Winter Is Not Forever (Seasons of the Heart Book #3) , livre ebook

Baker Publishing Group - Janette Oke

Découvre YouScribe en t'inscrivant gratuitement

Je m'inscris

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

88 pages

English

Vous pourrez modifier la taille du texte de cet ouvrage

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

A propos
Informations
Extrait

Description

Josh Jones realizes his family isn't typical, but it's the only life he's ever known. Aunt Lou, Gramps, Uncle Charlie, Grandpa--they all have shaped the young man he has become. But as he grows into manhood, Josh begins to face important questions about life, love, and faith. Three million books sold in the series!

Informations

Publié par	Baker Publishing Group
Date de parution	01 mai 2010
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781585587391
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0403€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

Winter Is Not Forever
Copyright 1988
Janette Oke
Cover design by Dan Pitts Cover photography by Aimee Christenson
Scripture quotations are from the King James Version of the Bible.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means-electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise-without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Published by Bethany House Publishers 11400 Hampshire Avenue South Bloomington, Minnesota 55438
Bethany House Publishers is a division of Baker Publishing Group, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Oke, Janette, 1935-
Winter is not forever / Janette Oke.
p. cm.-(Seasons of the heart; bk. 3)
ISBN 978-0-7642-0802-7 (pbk.)
I. Title.
PR9199.3.O38W56 2010
813 .54-dc22
2010004154
D EDICATION

To the memory of Amanda Janette, our third grandchild, daughter of Terry and Barbara, and baby sister of Ashley, who came to join our family on June 25, 1987, and completed her brief mission on September 10, 1987, taken from us suddenly by crib death. She was such a healthy, happy, responsive little sweetheart! We loved her dearly and miss her greatly. And to Amanda s grandparents Koert and Carol Dieterman and all readers who have suffered through like pain. Our loving and faithful God wipes our tears, mends our broken hearts, and heaven becomes a dearer place.
For where the treasure is, there will the heart be also.
JANETTEOKE was born in Champion, Alberta, to a Canadian prairie farmer and his wife, and she grew up in a large family full of laughter and love. She is a graduate of Mountain View Bible College in Alberta, where she met her husband, Edward, and they were married in May of 1957. After pastoring churches in Indiana and Canada, the Okes spent some years in Calgary, where Edward served in several positions on college faculties while Janette continued her writing. She has written forty-eight novels for adults and another sixteen for children, and her book sales total nearly thirty million.
The Okes have three sons and one daughter, all married, and are enjoying their fifteen grandchildren. Edward and Janette are active in their local church and make their home near Didsbury, Alberta.
C ONTENTS

Chapter 1 Decisions
Chapter 2 The Social
Chapter 3 Great News
Chapter 4 Sharing the News
Chapter 5 Graduation
Chapter 6 Farming
Chapter 7 More Decisions
Chapter 8 Sunday
Chapter 9 Winter
Chapter 10 Making It Through
Chapter 11 A Visit
Chapter 12 Looking for Spring
Chapter 13 Building
Chapter 14 Sharing the News
Chapter 15 Homecoming
Chapter 16 The Call
Chapter 17 Christmas
Chapter 18 Going On
Chapter 19 Arrangements
Chapter 20 Changes
Chapter 21 Harvest
Chapter 22 Fall
Chapter 23 Settling In
Chapter 24 Winter Ills
Chapter 25 Chester
Chapter 26 Willie
Chapter 27 God s Call
C HARACTERS

Joshua Chadwick Jones- Josh was raised by his grandfather, great uncle, and young aunt after his own parents were killed in an accident when he was only a baby. Once Josh reached his late teens, he lived with his Aunt Lou and her preacher husband, Nat Crawford, and went to school in town. On the weekends he returned to the farm to spend time with the menfolk.
Lou Jones Crawford- Though she is his aunt, Lou is only a few years older than Josh. Now Lou is a parson s wife and anxious to be a mother after losing her first child at birth.
Grandpa- The owner of the farm where Josh grew up and the only father Josh has known.
Uncle Charlie- The quiet yet supportive brother of Grandpa. For many years they have run the farm and the household together.
Willie- Josh s boyhood friend. They shared many adventures and a strong personal commitment to their faith.
Camellia- Josh s first love, though he soon realized that his faith and her faithlessness were not compatible.
Mr. and Mrs. Foggelson- Camellia s mother and father. He was the local schoolmaster and raised concerns with his teaching of evolution. She had been a Christian until her marriage.
C HAPTER 1

Decisions
H AVE YOU DECIDED YET ?
Willie s insistent voice demanded my attention. I swiveled around to get a look at him, for the words didn t make any sense to me at all.
What do you plan to do-after graduation? he prodded. Are you gonna be a minister-or what?
Or what? my mind echoed in frustration. What?
I had been asking myself the same question over and over, just as Willie was asking me now. And I still didn t have an answer. Graduation was only a month away, and it seemed that I was the only one in our small town school who didn t know exactly what to do with life after the big day. It wasn t that I hadn t given it a thought. In fact, I thought about it most of the time. I prayed about it, too, and my family members kept assuring me that they were praying as well. But I still didn t have an answer to Willie s question, except to say honestly, No-I don t know yet. And I d been saying that for a long, long time.
I must have been frowning, and I guess Willie understood my dilemma. He didn t wait for my answer-not in words, anyway; instead he went right on talking.
God has different timing for different people, and with a reason, he mused. That doesn t mean that He hasn t got your future planned out. When it s time-
I quit listening for a minute, and my mind jumped to other things. Willie already had his future clearly mapped out. God had called him to be a missionary; Willie would leave for a Bible school in the Eastern United States at the end of the summer.I envied Willie, I guess. It must be a real relief to know what God wants you to do, I muttered under my breath.
I still can t believe it, Willie was saying when I tuned back in. I mean, most of my life-at least what I can remember of it-I ve been goin to school, day after day. And here we are about to graduate. I just can t believe it! It doesn t seem real to me yet.
I twitched my fishing pole as if I were trying to stir up some fish. Actually I was just thinking about Willie s words. It did seem strange. We had done a great deal of talking over the years about how glad we would be to graduate and leave the old school behind, and here we were on the brink of graduation and I didn t really feel glad about it at all. In fact, I felt rather scared. I never would have dared to tell any of the fellas how I was feeling-we always crowed about the day that we d be freed from prison. We d run and holler and toss our caps in the air. I knew we d have to do it to carry on the tradition. A fella was supposed to loathe school and be more than glad to be rid of it, but at the same time I got a funny feeling down in the pit of my stomach whenever I thought about graduation.
I mulled over Willie s words and squirmed on the creek bank, pretending to have a kink in my back from sitting in one spot for so long waiting on a fish to decide he was hungry. I wiggled my pole again and noticed that I d lost the bait off the hook. I hoped Willie didn t notice. I didn t feel much like fishing anymore, and I didn t want to be bothered with baiting my hook again. Still, I wasn t ready to head for the house yet, either.
I couldn t remember much about life without school, just like Willie had said. When I was honest with myself, I knew I d miss the daily lessons, the recesses, the access to books. Maybe I d miss it a whole lot, but I wasn t about to share my thoughts with anyone-not even Willie.
Course, Willie needn t worry, I reminded myself, almost enviously. Come fall, he ll be off to a new school, new books, and new friends. I squirmed again.
Here, said Willie, lean against this stump for a while. Naw, I responded slowly, casting a glance at the sky. It s almost time for chores anyway. And the fish sure aren t bitin today.
Willie s eyes twinkled the way they did when he was trying to hold back something that made him want to laugh. I had seen the same look on his face when our teacher held his book upside down when lecturing to the class, and when Agatha Marshall took a bite of her sandwich and ate the ant that had been crawling on it, and when we tied Avery s shoelaces together as he lounged on the school grass waiting for the bell to ring.
I looked at Willie suspiciously now.
Never seen fish bite without bait, Josh, he said, the twinkle openly showing in a grin now. You haven t had bait on that hook for the last half hour, Willie informed me with a chuckle.
So why didn t you tell me? I threw at him, trying to sound miffed.
Willie sobered. Didn t think you cared about fishin .Your thoughts have been off someplace else all day.
I jerked up my empty hook and set about wiping it carefully on the grass and removing it from the line. Willie let me work in silence until I had finished with my fishing gear.
You still bothered about Camellia? he finally ventured as we picked up our gear and started down the trail to the farm.
Camellia? My head swung up at her name.
Willie held my eyes with a steady gaze. The question was still there, unanswered. I couldn t hide much from him, and I sure did need someone to talk to. I decided to stop playing games.
I guess so-a little. I mean, here we are, almost finished with school-and I ve been praying and praying, and trying an trying to show Camellia that the Bible is right, no matter what her pa says, an she still won t even listen to a thing I have to say. She ll be done with school, too, Willie, and then she plans to move off somewhere and take some training to be a decorator-
Interior designer, Willie corrected.
Interior designer, I amended with a shrug. Who knows who she ll meet or what she ll get herself into in some godforsaken city somewhere-
New York, said Willie. Her pa says New York. If you wanta learn from the best, then you need t