While fiction lovers may find Amish romance novels beguiling, the surprising true story of Amish courtship, weddings and marriage unfolds in a new, richly researched book that strives to portray the Plain community with respect and authenticity. Author Beth Oberholtzer introduces real Amish couples in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, inviting readers into the entire process of Amish courtship as well as the inner workings of a daylong wedding event like no other. Amish Weddings offers a true insider’s look—through stories, history, and evocative photos—into the community-wide “making” of an Amish wedding. Personal stories from brides and grooms, attendants, servers, paper ladies, ushers, hostlers, and others provide a window into a unique celebration that honors the couple while enveloping them in their community of faith. In addition to photos from actual Amish weddings, menus and recipes enjoyed by generations of celebrants offer...
Helping Christian Parents Navigate the Identity Conversation
by Christie Penner Worden
Foreword by Meredith Anne Miller
$19.99 / CAD $27.19
ISBN: 9781513814841
Pub Date: 09/10/2024
Your kids are talking about identity. Are you part of the conversation?
Today’s kids and youth are talking about identity—and often very differently from the adults around them. How can we walk well with them through their questions about who they are and how they fit into the family of God? We must begin by telling a better gospel story, with an invitational posture that actually expects us to love God and love others.
In this engaging and disarming book that speaks to readers across the theological spectrum, author and children’s ministry expert Christie Penner Worden invites grownups along to imagine a more Jesus-centered narrative for the sake of kids who are no longer buying what the church is selling, who do not feel safe, and who have not been welcomed into the conversation that adults are having without them. The Me I Was Made...
When our children turn 18, we hope to happily launch them into the world to become the adults we’ve been preparing them to be. Their pathway seems clear: most will go to college, find a vocation and then a true love, and settle into a comfortable life while we parents keep in touch through occasional phone calls, family gatherings, and surprise trips home for Christmas. But now more than ever, these expectations fail to acknowledge the significant challenges faced by many young people, from a pandemic to racial unrest to a climate crisis that is setting the world on fire, figuratively and literally.
While young people are consistently told they need to discern God’s calling, in Finding Our Way Forward, Melanie Springer Mock draws on her decades as a college professor and mom to four adult children to explore how finding our way means developing a more expansive understanding...
A Trauma-Informed Guidebook for the Foster and Adoptive Journey
by Jennifer Ranter Hook and Joshua N. Hook
Foreword by Lisa Qualls
$18.99 / CAD $25.83
ISBN: 9781513810478
Pub Date: 01/17/2023
A practical roadmap for foster and adoptive families
Caring for children is deeply important to the heart of God, and adoption and foster care are important callings that connect to God’s heart for children and families. But this road isn’t always easy. It’s important that foster and adoptive parents prepare to address their children’s history of trauma, separation, and disrupted placements, which can lead to mental health, emotional, and behavioral difficulties. It is also important to understand how this journey shapes and influences our children. We cannot ignore the deep feelings and questions that children experience as they try to understand their story. How can we help them navigate their identity, and sit with them in the unknowns of their story or the grief and loss that comes up? Drawing on the latest science and research on trauma, attachment, sensory processing difficulties, cultural competence, and grief and loss,...
Finding Meaning in Family Ancestry, Genetic Clues, and Generational Trauma
by Michelle Van Loon
$17.99 / CAD $24.47
ISBN: 9781513809519
Pub Date: 02/22/2022
Uncover the spiritual strength of your family story.
We all have a desire to learn more about where we’ve come from, and technology has made this more possible than ever. But our family stories are more than a list of DNA results on a piece of paper or a bunch of fading Kodachrome images filling old photo albums.
In an era often marked by both fragmentation in family and culture and a hunger to discover our genetic roots, our family stories—including the difficult, complex ones—can carry great spiritual strength. The desire to trace, interpret, and pass on our family’s history is embedded in Scripture from beginning to end—there are nine genealogies found in the book of Genesis alone. When we bring together the various threads of our family stories with Scripture’s insights, they can provide the key to decoding our identity and helping us discover our...
Sexualized Violence, the Bible, and Standing with Survivors
by Susannah Larry
$17.99 / CAD $24.47
ISBN: 9781513808178
Pub Date: 08/03/2021
#MeToo. #ChurchToo. #GodToo?
What if survivors of sexualized violence experience the Bible as a powerful spiritual resource rather than an oppressive tool in the hands of those seeking to dismiss or justify abuse? Bible scholar Susannah Larry leads fellow survivors and those who care for them in a journey toward reclaiming the Bible amid the trauma of sexualized violence.
Leaving Silence: Sexualized Violence, the Bible, and Standing with Survivors is an unflinching examination of sexualized violence in the Bible and the God who stands steadfastly with survivors. Larry addresses biblical experiences of coercion, familial betrayal, and self-blame while also illuminating God’s constant care and concern.
By centering the experiences of survivors in Scripture, Larry opens new insights into some of the Bible’s most difficult texts and releases its ancient stories to serve as a powerful healing witness to the God who has shared in the...
Longing for permission to be real about your own needs and struggles? Permission granted.
As good Christian moms, we’re not supposed to ask for much. Jesus meets all our needs and we’re the light of the world to everybody else, right? Wrong. Shari Zook appeared to be an overachieving supermom who deftly supported her pastor-husband and their congregation, looked after their children, and cared for foster children through the ups and downs of placements. But inside, her world was growing increasingly desperate as she struggled with the grief of miscarriage, parenting a difficult child, and spiraling depression. In her darkest hour, Zook let go of her need to appear super-human and reached out to receive God’s unfolding grace. With humor and artistry, Peanut Butter and Dragon Wings gives us permission to step out from behind the appearance of rose-filtered perfection and embrace the authenticity...
Your kids are spreading their wings. Are you ready?In Fledge, counselor, educator, and mother Brenda L. Yoder helps Christian parents navigate the many transitions of the launching years. How do you...
Katherine Willis Pershey has never slept with the mailman or kissed an ex-boyfriend. Good thing, since she’s married. But simply not committing adultery does not give you the keys to “happily ever...
A Parent's Guide to Sanity in the World of Youth Sports
by David King and Margot Starbuck
$15.99 / CAD $21.75
ISBN: 9780836199727
Pub Date: 03/08/2016
As seen in Focus on the Family magazine.Should I sign up our seven-year-old son for the travel team? What should we do about our daughter's Sunday morning games? Am I the only one longing for a sane...
