Tag Archives: scavenger hunt

The Christian Fiction Scavenger Hunt Is On!

THE WINNER IS Sharon Miller.  Thanks to all who stopped by, liked and/or friended me! 

Welcome to the Christian Fiction Scavenger Hunt! If you at any time need to read the instructions for the hunt, please visit www.christianfictionscavengerhunt.com

AND, welcome to my site.   I’m Jane Myers Perrine.  Delighted to be part of this scavenger hunt!  Hope you’ll have fun here!

You may know me from my books at Love Inspired:  The Path to Love, Love’s Healing Touch, Deep in the Heart, and Second Chance Bride.  I loved those books and hope you’ve read some or all of them!

I’m now writing a series for FaithWords about a young, inexperienced minister who is called to serve a church in the beautiful Hill Country of Texas.   This series has been so much fun to write because my husband and I are both ministers.  We’ve met some of these (carefully disguised!) people and experienced many of these event in churches we’ve served.

The first book in the series is The Welcome Committee of Butternut Creek which is now available and has had great reviews.  It’s been compared to both Jan Karon’s wonderful Mitford series and Phillip Gulley’s Harmony books..

The second book in the series is The Matchmakers of Butternut Creek which will be out in late November of this year.

What should I tell you about myself?  First of all, I love to write humor and have really loved using it in these novels.  Second, as well as being a minister, I’ve taught Spanish in high school and college.  Third, George and I live in central Texas with two spoiled tuxedo cats who rule our lives.

I have a contest on this blog for an advanced reader’s copy of The Matchmakers as well as a set of magnetic bookmarks with scriptures.   You’ll get one point for posting here on this blog, one for TWEETING (@perrinejane  Please mention Butternut Creek so I know to count you) and one for liking me on Facebook  (Jane Myers Perrine).  Due to postage, I can only send this prize to readers in the USA or Canada.

About the book:  The Matchmakers of Butternut Creek picks up after The Welcome Committee ends.  Peoples have asked me if the minister, Adam Jordan, gets married in the second book.  Maybe.  Miss Birdie, the Widow who runs the church is back.  Even if you haven’t read The Welcome Committee, you know her.  She’s the lady who runs the church but only because she loves people and is sure everyone will be better off and happier if they do things her way.   The other Widows appear and one is added.  Leo and Nick still pull stunts and life goes on in Butternut Creek.  The parsonage is that Victorian house next to the Christian Church.  Sit down, pour yourself a glass of lemonade, and chat a spell.

Each of the books starts with a letter from Adam.  Here’s the letter that begins The Matchmakers of Butternut Creek. 

 From the desk of Adam Joseph Jordan, M Div.

I continue to be a sad burden for Birdie MacDowell. Since I arrived at the church in Butternut Creek seven months ago, I’ve attempted to lift that weight from her shoulders and to correct the many errors she expects me to atone for.

If she were to comment on the first paragraph of this letter, Miss Birdie would point out that I wrote a run-on sentence and ended it with a preposition. Despite my earnest efforts, I have failed her again, at least grammatically.

When I first arrived here in Butternut Creek, called to serve the Christian Church, she saw me as too young and too inexperienced for almost everything. She was correct. She believes she always is. Personally, I’d hoped the passage of time would take care of both of my flaws, but Miss Birdie is not one to wait around and hope for change.

Although she’s never expressed this, an odd omission for a woman who prides herself on her speaking out fearlessly, she knows that a man of my age (too young) and with a sad lack of piety could never act as her spiritual guide.

She’s probably correct. I am woefully incompetent to lead another person to faith when I struggle daily with my own flaws. Thank goodness for grace from the Lord if not from Miss Birdie.

I have discovered a few things in the months I’ve been here. First, I fell in love with this small town in the beautiful hill country of Texas the moment I arrived: the friendly people, the Victorian houses, the live oaks shadowing the streets, the downtown square surrounded by coffee shops and gift stores and antique malls with a few businesses—the barber shop and the diner where Miss Birdie works–sprinkled in.

Secondly, I found out I do possess some skills. I preach a good sermon, teach an interesting adult Sunday school class, have an active youth group, and make much appreciated hospital calls and evangelistic visits regularly. I’ve also improved my basketball game.

But there was one area in which Miss Birdie still found me lacking: finding a wife and producing children to populate the children’s Sunday school classes.

Yes, she wanted me to find a bride. Wanted is an inadequate word here. Even determined doesn’t approach the level of her resolve. Add to that adjective single-minded and unwavering and the total comes close to her desperate need to marry me off. Do not add choosyto that list because she’d marry me off to any single woman still in her child-bearing years who lives within a fifty-mile radius of Butternut Creek. Her task is made nearly impossible by the dearth of single women in small central Texas towns.

Could be she expects God to create a mate from my rib, but that hasn’t happened yet. Nor do I expect to wake up, as Boaz did, to find a bride lying at my feet. Of course, if a woman should appear in my bed, whether at the foot or cozily snuggled next to me, her presence in the parsonage would create a scandal from which neither the church nor I would recover.

Because Miss Birdie has renounced these biblical approaches to finding me a wife, I shudder to imagine what schemes ARE in her fertile and scheming mind. All for my own good, of course.

For the protection and edification of all involved, I decided to document every one of the efforts she and her cohorts, the other three Widows, have made in their attempts to find me a mate. In addition, this book will cover my next year as minister in Butternut Creek, my search for experience and a wife as well as the joy of living here with the wonderful people who inhabit this paradise.

I send it off with my love and my blessing and in the desperate hope that someday Miss Birdie will smile upon me and say, “Well done, Pastor.”

For your next clue, go to  http://vickiemcdonough.com/www.vickiemcdonough.com/CFSH.html