In this resource, those dealing with grief will learn they are not alone in their feelings and their experiences are not unique. The text also explains ways the Christian community can develop more effective ways to support those who are grieving. (Practical Life)

All Joran wanted was a quiet life of research and study in his alchemy lab. It didn’t seem like so much to ask. But when an emergency at one of his family’s trading posts crops up, his father insists that Joran is the only one that can straighten it out. The next day finds Joran packed and on the road to the empire’s southernmost province. Little does Joran know that a simple business trip will turn into the most dangerous journey of his life. An Unwelcome Journey is the first book in an exciting new Epic Fantasy Adventure.

From the bestselling author of When Things Fall Apart, an open-hearted call for human connection, compassion, and learning to love the world just as it is during these most challenging times. In her first new book of spiritual teachings in over seven years, Pema Chödrön offers a combination of wisdom, heartfelt reflections, and the signature mix of humor and insight that have made her a beloved figure to turn to during times of change. In an increasingly polarized world, Pema shows us how to strengthen our abilities to find common ground, even when we disagree, and influence our environment in positive ways. Sharing never-before told personal stories from her remarkable life, simple and powerful everyday practices, and directly relatable advice, Pema encourages us all to become triumphant bodhisattvas--compassionate beings--in times of hardship. Welcoming the Unwelcome includes teachings on the true meaning of karma, recognizing the basic goodness in ourselves and the people we share our lives with--even the most challenging ones, transforming adversity into opportunities for growth, and freeing ourselves from the empty and illusory labels that separate us. Pema also provides step-by-step guides to a basic sitting meditation and a compassion meditation that anyone can use to bring light to the darkness we face, wherever and whatever it may be.

After surviving the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz, Hans Frankenthal chose to return to live in his hometown of Schmallenberg, Germany at the age of 19. In this memoir, he describes his experiences working as a butcher in the town, a town emptied of its Jewish residences where few wanted to hear about his experiences during the war. He also describes his experiences after retirement, when he finally spoke out and became an advocate for those who had been forced to work as slave laborers for the company I.G. Farben. Translated from Verweigerte Rueckkehr (1999). Annotation (c)2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com).

Selected by Choice magazine as an Outstanding Academic Title In eighteenth-century America, no centralized system of welfare existed to assist people who found themselves without food, medical care, or shelter. Any poor relief available was provided through local taxes, and these funds were quickly exhausted. By the end of the century, state and national taxes levied to help pay for the Revolutionary War further strained municipal budgets. In order to control homelessness, vagrancy, and poverty, New England towns relied heavily on the "warning out" system inherited from English law. This was a process in which community leaders determined the legitimate hometown of unwanted persons or families in order to force them to leave, ostensibly to return to where they could receive care. The warning-out system alleviated the expense and responsibility for the general welfare of the poor in any community, and placed the burden on each town to look after its own. But homelessness and poverty were problems as onerous in early America as they are today, and the system of warning out did little to address the fundamental causes of social disorder. Ultimately the warning-out system gave way to the establishment of general poorhouses and other charities. But the documents that recorded details about the lives of those who were warned out provide an extraordinary—and until now forgotten—history of people on the margin. Unwelcome Americans puts a human face on poverty in early America by recovering the stories of forty New Englanders who were forced to leave various communities in Rhode Island. Rhode Island towns kept better and more complete warning-out records than other areas in New England, and because the official records include those who had migrated to Rhode Island from other places, these documents can be relied upon to describe the experiences of poor people across the region. The stories are organized from birth to death, beginning with the lives of poor children and young adults, followed by families and single adults, and ending with the testimonies of the elderly and dying. Through meticulous research of historical records, Herndon has managed to recover voices that have not been heard for more than two hundred years, in the process painting a dramatically different picture of family and community life in early New England. These life stories tell us that those who were warned out were predominantly unmarried women with or without children, Native Americans, African Americans, and destitute families. Through this remarkable reconstruction, Herndon provides a corrective to the narratives of the privileged that have dominated the conversation in this crucial period of American history, and the lives she chronicles give greater depth and a richer dimension to our understanding of the growth of American social responsibility.

Without any warning, your world can turn in an unexpected and unwanted direction. Drew was a normal ten-year-old, a smiling fourth grader and youngest of three sons. On a sunny day in June 2009, he was given a death sentence he didn't deserve, an illness no child should face, with treatment options as frightening as the illness itself. As Drew and his family begin their journey, taking the steps necessary to save his life from this illness, a catastrophic complication occurs that brings them to the brink of darkness, only to be liberated in an extraordinary and accelerated manner that medical science could not predict. Drew's journey, and that of his family, will inspire you believe in miracles and perhaps reaffirm a faith lost or neglected. This journey will encourage you to step outside your comfort zone, dare to believe, and feel for yourself, our experience and the triumphant return of the boy who was born smiling.