Showing results by author "Janette Oke" in All Categories

After years of schooling, Beth Thatcher has graduated and is determined to become a teacher. But when she's assigned the position no one else wants - in the tiny mining town of Coal Valley, located in the rugged foothills of western Canada - she worries she doesn't have the courage to accept. Inspired by the diary of her aunt Elizabeth, who went west to teach school several years earlier, as well as her father's encouragement, Beth eventually decides to put her trust in God and leave behind all she's ever known.

Leaving behind their dear friends in Beaver Creek, Elizabeth and Wynn take over an even more primitive RCMP outpost in the Canadian Northwest. Elizabeth finds herself totally isolated when the local Indian women are afraid to even communicate with her. The Delaney's thought they had already faced the most crushing disappointment of their lives when they saw little Sammy disappear from view in the arms of his father. Would they be able to survive the challenges ahead? Book four of the best-selling Canadian West series.

An excerpt from the book: "Sure, it's unusual to have an 18-year-old mother when you're 12. But when you're an orphan and she's your aunt and the only mother you've ever had well, as I explained, it had worked out real well..."

Twenty years have passed since youngest daughter Belinda's story in Love Finds a Home. Marty and Clark's spiritual heritage has been lovingly passed on to their children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren. And now, beloved granddaughter Virginia faces the test of her young life. Caught in that difficult period between childhood and adulthood, feeling that she really doesn't fit anywhere, Virginia struggles against what she considers to be unreasonable restrictions and expectations.

As a young girl, Lillian Walsh lost both her parents and a younger sister. Now in her 20s, after enduring the death of her adoptive mother, Lillian must find her place in the world. Just as her adoptive father is leaving for an extended trip to his native Wales, a lawyer appears at the door to inform Lillian that she has inherited a small estate from her birth parents - and that the sister she had long believed dead is likely alive.

Three-time Christy Award winner Davis Bunn collaborates with the beloved Janette Oke to evoke the spirit of the original followers of the Way. In a first century Jerusalem seething with turmoil, religious and political leaders eye the burgeoning Christian community with suspicion. While a Hebrew merchant and a Roman soldier vie for the hand of a lovely follower of Christ, she finds her heart drawn to another whose tireless care and unflinching faith shine daily.

Elizabeth, the cultured young schoolteacher from the East, has braved the Western frontier and spent a year teaching in a one-room schoolhouse. Now, she and Wynn are planning their wedding and their new life together at his outpost in the far North. While Wynn is accustomed to life in the North, Elizabeth is not. Can their love for each other sustain them through a harsh winter, loneliness, and rigors of life without any of the conveniences they're used to?

Elizabeth Thatcher is young, pretty, cultured, and educated. But when she journeys west to teach school in the foothills of the Canadian Rockies, she's completely unprepared for the conditions she encounters. Still, she's determined to succeed at the formidable task of fitting in with the locals and shaping the hearts and minds of the schoolchildren in her care.

As a youth, Henry had been rescued from terrible circumstances by the Delaneys, whose loving care helped to heal his painful memories. Now, as a young man of character and deep faith working as a representative of the law, his duties include some that leave him with haunting memories, particularly of the young widow and baby boy whom he longs to help.

In the 18th century, the residents of Acadia live in a fragile truce. The settlers of this rough Canadian island are either French or British, and the two nationalities do not mix, no matter how close their villages are. One day in a meadow, two women begin a friendship.

Beth Thatcher returns home from her first year as a schoolteacher in the mining town of Coal Valley and steps into a whole different world. Her life back among her wealthy Eastern family is a stark contrast to her primitive life in the West, and Beth isn't sure where she belongs anymore. She barely has time to settle in before her mother announces plans for a family holiday - a luxurious steamship tour along the eastern coast of Canada and the U.S.

On the brink of manhood, Josh was facing important questions about life, about love, about himself. "I sure was having a time of it trying to sort out all these different ideas and feelings¿maybe I should just go fishing!"

Having survived the harshness of their first year in the far Northwest, Elizabeth and Wynn, her Royal Canadian Mountie, now face new challenges. Just when they've made new friends and started a new school, they are presented with a new posting. It seems Elizabeth's dreams for a family and home of her own are not to be. Will their love for each other, hope for the future, and their faith in God carry them through the crushing disappointments?

The fledgling church is being scattered by persecution. It is spearheaded by a fanatical young Pharisee who does not realize he is unwittingly aiding a divine mandate to spread the truth “unto the ends of the earth …”Young Julia has everything money can buy —except for acceptance by either Gentiles or Judeans in Tiberias. When she discovers the secret her beloved Greek father has kept all these years, she is devastated. Julia and her Hebrew mother are indeed less than second-class citizens.

In Acadia, two young mothers, one British and one French, have become good friends, despite the enmity between their peoples. The French woman's baby girl becomes critically ill. Since the British woman has access to medical care denied to the French, they exchange infants. But, suddenly, the French are expelled from Acadia, and the women are unable to meet again.

An excerpt from the book: "In the dimness of the early morning I could see field after neighborhood field as I let my gaze wander around me. First there was ours, I supposed I would always think of the farm as ours, Grandpa's, Uncle Charlie's, and mine, though in truth it really was just mine now. Guess that was one of the reasons I was whistling. Just yesterday Grandpa and Uncle Charlie had signed all the official papers to make the farm mine, really and legally mine."

Dana, a young teenager, is diagnosed with a terminal illness and her solidly Christian family deals with the resulting turmoil. A teen son strays, a younger child feels neglected and a sister struggles with bitterness toward God.

Lillian Walsh and Grace Bennett have learned so much already about caring for children in distress. It hasn't been easy, but it becomes even more difficult when they suddenly discover that three children have run away. Concerned for the trio's safety, the sisters will do all they can to find the children. But the runaways are not the only thing putting the future of the children's home in question.

Life was full of choices. The only problem was figuring out what to do! "What do you plan to do after graduation? Are you gonna be a minister, or what?" Or what, my mind echoed in frustration. What?

Happily married with four children, Virginia Lewis is perfectly content with her peaceful existence on the family farm. But change looms on the horizon. Grandma Marty and Grandpa Clark have always been a source of emotional strength, but their health is failing. And Virginia's adopted daughter, who has long been a blessing, may be torn from the family when her absentee birth mother resurfaces and pursues custody. Virginia may fear the unknown, but her unshakable convictions will help her embrace it.