Audra Jennings

Spiritual Strength Training: Life’s Challenges Can Make Our Faith Stronger Focus on the Family President Jim Daly asks: Do we allow our circumstances to define God or allow God to define our circumstances? While serving with Focus on the Family, Daly has come face to face with many people dealing with heartbreaking trials. Yet on a trip to Beijing, China, when he asked a local missionary the question “How do you pray for us?” the answer was eye-opening. “We are praying…for the church in America to get more persecution.” Why would someone viewing the lives of believers living in the U.S. ask such a thing from God? Daly concluded that ours is viewed as a weak faith in need of strengthening. As Daly began to examine his own life and the lives of those with whom he ministered, he observed that trial and persecution had a markedly different effect upon people, and he discovered that those who chose to surrender their situations to God—painful though they might be—grew stronger in their ...

At this rate, we might as well stay home. While I like the idea of going to Chicago via Kansas City this time, Mom especially seems non-committal. We actually all agreed it was my year to choose (based on last year was Mom and South Dakota, the big vacation before was Savannah/Charleston from Dad). But, being the people pleaser I am, I'm not being as decisive as I guess I should be. The problem is, there are places I want to go, but they aren't drive in a week locations. Each of my parents claim they would be more likely to get on a plane than the other while I see neither ever happening. (Though I did convince money conscious Mom that we could save days of hotel, time and gas.) We took a map, marked off the places we had been, and figure out the areas we had not gone. Within this area of "never been" was Utah. And Dad picked up on this, remembered a conversation he and Mom had with someone and started trying to figure out where it was. Mom and I had seen somethin...

Thanks to everyone who participated in today's tour! It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old...or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book! You never know when I might play a wild card on you! Today's Wild Card authors are: Dan and Ali Morrow and the book: That’s Where God Is David C. Cook; New edition (August 1, 2010) ***Special thanks to Audra Jennings, Senior Media Specialist, The B&B Media Group for sending me a review copy.*** ABOUT THE AUTHORS: Dan and Ali Morrow are parents of two wonderful daughters. When they’re not writing children’s books, they like to go on adventures a...

Thanks to all who participated in today's blog tour! It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old...or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book! You never know when I might play a wild card on you! Today's Wild Card author is: Stephen Smith and the book: Soul Custody: Choosing to Care for the One and Only You David C. Cook; New edition (August 1, 2010) ***Special thanks to Karen Davis, Assistant Media Specialist, The B&B Media Group for sending me a review copy.*** ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Stephen W. Smith and his wife Gwen are co-founders and spiritual directors of The Potter’s Inn Ministry. S...

Thanks to everyone who participated in today's tour! It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old...or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book! You never know when I might play a wild card on you! Today's Wild Card authors are: Ray and Debbie Alsdorf and the book: Beyond the Brady Bunch David C. Cook; New edition (August 1, 2010) ***Special thanks to Karen Davis, Assistant Media Specialist, The B&B Media Group for sending me a review copy.*** ABOUT THE AUTHORS: Ray Alsdorf recently retired from law enforcement after 37 years. For the past 22 years he served as a detective/inspector for ...

And the saga continues. I'll update you on the discussions of the past week and a half since I last posted about the ongoing discussions on where we might go on vacation, if we go, in October. I'm still in semi-denial that we'll go anywhere. So, it was decided that the last week of October was indeed a bad week to go to New Orleans. Within a couple of days, my dad randomly starts talking about going to Nashville. Why? I'm not quite sure. Mom & Dad spent some time there one year coming back from Gatlinburg, and I've only driven through. I was not very enthusiastic about this idea, but I figured the idea would pass if I gave it some time. After I said, "yeah" (unenthusiastically) to the question, "would you go see Alan Jackson at the Grand Ole Opry?", that idea went on to the wayside. I guess anyway. Then several days went by where vacation was kind of brought up, but no direction mentioned. Yesterday, I went to the scrapbook store to pic...

Thanks to everyone who posted today's tour! It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old...or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book! You never know when I might play a wild card on you! Today's Wild Card author is: Leonard Sweet and the book: Nudge David C. Cook; New edition (August 1, 2010) ***Special thanks to Audra Jennings, Senior Media Specialist, The B&B Media Group for sending me a review copy.*** ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Currently the E. Stanley Jones Professor of Evangelism at Drew University, Madison, NJ, and a Visiting Distinguished Professor at George Fox University, Portland, Or...