Praise for To Have and To Hold:
An enjoyable read. Not a murder mystery but a gentle exploration of relationships, connections and the power--and the mystery--of love. Pastor Maggie is one to watch.
--G.M. Malliet, award-winning author of the St Just mysteries and the Max Tudor mysteries
“To Have and to Hold”, is a welcome and worthy addition to the wonderful Pastor Maggie series. Barbara Edema captures perfectly the joys and struggles of the Pastoral life, with all its complexity, mystery and grace. It’s also a page turner! This is the real deal. The Reverend Stanley Jenkins, Senior Pastor, First Presbyterian Church of Lansing, Michigan.
Hi friends,
If you followed my previous blog, A Little Good News from Pastor Barb, you will find this new blog somewhat different. I was going to call this blog, From Pulpit to Pen. But Barb's Blog is simpler.
As I am not serving a church presently, I have poured my overwhelming amount of spare time and energy into writing about the church. WAIT! DON'T LEAVE! IT'S NOT LIKE THAT!
The church can be quite funny. In the midst of the comfort and boredom of the church year calendar, the tragedies, struggles, and loss; the church is also full of creativity, personality and personalities, accidents, goofiness, forgiveness, and love. Each of these things is wrapped up in holy moments and outrageous grace.
This blog gives me the freedom to write about writing. Being an author has opened up a new realm of creativity and thoughtfulness. Decades of pastoring different churches has given me endless experiences. My books are fictional. However, some people and their stories have wended their way (with their permission) into this fun series.
The Pastor Maggie Series follows a young clergy woman into her first church with very little life experience. She navigates between loving her parishioners and wanting to occasionally smack them with a hymnal. That's because a church is a family. People full of different ideologies and belief systems. But a place where everyone is welcomed. To lead this crowd one must tread lightly, unless you're Maggie. Then you just blow in like a strong wind and find yourself on the receiving end of cranky old ladies, a creepy male parishioner, and the Chief of Police who marches you off to jail. Just a day in the life...
To Love and To Cherish is the first book in this series (available at Amazon.com) And the second book, To Have and To Hold will be released on February 14, 2017 at Pen-L.com and Amazon.com.
They are books full of sinners and saints, friends and foes. But perhaps that's who we all are at one time or another.
Howard Baker is one of those precious saints. He died last week at the age of 90. My heart wasn't the only one that was broken. Here is a small part of the eulogy I gave at his funeral on February 3, 2017:
...Thank you
for saying “yes” when I asked if I could use your name and personality in my
books. After you read the first book I asked you if I liked it. You said, “It
was okay.” I could tell you weren’t thrilled. “Oh, didn’t you like it?” I asked
(slightly heartbroken). Then you said, “Well, you married me off to that old bitch,
Mrs. Abernathy! Why?”
I laughed so
hard when you said that. And I responded, “You were the only man who could truly
love her and make her a better woman.”
And Howard,
that’s just who you were and are in our hearts. Everyone who has ever known you
has become a better person. You were a man with a huge heart, a bit of a
temper, a naughty sense of humor, a world traveler, and voracious reader, a
creative builder, an honorable husband and father and grandfather, a man who
loved and is loved so completely.
You wanted
your funeral to be ten minutes long. Sorry. If you were here, I would take your
hand, look in your tear-filled eyes, and say, “Now Howard, let’s be reasonable,
how can all the love and sadness of this day be contained in ten minutes. You
are just being ridiculous.”
He was a precious man, and will live on in printed word married to Verna. Whether he likes it or not.
This new blog will share bits of my writing. I'm happy to answer questions-I would LOVE to hear from you! Once in awhile, I may just leave a thought or wonderment. I hope you join me as pulpit and pen are melded together in stories you can hold in your hands and hearts!
This new blog will share bits of my writing. I'm happy to answer questions-I would LOVE to hear from you! Once in awhile, I may just leave a thought or wonderment. I hope you join me as pulpit and pen are melded together in stories you can hold in your hands and hearts!
Barb
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