Showing results by narrator "Nikki Zakocs" in All Categories

In The Pastor as Midwife, Shawna Songer Gaines brings her pastoral experience alongside her research on the vocation and practices of midwifery to explore a vision of pastoral leadership that is shaped by the wisdom of those who walk alongside expectant mothers. Learning to pastor like a midwife helps us embrace what God is doing in our pain and see new life in unlikely places.

In Man Up, Cynthia Miller-Idriss, a leading expert on extremism, reveals how an epidemic of misogyny—both online and off—and a patriarchal backlash are driving an exponential rise in mass and far-right violence. She also offers essential strategies that all of us—including parents, teachers, and counselors—can use to fight the rising tide of violence, beginning with recognizing the misogyny that pervades our everyday lives.

How to Heal Your Metabolism will question everything you thought you knew about health and nutrition. If you are ready to understand nutrition and health in a completely different light, then you need to listen to this book.

As sidekicks to their parents' and churches' ambitions, missionary kids (MKs) face questions many white Christians eventually ask: about God's calling, sacrifice, faith, privilege, racism, abuse, and what belonging means. In The Missionary Kids, Holly Berkley Fletcher reveals how MKs have intimate access to the movement's logic, longings, and ideals.

A valuable discovery under the world's second-largest temperate wetland and in the traditional lands of the Cree and Ojibway casts light on the growing conflict among resource development, environmental stewardship, and Indigenous rights. In this colorful tale, Virginia Heffernan draws on her bush and newsroom experiences to illustrate the complexities of resource development at a time when Indigenous rights are becoming enshrined globally.

Jillian Lauren had no idea what she was getting into when she wrote her first letter to prolific serial killer Samuel Little. All she knew was her research had led her to believe he was good for far more murders than the three for which he had been convicted. While the two exchanged dozens of letters and embarked on hundreds of hours of interviews, Lauren gained the trust of a monster. After maintaining his innocence for decades, Little confessed to the murders of ninety-three women, often drawing his victims in haunting detail as he spoke.

Boys today are surrounded by accusations that their very existence is toxic, told that their biological makeup is a problem and that the future is female. As Christian moms, we have the responsibility and privilege of teaching our boys what is true about who they are and what isn't. But how do we grow these tiny (and somewhat smelly) wild things into godly men of character?

Jennifer has a great job and a go-getter fiancé. She's on track for success, until she witnesses a fatal hit-and-run. Mistaking Jennifer for someone else, the dying victim extracts an impossible promise. Jennifer's fiancé wants her to forget the whole incident, but when she closes her eyes, she can still see the woman's bloody face. Olivia is in a rut. Burdened with caring for her brain-damaged brother and already feeling like a spinster at 27, she's desperate to escape. In a moment of weakness, she tells a lie that draws an unsuspecting paramedic into her life.

For a generation whose eyes are constantly trained on screens, encountering nature at all is increasingly difficult, much less seeing what it reveals about God. How can parents help children reengage with God's world that is full of amazement, creativity, and love? Eryn Lynum is a certified master naturalist, Bible teacher, and mom of four who wants to help families encounter and understand the connection between God and creation. She shares her own story of putting her kids in front of nature, and invites other parents to consider a similar journey.

Many of us can regurgitate why healthy boundaries and saying "no" are important. So why are we still over-accommodating and actively participating in imbalanced relationships that fuel anxiety and exhaustion? If you tend to over-function in relationships and then get resentful of other people's demands on your time and energy, it's time to break old patterns and discover new ones. In Serial Fixer, psychotherapist and wellness consultant Leah Marone will help you break old habits of fixating on—and fixing—the problems of others.

From 1977 to 1981, Ruth Finley, an ordinary wife and mother from Kansas, was tormented by an elusive maniac known as The Poet. The police, already on edge from BTK’s reign of terror, spent years searching for the stalker. Meanwhile, his cryptic letters in rhymed verse grew more disturbing and violent, spilling into deeds like stabbing and kidnapping.

Thousands of thoughts fly through our minds every day, many of them negative. And Satan knows how susceptible we are to these negative thoughts that leave us frustrated and feeling defeated. However, the time-honored practice of Christian meditation can help us find victory in these spiritual battles. Transforming Your Thought Life offers guided meditations and personal examples that will help you train your mind to stay grounded in God's Word.

Best friends Daryl Barber and James Boucher were responsible, and their parents trusted them to spend Spring Break at Daytona Beach unchaperoned. When the boys missed their agreed-upon daily check-ins, their parents were disappointed. When they failed to come home on their planned return date, their parents were terrified. They could not have known that their innocent sons would encounter two violent men on the Florida coast. They could not have imagined the torture their children would endure before their bodies turned up four months later in a Florida swamp.

If you feel like fear, anxiety, and worry have taken over your thought life or your spirit, you're not alone. But you also weren't meant to live this way. God wants more for you—promises more for you. He wants you to live free from fear, to have victory over your anxiety, to face the future with hope rather than worry. He wants you to rest in and rely on Him in times of trouble. He even shows you how in His Word.

When successful prosecutor Katy's daughter is abducted, she must navigate a small town's dark underbelly to find her. But the case takes a sinister turn when Katy discovers the perpetrator is her long-lost twin sister, who has been living a life of abuse and seeks revenge. With the help of former felon Sloan and unlikely allies, Katy races against time to save her daughter and stop her twisted sister's deadly plan. A gripping abduction mystery set in a small town that will leave you on the edge of your seat.

Emotional Intelligence for School Leaders outlines key SEL skills, from mindfulness and self-management to relationship building and conflict resolution, and details how each can be applied in a leadership context. Case studies of a variety of successful educational leaders who employ positive psychology in their work illustrate the strategies they used to cultivate and apply their own SEL skills.

When Sara Mason returns to her hometown to start a new life, she learns that a murderer is terrorizing its residents. Despite battling difficult childhood memories, Sara is determined to make peace with her past. But she soon learns that the elusive psychopath is now stalking her. Sara's attempt to rebuild her life is hindered even more by the discovery of skeletal remains on her property. As the investigation focuses on several suspects, Sara discovers critical clues and bravely volunteers to be a decoy for the sheriff's department.

A mansion sits on top of a mountain in northern Georgia. The estate is in disrepair, but one couple is determined to restore the estate to its former glory. But when strange accidents begin to become more dangerous, putting their crew’s lives at risk, the fixer-upper couple realize they might have bitten off more than they could chew.

Evans wrote Feminist Prayers for My Daughter as a gift to mothers and women everywhere. It offers short prayers that affirm the unique challenges and embrace the natural abilities embodied by our daughters, young and old alike. Categories of prayers include embodiment, relationships, wholeness, justice, equality, and milestones. This book encompasses all of life from birth to death while imagining God in ways that resonate with the feminine experience.

In 1995, Austin, Texas was rocked by the brutal murder of Regina Hartwell. Even though Regina's body was burned beyond recognition, police had two suspects within days. One was the beautiful ex-cheerleader who was the object of Regina's desire. The other was a man who would take the fall for murder . . . In this new edition of her bestselling book Wasted, true crime master Suzy Spencer chronicles a fatal love triangle as three lives are driven out of control by sexual desire, drugs, and shocking childhood demons.