Pocketful of Pearls (34 page)

2. Even in their darkest moments, Dinah and Matthew discover small pearls of beauty that help to make life worthwhile. How
many of these can you find? What moments of beauty in your own life have been like finding loose pearls?

3.
Pocketful of Pearls
deals with sensitive issues of sexual abuse. In the beginning, Dinah handles the abuse by becoming bulimic and by fencing
people out of her emotional life. She even sees suicide as a solution. Do these ways of dealing with abuse seem realistic?
Sympathetic? If you were in her place, with her strict and insular upbringing, what would you do?

4. According to the book
The Wounded Heart: Hope for Adult Victims of Childhood Sexual Abuse
by Dr. Dan B. Allender (NavPress, 1995), there are three stages of healing using a Christian model: honesty (acknowledging
the truth of what has happened), repentance (making changes and admitting the need for God), and bold love (confronting the
abuser). How does Dinah work through these stages? What steps does she take? How does Matthew help her? Do you think it’s
possible for her to be fully healed?

5. Have you ever heard the expression “toxic church”? What do you think this means? Are the Elect a toxic church? Have you
ever been involved with a toxic church before? If so, what was your experience?

6. One of the issues the book deals with is salvation by grace versus works. Paul advises the Philippians to “work out your
own salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil. 2:12). And James 2:17 says: “Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being
alone.” What do these verses mean in the context of grace? What are the signs of a belief in salvation by works versus one
that bases its faith on grace? How is salvation and grace manifested in your own life?

7. Dinah has been a member of the Elect all her life, and believes she is a Christian. At what point does she realize she
is not? What does it mean for her to become a Christian? Where does she begin a real relationship with God? And how does this
fit into the healing process for her?

8. For Dinah’s sister Tamara, the solution is to flee the unsafe family, so she abandons her baby with Dinah. Is Tamara a
sympathetic character? Why might she have done this? Have you ever had to make a decision to leave something in order to save
yourself?

9. At the end of the novel, the Elect’s leadership is in ruins and there is a vacuum at the top that must be filled. If their
tradition has been to filter God through their leaders, what will they do now? Have they learned their lesson after seeing
that the head Shepherd has feet of clay? What happens when people put their trust in their leadership instead of in God—in
other words, to put their faith in the “way” (meaning a system) of worship instead of in the Way (meaning Jesus)?

IF YOU ENJOYED
Pocketful of Pearls . . .

A SOUNDING BRASS

Shelley Bates

Claire Montoya’s life doesn’t fit her anymore. Brought up in a toxic church in the small town of Hamilton Falls, Claire has
watched her friends leave the church and has seen the leaders she trusted disgraced. It’s time for a change—if she can just
figure out what that is.

When Luke Fisher, radio evangelist, is invited to preach at one of their gatherings, Claire decides this is what she has been
waiting for. She goes to work for him as bookkeeper at the radio station. Although she initially enjoys taking part in the
ideas and changes Luke wants for the community, she soon discovers there are things about this charismatic visionary that
just don’t add up. And Investigator Ray Harper of the Organized Crime Task Force is hanging around the station too, asking
questions and disturbing her . . . in a completely different way.

But who is right? The nationally known evangelist or the nonbelieving cop? And, more important, whom can Claire trust with
her heart?

AVAILABLE AUGUST 2006

“I’d like to present Mr. Luke Fisher,” Owen said, “evangelist from our very own KGHM Radio, right here in Hamilton Falls.”

What?

People turned in their seats to stare at one another and gaped at Owen as if they couldn’t believe their ears. A worldly evangelist?
To speak to them? Someone who wasn’t even Elect?

“Is he completely mad?” Rebecca said aloud, forgetting to whisper.

No one heard her. Everyone was busy talking, speculating, wondering the same thing.

“Please, folks, listen to me.” Owen’s voice rose above the noise, and out of habit, the congregation quieted enough that he
could be heard. “We’ve all been praying without ceasing that God would save us in our hour of need. And I believe the reason
he hasn’t is because we’ve strayed away from him. We’ve put our trust in our leadership—in man, in human frailty—and the result
has been disaster. We’ve looked inward to ourselves instead of looking outward at what God is doing in the world.”

People murmured, and Claire nibbled her lower lip, wondering where on earth this was going.

“Folks,” Owen said, “let’s listen to Mr. Fisher’s message and then do what Paul exhorted us to do—try the spirit and see if
it’s of God.”

He yielded the microphone to Luke Fisher and returned to his seat. Every eye in the auditorium was riveted to the front.

Claire drew in a breath as Luke Fisher spoke. That melodious voice that had sounded in her car—announcing songs, exhorting
people to come to God, talking with people who called in—filled their humble auditorium with his particular brand of music.

“Those of you who listen to the radio,” he said, “may have heard a number of your hymns being played and wondered how it could
be that worldly artists could sing the music and words that mean so much to you.”

He paused, and all the young people in Claire’s row looked at each other, eyebrows raised. Obviously they’d thought the very
thing she had. Maybe some of them had even been listening to the radio on the way to Mission and had heard “Just As I Am.”

“Well, here’s the thing.” He paused, then said, “I grew up in the Elect.”

An audible gasp swept through the room.

“I did, and I lived a life of sin and suffering brought on by my own headstrong will. But God had a plan for me, and you know
what that was?”

Claire found herself shaking her head, as though he had spoken directly to her. She wished he would. She wished those eyes
would seek her out in the midst of this crowd and see that there was a mature, reasonably attractive woman who was currently
single and very much available, right here in the seventh row.

“God’s plan was for me to preach the gospel, but not as a Shepherd. No, his plan for my life reaches further than that. Radio
isn’t a sin, my friends. It’s a way of reaching the heart of the sick, the shut in, those who aren’t as fortunate as we are
in this hall tonight. It’s a way of bringing cheer to your soul as you drive to the supermarket, of focusing your mind on
Christ while you work in the office. It’s a way to reach the soul on the other side of the cube divider who doesn’t know which
way to turn in a life that looks like a maze.”

The crowd was utterly silent.

“God gives us all our talents, my friends. And what have we been doing with them? Have we been burying them in the backyard
of our own little group? Or have we been lending them out to others, and participating in the body of Christ?”

“Backyard,” Claire heard someone say.

“Nonsense,” snapped Elizabeth McNeill, Julia’s mother, and then blushed scarlet at having actually spoken aloud in a Gathering,
where it was forbidden for women to raise their voices except in song.

Luke Fisher smiled at Elizabeth, and Claire lost her ability to breathe.

If only someone would smile at me that way.

Remember Me

Deborah Bedford

Pastor Sam Tibbits has everything he wants or needs. But when his brother unexpectedly dies, he finds himself questioning
God, searching for the meaning in it all. In an effort to work through his doubts he takes his nephew on a road trip to Piddock
Beach, the small coastal Oregon town where he spent his childhood summers. In those innocent, adventurous years, he’d lived
every waking moment with his close friend Aubrey. They knew each other as only young kids can, sharing confidences year after
year as they explored the coast and sea. Until the summer Aubrey’s family unexpectedly moved away with no forwarding address.

Sam returns to Piddock Beach in an effort to reach out to his nephew and to untangle his own emotional turmoil as he reflects
on those long-ago joyful days. How like God, then, to return Aubrey there the very same week, as she seeks to work through
her own personal problems. Together Sam and Aubrey face their inner demons and in the end each finds a way to peace on their
own terms.

COMING NOVEMBER 2005