The Sojurner’s Workbook
Sojourners are people who venture far from home to live in a foreign place and culture. They have amazing adventures and experience significant fulfillment, but along with the adventure and fulfillment comes a unique set of stressors, losses, and struggles: struggles in understanding a different culture, a new language, a new identity and in figuring out how to balance many demands with legitimate personal needs. Fatigue is a frequent and understandable result.
This workbook is designed to help the new sojourner, or an experienced one, to develop personal skills for managing the stress, mourning the losses, and crafting a lifestyle that leads to sojourner health on every level.
Throughout each chapter, psychologically based coping skills are integrated with Scriptural truth and spiritual disciplines to provide a foundation for healthy cross-cultural living and effective relationships that last for the long term.
Sojourner’s Workbook can be purchased from Amazon.com (paper or Kindle) or Barnes & Noble.
The Sacred Mundane
Do interruptions ever annoy you? Do errands and menial tasks cause impatience, as you rush through them, wanting to get to the “really important work”? Isn’t it true that some activities are more godly and spiritual then others?
In this book, Connie Befus insists that all the small and mundane aspects of our lives are just as sacred as the “big” and supposedly more spiritual ones. She shares her spiritual journey of discovering that every common deed can be an act of worship, and shows how God hides in the menial and commonplace, waiting for us to acknowledge his presence and live “the sacrament of the present moment” in his strength and serenity.
“There is no merely trivial pursuit”, Connie Befus asserts. “All of life is to be holy. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t fun!”. Then she describes, with warmth and candor, the spiritual metaphors and personal experiences that have opened the door for her into a new awareness of God’s presence and work in the details of life. Learn along with her how to align yourself with his mighty flow, pray without stopping, recognize his fingerprints in everyday dust, and take “Mary’s mind” into “Martha’s work”.
About the Author
Connie Befus, Ph.D., grew up in Africa and has also lived in Central and South America. Crossing cultures, and watching others struggle in cross-cultural adaptation led her to do her doctoral dissertation research on culture shock. She has used her research, her experience overseas and her expertise as a psychologist to train, counsel and encourage cross-cultural workers for over 35 years. She loves to help people integrate truths from God’s word and the practice of spiritual disciplines with appropriate psychological research and techniques—for healthy, vibrant lives and service.