Missional Fostering A Temporary Assignment A Tremendous Cause A Timeless Impact

Seasonal Parents? It happens every Christmas all over the country, all over the world. Large signs are placed in windows and on doors with these words: "Now hiring seasonal workers." If you get that job, you will not be obligated forever. You are just signing up for a short stint to help some people with a need. That's the idea behind this book. Missional fostering is the other lane of the fostering freeway, and it recognizes that you are not necessarily trying to add a new child into your home. Missional fostering is parenting someone else's child for them for a short period of time. Missional fostering means we love on them, feed them, hold them, stabilize them, cuddle with the young ones, high-five the big ones, and then watch them drive away to a long-term foster-to-adopt home. Mission accomplished. Missional fostering reminds us that it is a temporary assignment, for a tremendous cause, making a timeless impact on children one life at a time. "Something special happens when a person says, 'I'm willing to be your really good temporary if it helps you find your even better forever.' This is fos- ter care, and it's the compelling message you'll feel resonating from every page of Missional Fostering." Jason Johnson, National Director of Church Ministry Initiatives, The Christian Alliance for Orphans Author, ReFraming Foster Care

Seasonal Parents? It happens every Christmas all over the country, all over the world. Large signs are placed in windows and on doors with these words: "Now hiring seasonal workers." If you get that job, you will not be obligated forever. You are just signing up for a short stint to help some people with a need. That's the idea behind this book. Missional fostering is the other lane of the fostering freeway, and it recognizes that you are not necessarily trying to add a new child into your home. Missional fostering is parenting someone else's child for them for a short period of time. Missional fostering means we love on them, feed them, hold them, stabilize them, cuddle with the young ones, high-five the big ones, and then watch them drive away to a long-term foster-to-adopt home. Mission accomplished. Missional fostering reminds us that it is a temporary assignment, for a tremendous cause, making a timeless impact on children one life at a time. "Something special happens when a person says, 'I'm willing to be your really good temporary if it helps you find your even better forever.' This is fos- ter care, and it's the compelling message you'll feel resonating from every page of Missional Fostering." Jason Johnson, National Director of Church Ministry Initiatives, The Christian Alliance for Orphans Author, ReFraming Foster Care

A compassionate, shame-free guide for your darkest days “A one-of-a-kind book . . . to read for yourself or give to a struggling friend or loved one without the fear that depression and suicidal thoughts will be minimized, medicalized or over-spiritualized.”—Kay Warren, cofounder of Saddleback Church What happens when loving Jesus doesn’t cure you of depression, anxiety, or suicidal thoughts? You might be crushed by shame over your mental illness, only to be told by well-meaning Christians to “choose joy” and “pray more.” So you beg God to take away the pain, but nothing eases the ache inside. As darkness lingers and color drains from your world, you’re left wondering if God has abandoned you. You just want a way out. But there’s hope. In I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die, Sarah J. Robinson offers a healthy, practical, and shame-free guide for Christians struggling with mental illness. With unflinching honesty, Sarah shares her story of battling depression and fighting to stay alive despite toxic theology that made her afraid to seek help outside the church. Pairing her own story with scriptural insights, mental health research, and simple practices, Sarah helps you reconnect with the God who is present in our deepest anguish and discover that you are worth everything it takes to get better. Beautifully written and full of hard-won wisdom, I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die offers a path toward a rich, hope-filled life in Christ, even when healing doesn’t look like what you expect.

A stunning debut novel that offers a new look at a classic love story about soul mates torn apart by the circumstances of their time. Catrina Dickinson is haunted by her past and feels caged in by life in small town Missouri. When she discovers a strange man in Stone Field where her family grows their sorghum crop, her life takes on new meaning. He has no memory of who he is or what brought him to Cat's farm, but they fall passionately in love. Meanwhile, the country is on the brink of the Civil War, and the conflict in Missouri demands that everyone take a side before the bloodbath reaches their doorstep. A passionate and atmospheric reimagining of Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights, Stone Field by Christy Lenzi explores how violence and vengeance perverts the human spirit, and how hatred can be transcended by love.

Inuit have lived in Canada's north since time immemorial. The Canadian government's administration of Inuit affairs, however, has been generally shorter and is less well understood than the federal government's relations with First Nations and Métis. We hope to correct some of this knowledge imbalance by providing an overview of the federal government's Inuit policy and program development from first contact to 2006. Topics that are covered by this book include the 1939 Re Eskimo decision that gave Canada constitutional responsibility for Inuit, post World War II acculturation and defence projects, law and justice, sovereignty and relocations, the E-number identification system, Inuit political organizations, comprehensive claim agreements, housing, healthcare, education, economic development, self-government, the environment and urban issues. In order to develop meaningful forward-looking policy, it is essential to understand what has come before and how we got to where we are. We believe that this book will be a valuable contribution to a growing body of knowledge about Canada-Inuit relations, and will be an indispensable resource to all students of federal Inuit and northern policy development.

Thereðs something waiting at the end of this book. Could it beÛa monster?! Lovable, furry old Grover is about to find outÜand heðs bringing his equally lovable and furry friend Elmo with him!

Winner of the International Lannan Literary Award for Nonfiction Animal tracks, word magic, the speech of stones, the power of letters, and the taste of the wind all figure prominently in this intellectual tour de force that returns us to our senses and to the sensuous terrain that sustains us. This major work of ecological philosophy startles the senses out of habitual ways of perception. For a thousand generations, human beings viewed themselves as part of the wider community of nature, and they carried on active relationships not only with other people with other animals, plants, and natural objects (including mountains, rivers, winds, and weather patters) that we have only lately come to think of as "inanimate." How, then, did humans come to sever their ancient reciprocity with the natural world? What will it take for us to recover a sustaining relation with the breathing earth? In The Spell of the Sensuous David Abram draws on sources as diverse as the philosophy of Merleau-Ponty, Balinese shamanism, Apache storytelling, and his own experience as an accomplished sleight-of-hand of magician to reveal the subtle dependence of human cognition on the natural environment. He explores the character of perception and excavates the sensual foundations of language, which--even at its most abstract--echoes the calls and cries of the earth. On every page of this lyrical work, Abram weaves his arguments with a passion, a precision, and an intellectual daring that recall such writers as Loren Eisleley, Annie Dillard, and Barry Lopez.

In a raucous debut that summons up Britain's fabled Goon Squad comedies, writer and philosopher Lars Iyer tells the story of someone very like himself with a "slightly more successful" friend and their journeys in search of more palatable literary conferences and better gin. One reason for their journeys: the narrator's home is slowly being taken over by a fungus that no one seems to know what to do about. Before it completely swallows his house, the narrator feels compelled to solve some major philosophical questions (such as "Why?") and the meaning of his urge to write, as well as the source of the fungus ... before it is too late. Or, he has to move.