Bücher veröffentlicht von Parson's Porch

In my first volume of poetry, titled VOICES, I introduced my readers to a few of the many patients I have had the privilege of caring for during 40 years of family practice. I let them speak in their own words of the crises afflicting them and their attempts, sometimes successful but often futile, to overcome the challenges they faced.In this volume I share with you a few more of my patients' stories.But most of the poems in this volume are my observations and commentary about our world.Some are dramatic and quite serious; some are playful and even quirky.It is a potpourri, a salmagundi, a gallimaufry to say the least.Enjoy.Jan Hahn

1984 was the Bi-Centennial Year of the founding of the Methodist Church in America. As a Charter Member of a newly established little Methodist Church, several members of our Sunday School Class were asked to select one of the Founding Fathers of the Methodist Church, John Wesley, Charles Wesley, Francis Asbury, or Thomas Coke, and each to present to our Church a program on one Sunday over a period of a month in celebration of the Bi-Centennial Year. I chose John Wesley, and with a love of the church and a love of history, I read every book I could find on John Wesley, wrote a script, and decided to present my program as a costumed portrayal of John Wesley. That was the beginning of almost forty years of portraying John Wesley to churches throughout the North and South Georgia Conferences of the United Methodist Church, as well as a few in North Carolina. One weekend, I presented my portrayal of John Wesley to the United Methodist Men of the North Georgia Conference at their assemblage at Rock Eagle near Eatonton, Georgia. With that same love of history, I also created and presented other costumed portrayals, including those of Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, and Patrick Henry, and presented them to church groups, schools, civic clubs and organizations throughout the Metropolitan Atlanta and North Georgia area. Don Germano

When I retired from engineering, no one could have told me that I would enter the ministry. I had considered becoming a pastor many years earlier but dismissed the idea as being impractical. I had a wife and four small children to support and couldn't see how I could possibly take off the requisite amount of time to study for the ministry, so I continued to work as an engineer, eventually earning a Doctor of Engineering Management degree.I worked as an engineer in Chicago, Pittsburgh, and Morgantown, WV where I served as a professor at West Virginia University and later as Executive Director of my professional society, the American Association of Cost Engineers (AACE International).I took early retirement in 1993 and my wife Betsy and I moved to Granite Falls, North Carolina where we became very active members of the Waldensian Presbyterian Church in Valdese, NC, and later the Fairview Presbyterian Church in Lenoir, NC.While at Fairview I learned about a program of the Presbytery of Western North Carolina to educate lay people to better serve Christ and I enrolled in the program. At that point, I had no intention to become a pastor, but I could feel God's call, and I resisted it.The Presbytery's program consisted of two years of classes on alternate Saturdays. The classes covered, among many other things, preaching, and I got hooked. I couldn't deny God's call any longer. I went well beyond the requirements of the program, then called the "School of the Laity", and purchased every book mentioned by the instructors, even casually, and voraciously read them.

Rarely in the life of the church has a school of thinkers arisen as brilliant, devoutly faithful, and God-honoring as the Princetonians. The excerpts from their works presented here should be welcomed in the church today with gratitude. Here we are led into their world through the rich treasury they have left behind.David F. Wells - Distinguished Senior Professor of TheologyGordon-Conwell Theological SeminaryGiants cast long shadows. The Princetonians possessed a gigantic faith, scholarship, and service to Christ and His Church. Come and be refreshed in the cooling shadow of biblical truths well-stated and deeply-believed.  GW Fisher - Senior Pastor - Tacoma BPC/Western Reformed Seminary Board VPDr. Gross'' gathering of leaves from Princeton''s oaks reveals a warm orthodoxy, rooted in the highest scholarship and the toughest faith. Erik Larson - Pastor - Pilgrim PCA, Philadelphia, PAAmidst a time of deep uncertainty in our contemporary world, we often struggle to find clear direction among our peers. The quotations will surprise you by what is said ... and what is not said. Prepare to have your heart stirred in greater love for God and your mind informed in rich ways to think about God and His Word.  Rev. Carl T. Martin, D.Min., Ph.D., - Palm Harbor, FL.