The story of a young girl who moved from Ukraine to the United States shortly after 9/11. The story of how a girl's desire to please God and choose his will for her life put her through trials and challenges of life. Yelena was born and raised in Rivne, Ukraine, and moved to America's Vancouver when she was almost seventeen. Yelena has always considered herself blessed beyond limits because of being raised by her God-loving and God-fearing parents. She considers her parents, siblings, friends, and every individual that touched her life as the greatest gifts from the most generous God. She has always been passionate about doing everything for God's glory and choosing his will for her life. Lena strongly believes that believing in God's perfect salvation plan through Jesus and having a personal close relationship with God can get anyone through any challenges and trials in life. Plus the believing offers the greatest hope for an amazing eternity. She also believes that trials are an integral part of anyone's life allowed by God for us to grow and exercise trust and dependence on him as he desires to be our greatest resource, helper, and advocate, which he achieves through the Holy Spirit. If we let him. Yelena has been married to her husband, Vitaliy, since 2008. She loves being a mom to her daughter Ashley. She has two brothers, five sisters, thirteen nephews, and six nieces. For over a decade, Yelena worked in the local health care, where she poured her love and skills into patients and coworkers. She runs a successful real estate business, which rewards her with happy clients and finances she can generously share with those in need (as she always dreamed) and is working on reaching other dreams and goals that God has carved in her heart. Yelena loves spending time with her family, travelling, being in nature, rollerblading, reading, and impacting others in a positive way. Even if it is just giving them her smile.

More than 500,000 copies sold! Updated and expanded! Prayer is hard. Often, unless circumstances demand it—such as an illness or saying grace before a meal—most of us simply do not pray. This kind of prayerlessness can leave us with a distressed spirit and practical unbelief characterized by fear, anxiety, joylessness, and spiritual depression. A Praying Life is a prayer guide that has encouraged thousands of Christians to pursue a vibrant prayer life full of joy and power and has helped them learn how to pray faithfully and courageously. A life of prayer invites you to a life of connection to God. When Jesus describes the intimacy that He seeks with us, He talks about joining us for dinner (Revelation 3:20). This book reminds readers that prayer is simply making conversation with God a rhythm of daily Christian life. A Praying Life includes chapters about: How to deal with unanswered prayer How to start a prayer journal Does prayer make a difference? Now with added chapters addressing prayers of lament and further guidance for using prayer cards, Paul Miller invites you to foster prayer that regularly hopes, trusts, and expects God to act. Learn to develop helpful habits and approaches to prayer that will enable you to return to a childlike faith and witness spiritual growth today! “This book will be like having the breath of God at your back. Let it lift you to new hope.” —Dan B. Allender, PhD, author of Bold Love

WHAT’S GOD DOING IN YOUR STORY? Our kids beg us for stories at bedtime or while we drive; we gather around firepits and dinner tables to tell and retell our favorite tales—the more dramatic the better. But when it comes to our actual lives, we prefer something less sensational, even boring—sunny skies and smooth sailing, please and thank you. We want our own stories to be predictable, safe, controllable, and catastrophe-free. When plans fall apart, jobs are lost, kids wander off, doctors give bad reports, we often wonder, "What are you doing, God? Are you sure you have this under control? It doesn’t really seem like it right now." God is the master Storyteller. He’s writing your story and it’s a part of His bigger, grander, eternal Story. But we’re still in the middle. We haven’t gotten to the happy ending yet, and it can be hard to trust Him in the thick of our struggles. That’s why Robert and Nancy share their own story, friends’ stories, and the stories of people in the Bible who have faced life-altering challenges, but, in the end, have found God to be faithful. Learn why you really can trust God to write your story—no matter what plot twists you may encounter along the way. "This is a unique and charming book, integrating stories of God’s providence from His people and His Word. Nancy and Robert write personally and beautifully, infusing readers with a Christ-centered vision, hope, and trust for the future." -Randy Alcorn, author of Heaven, Giving is the Good Life, and Deception "You Can Trust God to Write Your Story is an amazing book whose title says it all. For if you are a follower of Jesus, every day of your life—whether you feel like it or not—is weighted with kingdom purpose, eternal significance, and a royal destiny filled with joy and contentment. Let my dear friends, Robert and Nancy, help you embrace the mysteries of the Lord’s Providence. For when it comes to happy endings, you can’t find a better Author than the God of the Bible. Happy endings are His forte—turn the page, trust Him, and discover it for yourself." -Joni Eareckson Tada, Joni and Friends International Disability Center

Is your life where you want it to be? We all have struggles and challenges in life. Whether they are of our own making or not, things don’t always work out. Sometimes, we just give up on our dreams and goals. But it doesn’t have to be that way! God is a God of new beginnings, and throughout the entire Bible, we read about people who were stuck, disappointed, and faced impossible situations—people God freed. Rosalinda Torres Rivera challenges us to Dare to Begin Again. Using stories from her own life, other people, and biblical times, Rosalinda offers inspirational, down-to-earth advice on beginning again. Each chapter tackles a different issue where you may be “stuck”—such as an inability to forgive, trust, or hope—and examples of people who overcame similar challenges. Practical tasks at the end of each chapter walk you through a DARE challenge (Decide, Allow, Rise, Enjoy) to help you move closer to a fresh start. Rosalinda is the daughter of Victor Torres, an ex-gang member from Brooklyn, New York, and his wife, Carmen, founders of the New Life For Youth ministry. She has seen more than twenty thousand people get out of tough situations and turn their lives around. “They’re people whose tales of transformation prove God is still at work,” she says. “He’s written and re-written their life’s chapters—and He’s willing to do the same for you.” It takes a commitment, but with the help of God, inspiring, true stories, and practical applications, you can Dare to Begin Again.

Motherhood is a season. The challenges of motherhood would not last a lifetime. Yet, the failure to identify the significance of the season, and to escape from it may bring about long-term consequences for the rest of her life. The author with more than 20 years of counselling experience wishes to journey with mothers, and helping them to identify the different seasons of their lives so that they are able to identify personal growth opportunities, find fulfillment, and their values as woman. The issues that are discussed in the book include: Self-Image Rebellious children Uncooperative husband Dealing with hurts In-laws relationship

I Found God in Me is the first womanist biblical hermeneutics reader. In it readers have access, in one volume, to articles on womanist interpretative theories and theology as well as cutting-edge womanist readings of biblical texts by womanist biblical scholars. This book is an excellent resource for women of color, pastors, and seminarians interested in relevant readings of the biblical text, as well as scholars and teachers teaching courses in womanist biblical hermeneutics, feminist interpretation, African American hermeneutics, and biblical courses that value diversity and dialogue as crucial to excellent pedagogy.

Do You Believe in True Love? In a world of broken relationships and hurting people, it can seem like all we ever see is heartache—that marriages are doomed from the start and romance isn't worth the risk. But heart-fluttering, long-lasting love is all around us...we just have to look for it! This collection of beautiful, real-life accounts will bring laughter and tears as you enjoy each story of ordinary people who found extraordinary love. Page after page, you will find inspiration to rekindle the romance in your love story trust in God's providence and timing faithfully hope for your own happily-ever-after celebrate true romance believe in life-long love Don't let the world define romance for you! See how God is at work in the hearts of His people—knitting together hearts in a love that forever endures.

Alice Walker's Pulitzer Prize winning novel The Color Purple is a tale of personal empowerment which opens with a protagonist Celie who is at the bottom of America's social caste. A poor, black, ugly and uneducated female in the America's Jim Crow South in the first half of the 20th century, she is the victim of constant rape, violence and misogynistic verbal abuse. Celie cannot conceive of an escape from her present condition, and so she learns to be passive and unemotional. But The Color Purple eventually demonstrates how Celie learns to fight back and how she discovers her true sexuality and her unique voice. By the end of the novel, Celie is an empowered, financially-independent entrepreneur/landowner, one who speaks her mind and realizes the desirability of black femaleness while creating a safe space for herself and those she loves. Through a journey of literary criticism, Dialogue: Alice Walker's The Color Purple follows Celie's transformation from victim to hero. Each scholarly essay becomes a step of the journey that paves the way for the development of self and sexual awareness, the beginnings of religious transformation and the creation of nurturing places like home and community.

In Out of the Darkness, A Journey into the Light, Mark Whittington writes about the freedom to choose your spiritual foundation. Our spiritual foundation can be of Lightor of Darkness. Many never find spiritual peace because it is won or lost in the mind. Our mind controls our destiny by allowing us to choose how we live. We begin at a young age searching for love, contentment and happiness in our lives. Our spirit can lead us into good or bad situations while we are searching for answers. Many times our choices lead us into mistakes that affect our lives forever. If you are fortunate to choose Spiritual Lightness for your life, this peace will lead you to the path of knowing you are loved, that you can be content in your daily life, and that you will know what happens at your death. In the end, death is inevitable; we will face judgment in the end no matter which spiritual path our minds allow us to choose. Experiences in life can strengthen your faith along with giving you guidance in making better choices. I will have been fortunate to have faced Jesus twice -once in life and once in death... Author Bio Mark Whittington is a native of the Deep South. Out of the Darkness: A Journey into the Light is his first book. He currently lives in Pell City, Alabama with his wife and son where they are members of Pell City First United Methodist Church.

At the age of 72, and after years of teaching, Julia Duan left China and returned to student life at Whitworth College, Spokane, Washington, and later at Moody Bible Institute. Her story was discovered by Linda Hunt, a writing professor at Whitworth, when she read Julia's description of her first night in the labor camp. Touched by this chapter in Julia's life, Linda suggested she write her entire story. She prayed and ultimately agreed to let her life "be a spectacle to the world for God's glory.