Secret Passages of Stevie the Guide


Book Description

AY CARAMBA! THIS BOOK IS WILD! If you are looking for a boring, "churchy" book on missions, go find something else! This guy is going to take a crowbar to your stained glass notions of who and what a missionary is and where he comes from. It will absolutely rattle the cage and shake up the sleepers on the back row of any church, and even on the street outside. Fasten your seatbelt, batten down the hatches, and find a stick to clench between your teeth. You're in for an amazing real-life ride from an explorer and storyteller who's been around the block, down the back alley and across the ocean...for real. The Lord shaped and prepared Stevie the Guide every step of the way until his mission was revealed. Now he's ready to show you the remarkable and bizarre journey of how it happened, and how You can discover yours.You'll will laugh your guts out, and cry till you slobber. You will be totally encouraged and most of all, SECRET PASSAGES OF STEVIE THE GUIDE will change the way you look at your short life and brief time on earth. These stories will impact you in surprising ways and alter your perspective. You will see yourself on many of the pages and you will be challenged to step out and step into a larger story of your own. Stevie will show you how to make it happen.Stephen W. Dyer is a slow-learning sinner who often plays by his own rules. He was biblically illiterate and rarely went to church until he was 37, and, like Jonah, ran away from the Lord to places most people have never even heard of. Now he's an independently funded, faith-based missionary for the Lord Jesus Christ. How did this happen?!? Who would have thought?!An ordinary guy who spent decades exploring this planet in the oil industry and as a scuba-diving and wildlife guide, Stevie has been swallowed by the sea in the Galapagos, stricken with malaria in the Amazon Jungle, and poisoned by the Chinese. He has paid for a slave in Africa, tangled with monkeys in Indonesia, survived a hurricane in Hawaii, begged for money in Thailand, landed in a South American prison, flown like Superman, become a Zombie, and met a woman who traveled through time. NO REALLY!And through each experience, Stevie heard the nagging questions ever louder: Why am I here? What is my mission? What do You want with me, Lord?Secret Passages is about Stevie, his exotic and outrageous global experiences, and the discovery of his God-given mission. But more than that: SECRET PASSAGES OF STEVIE THE GUIDE is about YOU.Stevie is an adventure guide to the international mission field and a mentor to folks with a heart to serve. He is a captivating public speaker who incorporates his unique blend of world travels, missionary service, and storytelling to encourage and motivate people off the bench and out of neutral. He is forever asking the question, "What's your mission?"A collector of antique navigation tools and weaponry, unique crosses, old photographs, rocks, seashells, pocketknives, unusual boxes, vintage books, keys, maps, and other stuff, Stevie admits to being a hoarder of international junk. His wife, Sheri, will not argue with that. They have two daughters, Ellie and Martha Anne.Dyer Family Missions is located in Houston, Texas. www.DyerFamilyMissions.com




The Baker's Secret


Book Description

A tale beautifully, wisely, and masterfully told.” — Paula McLain, author of The Paris Wife and Circling the Sun From the multiple-award-winning, critically acclaimed author of The Hummingbird and The Curiosity comes a dazzling novel of World War II—a shimmering tale of courage, determination, optimism, and the resilience of the human spirit, set in a small Normandy village on the eve of D-Day. On June 5, 1944, as dawn rises over a small town on the Normandy coast of France, Emmanuelle is making the bread that has sustained her fellow villagers in the dark days since the Germans invaded her country. Only twenty-two, Emma learned to bake at the side of a master, Ezra Kuchen, the village baker since before she was born. Apprenticed to Ezra at thirteen, Emma watched with shame and anger as her kind mentor was forced to wear the six-pointed yellow star on his clothing. She was likewise powerless to help when they pulled Ezra from his shop at gunpoint, the first of many villagers stolen away and never seen again. In the years that her sleepy coastal village has suffered under the enemy, Emma has silently, stealthily fought back. Each day, she receives an extra ration of flour to bake a dozen baguettes for the occupying troops. And each day, she mixes that precious flour with ground straw to create enough dough for two extra loaves—contraband bread she shares with the hungry villagers. Under the cold, watchful eyes of armed soldiers, she builds a clandestine network of barter and trade that she and the villagers use to thwart their occupiers. But her gift to the village is more than these few crusty loaves. Emma gives the people a taste of hope—the faith that one day the Allies will arrive to save them.




Truly Devious


Book Description

New York Times bestselling author Maureen Johnson weaves a delicate tale of murder and mystery in the first book of a striking new series, perfect for fans of Agatha Christie and E. Lockhart. Ellingham Academy is a famous private school in Vermont for the brightest thinkers, inventors, and artists. It was founded by Albert Ellingham, an early twentieth century tycoon, who wanted to make a wonderful place full of riddles, twisting pathways, and gardens. “A place,” he said, “where learning is a game.” Shortly after the school opened, his wife and daughter were kidnapped. The only real clue was a mocking riddle listing methods of murder, signed with the frightening pseudonym “Truly, Devious.” It became one of the great unsolved crimes of American history. True-crime aficionado Stevie Bell is set to begin her first year at Ellingham Academy, and she has an ambitious plan: She will solve this cold case. That is, she will solve the case when she gets a grip on her demanding new school life and her housemates: the inventor, the novelist, the actor, the artist, and the jokester. But something strange is happening. Truly Devious makes a surprise return, and death revisits Ellingham Academy. The past has crawled out of its grave. Someone has gotten away with murder. The two interwoven mysteries of this first book in the Truly Devious series dovetail brilliantly, and Stevie Bell will continue her relentless quest for the murderers in books two and three. Publishers Weekly Best Books of 2018 * Junior Library Guild Selection * 2019 YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults Nomination * 2019 ALA's Best Fiction for Young Adults Nomination * Chicago Public Library Best of the Best Books 2018 * Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Young Adult Fiction 2018 * 2018 Nerdy Book Club Young Adult Winner * Seventeen Best YA Book of 2018 * Lincoln Award Nominee * 2020-2021 South Carolina Book Awards Nominee * 2020 Pennsylvania Young Readers' Choice Award Winner




Blooming at the Texas Sunrise Motel


Book Description

After the sudden death of her parents, Stevie, thirteen, is sent to live at a rundown motel, where she charms everyone except her estranged grandfather.




Paperweight


Book Description

This emotionally haunting and beautifully written young adult debut delves into the devastating impact of trauma and loss, in the vein of Laurie Halse Anderson’s Wintergirls. Seventeen-year-old Stevie is trapped. In her life. In her body. And now in an eating-disorder treatment center on the dusty outskirts of the New Mexico desert. Life in the center is regimented and intrusive, a nightmare come true. Nurses and therapists watch Stevie at meal time, accompany her to the bathroom, and challenge her to eat the foods she’s worked so hard to avoid. Her dad has signed her up for sixty days of treatment. But what no one knows is that Stevie doesn’t plan to stay that long. There are only twenty-seven days until the anniversary of her brother Josh’s death—the death she caused. And if Stevie gets her way, there are only twenty-seven days until she, too, will end her life. Paperweight follows seventeen-year-old Stevie’s journey as she struggles not only with a life-threatening eating disorder, but with the question of whether she can ever find absolution for the mistakes of her past…and whether she truly deserves to.




The Secret Rooms


Book Description

For fans of Downton Abbey, this New York Times bestseller is the enthralling true story of family secrets and aristocratic intrigue in the days before WWI After the Ninth Duke of Rutland, one of the wealthiest men in Britain, died alone in a cramped room in the servants’ quarters of Belvoir Castle on April 21, 1940, his son and heir ordered the room, which contained the Rutland family archives, sealed. Sixty years later, Catherine Bailey became the first historian given access. What she discovered was a mystery: The Duke had painstakingly erased three periods of his life from all family records—but why? As Bailey uncovers the answers, she also provides an intimate portrait of the very top of British society in the turbulent days leading up to World War I.




The Secret Agent


Book Description

The Secret Agent (1907) is a compelling tale of espionage and terrorism set in Edwardian London. Ironically subtitled 'A Simple Tale', it paints a terrifying portrait of revolutionaries and anarchists whose personal lives are as barren and futile as their public acts of violence. It concludes with the unwitting accomplice of a would-be terrorist blowing himself to bits with his own bomb, the terrorist's subsequent murder by his own wife, and the wife's own suicide. This new edition is based on a painstaking comparison of the original manuscript of the work with its first, truncated appearance in the American magazine Ridgeway's: A Militant Weekly for God and Country, and with all subsequent book-form publications overseen by Conrad himself. The result is a new text, purged of the printers' errors and editorial interventions that have been reproduced in all previous printings. There is also a critical introduction, an essay on the text, a textual apparatus, and helpful explanatory notes.




Ebony


Book Description

EBONY is the flagship magazine of Johnson Publishing. Founded in 1945 by John H. Johnson, it still maintains the highest global circulation of any African American-focused magazine.




My Brother Stevie: a Marine's Untold Story


Book Description

Lieutenant Straughan Downing Kelsey, Jr. was my only and older brother. He was the family's Protector. When he was Killed In Action, June 2, 1967 in Quang Tin Province, Vietnam the family died with him. My younger sister and I survive. We are all that is left of a once glorious family. I wish that the gifts the Lord blessed him with will not be forgotten nor his courage, valor and compassion. He was a gifted athlete, artist, musician and intellect. He graduated from Princeton University in June of 1965 and entered the Marine Corps almost immediately. It was his lifelong dream. This book is his story and legacy. It is the story of the times he lived in when America went from watching Howdy Doody to civil rights race riots and war at home and Vietnam. America lost her innocence but Stevie never wavered in his devotion to his country and the Marine Corps. Press Release : My Brother Stevie: A Marines Untold Story: Vietnam 1967 By Marianne Kelsey Orestis In recognition of her book,My Brother Stevie: A Marines Untold Story: Vietnam 1967and tireless work in promoting patriotism while honoring the sacrifice and service of all Veterans and their families, The Department of Defense recently awarded Authorhouse author, Marianne Kelsey Orestis, the prestigious Vietnam War Commemoration Award. Orestis represented the great State of Maine and the Topsham-Brunswick Chapter of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution in Washington, DC on June 30, 2017 at a ceremony celebrating her commitment to keeping the stories alive of Vietnam Veterans in her book. This tome is a story of courage and sacrifice of not only her brother but of all Marines, especially those who lost their lives at the massacre of Operation Union II on June 2, 1967. The battle was fought in theQuang Tin Province of Vietnam at the village of Ving Huy near the Mekong Delta where the An Hoa Marine Combat Field Base was located. This massacre resulted in the greatest loss of Marine riflemen throughout the entire war in a single day. Orestis reaches deep into their lives to tell the stories of this harrowing battle so replete with uncommon valor. In this personal account, Orestis chronicles not only the life of the Lieutenant but of the times he lived in paying respect to the lives of those who gave their utmost. Orestis received the Department of Defense Certificate in appreciation of her dedication to the educating of those who came afterward by telling the stories of service, honor and sacrifice of the Veterans and their families in her biography.




The Disarticulate


Book Description

Language is integral to our social being. But what is the status of those who stand outside of language? The mentally disabled, "wild" children, people with autism and other neurological disorders, as well as animals, infants, angels, and artificial intelligences, have all engaged with language from a position at its borders. In the intricate verbal constructions of modern literature, the "disarticulate", those at the edges of language, have, paradoxically, played essential, defining roles. Drawing on the disarticulate figures in modern fictional works such as Billy Budd, The Sound and the Fury, Nightwood, White Noise, and The Echo Maker, among others, the author shows in this study how these characters mark sites at which aesthetic, philosophical, ethical, political, medical, and scientific discourses converge. It is also the place of the greatest ethical tension, as society confronts the needs and desires of the least of its brothers. Here the author argues that the disarticulate is that which is unaccountable in the discourses of modernity and thus stands as an alternative to the prevailing social order. Using literary history and theory, as well as disability and trauma theory, he examines how these disarticulate figures reveal modernity's anxieties in terms of how it constructs its others. -- From publisher's website.