When one has a purpose in life, he shall find the means to achieve it and will not lose time to dream. It requires determination. God is the only who knows the destiny of each individual, and we are very grateful to Him for creating me with a black skin, and having filled me with His Spirit of truth and judgement to avoid doubt and fear, which are the basis of all the troubles. This Spirit has lived throughout our research and training in general. That life has no draft. Our research was painful because it is comparable to the pilgrimage of Jews on their way to the Promised Land. The rains that fell on me are similar to the deluge. Without realising it, the distance I travelled across countries in search of knowledge before writing this book can be compared to a world tour on foot. Writing a book is always the work of many hands and minds besides that of the authors. This book is dedicated to the Lord God, the Almighty source of all life. Special thanks to my lovely wife and children for their amazing contributions to make part of the hidden worlds visible to everyone. Thanks to the brothers and sisters in the Lord for their prayers, to friends, and to the extended family, near and far, for their valuable contributions to make the hidden worlds possible. Special thanks to Hannah Cordle, Ray Russell, Miles Cole, Sam Pochen, Wanza Maya, and Dr Milwood PhD., who have given me valuable suggestions throughout my book. In particular, thanks to the Kongolese diaspora interviewed and authors for their copyrights. To my uncles, it is time for me to say a big thank you. To my parents, with regret, Marie Pady and Simon Ngangoma, who sowed joy but are not alive to reap the harvest. May their souls rest in eternal peace! Vibrant tribute to all Kongolese heroes who died and continue to die for the nation: in memory of so many years we shared together in Kongo, we love and miss them deeply and will carry their spirit with us until the time we meet again.

Did you know——that a New Jerseyan was the first president of the United States?—that New Jersey was the site of the first organized college football game?—that New Jersey was the location of one of the most devastating espionage attacks of World War I?—that the heroics of a New Jersey woman saved thousands of people from dying of yellow fever?—that one of the first American folk heroes lived in New Jersey—and jumped off waterfalls? These and other fascinating stories can be found in the newly updated Rediscover the Hidden New Jersey, a treasury of New Jersey stories that celebrate the unique heritage and importance of the Garden State. Russell Roberts has scoured New Jersey, from High Point to Cape May, to bring readers a delightful potpourri of facts, essays, lists, photos, stories, and legends about New Jersey. Readers will learn how New Jersey used to be the center of the motion picture universe, the origin of the Jersey Devil and other popular tall tales, where Norman Mailer and Abbot & Costello were born, where Aaron Burr and Leo, the M-G-M lion, lie buried, and much more. Learn about the geology of New Jersey, find out about the state’s ever-changing weather, and how New Jersey was chosen for the famous (or infamous) War of the Worlds radio broadcast that panicked the nation. All this and more is in Rediscover the Hidden New Jersey, the ultimate New Jersey book. This revised edition contains new sections on Lawnside, the Morris Canal, Albert Einstein in Princeton, The Bordentown Manual Training School, Rockefeller/Ocean County Park, the bicycle railroad, Morro Castle, Alice Paul, and more.

President Theodore Roosevelt called Jacob Riis "the best American I ever knew." The pioneering photojournalist, an immigrant from Denmark, drew attention to the poverty and evils of slum life in the late 1800s. Riis won national acclaim when his photos illustrated his bestselling book How the Other Half Lives. The book focused on the difficult time immigrants faced as thousands of newcomers flooded into the United States each year. Riis called for reform and hoped to prod government officials to help the poor people who were forced to live under horrible conditions. The impact of Riis' photos came from capturing the poor and homeless as they lived and worked, with the subjects' eyes often staring directly into the camera. The great photographer Ansel Adams called them "magnificent achievements in the field of humanistic photography." But the reforms that came from Riis' work have not eliminated urban poverty and homelessness, and important work remains to be done.

Moments after their wedding reception, Ray Hoover and his wife, Lucy, began a lifelong quest to see the world. To date, they have logged six million miles, taken two thousand trips to seven continents, and filled over four hundred passport pages with thousands of stamps and visas. In a fascinating travelogue, Ray chronicles their most profound exploits to some of the world’s most unusual destinations, often under unique circumstances, that taught them not just about the geography of a location, but also the spirit derived from it. Throughout his narrative, Ray details their travels to the City of Gold, the Middle East including a cruise on the Nile, some of the most conflicted places on Earth, India and Imperial China, Vietnam and Cambodia, Nepal, Egypt, East Berlin, Ireland and Greece, Africa, Australia, North America, Antarctica, and much more. Adventures to the World’s Hidden Corners chronicles the lifelong quest of an architect and his wife as they embarked on an odyssey to the world’s most intriguing and out-of-the-way places.

It was mainly only the European urban centers that converted to Christianity, and often more for political or commercial interests, than as a matter of faith. The old religions persisted in the villages or pagani, from which the term Paganism arose. The Christians built their sanctuaries upon the pagan sites, expropriating their numinous past, assimilating the symbolism of the former deities, and commonly incorporating the actual architectural remnants. The wisdom of those deposed gods and their rites persisted in less objectionable forms -- disguised to delude the censors -- as country festivals and quaint tales often about the fairy folk, who coexisted with this world and could be accessed by magical procedures that perpetuated half-remembered methods of authentic ancient shamanism. Such shamanism always involved pharmaceutical expertise. Mircea Eliade was mistaken in concluding that drugs were characteristic only of the late and decadent stages of a religion. Rock paintings of the greatest antiquity and his own abundant citations indicate that, instead, a pharmacological Eucharist was the norm; and Eliade was himself about to reverse his stance shortly before his death. Encoded in tales seemingly as simple as Snow White with her poisoned red and white apple are themes traceable back to the great epics of Homer and the Mesopotamian Gilgamesh. These patterns of shamanic empowerment lurk also in the histories of the leading families of Europe, who could not completely divest themselves of the former religious basis for their right to rule, but instead they embraced, Christianized, and buried it in sanctified graves, as was the case with the great fairy Melusina, whose eighth abominable son, called Horrible, was murdered. A number of churches involved in the Albigensian heresy claim his body was laid to rest beneath them.

Individuals and groups. Models of current ministries are also provided to help pastors, active church members, and "seekers" experience spiritual renewal by tapping the wellspring of African American spirituality.