Serious Wednesday: Shirley Raye Redmond is joining us today with a BOOK GIVEAWAY!

Welcome to Shirley. 

She'll be sharing a bit about her book AND 

she's giving away a book (Hard copy: US only). 

For a chance to win, please comment and provide your email addy.

Enjoy!

Book Blurb

Courageous World Changers: 50 True Stories of Daring Women of God

By Shirley Raye Redmond

Harvest House January 2020

Faithful Christian women are salt and light in their communities. They all make a difference. But some have such a vibrant faith that—like a stone tossed into a pond— their influence ripples throughout the world. The fifty women in this book—including Joni Eareckson Tada, Elisabeth Elliot, Corrie Ten Boom, Wilma Rudolph and Mahalia Jackson—fall into that category.

Christian Lives Matter

When I was in 5^th grade I read more than 300 library books and wrote a brief paragraph about each one. My teacher, Miss Cornelius and the school librarian were thrilled. At the end of the year awards assembly, they presented me with an embarrassment of prizes—including a lap desk with an assortment of pens, pencils, and writing paper inside. It was my pride and joy for a long time.

      Looking back, I realize that many of the books I read that year were biographies.

How I loved learning about Annie Oakley, Dolley Madison, Amelia Earhart and Abigail Adams. Even now I still love reading biographies and memoirs. Why? There are several reasons.

Biographies bring history to life. World War II becomes more than dates and places when one reads about Corrie Ten Boom’s trials and tribulations in a concentration camp. Ecuador becomes vividly real when one reads about Elisabeth Elliot eating roast monkey while evangelizing the savage Waorani tribe. The battle for civil rights takes on flesh when one reads about little Ruby Bridges, who had to be escorted to elementary school by US Marshals.

Biographies make me want to be a better person. Reading about surfer Bethany Hamilton makes me want to be braver. Reading about Florence Nightingale makes me want to be more caring. Reading about Pandita Ramabai—a Hindu scholar who converted to Christianity—makes me want to be bolder in my faith.

            Biographies provide us with valuable life lessons. One cannot help but be encouraged by the life of runner Wilma Rudolph, who overcame crippling polio to go on to win Olympic gold medals. I learned to admire Mahalia Jackson, who overcame poverty and prejudice to earn the title of gospel music queen. Although paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair, Joni Eareckson Tada’s experiences teach all of us about faith, prayer, and determination.

Christian biographies encourage us to keep running the good race. Because we live in a culture addicted to mediocrity, we need to be inspired by believers who struggled against sin and adversity to triumph in the end—people who served as salt and light in this troubled world.

Biographies should be a staple in our diet—especially in the diet of our children and grandchildren. As author Os Guinness has written, “…great lives do more than teach. They stir, challenge, rebuke, amuse and inspire at levels of which we are hardly aware.”

So when was the last time you read a good biography? Maybe it’s time to do so again. You won’t even have to write a book report.  I am giving away a free hardcover copy of COURAGEOUS WORLD CHANGERS. Carole will pick a lucky winner (USA residents only please) and I’ll get the book out to you right away. For those wishing to buy their own copies, you may order from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books-a-Million, Christianbook.com or from your favorite local bookstore.

BIO

An award-winning writer and frequent conference speaker, Shirley Raye Redmond is the author of 

• Courageous World Changers: 50 True Stories of Daring Women of God 

• and three inspirational novels, PRUDENCE PURSUED, VIPER’S NEST, and AMANDA’S BEAU. 

• Her children book, LEWIS & CLARK: A PRAIRIE DOG FOR THE PRESIDENT (Random House), which was a Children’s Book of the Month Club selection. 

• Shirley Raye holds an M.A. in literature and teaches through the Institute of Children’s Literature. She has been married to her husband Bill for 46 years. They live in New Mexico and are blessed with two grown children and four precious grandchildren. 

Touch bases at shirleyrayeredmond.com or Facebook. 

Thanks for joining me today, Shirley. 

Readers, do check out her book(s) and comment w/your email addy for a chance to win her book!  Please check back here on this blog within two weeks (a Wednesday) to find out if YOU won a book.