"What is your name?" asked General Mohammad. "Matthew," I said. I had stopped saying Matt a while ago because it means ‘dead' in Arabic. On New Year's Eve in 2012, Matthew Schrier was headed home from Syria, where he'd been photographing the intense combat of the country's civil war. Just 45 minutes from the safety of the Turkish border, he was taken prisoner by the al Nusra Front—an organization the world would come to know as the Syrian branch of Al Qaeda. Over the next seven months he would endure torture and near starvation in six brutal terrorist prisons. He'd face a daily struggle just to survive. And, eventually, he'd escape. In this gripping, raw, and surprisingly funny memoir, Schrier details the horrifying and frequently surreal experience of being a slight, wisecracking Jewish guy held captive by the world's most violent Islamic extremists. Managing to keep his heritage a secret, Schrier used humor to develop relationships with his captors—and to keep himself sane during the long months of captivity. The Dawn Prayer (Or How to Survive in a Secret Syrian Terrorist Prison): A Memoir is a tale of patriotism and unimaginable bleakness shot through with light . . . of despair and friendship, sacrifice and betrayal, in a setting of bombed-out buildings and shifting alliances. It's the story of the first Westerner to escape al Qaeda—not a battle-hardened soldier, but an ordinary New Yorker who figured out how to set his escape plan in motion from a scene in Jurassic Park. From the prisoners' fiercely competitive hacky sack games and volleyball tournaments (played using a ball made of shredded orange peels and a shoelace) to his own truly nail-biting outbreak, Matthew Schrier's story is unforgettable—and one you won't want to miss.

A Prayer Before Dawn is the true story of one man’s fight to survive inside Klong Prem Prison, the notorious Bangkok Hilton. Billy Moore travelled to Thailand to escape a life of drug addiction and alcoholism. He managed to overcome his inner demons for a time but relapsed after trying ya ba – a highly-addictive form of methamphetamine. Moore’s life quickly descended into chaos, drug dealing and violence until he was eventually arrested and imprisoned in Klong Prem, a place where life has no value. A Prayer Before Dawn is no ordinary prison memoir; it’s the story of one man’s struggle to survive in one of the world’s toughest prisons. It’s also a story of redemption in the most unlikely of places. Billy Moore was born in Liverpool, England. He has worked as a teacher, Muay Thai fighter and extra on film sets. Following his release from prison in Thailand, he returned to Britain where he now lives with his family. He is now working as a motivational speaker and a drugs counsellor.

Lisa Hendey, Catholic social media expert and creator of CatholicMom.com, presents five-minute daily devotions to help Catholic households embrace the spiritual riches of Advent. This daily prayer book is created for use around an Advent wreath in Catholic households of any configuration. It contains twenty-eight devotional services, each designed to last only five minutes--an achievable goal for busy families. The single-page service includes: 1) a simple candle lighting, 2) a brief scripture passage paired with a reflection question for adults and older children and one for younger children, 3) silence, and 4) a closing prayer. Rooted in scriptural images of light, the booklet can be used perennially.

The lives of a dozen people in Cincinnati, Ohio are inextricably linked in this unrelenting first novel by Nathan Singer. A publicist who writes checks to charities to relieve a guilty conscience, a convict who rants in an underground 'zine, an artist with a controversial portfolio, a runaway engaging in 'petty terrorism', and an eight year old girl named Dawn at the center of it all watch as the world falls down around them.

How you spend your first few minutes after waking up each morning can greatly affect the rest of your day. Taking a little time for introspection and prayer makes it easier to be more focused and productive, leaving you feeling peaceful, uplifted, and ready for whatever lies ahead. This book features a variety of universal prayers for different circumstances, moods, and challenges, as well as several open-ended prayers that you can tailor to whatever you are feeling or experiencing at any given moment. It only takes a minute or two to improve your entire day, so start your morning with a simple, heartfelt prayer, and see what a difference it can make.

What if the presence of God became so real in people's hearts that it revived the church and ushered in the next Jesus Movement? From the Upper Room in Jerusalem to the Moravian community in Germany, God's personal presence always changes everything. Awaken the Dawn chronicles the story of a movement of day-and-night worship, prayer, creativity, and mission that is impacting America and the nations by bringing the presence of God into our cities and campuses. This story is part of the same movement David pioneered when he served as the greatest king in Israel's history and that the Book of Acts chronicles as God's presence filled communities. It's time for a generation to find their voice in the symphony of creative worship, prayer, and gospel proclamation that God is orchestrating. Jesus' way of changing the world is surprising and exhilarating and is certainly the opposite of the systems of the world. This book will help you find your part in Jesus' plan by discussing: What God's presence is and how it changes our hearts Incredible stories of God's activity in the nation and what He is saying through them God's values and how He brings transformation and mercy Why Jesus is central to all that the Holy Spirit is doing This book will equip you to be a part of Jesus' astounding storyline for a great spiritual awakening. It will give you hope and keys on how God is unfolding his mission of mercy and transformation and how you can be a part of it.

This revised, expanded edition of the Common Worship President’s Edition contains everything to celebrate Holy Communion Order One throughout the church year. It combines relevant material from the original President’s Edition with Eucharistic material from Times and Seasons, Festivals and Pastoral Services, and the Additional Collects.

Prayers for Every Day is a hardcover devotional book that offers prayers, Scripture verses, poetry, hymns, and inspirational quotes for every day of the year, written to inject insight and energy into daily devotionals. The daily prayer book is filled with powerful prayers that concern such deeply felt emotions as love, compassion, contrition, peace, and joy, as well as grace, hope, comfort, faith, and guidance. Prayers for Every Day is written as an honest, heartfelt dialogue with God. You are likely to hear your own struggles when reading the prayer book, as well as encouragement that can help you deepen your faith. Additional features of Prayers for Every Day include: Padded cover with an embedded praying hands charm. Attached satin ribbon bookmark. Gold-gilded pages.

Highway 18 between Mission and Okreek, South Dakota, is a stretch of no more than eighteen miles, but late at night or in a blizzard it seems endless. "It feels like being somewhere between South Dakota and 'there,'" says Simon Ortiz, "perhaps at the farthest reaches of the galaxy." Acoma Pueblo poet Ortiz spent a winter in South Dakota, teaching at Sinte Gleska College on the Rosebud Lakota Sioux Reservation. The bitter cold and driving snow of a prairie winter were a reality commanding his attention through its absolute challenge to survival and the meaning of survival. Ortiz's way of dealing with the hard elements of winter was to write After and Before the Lightning, prose and verse poems that were his response to that long season between the thunderstorms of autumn and spring. "I needed a map of where I was and what I was doing in the cosmos," he writes. In these poems, which he regards as a book-length poetic work, he charts the vast spaces of prairie and time that often seem indistinguishable. As he faces the reality of winter on the South Dakota reservation, he also confronts the harsh political reality for its Native community and culture and for Indian people everywhere. "Writing this poetry reconnected me to the wonder and awe of life," Ortiz states emphatically. Readers will feel the reality of that wonder and awe—and the cold of that South Dakota winter—through the gentle ferocity of his words.