USA

Research: USA

Earlier this month, I visited Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, and Indianapolis on a research trip. Lots of Amish communities in those areas. My upcoming series for Harvest House begins with a story about an Amish woman who teaches in a one-room school-house. Yup. They still have them. They still work.

Can you imagine? It’s fascinating to see. What fun research for me!

The trip ended as most of our research trips end, at a ballpark–this time the Twins ballpark in Minneapolis. As I sat there, it occurred to me that those two very different places–one room schoolhouses and major league ballparks–are part of what make our country great. Different? Yeah, but it’s not a problem. I love that.

As we walked through downtown Minneapolis after the game, I took a few snapshots and caught this one of the U.S. flag flying. The more I research, and the more I travel, the more proud I am of our country and the people who live in it. This weekend, I hope you enjoy celebrating our country’s birth.

V~

You can also find me on facebook under Vannetta Chapman, author.

Don’t Make Me Come Up There

Wednesday’s Spotlight: Don’t Make Me Come Up There

Today I want to highlight author, Kristen Welch. Kristen is a new Abingdon author, and Abingdon is the press that published A Simple Amish Christmas. I know first hand that they do fabulous work. I love the subtitle of Kristen’s book: Quiet Moments for Busy Moms. : )

I liked this description of Kristen’s book–

A calm moment is a rare find in a mom’s chaotic day. But she needs it. She needs the moment to refocus and refresh her soul. She needs the inspiration to find God in the mess and the mundane that often defines her. She craves the solitude of a moment with the Master to quiet the storms. She needs to laugh and remember why she loves being a mom.

Don’t Make Me Come Up There can be pre-ordered on Amazon and will be available next month. You can view the book trailer here. Additional information is available on the Abingdon Press page.

A book that helps us to find a bit of sanity, a few moments of grace, in the midst of our personal chaos is definitely a good thing. I hope you’ll give Kristen’s book a try.

 V~ VannettaChapman@gmail.com

Baseball

The Amish View: Baseball

When I first began researching Amish people and Amish communities I was surprised to find how much they enjoyed games. For instance, baseball–I had never imagined Amish kids playing baseball. Now why is that? Maybe I hadn’t seen it in the paper or on the news. Maybe I hadn’t read enough. But in fact, Amish families do love games, and kids and young adults alike also love to play softball/baseball.

I googled AMISH and BASEBALL and came up with 6,170,000 results. Now that’s a lot–and many of them included pictures. : ) Try it if you’re ever bored at your computer. My point is that here is one thing mainstream America and Amish communities have in common–a love of baseball.

Today when I logged on to my fav newspaper and saw that my FAVORITE baseball player had re-signed with the Texas Rangers, I was thrilled. Then I read Josh Hamilton’s quote, and I thought again of the Amish. We really do have a lot in common–baseball, a love of our community, and a gratitude to God.  On signing his new contract, Josh said –

“I was sweeping places out like this seven years ago or whatever,” he said. “This goes for anybody. It’s awesome to think about what God can do in your life if you allow him to. … It’s just amazing.”

You can read the entire article here, and you can purchase Josh’s book, Beyond Belief from Amazon. It is truly a story of God’s grace.  

V~

VannettaChapman@gmail.com

ps – I’m in Glendale, AZ this weekend speaking on Monday. If you’re in the area, please check out my JOIN ME tab. I’d love to see you.

Animal Rescue

I’m going to interrupt my regular blog schedule to share the following story with you. If you are on my regular FB page, then you might have seen it on Friday, but I think it bares repeating.

I want to give you a little bit of family history first. When I met my husband, I was surprised to learn that he had very little experience with horses. His father was a rancher, and he had grown up working around cattle, but Bob explained to me that they couldn’t afford the care and upkeep of horses. They used pick-ups. However, over the years he has read a lot, and perhaps that’s how he knew what to do when he was driving home from the ranch last Friday. Like the rest of the country, we had experienced unusually cold weather - – -

He saw a pony lying on the middle of a shallow frozen pond. At first he thought it was stuck in the ice. He climbed the fence and checked. The horse was just exhausted. Didn’t even move as Bob slipped and slid his way out to him. So he pushed, pulled, tugged, and finally managed to get the horse off the ice …

At that point the horse is still doing nothing, just raising his head. So Bob laid down on top of it for about 20 minutes and he started breathing a little easier. He was just trembling the whole time. Bob had noticed he moved his front legs some, but his back legs were just stiff. So he started moving them around trying to get some circulation going. Eventually the horse was able to get up on all fours.

Finally the horse walked over to about 3 other ponies that were watching the whole thing and got up in the middle of them.

I think it’s a beautiful story, and yes – I’ll probably use it in a book sometime in the future. Bob thinks maybe the horse, and its rescue, is the reason he was meant to go to the ranch last Thursday and Friday, as he hadn’t intended to go.  It’s been awfully cold here in the south, but this story … of a little pony and a man who really knows nothing about horses … warmed me up quite a bit. I kind of have a special place in my heart for the guy anyway.

I hope you all have a wonderful week.

 

V~

VannettaChapman@gmail.com

 

Voices

Wednesday’s Spotlight: Voices

New years. Do you love them or hate them? I love them. I love opening up a new calendar, cleaning up my desk, making resolutions …

Might seem odd to spotlight Chris Young’s song today, but it’s swirled around in my head for quite a few weeks. It has even helped me to form a new resolution for 2011 …

I also think this is an amusing song. Several years ago, one of those difficult years, I made the conscious decision to SEEK LAUGHTER. That’s right. If there was a comedy on tv, I watched it. If a music video amused me, I taped it. If a certain author made me smile, then I read them more … you get the idea. I needed to find the brighter side of life that year.

When I first heard Chris’s song, I was reminded of that time in my life. The whole idea of “hearing voices” … yeah, I’ve been there. But we all hear voices, right? We all have important people in our lives, who have given us valuable advice. And we’ve all tried to ignore it at times. : )

Turns out I’m pretty dang lucky
For all that good advice
Those hard to find words of wisdom
Holed up here in my mind
And just when I’ve lost my way
Or I got too many choices

I hear voices
I hear voices like
My dad sayin’ quit the team
And you’ll be a quitter for the rest of your life
Mama tellin’ me to say a prayer
Every time I lay down at night
And grandma sayin’ if you find the one
You’d better treat her right
Yeah, I hear voices all the time

Sometimes I try to ignore ‘em
But I thank God for ‘em
‘Cause they made me who I am

My dad sayin’ work that job
But don’t work your life away

Can you guess which line made it on to my resolution list? : ) Here’s wishing you the very best in 2011 … a year filled with God’s love, the spirit’s peace, and the grace of our Lord.

V~

VannettaChapman@gmail.com

Celebrate His Birth

Wednesday’s Spotlight: Celebrate His Birth

I came across this little book while I was at Lifeway Bookstore, and it really is a gem. It’s a combination of quotes, verses, songs, various things. I found it to be charming, and exactly what I needed to help me calm myself during this season. Some of my favorite were –

When I think of Christmas Eves, Christmas feasts, Christmas songs, and Christmas stories, I know it was not a short and transient gladness. It was–and is–a joy unspeakable and full of glory. ~Corrie ten Boom

We recall the special Christmases that are like little landmarks in a life of a family. ~Marjorie Holmes

If we could condense all the truths of Christmas into only three words, these would be the words: “God with us.” ~John MacArthur

May these bring you a tiny bit of the Christmas spirit this week.

V~

VannettaChapman@gmail.com

A Friend in the Storm

Wednesday’s Spotlight: A Friend in the Storm

FULL DISCLOSURE: This week’s highlight is by a friend of mine, Cheryl Ricker. A Friend in the Storm is a sweet book of poetry and scripture. It’s a special gift for someone hurting, or perhaps a balm for your own wounded heart.

I met Cheryl at ACFW this year and had a chance to talk with her quite a bit. She’s every bit as kind and gentle as her bio suggests. I can’t begin to tell her story as well as she can, so I’m going to simply encourage you to go read about her life, her passion for helping others, and her poetry. She’s an artist in the true sense of the word, and I’m proud to count her as my friend.

V~

VannettaChapman@gmail.com

Beyond Belief

Wednesday’s Spotlight: Beyond Belief

I wanted to highlight Josh Hamilton’s book today (written with Tim Keown). I was completely humbled and blown away by this book. I was familiar with Josh’s story before I started the book. I lived in Dallas for over 30 years, and I’m an avid Texas Rangers fan.

I was aware that Josh previously had a drug problem. And I knew that he credited his recovery to his family and his faith.

However, I had no idea the depth of his faith. And I am serious, when I say I stand amazed – and humbled. After reading this book, I wish that I could read it with the high school classes that I teach. Although I do read excerpts with them, and I often assign news stories to them (including sports stories – and yes, a Josh Hamilton story), it wouldn’t be appropriate for me to assign them this book. HOWEVER, I can definitely put it on the bookshelf in my room and hope someone will ask to check it out!

The short version – if you’re unfamiliar, is that Josh was given a $3.96 million dollar signing bonus 2 days after graduating high school to play baseball for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Somehow along the way, he fell under the spell of drug addiction, until he was suspended from major league baseball, spent nearly all of his money, and his wife had to have a restraining order issued against him in order to protect their children.

The turning point came when Josh showed up on his grandmother’s doorstep. She took him in, prayed for him (as many people were praying for him), fed him and loved him. Today, as I write this blog, Josh is the #1 hitter in major league baseball. He’s clean, he’s reunited with his family, and he credits it all to God.

“None of this would have been possible without my relationship with Christ. I went through 8 different drug treatment and rehabilitation clinics, but my personal resurrection did not come from a group session or a therapist’s couch. I know the twelve steps by heart, but my healing did not come from a strict adherence to those principles. Instead, my life changed from hopeless to hope-filled when I turned to God and asked for His help.”

Wow. When Josh is asked how his recovery was possible, how he could make a come-back after the abuse he showered on his body, he shrugs and replies “It’s a God-thing.” There simply is no other answer. And the words he repeats over and over are “God first, then my family, then baseball.”

This was one of the most inspirational books I’ve read this year, actually in several years. And this is one young athlete that I’m proud to have my students look up to.

V~

VannettaChapman@gmail.com

Inspirational Reading

 

Inspirational reading comes in all shapes and forms. By now you know that on Wednesdays, I try to highlight some other book that I’m reading or have been made aware of. It was only a matter of time, before my husband had an influence on this segment of the blog! : )

Yesterday he brought home Drew Brees’ bestseller, “Coming Back Stronger.” I knew something of Drew’s background from watching the Superbowl last year and hearing my husband talk about him. Then when I was at the RWA conventional last month, I sat by a lovely woman from New Orleans who told me what a wonderful young man Drew is and how proud the people of her city are of him. She also told me that at their local bookstore, folks had lined up at 11 pm the night before its release to have their copy autographed. When Drew arrived, he came with enough Krispy Kreme donuts for everyone, and he stayed until he signed the very last copy. What a guy!

I read 44 pages last night – which is a lot considering this is a SPORTS book and I was also feeling a bit under the weather. It’s quite a fascinating read. Here’s one portion that leapt out at me. When talking about his ACL tear in 1995, Drew writes,

“I was sitting in the pew with my crutches next to me and my knee brace on, thinking about the future. It had been about two weeks since the surgery, and I was lost in all the questions. . . . As I sat there thinking about those deep, huge questions that everyone faces at some point, the pastor, Dr. Browning Ware, was preaching about what God desires us to be. As an illustration in his message, he mentioned the movie A Few Good Men. He said that God is looking for a few good men to carry on his teachings and to walk the walk with Christ. That’s when the lightbulb came on for me. He’s talking to me. I want to be one of God’s few good men.”

This books is a great read. It’s an inspirational read in the truest sense of the word. I hope you’ll check it out, or at the very least – buy it for the special man in your life. I plan on finishing it myself. Then I might hand it back to my husband.

V~

VannettaChapman@gmail.com