Jeanette-Marie Mirich – Devotional – Part 1 of 1

Shannon here: Jeanette-Marie Mirich shares a devotional, plus a chance to win an e-book copy of her latest mystery, You Promised Me Paris (book 3, D.B. Burns Mysteries). Comment or answer the question in this post to enter the drawing. Deadline: June 19th, 11:59 pm central time. Here’s Jeanette:

Flotsam and Jetsam

I have a friend in Africa who is creating a guest house with mud, rocks, and odd discarded bits. When Kim began her journey to use trash to create beauty, she studied the old ways. Remembering what has gone before us helps us build from life’s ashes. What she is doing in Kenya is amazing. From teaching others, employing amazing locals, and learning as she goes, many are bathed in hope for a better life.

As oddments lap onto life’s shores, writers grab the bits and pieces, cobbling them together with words. A poem, story, smart remark stumbles onto their pages waiting editing. Creating stories is a gift. Pouring words into stories is like catching a torrent in your hand. Memories flood us when we write and can trap us in places where emotions swirl.

Currently I’m back in Africa as I edit a novel. The volcanic red dirt clings to my protagonist’s pants and churns through the air in the hot wind. When I close my eyes, faces from the past flash through my mind.  Like joyous dancers of days gone by, I see friends from the market stalls, from my prayer group, and the troubled eyes of a patient’s Somali mother.

Quilting the fragile reflections into a tale makes me long to return to the mission station along the Rift. To laugh with my friends in Kenya or to walk the grass at the Fistula Hospital in Addis Ababa where young women gather with knitting needles and laughter. My thoughts push me to capture in words the danger, fear, and excitement of life in unfamiliar places. Places that push me to depend upon the Living God who sustains us. That haunt, teach, or reveal the heart so others can be encouraged or challenged.

About Jeanette: “Have bags, will travel” should be Jeanette-Marie Mirich’s life’s theme. She moved twenty-two times before settling in her first home. An Oregonian by birth and who graduated with a B.S. degree in education from Portland State University, Jeanette has swum in the Ligurian Sea, collected shells and sea glass along the Indian Ocean, Pacific, Atlantic, Caribbean Oceans, Straits of Malacca, Gulf of Mexico and the Andaman Sea. Her peripatetic lifestyle is courtesy of the U.S. Air Force and her husband’s medical training. She has accompanied her husband on dozens of medical mission trips. Mother of three, Grammy to thirteen exceptional grandchildren, she travels from her Kentucky home to an Oregon cabin, scribbling poems and short stories as well as writing novels. Learn more & connect:      

Jeanette’s Website                Jeanette’s Goodreads

About the book – You Promised Me Paris:

Discovering a young man with a knife in his chest was not exactly what Delilah Burns Morgan planned for her honeymoon.

Delilah did not have a dream wedding. In fact, after their vows, she and Lyle raced for a court appearance which revealed decades of secrets in their small Kentucky town. All seems well on their wedding night until a loud thump echoes in the hotel hallway-courtesy of a murder victim. When suspicion circles back to Delilah’s family, the newlyweds delay their trip to Paris and tackle the erupting mayhem. With the FBI circling, they head for the hills and find themselves back in Horsetail Falls, Kentucky-Delilah’s Appalachian home.

As they unwrap the wonders of their newfound love while trying to uncover the secrets of a murder, a suspicious real estate agent, and a shady new neighbor, will Lyle and Delilah learn to work as a team?

Can’t wait for the drawing? Worried you won’t win? Get your copy now!

You Promised Me Paris – Amazon

Question for Readers: Have you ever created beauty from trash? Have you seen beauty created from trash by God or human? Tell us about it.

Come back June 15th for Ane Mulligan!