Bøker av Elaine Sommers Rich

""I wanted to tell a story about adolescents who knew what they were doing and why."" Elaine Sommers Rich gives this as a reason for having written this book.Along with Esther Miller, a Voluntary Service unit member, Rich takes us onto the receiving ward of a state mental hospital in the summer of 1948 following her freshman year in college. The charge attendant on Esther''s ward has a ""treat ''em rough"" attitude toward the mentally ill, an attitude which immediately poses serious problems for Esther. Her emotional life is further complicated when she becomes infatuated with tall, blond Philip Landis ""from the East."" One of Esther''s dreams comes true when she gets to set up an art project for patients as part of a therapy program initiated by the VS unit.Christian idealists will like this story of a young girl''s love affair with life.Elaine Sommers Rich gave three summers of her youth in projects for college students sponsored by Mennonite Central Committee. Having taught at Goshen College, Goshen, IN, and Bethel College, North Newton, KS, she is well acquainted with the young people about whom she writes. Rich''s earlier books are Breaking Bread Together (1958) and Hannah Elizabeth (1964). She now lives in Bluffton, OH.

Ten-year-old Hannah Elizabeth, her parents, and her grandfather - a very special person - were like all Mennonites, like many others in the Indiana community in which they lived. Yet Hannah Elizabeth often felt caught between two worlds, and though she never doubted the teachings of her parents or the Bible, there were things that puzzled her, things she did not understand. Of course not all of Hannah Elizabeth's time was taken up with pondering unanswered questions. There was school, her new baby cousin, Christmas, an original play to put on, and many, many other events that made the year a wondrous one. But it was at her Grandfather's funeral that her questions were answered and her two worlds became one. Youngsters will love this warm, human story of a very real little girl and the beautiful illustrations by Paul Edward Kennedy.

Mennonite women are making their own spiritual contribution to their church's tricentennial in the form of this volume sponsored by the Women's Missionary and Service Commission (WMSC) of the Mennonite Church. The author has drawn from documentation supplied by WMSC groups across Canada and the United States, as well as from dozens of women and men who have responded with stories and episodes about Mennonite women, covering three centuries of life, culture, and faith. Her art of storytelling captures the readers' interest from the beginning and provides the grist for a deeper level of critique and interpretation of the movement of Mennonite women through the centuries - especially through the decades of the twentieth century.... One of the strengths of this book is the assumption that the qualities of Christian discipleship apply equally to men and women who are responding to God's leading as active participants in the kingdom. --Leonard Gross, Executive Secretary, Historical Committee of the Mennonite Church Although Mennonite women, almost without exception, have been excluded from ordination, their ministry has been essential to the growth of the home, the church, and the communities in which they have lived and worked.... Mennonite Women is a volume about women for an audience of both women and men.... The author helps us understand ourselves. She increases our awareness of the gifts women have been using for a long time. --Barbara K. Reber, Executive Secretary, Women's Missionary and Service Commission of the Mennonite Church