Archive for the ‘5 Things’ Category

Five Things: Ruth Ann Ellinger {Author Spotlight)

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Learn more about your favorite Ambassador authors with our “5 Things” series. Ruth Ann Ellinger is the author of the historical fiction novel, The Broken Spear: Reformation Rising, which was released on July 13th! Check out Ruth Ann’s five fast facts below…

1. Despite being legally blind, writing has been an integral part of my life.

2. My children live in the four corners of America: California, Idaho, Pennsylvania, and Florida.

3. My husband and I love restoring historic cottages.

4. I was raised on a farm in Ohio and the farm remains in the family. I can always go home.

5. I am a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution and can even trace my ancestry to the 12th century!

 

You can find Ruth Ann on her website, Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, and Amazon! Order Ruth Ann’s newest novel, The Broken Spear: Reformation Rising, here!

Meet Jennifer Bosma

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Learn more about your favorite Ambassador authors with our “5 Things” series. Jennifer Bosma is the author of the adorable children’s books I Know the Plans and The Baby Garden. Check out Jennifer’s five fast facts below…

 

  1. I applied to be a contestant for the TV show “Survivor.”
  2. I have walked with lions in Zimbabwe at a lion rehabilitation center.
  3. I swam in a shark cage while observing over twenty sharks swimming around the cage.Jennifer Bosma, I Know the Plans
  4. I have appeared in Andy Grammer’s “Honey I’m Good” Music Video.
  5. I have finished 3 marathons.

Jennifer Bosma has an enthusiasm for life, seeking joy in each day. Knowing the importance of spoken Scripture, she loves sharing God’s Word and His promises for abundant life with children and their parents. Jennifer taught elementary school for twenty-three years, touching the hearts of over five hundred students. Her first published children’s book, The Baby Garden, explains God’s plan for every child, planned or unplanned.

When Jennifer’s children were small, early on, she learned the importance of speaking Scripture to them. There were a few Scriptures that she spoke over them every day. Her goal behind I Know the Plans is to incorporate these powerful Scriptures from the point of view of Jesus as promises to each child. The rhyming text captures the attention of children as the Scripture is introduced. Her prayer is that both parents and children will make these Scriptures a part of their everyday lives as biblical promises for them.

I Know the Plans by Jennifer Bosma

I Know the Plans by Jennifer Bosma

Jennifer currently works in a discipleship ministry for ladies facing an unplanned pregnancy and has a very active blog to mentor young women. She and her husband of thirty-three years love spending time with their three grown daughters, a son-in-law, and two granddaughters. They enjoy traveling and being in the great outdoors, marveling at God’s beautiful creation.

You can find Jennifer on her website, Goodreads, and Bookbub! Learn more about Jennifer and her adorable children’s books here!

Five Things about J.D. Rempel

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Learn more about your favorite Ambassador authors with our “5 Things” series. J.D. Rempel is the author of the middle grade series, The NorCal Girls, with book two Melanie at Camp Redwoods releasing on April 20th! Check out J.D.’s five fast facts below…

1. I am an Anglophile.J.D. Rempel, author of the NorCal Girls series

2. I have a turtle named Applesauce.

3. I wanted to be an archaeologist when I grew up . . . I still do.

4. I love Christian alternative rock and eighties music.

5. My favorite painting is The Maids of Honor/Las Meninas by Diego Velazquez. I have a copy of the painting in my library.

 

Melanie at Camp Redwoods by J.D. RempelJ.D’s books in The NorCal Girls series are clean, family-friendly reads that encourage young girls to have a relationship with God and also model positive friendships. Her latest book, Melanie at Camp Redwoods, explores the meaning of friendship through memorable adventures at camp. And more importantly, she weaves  into the story how God pursues a relationship with us to become His children.

 

You can find J.D. on her website, Goodreads, and Bookbub! Learn more and pre-order J.D.’s newest novel, Melanie at Camp Redwoods, here!

Five Things about J.M. MacLeod of “The Siege of Logon’s Bridge”

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Learn more about your favorite Ambassador authors with our “5 Things” series. J.M. MacLeod is the author of Tolkien-esque fantasy series, The Saga of the Singing Sword Brigade, with book four The Siege of Logon’s Bridge releasing on March 7th! Check out John’s five fast facts below…

J.M. MacLeod, author of Saga of the Singing Sword Brigade seriesBeing at least half-Scottish heritage, I’ve always had a fascination for sword and crossbow stories. The novels of Kidnapped and Rob Roy and Treasure Island often took over my imagination and filled my playtime hours in the mountain woodlands of eastern Pennsylvania as I grew up. The Sunday School and Church my family attended taught us songs like “I’m in the Lord’s Army” and “Onward Christian Soldiers” likening the adventure of soul-winning to fighting against the Devil and his kingdom and rescuing people from a horrible fate.

As a teen, I learned to play guitar, thanks to the Ventures and The Beatles. When I volunteered working with Youth for Christ I met a fellow believer who played keyboard; together we formed The Owl of Light, a Christian folk/rock band, explaining in our testimony that like owls, we were creatures of darkness but came to the light. Actually, we chose the name because we had a big, old stuffed owl that we took along on our gigs.

I met my soul mate, Beverly, in college and married her asap. Immediately after we went from Pennsylvania to Indiana where I had a Summertime ministry/job running a Christian coffeehouse called “The Sign of the Fish” where we tried to introduce counter-culture teens to the Gospel. After returning to PA we were attracted to a local Bible Study group calling themselves “The Move of God” that seemed to take teachings of Scripture to a new level of revelation. Through a series of supernatural events we wound up on one of the Move’s communal farms to await the End Times and the Return of Christ. The revelations and supernatural phenomena soon became weird and quite a few of the leaders of the group became abusive to many of the “non-elite.” We left not only the farm but The Move as well.

We started raising children, four in number, all born in the 1970’s spaced about 2 years apart. I became a commercial school bus driver and did odd jobs during the summer months to support the family. The lay-over hours between bus runs is when I started to write about our journey through deception in The Move and what we learned from that bitter experience. I also was enchanted with Tolkien’s writings, reading The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings several times, enjoying them again and again as if I was visiting old friends. Then I began to wonder if I could ever write a Christian fantasy like C. S. Lewis but following more the genre of Tolkien. Thus began The Saga of the Singing Sword Brigade.

While learning the craft of writing (as I still am) in addition to school bus driving, I worked as a reporter/photographer on two New England newspapers, manager of a school bus company in New England, truck driver in Tennessee and am currently retired but still driving for LYFT— until royalties come rolling in.

Our four children and their spouses have produced for Beverly and I fifteen grandchildren who, in my unbiased opinion, are the smartest, most good-looking, best-natured and obedient children ever born.

 

You can find John on his website, Goodreads, and Bookbub! Learn more and order John’s newest novel, The Siege of Logon’s Bridge, here!

5 Things About Author Rev. Desiré P. Grogan

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Learn more about your favorite Ambassador authors with our “Five Things” series. Author Rev. Desiré P. Grogan has written a  verse-by-verse commentary on the first three chapters of the Book of Revelation titled  “Revelations from the Revelation of Jesus Christ, Chapters 1-3: A Commentary for the Believer in the Pew.”

Rev. Desiré P. Grogan is a vibrant and anointed member of the ordained clergy at the historic Shiloh Baptist Church in Washington, D.C. In 1992, Rev. Grogan became the first woman to be ordained by the Shiloh congregation, through the American Baptist Churches USA, since the Church’s inception in 1863. Rev. Grogan is a native Washingtonian who received her formal Author of Revelations from the Revelation of Jesus Christ, Chapters 1-3: A Commentary for the Believer in the Peweducation from the D.C. Public Schools. She holds a Bachelor of Music (B.M.) degree from the Boston University School of Fine Arts, a Master of Library Science (M.L.S.) degree from the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Library and Information Science, a Master of Divinity (M. Div.) degree from the Howard University School of Divinity, and a Master of Arts (M.A.) degree in Semitics (Hebrew, Aramaic, Ugaritic and Akkadian languages) from The Catholic University of America. Rev. Grogan serves within the Shiloh congregation and across denominational lines as preacher, teacher, and retreat facilitator. She believes her main qualification for writing Revelations from The Revelation of Jesus Christ is derived from the practical experience of having taught The Revelation in the Church setting with great success to believers who were not seminary-trained. She is a firm believer that scholarship should serve the pew, not laud it over the pew! In addition to her ministerial duties and to a diverse and lengthy career in the fields of library science and digital technology. Rev. Grogan serves with much passion and joy as Board member and Scholarship Chair of the Mamie Stanley Ash Memorial Scholarship Fund, so named for her maternal Grandmother who only achieved a third-grade education and from which a growing number of students continue to earn its scholarship to attend distinguished institutions of higher education.

 

Here are Rev. Desiré’s “five things”:

  1. Rev. Desiré has journeyed to the Holy Land and Rome on pilgrimage with her home church, Shiloh Baptist Church of Washington, D.C.
  2. Rev. Desiré is passionate about teaching Scripture and helping others to discover new layers of meaning in the Biblical text.
  3. Rev. Desiré has a love of animals and a tangible commitment to organizations and agencies that advocate for their care and preservation.
  4. Rev. Desiré has a tangible compassion for the homeless as the “Lazarus” to whom we are accountable (Luke 16:19-31).
  5. Rev. Desiré delights in preparing and eating shrimp in a variety of ways.

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For the believer in the pew, the Book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ needs no other introduction than that it is the most avoided Book of Scripture that few feel capable of navigating and understanding on their own. The dense amount of imagery and the horrific scenes of judgment are mind-boggling and remain a mystery for many. The purpose of this volume is to empower you – the believer in the pew – with the most accessible tool to navigate and understand this last Book of Scripture, and that tool is the Bible itself, the Bible in your hand! You see, the God Who is speaking and acting in this last Book of Scripture has been speaking and acting throughout the Biblical text (cf. Heb 1:1-2). It is God’s intent, therefore, that you understand this last Book of Scripture just as He intended for you to understand all Scripture! The Revelations in this last Book were not hidden from you but for you to discover through diligent study! Let this volume be your entrance into the awe-inspiring zone of discovering and re-discovering the majesty and the consistency of the only God Who is worthy to be trusted and obeyed, worshipped and adored!

Learn more HERE.

5 Things About Author Beth Grisham

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Learn more about your favorite Ambassador authors with our “Five Things” series. Author Beth Grisham compiled  inspirational true life stories in  “Seeds of Perspective: Planting Hope and Healing In The Baggage Of Life.”

Beth Grisham is a wife, mother, and non-profit ministry leader.  Beth graduated from the University of North Alabama with a Bachelor of Science in Communications. However, she believes her greatest education came through her role as mother to her six children, now thirteen to twenty-five years old.  After working at home for 17 years Beth became the Executive Director of a non-profit crisis pregnancy center.   She prayed to receive Christ at age eighteen, but it wasn’t until age twenty-six with the loss of her third child that Beth developed a personal relationship with Christ and fell in love with studying His Word.

Her loss was the beginning of a whole new way of life and a totally different perspective regarding things of importance in this world.  It has been said that your greatest ministry will come from your greatest pain, and that has certainly proven itself true in Beth’s life.  She considers motherhood and the raising up of a next generation of Christ followers to be her greatest blessing and her greatest opportunity to make a Kingdom impact on the world.

Here are Beth’s “five things”:

  1. The miscarriage of her third child opened Beth’s eyes to the horrible realities of abortion.
  2. Beth has a desire to become involved in international missions so that she can help women in other countries find ways to support and care for their families.
  3. Beth helped to start a coffee roasting business as a means of raising funds for the non-profit that she oversees, with an even greater goal of seeing that business grow to support centers just like theirs across the U.S. She firmly believes that when we are blessed it is so that we can bless others in return.
  4. Beth and her husband of twenty-eight years have five daughters and one son.
  5. God uses nature to inspire many of His lessons for Beth. She especially loves birds, trees, and butterflies.

Seeds of Perspective by Beth GrishamWhat if your greatest downfall could be redeemed to become your greatest calling? In Beth’s new book Seeds of Perspective: Planting Hope and Healing In The Baggage Of Life, gain a new perspective about old baggage that has kept you from experiencing freedom in Christ and from pursuing the purpose God has for your life.  Let the experiences of others remind you that you are not alone, and that God can use all things for your good and His glory. Learn more HERE.

Choosing LIFE: Cathy Harris

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Learn more about your favorite Ambassador authors with our “Five Things” series. Author Cathy Harris wrote the amazing living testimony  “Created to Live.” Here are Cathy’s “five things”:

I love watching childbirth. Ever since I had my first daughter naturally 7 years ago, I have been in awe of the childbirth process. I love learning about natural childbirth as well as teaching it. I have been a childbirth educator for the past 6 ½ years. As much as I love teaching, nothing compares to attending and being part of a birth. I love watching mothers become strong empowered women. I love watching fathers comfort and coach their wives in gentleness and confidence. I love watching babies be born wide opened and ready to take in the world. About a year ago, I had a chance to catch a baby for a couple having a homebirth. Due to a very fast birth, 9781620205716the midwife was not able to make it to their home in time for the birth. I was forced and delighted to jump in as the acting midwife to catch their squishy and cute baby boy. A process that might be scary or even gross to many people, is fascinating to me. When my kids get older and leave the house, I might just attend births just for fun.

 

I homeschool my kids. Homeschooling started out as something I was terrified to do. Now it is a delight and privilege. Of course, it is also a huge challenge. There are days I think about putting my kids on the school bus, but our incredible homeschool community helps me work through the hard days. We are a part of a community called Classical Conversations. We actually “go to school” every Friday together. Each of my kids have their own class and teacher. I have been blessed (or perhaps I am the only crazy one in the bunch) to teach the 4 and 5 years olds. Much of my time on Fridays is helping these young ones memorize and absorb new information in the following subjects: history, math, geography, Latin, English, science, and fine arts. Bottom line is, I pretty much make a fool out of myself in front of a few moms and 8 kids every week. We dance, sing, march, and even roll out our new memory work. It is a ton of fun. Unless God changes our course, we plan to homeschool our kids through high school.

 

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I love the arts. Singing, painting, and playing the piano were my past times. Before the days of snotty noses, diapers, homeschooling, and soccer fields, I spent most of my free time painting, playing the piano, or singing. I sang for several years on the church worship team and was a member of a few of the worship teams in the Atlanta International House of Prayer. I don’t get a chance to dabble in the arts all that much anymore. I guess you could say that home décor, chalk painting furniture, and writing have replaced the hobbies of the past. And, if I can sneak a ticket to a play or pop in a musical in the DVD player, I am a happy girl.

 

I am an introvert. Some people may find it strange for an author, speaker, and teacher to be an introvert. I love being around a lot of people, but I refuel in my alone time or with people who know me well. I would also much rather sit down with you and have deep conversation over coffee than mingle in a large crowd. I am not the life of the party at all. I actually tend to be very reflective, practical, and quiet. I am an ISTJ according to the Myers Briggs Personality Test. Funny enough this is the opposite from my husband in every way. I am an introverted (I) sensor (S) who logically thinks through everything (T) and loves discovering what is just (J) in every situation. Being spontaneous is a challenge. I make a list for everything that requires planning, and I have 4 white boards in our house that help me organize life. Some would say that I am boring, but I would say I am practical.

 

I love Missions. I love everything about missions. I love reading about it, supporting missionaries, and hearing about what God is doing all of the earth. I served as a missionary for 6 years before I got married through the United Methodist Missionary Society. Although I was not an overseas missionary, I was appointed as an associate director at the United Methodist Student Center (The Wesley Foundation) at the University of Georgia. I was also blessed with the opportunity to go on or lead college mission teams to Los Angeles, New York, Omaha, Guatemala, Scotland, and Israel. My husband and I also served as the Adventures in Missions Field Coordinators for a summer in Philadelphia. We hope as our kids get a bit older, we will be able to continue taking mission trips.

 

 

 

Five Things: Amy Grochowski {Author Spotlight}

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Learn more about your favorite Ambassador authors with our “5 Things” series. Amy Grochowski is the author of the Amish love story, Runaway Home, which was released on July 27th! Check out Amy’s five fast facts below…

1. I grew up in Melbourne, Australia, where my parents served as church planters.

2. I met my husband while on a travel nursing assignment to Pittsburgh, PA. I also went to Haiti twice on medical missions.

3. One of my favorite roles in the local church has been serving as the Women’s Discipleship Director.

4. I love history, especially anything to do with World War II. Both of my grandfathers served in the Pacific during the war.

5. I love to cook for family and friends. I’ve gathered an eclectic mix of styles from all the places I’ve lived and traveled.

You can find Amy on her website, Twitter, FacebookInstagram, Amazon, Goodreads, and Bookbub! Order Amy’s newest novel, Runaway Home, here!

Five Things: Rev. Cheryl Anne Kincaid {Author Spotlight}

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Learn more about your favorite Ambassador authors with our “Five Things” series. Reverend Cheryl Anne Kincaid is the author of the eye-opening novel, Karrie’s Thorn, which was released on July 13th! Check out Cheryl’s five fast facts below…

1. I am an ordained Presbyterian Minister, celebrating 16 years of pastoral service.

2. I am a survivor of childhood abuse.

3. I facilitated support groups for survivors of violence for seven years.

4. I have a paralyzed leg due to a car accident in 1993 and walk with a brace and a cane.

5. I am an avid theater fan and literature lover, especially works by Charles Dickens and William Shakespeare.

 

You can find Cheryl on her website, Twitter, Facebook, and Amazon! Order Cheryl’s newest novel, Karrie’s Thorn, here!