Showing results by narrator "Rebecca Gallagher" in All Categories

Come and sit awhile as you enjoy 18 fictional short stories of love, joy, and the peace found in Amish country. Amish Country is known for an atmosphere of peace and quiet, perfect for front-porch sitting with a good book. Join New York Times best-selling author Wanda E. Brunstetter, her daughter-in-law, and granddaughter, as they share 18 heartwarming stories from Amish Country. These fictional short stories include journeys we can all relate to as we seek how to live led by love, joy, peace, patience, and other Fruits of the Spirit.

Ruth Helmuth has never been rude in her life; trust her to choose the bishop of her Amish community for her first time! Ruth has worked hard to keep body and soul together since her husband, Levi’s, death. She tends her herd of goats, making her living from the milk and fiber she gets from them, all while running a farm and household by herself—and very competently, thank you! How could she imagine the bishop suggesting she should give it all up to another family, who will “make better use of the space”?

Barbara Schwartz was born into a family of quilters, but she would rather eat dirt than partake in another quilting frolic or sew on another binding. When her parents send her to Indiana to help her grandmother in her quilting shop, she finds herself amongst a very different community. It's only one summer and then she will be back in Kentucky where she belongs.

In the past few years, liberals concerned about the prospect of long-term conservative dominance of the federal courts have revived an idea that crashed and burned in the 1930s: court packing. Today's court packing advocates have run into a wall of opposition, with most citing the 1930s episode as one FDR's greatest failures. In early 1937, Roosevelt—fresh off a landslide victory—stunned the country when he proposed a plan to expand the size of the court by up to six justices.

Unleashing the Power of Rubber Bands is an engaging and insightful look into the qualities, attributes, and practices that turn ordinary leaders into extraordinary ones. At times challenging, at times candid, but always inspiring, Unleashing the Power of Rubber Bands will bring out the best in even the most seasoned leaders.

Leah Mast and her family have always considered her to have a healing touch and a special gift for reflexology - treating people's ailments by massaging certain places on their feet. But others scoff at the notion, saying the very idea of curing people through their feet is absurd. Adam Beachy is one of those scoffers, even though his own mother used to practice reflexology.

Journey with the bestselling Brunstetter authors to the unique tropical Amish community in Sarasota, Florida, along with four young sisters originally from Indiana.

Inspired by and adapted from her breakout book 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess, 7 Days of Christmas takes Hatmaker's social experiments in seven key areas - food, clothes, spending, media, possessions, waste, stress - and turns them into thoughtful and practical generosity that captures the true spirit of Christmas.

Denise Broadwater thought she lived on a strong foundation. But when she and her husband purchased a rundown Charleston cottage in a crime ridden neighborhood, the cracks in her resolve started to show. And after a brick shattered her front window, a raccoon pranced through her kitchen, and gunshots rang through her living room, she feared they’d taken on more than they could handle. In this warts-and-all account, Broadwater shares the tests and triumphs of restoration and close living.

Spend a year in Amish country with four sweet romances: Rooted in Love, A Love for Irma Rose, Patchwork Perfect, and When Christmas Comes Again.

In this coming-of-age memoir, Sharon takes you with her on a nail-biting adventure through the early 1970s after leaving her sheltered home life at 16 years old to join the hippies. Yearning for freedom, she lands in an adult world for which she is unprepared, and must learn quickly in order to survive.

Join the Hochstetler twin sisters on stage as they bumble their way through baking a cake for a charity auction in front of a live audience. The take-charge Elma and the klutzy optimist Thelma manage to entertain their audience - and attract the admiration of two bachelors, an outspoken woodworker and a shy harness maker from a neighboring Amish community. As fall leads into the Christmas season, could romance be blossoming for one or more of the Hochstetler twins?

Being married to a saint isn't what it's cracked up to be. Beth's husband won't be joining the family on vacation at the beach this year. Or even joining them in the house. Instead, Rick has holed up alone in the backyard shed. Nobody knows exactly what he's up to. Maybe he's immersing himself in prayer. Maybe he's lost his mind. Maybe he's even the modern-day prophet or the saint the neighborhood artist imagines him to be. But while "St. Rick" waits for an epiphany, Beth will have to figure out what to do with herself and their teenage sons, possibly for the rest of her life.

Whether sitting down with a militia member seeking to protect his rural Utah town from Antifa or talking with grassroots organizers working across ideological divides, Gaines Quammen brings to life connections and contradictions that shape our politics and our lives far beyond the West.

When beautiful and successful Susan Harris jumps from the roof of her apartment building, she sets a tremor through her New York City mothers’ group that forces them all to look at one another with new cynicism: How could this have happened right under their noses? To one of them? Between her death and the harrowing private school admission season on the horizon, these women are forced to explore the hard truths about themselves.

When young Rachel Saint surrendered her life to God, she began an unimaginable journey that would span decades and radically transform a dying culture steeped in revenge. Against all odds, God would lead her to Ecuador's Waorani Indians—known as Aucas, or savages, and infamous for murder. Despite the martyrdom of five missionaries by Waorani spears, Rachel boldly persisted in following God. In one of the greatest testimonies to God's grace and power in our time, this pioneering Bible translator would live for two decades with her own brother's killers.

Ten-year-old Lottie Moon had seen too much bitterness and gossip among churchgoers to want anything to do with religion or God. In fact, if there was a single way to waste a life, Lottie told herself, being a missionary was it. In a twist that only God could orchestrate, this spirited young girl who grew up to become the most educated woman in the American South would ultimately find her calling as a missionary to China.

Janessa McNeil’s life looks perfect. Her husband, Dr. Brock McNeil, is a renowned researcher and professor at Stanford University’s Department of Medicine. They have a beautiful home and can give their daughter everything she needs. But nothing is as it seems. Forces are at work that will shatter everything - Janessa’s marriage, her way of life, even her safety. For her husband’s respected assertion that chronic Lyme disease doesn’t exist has done more than inform medical and insurance professionals. It’s ruined lives. One man’s life in particular.

Enjoy a simple Amish Christmas in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, that is sweetened by second chances, trimmed in love, and wrapped in faith. This collection includes Lucy's Christmas Sunbeam by Anne Blackburne, A Bird-in-Hand Christmas by Amy Clipston, Christmas Lily by Amy Lillard, Leaving Lancaster by Mindy Steele.

Welcome to Apple Creek, Ohio, where piano teacher and artist, Andrea Wagner, has a fascination with painting the rural Amish landscapes around her home. She has made it to her thirties feeling like she has had a charmed life and finally has fallen in love with Brandon Prentice, a local veterinarian. But then she discovers she was adopted and all she thought she knew about herself has crumbled. Andrea becomes so fixated on finding her birth mother that she pushes Brandon away, so she writes to the newspaper column for romance advice. What will Andrea lose before she finds herself again?