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Counseling is a significant aspect of pastoring, and marriage counseling is the most common form of counseling for many clergy. To address the needs of husbands who come to him for marriage counseling, Pastor Scott LaPierre says the first thing he looks at is the man’s relationship with Christ.
“Our relationship with our wives, our relationship with our children, is a reflection or outpouring of our relationship with Christ,” La Pierre said in a recent interview. “And it’s our relationship with Christ that we need to draw on at those times when we’re upset.”
In his new book, Your Marriage God’s Way, LaPierre distills lessons from scripture, carefully examining the principles for building a strong, biblical marriage—one in which your relationship with Christ brings guidance and blessing into your relationship with your spouse. “God is the author of marriage. He designed the roles and responsibilities for husbands and wives,” LaPierre writes in his book. “He knows what couples need so they can experience healthy, joyful, Christ-centered relationships, and He provided the principles in the Bible.”
LaPierre gives readers the tools to:
Understand the unique roles and responsibilities of husbands and wives
Recognize and resolve conflicts with a heart of hope and compassion
Follow God’s worthy command to love and cherish your spouse unconditionally
A companion workbook is also available (LaPierre’s Your Marriage God’s Way Workbook) to help couples apply biblical principles to their own marriage.
The workbook aims to help couples:
Understand the unique roles God has given each person
Identify ways to better help, encourage, and support each other
Make serving God the focal point of the marriage
“Let’s journey together, with the Bible as our guide, to experience the blessings of a Christ-centered relationship,” LaPierre writes. “Whether you’re at the beginning of your journey or you’ve been on the road together for years, Your Marriage God’s Way will provide the helpful and encouraging insights you need to experience marriage as God intends it.”
About the Author Scott LaPierre is the senior pastor of Woodland Christian Church in Woodland, WA, an author, and conference speaker. He holds an MA in Biblical Studies from Liberty University. Scott and his wife, Katie, have nine children, and they are passionate homeschooling advocates. Scott is a former schoolteacher and Army officer.
To learn more about Pastor Scott LaPierre, please visit www.scottlapierre.org, or follow him on Twitter (@PastorWCC), Instagram (@pastorwcc) or Facebook (@SctottLaPierreMinistries).
Your Marriage God’s Way: A Biblical Guide to a Christ-Centered Relationship Publisher: Harvest House Publishers ISBN-10: 0736983961 ISBN-13: 978-0736983969 Available from Amazon.com
Your Marriage God’s Way Workbook Publisher: Harvest House Publishers ISBN-10: 0736983988 ISBN-13: 978-0736983983 Available from Amazon.com
Trish Stevens Mandy Sullivan Ascot Media Group, Inc. Post Office Box 2394 Friendswood, TX 77549 [email protected] www.ascotmedia.com 281.333.3507 Phone
And Suddenly Life Will Never Be the Same: Almost Like Praying a Contemporary Family Drama
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What would happen if a suburban woman with a hard-as-nails façade and a detailed life plan was suddenly saddled with caring for a 6-year-old girl from the Bronx?
Such is the dilemma facing Dolores Farrell in Almost Like Praying, the intriguing new novel from author Joel Samberg. But the 6-year-old girl is just the tip of Dolores’ family-centered iceberg. When readers first meet her, she is a woman with a future all planned out: She’ll marry an attorney, have sons who will become attorneys, daughters who will become patrons of the arts, and live in the shadow of Harvard University, thereby continuing her privileged, purebred Irish-Catholic legacy.
Instead, Dolores must watch as each of her children adopts a lifestyle quite different from what she had envisioned. One daughter becomes a waitress, another a shock jock. One son becomes a cop (a troubled one at that), another a cartoonist. Much to his mother’s dismay, the cartoonist is also missing a leg due to a terrible childhood accident. That, of course, had not been part of Dolores’ original plan.
Almost Like Praying, which fictionalizes some real thoughts and memories, is told through a trilogy of stories reconstructed by a curious journalist who, as a boy, lived across the street from the family at the heart of the book. One day from his old bedroom window, the journalist sees Dolores on her front step hugging a dark-skinned little girl named Maria, and smiling—something he feels the grim-faced Dolores would never do. That’s what prompts him to research and write the stories.
“The novel sprung from my own roots,” Samberg said. “Growing up on Long Island, one of my best friends had a mother who to me seemed humorless and severe. I had always wondered about her. She became Dolores. Also, whenever my family drove through the Bronx, I’d look at the ramshackle apartment buildings and wonder how the kids who lived there would fare in my own middle-class neighborhood. One of them became Maria.”
Featuring flawed, relatable characters, Almost Like Praying offers a compelling message that likely will resonate with readers everywhere.
Author Joel Samberg decided to become a writer as a boy. He wrote a screenplay when he was 12 and sent it to MGM, and although the studio turned it down, an executive’s encouraging note suggested that he never give up on his dream to be a writer. Two years later, his English teacher sent a nasty note home to his parents falsely accusing him of plagiarizing a book report because she said it was too well-written for an eighth-grader. That settled it: from that point on, he has never given up.
Samberg has written for dozens of magazines and has published seven fiction and nonfiction books, including Some Kind of Lonely Clown: The Music, Memory, and Melancholy Lives of Karen Carpenter.
Almost Like Praying Publisher: Black Rose Writing (http://blackrosewriting.com) Release Date: April 28, 2022 ISBN-10: 1685130097 ISBN-13: 978-1685130091 Available from Amazon.com, Black Rose Writing and other online booksellers.
Trish Stevens Parker Wilson Ascot Media Group, Inc. Post Office Box 2394 Friendswood, TX 77549 [email protected] www.ascotmedia.com 281.333.3507 Phone
Proactive Patient Education Empowers Consumers to Be Better Partners in Their Care
If you need an immediate response, please text or call Dr. Wilcox at 816.885.9214.
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If you’ve postponed any nonurgent procedures or doctor visits over the past couple of years, now is the time to educate yourself before wading back into the murky waters of the American healthcare system.
“Proactively educating yourself on the American Healthcare System means you will have more control over the care you receive,” said David Wilcox, a patient advocate and doctorate prepared nurse with 28 years in health care. “There are things you can do as an individual to make sure you’re getting the best health care possible.”
In his important new book, How to Avoid Being a Victim of the American Healthcare System: A Patient’s Handbook for Survival, Dr. Wilcox shares a behind-the-scenes look at many facets of our healthcare system and provides insider tips to help patients and family members navigate through the morass, avoid surprise bills and ultimately achieve better outcomes.
Of note, he encourages consumers to research doctors and hospitals, and gain an understanding of the risks and benefits of any recommended procedure. Dr. Wilcox also explores what to do if you have to go to a hospital, how to handle a denied insurance claim, how to find alternatives to high-priced prescriptions and why the current pay-for-fee system is inadequate. Readers will also discover the direction the healthcare system needs to move in, to holistically care for patients — information that he says the health care entities would prefer you didn’t know.
His goal in writing this book, he said, was to level the playing field, enabling consumers of health care to understand how to avoid getting caught in the systemic net.
“Entering the American healthcare system, one has to have a basic knowledge of it to be safe,” he said. “Not being prepared and knowledgeable means you will have little control over the health care you receive.”
Dr. David Wilcox is an Amazon international bestselling author and health care professional who believes proactive patient education enables those accessing the healthcare system to be better partners in their health care. He also believes that everyone has the right to access the American Healthcare System safely. A Doctorate-prepared nurse who also holds a Master’s in Health Administration and is Board Certified in Nursing Informatics, Dr. Wilcox has nearly three decades of health care experience as a bedside nurse, hospital administrator and in health care information technology, which has helped him to develop his unique perspective on the American Healthcare System. For more information, please visit https://drdavidwilcox.com/.
How to Avoid Being a Victim of the American Healthcare System: A Patient’s Handbook for Survival Publisher: Here for You Publishing ISBN-10: 0578878364 ISBN-13: 978-0578878362 Available now at https://www.amazon.com/dp/0578878364
Trish Stevens Alex Spencer Ascot Media Group, Inc. Post Office Box 2394 Friendswood, TX 77549 [email protected] www.ascotmedia.com 281.333.3507 Phone
Protests, Blockages, Threats of War: What Happened to Freedom? Dr. Pieter Noomen’s Website Offers Guidance for a Troubled World
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Long before he died in 2019, Dr. Pieter Noomen explored deeply the meaning of life, death, freedom and so many other topics that the writings on his website will continue to enlighten and inspire readers for decades. In a time when mass protests and threats of war fill our daily news, his musings on freedom seem starkly meaningful.
Many of these protests focus on the freedom to decide for yourself what you will inject into your body or put on your face. But what about the freedom of others not to be impacted by decisions you make that might endanger them? It’s a slippery slope to be sure.
On his website, www.wordsforall.org, Dr. Noomen writes:
“’Yes’ a free will, ‘no’ a free will, argued the sages of all ages. Like they did, it does in me. I vacillate, how much am I free? By my logic, no answers do fit. Yet freedom is, and that is it. It features as essence and substance in all life’s creatures. You see that we are free to even choose our own slavery?” He also wrote that “all living is based on free participation.” Freedom is embraced in many of the world’s nations, but not all, and the chaos of early 2022 may echo for many years to come. How can we make sense of it all and find some semblance of inner and outer peace?
Visitors on www.wordsforall.org can explore Dr. Noomen’s comprehensive collection of vivid experiences and wisdom drawn from the communications he shared with what he called a “spiritual presence.” He grew to believe that, either directly or indirectly, all life stems from one common source, and when we can reconnect with that source, we reach the highest level of existence. And perhaps more importantly, he believed that being in direct contact with the ALL of existence is possible for anyone and everyone.
In essence, we’re all in this together, and the path forward starts with accepting that. As Dr. Noomen wrote, “Let it sink in that you are part of the oneness of all. You’re one of its constituents.”
Born in the Netherlands, Pieter Noomen completed doctoral studies in theology and pastoral psychology at the Free University of Amsterdam and became senior minister of three Protestant churches. Later, he worked as a psychotherapist and as a staff member of a Los Angeles metropolitan church, working in mental health fields like suicide prevention and hospice.
An example from Dr. Noomen’s Wisdoms of the Week from his website:
“If today all people decided to drop negative behavior, and our societies would become peaceful for all, we still face that nature won’t follow the change. It will remain violent at will, not caring about our human needs. In other words, the brokenness and imperfections of life do not depend on our human behavior. The roots of that go deeper. Our earth and its potential for carrying life is put together as a faulty product. Any hope for fundamentally changing the world? No! Any hope for substantially changing people? Yes! When we as individuals connect with the Real, the full, Reality.”
Trish Stevens Gloria Gonzalez Ascot Media Group, Inc. Post Office Box 2394 Friendswood, TX 77549 281.333.3507 Main [email protected] www.ascotmedia.com
Dying to Survive: Not in Vain, A Promise Kept Explores Life and Death Impact of Patient Advocacy
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They were killing her mother with negligence, Melissa Mullamphy recalls. And eight months later, Mullamphy’s mother succumbed following a cancer battle fraught with frustration, medical missteps and the endless bureaucracy that goes hand in hand with navigating our complex healthcare system.
Not in Vain, A Promise Kept is Mullamphy’s candid account of her mother’s journey and the family’s roller coaster of emotions. Readers will witness the mistakes that compounded their pain, the small victories that gave them hope, and above all, the love that kept them going during an indescribably difficult time.
Each chapter in Not In Vain, A Promise Kept represents one month from her mother’s diagnosis to her passing. Mullamphy recalls the experiences with vivid detail (the names of doctors and nurses have been changed), hoping to prompt others to ask the tough questions and learn by her example.
“My goal in writing this book is to keep the promise that I made to my mom … to share her story so others don’t go through what she and my family went through,” Mullamphy says. “You can have input, control and make a difference in your loved one’s healthcare.”
Mullamphy shares shocking lapses in her mother’s care, including blood clots the doctor fails to notice, the confusion surrounding her mother’s DNR order, the time she found her mother wearing another patient’s bracelet and the unspeakable heartbreak of learning that that all along, the hospital had used the wrong type of chemotherapy drug for her mother’s specific cancer.
Not In Vain, A Promise Kept is not without moments of hope, such as when the family is told the tumor has shrunk and when her mother’s last-ditch surgery to remove the tumor is declared “wildly successful.”
Ultimately, Not In Vain, A Promise Kept pays homage to a life well-lived and a woman well-loved, and it’s Mullamphy’s aim to help other patients and their loved ones find their voices, understand their rights and learn how to navigate a deeply complex, imperfect healthcare system.
“Use your voice, and remember that you are not there to make friends,” she adds. “Sometimes you have to be the biggest mouth in the room, but speaking up can save your loved one’s life.”
Author Melissa Mullamphy has a master’s degree in clinical psychology and has worked in psychiatric emergency rooms and step-down houses. Forever a student of mental health, she has also worked with many nonprofits, including those benefiting military veterans. For almost 20 years, she worked as a domestic operations manager for a major corporation. Following her experience with her mother’s cancer diagnosis and treatment, she began blogging about current events as they relate to healthcare.
Not in Vain, A Promise Kept ISBN-10: 1734802634 ISBN-13: 978-1734802634 Available from Amazon.com, BN.com, http://www.melissamullamphy.com and many other online outlets
Trish Stevens Corinne Walker Ascot Media Group, Inc. Post Office Box 2394 Friendswood, TX 77549 [email protected] www.ascotmedia.com 281.333.3507 Phone
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Are you tired of doing everything yourself? Do you wish people would give you the help you need? Do you get frustrated when your attempts to help others don’t work?
Knowing how to extend a helping hand or ask for assistance when needed is one of the best ways to build trusting, collaborative and mutually beneficial relationships with colleagues, clients, family and friends. And yet, for far too many folks, “help fluency” remains elusive.
Go To Help from mother-daughter team Deborah Grayson Riegel and Sophie Riegel is a truly groundbreaking, easy-to-use guide that teaches concrete strategies to help readers get better at offering, asking for and accepting help — and explores the ways in which “help fluency” builds better relationships both professionally and personally.
In Go To Help, readers will learn how to:
Offer help that inspires others to learn and grow
Overcome emotional barriers to asking for help
Manage when someone doesn’t accept your help
Reject requests when you’re overloaded
Ask specifically for the kind of help that’s actually useful
Plus, Go To Help introduces 31 effective help strategies, along with tips and tools for putting these new approaches to use.
“Let’s face it, navigating the road ahead of us will require that we know how to offer, ask for and accept help, as we adapt to hybrid work environments and evolving workplace expectations; parent in high-stress situations (while facing everyday parenting challenges); participate in school that looks and feels different; and support our friends and family through change, and change again,” Grayson Riegel says. “This book will help you be more skilled, strategic and selective as you help others, as well as help yourself.”
About the Authors Deborah Grayson Riegel is a coach, speaker, author and consultant. She is also an instructor of Management Communication at the Wharton School of The University of Pennsylvania, and teaches Leadership Communication for Columbia Business School’s Women in Leadership Program. She is also on the faculty for Duke Corporate Education and regularly writes for Harvard Business Review.
Sophie Riegel is a student at Duke University. She is an author, mental health advocate and global speaker who champions and encourages conversations about mental health.
Go To Help: 31 Strategies to Offer, Ask For, and Accept Help Publisher: Panoma Press Release Date: January 17, 2022 ISBN-13: 978-1784529642 Available online and from all good bookstores
Trish Stevens Karen Williams Ascot Media Group, Inc. Post Office Box 2394 Friendswood, TX 77549 [email protected] www.ascotmedia.com 281.333.3507 Phone
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Spiritual drifting was a concern for many churches way before the pandemic kept parishioners at home. Here to help Christians re-evaluate and reaffirm their spiritual journeys is senior pastor Alan Davey.
“We forget him so quickly,” Davey says, referring to Jesus. “The commonplace platitude ‘out of sight out of mind’ applies not just to people we see and know, but also to our Father in heaven.”
Our noisy world constantly pulls our attention in new directions and prompts us to pursue other interests and desires, he notes.
“Subsequently, we become tired Christians who suffer from a lack of conviction, authenticity and prophetic insight,” he says.
In his new book, Walking the Line: Embracing the Imperatives of Jesus, Davey shares insightful commentary, perspectives from a rich variety of Christian sources and authors, and lessons from Jesus himself to create an accessible guide to viewing the Bible and Christ’s teachings in a fresh light. Included are original drawings from the late artist Joy Kim and study questions at the end of each chapter to help reinforce the messages.
Davey masterfully underscores the value and importance of understanding and following the rules of Jesus — not just for individuals but for entire communities of faith.
“The rule of Jesus articulated in Matthew’s Gospel is neither obscure nor archaic,” Davey says. “Jesus’ imperatives speak powerfully to the contemporary issues of our day, and do so by illuminating a way of clarity, simplicity and love.”
Author Alan Davey is the senior pastor of Weston Park Baptist Church, an inner-city church in Toronto, and Adjunct Professor of Christian Spirituality and Worship at Tyndale University and Seminary. He is co-author of Climbing the Spiritual Mountain (Wipf & Stock, 2014), Abba’s Whisper (Wipf & Stock, 2017) and The Passionate Bride (Wipf & Stock, 2019).
Davey is also an avid scuba diver, hiker, singer, guitarist and art lover. While writing Walking the Line, Davey was asked to officiate at the funeral for his wife’s niece, the late artist, teacher and musician, Joy Kim. While leafing through a collection from her final exhibition, “Have You Walked in My Shoes?”, Davey was inspired to include some of her oil pastel drawings of shoes, boots, and slippers in his book to represent the disciples who embrace Jesus’ imperatives in the everyday of their lives.
For more information, please visit www.daveybooks.com, or connect with Davey at [email protected].
Walking the Line: Embracing the Imperatives of Jesus Publisher: Wipf & Stock ISBN-10: 1725290340 ISBN-13: 978-1725290341 Available from Amazon.com, BN.com and wipfandstock.com
Trish Stevens Marie Jennings Ascot Media Group, Inc. Post Office Box 2394 Friendswood, TX 77549 [email protected] www.ascotmedia.com 281.333.3507 Phone
