Five Things Archives - Ambassador International

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Meet Jennifer Bosma

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…

I applied to be a contestant for the TV show “Survivor.”
I have walked with lions in Zimbabwe at a lion rehabilitation center.
I swam in a shark cage while observing over twenty sharks swimming around the cage.
I have appeared in Andy Grammer’s “Honey I’m Good” Music Video.
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

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!

5 Things About Author Caitlin M. Smith

Learn more about your favorite Ambassador authors with our “Five Things” series. Caitlin M. Smith is the author of her debut romantic suspense novel called “Loves Lost Star.”

Caitlin M. Smith graduated from Lock Haven University with a degree in Education. After working in schools, she took her passion for teaching to the fitness world as a personal trainer, then to the dental industry, where she spent time working as a mentor for new business team members. In 2017, she left her job as a Practice Manager of Operations to pursue her career as an author. Through her books, Caitlin aims to inspire hope, provoke thought, and demonstrate the power of God’s unconditional love. When not rendezvousing with her fictional characters, Caitlin enjoys spending time with her husband, lifting weights, and flexing her creative muscles through painting, dancing, and playing guitar.

Here are Caitlin’s “five things”:

1. I paint large flowers on canvases using acrylic paints. Each painting has a special, biblical message.

2. I thoroughly enjoy dancing. It’s as though God put rhythm in my blood, and when a good beat comes on, it’s hard for me to resist busting a move! My church does a Broadway-style Christmas musical each year, in which I have participated the past few years.

3. I love doing pull-ups. After years of weight-lifting and exercise, they are one of my favorite movements. I especially enjoy a variation called “Butterfly pull-ups”—picture a swimmer doing the butterfly while holding onto a pull-up bar, and that’s basically the movement.

4. I ran hurdles and relays as a member of the Lock Haven University track team.

5. I began college as a physics major. While I enjoy being creative, I also likes math and found the subject of physics to be quite interesting.

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Cece Burbin thought she knew what love was—people using you to get what they wanted. Until she met Jason Porter. But on what should have been the happiest day of their lives, Cece wakes up on a riverbank cold, alone, and in pain. After realizing she lost her voice, Cece becomes desperate to find a way to communicate with someone that she needs help. Freeing herself, she sets off in search of the only man she has truly loved. But as she struggles to find her way back home, her past quickly begins to creep back. The gang she thought she had left behind was never that far away, and the crimes she has committed are coming back to haunt her. Can God truly love and forgive her for all she has done?

Jason is just as frantic to find his missing bride. But when he receives a note saying she left him for another man, his world is shattered. How had he missed her change of heart? Jason struggles to trust God in this heartbreak, battling uncertainty about the future he thought he had. But when he meets a strange woman who claims to be a private investigator, he discovers a clue that could change everything. Unaware that time is running out, the abandoned bridegroom sets off in search of love’s lost star.

Learn more about Caitlin’s novel HERE.

5 Things About Author Rev. Desiré P. Grogan

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 education 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”:

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

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”:

The miscarriage of her third child opened Beth’s eyes to the horrible realities of abortion.
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.
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.
Beth and her husband of twenty-eight years have five daughters and one son.
God uses nature to inspire many of His lessons for Beth. She especially loves birds, trees, and butterflies.

What 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.

Five Things: Allen Steadham

Learn more about your favorite Ambassador authors with our “Five Things” series. Author Allen Steadham is the author of Christian speculative fiction novels. Here are Allen’s five things:

My wife and I are interracial. Angel is African-American and I’m Caucasian. We have two adult sons and a younger daughter.

My wife and I have been in a Christian band called “First Light” since 1997. First Light plays both contemporary Christian and traditional Gospel styles, cover tunes as well as originals. We perform songs in other languages, including Spanish and Hebrew. Angel and I were asked to join the band by its leader, who is a guitarist, singer and songwriter for many of our original songs. First Light has been like a second family to us. We are also one of two interracial married couples in the band.

From 1997 to 2015, I ran a not-for-profit organization called the International Size Acceptance Association (ISAA). I created ISAA with the help of some very dedicated people. The organization’s purpose was to educate the public about size/weight-related issues (self-esteem, positive body imagery, fitness at any size and how to make healthy food choices) and to alert the public about weight-based discrimination. ISAA even created a holiday called “International Size Acceptance Day” and had it proclaimed by the City of Atlanta, Georgia on April 25, 1998 and 1999 and in Austin, Texas in 2003. ISAA educated the public through its website, email lists, an e-zine and two different podcast shows between 2002 and 2010. And though ISAA was non-political and not overtly religious, I did run the organization as a Christian man. The Lord put that cause on my heart and helped me run the organization. With His help, ISAA reached people all over the globe and offered kindness and hope. I shut down ISAA in 2015 for two reasons: the internet had changed with the rise of various social media, so people became less inclined to rally to a cause; and my own health had begun to suffer (not weight-related), eventually requiring surgery. I am doing well now and continue a more subtle message of size acceptance even now in my books.

I began writing and drawing my own comics by hand at age ten (in 1980). Specifically, I created a superhero team comic called “The AR-MEN.” I continued creating those stories for twenty years, even scanning those pages and putting them on the internet as early as 1994. Many characters and certain story elements from the AR-MEN comics were adapted into what became my debut novel “Mindfire” with Ambassador International. In 2003, my wife helped me co-write an original Christian webcomic called “Due East,” which we continued until 2009. “Due East” won two webcomic awards in 2008: Best Spiritual Comic and Most Profound Comic.

I am a Star Trek nerd. I grew up loving the stories and characters in the Original Series and watched all of the movies and series that followed. Between 2005 and 2016, I only read Star Trek novels. And in 2009, I had the opportunity to interview Leonard Nimoy for one of ISAA’s podcasts. I do not do cosplay.

Learn more about Allen Steadham and Jordan’s Arrow, book two of the Jordan of Algoran series, by visiting www.allensteadham.com.

Five Things: Andrew Stone

Learn more about your favorite Ambassador authors with our “Five Things” series. Author Andrew Stone wrote Son of the Father, a creative storytelling of Barabbas, the man released in the hours leading up to Jesus’ crucifixion. Here are Andrew’s Five Things:

I think there must be a gene passed on within my family that encourages many of us to tell other people about Jesus. My grandfather sold Bibles door-to-door before becoming an ordained church minister; my dad gave up a lucrative career in insurance so that he could successfully train for the ministry; my sister is an ordained minister as are both my wife and I. Meanwhile two of our children are leaders at the churches they attend.

When I was at school the only job I wanted to do was to work on a radio station. I did that for five years and during that time I asked what I believe must rate as the longest, most long-winded, verbose question ever broadcast. What the listeners wouldn’t have realised was that my interviewee was an elderly man whose dentures fell out live on air. My long question was to give him time to pick them up, dust them off and pop them back in again.

Nearly all of the significant things that have happened in my life have happened because my parents brought me up to be a Christian. For example, my first job on the radio was on the Christian Sunday morning breakfast show, the two magazines I have edited have both been Christian publications and, of course, the first book I’ve had published is a Christian novel. Most importantly of all, I met my wife, Alison, after I was invited to an event at her church.

Alison and I waited 25 years to go on honeymoon. When we first got married we couldn’t afford to go away and by the time we could afford to have holidays we had three children! But after 25 years of marriage the boys were all old enough to leave behind and so Alison and I celebrated our silver wedding anniversary and had our honeymoon at exactly the same time on one of the Canary Islands.

Apart from the importance of faith and family, the other significant issue my family have passed on to me is football (as an Englishman that would be soccer, not American). While one of my sons works for a London Premier League football club, it is the love of our home-town football team, Brighton and Hove Albion, that has been ingrained within the DNA of many generations of the Stone family. We all follow the Seagulls, as the side is affectionately known, although if we’ve just lost our last match it’s probably not the best time to call round for coffee!

Learn more about Son of the Father by visiting HERE and Andrew by visiting www.facebook.com/author.andrewstone.

Five Things about Jarm Del Boccio of “The Heart Changer”

Learn more about your favorite Ambassador authors with our “Five Things” series. Author Jarm Del Boccio wrote The Heart Changer, a historical biblical middle grade fiction. Here are Jarm’s Five Things:

I love to travel, and am passionate about visiting new places. My motto is: never visit the same location twice. Well—I’ve disregarded my own rule a few times, but otherwise, I stick to it as best I can. I’m slowly checking off destinations on my bucket list, and have journeyed to six of seven continents. I’ll let you decide which one I have yet to step foot on . . .

I was accidentally hit in the head with a baseball bat and sported black and blue eyes for eight grade graduation. A well-meaning elderly man thought I had applied my makeup incorrectly. The ironic thing is—I am not a sports fan!

When I was a junior in high school my first job was — no joke — in a Chinese laundromat.

My secret desire? To get caught up in a flash mob singing a tune from a favorite musical.

When I was in elementary school, I begged my Mom for a baby alligator from Florida, trying to convince her we could keep it in our bathtub. She gently asked me what I would do once it grew to full-size. I pondered the question for a minute or two, and reluctantly backed down.

Learn more about The Heart Changer by visiting HERE and Jarm by visiting www.jarmdelboccio.com.

Five Things about Allison Wells of “When Waves Break

Learn more about your favorite Ambassador authors with our “5 Things” series. Author Allison Wells wrote When Waves Break, which sheds light on the equality and redemption we all have in Christ.

I can hear Clemson football games from my house. My husband and I both attended Clemson University and have lived in the area for the past 20 years. Yes, we’re virtually held hostage at home on game days, but hearing the roar of the crowd and Tiger Band from our yard is so much fun! Go Tigers!

Speaking of band . . . I play the trombone! I started in 5th grade and played through college (at Clemson). Why the trombone? It was the only instrument I could get a sound out of when I tried instruments. It must have been a God thing, because being in band and playing trombone completely defined my growing up years. Fun fact: my husband also played trombone and now our daughter is playing!

I hate cheese. I know. I’m weird. But I can’t st Allison Wells and the texture or taste of cheese unless it’s on a pizza. Cheese truly grosses me out and I don’t see what the appeal is at all.

My favorite author is Liz Curtis Higgs. Not only does she weave an amazing story (and Bible study!), she is also deeply invested in her readers. She has personally emailed me encouragement on several occasions and I pray I can be just like her one day.

My favorite name for God is one I have only heard once several years ago. Baal-perazim, which means “the Lord who bursts through.” In 1 Chronicles 14:8-16, it describes an attack King David led against the Philistines. Verse 11 reads, “So David and his troops went up to Baal-perazim and defeated the Philistines there. ‘God did it!’ David exclaimed. ‘He used me to burst through my enemies like a raging flood!’ So they named that place Baal-perazim (which means ‘the Lord who bursts through’).” I can only pray that God will burst through my life. Isn’t that a captivating picture—God, strong and mighty, bursting through in you and through you!

Learn more about When Waves Break by visiting HERE and Allison by visiting www.allisonwellswrites.com.

Five Things about Michael Gryboski of “A Spiral Into Marvelous Light”

Learn more about your favorite Ambassador authors with our “Five Things” series. Author Michael Gryboski wrote the thought-provoking A Spiral Into Marvelous Light, a novel in which a liberal reporter writes an in-depth obituary about a controversial conservative pastor. Here are Michael’s Five Things:

I ran a half marathon in 2016. I started jogging in my early twenties in my spare time. However, it was not until I turned 30 that I finally did an official race, a half marathon in Richmond, Virginia. That was 13.1 miles, which took me a little over 2 hours. Since then, I have done several smaller races, including multiple 10k’s and 8k’s, and one 5k. Last November, I ran in the VCU Health 8k, averaging 7 minutes, 12 seconds a mile.

I have had other novels published before this one. “A Spiral Into Marvelous Light” is not my first published book. From August 2014 until September 2017, I had seven novels published via Inknbeans Press, a small California-based publication that sadly closed down by the start of 2018. I had a couple of those books re-released last year. BOCH Publishing re-released my science fiction novel “Thoughtreal” last September and Jan-Carol Publishing re-released my suspense novel “Carla” last October.

For work, I have interviewed people including Roma Downey, Andy Garcia, the Rev. Franklin Graham, and Timothy Keller for news stories. When I am not writing novels, I am writing articles for The Christian Post, a Washington, DC-based online news publication. Over the years, I have gotten to interview some notable folks in-person and over-the-phone. Others of worth included former U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch, former Congresswoman Karen Handel, radio host Eric Metaxas, and famed evangelist Tony Campolo. If you include times when I was in a group of journalists, then I can add U.S. Senator Ted Cruz and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich to the list of notables. A Spiral Into Marvelous Light

I have two famous cousins, one a professional baseball player, the other a professional actor. Fame runs in the family? On my father’s side, I have former Major League Baseball player Kevin Gryboski. He was a relief pitcher for the Atlanta Braves; he once struck out Ken Griffey, Jr. On my mother’s side, I have actor Darin Cooper. He was in films like “The Social Network” and “Gone Girl,” as well as episodes of TV shows like the original “Charmed,” “Monk,” the TV series version of “Shooter,” and “The Resident.”

I have contributed hymns and liturgy to worship services. When I am neither writing novels nor news articles, I occasionally write works of a sacred nature. I composed a few hymns, a couple of which have been used by a few churches here and there. My home church has used two of my hymns and also some liturgy that I wrote up. If you are interested in learning more, might want to use my music, feel free to reach out!

Keep up with Michael’s novelist career and learn more about A Spiral Into Marvelous Light by liking and/or following him at https://www.facebook.com/MichaelCGryboski/.

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