A Month Of Giveaways: Week 4

 It's a new week, the last one in February! I had fun reading your childhood memories relating to church. The winner of last week's giveaway -- the book about my childhood church -- is Bertha Mast! Email your address to christopherbethany@juno.com and I will get your book sent to you!

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How many of you grew up with Uncle Arthur's Bedtime Story books? 

I did not, but I remember borrowing them from a family from church. My husband is a story lover, and early in our marriage we bought the complete set! All of that to say, I am not giving away a set of Uncle Arthur's Bedtime stories. Sorry. 

I've had many different ideas for this last giveaway -- several different book options, a package of handmade items, letting you choose between various ideas... and then, I thought it might be fun to give away a surprise package. That's what made me think of Uncle Arthur's Bedtime stories. 

The very first story in book number one of our set is about "The Surprise Package Company." Two little children, bored with summer vacation, came up with the idea of inventing The Surprise Package Company. They secretly planned acts of kindness, slipping packages to people and doing kind deeds, all the while leaving no trace of their identity, save for a note saying "from the Surprise Package Company". 

Can't you just feel their excitement?

Their secret was finally discovered by a kind old doctor, who sent the Surprise Package Company a letter. In it, he invited the two to a luncheon where there were two surprise packages that made up for all they had given away. 

I like that story. 

And so, the giveaway this week will be a surprise package. It will likely include multiple items -- possibly something tasty, something inspirational, something pretty, something fun -- we'll see. To enter the giveaway, leave a comment telling me a bit about yourself so I can tailor your surprise  package, such as -- Are you single? Do you have young children? Do you enjoy reading? Just any information that you'd like to share. 

I will choose a winner next Monday, March 1. As always, the winner must have a US address the package can be shipped to. 

Have fun!

A Month Of Giveaways: Week 3

 The winner of last week's giveaway, a copy of the latest issue of the Daughter's of Promise magazine, is Nolita Stoltzfus! Email your address to christopherbethany@juno.com and I will get it sent your way!

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I feel like last week's giveaway was a bit of a "niche" giveaway, and this one probably is too. I guess that's ok. It doesn't have to be something everyone's dog and neighbor is clamoring to win. I had decided ahead of time that the giveaways would be simple -- things I already have or can make. This week, I am giving away a copy of the book my sister and I put together in memory of my mom. 

I've already written about the book here, so I won't spend a lot of time talking about why we put it together. 

Shady Lawn is the small, Mennonite church in the hills of Arkansas that I grew up attending. It began back in 1955 when one family felt called to find a rural area to share Jesus with. These Stones includes the stories of a number of the first families who helped with Shady Lawn's beginning. The stories are written by the families themselves, and have fascinating details about the "pioneer" days. Their stories of grit and ingenuity in a new community, so different from the places they grew up in, are interesting and (sometimes) downright entertaining. Their enthusiasm and love for sharing Jesus with the neighbors around them is inspiring. This book is definitely enjoyed most by those of us who have connections to Shady Lawn, but I think other people would find it interesting and inspiring as well. 

If you would like to be entered in the giveaway, leave a comment telling me a childhood memory that has something to do with church. Here's mine: When I was a little girl, for years there were only boys around my age. On Sunday evenings, we would often have children's class, where the children would go up and sit on the front bench and then someone would tell a story or teach a short lesson. I remember how they would often say, "Good evening boys and girl", because I was the only girl up there!

I hope you had a Happy Valentine's Day and that you're weathering the wintery weather these days. February has certainly brought Ohio an abundance of snow this year!

My view this morning and 

still coming down!

A good week to you....

**The winner must have a US address the book can be shipped to.

A Month of Giveaways: Week 2

I loved reading your comments about connection! It seems there are many common ways to feel connected but it was interesting to hear the little differences from person to person. The winner of the book The Highway and Me and My Earl Grey Tea is "Just Me" who said: I feel connection when talking with someone who has walked a path similar to mine. 

Congratulations! Please email your address to christopherbethany@juno.com and I will contact Emily about getting you your book!

And now, for giveaway number two... but first, a story. 

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This year my blog will be ten years old. I've written 800 some posts since that humble little beginning in 2011 and although I've sent a few articles here and there, I've never published anything anywhere except in this little corner until last year. Last year, in August, I randomly sent a pitch to Daughter's of Promise, an Anabaptist based magazine for women. They put out a magazine quarterly and choose their content from pitches submitted by people from all over the country. I'd submitted a pitch before, and nothing had come of it; I fully expected the same thing to happen this time. 

Weeks later, when I received an email saying my pitch had been chosen, not for the magazine, but for a collection of bonus articles they were putting together, I could hardly believe my eyes! This came during a long stretch of silence for me; a long stretch of wondering if I'd ever write again. I had been asking the Lord a lot of questions about my blog and writing, and that email felt like a direct touch from Him. I still get a lump in my throat thinking about it. (Incidentally, it was shortly after that email that I received another email asking if I would want to write this article for the Calvary Messenger. Goosebumps.)

I think a lot of bloggers can identify with a strange conundrum in writing. The very fact that one likes to write is often indicative of a preference to remain out of the limelight. And yet, there is something within us that also secretly dreams of being seen -- why else do we write, after all? Well, Daughter's of Promise magazine is certainly a place to be seen! This is the place where the cool people's names appear; the place where you find the authors of popular blogs and noteworthy women. I would be lying if the idea of appearing in those ranks didn't go to my head just a little. We even expanded on the whole thing and asked about my daughter doing illustrations for my article -- she dreams of selling her artwork someday, and what better way to get her name out in the big wide world?

Writing for Daughter's of Promise is a long process of writing and working with an editor and tweaking and re-writing. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Adding the artwork was a bit stressful and complicated and I labored over writing a bio in third person that didn't sound like some woman I had never met before, but finally the deed was done. 

Then came the big day! I received an email from the editor of Daughter's of Promise magazine with a link to download the collection of bonus content for the Contentment issue. I opened the file, and right there was the table of contents with my article title and my name behind it. Wow. I scrolled quickly through, eager to find the finished work at last. And there it was -- the title, the article, the artwork -- and no name attached to it whatsoever. No name of the author, no credit to the artist, no third person bio. I scrolled quickly back and forth, confirming that every other article included those details and that really, no, mine did not. 

I looked at my daughter blankly, "You are not going to believe this! What do I even do now? Do I say something? It's digital content, I suppose they could go in and still fix it? Unbelievable!" And what did my daughter do? She started laughing. "So much for all the 'getting our names out there'!" She exclaimed. "But how can you say anything? Wouldn't that kind of defeat the whole purpose of your article?" Slowly, what she was saying soaked in, and I could only shake my head and agree. What had I written about? Treasure in Heaven. 

Ahhh, the human-ness of my heart; writing about Treasure in Heaven while secretly trying to store up a stash here on earth. I hope I learned a lesson. 

I don't think it would have been wrong for me to bring it to the editor's attention -- obviously, I'm telling you about it now, so it is no longer a secret! But in the moment, it definitely felt like God saying, "Check your heart there, sister. I'll give you opportunities but it's not about you, honey."

This week I am giving away the latest issue of the Daughter's of Promise magazine. 

I know many of you may receive this magazine regularly. If you do, you're still eligible to enter this giveaway! This will be a free one that you can bless a friend with. To enter, leave a comment. If you share a "pride before a fall" story of your own, I'll enter your name twice.

If you are interested in the bonus content -- 9 articles about contentment -- including my name free one, you can download it for free right here.  My article is a very condensed version of the Treasure in Heaven series I shared here several years ago. 

**The winner must have a US address the magazine can be shipped to.

A Month of Giveaways: Week 1

Many of you are familiar with Dorcas Smucker; I have followed her blog and social media accounts for years. You may remember that I've given away several of her books, one being the giveaway where everyone who entered received a book! Today, I have a book for you that was written by her daughter. 

I'm not sure when I started reading Emily's blog. I'm thinking it may have been the first time Dorcas and her daughters collaborated to post every day for a month? At any rate, I've followed along there for a while now; if not reading every single post, usually going back and playing catch up. I even joined her patreon account, which I rarely ever do. And, I pre-ordered her book, which is also a bit unusual for me. 

How honest do you get in a book review?

Emily and I have very different personalities. Granted, I've never met her in person but some things are pretty obvious. Following along with her blogs, there have been plenty of times when I rolled my eyes at her adventurous and (to me) impractical spirit. Her writing isn't always necessarily my style and I even confess that when I heard she was writing a book, I didn't think it would be that great. 

So why did I buy it?

I think it was when I signed up for her patreon posts that my feelings began to shift a bit. I discovered a depth to her heart and a connection with some of her beliefs and feelings that I hadn't seen before. Then, she wrote a post about the story behind the book and described how her editor encouraged her to dig deeper than just, "I did this crazy thing, and then I did that thing, and then I locked my keys in the car again." And instead asked, "But how did that make you feel?" Something about that intrigued me and I made the decision to pre-order the book. 

I must say, my earlier thought that a book by Emily would not be that great was completely and totally wrong. My deepest apologies. I loved The Highway and Me and My Earl Grey Tea; loved it. And I think I loved it because of Emily's hard work in asking "how did it make me feel".

The book is about Emily spending a year traveling around the United States, living in a different Mennonite community every month. It was fun to read about many communities and names and events that were familiar to me. Emily's candid impressions had me laughing many times. I learned about Mennonite expressions and habits that I'd never heard of before. It was intriguing to read about different communities and the way they socialized. But Emily's book also made me cry. 

The underlying theme in Emily's book is connection. She writes, "At the beginning of the year, I thought I wanted to escape, but what I really wanted was connection. I thought I wanted to find myself, to figure out where I wanted to live, and to figure out if I could be a real writer. But what I really wanted was to understand my place in this world." Who of us can not identify with that?

Reading through her journey, I found my own heart throbbing with the same questions she was facing -- Who am I? Where do I belong? What do I really want? Her poignant conclusion at the end of the book had me wiping tears again the other day as I re-read it: "This year had taught me that relationships and connections are what really matter. And you can't grow connections when you're always escaping."

When I decided to do another month of giveaways, I reached out to Emily, and she  has graciously agreed to give away a copy of The Highway and Me and My Earl Grey Tea to one of my readers! You can also order a copy of her book here. I am pretty sure you will enjoy it as much as I did. 

Connection is an interesting thing, made even more complicated by the fact that we don't all find it in the same way. I have learned that the things that make people feel connection are as diverse as the people themselves! For example, my husband feels the most connected with people when they engage in disagreements with him. I on the other hand, feel the most connected with people when they say things like, "Oh, yes. I can understand why you feel that way!" 

So, I'm curious. To enter the giveaway, leave a comment telling me what makes you feel connected to other people. Or if that is too difficult to describe, I'll accept any comment...

Winner will be announced a week from today, February 8.

**The winner must have a US address the book can be shipped to.