Rorisang Thandekiso is one of South Africa’s most beloved media personalities. She has contributed to the arts industry in an authentic, memorable way.

In Disciple Rorisang takes the reader deeper into her relationship with faith, describing her love for the Word of God and for Jesus.

Disciple is an open-hearted, humorous, vulnerable look into the life of a young woman whose love for God spills over into the world.

40 Lives in 40 Days is a brand-new devotional compilation of MacArthur's extensive studies of the Bible characters who show us that we don't have to be perfect to do God's work. From the twelve disciples to the Samaritan woman, MacArthur shares that Jesus chose average people--fishermen, tax collectors, doubters, political zealots--and gave them a remarkable mission.

These encouraging stories, based in Scripture, help shed light on these real men and women who endured struggle, pain, and heartache, just like us. They were perfectly ordinary sinners--living proof of God's kindness--who went on to serve an extraordinary purpose in spreading the gospel.

By tracing the lives of these unlikely heroes, MacArthur shows us that the difficulties and temptations that they lived through are the same trials that modern believers face today.

Throughout 40 Lives in 40 Days, MacArthur will:

• Dive deep into the stories of Jesus' earliest disciples
• Teach us that God continues to mold and use ordinary people today
• Share the surprising ways God accomplishes His purposes
• Provide an honest look at all of God's people
• Help you experience God's goodness and grace

As you get to know each of these 40 figures even better, you'll see why the lives they led can still serve as an inspiration to believers today.

Die kranige sportman Alwyn Uys word in die fleur van sy lewe verlam. Ten spyte van dié verlies en ander terugslae bly Alwyn se gees ontembaar.

Hy besluit om sy lewe ten volle te leef: Hy word onder andere die eerste parapleeg ooit wat van Robbeneiland na Bloubergstrand swem. Ongeskonde is Alwyn se openhartige vertelling van sy worsteling en hoe hy met genade van Bo besluit het om uit te styg bo sy beperkinge.

Sy eerlike verhaal sal jou inspireer om jou eie uitdagings aan te pak en te oorkom.

Mariam Ibraheem was born in a refugee camp in Sudan. Her Muslim father died when she was six, and her mother raised her in the Christian faith. After a traumatic childhood, Mariam became a successful businessperson, married the man she loved, and had a beautiful baby boy.

But one day in 2013, her world was shattered when Sudan authorities insisted she was Muslim because of her father’s background. She had broken the law by marrying a Christian man, and she must abandon both her marriage and her son and adopt Islam. Under intense pressure, Mariam repeatedly refused. Ultimately, a Sharia court sentenced her to 100 lashes—and death by hanging.

Shackled is the stunning true story of a courageous young mother who was willing to face death rather than deny her faith. Mariam Ibraheem took a stand on behalf of all women who are maltreated because of their gender and all people who suffer from religious persecution.

Follow Mariam’s story from life under Islamic law, through imprisonment and childbirth while shackled, to her remarkable escape from death following an international outcry and advocacy that included diplomats, journalists, activists, and even Pope Francis.

I have met many people who have gone through life with dreams of achieving success, but they never did. Some of them gave up hope because of a bad life experience or perhaps a lack of resilience made them abandon their unfulfilled dreams. I have spoken to thousands of people from disadvantaged backgrounds, people who have been through the worst life experiences, and they want to know “How does one overcome adversity and achieve success?”

My aims with this book are to provide answers to this question and to provide helpful tools and tips that can be utilised to achieve success in the face of adversity. In the first 9 chapters I tell my life story and give you a glimpse of the difficult journey I have travelled to achieve success. From chapter 10, I delve deeper into the ways in which I conducted my life in order to achieve success and I often use scriptures from the Bible to bring across certain concepts.

My prayer is if you are experiencing adversity that my life story will encourage you to persevere against all odds. With my journey, I demonstrate that for you to reach your destiny, you must cherish both the good and bad experiences. What you are experiencing now may be because of poor choices or circumstances beyond your control, but these experiences will mould you into the person that God has predestined you to become, and they will guide you to your destiny.

“We thank you for the inspiration and strength

That you have given to Madiba,

Enabling him, over so many years, to draw out the best in others,

rousing us always, by word and example,

to seek the highest good for every child of this nation.”

So prayed Archbishop Thabo Makgoba with Nelson Mandela in his home in 2009 at the request of Graca Machel. This marked the start of an unusual relationship between southern Africa’s Anglican leader and Mandela in his quietening years. Join Makgoba in his journey towards faith, from his boyhood in Alex as the son of a ZCC pastor to Bishopscourt and praying with Mandela. He shares his feelings about his pastoral approach to the world icon, and how they influenced his thinking on ministering to church and nation in the current era. What did praying with those nearest and dearest to Mandela mean? What was his spirituality? In trying to answer these questions, Makgoba opens a window on South Africa’s spiritual make-up and life.

Hykie Berg is ’n bekende film- en TV-akteur, geliefd en gewild reg oor Suid-Afrika. Hy is ook 'n verslaafde. Op die kruin van sy suksesloopbaan verloor Hykie alles en draai by die dood om. Hier vertel hy sy verhaal openhartig, van die dwelmhole van Hillbrow tot in 'n maksimum-sekuriteitsel in die Weskoppies-hospitaal, waar God hom van 'n gewisse dood red. Hykie nooi jou uit om te onthou dat God se liefde ook vir jou bedoel is, en dat, al doen ons wat, God ons nie laat gaan nie.

Jewish Women who rock. Stories that inspire. Illustrations that pop.

If you loved the bestselling Goodnight stories for Rebel Girls series, you will love Goodnight Golda!

Here are 32 Jewish women who have shaped Jewish history and the Jewish mindset. Some use their wits, other their looks, some their talent, others their perspective. They are the trailblazers, achievers, visionaries and preservers of faith that have shaped our reality, and on whose shoulders we, as young (and not so young) 21st Century Jewish (and other) women, stand.

The women featured range from biblical (Yael and Ester) and history-makers (Anne Frank and Hannah Senesh) to contemporary voices (like Sivan Yaári and Donna Karan) and visionary/activists (like Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sarah Schenirer), and hail from across the world - from Portugal to USA, UK to Poland, Israel to South Africa, Ethiopia to Canada.

Each heroine has a short biography and entertaining story on how they changed their world and ours. Each heroine has her own gorgeous illustration – contemporary, vivid and fun. This is a book for the future heroines of the Jewish people, and beyond.

Trained as a midwife, Chrissie Chapman went to Burundi in the nineties to open a maternity clinic and dispensary in a rural area of the country. She had been there just three years when a coup was declared, and the country descended into a state of civil war. It lasted for thirteen long years. During that time, God directed her to work with the orphans and widows.

She started a centre for abandoned babies and traumatised children and saw the Lord performing remarkable miracles in the lives of people who had lost everything. Chrissie adopted three children herself, and has raised more than fifty others to young adulthood. Again and again she has witnessed miracles of protection and provision. When the war started, Chrissie, her adopted children, and the health staff were living in a rural location on top of a mountain, in a healing centre, with maternity clinic and dispensary. Every night there was gunfire, and every day people would come seeking refuge. One night, she and David Ndarahutse, the mission director, were sitting praying amid the fighting, when David said, "Chrissie, look up." There were dozens of angels standing on top of the walls of the healing centre. That was the night the angels came.

"From that moment on," Chrissie records, "I have never experienced or felt fear for my life." Today Chrissie divides her time between Burundi, where she continues to care for the teenagers in her charge, and England, Canada and America, where she speaks widely about the faithfulness and power of God.

His street name was Daylight. But he was a nightmare.

On the streets of New York, darkness and violence reigned. Dimas “Daylight” Salaberrios popped his first pill when he was eleven years old, and just days later, he was selling drugs to his schoolmates. By fifteen, he was facing time at the notorious Rikers Island Prison. It was never safe to turn your back, and Dimas saw only one chance to survive: to become a street god. He would be the richest, most powerful ruler in the hood . . . or die trying.

But in one terrifying moment, with a gun pointed at his head, Dimas had to decide: How far would he go? Was he finished taking reckless chances to rule as a god of the streets? Would he dare to entrust his life to the real God―an even riskier path? Because that God would send Dimas back down the darkest streets he’d ever known on a rescue mission after those still in danger.

Street God is the true story of one man’s against-all-odds journey from the streets to the altar and back again. A modern-day The Cross and the Switchblade for a new generation, it reveals that we’re never too far gone for God to change us―and shows how a single spark can illuminate even the darkest existence.

Why...

I know, why would anybody name their first book, Why? Let me quickly tell you.

Exposure to pornography at a very young age and sexual abuse as a child, made my life hell. Quite frankly it ruined my whole life. I lived with daily battles that created a war within my soul. This torment lasted until I was 40 years old. I could no longer live with the trauma, the pain and suffering, emanating from my childhood events, I needed help. Just like many adults and children do too.

Don’t we all have a story? Some stories are more attractive than others. This is my story. It is real, authentic, and raw. So many ask the question, Why? Not all our why’s have clear answers. And often, we never get an answer.

Why adults stay stuck in early childhood trauma?
Why pornography will ruin your child’s life?
Why do children need early intervention from trauma?
Why are parents blind to see the warning signs from trauma?
Why is a safe environment so important for a child to develop?
Why can the trauma of sexual abuse last a lifetime?
Why does Jesus care?

Many of your why’s will be answered through reading my life story mirrored with those of the Israelites. A story that is used multiple times in history to display Slavery and Freedom. It is a story that would help people to find true freedom, a story that will point you to the Truth. It is a story of wandering through the wilderness as a slave, with addictions, pain, and suffering. Addictions that are not easily spoken about, addictions that is not easily resolved. Addictions that many survivors don't want to have in the first place.

Freedom that I so desperately longed for. Freedom I found. Freedom that can be yours too.

Stefaans Coetzee se pa was ’n alkoholis. Toe hy ses was, het sy ma hom kafee toe gestuur. Met sy terugkoms was sy weg. Van kleins af moes Stefaans veg vir aanvaarding en liefde, by die huis en in die kinderhuis.

Sy storie begin in die Vrystaat, loop deur donker dade in Worcester, via verskeie tronke, tot op Klerksdorp. Dit is die verhaal van ’n seun wat die heel ergste sou doen, vir aanvaarding.

Dit is ook ’n verhaal van hoop, genade, en tweede kanse. Dit wys dat enigeen kan verander. Jy ook.

Your Damage Does Not Define You.

Underneath our designer clothes, makeup, jewellery, and photo filters are cracks left by abuse, mistakes, rejection, and disappointment. Bestselling author and pastor Michael Todd reveals his own damage: the hits he’s experienced from trauma, dumb choices, and lingering struggles passed down through generations. Using candid stories, engaging illustrations, and biblical wisdom, he encourages readers to be H.O.T.—humble, open, and transparent—and face the pain of past hits to move toward the triumphant future God has for them.

Damaged but Not Destroyed: From Trauma To Triumph will give you tools to identify the impact of your damage, see yourself the way God sees you, and realize that healing is all about progression, not perfection.

No matter how badly you’ve messed up, and no matter the pain you’ve experienced, nothing can destroy the God-given value of your life. It’s time to turn your damage into destiny! You may be damaged, but you are not destroyed.

Journalist Lesley Mofokeng investigates the life of his remarkable grandfather, Mongangane Wilfred Mofokeng, a prominent Dutch Reformed Church evangelist, who built a thriving community out of the dust of the far Northwest.

The journey takes him from Joburg’s Marabi-soaked townships of the 1930s to his childhood home of Gelukspan near Lichtenburg and then to the rural Free State and the remote mountain kingdom of Lesotho. In what becomes a spiritual quest, he traces the inspirational footsteps of his ancestors and the legendary King Moshoeshoe.

In the process, Mofokeng proudly claims his heritage and also uncovers a long-lost chapter of South African history and the church of the apartheid regime.

Janet Hodgson traces the life of Xhosa prophet Ntsikana (1780–1821) from his birth through his years as a Christian convert, evangelist, and composer of enduring hymns.

Ntsikana is known as one of the first Christians to adapt Christian ideas to African culture, writing hymns in isiXhosa and translating concepts into terms that resonated with his Xhosa community.

Even today, his hymns are among the most important in the amaXhosa churches, and he is regarded as an important symbol of both African unity and Black Consciousness.

In America, as in Britain, the Victorian era enjoyed a long life, stretching from the 1830s to the 1910s. It marked the transition from a pre-modern to a modern way of life. Ellen White's life (1827-1915) spanned those years and then some, but the last three months of a single year, 1844, served as the pivot for everything else. When the Lord failed to return on October 22, as she and other followers of William Miller had predicted, White did not lose heart. Fired by a vision she experienced, White played the principal role in transforming a remnant minority of Millerites into the sturdy sect that soon came to be known as the Seventh-day Adventists. She and a small group of fellow believers emphasized a Saturday Sabbath and an imminent Advent. Today that flourishing denomination posts twenty million adherents globally and one of the largest education, hospital, publishing, and missionary outreach programs in the world. Over the course of her life White generated 50,000 manuscript pages and letters, and produced 40 books that have enjoyed extremely wide circulation. She ranks as one of the most gifted and influential religious leaders in American history, and Ellen Harmon White tells her story in a new and remarkably informative way. Some of the contributors identify with the Adventist tradition, some with other Christian denominations, and some with no religious tradition at all. Taken together their essays call for White to be seen as a significant figure in American religious history and for her to be understood her within the context of her times.

Farren Cloete is geroep vir ’n tyd soos hierdie, maar wys vir jou op jou roeping ook: dit maak nie saak wat mense sê nie, as God jou geroep het kan geen mens jou keer nie en jy hoef aan niemand rekenskap te gee nie. Farren kom maak ons vry daarvan dat ons dink ons moet ander gelukkig maak, en help ons om te fokus op wat God van ons wil hê. Dit maak nie saak hoe moeilik ons roeping is nie, of ons opgewasse voel daarvoor of nie, God is by ons en Hy roep ons vir ’n tyd soos hierdie.

Cardinal Francis E. George, O.M.I., was a model pastor and a heroic disciple of Christ. A native Chicagoan, he was told as a young man that he would never be a priest in Chicago because of a physical disability resulting from polio. He went on to be ordained a priest with the Oblates of Mary Immaculate in 1963. He was appointed as Archbishop of Chicago in 1997, created a cardinal in 1998, and served in Chicago until 2014, just months before his death at the age of 78.
Cardinal George's many gifts — including his superior intellect — made him a pivotal player in Church affairs nationally and internationally. He governed during difficult and challenging times, yet he always attempted to lead with the heart of Christ, living out his episcopal motto, "To Christ be glory in the Church."
A man of pastoral availability, Cardinal George poured out his life in service to Christ and the Church, always attentive to the poor and those on the margins. Universally admired for his pursuit and proclamation of the truth, and his personal witness to the Gospel, Cardinal George remains a model for discipleship and leadership. By the time of his death in 2015, Cardinal George was regarded as one of the most respected bishops in American Catholic history. His fascinating and inspiring story reminds us that God's ways are always better than our own.

The Buddhist monk Tanxu surmounted extraordinary obstacles--poverty, wars, famine, and foreign occupation--to become one of the most prominent monks in China, founding numerous temples and schools, and attracting crowds of students and disciples wherever he went. Now, in Heart of Buddha, Heart of China, James Carter draws on untapped archival materials to provide a book that is part travelogue, part history, and part biography of this remarkable man.
This revealing biography shows a Chinese man, neither an intellectual nor a peasant, trying to reconcile his desire for a bold and activist Chinese nationalism with his own belief in China's cultural and social traditions, especially Buddhism. As it follows Tanxu's extraordinary life, the book also illuminates the pivotal events in China's modern history, showing how one individual experienced the fall of China's last empire, its descent into occupation and civil war, and its eventual birth as modern nation. Indeed, Tanxu lived in a time of almost constant warfare--from the Sino-Japanese War of 1895, to the Boxer Uprising, the Russo-Japanese War, the Japanese occupation, and World War II. He and his followers were robbed by river pirates, and waylaid by bandits on the road. Caught in the struggle between nationalist and communist forces, Tanxu finally sought refuge in the British colony of Hong Kong. At the time of his death, at the age of 89, he was revered as "Master Tanxu," one of Hong Kong's leading religious figures.
Capturing all this in a magnificent portrait, Carter gives first-person immediacy to one of the most turbulent periods in Chinese history.

Servant of God Nicholas Black Elk (1863-1950) is popularly celebrated for his fascinating spiritual life. How could one man, one deeply spiritual man, serve as both a traditional Oglala Lakota medicine man and a Roman Catholic catechist and mystic? How did these two spiritual and cultural identities enrich his prayer life? How did his commitment to God, understood through his Lakota and Catholic communities, shape his understanding of how to be in the world? To fully understand the depth of Black Elk's life-long spiritual quest requires a deep appreciation of his life story. He witnessed devastation on the battlefields of Little Bighorn and the Massacre at Wounded Knee, but also extravagance while performing for Queen Victoria as a member of "Buffalo Bill" Cody's Wild West Show. Widowed by his first wife, he remarried and raised eight children. Black Elk's spiritual visions granted him wisdom and healing insight beginning in his childhood, but he grew progressively physically blind in his adult years. These stories, and countless more, offer insight into this extraordinary man whose cause for canonization is now underway at the Vatican.

This volume focuses on Catholic Church history in Australia by lookimg at certain figures (Archdeacon John McEencroe, Lwesi Harding, Bishop Chalres Henry Davis, Cardonal Gilroy) as well as themes: Catholc Social Justice and parliamentary politics, humanae vitae and Tridentine clericalism, and the emergence of Catholic education offices.

English-born Francis Asbury was one of the most important religious leaders in American history. Asbury single-handedly guided the creation of the American Methodist church, which became the largest Protestant denomination in nineteenth-century America, and laid the foundation of the Holiness and Pentecostal movements that flourish today. John Wigger has written the definitive biography of Asbury and, by extension, a revealing interpretation of the early years of the Methodist movement in America. Asbury emerges here as not merely an influential religious leader, but a fascinating character, who lived an extraordinary life. His cultural sensitivity was matched only by his ability to organize. His life of prayer and voluntary poverty were legendary, as was his generosity to the poor. He had a remarkable ability to connect with ordinary people, and he met with thousands of them as he crisscrossed the nation, riding more than one hundred and thirty thousand miles between his arrival in America in 1771 and his death in 1816. Indeed Wigger notes that Asbury was more recognized face-to-face than any other American of his day, including Thomas Jefferson and George Washington.

Anandamayi Ma (1896-1982) is generally regarded as the most important Hindu woman saint of the twentieth century. Venerated alternately as a guru and as an incarnation of God on earth, Ma had hundreds of thousands of devotees. Through the creation of a religious movement and a vast network of ashrams-unprecedented for a woman-Ma presented herself as an authority figure in a society where female gurus were not often recognized. Because of her widespread influence, Ma is one of the rare Hindu saints whose cult has outlived her. Today, her tomb is a place of veneration, and she is venerated by those who knew her and by those too young to have known her. Orianne Aymard has performed extensive fieldwork among Ma's current devotees. In this book, she examines what happens to a cult after the death of its leader. Does it decline, stagnate, or grow? Or is it rather transformed into something else entirely? Aymard's work sheds new light not only on Hindu sainthood-and particularly female Hindu sainthood-but on the nature of charismatic religious leadership and devotion