Lots of Helpers

Our family's life in New Zealand

Spring Flowers

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One thing that I love about spring is the flowers! Our lemon tree, just outside the main door of the house, was covered in blossoms this spring. They smelled heavenly! I love it when the aroma of citrus blossoms wafts through the house.

Our one lonely peony, which has been moved several times in the last several years, put on its normal one bloom this year.

These columbines bloom every year in the bathtub in which we grow strawberries.

The flax plants have put up a record number of flower stalks, and we are enjoying seeing tuis, like this one, as well as bellbirds and wax eyes, sipping nectar.

I’m not sure how a lavender plant got into the strawberry barrel, but it adds a touch of color there.

One morning, Mom was going to take a walk with the girls, and I decided to drop what I was doing and go along. It was a beautiful morning!

A train came through while we were enjoying the flowers beside the tracks.

A few minutes later, we saw another train going the opposite direction!

We picked raspberries at a friend’s farm, and noticed lots of these flowering shrubs. I had an inkling they were a weed, so asked him. Sure enough, they are Himalayan Honeysuckle, and very invasive. They’re sure pretty, though!

Baptisms

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We had the joy yesterday of seeing two of our children baptized! Both Mr. Imagination and Little Miss made that decision on the same day not long ago. Gayle led the service; we sang four songs, he gave a message about baptism, then the children each shared a brief testimony, and he baptized them. After they came out of the water, Gayle invited everyone to gather around and pray for them. Afterward, a person who was coming down to swim came up to us and offered to send us some pictures she took. That gave us a brief opportunity to talk to her about the Lord!

Here is a video I got of the baptism. The sun was so bright I couldn’t see the screen of my phone, so it isn’t the best, but you can hear a lot of it anyway.

New in the Library! December 2025

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Graphic novels are not my style of book! I would much rather read a book with no pictures than this style. However, I have typical children who love any sort of comic book, so we have a few. I have just added these three to our shelves, and am thinking about whether maybe I should collect all the graphic books we have in one dedicated section. I’ll report it in one of these posts when/if I do that!

I was able to source some more I Survived books! I think we have all except 7 of them now. My 10-year-old is delighted every time she gets to read a new one, and can hardly wait for me to get through it first. I brought this Hank the Cowdog book home with us from America. I love the Hank stories–his use of language is fun, and the dog is so dumb, while thinking he’s incredibly smart, that I have a lot of fun reading these aloud. The one problem with them (other than the language, which I have censored) is Hank’s thoughts about “women.”

George Stephenson is an easy reader biography that I picked up at the Bookarama. I think it is the second one in this series that we have, and I will certainly keep my eyes open for more. I’m in a quandry–do I put a book like this with the children’s biographies, or with the easy readers? It fits in both places! If you have an opinion, please comment. I would like to know what other people think. Her Own Song is a very different book. Mellie’s father got hurt, and she was on her own, and the only person who helped her was a Chinese man–in Portland, Oregon in 1908! She learned a lot of disturbing things about her past in a short time. This book covers racism, adoption, family, and friendship. When I bought Ramona Quimby, Age 8, it meant that our set of Ramona books was complete. I read through all eight of them in a week to make a decision what to do with them. I remembered enjoying them, but a couple of other people I talked to couldn’t stand them. I have decided to keep the set, but because we are running out of space, I will put them on the shelf in the container. I like the way the author is able to get into a little girl’s mind and help me, as an adult, to understand the way a child thinks and sees the world. I also like the way she portrays Ramona growing up and changing from a spoiled brat at age 4 to a responsible young woman at age 9, at the end of the series. These are available for anyone who wants to borrow them, but I would recommend parental guidance for children under the age of about 10.

Esther finally read Someday You’ll Write and really liked it. She recommends it for middle-grade children who are interested in writing. I’m putting it on the Adult Miscellaneous shelf. I posted a review of Start Little, Dream Big, which you can see here. It is on the Adult Biography shelf. I have finally found a way to get myself to read inspirational books! I chose one slot of time in my day when I generally take five minutes to read something, and I read a couple of pages of one of these books at that time. In that way, I got through Prayers and Peanut Butter, which has been on the shelf for a few years. It is a wonderful book of encouragement to mothers. I put it on the Adult Devotional shelf.

We added several picture books to the shelf. One day when several of us were in town, the used book shop happened to be open. I had never been in there, but my oldest daughter had a couple of times. What a gem! That is a shop I plan to visit whenever I can. We found Rechenka’s Eggs in a basket of children’s books, and since I love Patricia Polacco’s books, that one was quickly added to our stack. As we talked with the owner after paying for our purchases, she picked up A Christmas Story by Brian Wildsmith and gave us this copy, because the corners were scuffed. Do we care about scuffed corners with such beautiful artwork? No! (Even though the story is rather fanciful.) One of the younger girls found this gorgeous copy of The Poky Little Puppy for free, too, there. The same day we received a package of books I bought, which included two by Ezra Jack Keats, one of our favorite picture book authors. They are delightful! I also got five Billy and Blaze books by C. W. Anderson that day in the mail. If you have a young horse-lover, don’t miss these. The illustrations are gorgeous, even though the stories are somewhat lame. We already had old hardcover copies of two of these, but they are so old the pages are becoming brittle, so I was quite happy to find better ones. A friend who uses our library a lot had a cleanout, and she gave me The Road to Tuapeka, among other books. It’s a fun fantasy about wekas, which are a troublesome bird in our area. Except for the last one, which is on the New Zealand Picture Books shelf, these are all with the picture books.

The day we went to town, we went to all the secondhand shops around, as well as the book shop. One of my finds was this gorgeous copy of Uncle Remus Stories! The cover doesn’t look like much, but just see the artwork! I’m looking forward to reading it to my littlest girl. We have a newer version of these stories, which I read to her last year, and she loved it. I also picked up The Lost Seal. It’s a story about a seal in Antarctica that lost its way and was helped back to safety by scientists–a true story, apparently. It is a bilingual book, both English and Maori. I found Red Fox and His Canoe in a listing on Facebook. My youngest is at the perfect stage for this I Can Read Book, and she enjoyed having one she hadn’t seen before. The same person was selling The One and Only Dr. Seuss, and one of my older sons snatched that one up; he loves Dr. Seuss. Looking for Solid Shapes was another gift from my friend. It’s a good introduction to geometry. Every one of these books goes on a different shelf: Junior Fiction, Easy Reader, Picture Books, Junior Science, and Junior Miscellaneous!

My friend also gave us all these easy readers that her family had finished with. Once again, it was great to have some new ones for my youngest to practice with. She spent a long time studying the pictures in all of them, and organizing them after I showed her the numbers on the covers indicating their order in the series.

I have continued working my way through the stacks of books on my dresser. Still More Two-Minute Mysteries joins the other books like this by Donald J. Sobol, who wrote the Encyclopedia Brown books that I loved when I was young and most of my children love now. I picked up Secret Admirer in the A to Z Mysteries series from the Bookarama. I wasn’t at all sure I would keep a book about Valentine’s Day, but I loved it! The House on the Volcano is set on the slopes of Mount Pele in Hawaii, and though I don’t love the Hawaiian mythology, I love the story and the glimpse at what it’s like to live beside an erupting volcano. El Blanco and Flaming Star are both perfect for young horse-lovers. The first is set in Mexico, the second in England. Emil and the Detectives is a fun mystery about a boy who was traveling alone to visit his grandmother in Berlin, and was robbed on the way. Because he had recently done something he shouldn’t have, and had a guilty conscience, he couldn’t ask the police for help; instead, he ended up with a lot of new friends. Norton was given to us a number of years ago by a friend. I debated a little about keeping it, but decided that cat-lovers would like it, so I’ll put it with the animal stories on the Junior Science shelf. A Grain of Rice is not new, but after reading it (for about the sixth time) this week, I decided to feature it because I love it so much. This is a wonderful love story, which also illustrates exponents. Then there is The Great Trouble. This is a great story about a medical mystery: how did cholera spread? Everyone in the slum area of London was sure it was spread by the terrible-smelling air–but one doctor believed it came from water. Eel made it his mission to help Dr. Snow prove his hypothesis.

When we went to the used book shop in town, I noticed The Gully That Gabriel Found in a box of free books outside. It is the story of a discovery of gold, written in the style of “The House That Jack Built.” My oldest daughter also found Endurance there. She had just listened to it, and said it was a very good book. I’m looking forward to reading it. We already had a copy of We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea, but when I was able to get one in better condition along with more books in the series, I took it. (The old one has insect holes boring through many pages!). This series (Swallows and Amazons) is delightful. I’m planning to read them all aloud over the next year.

I have been going through American History with my 10-year-old. We just read The White House is Burning. This is a fascinating description of two or three days during the War of 1812. We also read The Constitution of the United States to learn about that document and how it was drafted, and then read The Bill of Rights to go along with it.

The day that we went secondhand shopping, one of my boys picked up Friends to the End and The Blue Day Book. They have beautiful photographs of animals along with sparse, witty text. I did take out a page or two in each of them that were not appropriate. This edition of The Pilgrim’s Progress is a graphic novel based on an animated film. My family has spent a lot of time studying the pictures in this book!

Colossal Creatures is a book packed with information about a number of different large animals. Dinosaur’s Day is an easy reader, perfect for children who love those creatures! Alamo All-Stars is a graphic book about the war between Texas and Mexico. I read it aloud to my daughter as part of our study of American history, and many others in the family have picked it up, too.

And yet more books from my stacks! One of the boys picked Page Boy of Camelot to read aloud; as I read the first few pages, I realized that I read it to them a few years ago from an online library. We enjoyed this King Arthur story again, and then I glued it back together, since it fell apart as I read it. The Wild Boy in the Bush is a story about pioneer life in New Zealand, and children who found moa bones. Mystery of the Empty House is a fun story about some children who solved a puzzle that revealed secrets from the American Revolution.

The last book I read from my stacks this month is Escape From Stalingrad. I don’t think I had ever read anything before about the battle for Stalingrad, when Hitler threw his troops against that Russian city. Whew! That was a terrible time in history. Turkey for Christmas is a recently-reprinted book that I brought home from America. I read it to the family on Christmas evening, and we enjoyed it.

To borrow any of these books or others, please go to our catalog. Find out how we loan books on this page.

Book Review–The Young Samaritan

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About the Book:

Book: The Young Samaritan

Author: J. Schuyler Sprowles

Genre: : Faith Based/ Inspirational

Release Date: January 20, 2024

Is survival enough when faith is tested?

“The Young Samaritan” is a gripping coming-of-age story set in a tumultuous time, where faith, identity, and survival intersect on an extraordinary journey.

Joshua, a young Samaritan boy, is forced to flee his home, thrust into a world that is as dangerous as it is unfamiliar.

Along the way, he encounters a mysterious woman who delivers a haunting vision, a wild dog that stays loyally by his side, and a reclusive uncle whose life is shrouded in secrets. Amidst the chaos of his flight, Joshua discovers uncommon love in a forsaken land.

As Joshua’s journey leads him to a band of sojourners—led by a man called Rabbi—he becomes entwined with a group that many believe to be the Messiah’s followers.

Despite their hesitations, Joshua’s determination to stay with them leads him to a transformative path, one that will ultimately take him to the cross and beyond.

My Thoughts:

I like the idea of this book; it offers a new way to look at Jesus and His ministry. However, I was disappointed with it. The writing style didn’t resonate with me, although it would be fine for a lot of people. My biggest problem with it, however, was the two things I noticed that were not historically accurate. The first thing that jarred me was the mention of a turnip and potato soup. Potatoes were unknown in the Old World until a good while after Columbus discovered America. The other was when Jesus and His disciples ate hare stew. I could understand Joshua and his family eating hare, since they were Samaritans, but a Jew wouldn’t touch it at all, since it is an unclean meat. I did like the way Peter, after initially rejecting Joshua, realized his sin and repented, accepting the Samaritan boy the way Jesus did.

I received a review copy of this book from the author, and these are my honest thoughts about it. Links may be affiliate links, which will benefit Esther’s website if purchases are made through them.

About the Author:

A Chicago native, Schuyler as a teenager always dreamed of becoming a radio and TV talent. His aspirations led him to Hollywood where he trained as a broadcaster. He began his career as a country music DJ and news reporter in the Southwest. Ultimately he became a TV news anchor in Dallas. In time, Schuyler moved to Los Angeles, where he worked as a television news correspondent. This eventually led to a decades long high-profile career in crisis management, political consulting and speech writing. Most recently, Schuyler turned to publishing, founding a family-oriented magazine in Southern California. A lifelong Christian, Schuyler admits to walking away from his faith in the past, only to discover the light of Jesus piercing the darkness to guide him back where he belongs. Inspired by the Gospels, “The Young Samaritan” is his debut novel. He currently lives in Pasadena, California with his wife Maureen.

More from J. Schuyler:

The Young Samaritan was inspired by two verses from the New Testament in the Gospel of Mark (14:51 – 52).  These brief verses describe an unidentified young man who attempts to intervene in the arrest of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. He is quickly seized by the temple guards but manages to escape their grip, leaving his garment in their hands, as he flees naked into the night.  Nothing further about him is ever mentioned in the Bible.

The Young Samaritan is my vision of the backstory for this strange and provocative episode in Jesus’ journey to the cross.  The Young Samaritan creates a compelling and transformational epic tale where a fictional literary character (Joshua) collides with biblical history.

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October 2025 Photos

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Here are the rest of the photos from October. Can you tell that Miss Joy loves the cat?

Reepicheep

We had visitors for a couple of days, and the little children spent an hour or so reading the Magic School Bus books.

The girls on a moa in Waikari.

When we went to Dunedin, there had been snow earlier in the week, and this ball was still left on top of the hill.

Base 10 blocks are great for building castles!

Is she protecting the hatching chicks…or dreaming of chicken dinner?

See box? Get in box.

Getting ready to do a science lesson. We have the audio book, and he is supposed to follow along while he listens.

I picked up a book at the Bookarama that a friend recommended, and gave it to Elijah for his birthday. It turned out to be just the type of book he loves!

The little girls made this flax basket for my birthday present! Sadly, it fell apart as it dried. It was sure beautiful when it was new, though.

One day after church, James was sitting on a chair talking to a man. The man decided to sit down, so pulled up a soft chair. Not to be outdone, Simon grabbed a couch and pulled it over, so he could lounge while they talked!

Clouds as we traveled somewhere–I can’t remember where.

Mr. Imagination went through a phase of making bows.

Book Review–The Bible Companion Book 6 Psalms

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About the Book:

Book: The Bible Companion Book 6 Psalms: Journey Through Scripture One Day at a Time

Author: Karen Westbrook Moderow

Genre: Bible Study/Devotional

Can you tell God how you feel? The Bible Companion Book 6 helps you approach God with both honesty and respect. A simple one-chapter-a-day format lets you engage with Scriptures without the pressure of schedules, homework, or heavy reading loads. Short daily readings and thought-provoking questions connect your story to God’s Word. For personal and group study.

In the Books of Wisdom (Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs), God speaks to us in poetry—the language of the heart. In Psalms we mourn, celebrate, and worship with people who run to God in the best and worst seasons of life. Their experiences give us hope. If you feel alone, if you are hurting, if you need grace, join the psalmists who find forgiveness and strength in God’s presence.

My Thoughts:


I don’t often use any kind of a devotional, but when I saw The Bible Companion Book I was intrigued by the premise of a brief commentary and encouragement about each chapter. I’ve been using it with my personal quiet time, reading the chapter each morning and then reading the 1-2 page commentary that goes with it. I have gotten as far as Psalm 58, and find Book 6 is a helpful guide through Psalms. I like the way the author applies these passages to our daily life and how we might be able to find encouragement from them.

I received a review copy of this book from the author, and these are my honest thoughts about it. Links may be affiliate links, which will benefit Esther’s website if purchases are made through them.

About the Author:

KAREN WESTBROOK MODEROW is a Bible teacher and author who brings a storyteller’s perspective to Scripture. She holds master’s degrees in theology and creative writing and loves introducing others to Jesus through the stories told in God’s Word.

More from Karen:

I once attended a small church that had several young rowdy boys. I wondered if there was a way to settle them down by doing something fun after church that also had spiritual significance. I decided to bribe them. If they memorized the verse I gave them from the Psalms, I would give them a treat. It seemed a good idea at the time.

The first week we talked about how God is the one who cares for us and meets our needs. I taught them Psalm 81:10: “Open your mouth wide and I will fill it.” I pulled out a stick of gum and told them if they could quote this verse with the reference the following Sunday after church, I would give them the gum. The idea was to continue this until they had a few verses under their belt. There was a lot of jumping up and down and hand clapping though I wondered how many would follow through.

The next Sunday after church, four little boys ran up to me. “I know the verse,” one little guy said. He recited it as his compadres listened, then opened his mouth wide and waited for me to unwrap the gum and put it in his mouth. (With this group, you didn’t dare give it to them. You just hoped they wouldn’t stick it under a church pew before their parents got them outside.) One after another they came, chirping out the verse. I soon realized some hadn’t memorized it. Because the verse was short, they were just repeating what the first boy said. Oh well. It counted. I fed them like little birds though the moment felt sacred, somehow, as if I were serving communion.

The next week, they learned Psalm 34:8: “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!” That week, I gave them mints. But when I started perusing the Psalms for other appropriate verses, I realized I’d worked myself into a corner. The Bible has a lot of verses about food but not many are in Psalms. It was slim pickings. I considered:

Psalm 119:103 “”How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” I couldn’t very well squirt honey into their mouths, and I didn’t think the parents or the pastor would appreciate having four active little boys running around the sanctuary with sticky piece of honeycomb in their hands.

Psalm 141:4 wasn’t going to work either. This verse is about the wicked. It says, “And do not let me eat of their delicacies.” In this context, any treat I brought would be a temptation. Not a good idea.

Psalm 23 looked like my best hope: “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.” In the end, I decided against it too. What was I going to do, bring a whole meal? And set up all the onlookers as “enemies?” Also not good.

So three weeks into my ill-conceived Scripture memorization plan, the best I could come up with was Psalm 145:15 “The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food at the proper time.”

The proper time, sadly, no longer included my after-church Bible memory program. I tried to let the boys down gently. (From this I learned to set an end-time for such initiatives. Better yet, have a plan before starting them!) Still, whenever I come across the verses they learned, I think about those boys. I see their little upturned faces, eyes closed, mouths open, waiting expectantly and wonder if they remember too. Do they remember that God is our provider? That He is good? That He delights in meeting their needs? If so, my little failed experiment was worth it.

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Out and About in September 2025

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The girls love to stop along the road in the spring to pick some daffodils–and their daddy loves to oblige them. So, we did that.

This is a lake along the road going over Arthurs Pass to Christchurch. It was actually much bluer than this picture shows–it’s breathtaking at times!

One thing I love about going to a homeschool mother’s retreat every September is the views from the hill, looking over Lyttleton Harbour. Such a gorgeous view!

This is the new house in front of ours. James got hurt while working on this house, so he didn’t get to help finish it. Joe did, though! (Joe was formerly called Mr. Sweetie on this blog; he’s over 16 now, so I’ll use his name.) He works two days a week with James and his crew; here he is talking to their boss and doing some work on the house.

The day we went to the Bookarama, we had a picnic out by the beach. There is an enormous structure built of driftwood above the high-tide line, and we had some fun exploring it.

Around Home in September 2025

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We brought a few jump ropes home from America, ones that were made from strips of t-shirts braided together. The girls loved them–the boys decided they were too small and light for them.

I had never seen a rainbow as low to the horizon as this one! It was incredibly bright.

Mr. Imagination still has the right name! We were given a boxful of citrus fruits, and he carefully crafted these teeth from a rind, to wear over his own teeth.

Tui like kowhai blossoms!

Miss Joy and her cats! Sometimes when she’s bored I hand her my phone and tell her to photograph the cats. This time, she obviously decided to feed them so they would all be in the same picture.

And, another picture of a cat!

The fad for a few days was building houses of cards.

This is Mr Imagination, tossing a piece of food in the air and trying to catch it in his mouth. He and Simon, who also stayed home from Bible Study one evening, did this as long as the pineapple pieces held out!

I think one of the girls took this picture–not sure which one. The flowers are in one of their playhouses.

Little Miss got to raise two calves this year. Our cow Maple had the brown one the end of July. We were delighted to have an A2A2 heifer calf from her! We needed a companion for Maggie when we brought her home from where the two were boarding while we were in America, so we asked some dairy farmer friends for a beef cross, and they gave us the white one, a Charolais-cross that we named Misty. We’re quite happy that both calves are quiet and calm.

For several days, the fad was taking pictures of Reepicheep sitting on a phone.

James dislocated and fractured his shoulder the day we traveled home from America, so he was off work for six weeks. Because he can’t stand to do nothing, he found all sorts of projects that could be done one-handed. One of those jobs was collecting all the buckets around the place and water blasting them. Here they are, stacked up to dry. I could hardly believe the size of the stack.

This was another job–a tool rack for the front of the chicken coop, which is in the middle of the garden. He got one of his two-handed brothers to pound the pipes in to make the holders for the tools. We are delighted to have this rack; because it is handy, and easy to use, we actually put our tools away instead of leaving them around the garden. Now, the spot where the tool rack was has hooks for raincoats, and boots can sit on the floor of the carport under them. Perfect!

Spring flowers!

School time!

The base-10 blocks are much more fun for building with than for counting with!

Book Review–Start Little, Dream Big

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About the Book:

Book: Start Little, Dream Big – Grow The Ministry You Were Born To Build

Author: Linette Rainville

Genre: Christian Books, Women’s Spiritual Growth, Adult Ministry, Ministry and Evangelism, Church Leadership

Release Date: August 7, 2025

“Start Little, Dream BIG” is Linette’s personal story of how God turned one bag of skinny jeans into a million-dollar outreach.

Learn how the smallest step of faith could change your life!

Linette Rainville knows this truth firsthand. A proud Buffalo native and U.S. Navy veteran, Linette began with one simple act of obedience—a bag of skinny jeans she tried to “trade in” for things her family needed. That humble beginning sparked a million-dollar outreach ministry that now serves over 40,000 families every year with food, clothing, hope and Jesus.

In Start Little, Dream Big, Linette shares her redemptive journey and practical wisdom for women ready to step into their God-given calling. It’s filled with real-life moments—some laugh-out-loud funny, some bring-tears-to-your-eyes kind of raw—but all with one goal: to provide you a guide and a blueprint to build your own meaningful ministries, projects, and movements from the ground up.

Whether you’re just dreaming or ready to launch, Linette invites you to join her and a growing sisterhood of modern-day Esthers who are answering their call with courage, faith, and Godfidence.

You don’t have to do this alone. Your big dream starts with one little step.

My Thoughts:

I wish I had been able to wait to read this book until I could read the print copy. Because of time constraints, I had to read the ebook, and found the formatting annoying and difficult to follow–likely just because it was a PDF converted to Kindle format. I now have the print copy in my hands, and it is much nicer! One thing that really annoyed me in the digital version was the frequent use of ALL CAPS to emphasize points. That isn’t nearly as bothersome in the paper book!

Anyway, about the content. I wouldn’t have chosen to read this book, but because more reviewers were needed I agreed to check it out. As I read the first several chapters, I was thinking about my life and wondering why God hadn’t given me a vision for some way to help people, other than my own family. As I continued to read, and continued to think about it, though, I realized that He has! It just happens to line up with my natural inclinations so much that I almost feel guilty pursuing this dream. Continuing on, I found more and more confirmation that what I am doing is actually a ministry, and is actually what God has for me right now. (This ministry happens to be our library, and while I am tempted to think, quite often, that I’m only doing it as an excuse to keep buying books, the need for it continues to be confirmed in various ways.) So, while I didn’t find this book all that gripping or inspiring otherwise, it did help me and encourage me to keep on doing what God has given me to do.

I received a review copy of this book from the author, and these are my honest thoughts about it. Links may be affiliate links, which will benefit Esther’s website if purchases are made through them.

About the Author:

Linette Rainville, Jesus girl, USN Veteran and Movement Leader, is on a quest to raise up the next generation of Esthers and Movement Makers. As a podcast host, speaker, mentor and founder of Daughters United, a global equipping ministry, she empowers women to build projects and start ministries from the ground up. With 25 years of hands-on poverty outreach experience, Linette has reached thousands of Kingdom women, guiding them to pursue their callings, lead movements, and build missions.

More from Linette:

Friend, can I just take you back for a moment?

I never thought I’d find myself here in this place. After serving my country in the U.S. Navy, I came home with a spinal injury that ended the career I had dreamed of. Suddenly, the uniform I loved was gone, and I was simply doing my best to care for my family on an income that barely covered the basics.

It stung. It carried a stigma I swore I’d never face. You see, as a young girl my mom and I had lived on welfare, and I had made a promise to myself that my children would never have to experience that. But then life happened. A “disabled” label got stamped on my record, and just like that, my best intentions seemed to evaporate.

A few years later, I was blessed with the gift of motherhood and the challenge of disability. My husband and I were making it on one single blue-collar income, just trying to survive.

And then—God.

One ordinary day, walking out of a thrift store, the Lord planted a seed in my heart. That tiny whisper turned into a vision. That vision grew into a mission. One obedient baby step at a time—one yes, one phone call, one event, one open door—the Lord built something so much bigger than me.

Over the years, what started as a little prayer has grown into clothing programs, a pregnancy help center, food pantries, a soup kitchen, domestic abuse support, homeless outreach… and an army of volunteers who joined me along the way.

What’s wild is this: that one “yes” in 1991 has rippled out for over 30 years—locally, regionally, and now even globally… reaching over 50,000 lives each year—meeting real, practical needs.

And here’s where you come in.

Because this story—it isn’t just about me. It’s about you too. I believe God is stirring dreams and assignments inside of my sisters today. Maybe you’ve walked through storms. Maybe you’ve carried labels that felt heavy. Maybe you’ve stood staring at the “skinny jeans” of your life—dreams or abilities that no longer seem to fit.

But here’s the truth: all is not lost.

I see you.

I see you walking out of those valleys and climbing mountains, becoming warrior-ready and equipped to make a difference. I see you searching for a guide, a compass, and a roadmap for your mission.

That’s why I wrote this book. It’s the first in my Skinny Jeans Series, and I pray that it will become a companion for you—to remind us that God’s plans are never finished, even when ours feel broken.

Because as Jeremiah 29:11 declares: “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

So take heart, friend.

God can take your little and build something bigger than you ever imagined…

one small YES at a time.

With BIG LOVE,

Linette

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