Friendship

Jan

2018

Welcome to 2018!

Another Year Dawns. . .

A PRAYER OF MOSES, THE MAN OF GOD

Moses was a remarkable man. Born in days of danger, and yet early in life secured—even cocooned—in luxury, he might have lived a life of opulence and hedonism. And yet God so worked in his life and circumstances that he became aware of his calling not to be indulged in the privileged position of a son of the palace in Egypt, and with the very likely opportunities that would come his way from that, but to choose mistreatment along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the short-term pleasures of sin. His words are recorded in Psalm 90 (“A Prayer of Moses, the Man of God”) in which he sketched and summarized the brevity of life on this earth.

Only as we are in a reconciled and saving relationship with God through the person and work of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, can we truly learn to number our days aright and so apply our hearts to wisdom. It was in the fulness of time that God sent forth His Son to be the redeemer of sinners such as we are, and to bring us into His family in a relationship of adoption and privilege. May this be wonderfully true for us all as we move into 2018 and as we endeavor to live well for Him who lived, died, and rose again for us whose faith and only hope is in Him.

News at a Glance

Jim: Working on several new projects in a professional editing and book production service including Shepherd Press, and building a global network through social media portals as well as developing key relationships with influential individuals and publishers worldwide.

Sue continues to serve at Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary as fulltime administrative assistant to the President, Dr Joseph Pipa, and enjoys her work.

Matthew has caught up Jim and Sue in height and enjoys the lifestyle of South Carolina as well as being a freshman in high school at Bob Jones Academy.

Key events in 2017 included a visit from our cousins James and Frith Robb and their daughter, Mary, in April, a visit to Ohio to attend the annual ICRS trade show in June where we also watched a ball-game in Cincinnati, and, on the way back, spent time at the Ark Encounter. At Thanksgiving, we spent a relaxing time at home with a friend who visited for the day.

View a full report of our year with some additional pictures HERE or click on the image below.

Enjoy listening to Matthew’s rendering of Joy to the World from a recital late in 2017.

Aug

2017

Publishing: 3

More from Jim on Publishing

In my last post, I mentioned April Fool’s day 2014, the day that dawned following over ten years’ service to my erstwhile employers, Day One Christian Ministries. In my tenure there as director of publications and marketing, I had gained a good sense of the publishing world, its strengths and its weaknesses, and how it could maybe benefit from having things done differently. I enjoyed working with editors and with graphic designers, and it was both pleasing and productive to develop so many new lines of books. I’ve mapped out some of these things in my portfolio in one of my websites [HERE].

Working in publishing significantly connected me with some fairly well-known authors, including people like John Blanchard, John MacArthur, Andy McIntosh, Roger Ellsworth and many others (you could see a part list HERE–there are over seventy names in it–but since then extended to more than one hundred). Some of them said some kind words [HERE], especially Dr. John Blanchard (pictured, right, with his wife, Pam) who wrote:

“Integrity and Efficiency”
Two words come immediately to mind when I think of Jim and Sue Holmes—integrity and efficiency. When you add gracious courtesy to those you have a combination that encourages you to work with them, as I have in South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States. Their experience and expertise will be of great benefit to authors who choose to partner with them and I commend them warmly to any who consider doing so.
Dr. John Blanchard, Evangelist, Author and Christian Apologist

All said and done, I now found myself in the somewhat unenviable position of having been let go of, with a significant workplace injury (which my employers at Day One knew well about and for which they refused to take any responsibility), though, thankfully, with a green card and the right to reside and work in the USA.

Making a Plan

“Well, Sue,” I remarked over my mug of tea. Her gentle face was showing some anxiety and I knew that I would have to work to keep her from stressing overmuch. “It has to be publishing in one form or another. That’s what I know best, and I am happy to be guided by the principle of Ecclesiastes 9:10—Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.” Around this time, John Lehman, an associate minister at a nearby church, had come into my life. He had, he explained, written a long letter that he wished to convert into a book and wished it to be a blessing to his family members. I looked it over, and it was very promising. Now that I have gotten to know John, we can enjoy a good laugh about how I helped to get the book “out of him.” See the graphic above on the right; John is much better looking than the patient undergoing the X-Ray and I hope I would not be mistaken in real life for the doctor! He and his wife, Suzie, are pictured below. John now has three beautifully produced books—the first on parenting, the second on marriage, and the third on fitness, all with engaging titles: It’s Apparent…You’re a Parent; I Do or I Don’t; and Fit for the Master.

As good J C Ryle said, “The best way to do something is to do it.” So I decided that the best way to start was by pushing ahead in some projects, feeling my way forward using social media and making myself as useful as I was able to. Principles lead to empiricals. “Just try doing it,” I counseled myself. One of the concerns driving me was to establish fair competency in website building and development, so while working on some editing projects for P&R Publishing, I also forayed into the world of Google-Sites and WordPress, soon finding the latter to be quite powerful, and that even eCommerce was not as complex as it might first seem. With thanks, under God, for free online tutorials and perusing numerous FAQs, it was not long before I found my way forward in developing websites for other people to help them promote their writing ministries. These include www.fitforthemaster.fit, www.deborahhoward.net, www.timothyjcross.org, www.lifelineminibooks.com, www.twelvedaysofchristmas.org, www.exposingthefederalvision.org, and several other ones.

An Unexpected Phone Call

An email that dropped into my in box from an online form submission from one of my websites was very interesting, and even more so when I phoned the man from whom it originated. “I represent a publishing family,” he said, “And in doing due diligence, we wish to establish whether you might be the right person to help in their publishing ministry.” It was an extra surprise, a pleasant one, too, to learn that the publishing family was none other than that of Tedd and Margy Tripp. Tedd (pictured here) is well known for his remarkable book Shepherding a Child’s Heart, a manuscript derived from a doctoral thesis that nobody wanted to publish when he first wrote it, so it ended up being self published (under the quickly thought-up name of Shepherd Press). Now with a sales history of well in excess of a million copies, it is a book that has challenged, blessed, and guided countless parents and teachers over the years. To cut a long story short, following a weekend visit to northern Pennsylvania, there commenced a relationship between me and Shepherd Press that enables me to be of service in the promotion and development of the ministry, and to help in recruiting new authors and rolling out of new resources. That’s just one of the various things that I love doing. You can find out more about Shepherd Press HERE and HERE .

Waging War on Worry!

Because the Shepherd Press work is flexible and part-time, there are many other things that I do in publishing. Like when Simon Robinson, my good friend in England, told me that he had been writing some notes all about anxiety. “I think we should make a book of it,” I ventured. “If you could get to 31 readings, it could even become a daily reading book.” Simon warmed to the idea immediately and soon after we were exchanging emails and sharing ideas. The outcome not long afterwards was a book in a black and red cover with an anxious man regarding people holding the book—the man on the cover that is—with 31 easy-to-read chapters, complete with Bible reference, application points, and a suggested prayer to pray—even if just to prime the pump, as it were–all to strategically help readers get over the worry factor.

So, why do I publish… That’s a great question. Perhaps it’s something like ink (rather than blood) in my veins.

So I am not yet done in sharing these thoughts. There is more to say about this ministry of publishing, especially inventing new and more efficient and effective ways of doing it, so I will add to this short cluster of posts and share some interesting insights into what I do and how I do it—and especially how the paradigms are changing!

To read the earlier posts on this topic, see HERE and HERE. To read the next one, see HERE.

Aug

2017

Publishing: 1

Why I Publish

My résumé looked good–at least I thought it looked good.

So why did the response letter start, after the salutation, with these words: “We regret to inform you that, while we were impressed by your credentials, we are unable to offer you the position…”

I had thought the publishing position tailor-made for me. It did not involve relocation. It required literary and management skills, all of which I had been building up in the years of teaching I had undertaken in a school operated by the KwaZulu government in recent years. Perhaps, unknown to me, the principle of Proverbs 16:33 was at work:

The lot is cast into the lap,
But its every decision is from the LORD.

Be that as it may, a few months later security conditions in the school deteriorated to the point that it was no longer safe for me, as a white South African, to commute the seven or so miles to the school where the students were all black South Africans. A large rock hurled by someone in the bushes on the roadside–intended for my face–narrowly missed going through the windshield (creating a massive dent, instead, on the corner of the roof of my Volkswagen Beetle) and it was considered prudent that I seek employment elsewhere.

To Johannesburg we go!

So, with our vehicle bulging at the seams, we found ourselves en route to Johannesburg after so many happy years in the Natal midlands. I served as bookstore manager for a while before engaging in a temporary excursion back into the teaching world and before biting the bullet and starting an import and mail-order discount bookstore. It grew auspiciously and soon required full-time attention.

It wasn’t quite publishing, but, well, it was a way of serving publishers and people who needed the books.

James Dearmore and the A B Dick

Jim Dearmore was a Texan in Africa. His story was remarkable for its adventure and spiritual verve. He and his wife, Georgia, had been missionaries in the Congo and then moved to what was then Rhodesia before ending up in the northern regions of South Africa, where they continued their missionary endeavors. His outspokenness against Marxist doctrine made him the kind of person who probably would not be welcome to stay in the country once an ANC government was established. He was one of my favorite customers, a godly man, a no-nonsense American in whom there was no guile. I loved the way his gas-guzzling 1970s automobile drove into the parking lot, so much like a great ship, taking as it seemed several minutes to come to a halt as it berthed. From deep within its recesses (it may have been a Cadillac; it was huge) he would emerge, his short white beard outlined against the greenery in the background. His eyes were kindly, always twinkling. His voice deep and his drawl slow and pronounced, he always spoke wisely and well, often punctuating his speech with apt quotations from the Bible, always in the King James version.

“Brother Jim,” he informed me (he always called me Brother Jim or Brother Holmes), “Brother Jim, I am a kicker of sacred cows; if I see a cow in the distance, I will go up to see if it is sacred, and I will kick it if it is. We should only believe and practice things that are in the Bible.”

I loved his straightforwardness, his directness, his call-a-spade-a-spade mentality. He was no stranger to hardship and to hard work. One day he told me about his A B Dick, a printing press he housed in his garage. With relocation back to the USA in mind, he needed to sell it, and he considered that I should buy it. At the time, I was running the book business I had started, and it involved quite a lot of printing that I usually got done in a copy center in Johannesburg. I was also editing a magazine at the time, Reformation Africa South, so that put me in connection with a commercial printer, Leonard Venter. Len was another character. Everything he described was “fantastic.” I mentioned Dr. Dearmore’s offer to sell his A B Dick press to me. In his Germiston accent he enthusiastically said to me, “Fantastic! Jim, my boet, let’s go check out the doctor’s printing press.” A few days later, riding along in his Toyota Camry at around 100mph, we made the long journey north of Pretoria to Dr. Dearmore’s location in a very short space of time.

“Ag, Jim, I think you should buy it,” Len told me. “It’s quite an old machine, but these are fantastic for jobbing.” Jobbing, he explained, was for doing the run-of-the-mill printing that involves a printing press that just keeps on going in a stable way–ideal for catalogs, newsletters, flyers, etc.

The deal agreed some weeks later, we knew we would need space to house it, so a few months later, we commenced building a double garage on our Strubens Valley property. Getting the press from where Dr. Dearmore had housed it to our location was challenging; it weighed more than a ton. And it arrived with a bewildering number of rollers and peripheral items, all with special names and functions that would need to be learned!

Then Julian showed up. Julian Glover was one of those young chaps who will try his hand at anything. “Yeah, I think I can make this machine work,” he said confidently. I must say that I wondered… Long into the night hours he tinkered with it, multiple colors of ink adorning his fingernails, hands, arms, face, and hair. And, sure enough, the steady duff-duff-duff of the press eventually yielded some remarkable output, including printing in full color.

Why I Publish

So, why do I publish? I’ll have to explain this a little more in my next post! I read Theology, Biblical Studies, English, Greek, and Hebrew (and some other stuff) in my Bachelors degree; I trained in postgraduate studies and practiced as a teacher; I started a book business; and I purchased a printing press knowing a little more than nothing about how I would make it work, but in the care, purpose, and providence of God, it worked–and it worked well. I think that might hint a little as to why I have ended up as a publisher…

So I will take up more of the story in a future post [HERE].

Illustrations of James and Georgia Dearmore, from CWS Funeral Home. The A B Dick printing press is one rather like the one I purchased. Image credit here.

Jun

2017

On Boundaries and Neighbors

My Backyard

Talk of border walls made for contentious media reporting in the run-up to the US elections in 2016. Less contentious is the matter of the wall that defines the extent of my backyard. A few months ago it was in rather a dilapidated state, and from time to time in the last few years I had braved snakes, female mosquitoes (the males are harmless—they don’t bite, apparently, though I have never looked closely enough to check for myself), and some ominous looking plants in order to do a temporary patch-up job and stop the whole thing from falling down like a giant pack of wooden cards.

Then, one day, a letter in an important-looking envelope from the Taylors Fire and Sewer District arrived informing me (and all my neighbors, for they also received the same) that the area of no-man’s-land that runs between all the back-to-back properties was to be cleared and widened, and, sorry to say, all fences would have to be taken down—or, if we preferred, the Taylors Fire and Sewer District staff would do this for us, endeavoring to minimize damage so as to enable subsequent reconstruction to take place.

Well, who am I to take issue with the Taylors Fire and Sewer District Chiefs? And maybe, after all, the fence could be improved on being put back up. So, a week or two later, I watched, resigned, as what looked like tons and tons of timber was removed and stacked in somewhat unruly piles. My heart sank at the thought of having to reconstruct this mess.

New Friends

But this clearing the no-man’s-land suddenly enabled some good neighborly conversations to take place. Steve, or someone from the shadowy safety and confines of his side of his wall who had once shouted obscenities at me when I was burning some yard waste late one Saturday afternoon, suddenly became friendly and conversational, and his wife donated several golf balls to my son who has recently developed a fascination for the game. My son Matthew, now fourteen years old, has wildly been sending these little white missiles in ever more dangerous arcs across our backyard and not infrequently violating our neighbors’ airspace. Mrs. Steve’s generosity concerned me, as I imagined one of these projectiles, like friendly fire in a war setting, entering her closed kitchen or bedroom window and doing more than a little damage. But I thanked her kindly and was glad for one more opportunity to be friendly and hopefully to begin to build into her and her husband’s life.

Do we need walls? Are you familiar with the poem by Robert Frost, Mending Wall? It starts like this:

Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun,
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.

Frost seems to think walls have some benefit, if I understand his poem well enough. They do demarcate territory; they do map out where one set of responsibilities ends and another set begins; but they don’t have to be overdone or overbuilt.

I’ve made a good start on building our wall again, but this time it is a recycled wall, a less-than-it-was wall. A previous owner of our home kept large dogs, so a wall was an important detail. But I thought a new wall should be less prisonlike and so, the way I designed it, instead of towering imposingly over me and hiding me from our neighbors, it’s more like a picket fence, not much more than four feet high.

I am thankful for a background in Africa that has encouraged frugality and good stewardship, so whatever could be kept and used again has proved the axiom “We need what we have, and we have what we need.” Old screws carefully removed have found new usefulness in lumber that should still be serviceable for some years. Warped beams have been coaxed back to a measure of straightness. And there, rising from the ground if not with elegance then at least with some character, a new wall graces and defines where our yard ends, and no-man’s-land begins… and not too much further away, our neighbor’s backyard begins.

Practical and Spiritual Lessons

I am thankful for the example and influence of my late father. I wrote about him some months ago HERE. He taught me some skills that have come in useful—like how to drill a hole, cut wood, use a hammer and nails, and many other things—all without loss of life or limb. I also learned from him that, if you do something routinely and keep at it, you will make progress. Rome does not get built in a day, but it does get built. The tortoise does cover some significant ground in a few hours, simply by keeping going, as I was able to point out to Sue one afternoon recently when one such little creature traversed our backyard.

I’ve also come back to the need for objective measurements: not just estimations or guesswork, but actual feet-and-inches dimensions, degrees of levelness, and the necessity of a straight line and a truly objective vertical reading. Our backyard slopes downhill, so posts have had to be put in vertically, even if they do not look upright. Crossbeams have to be horizontal and on more than one occasion I found myself thinking that my spirit level was wrong. But when I laid hands on my large L-square, I discovered that I was being deceived by an optical illusion. “Don’t do what you think looks right, Jim, do what you KNOW is right,” I found myself mentally admonishing myself. It was a good and practical lesson for Matthew who was helping me on that occasion.

We need objective measuring tools. Amos spoke of a plumb line (See Amos Chapter 7); I had to have at least a tape measure, a length of string, and a spirit level to establish that everything will fit, and will not look horrible once I am done with the work. By way of spiritual analogy, I am thankful that we have such in the Bible—the canon, the measuring line—that determines right from wrong, true from false, and gives us what Francis Schaeffer once called “true truth.”

Oh, and what about the sweat and mosquitoes I mentioned a bit earlier? Adam was promised hard labor after he exited Eden. Even though the small spade I got for the job worked well, the ground was hard and my shoulders and arm muscles were more than ready to take a break once each of the holes had been dug. Mixing the cement, too, was an interesting experience. And yet, even in circumstances such as these, it is possible to honor God in this kind of labor. Psalm 104:23 states that “Man goes out to his work and to his labor until the evening.”

Walls. I’m thankful for them, but glad also not to have to depend on them!

May

2017

Our Everyday Conversations…

A Book That Engaged Me for Several Hundred Miles

Notwithstanding my smaller-than-average stature and build, I was feeling cramped and as if I had been traveling for over twenty-four hours. I shifted again in my seat to try to alleviate the numbness in my posterior. The American Airlines plane, a small two-engine jet en route from Chicago to Greenville, South Carolina, hit another patch of turbulence; involuntarily I looked out of the small window and noted the proximity of denser cloud–purples etched with grays. “Not too much longer,” I thought to myself above the all-pervading hum of the aircraft. I turned my eyes back to the book that had been holding my attention for much of the journey that day on an earlier flight from Manchester airport, and now on this last leg of the journey: “Everyday Talk–Talking Freely and Naturally about God with Your Children” written by Jay (John A.) Younts (further details HERE). I must say that an important detail escaped my attention at the time: the author lived in the very town to which I was traveling!

Rummaging through my laptop bag wedged under the seat in front of me, I checked my papers for when we would arrive at GSP, the Greenville Spartanburg Airport. With my wife, Sue, and our son, Matthew, just five or so years old at the time, we were to be staying for a few weeks in the Greenville area to get a sense of whether we might one day be able to live there. My UK employers at the time were keen for me to establish a greater presence in the United States.

Happily, in my many travels, my pathway had often crossed with that of Rick and Linda Riggall, a delightful couple from Shepherd Press. Often at trade events, Rick would show me the latest resource that had been produced. I was always struck by the commitment to editorial integrity and production quality that was a hallmark of Shepherd Press. The one I held in my grasp in that turbulent air was another such book. As I had read through it all those hundreds of miles over the Atlantic and then over the US landmass, I had found myself mentally underscoring large sections and I could hear my voice (the auditory equivalent of my mind’s eye) affirming, “Yes, that’s right!”

In Everyday Talk, Jay writes from the heart about making and taking those natural opportunities to speak to our children about spiritual matters. There needs be no divide between the “secular” and the “sacred.” All of life belongs to God, and, if we are living in reference to Him, there are certainly many ways a spiritual conversation may be engendered, and many is the time that there is an event that intersects with our lives that proves a natural node for discussion. You can find out a lot more about the book here; to you, let me say that I rate it a five-star book!

Some Years Later

Fast-forward nine or so years and I find myself in different yet related circumstances. Instead of living in the UK, I am now resident in the USA—in Greenville, South Carolina—and no longer in the employ of Day One, but serving Shepherd Press on a part-time and freelance basis. And it has been my delight to make the personal acquaintance of Jay Younts. He is the blogger at Shepherd Press. Moreover, he has more than one book in him!

Today, we are seated in the studio of HIS Radio, from which Kevin Boling, host of Knowing the Truth Radio, broadcasts a live, one-hour interview with Jay. Kevin, energetic, distinguished, articulate, friendly, has a way of putting his radio guests at ease. With Gary, the engineer behind the desk managing the controls, and Jay occupying a seat next to me, I enjoy the passive perspective of listening in on the interview, ready to chime in if appropriate, but mostly just glad to have Jay be able to share with the radio listeners—and you (for you can listen in online–see below)—to the wisdom he has gained over the years on how to cultivate a relationship with our kids so that we may speak to them in natural terms and ways about the special relationship God has established in marriage. Jay, himself not only a father but also a grandfather, is a natural communicator and has worked with his son, David, in putting together this resource titled “Everyday Talk about Sex and Marriage” and subtitled “A Biblical Handbook for Parents.” Silver-headed (and now without a beard after radiation treatment for throat cancer), his easy-to-listen-to voice comes over well on the radio, and he punctuates his conversation with illustrations and some humor.

I am so thankful to be able to have a part in the ministry of Shepherd Press, and to be able to help produce and promote such excellent, biblically faithful resources. Find out much more about the book in the information sheet HERE. And do be sure to listen in to the interview between Kevin and Jay–below.

May

2017

On Blogging

The Discipline of Writing

I love writing. That’s why I do the work I do. On Twitter, I describe myself in these terms:

A Christian publishing consultant with the passion and skills to assist people to communicate their message clearly and efficiently to a global audience.

Francis Bacon said, of writing, that it “maketh a precise man.” (Interestingly, he also said that reading makes “a full man” and conference–debate–makes a “ready man.”)

Perhaps I am just a little guilty of not practicing what I preach. Maybe the doctor should be healing himself (I’ve been wonderfully engaged in helping others to write, and to write well).

So, my reader friend, it’s back to blogging and not just the snippets that I have been posting on Facebook and via my Twitter feed.

Dec

2015

Christmas 2015

2015 Is Nearly Over

Click to read newsletter

The year 2015 draws to its conclusion. It is my practice to share a few pictures and text each end of year, so there is a link to our annual PDF here. Click or tap to activate. . . and enjoy the short meditation on Micah 5.

If you enjoy reading our year-end newsletters, you could check out the link here to the one from last year, and the cluster of archive links to be found there!

To view a special piano rendering by Matthew of The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, activate the video below.

Sep

2015

Fitness Is Fun!

Holistic and Holy

I think physical fitness is a great idea! Being holy and taking a holistic view on life are not mutually exclusive concepts.

Ever since Sue began a keep-fit program several years ago, it has inspired me to do the best I can with my own health. A workplace injury sustained in my former employment prevents me from doing anything too strenuous for the time being, but I do the best I can. Sue does better, exercising usually each week.

A few years ago, I first made the acquaintance of John Lehman. John is family and counseling pastor at a local church, Hampton Park Baptist Church, and he has written three books, two of which I have helped him publish, and the third is on the point of going to press.

The third book, titled Fit for the Master–Glorifying God in a Healthy Body, captured my imagination the moment John first told me about it. “This could be the book that people most pay attention to,” I told him. “I really believe you are on to something with this particular writing project.”

John has defined the purpose of the book in these words: “This book is intended to encourage everyone to be fit for the Master’s use. God created us, and therefore we should be as functional as possible, so bringing Him glory while being able to lead more efficient and effective lives.”

The editing and production process has been both interesting and enjoyable, not to mention stimulating! We’ve worked hard to sharpen it, and it covers a lot of really important points. Consider, for example, the chapter divisions below:

Glorious Creator; Wonderful Creation
(Thinking about your place in God’s universe)

Health, and a Healthy Self-Image
(Enjoying being the “you” that God intends you to be)

You Don’t Have to Over-Strain!
(Understanding the place of exercise)

Exercise Guidelines
(Developing a practical strategy that suits you)

Food for Thought
(Getting your nutrition the way it should be)

Digest This!
(Considering what happens to your food after you have swallowed it)

Rest, Relaxation and Sleep
(Improving your efficiencies through wise sleep strategies)

Blessed Are the Balanced
(Maintaining body-soul equilibrium)

Go On . . . Just Do it!
(Putting the principles into practice)

Extensively illustrated with numerous well-drawn diagrams (see some samples at the head of this page), the book packs a lot of information very concisely into 144 pages, and is being produced as a handy-sized hardback. You can read much more about it by clicking or tapping so get to John’s site HERE, and also view a one-minute video below. And you can also read some typeset pages on this site HERE.

Jul

2015

Friend Focus: Glenda Hotton

Why Focus on a Friend?

My service of editing and helping people develop an online presence introduces me to some delightful people. In serving them, it is my privilege to have made new friends over the years, so I thought it would be good from time to time to point the camera, as it were, on some of them, and the excellent ministries that they themselves conduct.

Glenda Hotton

In this post, I would like to introduce Glenda. I first became aware of her when my good friend, Dr. Paul Tautges, began recruiting authors for a series of booklets he and I were spearheading, Day One’s Living in a Fallen World resources, now available as the Lifeline Mini-Books from Shepherd Press.

Glenda’s little book, then titled Help! I Can’t Submit to My Husband, posed some challenges when it came to finding an appropriate cover image. We wanted something that communicated “Hey! You must read this” but the matter of perceived relevance played an arpeggio in the orchestra of our thinking. We even considered a 1940s monochromatic image with a humorous visual hint of “Surely this kind of idea is old fashioned and you can’t be serious to bring this into Christian teaching today!”

Well, we persevered, and eventually found an image that worked–and it wasn’t the monochrome one! And if you would like to see what the Shepherd Press version is going to look like, take a look here for a preview!

Times change, and with the end of my former employers’ presence in the USA, a new strategy was developed; hence the Shepherd Press initiative. In this, I came to have more direct dealings with Glenda, especially when she commissioned me to take charge of some developments in her online strategy. The outcome? Find out here by visiting her site!

Practical Godliness

Glenda is a delightful lady who cherishes and makes the most of every opportunity to inculcate a spirit of practical godliness on the part of the women whom she mentors. A member of Grace Community Church, Sun Valley (John MacArthur is the pastor-teacher there), she teaches regularly at the Master’s College.

Being a Help Meet

The term help meet sounds a little old fashioned to some people, but it articulates a wonderful truth from creation, how it was that the first woman, Eve, was to be a helper suitable to and corresponding to her husband, Adam. Glenda loves to tease out the practical implications of this in her writing and speaking ministry, and her blog is replete with thoughts, biblical principles, and lines of application to her readers. If you are a woman seeking guidance on how to grow on grace and godliness in the area of womanliness and in the service of marriage and motherhood, Glenda has so much to offer.

Gracious

Inculcating a spirit of grace in others comes so easily and naturally to Glenda, as she models it herself. Having seen so much of her material in working with her in building her website, I can guarantee that you will not be disappointed in reading her writings and considering her points of application. You will find her an excellent mentor!

Glenda’s Resources

Glenda offers various downloads, some for free, others for a small payment. You might like to check out her free audio message here. And there is also a downloadable PDF study guide to go with it here.

Whether you are the mother of a young daughter (and would like to help her to grow into a gracious young woman who understands social etiquette), whether you are a young bride, or whether you are a seasoned mom and grandmother, you will find helpful ideas and principles on Glenda’s site to guide, challenge and inspire you! And, if you respond to any of her posts, I know she will be delighted to engage with you.

Feb

2015

Secret for the Time Being!

Launch Pending

I am not going into details at present, but anticipate being able to update you with an interesting development in the next few weeks. For the time being, consider this as being classified information that I’ll let out of the box below when I am ready.

As the saying goes, watch this (Blog)Spot!

Another Year Dawns. . .

News at a Glance

More from Jim on Publishing

Making a Plan

An Unexpected Phone Call

Waging War on Worry!

Why I Publish

To Johannesburg we go!

James Dearmore and the A B Dick

Why I Publish

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