Too many remain in denial about the severity of pastoral stress, even as they are deteriorating emotionally and physically.Drawing from biblical, theological, and sociological sources as well as personal experience, author Kirk Jones discusses the fundamental importance of self-care for clergy and other professionals engaged in helping people. Filled with creative and practical strategies for integrating self-care into vocational life, this compelling resource identifies the factors that influence overload and outlines plausible strategies for escaping such bondage. Rest in the Storm is a lifeline for caregivers who feel overwhelmed by the demands of their calling or profession.

    Take an inside look at Jamaican culture and lifestyle through a collection of award-winning stories. You will laugh, cry and commiserate with a compelling cast of characters, who conquer their challenges in unique ways.

    Now, in this second installment, Treasure will unveil the riveting ending to this short series only available as eBooks.After receiving news that rocked her world, seventeen-year-old Chantel Turner’s hardships have only just begun. Now she must go to extremes to protect her twelve-year-old sister—the only family she has left—from the very person who began her nightmare. After Chantel teams up with her friend Precious, they use their minds, bodies, and fury to right the wrongs and serve the only justice fit for the crime—death!

    Louella, fed up with her lackluster love life, decides to contact her departed ancestors for some advice. Conjuring up her mother, grandmother, and aunt in a dream, she receives a delightful lesson in the art of reigniting the fires of love.Even more startling, the Johnsons discover they can help others rejuvenate their passions, heal their hearts, and mend their soulsWritten in language that is folksy yet eloquent, Jim and Louella's Homemade Heart-Fix Remedy is an uplifting and flat-out funny celebration of the connections between past and present, the importance of family, and the pleasures of the body and the heart.

    All caught up in her feelings for him, Moet was willing to do anything to make Drake love her the way that she loved him, but nothing ever seemed to work and nothing she tried ever seemed to be good enough. What's a side chick to do once she start catching feelings? Should she stay? Or would it would be best at that point to just walk away? Moet had to make a choice. Though her feelings for Drake, aka Dray were stronger than ever, Moet or better known as Moe, knew that she couldn't be his side chick forever. So she started looking in another direction. But when what she thought was the best decison of her life actually turns out to be the worst, now her heart wasn't the only thing on the line. Her life was too. Just because it glitters that doesn't mean that it's gold and Moe finds herself caught up in a love and war situation. Everything that she had worked for was about to be destroyed unless she agreed to do one thing. And that was to become someone else's side chick once again. But being the other woman wasn't all that it was made out to be and Moe knew that the only way out of a terrible situation was to eliminate the problem with a terrible solution. Death. With twists and turns, secrets and lies, Moe learns why side chicks should never catch main chick feelings. Its much easier to just play their part on the side.

    How will these church families handle the sins of their past and the challenges that life is giving them?Stacy Wilmington is on her way to college when a devastating secret from her father’s past threatens to ruin her relationship with him and causes her to commit a sin of her own. In hiding his past for so long, will Stacy’s father lose the two most important people in his life — his wife and his daughter?Terrence Montague, a man committed to providing for his wife, Stella, and daughter, Monica, finds himself caught up in an illegal drug delivering business that he knows is against the law and against his Christian convictions. Will he choose to love God and be true to his family over loving money?Meanwhile, the new assistant pastor of New Mt. Zion Missionary Evangelical Church, Dwayne Reynolds, believes he has left his past behind…only to discover that it has found him again. Will he choose to face it head on or hide it from the congregation that has come to love and trust his family? In the middle of all this drama, is Reynolds’ son, Jonathan, and Montague’s daughter, Monica. What does the future hold for them?

    Will these three friends be able to juggle a rocky friendship after lies begin surfacing? And more importantly, will they be able to hold onto the relationships with the very men who were deceiving them? Canyon and Caesar were living the life before their entire world came crashing down around them. With the Feds sniffing around, they now have to be on their P's and Q's if they don't want their entire organization to crumble. Will these charming bad boys triumph in the end? Or will the presence of a relentless ex destroy everything they worked so hard to build?

    He witnessed death and destruction within his own family—poverty and desperation of his own people. Instead of being part of the problem, he became part of the solution and rose to the top of his game. In his mind…it was survival.After an encounter with a brilliant scientist, King began to plot something so huge, that no one would see it coming or be able to stop the cycle…not even the police.

    Then, six years after being lost at sea, her prodigal husband returned. And to Madeline's amazement the newfound Russell Stone was nothing like the old, womanizing rascal she'd married. Her new man was loving and considerate, kind, romantic and...very sexy. Madeline found herself doing something she thought she would never do--falling in love with her husband.Now Madeline faces a dilemma: Should she accept her happily-ever-after ending, or should she expose the troubled, yet loving stranger who now shares her bed?

    This doesn't leave much time for friends, but she'll always make time for Touch, the local hustler. He's been her friend since grammar school, when they made a lifelong pact to look out for each other. Lucky for them, their promise has never been put to the test--until now. When Michael Burroughs arrives on the scene from L.A., he floods the East Coast with top-notch product, and quickly earns his title as the California Connection--Calico for short. He's also a smooth brotha with a knack for getting whatever he wants out of women then tossing them to the side. When he meets Jewel, sparks fly, and things quickly spin out of control. Touch knows how Calico operates and doesn't want to watch his friend get used and abused. Little does he know, he doesn't have to worry about her, because Jewel has a few tricks of her own. When Calico shows his true colors, Jewel knows just how to get revenge. Will her plans backfire, or will she be the last woman standing?

    With a mother addicted to crack, Kendrik's parents argued constantly, leading him to sneak off to Chellise's house and seek refuge sleeping on her bedroom floor. Although Chellise's parents forbid her to spend time with Kendrik, in her bedroom in the middle of the night, they secretly built a strong friendship. After Kendrik's mother and supplier are murdered by his father, Kendrik pleads guilty to the crime in an effort to save his father, thinking he'll only be charged as a juvenile. Fifteen years later, Chellise is living a dream. She is engaged to Mulah, one of the sexiest businessmen in the area, and life with him can’t get any better. But Mulah is keeping a dark secret that could shake Chellise’s entire world. He has a 7-year-old son with his best friend's sister, Kaletha. Mulah and Kaletha have told everyone else that he belongs to Kaletha's drug dealing boyfriend, and up until now it hasn’t been questioned. But now, Kaletha’s boyfriend has been given a life sentence for murder, causing Kaletha to pressure Mulah to step into his rightful role as father to their son. Kendrik, now grown, has taken to the streets to make his way through life in light of his troubled past. When his team arranges a job, he finds that the very house he is robbing belongs to his childhood friend, Chellise, who he hasn't seen in years. Unable to go on with his life without reconnecting with her, he finally runs into her and all of the feelings, he thought were lost over the years, return. The only problem he has is Gianna, his crazy, pregnant girlfriend who has shown she is not above slashing a tire, setting things on fire or even fighting it out in the streets to keep him in her grasp. In the midst of all the drama, secrets and betrayal, Kendrik and Chellise find themselves rekindling more than just a friendship when they start spending time together. Although Chellise wants to remain loyal to her fiancé, she can't help but be caught up by Kendrik's rough, abrasive and rugged nature. Will she be able to put a cap on her feelings before it's too late?

    After going to a party, which left him damaged physically, he desires transformation even more. He gets his chance when an unlikely visitor offers to teach him the tricks of the highly lucrative, and illegal trade of body pumping, using liquid silicone. With his new skills in play, Charles rises to the top and before long is given the name, Tranny 911. Although he tries to be happy with his new found fame and love interests, his jealous friend Dixon Wood does all he can to bring him down. Tranny 911 is a novel that will have you screaming at the pages and demanding justice, from beginning to end.

    Mattie Sylvester, a widow of one of America's most celebrated painters, reveals the sordid truth of the past, and of her husband, to her secretary.

    Skai was the youngest of five children. Her mother passed when she was just six years old, leaving her in the care of her brother Randy. To keep the kids out the system, Randy took custody of all the children. The only problem was that he hated Skai. Skai found herself being abused mentally, physically, and emotionally by her oldest brother. She grew up hating herself. She had no education, no job, and no one in the world that cared for her. She felt like she was all alone. That was until she met Izzy. Izzy is a retired street dude turned legit. While working on a job, he came across Skai. He had a soft spot for this girl. He knew that she was troubled, but he was unaware as to how deep her troubles were. When her brother resurfaces, things take a turn for the worse. To save her from her past, Izzy found himself turning back to the streets with his guys Xavier, Jay, and Smoke in his corner. What he didn't know was that her present was just has haunting as her past. He thought he had the situation under control, until….

    But what of its opposite -- the moment when it becomes clear that things are indisputably over? Dumped is a survey of every type of romantic crack-up, a group of stories full of the hilarity, wisdom, insight, and sometimes, yes, fierce revenges of some of the most memorable broken hearts in recent literature. Dumped sheds light on what can be the toughest part of human relations -- whether newly elucidating the misery we've all endured, or merely reminding us that others have had it far worse -- from the mother in Elizabeth Berg's Open House absurdly attempting to tell her son his father has left, to the betrayed wife in Roald Dahl's "Lamb to Slaughter," who beats her husband to death with a leg of lamb, then cooks it for the police. With contributions from such notable authors as Will Self, Saul Bellow, Alice Munro, Raymond Carver, Lorrie Moore, Dorothy Parker, Andre Dubus, and Tobias Wolff, as well as rising stars like Lucinda Rosenfeld and Steve Almond, Dumped spans every variety of romantic catastrophe and every possible response to it; from the wise to the hilarious, the bitter to the bittersweet. This book is the panacea for problems of the heart.