of my dad was when I was seven, and I was in the hospital for pneumonia. It was his evening to visit me, as my mother was staying at home with my sister. I waited in my hospital bed, looking out the window to the street below.

Daddy never showed up. Ten minutes after visiting hours were over he sheepishly staggered in. A frowning nurse allowed him five minutes. I smelled the beer on his breath as he leaned over to kiss me. How rarely he kissed me, and in spite of the beer-stained breath, the kiss filled the cold emptiness that bunched up in my chest. When he left me minutes later, even as a kid of seven I knew my dad spent the time he should have been visiting me, down at the pub.

For years I wished I had a different father. Not all of us grow up with the loving dad who carves the Christmas turkey, takes us on vacations, and fixes broken toys. In fact, my dad broke my toys—accidentally of course—but he broke my stuff more frequently than he gave things to me.

His drinking robbed me of my childhood. From the time I was twelve I was protecting my mother, helping to financially support her, myself, and my younger brother and sister with my babysitting jobs.

Thank God the heavenly Father didn’t leave me in that despair. From the time I entered my teens I began to learn how much the Lord loved me, and He became my dad. It was also the loving savior giving my mother strength to stand up to her abusive husband. Sadly my dad remained an alcoholic to his dying day. I was able to forgive him, but what a sad, wasted life.

I could have carried that despair for all my days, and for many years I did. Even though I was a follower of Christ it took decades for the Lord to teach me what the love of a father was all about.

Things went well for me, but sadly not for my younger brother and sister. It seemed they inherited the same addiction as our dad. With despair I watched the drink destroy their lives.

It took years of prayer, but at long last I saw God change my brother and bring him out to a life of sobriety. I’m still praying for my sister.

It’s because I’ve seen the power of God changing my life and that of my family that I want to tell everyone that bitterness doesn’t have to be your middle name.

A dark childhood can be changed into a bright and beautiful life.

My entire series Twilight of the British Raj shows the healing of a family tainted by a father’s alcoholism. In book 1 Shadowed in Silk, my heroine Abby stands up to her abusive husband. In book 2 Captured by Moonlight Eshana stands up to her fanatical Hindu uncle who won’t allow her to live as a Christian. In book 3 Veiled at Midnight my character Cam (who was a boy in book 1 and is now a man) faces his alcoholism that he inherited from his father.  

All sounds dark and dismal.

But, because I’ve seen God working  in my life, I write not about drunkenness, but about the joy of a soul cleansed, that tingling feeling when God makes everything new.  

BOOK SUMMARY

ABOUT VEILED AT MIDNIGHT—Book 3 of the series Twilight of the British Raj

 As the British Empire comes to an end, millions flee to the roads. Caught up in the turbulent wake is Captain Cam Fraser, his sister Miriam, and the beautiful Indian Dassah.

Cam has never been able to put Dassah from his mind, ever since the days when he played with the orphans at the mission as a boy. But a British officer and the aide to the last viceroy cannot marry a poor Indian woman, can he?

As this becomes clear to Dassah, she has no option but to run. Cam may hold her heart—but she cannot let him break it again.

Miriam rails against the separation of the land of her birth, but is Lieutenant Colonel Jack Sunderland her soulmate or a distraction from what God has called her to do?

The 1947 Partition has separated the country these three love…but can they find their true homes before it separates them forever?

MEET THE AUTHOR

ABOUT CHRISTINE LINDSAY:

Christine Lindsay was born in Ireland, and is proud  that she was once patted on the head by Prince Philip when she was a baby. Her great grandfather, and her grandfather—yes father and son—were both riveters on the building of the Titanic. Tongue in cheek, Christine states that as a family they accept no responsibility for the sinking of that great ship.

It was stories of her ancestors who served in the British Cavalry in Colonial India that inspired her Multi-award-winning, historical series Twilight of the British Raj. Book 1 Shadowed in Silk, Book 2 Captured by Moonlight, and the final installment to that series, Veiled at Midnight just released October 2014.

Londonderry Dreaming is Christine’s first romance which is set in Ireland.

Christine makes her home in British Columbia, on the west coast of Canada with her husband and their grown up family. Her cat Scottie is chief editor on all Christine’s books.

CONNECT WITH CHRISTINE:

Please drop by Christine Lindsay’s website  or follow her on Twitter and be her friend on Pinterest     Facebook  and   Goodreads

PURCHASE SITES FOR

SHADOWED IN SILK Amazon

SHADOWED IN SILK Barnes & Noble

SHADOWD IN SILK Kobo

CAPTURED BY MOONLIGHT Amazon

CAPTURED BY MOONLIGHT Barnes & Noble

CAPTURED BY MOONLIGHT Kobo

VEILED AT MIDNIGHT Amazon

VEILED AT MIDNIGHT Barnes & Noble

LONDONDERRY DREAMING Amazon

LONDONDERRY DREAMING

WHAT DO YOU NEED GOD TO DO FOR YOU?

By Ada Brownell

(Adapted from Ada Brownell's book, Imagine the Future You Here)

Before you know what you hope for your tomorrows, think about who you are.

Below is a little profile I did of myself, and you can create a similar one for you, pointing out why you are the person you at least think you are.

1. I’ve been known to be a little scatterbrained. For instance, I once turned off the water in our mobile home that my husband kept running in the bathtub so the water pipes wouldn’t freeze. I forgot to turn the water back on after I took a bath. I threw a big coat over my nightgown and went out to thaw out the pipes (my husband was working out of town). The door froze shut and I was locked outside in 30-below freezing temperatures at 2 o’clock in the morning.

2. I’m fun loving. I’ve always loved games. I play board and card games like Rook, but my favorites are action games such as tennis, volleyball, badminton, swimming, baseball. I even enjoy walking, jogging, swinging.

3. Despite being a redhead with a temper that the Lord works on, I have a sense of humor. In high school, I won a trophy for being best actress in a comedy one-act play contest. A judge took me aside and told me I could go to Hollywood as another Lucille Ball. Was she thinking talent or red hair?  What I really enjoy is telling humorous stories about myself.

4. I enjoy working and seeing things done, everything polished and organized. I used to say turning a kitchen from messy to clean is like creating a piece of art. After marriage, a clean nicely decorated house is connected to my self image.

5. I’m a germ-o-phobe. In my mind we can avoid many illnesses. Take the flu shot. Get sunshine and vitamin D for the immune system. Wash those hands. Sanitize. After writing on the medical beat for seven years also I believe in using bleach on everything after preparing meat in the kitchen, or after a person with a cold visits our house. Guess that brings up bacteria-o-phobe. No rare meat, especially hamburger--and chicken juices should run clear when cooked. No red or pink anywhere. I always have grilled chicken heated twice when eating out. I came down with salmonella from grilled chicken about a half dozen times from restaurants. No more. Heat it twice, or I order deep fried. Grease is better than germs.

6. I’m a seeker of knowledge. I’ve been a student of the Bible since I was about 14, and prayed for wisdom all my adult life. I enjoy picking people’s brains, in-depth research, and anything that keeps me filled with truth.

7. I love romance. To me the most romantic words ever spoken are “I love you. I want to marry you and I will love only you until death parts us.” My husband and I made that vow and kept to it now for many decades. I read squeaky clean inspirational historical romance books with a lead character I like and sympathize with that has a big problem that needs solved.

How to probe who you are: 

Ask yourself: What or who do I fear? What do I value? What is most important to me? What do I cry about? What makes me laugh? What have I done that I enjoyed? What have I done that I’m proud of? What is the one thing I would like to do before Jesus comes or I die? When I am sad, who do I talk to? Who would I like to help? Who have you helped that you didn’t have to?

What do I know that I would like to share? What would I like to learn? Do I want God in my life? How has not knowing or knowing Jesus affected me?

 WHAT WILL YOU BE LIKE TOMORROW?

Now write a description of who you are now. In another column or on another page describe what sort of person you would like to become and how you plan to accomplish this change.

If you don’t know Jesus, think about how He showed His love for you by dying on the cross so you could live forever. Have you experienced the floods of joy that the writer of Since Jesus Came into My Heart[1] wrote about when he said “floods of joy o’er my soul like sea billows roll?”

Like Lazarus, whose body had been lying cold, still, and stinking in the tomb, then at Jesus’ command came alive, the sinner awakens to new life.

Baptism is a testimony to the whole world that you have experienced that spiritual resurrection. The newness of life comes through our Redeemer, who is the only One who can rescue humans from sin and death. Peter said it right after Pentecost, “Neither is there Salvation in any other; for there is no other name given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

Then, pray for God to lead you in your tomorrows, to bless you, and believe with the Apostle Paul, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13).

©Ada Brownell 2015

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[1] The Rodeheaver Co. Copyright 1905; Renewal 1933 Words: Rufus H. McDaniel, 1914. Music: Charles H. Gabriel, 1914.

JESUS SAID BEHOLD I COME QUICKLY: HOW LONG IS QUICK?

  

HOW LONG IS “QUICK?”

By Ada Brownell

I didn’t greet becoming a senior citizen with enthusiasm.

“How did we get old so quickly?” I asked my siblings. “It seems like just yesterday I was a teenager.”

Since I’m the youngest, I was interested in their response. As I expected, they feel the same. The years passed so swiftly we barely noticed entering the fourth quarter of our lives, and the clock ticking the years away.

After considering how quickly I aged, I thought of Jesus saying, “Behold I come quickly” (Revelation 22:7, 12KJV).  I’ve wondered about that phrase. He’s been gone 2,000 years.

Now that I’ve experienced the swift passage of time, I see from the time Jesus made the promise, generations came and disappeared so speedily it hasn’t been that long.

One Sunday school teacher took a bottle of hairspray and pushed the button in the classroom. The mist hovered in the air; then disappeared. “That’s how our lives are,” she explained. Then she read James 4:14: For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. David wrote, “Man is like a breath; his days like a fleeting shadow.”

I am the point I even see our grandchildren lives going before us in a flash. Seems like a few days ago they were preschoolers. Now one’s a mother, another is a surgical nurse, others are in college and high schools, and the youngest, which seem like they were babes only yesterday, are in elementary school.

More than 2,000 years have passed since Jesus told John in the vision,

“Behold I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done. I am the Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates of the city” (Revelation 22:12-14).

Yet, generations pass so quickly—like a mist that quickly disappears from our sight—2,000 years are not long at all, but time enough for the gospel to be preached and souls to be plucked from the pit of sin before Jesus comes like a thief in the night to meet the church in the air—unexpected by too many (Matthew 24, 25, and 1 Thessalonians 4).

No one knowS the day or the hour when He will appear to catch away the church coming in clouds as His disciples saw him go (Acts 1). When He comes back with His saints at His Second Coming, Jesus’ feet will touch the Mount of Olives. The Great White Throne Judgment will occur and the dead will be judged and anyone whose name is not written in the Book of Life will be cast into hell (Revelation 20:11-15).

But if we know Jesus, our future is secure. We will already have been raptured when He comes in the clouds. That's when two will be together, one who is ready will be taken, and the other left (Matthew 24 and 25).  “The Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus shall we always be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17).

Our short time on earth is only the beginning. Jesus said, “Whoever lives and believes in me will never die” (John 11:25).

©Ada Brownell March 2015

-- Ada Brownell is author of Swallowed by LIFE: Mysteries of Death, Resurrection and the Eternal. Available Here

WHAT DOES APPEARANCE SAY ABOUT US?

Excerpt from the book, IMAGINE THE FUTURE YOU

On sale for.99 until March 1 Here

BY ADA BROWNELL

IMAGINE RESPECT

Outward appearance doesn’t have anything to do with our character, but it might demonstrate some of who we are. Whether we are in rebellion, too lazy to work on our appearance, trying to attract attention, or too timid to be our own person might show on our bodies. But if we keep our hair clean, brushed, and styled; and our clothing clean, wrinkle-free, and well fit; and use colors and styles that complement our age, complexion, hair color, and body shape, it says we care about the details of life.

IMAGINE YOUR UNIQUENESS

As young people grow up, their choices begin to show. Their creativity, eye for style, and desire to be respected blossom in hairstyles, makeup, and clothing.

Appearance also sometimes demonstrates whether you are a leader or a follower.

Many young women today would rather dress warmer (in cool weather or intense air-conditioning) and less seductively than their peers, but their self-images depend on guys devouring them with their eyes. A large number of young women don’t feel they have worth unless they have a boyfriend, and this starts about age twelve. Some will do almost anything to keep the guy, because they can’t deal with rejection—even from slime. Some attempt or succeed at suicide because of broken relationships that weren’t worth pursuing in the first place.

How did a girl’s self-worth depend on how she looks and whether a guy is leading her around as if she’s blind? Does she understand outward looks and most young relationships are temporary?

I’ll never forget Dr. Laura Schlessinger’s answer on the radio one day when a teen girl called, greatly upset about breaking up with her boyfriend. “Are you ready to get married?” the counselor asked. “Courting is for people who want to get married.”

She said dating when you’re young adds too much grief to your life. When you break up, you’re mad at the former beau or gal, and then you’re mad at your best friend when she or he dates your heartthrob.

Not too long ago a commercial confirmed that fact when two guys on a ski lift were discussing one dude’s former girlfriend. The other skier admits he’s called her and they’re going out now. She’s sent photos. The former suitor asks to see, and then he tosses the phone into a canyon.

Schlessinger advises teenagers to go out with groups of guys and gals, getting to know one another, having fun and being friends with everyone until they’re about ready to get married.

Furthermore, having relationships too early can risk your future, especially if you participate in premarital sex. Have you noticed how many entertainment stars are addicted to alcohol or drugs, apparently to kill the pain because despite all their “so-called beauty,” professional success, and going to bed with many partners, no one seems to make a commitment strong enough to love until death?

IMAGINE GOOD LOOKS

Every person is uniquely attractive because we all are made in the image of God. Humankind finally figured out it’s not the color of our skin that matters, but we still don’t seem to know it’s what’s under our skin that counts.

My mom told me the most beautiful thing I can wear is a smile. But even a smile won’t cover an ugly attitude, hatred, envy, anger, lies, greed, jealousy, and rebellion.

I know life sometimes hits youth with ugly blows, but you can have peace and joy.

 Guys and gals who have the courage to look good, inside and out, despite what everyone else is doing, will receive respect. If you don’t believe that, think for a minute about a young individual you look up to because of who they are. Listen to how guys and girls treat and talk about people you know who aren’t respected.

Ask yourself why people respect someone you know. Is it only because of how they look or more about how they act?

We’re not talking about being popular here. We’re talking about people you trust and admire. Who do you know that you respect? Can you trust people who always party, make poor grades, disrespect their teachers and their parents, use bad language, and dress seductively? Do you think they will have marriages that last for life?

IMAGINE SETTING TRENDS

People who dress modestly and tastefully—still staying in style—will create peer pressure. More than one person will want to be just like them.

In my teens, those around me helped me grow my character and to be wise in what I chose to wear. My four older sisters set wonderful examples, and one of them always says, “Be classy, not sexy.”

But my oldest sister, Marjorie, had the greatest effect on me. She went to church at the invitation of a friend and that night accepted Jesus as her Savior. I was a baby then, but everyone in our family decided to follow the Lord, including me. That changed my life and made a powerful impact on my future—on earth and for eternity.

Jesus said, “The thief’s (Satan’s) purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give life in all its fullness” (John 10:10).

Copyright © 2015 Ada B. Brownell

  

ARE HABITS IMPORTANT?

 By Ada Brownell

Excerpt from IMAGINE THE FUTURE YOU

.99 thru April 28

What we do today determines the kind of person we will be in the future and what our lives will be like. Activities and attitudes of yesterday, today, and tomorrow become habits that change us for the better or for worse—and sometimes are almost impossible to change.

Habits are like the tree in Vashon Island, Washington, that grew around a bicycle until the bike became part of the tree. Somebody obviously leaned the bike against the tree when it was a small sapling. Now the bicycle is lodged into a large tree trunk five or six feet off the ground. It is impossible to remove the bike without destroying the tree.

Dr. Alan Friedman, a botanist at Marquette University in Milwaukee, says if an immovable object comes in contact with a growing tree, the growth that creates wood and bark will eventually cover the object. The only exception is a wire or rope put entirely around a tree, which will kill it.[1]

Habits entwine themselves into us in a similar way and become part of who we are. Some habits make us better people because they cause us to do good things. Bad habits wrapped into our character jeopardize our future.

Habits are one part of our lives we control, but we can’t choose our parents. God made sure they love you by implanting love into their beings, although some moms and dads don’t show their love. But even parents who forsake their children love them, because many come back to them later in life and ask for forgiveness.

Parents are stuck with their children, and their children are stuck with them. Parents don’t have control over the genes their kids inherit, either. By the same token, they had nothing to do with the kind of atmosphere their ma and pa provided for them that influenced their behavior.

True genetics, culture, temperament, talents, education, beliefs, quirks, and hang-ups of the people who gave us earthly life affect us, but we can’t blame them if we end up a drunkard, too lazy to support ourselves, or in prison. No matter who we are, our background, what internal and external obstacles we face, through God's help we can scramble over everything in our way and reach a life of joy and fulfillment.

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" (Philippians 4:13).

You can purchase the book here

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[1] Country Magazine Extra Collector’s Edition 5 (Harlan, IA, 1995).

The Couriers, Author Susan Reinhardt and Never Give Up

Sometimes You Just Have To Trust

By Susan Reinhardt

On Father's Day evening 2012, Mom and I attended a concert at a local church. Dave, Duane, and Neil, formerly known as The Couriers, were doing a farewell tour. The guys often came to our church when I was in my teens, and I simply thought of it as a nostalgia event. I never dreamed God would give me a lifeline for my publishing journey.

Discouragement dogged my steps as my manuscript, The Moses Conspiracy, received rejection after rejection. I knew the Lord wanted it published, but I was fast running out of options. No answers seemed forthcoming when I prayed.

One of the group, Dave, is known for his powerful preaching. That evening, however, he felt led to share a pivotal moment in Courier history. After being on the road and not making enough to support their families, they rode home from a concert in gloomy silence. One thing they agreed on: It was time to quit.

Someone started singing the song, "God will make a way where there seems to be no way..." Dave said they sang their way back into the ministry. By this time, I'm a puddle. I couldn't stop crying because the Lord was speaking to my heart not to give up.

I needed that word because the next six months proved even more challenging. As the New Year approached, I wondered what it would hold for my writing. A short time  into 2013, a friend urged me to contact a small press in Pennsylvania.

The publisher asked me to send him a proposal. Less than an hour later, I received an email with the subject line, "We want to work with you." I blinked, wondering if my eyes were playing tricks on me. Yet within two weeks, I'd signed the contract, and The Moses Conspiracy was published in March 2013.

I've discovered that when I'm at the point of wanting to quit that's usually when a breakthrough is on the horizon. Since that time two more novels have been published and another is about to be released.

I shudder when I think of how close I came to giving up. Thank God for ministries sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Faithfulness, patience, and perseverance are key elements not only in our publishing journeys, but also in our lives.

Bio:  Susan J. Reinhardt's publishing credits include numerous devotionals, articles, and some anthologies. In 2005, she began writing fiction. The Moses Conspiracy, The Scent of Fear, and The Christmas Wish were published in 2013. Her latest book, Out of the Mist released in 2015.

Susan blogs at Christian Writer/Reader Connection and has a Facebook Author Page. You can also find her on Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Goodreads, and Pinterest.

WRITING AMISH NOVELS FROM A MAN'S POINT OF VIEW

Writing Jenny’s Choice and Amish from a man’s POV

BY PATRICK CRAIG

         When I first started writing the Apple Creek Dreams Series, I was amazed at the way my characters seemed to spring from the ground, fully developed, letting me see and record all of their strengths and flaws as though I was writing their biographies.

First I wrote about Jerusha Springer and her encounter with God in the Great Storm of 1950 that paralyzed Ohio.  Then I shared the story of Jenny Springer, Jerusha and Reuben's adopted daughter, and her impassioned search for her own identity, whether or not that would take her outside the Amish community of Apple Creek.

 For the third book, I fully intended to write the story of Rachel Hershberger, Jenny's daughter in a book titled The Amish Heiress.

         When I finished The Road Home, I was startled to discover that I had come to love Jenny Hershberger – her strength, her passion, her mind, her love for God – she had captured my heart.  I kept trying to move on to Rachel's tale, but I could not.  So I asked my publisher if I could continue with Jenny's story and they were gracious enough to give me permission to do so.

         So Jenny’s Choice became the rest of Jenny’s story.  For you romantics, it is the story of true love.  For you pragmatists, a gift given and a gift received.  And for those of you who long for adventure, it is the journey of a tiny girl who is found beside a frozen pond in the heart of a blizzard, the road a young woman travels upon to find her way home, and the coming to fruition of the gift that God placed in Jenny's heart.

         As a postscript, some of you may be interested in what it’s like to write Amish fiction from a man’s Point Of View.  As you know, women write the great majority of Amish fiction and the stories tend to be light-hearted romances that work out in the end just because the characters are Amish.  Oh there are a few ladies who can dish out with mysteries and thrillers, my friend Vannetta Chapman being one of them, but they are the exception in this genre.  For me, writing has always been about strong characters facing hard trials. I read plenty of Zane Grey when I was a boy, and adventure and danger were built in to me by reading such books as Betty Zane and The Spirit of The Border. 

         So when I got a contract to write three Amish novels, I made up my mind that I did not want the series to be your usual light-hearted romance dressed in Amish clothing, but I wanted my stories to be a well-thought-out and uplifting exploration of deep and growing faith in God in the midst of deep trials and desperate situations.  What I really wanted was a new and different approach to contemporary Amish fiction.  Now, a year after Jenny’s Choice, I have finished my fourth Amish book, The Amish Heiress, which will be self-published in a few months and finally tells Rachel’s story.  As I review the manuscript, which turned out to be a real thriller, I have a sneaking suspicion that I may have written myself completely out of the genre.

Summary of Jenny’s Choice

         In the concluding novel to the Apple Creek Dreams series, Jonathan and Jenny Hershberger are happily settled in Paradise, Pennsylvania, on the farm Jenny inherited from her grandfather. But when a tragic accident takes Jonathan’s life, Jenny and her young daughter, Rachel, return home to Apple Creek, Ohio to live with her adoptive parents, Reuben and Jerusha Springer. 

         As Jenny works through her grief and despair, she discovers she has a gift for writing. A handsome young publisher discovers her work and, after the publication of her first book, Jenny is on the verge of worldly success and possible romance.  

         But when a conflict arises with the elders of her church, Jenny must ask herself how far she’s willing to go to pursue her dreams. 

         A touching story of devotion and triumph over adversity.

Meet the Author

Patrick E. Craig is a lifelong writer and musician who left a successful songwriting and performance career in the music industry to follow Christ in 1984. He spent the next 26 years as a worship leader, seminar speaker, and pastor in churches, and at retreats, seminars and conferences all across the western United States. After ministering for a number of years in music and worship to a circuit of small churches, he is now concentrating on writing and publishing both fiction and non-fiction books. Patrick and his wife Judy make their home in northern California an

d are the parents of two adult children and have five grandchildren.

In 2011 he signed a three-book deal with Harvest House Publishers to publish his Apple Creek Dreams series. The books are historical Amish fiction and the first book, A Quilt for Jenna, was released February 1, 2013.  The second book in the series, The Road Home, was released September 1, 2013.  Book number three, Jenny’s Choice, came out February 1, 2014.  His current series is The Paradise Chronicles and the first book, The Amish Heiress, will be out in a few months. Patrick is represented by the Steve Laube Agency.

Buy Jenny at - http://www.amazon.com/Jennys-Choice-Apple-Dreams-Series/dp/0736951091/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/PatrickECraig
Website - www.patrickecraig.com