A sudden cancer diagnosis finds a wife, mother of three and full time employee of the local university with an unexpected life changing decision. The reconstruction of her current job position forces her to choose to travel three weeks out of each month or return to the college classroom to complete her undergraduate degree. The many HURDLES all the way will pull at your heart strings, cry with laughter, challenging your spirit and fill your soul with joy. This memoir will take you on a journey to the core of author's true self, while understanding the importance of her family and friends. On her five year cancer anniversary, this runner in her own race will hopefully encourage you to become a better spouse, parent, child, friend and leader to all. Some of the names have been changed to protect the innocent and the few guilty.

As I was writing about my surprise, unplanned retirement, I came to realize I needed to go back into my past in order to answer my questions about my present and to move into my future. I needed to find some peace about this latest transition. I had reached the top of the pay scale, and my principal, needing to reinforce her power status, recently pushed me into an early, unplanned retirement, which is the basis of this book. Her constant harassment tore me into pieces, but God was able to use this transition along with some of my others to reassemble the pieces and guide me into a new life. Transitions may involve an end, but they can also usher in a bright new beginning!

I hope and pray that experiencing how God and I have faced some of the disturbing transitions in my life might help you or a loved one through some of the challenges you face in life.

Rheumatic fever came at an early age and took several of his cousins and caused him to be confined to bed for many months while recovering. This confinment and curtailment caused Jack to develop his artistic talent in a more acute way. While always being a jokester, he has had a funny way of telling a yarn and he hopes you enjoy reading about some of the funny things that happened to him on the way to the forum.

The Light of Truth has been written entirely whilst in close prayer, and every word has been given by The Holy Spirt. It is a book of proverbs, psalms, and teachings. It is a book about life and eternal life. It is a book of truth. Each one of us has to come to the point when we wonder what life is all about. How is it we are alive, how the world was made, and most importantly - why? When i searched openly for the truth - i found God. He is a Spirit full of love and compassion! I asked him everything I could, showed him evey doubt that science and modern society has raised in me. He answered all my questions and sometimes I was told to write the answers down. This book is the result.

This book is written for those who suffer from severe and persistant mental illness. It is about the trials of a man with the illness and how he reached from poverty and despair to the heights of obtaining an MSW and LCSW. It is also written for Literary students with a specific style of writing. Students of Counseling, Social Work, Psychology, and Psychiatry will get a realistic view of what the illness is like and can do. It is an autobiographical, educational, and inspirational experience that needs told

Ron's book, "The Synergistic Life Style - How To Set Goals And Live A Balanced and Abundant Life," contains fourteen chapters covering the different areas of our lives that we should set goals and strive to achieve in: Commitment - Goals - Budget - Feedback - Problems - Spiritual - Mental - Emotional - Physical - Marriage - Children - Support Group - Financial - Work. Ron and June have taught senior high school students and beginning couples in church classes and seminars during the past 40 years. They have now followed these young people long enough to know that the teaching points contained in this book work. Ron and June have learned many of the principles shared in the book while experiences problems in their lives, which they share with the reader. They know that if you fail in one area of life, it will have a negative effect in other areas. There are so many threats to individuals and families that are trying to live an abundant life. The negative influences are greater today because of the fast pace of life, and the delivery systems for these influences on our children. The threats include: divorce - negative influence from the media - materialism - absentee fathers - alcohol and drug use by one of the parents - the availability of alcohol and drugs around schools - pornography on the internet - morality not being taught at home - medical depressiuon - and a need for both parents to work just to keep up. Each chapter includes Ron's beliefs about the things needed to live an abundant life. When you add up all of the lessons learned in each chapter, the synergistic result will be a balanced life greater than the sum of each area..

The position of women in Islam remains deeply contentious. While conservative elements both within Islam and among its Western critics continue to claim that Islamic law and values are fundamentally incompatible with modern notions of gender equality, since the 1980s there has been a growing body of scholarship which seeks to make the case for feminism and gender justice within a distinctly Islamic paradigm. In Islamic Feminism, Mulki Al-Sharmani examines the goals, approaches and methodologies which key scholars have adopted in their efforts at crafting an Islamic feminist discourse. Encompassing scholars from both the Islamic world and the Muslim diaspora, ranging from the pioneering scholar activist Amina Wadud to Egypt's Omaima Abou Bakr, the book also looks at how these scholars have translated their work into meaningful political action through groups such as the global Musawah movement and the Egyptian Women and Memory Forum. Crucially, Al-Sharmani also shows that Islamic feminism is a phenomenon which extends far beyond academia. Drawing on the author's own extensive research and interviews with women in Egypt, the UK, Malaysia, Finland and elsewhere, the book explores how ordinary Muslim women in both the West and the Islamic world are increasingly asserting their autonomy and challenging patriarchal interpretations of their religion, as well as exploring the linkages between Islamic feminist scholarship and the realities of these women's lived experiences. In the process, Islamic Feminism not only uncovers new directions for Islamic feminist scholarship, but upends many of our preconceptions about Islam and the role of women within it.

Americans remain deeply ambivalent about teenage sexuality. Many presume that such uneasiness is rooted in religion. But how exactly does religion contribute to the formation of teenagers' sexual values and actions? What difference, if any, does religion make in adolescents' sexual attitudes and behaviors? Are abstinence pledges effective? What does it mean to be "emotionally ready" for sex? Who expresses regrets about their sexual activity and why?
Tackling these and other questions, Forbidden Fruit tells the definitive story of the sexual values and practices of American teenagers, paying particular attention to how participating in organized religion shapes sexual decision-making. Merging analyses of three national surveys with stories drawn from interviews with over 250 teenagers across America, Mark Regnerus reviews how young people learn-and what they know-about sex from their parents, schools, peers and other sources. He examines what experiences teens profess to have had, and how they make sense of these experiences in light of their own identities as religious, moral, and responsible persons.
Religion can and does matter, Regnerus finds, but religious claims are often swamped by other compelling sexual scripts. Particularly interesting is the emergence of what Regnerus calls a new middle class sexual morality which has little to do with a desire for virginity but nevertheless shuns intercourse in order to avoid risks associated with pregnancy and STDs. And strikingly, evangelical teens aren't less sexually active than their non-evangelical counterparts, they just tend to feel guiltier about it. In fact, Regnerus finds that few religious teens have internalized or areeven able to articulate the sexual ethic taught by their denominations. The only-and largely ineffective-sexual message most religious teens are getting is, "Don't do it until you're married." Ultimately, Regnerus concludes, religion may influence adolescent sexual behavior, but it rarely motivates sexual decision making.

Sam served four overseas tours in the U.S. Army. He served in the Military Police during two tours of South Korea and one tour in West Germany. Once he graduated U.S. Army CID school he returned to West Germany as a Special Agent. Courtesy of the US Army he also served stateside assignments in Arizona, Texas, Alabama and Georgia. Sam observed the very best and the very worst of the US Military. While in Frankfurt West Germany Sam was Team Chief of the most productive Narcotics Investigation (Drug Suppression Team) in Europe. However, when he was told that he would be taking over more more Narcotics Investigations as a CID Team Chief, he declined and left the US Army with numerous medals and awards. Sam no longer believed our current "War on Drugs" paradigm was productive. Our "Drug War" mentality prevents Law Enforcement from doing real "Harm Reduction" and causes more damage and harm than the actual illegal drug use.

Once again, Father Lawrence Ventline inspires us with his imaginative, creative writing. He finds such beautiful ways of describing the so-called ordinary...the "official dump." JoAnn Loria Spiritual Director and Pastoral Associate Sterling Heights, Michigan Green is frequently found in Scriptures, but seldom refers strictly to color. Green brings to mind the freshness and vigor of growing vegetation. It denotes a healthy and prosperous condition of things. One could hardly disagree with the author's challenge to live in the manner in which Christians of new birth and hope should conduct themselves in order to maintain the wellness of their families, community, country and world. Mr. and Mrs. Dewey Totty Transfiguration Parish Southfield, Michigan

Una gua sencilla, breve y clara para realizar los "milagros" que Dios quiere seguir actuando en nuestro mundo.

No es un libro para leer, es para practicar, para propiciar y crear condiciones favorables, recordar que Cristo quiere hacerse presente para m en los dems; pero tambin quiere que yo sea su presencia para que en m le vean los otros. En mis manos pone alegras y consuelos, ayudas y esperanzas; all deposita todo su amor, y quiere que yo lo vaya sembrando a mi paso.

Y lo mismo para m, con la mayor sencillez me llegar, en manos hermanas, lo que necesito, lo que desesperadamente busco, o lo que pido suplicante en mi oracin.

All donde las seguridades humanas se desmoronan, es donde las promesas de Cristo pueden hacerse realidad. Donde intervienen el desinters, lo gratuito, Dios est pasando a nuestro lado disfrazado de prjimo, pobre, triste y desamparado.

Al lado de una multitud de hombres y mujeres sufrientes y necesitados, vamos nosotros, cada uno, acaso ms pobres y necesitados todava, pero con las manos y el corazn colmados de gracia por los dones que Dios ha puesto en ellas para que vayamos a repartirlas en su nombre.

Back in 2000, Episcopal priest, William Dopp and his wife, Janet, were on their way to Kisoro, Uganda to be part of a special celebration at St. Andrew's Cathedral in that remote part of east Africa. They stopped over in London, where they had the opportunity to attend Sunday worship at St. John the Baptist Church in the Kensington section of London. The contrast between the two churches inspired this book.

The old gothic church in London was nearly empty on Sunday morning. One week later, the Dopps took part in worship in rural Kisoro where the 1200-seat cathedral was not large enough to hold the crowd. The church in London had on its literature, "Preserving Holy Worship." The church in Kisoro, Uganda proclaimed on a sign, "Jesus is our living hope." One church lives in the past; the other is in mission proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ. These two churches are the symbols of what Dopp calls the old chapel church, the OCC, and the emerging missionary church, the EMC. Congregations of all denominations fall into these two categories. Through engaging ministry experiences backed up by current statistics, he illustrates how the emerging missionary church transforms the lives of people.