Deb’s Books Blast/Deb’s Ministry Blog

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Deb’s Ministry Blog shares articles of interest to people in a small church or mission ministry. These are practical and encouraging articles that may be shared freely.

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Free book by Juliette Duncan!

This is the last month for me of a year-long partnership with ten other Christian authors, featuring their books as they featured mine. Each month I’ve given you the opportunity to discover a new author by receiving their free book in exchange for subscribing to their newsletter.  Scroll down to find out more about this month’s free books by Juliette Duncan: Hank and Sarah and No Going Back. I hope you will continue to subscribe to Deb’s Book Blast, because in March, I will give all of my subscribers a free book just for being my subscribers!

Have you ever considered the role color plays in your life?

Imagine if God had created the whole world black and white. Or made us colorblind so we couldn’t enjoy colors.

I’ve have recently gained a new appreciation for color. When this book promo started last March, I was in America on a short furlough. In May 2023 we returned to New Zealand for six months. There we mentored a local pastor and wife, graduated our church from mission status to self-support, and returned to the US. God answered so many prayers during that time. On January 29, 2024 we moved into our new house in Iowa.

From the beginning, this house made a big impression on me. The basic house seemed ideal for us, but the former owners had painted the whole house in dark colors, some of which I considered the ugliest ever. The floors were dark brown. All the cabinets in the house were dark brown. In addition, much of the house has inadequate lighting.

“Love the house. Hate the colors,” I said. Over and over again. During our first visit I said these words. When we returned the same day to have another look, I repeated them. When we decided, that first day, that we would buy the house because it was such a great deal, I said them again. We could repaint the walls easily enough. I could learn to live with the kitchen if I added some colorful accents.

About the third day in our house, while I was cooking supper, I experienced a feeling I’ve never felt before. I stood hovered over the big, black top of the gas stove, surrounded by the dark cabinets and floors, over-looking the dark gray and hideous green living area and felt almost physically sick.

“I can’t do this,” I said.

How could I be so fussy over such a minor thing as house color? I don’t consider myself hard to please. But honestly, changing wall color wasn’t going to be enough. This kitchen would change me into a person I don’t want to be.

I explained my problem to my husband during supper, and we’ve been working out a plan ever since to change our current cupboards to lighter ones. I suppose it’s like SAD, seasonal affective disorder, which causes people to be depressed during short winter days or long periods of cloudy days.

Since we moved in just over a week ago, we’ve spent much time studying paint swatches, painting large piece of cardboard with various shades of pretty greens, and analyzing the differences various shades of green make inside our house.

Do you, like me, have certain colors that conjure up a very strong negative response? What colors do this to you? Take time to look around you today and appreciate all the colors God has placed in your life.

Juliette Duncan

I feel a kinship to Juliette Duncan, who lives in Brisbane, Australia, because I have lived in New Zealand for almost 26 years. Like many cousins, Kiwis (New Zealanders) and Aussies share many commonalities, even though they engage in a fair amount of friendly rivalry.

A few years ago, I read Juliette’s book Secrets and Sacrifice. Though most of her books are set in Australia, this book was set in Scotland. Since we lived in the southern part of New Zealand, which was first settled by Scottish Presbyterians, the culture and setting felt like a familiar friend to me. I especially enjoyed this book because it is distinctively Christian.  It presents the Gospel clearly, and shows the advantages of being part of a warm Christian community, two qualities that endear me to any Christian writer.

Juliette Duncan is a USA Today bestselling author of 60+ Christian romance stories that ‘touch the heart and soul.’ She writes Christian fiction that encourages a deeper faith in a world that seems to have lost its way. Most of her stories include an element of romance, but the main love story in each of her books is always God’s amazing, unconditional love for His wayward children. Juliette and her husband enjoy spending time with their five adult children, and eleven grandchildren. When not writing, Juliette and her husband love exploring the wonderful world they live in.

Juliette is giving away two books in exchange for subscribing to her newsletter.

 

No Going Back

Radical, honest and real, this Christian romantic suspense is one woman’s journey to freedom you won’t put down and is Juliette’s personal story.

“A wonderful, inspirational book that shows God’s love and grace, even after we make bad decisions. A great story showing God has a plan for your life.”

Hank and Sarah

After her husband’s death, Sarah never thought she’d find love again. But when she meets Dr. Hank Wilson, she falls hard. Can she let go of her past and trust in God to protect her and her daughter from danger?

A heartwarming love story to ‘touch your heart and soul.’

Get Juliette’s free book, in exchange for subscription to her newsletter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In 46 years of mission ministry, my husband, Art, and I have experienced ministry on the mission field and off the field. Adapting to different cultures. Furloughs. Changing fields. Saying goodbye to our parents and siblings. Saying goodbye to our own daughters. Victories and seeming defeats. Helping people who turned to God and praying for people who turned away from him. But we are now making a change we’ve never made before.

Retirement.

Even though we’ve left the mission field, we’re not retired yet. We still have American churches to visit while we keep our fulltime missionary status, and we plan to continue to minister in our retirement years, but we’re beginning the transition to retirement. Change has begun. Almost everything in our life is changing in some way.

We had been searching for years for a national pastor who could replace us when, just 14 months ago, we found a pastor who was interested in the role. On the last Sunday before we took a short furlough. While in the States, we used Zoom and What’s App for church membership classes with Paul and Therese Gray. By the time we returned in May, Paul and Therese were taking an active part in the ministry of Tay Street Baptist Church. We spent 6 months mentoring them and helping the church work through the process of calling and employing its first paid pastor. 2023 was a whirlwind, but God blessed in amazing ways. At the end of that time, we left the church in the hands of Pastor Paul and Therese. The church had a lovely farewell time for us with the Christmas dinner. Two days later, we used our first one-way ticket from New Zealand and began the stateside part of our journey to retirement.

Having adapted to the culture and lifestyle in Taiwan and New Zealand, we now need to adapt to life in our home country. The America we left in 1980 to go to Taiwan is different from the country we’re returning to 43 years later. We’ve changed as well. What will retirement mean for us?

I’ve heard non-missionaries talk about the changes they go through in retirement. The husband doesn’t know what to do with himself and gets in the way of the wife’s routine. They might move a few hundred miles to be closer to their children. Medicare clicks in and they navigate through it. They might start having more physical ailments. They might fill the time emptied by leaving fulltime employment with volunteer jobs or part time employment. Some find it a time of renewed rest and special new joys. But ministry has been such a big part of our lives for so many years, it’s hard to visualize what retirement will mean for us.

Maybe you’ve already made the move to retirement. Or maybe you’ve watched family members make this transition and learned from what you’ve seen. But consider the changes foreign missionaries make when they return home for retirement. How do you pray for them at a time like that?

We’ve just left New Zealand and its culture and lifestyle are not a lot different from life here in the States. Yet I find change everywhere I turn.

In the last month:

  • Art and I have left our home, the house we loved and decorated for 25 years, and left New Zealand to prepare for retirement in the US.
  • We’ve 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.
  • We’ve traveled 30 hours from an airport in NZ to an airport in Des Moine, Iowa.
  • I’ve broken a tooth the morning we began that trip, and seen a brand-new dentist within 12 hours of landing.
  • I’ve signed up for a dental plan on day one in the US and we’ve begun to work through medical plans and insurance for a medical system that is completely different than we used in NZ.
  • I fried my computer in NZ and got almost everything off the hard drive to put on a “new” computer in the US. (I’m finding out that almost everything and everything makes a big difference in stress levels.)
  • We’ve joined our family in the US for Christmas for the second year in a row!
  • We’ve found a new home to buy and set the settlement date at January 30.
  • We’ve begun to visit new churches to find a new church home.
  • I’ve 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.
  • We’ve begun to learn about new products and new brands in new stores for all the basic needs we have. (Including gluten free options.)
  • We’ve started gathering and buying furniture for a house we’ve only been inside a few times.

We’ve only started making other key moves on our journey from full-time, active missionary service to retirement late in 2024. We’re looking forward to many things on the other side of this journey. I’m looking forward to spending more time writing and engaging in writing-related business. Art’s looking for his own ways to serve. We plan to remain active in ministry. We’re so thankful to live closer to our families and see more of them. But as I stand on the threshold of retirement, I begin to realize the scope of changes we’ll be making.

Change can be good, but change takes extra energy. Emotional energy, mental energy, spiritual energy as well.

In our case, we’re not returning to Colorado or Montana, the states we grew up in. Not even to a state where we’ve had supporting churches (with one small exception early in the 1980’s.) We’re moving here to be close to family. Iowa has many great churches and we’re looking for one to be our home church, but during the months we visit our supporting churches and look for a church of our own on the side, we don’t have our own circle of friends. Already I feel myself becoming self-absorbed from concentrating on all our needs without much thought for the needs of others. This feels different and wouldn’t be healthy if it continued for very long. Isolation isn’t a healthy place for a believer.

God has been so good to us as we’ve travelled down this road of transition. Both in New Zealand and now in America, the Lord has blessed us with friends, family, and virtual strangers who have shown amazing generosity that has helped us to leave one home in NZ and prepare to move into another one in Iowa. But even in ideal circumstances, transitioning to retirement involves huge changes for the missionary. We hold the needs of the field we leave behind close to our heart. We work to fit into life in a country which has changed substantially since we first left it. And we look for meaning and purpose in our new life.

I hope this peek into the life of one retiring missionary couple will help you understand this key part of a missionary’s life. The more you understand, the more you can pray for, befriend, encourage, and support your missionaries who transition and move into retirement status.

 

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.

 

 

 

Free book by Lynn Dean!

Each month from now until March 2024, I’ll give you a link to a free book by another author. During one month of that time, one of my books will become free for my subscribers. Scroll down to find out more about this month’s free book: More Precious Than Gold by Lynn Dean. You’ll also find links to two of my books that are in Kindle Unlimited and the price reductions that are available until after Christmas.

I’ll be home for Christmas – for a change.

This Christmas we will do something that we haven’t done since 1999. We will be with our daughters and family for Christmas for the second year in a row! Since we are full time missionaries in New Zealand and they live in the States, we’ve only been able to be with them at Christmas every 3 or 4 years or so. This year, however, we’ve bought our first one-way ticket from New Zealand. We will arrive in Iowa homeless, preparing to buy a home to retire in. Even though we spent last Christmas with family, and had a great time, we get to spend Christmas with them again. We may now have many Christmases together. What a treat!

From 1980 to 1999 we had daughters at home, but were usually away from parents and extended family. Art and I and our two daughters followed many simple traditions that made the season special. I asked my daughters for help in writing this blog, and I realize that, for us, crafts were the biggest part of the fun. We cut out snowflakes, decorated cut-out cookies, decorated the house and the tree. Special ornaments and music added to the fun.

As missionaries, we were prepared to leave our parents and live in some far-off country. Years later we had to be prepared to have our own children leave us. So how did we keep the joy in our Christmas when we were away from home and family?

My daughter Lisa nailed the answer to the wall. “I think a big part of what made separation from family okay for us,” she writes, “was that you chose to be happy at Christmas time and serve others whether or not we were able to visit family that year or not. I think Lori (her sister) and I have both inherited that attitude. Also, Christmas is a family holiday because we’ve made it that way. But it is certainly in keeping with the real meaning of the holiday to be apart from family because of where you serve Him or to use being apart as a chance to reach to others.”

Choose to be happy at Christmastime.

Wow! That made me think. She was right. Over the years, we chose to make Christmas fun as well as meaningful.  There were a couple difficult years, however, when being happy at Christmas was a definite choice. Before she was married, Lisa spent many Christmases apart from family. How did she cope as a young adult?

“Other favorite things” she writes, “include going caroling, singing in choirs, sending and receiving cards,” she writes. “I look forward to hearing recordings of Handel’s Messiah each Christmas. I try to reflect on the Christmas story and perhaps write a little reflection for myself. I send cards to people who have blessed me that year. I get involved at my church. When I do all that stuff, it’s hard to find time to be lonely at Christmas. (This was true even in my single days.) I like to think back to the various places I have spent Christmas and who I’ve spent them with. I appreciated the hospitality of others, several of whom were also MK’s before me. I like the years I’ve been hosted by other family members or friends, but I think I enjoy even more thinking about years I’ve been the hostess.”

During her single years, Lisa reached out to international students or lonely people with simple holiday dinners or invitations. She continues to do this as a married woman.

Jesus was away from home on His first Christmas too.

Jesus left His home in heaven where he was worshiped and adored to begin the life of a servant on earth. He gave up so much to provide salvation for us. If serving him takes us far from home, is that too much for Him to ask? I would never want my desire to be close to family keep me from serving Him. His birth is certainly the main reason for Christmas. But I think he is also pleased when we use the occasion to build family memories and enjoy the many good gifts He gives us.

What are you doing this Christmas? Whether you are far away from home or with family and friends, I hope you can find a good way to celebrate. If the Christmas season is a difficult time for you, may you draw close to Jesus and find comfort and encouragement. Whatever your situation is, you can still choose to make it a happy time. And making good choices is an important key to living the Christian life.

 As a teen, I lived near the beautiful Sangre de Christo mountains in southern Colorado and northern New Mexico. “Sangre de Christo” means “blood of Christ,” something that is precious to me. So, when I saw a series of Christian historical novels with the same name, that really piqued my interest.

Growing up in Texas, Lynn dictated her first stories to her mama before she was old enough to write them down herself. She’s been telling stories in one form or another ever since. After her children were grown, Lynn found she had a slew of characters living in her head, all clamoring to tell their stories and insisting that she write them! Now she writes about the things she knows and loves–God, family, history–and how those things fit together to demonstrate timeless truths.

The bullet that killed Eliza Gentry’s fiance shattered her dreams as well. Clinging to her battered faith, she heads west to escape her grief and runs headlong into the man who caused it. Tall and headstrong, Eliza expected to remain an “unclaimed treasure.” Devastated in the wake of the Civil War, she leaves her home in Texas and sets out for New Mexico’s Sangre de Cristo mountains in search of peace and new purpose but discovers a wild western frontier where former enemies–Yankees and Rebels, Freedmen and Indians–square off in the quest for land and gold. Eliza must confront her prejudices and fears, and Jacob Craig embodies that conflict. The mountain man wins her trust with his gentle strength, but he harbors a secret. As a Union sharp-shooter, he met her fiance on the field of battle and cost him his life. Can she forgive him? To find peace and the future she yearns for, Eliza must first find in God a faith more precious than gold. A real ghost town comes to life in this award-winning story of love, forgiveness, and the sovereignty of God. Christian historical fiction readers will love the way this story combines the adventure of classic historical western fiction with a dash of romance.

Get More Precious than Gold, in exchange for subscription to her newsletter.

Last month I told you about the 10th anniversary of Edges of Truth: The Mary Weaver Story and its companion Bible study, I Survived! Both books can be used as stand-alone books. Now that Christmas is just around the corner, let me remind you that some editions of this book are on sale until after Christmas.

Get Edges of Truth: The Mary Weaver Story

  • Free on Kindle Unlimited
  • $2.99 for Kindle (price reduced 40%)
  • $11.95 for paperback (price reduced 15%)

 

Get I Survived! – the companion Bible Study

  • Free on Kindle Unlimited
  • $ .99 for Kindle
  • $6.95 for paperback

Forget what these books are about?

Edges of Truth is the true story of Mary Weaver. When a baby in her care had a seizure, Mary called 9-1-1 and did CPR, but later in the day, the baby died. Mary was charged with first degree murder and had to fight to clear her name.

I Survived! looks at 5 Bible characters who survived disasters. Each of the 11 chapters uses an illustration from Edges of Truth, but can also be used independently.

If you’ve actually read all the way to the bottom of this post, I hope you have a wonderful, Christ-filled Christmas.

 

 

 

One Unforgettable Night

How could God let it happen?

Have you ever heard of a situation in which a Christian was treated so unfairly that you wondered how God could let it happen?

In my entire life, Mary Weaver’s story is the harshest example of unfairness I’ve ever heard of.  In 1993, Mary was providing childcare for a baby who had a seizure. Mary called 9-1-1 and performed CPR on the baby, but later in the day the baby died from brain injuries. Medical experts believed Mary had to have shaken and slammed the baby during the 42 minutes she had spent with the baby that day. In time, this caring babysitter faced charges of first-degree murder and child endangerment.

The shocking case made headlines for months, then years. But while some medical experts testified against Mary, others testified in her defense. Steve Brennecke, her lawyer and friend, was convinced of her innocence and fought to prove it. Frank Santiago, a prominent reporter in the area, kept her case alive. The Mary Weaver Support Group wrote letters, ran car washes, and marched in the rain to support her. When the unthinkable happened, all hope seemed gone, but God was still working in her case. Yet like Joseph in the book of Genesis, Mary kept trusting God. Her simple faith during this dark time in her life challenged me to want to write her story and bring it to print. It continued to speak to me during the two years I gathered information and wrote the book.

This month is the tenth anniversary of the night Mary, Steve, and I launched Edges of Truth: The Mary Weaver Story in Marshalltown, Iowa. November 22, 2013 was a night I’ll never forget. Mary had stipulated from the beginning that God must get the glory from this book, and the book launch was an amazing opportunity to let His glory shine.

Twenty years after the baby’s death, people came early and lined up at the door of the book launch to get in. Some had come four hours or more to buy a signed book. Mary’s family was there. Lawyer Steve and Reporter Frank stood beside Paul Rosenberg, Mary’s appeal lawyer and traded stories. The one jury member who voted “not guilty” in her first trial attended. Members of the Mary Weaver support group viewed photos of their earlier activities on her behalf. The venue filled with over a hundred people who, twenty years after the baby’s death, still supported Mary. No one was going away soon. Mary, Steve and I all spoke about the amazing way God had worked in Mary’s murder case and the writing of her story.

As we celebrate the 10th anniversary of that momentous book launch. I count it an honor to be Mary’s friend and to be entrusted with her story. To celebrate this special time, I’m sharing her story in various ways with all of my readers. Some of these resources are free. Edges of Truth: The Mary Weaver Story and I Survived! – the companion Bible study – are available on Kindle Unlimited for the first time. Prices on Kindle and paperback editions are reduced until Christmas. Feel free to share these links with others. Think Christmas. This amazing story makes a great gift and is sure to inspire others to trust in God more completely.

Read a Thanksgiving story.

“Prison Blues: A Thanksgiving Story,” a free chapter from Edges of Truth that will melt your heart and challenge you to be thankful. Can be read as a stand-alone story. http://debbrammer.com/?p=5123

Watch the book trailer. 

Click anywhere on the photo to view this video.

Access information from the MaryWeaverStory website.

Read book reviews, copy sharable quotes, find more of the inside story about this true story and its pathway to publication.

Get Edges of Truth: The Mary Weaver Story.

  • Free on Kindle Unlimited
  • $2.99 for Kindle (price reduced 40%)
  • $11.95 for paperback (price reduced 15%)

 Do KU, Kindle, and Print editions together and use this link.

Get I Survived! – the companion Bible Study.

  • Free on Kindle Unlimited
  • $ .99 for Kindle
  • $6.95 for paperback