Tuesday, September 19, 2023

Celebrate Lit Blog Tour: Glimpses of God: An Autumn Devotional for Women by Shirley Crowder and Harriet E. Michael

Book: Glimpses of God: an autumn devotional for women

Authors: Shirley Crowder and Harriet E. Michael

Genre: Devotional (nonfiction)

Release Date: August 13, 2021

Creator God made the world in which we live.

He placed the moon and stars in the sky, the rivers and oceans on the earth. He also created seasons throughout the year. Each season is defined by specific features and attributes that are common.

As Christ-followers we experience spiritual seasons. Though these seasons do not come in order like seasons in nature, each spiritual season we experience is defined by certain features.

This book is focused on autumn—both calendar and spiritual. During our spiritual autumns, we prepare for change and the possibility of difficult days ahead. It also represents abundance and blessings.

This book is part of the four-book Glimpses of God series.

Click here to get your copy!

Devotionals are a part of my daily life. I am always looking for a themed devotional that pertains to my life. Shirley Crowder and Harriet E Michael have written a couple of devotional books that I have enjoyed in the past. Glimpses of God: An Autumn Devotional for Women is one that I recently read.

The Devotional contains 65 Daily Devotionals, 13 weeks of Devotions, that start at Labor Day and go up to Thanksgiving. Each Chapter has five Daily Devotions and a different theme each week. The themes focus on things like the Start of the School Year, Fall Activities, Autumn Harvest, and more. The daily readings include Scripture to Read, A Short Story, a Verse to Remember/Quote, Questions to ponder, and a Prayer for the Day. Each day has about 5 pages per day, not too long, a great thing for those who have busy lives. The Authors add in personal stories to the Devotional.

I have always said Autumn is a time for FRESH Starts and more of a "New Year" with the start of School and other Family Activities. The Beauty of Leaves changing, new clothes, and other new items as School starts up. Autumn reflects "newness and change" and our lives as always changing and growing with the Seasons. I LOVE that this is reflected in this devotional. I have truly enjoyed this Devotional and series of Devotionals. The easy-to-read format also is a BIG plus for me. I am EXTREMELY Encouraged by the readings in this Devotional. WONDERFUL Encouragement and Readings! I HIGHLY Recommend this Devotional!

Shirley Crowder is an award-winning author (Ames Award, Southern Christian Writers Conference awards) and freelance Christian writer living in Birmingham, Alabama. She was born under the shade of a mango tree in Nigeria, West Africa, where her parents served as missionaries.

She is passionate about disciple-making, which is conducted in and through a myriad of ministry opportunities including biblical counseling, teaching Bible studies, writing, and music. She is a speaker and teacher for women’s, biblical counseling, addiction, and writing conferences, retreats, and workshops.

Shirley has contributed to several blogs, and is published as an author, co-author, and contributing author of fourteen books. She has appeared on several The Addiction Connection Podcasts and on Shaped by Faith with Theresa Rowe.

Several of her articles have appeared in “Paper Pulpit” in the Faith section of The Gadsden (Alabama) Times. She also has published articles for David C. Cook, Student Life, and Woman’s Missionary Union publications.

Harriet E. Michael is an award-winning writer winner of two Selah Awards, a Cascade Award, and an Ames Award.

Born in Nigeria, West Africa, as the daughter of missionaries, Harriet is a writer, wife, mother, and grandmother. She holds a BS in nursing from West Virginia University but has discovered her passion for writing. Since her first published article in 2010, she now has hundreds of published articles, short stories, and devotions.

Harriet is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers and Louisville Christian Writers. She is the author of ten books and hundreds of stories, articles, and devotions. Her work has appeared in publications by Focus on the Family, Lifeway, Standard Publishing, David C. Cook Co., Bethany House, American Life League, Crosswalk.com, Christian Communicator, Judson Press, Chicken Soup for the Soul, The Upper Room, Pentecostal Publishing House, Smyth and Helwys, and more.

She is also a Christian speaker who loves to talk to women’s groups about prayer or other topics or speak at writers’ conferences on free-lance writing, non-fiction writing, and devotional writing.

More from the Authors

For the winter devo, we used the following (I’ve changed the final few paragraphs.) If you have a pumpkin bread recipe you can add it.

From Africa to America, Life Long Friends

March 14, many years ago …

In the heart of the African jungle in the Niger River delta of eastern Nigeria, the first cry of a newborn baby echoes from a small jungle hospital. The baby is a girl, Harriet Clarice, the third child of medical missionaries, Alice and Keith Edwards.

Harriet and her family stayed in this remote part of Nigeria for a year until the other family returned from furlough. At that time, they went for another year to Oyo, Nigeria to language school and then on to Ogbomoso in central Nigeria, where they stayed the next ten years. Keith practiced medicine at the hospital in Ogbomoso, and Alice worked with him as a nurse.

October 24 of the same year Harriet was born …

Deep in the Yoruba country of southwestern Nigeria, some 260 miles away from Joinkrama, piercing through the tropical night sounds, the first cry of another newborn baby cries out at a guesthouse in Ogbomoso. This baby is also a girl, Shirley Jeanne, the fourth child of missionaries Jeannie and Ray Crowder.

In 1962 the Crowders moved to Ogbomoso. Ray served as administrator of the 96-bed hospital, and Jeannie taught kindergarten and ministered to the Nigerian women with home visits and Bible studies. Harriet’s parents worked at the Ogbomoso hospital with Ray.

Lifelong friends

Harriet ended up living just up the dirt road from Shirley. They played together nearly every day and formed a friendship that remained, even after years and distance separated them.

Harriet and Shirley, and the others in this unique group of individuals, who shared a common childhood in Nigeria in our beloved tropical homeland half a world away from where most of us live now, grew up calling each other’s parents aunt and uncle. Even as adults, we still feel a kinship as though we are family—cousins perhaps.

Some years ago, at a mission reunion, Shirley handed Harriet a book to which she had contributed. That was the first time Harriet knew she was a writer. Shirley had discovered a few years earlier that Harriet was a writer, too.

Several years ago, Shirley suggested that they prayerfully consider writing a devotional book together. Through that experience, they learned that they work well together. Their similar understanding and views on scripture is a good foundation for the different strengths each of us bring when it comes to writing.

Since that first book, we have worked and continue to work together on other projects. Glimpses of God: an autumn devotional for women is the final book in our 4-book devotional series, Glimpses of God. Through our devotionals we pray people will see Glimpses of God all around them. Creator God made the world and the seasons throughout the year. By using the seasons in nature, we help readers see correlations to the spiritual seasons Christ-followers experience and to get “Glimpses of God” in and through everything that happens.

So, we guess it could be said that we are once again “playing” with our childhood friend in spite of several decades having passed since they played together happily beneath the shade of mango trees.