Author Renee Altson understands all about being hurt, feeling alone, and full of doubt. While her story is an extreme example of abuse and mistreatment done in the name of God, her struggles with God as Father and with faith and disbelief are universal. This book is a perfect companion for those who have survived or know someone who has survived abuse, as well as for anyone who has ever questioned whether the journey toward faith is worthwhile. As you stumble with Renee, you will discover new deep places within your own heart and the freedom to question a God who is big enough to handle your doubts. May this book help you learn the breath and depth of the love of God and may the prayer you offer be the same as Renee's: 'I believe. Help my unbelief.'

“Lisa’s fine grasp of Scripture and love for the Lord make her a trustworthy teacher, yet we learn from her own hard-earned lessons as well. She speaks and writes from a place of understanding, as she clings to God’s hand, giving us the privilege of stumbling into grace with her.” —LIZ CURTIS HIGGS, best-selling author of Bad Girls of the Bible “So, today I’ve been thinking about...things that bind us. The thought flitted around my mind and then landed for a while, likely because I was wearing a pair of too-tight jeans.” Women of Faith® speaker and author Lisa Harper relates from experience — life can be uncertain, sometimes even scary. But with a witty twinkle in her eye and a Bible in her hand, she describes what it’s like to find real security in the arms of a Savior who doesn’t just notice us but who moves heaven and earth on our behalf. Part diary, part devotional, Stumbling Into Grace weaves hilarious and poignant stories from Lisa’s own life with intimate and transformational encounters from the life of Christ. Prayers, reflection questions, and journal prompts help women dig deep into biblical truths to better understand how our Redeemer’s compassion, affection, and constancy make every single moment of life not only more enjoyable but well worth living!

Author Renee Altson understands all about being hurt, feeling alone, and full of doubt. While her story is an extreme example of abuse and mistreatment done in the name of God, her struggles with God as Father and with faith and disbelief are universal. This book is a perfect companion for those who have survived or know someone who has survived abuse, as well as for anyone who has ever questioned whether the journey toward faith is worthwhile. As you stumble with Renee, you will discover new deep places within your own heart and the freedom to question a God who is big enough to handle your doubts. May this book help you learn the breath and depth of the love of God and may the prayer you offer be the same as Renee's: "I believe. Help my unbelief."

Stumbling Toward Justice is a collection of stories of one man's odyssey through the darkness of the modern world. His journey takes him through the United States, Venezuela, Mexico, Spain, Germany, and India. In each place he stumbles for ground on which he can stand, on which he can seek an honorable life and practice. He questions contemporary belief in the goods offered by mainstream or conventional practices of child rearing, education, health care, industrial farming, and offers a critique of economic growth and technological advances. Each chapter relates a story in one of these areas from Hoinacki's experience, an experience that inspires him to critical reflection. Hoinacki's underlying assumption is that a narrative relating one's personal experience may introduce the reader to a wider and more incisive understanding than that provided by the investigative and reporting methods of the social and natural sciences.

Mary Pezzulo intended to learn all about God through graduate studies in philosophy and Christian ethics, but serious illness ruined those plans and landed her young family in desperate straits. Despite chronic illness, deep poverty, blatant discrimination, and the cruelty she encountered, Pezzulo began tripping over God in the tiny works of mercy she offered to others and received herself. With striking candor and gritty faith she shows us how we also can meet God in the smallest acts of love. When Pezzulo began her blog Steel Magnificat in 2016, she never imagined she would be writing so much about poverty, discrimination, abuse, or the loneliness of chronic illness. Nor did she realize that the corporal and spiritual works of mercy would bring stark clarity and unflinching hope to her life. She had moved to Steubenville, Ohio, to study philosophy and ethics so that she could teach people about Jesus and make the world a better place. She expected to find God in beautiful churches, inspiring books, and the spoken words of brilliant scholars. But when her life and professional ambitions crumbled around her, she entered a terrible darkness and floundered in desperate poverty, illness, and the lingering trauma of abuse. In that dark time, Pezzulo began to know mercy, finding God in countless tiny acts. In Stumbling into Grace she shows how the works of mercy have become her anchor in turbulence and calm, piercing sorrow and ridiculous joy, overcoming despair and bringing enduring hope. Now she shares with you how to live the works of mercy in your own life. When Feeding the Hungry, keep in mind that the more needy the person you're feeding is the more care you should take--these are the people who are most in need of hope and visible acts of love. Instructing the Ignorant begins with helping people and forming good relationships because people are worth it. Giving Drink to the Thirsty can mean advocacy and charitable giving that support access to clean water for those throughout the world just as much as it means offering drinks to anyone who enters your home. Counseling the Doubtful starts with acknowledging that faith is bigger than all of us and that it's not wrong to have questions, doubts, or to look at another faith to see if its beliefs and practices are closer to your spiritual longings. Clothing the Naked means restoring a sense of dignity to every part of a person by providing appropriate, comfortable, and good-looking clothing, and by protecting people from gossip and prejudice.

Stumbling on Open Ground is a story of private trial and faith like those found in the books of Esther and Job. Punctuated with stories from Mansfield's years in the music business---working with George Harrison and Waylon Jennings, among others.

Sometimes we try to connect to others, especially people we love but end up missing each other for a variety of reasons. The stories in this collection, STUMBLING TOWARD GRACE explore instances of imperfect people trying to connect to loved ones and others despite fractured relationships and personal flaws. Often they fail, as in the story "Hidden in Boxes" when Kathy can no longer tolerate her husband's paralysis after the accidental death of their only son. Charlie, in 'You'll Do Fine," wants his wife to stay as she's packing to leave the marriage because he fails to realize he's stuck in a loop of a job-related trauma. In the title story, "Stumbling Toward Grace," an elderly father dying of AIDS, Otto yearns to reconnect with his estranged daughter after he had disowned her for marrying a Black man. In "Sister Rafaele Heals the Sick," a freelance nun, Sister Rafaele, is invited to live with a single mom and her children and tries to save them from the secular world. Many of the stories in the collection have been published, and some of won literary prizes, including a Maryland State Art Council Individual Artist Grant and the Editors Select Award, among others.