From Trauma to Triumph


Book Description

FINDING LIBERTY: FROM TRAUMA TO TRIUMPH There’s nothing like the written Word of God for showing you the way to true liberty through faith in Jesus Christ. Through God’s Word we are created, mended, shaped and put back together for the purpose predestined for us. Let it equip and empower you to walk in liberty. Do not be so scared that you cannot envision the glory of a new beginning. Do not be so consumed by tests, trials, and trauma that you fail to grasp the glory of the coming triumph. Do not feel so condemned that you feel there is no redemption for you. Do not be so beaten down by the scourge of captivity that you jettison the glory of freedom. Do not allow the troubles of your past faze you or your present tribulations derail you. Forget the ugly truths – the unmentionable pains and the inconceivable hurts. Remember the reasons. Remember your dreams. Remember why you began the journey in the beginning. Remember the call of liberty. The call that told you, “You are more than this.” Remember the stirrings in your spirit for something more meaningful, more fulfilling, more enriching than the mediocre, mundane and ordinary existence that sapped your energy and dampened your spirit at the rising of the sun. We don’t get burned out because of what we do. We get burned out because we forget why we do the things we do. Whether you are jaded from past trauma, a present heartache, or a persistent feeling of rejection, self-doubt, the bitter sting of failure does not have to narrate your story. If you conclude that your best days are over – they are. If you think they’re ahead – they are. Regardless of the adversity that you face, regardless of how abysmal you think your situation is, you can face every day with enthusiasm. You can walk your way through trauma to triumph. All it requires is your faith. You can be everything you always dreamed of, soaring to the heights that always called out to you. You can dream again, journeying with uncertainty through the valley of rebirth - knowing that God is still in control. As you learn to cultivate the power within, you will come to the truth that you are broken to be blessed and that your liberty is guaranteed – as you transit from trauma to triumph. Graves become gardens and bones become armies. Ashes become beauty and seas becomes highways! The oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. Heroes and victims both get knocked down by life’s circumstances. See yourself as a Hero that got back up, armed with faith and determined for purpose, instead of a victim that stayed down, defeated by fear. Be the Hero that creates a positive future from a broken past. Whether the captivity we experience is due to the actions of others or social circumstances, the captivity of physical infirmities, or that which we bring to ourselves by our own mindset, choices and attitude, the captivity of physical death comes to us all as a result of the fall of Adam. God offers liberty to all captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound. Let this book “From Trauma to Triumph: Finding Liberty” uncover how God transforms a troubled past into a glorious destiny to illustrate that there is more in you than your history.




Out of Ashes: Trauma, Betrayal, Triumph


Book Description

God has allowed me to finally live a fairytale's happily ever after. However, as you have probably guessed by now, my fairytale had some nightmares, villains, and a plot that was undesirable. It was a journey that caused me to question God and question my existence. In the beginning, I didn't quite understand how true the Word of God was. I thought that I was in complete control of my life, and believed that my destiny was in my hands. My plan and route to success was unquestionable. I did the right things and tried to treat people the way that I wanted to be treated. I knew that God loved me and that I had His favor. So, why wasn't everything perfect? Why was I given this plot, this path, this journey? One might say that our destiny is determined by God. Yes, God has a plan for us as the Word says in Jeremiah 29:11: "I alone know the plans I have for you, plans to bring you prosperity and not disaster, plans to bring about the future you hope for." That's the Word of God; but we have to receive, accept, and apply His plan, which is revealed in His Word, in order for it to become our destiny. Regardless of what it feels like or looks like, we have to will His plan into our lives. The Lord will not put His will above ours. The responsibility of our destiny is ultimately on us. I decided to take you on a journey through my story. This approach has really allowed me to unpack experiences, emotions, thoughts, and questions that lingered in my head. Prayerfully, by gaining insight into my personal journey, you will be able to identify subtle (and not so subtle) moves of God in your life.




Beautiful Ashes: A True Story of Murder, Betrayal, and One Woman's Search for Peace


Book Description

She watched as her mother's body was removed from the ashes of her home . . . Unbearable loss, dangerous secrets, and a life-threatening illness endangered her only hope for a future . . . . . . But through it all, she found her faith. When fifteen-year-old Shelly Edwards's mother is murdered by her alcoholic father, she loses her home, her family, and the only life she's ever known. Abandoned, broken from abuse and assault, facing poverty, and gripped with fear for her life, Shelly struggles to dismantle decades of lies. But into the deepening darkness that follows, God sends heavenly gifts, leading Shelly to a newfound faith. There she finds a peace she's never thought possible. When Shelly eventually meets the man she will marry, she thinks her life will finally be everything she's ever dreamed of, but the lingering wounds of her past-and new, devastating medical complications-shake her faith. After all she's endured, can she rise from the ashes and trust God once more? You'll be transformed by Shelly's riveting memoir about how love, forgiveness, courage, determination-and the guidance of angels-can overcome even the greatest anguish.




Indian Horse


Book Description

A First Nations former hockey star looks back on his life as he undergoes treatment for alcoholism in this novel from the author of Dream Wheels. Saul Indian Horse is a child when his family retreats into the woods. Among the lakes and the cedars, they attempt to reconnect with half-forgotten traditions and hide from the authorities who have been kidnapping Ojibway youth. But when winter approaches, Saul loses everything: his brother, his parents, his beloved grandmother—and then his home itself. Alone in the world and placed in a horrific boarding school, Saul is surrounded by violence and cruelty. At the urging of a priest, he finds a tentative salvation in hockey. Rising at dawn to practice alone, Saul proves determined and undeniably gifted. His intuition and vision are unmatched. His speed is remarkable. Together they open doors for him: away from the school, into an all-Ojibway amateur circuit, and finally within grasp of a professional career. Yet as Saul’s victories mount, so do the indignities and the taunts, the racism and the hatred—the harshness of a world that will never welcome him, tied inexorably to the sport he loves. Spare and compact yet undeniably rich, Indian Horse is at once a heartbreaking account of a dark chapter in our history and a moving coming-of-age story. “Shocking and alien, valuable and true… A master of empathy.”—Jane Smiley, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Golden Age “A severe yet beautiful novel…. Indian Horse finds the granite solidity of Wagamese’s prose polished to a lustrous sheen; brisk, brief, sharp chapters propel the reader forward.”—Donna Bailey Nurse, National Post (Toronto)




All My Rage


Book Description

National Book Award WINNER Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature WINNER An INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! An INSTANT INDIE BESTSELLER! "All My Rage is a love story, a tragedy and an infectious teenage fever dream about what home means when you feel you don’t fit in." — New York Times Book Review From #1 New York Times bestselling author Sabaa Tahir comes a brilliant, unforgettable, and heart-wrenching contemporary novel about family and forgiveness, love and loss, in a sweeping story that crosses generations and continents. Lahore, Pakistan. Then. Misbah is a dreamer and storyteller, newly married to Toufiq in an arranged match. After their young life is shaken by tragedy, they come to the United States and open the Clouds' Rest Inn Motel, hoping for a new start. Juniper, California. Now. Salahudin and Noor are more than best friends; they are family. Growing up as outcasts in the small desert town of Juniper, California, they understand each other the way no one else does. Until The Fight, which destroys their bond with the swift fury of a star exploding. Now, Sal scrambles to run the family motel as his mother Misbah’s health fails and his grieving father loses himself to alcoholism. Noor, meanwhile, walks a harrowing tightrope: working at her wrathful uncle’s liquor store while hiding the fact that she’s applying to college so she can escape him—and Juniper—forever. When Sal’s attempts to save the motel spiral out of control, he and Noor must ask themselves what friendship is worth—and what it takes to defeat the monsters in their pasts and the ones in their midst. From one of today’s most cherished and bestselling young adult authors comes a breathtaking novel of young love, old regrets, and forgiveness—one that’s both tragic and poignant in its tender ferocity.




It Wasn't Your Fault


Book Description

Shame is one of the most destructive of human emotions. If you suffered childhood physical or sexual abuse, you may experience such intense feelings of shame that it almost seems to define you as a person. In order to begin healing, it’s important for you to know that it wasn’t your fault. In this gentle guide, therapist and childhood abuse expert Beverly Engel presents a mindfulness and compassion-based therapeutic approach to help you overcome the debilitating shame that keeps you tied to the past. By following the step-by-step exercises in this book, you’ll gain a greater understanding of the root cause of your shame. And by cultivating compassion toward yourself, you will begin to heal and move past your painful experiences. Recent studies show that trauma survivors, particularly those with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) resulting from abuse, can greatly benefit from incorporating elements of self-compassion into their treatment. Furthermore, the practice of self-compassion has been shown to decrease PTSD symptoms, including, self-criticism, thought suppression, and rumination. This book is based on the author’s powerful and effective Compassion Cure program. With this book, you will develop the skills needed to finally put a stop the crippling self-blame that keeps you from moving on and being happy. You’ll learn to focus on your strengths, your courage, and your extraordinary ability to survive. Most of all, you’ll learn to replace shame with its counter emotion—pride.




Rescued from the Ashes


Book Description

The diary of a young Jewish housewife who, together with her husband and five-month-old baby, fled the Warsaw ghetto at the last possible moment and survived the Holocaust hidden on the "Aryan" side of town in the loft of a run-down tinsmith's shed.




After the Affair


Book Description

After the Affair teaches partners how to heal themselves and grow from the shattering crisis of an infidelity. Drawing on thirty-five years as a clinical psychologist, Dr. Spring offers a series of original and proven strategies that address such questions as: Why did it happen? Once love and trust are gone, can we ever get them back? Can I—should I—recommit when I feel so ambivalent? How do we become sexually intimate again? Is forgiveness possible? What constitutes an affair in cyberspace?




At Penpoint


Book Description

In At Penpoint Monica Popescu traces the development of African literature during the second half of the twentieth century to address the intertwined effects of the Cold War and decolonization on literary history. Popescu draws on archival materials from the Soviet-sponsored Afro-Asian Writers Association and the CIA-funded Congress for Cultural Freedom alongside considerations of canonical literary works by Ayi Kwei Armah, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, Ousmane Sembène, Pepetela, Nadine Gordimer, and others. She outlines how the tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union played out in the aesthetic and political debates among African writers and intellectuals. These writers decolonized aesthetic canons even as superpowers attempted to shape African cultural production in ways that would advance their ideological and geopolitical goals. Placing African literature at the crossroads of postcolonial theory and studies of the Cold War, Popescu provides a new reassessment of African literature, aesthetics, and knowledge production.




Baroque Bodies


Book Description

Mitchell Greenberg explores the significance of fantasies of the body in seventeenth-century France through provocative and subtle readings of some of the most intriguing texts of the period. Beginning with an eloquent invocation of the status of the king in classical France, Greenberg surveys the complex sociopolitical history of Louis XIV's reign, analyzing both Moliere and the entire corpus of Racine. The central chapters of Baroque Bodies deal with such fascinating texts as the Memoires of the abbe de Choisy (the first existing account of a male cross-dresser); two founding texts of the modern pornographic genre, L'ecole des filles and L'academie des dames; and the "autobiography" of Marie de l'Incarnation, the famous "mystic" and founder of the first Ursuline convent in Canada. In addition to his richly nuanced readings, Greenberg integrates into his argument material from a broad array of disciplines, including psychoanalysis, feminism, epistemology, and history. He also points out the implications of his argument for the political, theological, and historical thought of the period, moving effortlessly from witch trials in France to discussions of bodies in Renaissance English literary criticism to the works of Bakhtin, Foucault, Freud, and Lacan.