The Orphan Carpenter

"My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" Have you ever wondered where God is? How can this be happening? What did I do to deserve this? Have your circumstances led you to question your faith? Does God care? Does he even exist? Thoughts flooded my head from our traumatic failed adoption. “Lord, where were you this time? Is this how our seven-year-long journey to have children ends? Are we being punished? Are we cursed? This adoption seemed so right. I thought I was ready. I really thought I could help these kids. After all, I started life as an Orphan.” My core beliefs had been shaken. To make sense of what just happened, I went back and examined my own life. So many times, the odds were heavily stacked against me, life, and death situations. Yet, somehow, someway, God always showed up. From orphan to carpenter and beyond, the pages of this book are my life stories. But the book is not about me or my story. It’s about God’s. As you read these true stories of my life like parables, may they be a testament that God is present and active in your life, that he loves you and has a plan to give you hope and a future.

My God, My God, why have you forsaken me? Lord, where were you this time? Is this how our seven-year-long journey to have children ends? Are we being punished? Are we cursed? This adoption seemed so right. I thought I was ready. I really thought I could help these kids. After all, I started life as an Orphan. Have you ever wondered where God is? How can this be happening? What did I do to deserve this? Due to your circumstances, are you questioning your faith? Does God care? Does he even exist? Thoughts flooding my head from our traumatic failed adoption and circumstances in the months following led me to this book's writing. My core beliefs had been shaken. So, to make sense of what just happened, I went back and examined my own life. I was just a little kid in a small northern city that wanted to be a carpenter. But instead, God used this to propel me on an incredible life journey throughout multiple countries and cities, complete with a stop in paradise. So many times, the odds were heavily stacked against me, life, and death situations. Yet, somehow, someway, God always showed up. As I put my life story into writing, common themes and Biblical truths started to reveal themselves, strengthening my faith. This book contains true stories of my life like parables, laying testament that God loves you and has a plan to give you hope and a future. From orphan to carpenter and beyond, the pages of this book are my life stories. But the book is not about me. As you read these words, God is working in your life. So, let's open this book and take this journey together.

Focusing on the interaction between teachers and scholars, this book provides an intimate account of "ragged schools" that challenges existing scholarship on evangelical child-saving movements and Victorian philanthropy. With Lord Shaftesbury as their figurehead, these institutions provided a free education to impoverished children. The primary purpose of the schools, however, was the salvation of children’s souls. Using promotional literature and local school documents, this book contrasts the public portrayal of children and teachers with that found in practice. It draws upon evidence from schools in Scotland and England, giving insight into the achievements and challenges of individual institutions. An intimate account is constructed using the journals maintained by Martin Ware, the superintendent of a North London school, alongside a cache of letters that children sent him. This combination of personal and national perspectives adds nuance to the narratives often imposed upon historic philanthropic movements. Investigating how children responded to the evangelistic messages and educational opportunities ragged schools offered, this book will be of keen interest to historians of education, emigration, religion, as well as of the nineteenth century more broadly.

Who was Jesus of Nazareth? Buried beneath two thousand years of theology and dogma lies a real historical person who founded a movement that evolved into the largest religion in the history of the world. But is it possible to know what he really said, did, and believed? This book applies the Marxist conception of history to the study of the historical Jesus. It focuses on class, material conditions, and textual analysis to extract the authentic sayings and deeds of Jesus of Nazareth. The implications are far-reaching for followers of Christ wishing to base their faith in reason and science. They also offer guidance and inspiration for modern activists and revolutionaries wishing to challenge the same unjust systems of power that Jesus faced in his own lifetime.