She is a product of the Puerto Rican communities on the island and in the South Bronx. It is ultimately, a novel of the triumph of the human spirit even under the most brutal of conditions.ĭahlma Llanos-Figueroa was born in Puerto Rico and raised in New York City. Along the way, she learns to recognize and embrace the many faces of love-a mother’s love, a daughter’s love, a sister’s love, a love of community, and the self-love that she must recover before she can offer herself to another. From the sadistic barbarity of her first experiences, she moves on to receive compassion and support from a revitalizing new community. Readers are invited to join Pola in her journey to healing. But this is not a novel of defeat but rather one of survival, regeneration, and reclamation of common humanity. The dehumanizing violence of her life almost destroys her. Pola loses the faith that has guided her and becomes embittered and defensive. The resulting babies are taken from her as soon as they are born. Writing with the maturity that only comes from personal experience with suffering, Wimmer does something better than play with the problem of pain he offers a creative response for living with it.Combining the haunting power of Toni Morrison’s Beloved with the evocative atmosphere of Phillippa Gregory’s A Respectable Trade, Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa’s groundbreaking novel illuminates a little discussed aspect of history-the Puerto Rican Atlantic Slave Trade-witnessed through the experiences of Pola, an African captive used as a breeder to bear more slaves.Ī Woman of Endurance, set in nineteenth-century Puerto Rican plantation society, follows Pola, a deeply spiritual African woman who is captured and later sold for the purpose of breeding future slaves. Blessed Endurance challenges readers to redeem the despair found in life’s inevitable valleys by embracing God’s gifts of disciplined hope and joy. But John Wimmer teaches us how in this read-in-a-day, live-for-a-lifetime book with gospel power and resurrection hope. Stewarding our pain is a countercultural concept for many. Those who read this book will find pathways to that peace, walked and mapped with care for us by a man who knows the way.Īuthor of Let Your Life Speak, The Courage to Teach, and Healing the Heart of Democracy “The peace that passes all understanding” is not an empty promise. I’ve known John Wimmer for twenty years, and I can testify that he has lived every word in this moving, important, and well-crafted book about suffering, endurance, and faith. Reviews When I read a book subtitled Moving Beyond Despair to Hope, I want to know that the words between the covers are not mere words, but words “become flesh,” words that reflect the author’s lived experience. Since 2002 he has been program director at Lilly Endowment, where he has sought to enhance pastoral leadership and congregational vitality through more than $700 million in grants to denominations, seminaries, and a wide variety of other church agencies. Wimmer is a United Methodist minister who served as a local church pastor for 18 years and founded the Center for Congregations, now a network whose model of working with churches has been adopted by many organizations nationwide. Wimmer reminds us that with hope we also have faith-not the false belief that our lives will be pain-free but the assurance that God will be with us through our most challenging times and lead us to deeper levels of spiritual growth and wisdom.Ĭlick here for an interview with John Wimmer. This inspiring book offers practical help for moving from pain and despair to hope. To endure through such times is a blessing. Rather than diminishing our faith, pain and despair can lead us to greater trust in God. Wimmer encourages us to view times of difficulty as opportunities for spiritual and personal growth. We can't always understand or control many things that happen to us, but we can choose how we respond to our circumstances. He does not offer easy answers or platitudes like "Everything happens for a reason." John Wimmer approaches these challenges to our faith realistically and thoughtfully. Pain, struggle, and despair are part of life, and they test our character as God's people. Where is God when we are hurting or in despair? How can we find hope even when we feel hopeless?
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