“The RoseBouquet”

There is a Bible proverb that says, “Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man.” (Prov. 3:3-4)

Wow! Do we value Love and Faithfulness so much, that we wear them like jewelry?

Would you like a good reputation, so you may win favours with God, and with the people around, or above you?

We all want such a good reputation, but do you have any idea how to get it? Is it something mysteriously bestowed on certain individuals, or could you do something to obtain a good reputation?

There are two character traits that you can put on and wear like jewelry and after a while, your reputation will improve and grow better and better all the time. It’s a matter of learning to value and apply those two traits in your life. We must think of them as precious treasures and prize them.

These two traits are love and faithfulness. How well do you show love and kindness to others? How trustworthy and reliable are you? If they come naturally to you, people around you may already be aware that you have them, and they are responding to you as if you have an admirable reputation.

Although only God can transform lives completely, these are traits you can learn to develop and practice as new habits until they become a part of your lifestyle. But of course, that only happens if you see them as worthy and honourable goals – treasures to have and use.

You are becoming well-known for your kindness and thoughtfulness to and for others, and for your consistency and reliability in the things assigned to you? Then consider this a glance into a mirror; look at those bright jewels in your spiritual necklace!

You also must be careful not to do things to jeopardize your good reputation. You can kill it with one wild, willful or crazy deed or word. Sometimes we think others are out to ruin our reputation, but most often it is we ourselves who appears to yank this beautiful jewelry off our neck and throw it underfoot.

Expensive jewelry is not found in my dressing area, but I have a few pieces that I really like and admire, and I do try to care for them above and beyond the attention the rest of my possessions get. I confess, I have not been in the habit of prizing these traits in a deliberate way. I am rather enjoying this glance in the mirror.

In a general sense they have always been very important to me. Mainly because I watched love and faithfulness demonstrated in the people I admired and wanted to please. My Gra’ma Kroeker more than my mom perhaps because Mom was so sickly and in and out of the hospital so often. Still, even in caring for my Mom in her final years, she stressed completing my work, and never ever failing someone else if I had promised to be somewhere or do something for them.

Not only that, but in my desire to live in obedience to God, and to please Him, being considerate, gracious and outright loving to others, and to carry through on anything assigned or entrusted to me, or anything I have decided to take on - well, if they are my necklace, then I guess they permanently attached to me. I don’t think I would know how to remove them any more!

Unless I should grow careless. God forbid!

I’ve gathered some ten tips for public speaking from the conference I attended this last weekend, where a handful of speakers got several opportunities to speak on various topics. Since I felt I knew most of what they were talking about, I slipped into critiquing their speaking and presentation skills.

Since I have made myself available as a public speaker on behalf of the mission with which I work, I want to be careful to not do the negative traits I saw, and to develop the best presentation skills I can muster. If you ever find yourself speaking in public, even just occasionally, you may find these tips for public speaking helpful too. (Naturally, there are many more!)

1. Prepare a good outline, know it well, and know how long to stay on each point, so you will finish on time.

2. Don’t allow yourself to run off on tangents (rabbit trails) just because certain words in your notes trigger memories or other stories and jokes. That may entertain a few in the audience, but there will be those who silently grind their teeth at you. Particularly the organizers.

3. Yes, some humor and asides may be appreciated and limber up your audience to be “with you” but plan them ahead, and practice them to appear natural, but then get back onto your theme for your talk. Don’t follow that new train of thought just because it gives you a chance to show off. That’s being selfish.

4. Check your humour and illustrative stories for slants or details that could offend. Edit accordingly.

5. Some speakers go on auto-pilot once they start speaking - probably because they have rehearsed it so often, or memorized it,and it is as if the thinking portion of their mind is switched to neutral for the duration. I would prefer to listen to someone who can think on his or her feet, but if you can’t then do a good job of learning your speech ahead of time.

6. Public speaking is a lot like putting on a dramatic act by yourself. You can over-come stage fright by deliberately choosing to get emotional. Depending on your topic, go a bit over the edge on your enthusiasm, or happiness, or anger. Your audience will identify with you better, and come on-side.

7. Be sure to wrap up well, and call the audience to a specific decision or action point. Or were you just entertaining them? (Stand-up comedy is down the hall).

8. There is good body language, and there are mannerisms that distract from your words. Watch yourself on a video, and you may pick up most of these, but if a close friend or spouse who can think objectively will watch and give you tips that may help the most. You are a visual of your presentation. Your verbal presenting skills don’t stand alone.

9. Another public speaking mistake I have seen, is when the speaker wanders around the podium and gets in the vicinity of another microphone that is turned on. The audience hears strange noises, but the speaker seems oblivious to them.

10. Don’t apologize for your nervousness. Your audience showed up because they are expecting to hear something useful from you. Their expectation is that you will do well. Just do your best, and throw yourself into your topic with fervour and enthusiasm. Later, if someone tells you they were bored or disappointed, then you may apologize to them personally.

You’ll find more tips for public speaking here; Twenty_great_tips_for_public_speaking.html

Presentation Skills Training
There are a number of fine organizations, from Toastmaster Clubs to Dale Carnegie courses to give you polish and presentation skills training. Since I don’t know them personally, I’m not sure which to recommend to you. I suggest you do your own research, if you need special mentoring or guidance in presenting talks.

The best plan is to always be alert to your own way of doing presentations, and looking for ways to do better. Your presenting skills will improve with time, and the things you learn from your mistakes or flops will stick with you best, so you don’t have to re-learn those lessons again.

Whenever you listen to someone else speaking in public, make sure to watch for things you can adapt or things you will be sure to avoid. Either way, you can add to your presenting skills.

What makes for Effective Presentations;
If you are using a power point presentation (and most public speakers do now), prepare it well in advance;

a. Use sharp contrasting text, and large enough, so it can be read (not yellow on white - please!)

b. Get someone else to proof-read your text ahead of time and fix the typos or grammatical mistakes.

(There are always nit-pickers in the audience who lose respect for you, and ignore all you say, if they spot those little mistakes).

c. Practice working with your power-point so you don’t have to keep pausing for technical problems.

d. You may be leaning on your presentation slides to be your speech outline, but that isn’t totally fair to your audience. Have a separate outline for yourself. Remember to break up the text with illustrations for the audience - ones that will reinforce what you are saying - not distract so they miss a lot of it.

e. Have a backup plan if for some reason you can’t use your power point after all. Maybe some are getting tired of power points since they are so common place. How about a show and tell with some objects?

Again, once you are in earnest about your public speaking, and you start looking for help you will find there are many more tips for public speaking. You can hire speech writers and take presentation skills training, and there are lots of interesting things you can learn to do with your power points and videos - even other props too.

Solitude is not loneliness and it brings many blessings, but in looking for help to explain or define solitude well, I found a number of interesting solitude quotes that I rather like;

Language… has created the word “loneliness” to express the pain of being alone. And it has created the word “solitude” to express the glory of being alone.
~Paul Johannes Tillich, The Eternal Now

We visit others as a matter of social obligation. How long has it been since we have visited with ourselves?
~Morris Adler

Loneliness can be conquered only by those who can bear solitude.
~Paul Tillich

Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.
~John Muir

The happiest of all lives is a busy solitude.
~Voltaire

True silence is the rest of the mind, and is to the spirit what sleep is to the body, nourishment and refreshment.
~William Penn

My Favourites:
Inside myself is a place where I live all alone, and that’s where I renew my springs that never dry up.
~Pearl Buck

A solitude is the audience-chamber of God.
~Walter Savage Landor

But the delights of solitude don’t only consist of dreaming. Next in enjoyment, I think, comes planning.
~Anna Neagle

Converse with men makes sharp the glittering wit, but God to man doth speak in solitude.
~John Stuart Blackie

I too, have found that being alone is like being in the presence of God, where I can tell Him all my thoughts and ideas, and when I listen, He tells me His. If that is called solitude, I love it and look forward to it. if it should be called loneliness, even that would become a positive word for me, and I would delight in loneliness.

But if you cringe at the thought of being alone, you will not think this way. Would you like to though? You can learn to love times of solitude.

How to get good quality solitude;

Plan for times alone – get away from others

If you get bored easily plan something to read slowly, thoughtfully

Bring a prayer list – for intercession or questions for God

Remember God already knows you perfectly – you have no secrets from Him; if you are humble and open to Him, He will gladly meet with you one on one.

Use times of solitude to rest your spirit, (maybe your body too), to think things through, to learn, to reconnect with God, and to enjoy the ideas that come to you when alert but relaxed in His presence.

How solitude will benefit you;
You will come to understand yourself better, your limitations and your gifts and future

If you spend time in the Bible you’ll come to know God better too

You will be surprised at the solutions and great ideas that come to you in those times of solitude and even after you return to your faster pace.

Remember, to give it time though, your whole being needs to be present, body, soul and spirit, and alert, and listening. If you are wiped out from too little sleep, or some big crises, you need to catch up on sleep first.

Also, if you are trying to block out some emotional, or spiritual pain, or avoiding people because you have broken relationships, you need to honestly work those things through first, or you are not so likely to come away brimming over with ideas I just did yesterday.

From about my early school days, when I discovered that not everyone else appreciated my flights of imagination, I have learned to enjoy being off by myself. What I now know as solitude.

There have been years, mostly in my teens, 20s and 30s, when I yearned for a perfect husband who would understand me, and we would be able to carry out some of the more fantastic ideas I had. Even then, I often had private prayer sessions where I let out all my thoughts and feelings to the Lord. And I would not be a sane woman today, if . . . .

[To see complete article go to Solitude - How to Use It

(2010 Conference of the Canadian Council of Christian Charities)

Judy Richichi of Siloam Ministries (which provides meals and activities, and a medical/dental clinic, etc. to the homeless street people of Winnipeg on a LARGE scale) was the first plenary speaker on Tuesday morning.

Judy introduced us to that mission with a video/talking tour, and then gave her credentials for her passionate service and devotion to those people. It was her own life story - utterly moving! From a broken home, living on the streets herself as a child, and teen, into drugs, etc.

But through prayers of her schizophrenic mom and others her mom recruited, Judy and all her siblings have been saved, rescued and are strong, upright Christians now. She became trained to be an accountant, and is married to a fine husband, and they have 4 grown children. She worked as an accountant at Siloam but was recognized and loved for her passion for the people they served. When John Pillowe, president of CCCC, visited the mission and saw her passion he recommended they make her Director of Human Resources. She has recently received that title and role there.

I was awash in tears, identifying with Judy’s story. I believe the things we go through in the earlier parts of our lives are meant to prepare us for our ministry for what we are doing now – or are suppose to do next.

The first workshop I took that day was on fund-raising ideas. It was called, No More Chicken Dinners, by Meghan Nichols. I took away 15 ideas that I think we might use one way or another in our mission, or even the ones for whom I build websites. I just need to study and turn these into more practical suggestions and to-do steps…

My next workshop was on stewardship, “Taking it to the Next Generation” by Lorne Jackson, a financial advisor. I was impressed with his ideas for how to give to charities via your will, and in such a way that the government doesn’t get so much of it. There were some terrific ideas that need to be explained to our potential donors and supporters – which, after more research, I might turn into articles or brochures and web pages on giving.

My third and last workshop on Tuesday was on getting businesses to partner with a charity to get their projects off the ground, and involve even their employees in turning the company profits to good work. This was presented more like a dialogue between Doris Olafsen, of Opportunity International, and Bernie Willock, who is a partner (half owner) of a company in Victoria, B.C., that makes Lazy-boy chairs.

He and his partner wanted to see how Christian they could make their business, and when Bernie called Opportunity International, it was Doris who came to talk with him, and suggested that he and some employees join their mission on a field trip to Haiti to see how micro-financing to help poor people start small businesses in their neighbourhoods could help many people. They were blown away! Three of the employees on the trip were single moms and they got so excited they revved up all the other employees.

The company now gives 50% of their profits to employees and two other charities, including Opportunities International. They have next to NO employee turnover in that company; everyone loves to work there.

Wow! That’s the kind of business woman I want to be! I’ve long dreamed about helping as many missions and missionaries as possible out of my profits and business ventures. I’m affirmed! I’m on the right track!

I’m just not sure yet how I’ll be brave enough to persuade others to do the same. I’d prefer to lead by example.

On the Wednesday, my first workshop was with a lawyer about the new Canada Non-Profit Corporations Act on the horizon. There was some material that was over my head, but I have more home-work to do on our WTM Constitution! I need to study and share the notes received with our mission leaders. We need to determine whether we’ll have to register federally or if our provincial registration is good enough. Maybe in all provinces? I understand the membership issue we had better now!

My first afternoon workshop on Wednesday was about story-telling by Trevor Meier from StorySpark.ca. He is a film-maker, musician and very keen on helping non-profit organizations learn to use story-telling to get their message across. He especially helps them to create videos to do that.

I have a greater sense of the ah-ha! of story-telling now. I’m going to weave stories in as much as I can in the mission work and in the other ministry sites I build. We need to really USE stories in our appeals for support and donations. (Incidentally, we already tell true stories in our Impact Canada booklets! I know because I interviewed the people and wrote them up.)

In the last workshop Milly Siderius, who had worked in banking for 25 years, and was on a church denominational board, as well as on the 4Cs Board, talked about Stewardship and Technology: E-Giving. That is, how to help donors to give online or electronically. Stop to think – when you write out a cheque, isn’t it usually for your church or a charity? That’s the last hold-out; everywhere else, at least in Canada, we pay for things electronically. Cheques are on the way out. Our money is just numbers travelling from one database to another.

Whew! After all that she shared with us, I was glad I had at least put PayPal buttons for donations on our mission site and some others. But I need to check out some of those other options and offer people at least one or more easy ways to donate, including simple instructions. The younger generation expects it; the older generation is coming on board too. (Although there will always be some who dig in their heels).

I am greatly encouraged to go ahead with some creative ideas I’ve had recently about helping some ministries ask for donations online. Exciting days ahead!

As you can see, and I’ve only shared the highlights, I came away with plenty that I can do and improve. I just need to process all this and boil it down to practical steps I can take, and suggestions I can make.

May I ask again; do you know which secrets are good to keep and which ones are wrong? I’ve been doing a Bible search and found some passages about secrets. Here I’ve condensed them into nutshells, that you can sit and ponder. References are included, should you want to do a deeper study.

The better part of discretion is to keep some facts secret. (Esther 2:20)

God will rebuke you for secret favouritism. (Job 13:10)

Evil-doers secretly spy for potential victims of their deeds. (Psalm 10:8)

You can’t keep a secret from God! (Psalm 44:21, Psalm 90:8)

Don’t even think or tell a secret lie about anyone; God will silence you. (Psalm 101:5)

You may delight in delicious secret pleasures - only so long. (Proverbs 9:17)

Trustworthy people can keep a secret. (Proverbs 11:13)

Bribes are secret gifts to pervert justice or to pacify the angry. (Proverbs 17:23, & 21:14)

God’s agenda is not a secret - He’s been announcing it through prophets from the beginning. (Isaiah 48:16)

You can’t hide from God - He is everywhere! (Jeremiah 23:24)

Give so humbly and discretely that one of your hands doesn’t even know the other hand gave. (Matt.6:3-4)

Jesus shares the secrets of the spiritual life only with His followers. (Matt. 13:11)

However, Jesus taught openly; nothing was said in secret. (The spiritual understand the deeper things of God). (John 18:20)

One day God will expose and judge everyone’s secrets openly. (Rom. 2:16)

Christians preach a secret wisdom that God designed for this era in time. (I Cor. 2:7)

Apostles/Believers are entrusted with the secret things of God. (I Cor. 4:1)

When unbelievers observe this (above) they will recognize God is really among us. (I Cor. 14:25)

God’s devoted servants renounce all secret/shameful ways, speaking the truth with a clear conscience. (2 Cor. 4:2)

Don’t even talk about the shameful secrets of the disobedient. (Eph. 5:12)

The secret (key) to contentment is the same satisfied attitude in every situation, no matter how extreme. (Phil. 4:12)

False teachers secretly (subtly) introduce heresies - denying the Lord - but they bring destruction on themselves. (2 Peter 2:1)

False teachers secretly (quietly) infiltrate a group - to take away God’s grace and give license for immorality.(Jude 1-4)

At a minimum, new believers should not learn Satan’s deep secrets or sin-arts. (Rev. 2:24)

How can you tell when it’s right to keep a secret? Sometimes someone will ask you to keep a secret and deep down inside you wonder if it is the right thing to do.

It’s true; some people delight in doing wrong on the sly, and they want you to help them hide that - let’s call it what it is - SIN. You don’t want to aid and abet them in wrong-doing. So how can we discern when to keep a secret?

Let’s look at some likely situations where you need to know whether to keep the secret or refuse.

- a friend tells you juicy gossip, which may or may not be 100%, and it could hurt someone

- you see or hear something, either true or not true, that could ruin another person, or smear a leader

- you discover that a superior or co-worker is breaking the law

- you discover a cure or remedy for a common ailment

- you find lost or stolen property, a mini-windfall for you!

- you find a way to solve a common problem that could make you rich if you develop it right

- you have intimate times between you and your spouse

- someone shares a confidence - nothing illegal or evil - just baring their heart and mind

- you are tempted to sin in an area of sin - embarrassed to death, but can’t cope

Can you tell in which of those situations you should keep it a secret and seal your mouth on that issue? In which situations ought you to be brave and speak up - maybe not to everyone, but to the right people? When should you forget about secrecy and broadcast it widely as far as your sphere of influence goes.

You are still not sure on some of them. They are not all so black and white, are they?

Let’s consider three guidelines to help us discern when to keep a secret.

Do not repeat a secret if;
the information is someone else’s property, or if the information (or gossip) could hurt someone. Another instance would be - sexual intimacy with a spouse - that is for you two alone – don’t expose such secrets either. Unless, of course, there is abuse, and you need help to escape an evil situation.

Tell, or break a secret to only the appropriate, select people if;
someone is plotting to hurt another, a great sin or lawlessness can be averted, or something stolen or broken can be restored. Another instance may be that you need help fighting temptation and sin, and you want to be held accountable by others. Obviously, you must confide in just the right people.

Tell the secret to everyone if;
none of the above apply – and others would benefit from the knowledge in the secret, or if you know of a natural remedy that would save lives, or if you have a solution to a common problem. The guide here is that it will better the lives of others, and will not break the confidence of someone who has greater ownership of the secret knowledge, and it will not create an evil and sinful situation, or cause great danger and peril.

In my novel, Ruthe’s Secret Roses, the main character keeps secret from her family the things she does when she goes to the city of Saskatoon to work. She is afraid her parents would find fault with her new friendships, and is convinced they would prevent her from continuing her time there. in her panic and fear she builds a false scenario of consequences. With time they grow in her mind until her fears are all out of proportion.

Fortunately, she desires to please and obey God, and that gives Him an opening to drop seeds of truth into her mind, and to give her heart courage to do what is right. Ruthe well knew the skill of keeping her mouth shut. She needed to learn to discern when it is right and good to open it up and tell some secrets on herself.

[first published on http://Ruthes-SecretRoses.com/hi/Keep-a-Secret.shtml]

My garden is really ready for harvest, but I am having trouble getting the time to do it. Little by little over the next couple of weeks I hope to get everything harvested and the plant waste into the ground for compost. Want one last look for this summer’s season? Come along - I’ll show you my garden!

September’s Bedraggled Garden

Do you have a friend that inspires you to greatness? I have an older pen pal friend who did that for me.

Louise and I met through genealogy. She heard of my family book, “A Godly Inheritance,” and that it contained Friesens, so she wrote to order a copy. In no time we were corresponding like new pen pals, and revealing more and more of our lives to each other. (So far we have not proved that we’re related - but it must be).

As a young woman, Louise, like her sister Margaret, had to go to the city to find employment to help out the parents on the home farm. They both ended up at the Lethbridge hospital kitchen and worked faithfully for many decades.

They found a basement suite close by for their living accommodation, but Louise had a car, and they always went home on weekends or days off to help with the harvest and work at the farm near Tabor. When the elderly couple died, from whom they were renting the basement apartment, they discovered that the house had been left to them in their will!

Knowing Louise as I did, I’m not surprised. She was always ready to go the extra mile to help out others, and to do more than they ask - like giving a cup of water, and then watering all your camels too.

The two close sisters reached retirement age. They still drove out to help their brother who had inherited the farm, but now they were able to travel. Usually it was a trip to B.C., as well as trips to visit various other relatives across the prairies. In B.C. they would circle through the fruit valleys, and fill up the car with boxes and crates of fresh picked fruit, then go home and make jams and preserves steadily for days and weeks, until all those precious treasures were stored for winter dining and for gifts.

Margaret gradually failed in health, losing her mind by degrees, so that Louise has had to take on all the work and all the responsibility. Mind you, she still took Margaret out for rides and in public, unashamedly, as long as her sister was able to go. Margaret died a few years ago, tenderly loved to the end by her loyal sister Louise.

In March, 1999, Dad and I went on a weekend trip to visit some of his cousins at Lethbridge, and one over the American border. In my heart I hoped to slip in a brief visit to Louise as I’d really like to meet this pen pal in person after several years of corresponding.

[Go to my RoseBouquet Friendship garden to read the rest of this article and see a photo of Louise and me.]

My Mom used to sketch house layouts on the backs of past month calendar pages. She knew what she wanted when that time would come! I think I have memories of seeing that back as early as 1960. My parents built several houses out of second-hand materials from older houses that others no longer wanted. But Mom always dreamed of the day she would have a NEW house made of new materials.

Later, I used that memory in my novel, Ruthe’s Secret Roses, and fulfilled Mom’s dream house by having my main character, Ruthe Veer, build her mom’s dream home while they were away on a trip.

Naturally, that didn’t help my real mom, of course, as she never got to see it. Unaware, for many years she kept on plotting and sketching how she wanted her dream house to be laid out, how large each room, and so forth.

Find the rest of this article in my Sharing Library: A Dream House for Mom

As a teen I daydreamed a lot - (I still do!) - one set of those early meanderings became a major part of my novel, Ruthe’s Secret Roses, but it is only recently that I’ve seen how intuitively that solved some problems.

We are all dissatisfied with ourselves in one area or another. We don’t like how we look, or our clothes don’t suit the persona we want to project, or they don’t fit well. Maybe we don’t like our personalities. We want to be like someone else. Or, we don’t like our situation at all. We wish we were someone else in another time and place.

If we know about God and have heard that He made and loves us, we are convinced that He is no good - all because we are quite dissatisfied with ourselves. “If God is suppose to have made a mistake like me,” you may think, “then I have no respect for Him.”

But turning our back on our Creator is exactly the wrong thing to do.

There are some things about ourselves that we can make over. Shabby appearances can be as a result of bad health. So set a goal for building good health and make yourself over. Perhaps a hair and make-up makeover would complete the project.

No, you are not designed or destined to be over-weight. Let’s not blame God for that. You put the food in your mouth by your own choice. It may be a hard choice and you’ll need help, but you can choose to work at reducing that excess baggage in your body. Weight makeovers ARE possible!

If you are stuck wearing cast-off clothes that don’t suit you, or are too shabby, (sigh! I know it’s no fun), you can work towards a better wardrobe. Someday you will be able to afford or make good clothes. However, try to remember that there is much more to you than your outer appearance.

When your spirit shines with enthusiasm and joy people connect with the real you and don’t notice exactly what you are wearing. So work on developing the inner you, not just your wardrobe. Otherwise, they will intuitively recognize you for nothing more than a clothes hanger.

Keep in mind that though God put the DNA into the sperm and egg that became us, He still thinks of us as creative works and masterpieces in progress, and He’s giving us a chance to participate in the finished persons we are to be. On many points God waits for our decisions.

Are we going to pursue knowledge and understanding? Do we want to improve our mind and appearance? Where will we choose to live and work? Whom will we choose for friends and which ones will we avoid?

Now you are wondering how I worked all that into the novel as a result of my daydreams.

The plot thickened and jelled as I learned to know and understand the above points.

The Darlin’ Bonne’s Shoppe was started in the book as a way and means of giving a teen aged girl that Ruthe the heroine had rescued from sure death, a home and a way to support herself. The plan was for her to design and sew clothes, even though she had never sewn a stitch before, and to talk with her clients while she sewed, telling them about the transformation she had experienced in trusting Christ.

God divinely intervened and brought other girls into the shoppe and the plan developed as they learned to sew and design, and then some more as clients or patrons began to visit and use their services. Betty, a student nurse, came to the door, recalling a conversation she had overheard between Ruthe and Darlin’ Bonne. She was dropping out of her studies and wanted to join them. Then neighbour girls, Donnie and Louise came to see what the strange sewing noises from that green house meant. They begged to join too. Later, a social worker brought over Evelyn, who needed a home and a new career, after her last parent died. Another day, Ruthe brought over a runaway girl she had seen at dusk, escaping from a black market adoption.

Their good reputation grew as women and girls, and children too, came in to have new clothes made for them, and as they got to know the seamstresses like personal friends. While they planned and cut out and sewed up clothing for these people, the Darlin’ Bonne girls developed a sense for who needed an inner makeover as well. They learned to share Christ with them, and guided many to pray and receive Him as their personal Saviour and Lord and Friend.

Sometimes, as in the story of Phyllis Shulton, they would all gather around one woman, and sew a new wardrobe for a totally new look, and at the same time, lovingly counsel her to a spiritual makeover. These transformations gave me a lot of pleasure to write, and I trust they give readers a great delight too.

If you like makeovers, you will especially enjoy those scenes and chapters in my novel, Ruthe’s Secret Roses. If you would like such a makeover, you may pick up enough clues to know how to get one in your real life.