Showing results by author "Janette Oke" in All Categories

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?

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.

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.

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.

Three-time Christy Award winner Davis Bunn collaborates with Janette Oke to evoke the tumult of first-century Judea in the wake of Christ’s crucifixion. Although she prefers service in Pontius Pilate’s palace to a loveless marriage, Leah is betrothed to a Roman centurion. Before he can have Leah, however, he must go on a secret mission. But when a rabbi’s missing body sends Leah and Alban after the same answers, what they discover could change all they hold dear.

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.

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."

Like most young women in ancient Israel, Mary has little control over her own destiny. When Enos, a rising Pharisee, sees her one day in the market―the most beautiful woman he has ever laid eyes on―and determines to make her his wife, Mary’s fate is quickly sealed. His exorbitant bride price is the only hope her parents have of escaping abject poverty, but surely the fact that such a devout and esteemed man has chosen a girl of her station must be a sign of blessing.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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?

Christine and her older brother, Henry, grew up in the Delaney family as loved and nurtured as if they had been born to Elizabeth and Wynn. Now adults, they are ready to make new lives for themselves. Henry has found love and is planning a wedding. Christine is delighted for her brother, but she is still carrying scars from a broken relationship. And the war in Europe causes uncertainties at every turn, while the Northland still calls to her heart.

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.

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.

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..."

Best-selling author of Too Long a Stranger and Julia's Last Hope, Janette Oke is loved for her inspirational novels. In Once Upon a Summer, Oke weaves the tender tale of 12-year-old, Joshua, who has been raised by his 18-year-old aunt and their grandparents. He has grown accustomed to their close-knit family, but that is all about to change when Joshua's aunt considers marriage. Johnny Heller touchingly narrates the trials of faith this family must face.

Ariana loves her life as a schoolteacher in a little frontier town. But one evening after classes are done and she prepares to hurry home, her life changes in an instant when a band of rough outlaws abduct her and take her far away from all she has ever known. Trapped in a small shack, Ariana prays and waits, her emotions swinging between terror and boredom as days stretch into weeks. Still, the outlaws refuse to tell her why they've taken her or what they plan to do. Then the boss' son appears in the doorway of her cabin.

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.