Showing results by narrator "Pam Ward" in All Categories

Many Christian women are torn between how the church has taught traditional gender roles and the liberty they see secular society afford to women. But what if the church's conventional teachings on the place of women aren't really biblical at all? On Purpose is a serious study on the verses in the Bible that have often been interpreted to define the role of women in the church, at home, and in the workplace. Julie Coleman reveals how the timeless principles in the Bible actually teach freedom for women. In fact, when rightly understood, these verses are a wake-up call.

Ambition is a dominant force in for human civilization, driving its greatest achievements and most horrific abuses. Our striving has brought art, airplanes, and antibiotics, as well as wars, genocide, and despotism. This mixed record raises obvious concerns about how we can channel ambition in the most productive directions.

Dear Inga, I’m thinking it is not good for my baby and me to stay much longer in Whistle Creek, Idaho. The sheriff is showing altogether too much interest. I suppose I should feel flattered, for Carson Barclay is not only strikingly handsome, but a man of character and faith who has shown Keary and me considerable kindness. But I’m afraid his affections are ones I cannot return. The secret I bear makes a future with him impossible. Yet Inga, when Sheriff Barclay is near, it’s everything in my Irish heart that wishes otherwise.

My dear Beth, though Uppsala, Iowa, takes its name from a city in my native Sweden, life here is different from what I have known. With my parents' blessing, I have taken employment in the home of Mr. Bridger, a dairy farmer, caring for his ill mother and two young, orphaned nieces. It is most unlike me to leave home, even in a temporary manner. But the need is great and Hattie Bridger and the children are so endearing. As for Dirk Bridger, he is an unhappy man, but also loyal, hardworking, and honorable.

When someone leaves an abusive marriage, life isn't instantly fixed. Women who have experienced domestic violence feel shattered. Because of the trauma they've been through, a bond with their abuser has formed that keeps them tied together long after they've physically left. Karen DeArmond Gardner understands these difficulties all too well. And she intimately knows what women in this situation need in order to gain freedom from the lies of abuse - to be reborn as the people God longs for them to be.

In the biblical canon, two books lack any explicit reference to the name of God: Song of Songs and Esther. God's peculiar absence in these texts is unsettling, both for theological discourse and for believers considering implications for their own lived experience. Chloe T. Sun takes on the challenges of God's absence by exploring the often overlooked theological connections between these two Old Testament books.

Mike Pence's rise to the vice presidency of the United States wasn't always easy. To some, he is the personification of American conservative values, but to others, his ideals are the epitome of prejudice and bigotry. In Pence: The Path to Power, journalist Andrea Neal showcases how the vice president arrived at this position of influence. Neal interviews friends, family, staff, former teachers, and politicians on both sides of the aisle to reveal a multifaceted view of the self-described Christian, Conservative, and Republican.

In this remarkable culinary biography, Rae Katherine Eighmey presents Benjamin Franklin's experimentation with food throughout his life. At age 16, he began dabbling in vegetarianism. In his early 20s, citing the health benefits of water over alcohol, he convinced his printing press colleagues to abandon their traditional breakfast of beer and bread for "water gruel", a kind of porridge he enjoyed. Franklin is known for his scientific discoveries, including electricity and the lightning rod, and his curiosity and logical mind extended to the kitchen.

Collected here are 10 Western short stories by Richard S. Wheeler, the award-winning author who makes storytelling look easy. In "Mugs Birdsong's Crime Academy", celebrated criminal Mugs Birdsong decides to found an academy that will instruct lawmen on the ways and means of lawlessness. "The Last Days of Dominic Prince" is the tragic tale of a cattle baron and his final conflict with the forces of political correctness. "Dead Weight" introduces us to a coffin maker who constructs a work of art.

Nelson Mandela led a long and remarkable life. From his earliest days herding cows in a South African village, he became a child of privilege, a rebellious runaway, a successful lawyer, a political dissident, a rising star in the African nationalist movement, an underground saboteur, a political prisoner, a secret negotiator with South Africa's rulers, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, president of his country, and a statesman who held South Africa together long enough to find reconciliation and the path to prosperity.

Hillary Rodham Clinton was born to parents determined to overcome obstacles and achieve success. She married Bill Clinton, a man from humble roots who rose to serve two terms as President of the United States. She ran for office against, and then worked for, President Barack Obama. She is not defined by those relationships, but rather by her intellect, ambition, and peerless work ethic. Clinton has served as first lady, senator, and secretary of state.

Conventional wisdom holds that John F. Kennedy was the first celebrity president, in no small part because of his innate television savvy. But as Kathryn Brownell shows, Kennedy capitalized on a tradition and style rooted in California politics and the Hollywood studio system. Since the 1920s, politicians and professional showmen have developed relationships and built organizations institutionalizing Hollywood styles, structures, and personalities in the American political process.

In the summer of 1916, a big twister brings destruction to the land around Boynton, Oklahoma. Alafair Tucker's family and neighbors are not spared the ruin and grief spread by the storm. But no one is going to mourn for Jubal Beldon, who made it his business to know the ugly secrets of everyonei n town. It doesn't matter if Jubal's insinuations are true or not. In a small town like Boynton, rumor is as damaging as fact.

We are not taught how to grieve, and yet grief comes to every one of us at some time. Bestselling author Lauraine Snelling discovered this truth when she began her own journey with grief in 1985, the year her 20-year-old daughter, Marie, lost her battle with cancer.

In this nonfiction book,A Hand to Hold, Lauraine helps us release the fears that make us uncomfortable around those who grieve. She urges us to offer those who grieve the gifts of touch, tears, talk, and time.

Marine biologist Kathy McNeely travels to Alaska, where she discovers an illegal ivory-poaching operation that is threatening the region's walrus population, and, with the help of a local tribe, she sets out to expose the poachers.

Kathy McNeely, a marine biologist and environmentalist, and a Russian scientist investigate a mysterious oil spill in pristine Antarctica despite storms, tourists, a reporter, and a series of so-called accidents at various research stations.

From the time she was conceived, Susan Morse was her mother’s “special” child. For Susan, special translated into becoming her incorrigible mother’s frazzled caretaker, a role that continued into adulthood. Now she finds herself as part of the sandwich generation, responsible for a woman whose 85 years have been single-mindedly devoted to identifying The Answer To Everything. And, this week’s Answer looks like it may be the real thing. Susan’s mother is becoming a nun.

A response to all those grandmother books with flowers and puppies on the cover, Grandma Rules is a book for the hip, baby boomer grandma who realizes that after all the work she put into her own kids, she can take a break and have fun with her grandkids. A perfect gift for the greatest grandmothers you know, this book is laugh-out-loud funny while offering useful insights and tips on how to embrace the world’s greatest job.

When former Congressman Mark Stedman throws in the towel on his presidential campaign, his only choice is to return to his home state and decide how to spend the rest of his life...until he meets Josiah Stoltzfus, an Amish farmer from Pennsylvania. Using his old campaign headquarters for a base, Mark Stedman determines to introduce a new candidate to America. He pledges to do everything in his power to make sure Josiah gets elected. But can a plain man of faith turn the tide of politics and become the leader of America? And what will he have to risk to do it?

Roman Catholic sisters first traveled to the American West as providers of social services, education, and medical assistance. In Across God’s Frontiers, Anne M. Butler traces the ways in which sisters challenged and reconfigured contemporary ideas about women, work, religion, and the West; moreover, she demonstrates how religious life became a vehicle for increasing women’s agency and power.