Changes

Hello friends!

I am so happy to join you on this wonderful Friday! I don't know about you, but this year, Easter was very poignant for me. I keep thinking of a comment the reverend at my church said. He was talking about the fact that even though we tend to read the same Scripture passages and celebrate the same holidays each year, they shouldn't feel the same. Why? Because we should be growing in our relationship with God, which means that the Scriptures always have something new to teach us.

To grow means that something has to change. Change is often a scary word. I'll be the first to admit that I'm not always thrilled with the changes I see. Such as my kids getting ready to graduate and move on with their lives. That's a hard change. Or when I see yet another strand of gray hair in the mirror.

Aren't they beautiful? As much as I struggle with letting go, I love the people that they are becoming and that God is in control of their lives. The changes happening in their lives are enough to fill my heart and soul with gratitude and joy. Even while my mother's heart wants to worry and fret.
This year, however, I am trying to embrace the changes and to see God's purpose in them. How is He asking me to grow and change so that our relationship will become stronger?

One of the changes I have implemented is called Morning Pages. Since I have dabbled with journaling in the past, it seemed like a good fit for me.  Simply put, it's a stream of consciousness journal. Except I do it as a prayer journal. So before I look at my phone, before I start my day, I have a free flowing conversation with God. I bring my praise, my prayers, and my intentions and I put them all there in my journal. Then I pray about my priorities for the day. I try to do my planner at the same time. My goal is to allow my day to start with God and to allow Him to plan what is the most important in my day.

My journaling doesn't happen every day. Sometimes life gets busy. But my goal is to let Christ be the center of my day, and of my life.

I am so grateful for the many blessings He has poured out upon me. One thing that constantly amazes me is that I get to write books and share them with readers. It never gets old seeing a new cover or holding a book in my hand that I wrote. In June, my 9th book with Love Inspired Suspense will release.

An Amish witness to murder
Another riveting Amish Country Justice book

On the way to deliver a baby, Amish midwife Lizzy Miller witnesses her driver’s murder—and now someone plans to silence her. Lizzy knows better than to trust strangers, but she must depend on former Amish turned Englisch police officer Isaac Yoder. And there’s nowhere safe to hide…unless Isaac reconnects with the Amish community he left behind to protect the woman he’s falling for.

I am very excited about this book. My characters have to do some changing and growing before they can get their happy-ever-after, but it's worth it in the end.

Thanks for joining me today!

Blessings,

Dana R. Lynn

About Dana R. Lynn

Dana R. Lynn believes the power of God can transcend any circumstance.  She is a bestselling, award winning author of fifteen books and views her writing as a ministry to show His love can bring healing and peace. She writes romantic suspense for Harlequin’s Love Inspired Suspense line. She has been on Publisher’s Weekly Bestseller lists three times, and her 2017 title Plain Target won both the first place for her category and the overall Grand Prize winner in the New England Reader’s Choice Awards. She is a 2019 Selah Awards finalist. Dana is a member of RWA (Romance Writers of America), ACFW (American Christian Fiction Writers and Sisters in Crime. She is represented by Tamela Hancock Murray of the Steve Laube Literary Agency. In 1996, Dana met her husband at a wedding and told her parents she’d met the man she was going to marry. Nineteen months later, they were married. Today, they live in rural northwestern Pennsylvania with enough animals to start a petting zoo. In addition to writing, she works as a teacher for the deaf and hard of hearing and is involved in several ministries in her church.

Visiting Iowa Amish Land by Marie E. Bast

Hello. I’m Marie E. Bast, author of The Amish Baker, and I write Iowa Amish stories, and today I thought I’d give you a short tour of Iowa Amish country by sharing a few of my photos.

This is the Amish bakery that sets out in the country, but it is so much more than that. At one end are numerous shelves full of baked goods and canned fruit and pickles. At the other end is Amish furniture for sale (displayed in the picture below), and in the middle are crafts.

The Amish furniture is lovely, handcrafted pieces.

Their handmade baskets range in all sizes from napkin size to laundry basket size. I bought several.

Iowa Amish farms are lush green land from the heartland. They are well kept and maintained. Notice the picture on the left with the dawdihaus, a white house on the right and the red house in the middle far-back.

 The Amish of Iowa are very private communities, but they are friendly. In the first picture above, the Amish women do run that bakery and the furniture shop, but further down the road is another Amish furniture store but they hire the Englischers to run that. The Amish don't mingle here as much as they do in Indiana and Pennsylvania. The Amish started  moving to Iowa in 1846 to put distance between them and heavy tourism.

Sorry, I made my pictures small, so I hope you can see the large garden that sits in front of that white fence. Iowa has prime farm land great for gardening.

Here are a few Amish horses grazing the lush banks along this farm.

Now I want to introduce you to Elwood that's his real name although the driver usually calls him that in Pennsylvania-Dutch. Elwood is a retired Ohio Amish work horse. The picture doesn't do him justice but he is a larger than normal 2100 pound Percheron horse. Because of their strength, the Percheron horses were used during the middle ages as war horses. Well, I said Elwood was retired, but in truth, he is retired from hard labor, but he still has a job. Elwood resides in Charleston, SC, and he gives buggy rides to tourist in that charming old city. I met Elwood when we took a ride at Christmas time and I set up front. He had a lot of personality and is going to make his way into one of my books.


It was a whirlwind tour, but thank you for coming along.

On March 4, 2019, I received notification that The Amish Baker made the Publishers Weekly Best Seller List. I was both surprised and honored at the same time over the overwhelming response to this book. I want to thank all my readers and supporters for your encouragement in Facebook and Twitter, for your thoughtful letters and reviews on Amazon and Goodreads. I so very much appreciate that you took the time to do so, and I am deeply humbled and grateful for your support and friendship.

When his son breaks one of baker Sarah Gingerich’s prized possessions, widower Caleb Brenneman insists the boy make amends by doing odd jobs in her bake shop. A childless widow, Sarah can’t help falling for the boy...or his farmer father. But Caleb is progressive New Order Amish while Sarah holds traditional beliefs. Though they’re worlds apart, are they a perfect match?

In The Amish Baker, Sarah Gingerich, who is Old Order, and Caleb Brenneman, who belongs to the New Order, struggle with what their church Ordnung requires and what their hearts want.

Why not order today: 
AMAZON

Whispering words of hope and healing through complex characters and twisting plots, Marie E. Bast enjoys writing contemporary and historical stories. Her first Love Inspired novel, The Amish Baker made the Publishers Weekly Best Seller List. Married for twenty-seven years, Marie and her husband have two grown sons and one daughter. When she’s not writing, she’s walking, golfing, gardening or spending time with her family.

Visit her website or follower her on social media:

mariebastauthor.com      Facebook     Twitter     Google     Pinterest     blogspot

The Amish Baker releases Feb. 19, by Marie E. Bast

Happy February! This month of romance, I’m celebrating the release of my first Love Inspired novel, The Amish Baker.

A child brings them together…                                
Will their differing Amish

beliefs pull them apart?

When his son breaks one of baker Sarah Gingerich’s prized possessions, widower Caleb Brenneman insists the boy make amends by doing odd jobs in her bake shop. A childless widow, Sarah can’t help falling for the boy...or his farmer father. But Caleb is progressive New Order Amish while Sarah holds traditional beliefs. Though they’re worlds apart, are they a perfect match?

 

Please enjoy this brief excerpt:

“The wheels crunched over the rocks as the buggy and Sarah drove out of his lane and out of his life. When he turned, his heart was beating wildly as she disappeared behind the grove of trees.

            What had he done? He didn’t want her out of his life…the buggy stirred up dust that dissolved into nothingness, like his chance for liebe.

###

I grew up on a farm in northern Illinois, not far from Amish country. When my family would drive to town, I’d see Amish buggies and horses. One day, I asked dad why we didn’t have a horse and buggy. To my disappointment, he explained that it was part of their religion to give up modern devices. From then on, the Amish have intrigued me.

Now I live seventy-six miles from Kalona, Iowa, and visit there often. The Amish started to move from Lancaster, PA, to Iowa in 1846 to live a more secluded lifestyle. The different groups in Iowa—the Old Order, New Order and Beachy Amish—have settled in seven Iowa counties. So come along with me in The Amish Baker and meet the Amish of the heartland.

The Amish Baker is available for preorder:

AMAZON         BarnesandNoble            BooksAMillion               Christianbook

Whispering words of hope and healing through complex characters and twisting plots, Marie E. Bast enjoys writing contemporary and historical stories. Her first Love Inspired novel, The Amish Baker, releases Feb. 19, 2019. Married for twenty-seven years, Marie and her husband have two grown sons and one daughter. When she’s not writing, she’s walking, golfing, gardening or spending time with her family.

Visit her website or follower her on social media:

mariebastauthor.com      Facebook     Twitter     Google     Pinterest     

blogspot

Finding Thanksgiving by Marie Bast

 

 

I love the holidays and this time of year. It always brings to mind            

how much I have to be thankful for—our family, our health, for
the many blessings, but this year I get to add my first book with
Love inspired. I’m so grateful to the wonderful LI team and all
their hard work to get my book ready for publication. 

But Thanksgiving also goes deeper…

When I set the table with my grandmother’s antique Haviland Bavaria china and mom’s silverware, memories from past years with family come flooding back. One Thanksgiving years ago, it was my turn to host the traditional family dinner. It snowed 15.6 inches in northern Illinois the night before. I had cooked and baked for two days and had tons of food and afraid we’d be eating a 25-pound turkey for a month. They plowed the roads and everyone made it. Now we go to South Carolina for the winter, but my grandson thought he’d send me a reminder of those days.

 

Yet Thanksgiving can be about remembering a family vacation like
the one we had three years ago with our son and his family in Michigan and visiting the dunes and enjoying beautiful Lake Michigan. Two years ago, it was about taking a cruise to Mexico with our other son and his wife.
                                                 

Thanksgiving was also when my husband had bypass surgery, and today I thank the Lord every day that he is here with me.

Yes, Thanksgiving is all these things and much, much more.

Thanksgiving isn’t about just one day, it’s about all the memories, all the good times, all the people, and yes, it’s about the food, too, and about sitting down together and joining hands in prayer and making new memories. It’s about finding all that we have forgotten about…

So what are your memories? Have you found your Thanksgiving?

 
































                                                

 

New for June from Our Love Inspired Suspense Authors

Jean C. Gordon here with a new must buy from our Love Inspired Suspense authors. Just click on a cover to purchase it. And to learn more about Dana, click on her name

Top Secret Target
by Dana Mentink 

Her true identity is a secret
The next explosive Military K-9 Unit thriller
With his ex-wife next on a killer’s hit list, military police lieutenant Ethan Webb and his K-9 partner, Titus, must guard the woman posing as her. But courageous private investigator Kendra Bell refuses to be just bait—she wants to help bring down the killer. Can she play her part without falling for her pretend ex-husband?