Happy New Year readers!

Since last April, I’ve been working with a team of authors to promote Faith Focused Women’s Fiction for one year. With each Book Blast I’ve given you a link to a free book by another author. This month I’ll tell you how to find more clean, wholesome Christian books on a regular, but manageable basis. Find out more at the end of this Book Blast. I hope you’ll keep reading my newsletters as they come out. In March, I’ll finish the year by giving all my subscribers a free book by me.

Unprecedented attendance at Tay Street Baptist Church for our Christmas service/dinner and our farewell Sunday.

If you’re a fan of the Monk show, you might remember Adrian Monk, the defective detective, saying, “I don’t mind change. I just don’t want to be there when it happens.” Sometimes I feel the same way, but since my last Book Blast, my normal routine has been seriously challenged. Transition by definition  means change. And I’ve had heaps of it in the last month.

Since my December Book Blast I’ve:

• Left our home, the house we loved and decorated for 25 years, and left New Zealand to prepare for retirement in the US.
• Said goodbye to all our NZ friends and our church ministry that has been such a huge part of our lives, not knowing if or when we will see them again.
• Traveled 30 hours from an airport in NZ to an airport in Des Moine, Iowa.
• Broken a tooth the morning we began that trip, and seen a brand-new dentist within 12 hours of landing.
• Signed up for a dental plan on day one in the US and begun to work through medical plans and insurance for a medical system that is completely different than what we used in NZ.
• Fried my computer in NZ and got almost everything off the hard drive to put on a “new” computer in the US. (As Monk would say, “The word ‘almost’ is the most interesting part of that last sentence.”)
• Joined our family in the US for Christmas for the second year in a row!
• Found a new home to buy and set the settlement date at January 30.
• Begun to visit new churches to find a new church home.
• Begun to drive a car I’m not used to, on the opposite side of the road than I’m used to, in a place I don’t begin to know my way around.
• Begun to learn about new products and new brands in new stores for all the basic needs we have. (Including gluten free options.)
• Started gathering and buying furniture for a house we’ve only been inside a few times.
• Made key moves on our journey from full-time, active missionary service to retirement late in 2024.

I knew this period of transition would be filled with changes. But I just gotta say, sometimes change can become downright inconvenient. Funnily enough*, somehow the change that has chafed the most has been my computer problems. So much of my life has revolved around ministry and writing that I get rather antsy when my computer is having problems. So, I guess I shouldn’t be surprized at how traumatic this has been.

Thankfully, due to the help of my husband and two computer techies, I have my computer problems almost resolved.

In the last month, several key people in our lives, strangers or people we don’t know well, have shown us amazing generosity in helping us leave one home and get into another.

In spite of some transition difficulties, my husband and I are still talking to each other. 😊

And then there’s God. Except for the computer problems, we’ve seen God’s hand constantly making this process so much easier than usual. We’re so thankful for the blessings we are receiving every day.

Brammer family at Christmas time.

Maybe you’re going through a period of transition that leaves you scratching your head. Why is God allowing the problems you are encountering? While we’ve seen God work in amazing ways in our lives, we’ve also had times when we couldn’t see him working. Other times we’ve been surprised to find out that, during the dark times, God was working in ways we couldn’t see.

When have you gone through periods of great change? How have you found God faithful? As you enter the new year, I hope you can leave your worries and concerns in God’s hands. As we delight to do His will, He will lead us through every problem and trial. Praise God for his unending grace!

Free ebook, news about featured deals and authors!

This month’s Faith Focused Women’s Fiction offering isn’t just a book, but a place to find lots of books. Sheepgate Publishing’s weekly magazine comes to your inbox each Friday and features deals and information on 5-7 Christian books each time, along with an interview of a featured author. When you subscribe, you’ll be offered a free ebook called Where to Look in the Bible, a topical reference to where to find Scripture about various topics.

Get your free ebook and find out more about new releases, deals, and freebies on clean, wholesome, fiction books when you subscribe.

Sheepgate Publishing also offers daily deals on their Facebook page.