A year after the death of his wife Belinda, Silas Fry is
moving his two teenage children to Pinecraft, a community
in Sarasota, FL where all orders and fellowships of Amish
and Mennonite families live and work together. He's been
on
the missions field for the past ten years as a pilot for
Aviation Fellowship. He has a job here contracting at the
local airfield. The one person Silas is not sure about
seeing in Pinecraft or reconnecting with is Rochelle Keim.
Rochelle and Silas share a history from their teen years
in
Ohio. Their relationship ended badly. Will they be able to
at least be friends; or will there be something more in
store for them?
Rochelle is very busy with her two nieces who are both
getting married in just a few short weeks. Betsy and Emma
Yoder came from Ohio to live with Rochelle just a year
ago.
They both found that someone special in their lives and
look forward to their wedding day. Betsy is as sure as she
can be that Thaddeus is the right one for her. But Emma is
having doubts about Steven and keeps changing her mind
about all the wedding details. Is she really ready for
marriage? Will there be a double wedding after all?
Lynette Sowell brings us another delightful, inspirational
story from her Seasons in Pinecraft series. This is
the
third installment. I love series books, because the
returning characters become like old friends, and it's
always good to catch up with what is happening in their
lives. Ms. Sowell uses flashbacks to give us Silas and
Rochelle's past history, inter-mingling these flashbacks
with the present. Silas and Rochelle are strong and
stubborn characters who learn from their past and are
trying not to make some of the same mistakes again. A
PROMISE OF GRACE is a story about grieving the dead, yet
having to go on living. It's a story about change, grace
and restoration, a story of second chances. Ms. Sowell
gives us a lot of food for thought and lessons to be
learned in this inspirational novel.
Rochelle Keim has lived in Pinecraft for almost twenty
years
among her Mennonite brethren and the Amish of Sarasota.
Unlike
the snowbirds who visit Pinecraft from the north,
Rochelle
is
a year-round resident of the unique Plain community.
She’s
quiet, content, and keenly adept at keeping her past
firmly
tucked away. Feeling unsettled as she nears her fortieth
birthday, she decides to return to nursing school, a
dream
she
gave up long ago during a painful time she dares not
remember.
Her past decides to make itself present when Silas Fry,
Rochelle’s former love, moves to Pinecraft. Silas spent
the
past two decades working as a missionary pilot, but that
all
changed with the sudden loss of his wife,
Belinda—Rochelle’s
childhood best friend. Now both Rochelle and Silas are on
a
collision course with their past, and the reunited couple
must
decide if they’re trying to resurrect a dead romance, or
if
the two very different people whose paths have crossed
can
make a new life together.
Excerpt
The minivan’s air conditioner gave one last puff of cold
air not long after Silas Fry drove across the Florida
state line. Silas merely lowered the front windows
without saying anything to the children.
How many more hours to Sarasota? Two? Three?
“I wish we were back in Mozambique.” Lena sighed and
fanned herself where she sat in the front passenger seat.
She leaned toward the open window. Her sigh sounded as if
her world had suddenly crumbled. At nearly nineteen, she
tended to see life in extremes. And Belinda had been the
one adept at handling her moodiness.
“Me, too.” Matthew’s echo was born of always wanting to
follow in Lena’s trail.
“I know you do, I know.” Silas forced his voice to come
out around the lump in his throat. Africa, his home.
Their home. It would never be the same without Belinda.
None of them would be.
Despite what Belinda had done long, long ago, he’d loved
his wife to the end. The day a semi had plowed into the
van in which she and some other ladies had been riding
home from a quilt auction. None of those who died had
suffered, the families were told.
Suffering was left for the rest of the families left
behind, spouseless husbands, motherless children.
Silas filled his lungs with the fresh, humid air blowing
into the van. “Your great-uncle said we’ll have plenty of
time to go to the beach after supper tonight.”
The seashore. The ocean had been the one constant where
they’d lived in Africa, not far from the coast in
Mozambique. And, one big reason he’d chosen to move them
all to Florida. In landlocked Ohio, the children had
balked and he even found himself feeling a bit
constricted, his only refuge in the air, flying a Cessna.
Life with Belinda as their hub had fallen apart. Somehow,
with God’s help, they’d find a way to put it back
together again.
Someone had told him children were resilient.
Children?
He often needed to remind himself Lena wasn’t a child
anymore, her studies had ended long ago, and she was
planning to continue her education, not to become a
teacher like her mother, but a medical assistant. She’d
already completed her high school equivalency certificate
and planned to enroll in college in Sarasota.
Matthew, not a child, either, all of fourteen and
idolizing his older sister with her take-charge view of
the world. They’d already discussed him finishing school
in Pinecraft at the Mennonite school, after seeing where
he compared to other students his age. He had a good eye
for building and construction, as well as taking motors
apart and putting them back together. Silas wasn’t sure
where he’d come by his skill.
But Silas couldn’t help thinking of both of them as
children. He’d been there from the beginning, when their
first cries rang out. He’d seen them grow and thrive,
through first words and first stumbles, through the first
days of “I can do it myself.” Especially with Lena, who
seemed to have come from her mother’s womb sure of
herself and the world.
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