Between 1790 and 1850, waves of Anglo-Americans, African Americans, and European immigrants flooded the Old Northwest (modern-day Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, and Wisconsin). They brought with them a mosaic of Christian religious belief. Stephen T. Kissel draws on a wealth of primary sources to examine the foundational role that organized religion played in shaping the social, cultural, and civic infrastructure of the region. As he shows, believers from both traditional denominations and religious utopian societies found fertile ground for religious unity and fervor. Able to influence settlement from the earliest days, organized religion integrated faith into local townscapes and civic identity while facilitating many of the Old Northwest's earliest advances in literacy, charitable public outreach, formal education, and social reform. Kissel also unearths fascinating stories of how faith influenced the bonds, networks, and relationships that allowed isolated western settlements to grow and evolve a distinct regional identity. Perceptive and broad in scope, America’s Religious Crossroads illuminates the integral relationship between communal and spiritual growth in early Midwestern history.

Life gives us choices. When we know what's right, JUST DO IT! These forty "stones" help you find that the right choices in life are much better. Wrong choices can keep our lives in turmoil and nothing will seem to ever go right. This journey through my years of raising my children and growing up will help you too as you share my "stones". Some "stones" will seem rough, others smooth and then there are those "stones" which will bring hard changes in your life. But if you throw down your stones, God will begin a work in your life to help you be who you were called to be. There were times I felt like I was being stoned. Then other times I could find rest and peace in receiving these "stones". Yet in all these "stones" you will see, as I did, that when I made the right choice to let God be God, I found these stones easy to lay down before a Holy God, knowing that no matter what was happening in my life God would be with me all the way. God promises to never leave us or forsake us. Through these years and years of learning to walk in obedience and sacrifice I have grown up and found that God's ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts. HE IS THE WAY, THE TRUTH and THE LIFE. It was not always easy, but it was a journey of a lifetime for me, with a God who loves me so much that He gave His life so we can all be over comers and not be overcome! Now, follow me down this less-traveled path to find peace, joy, obedience, and sacrificial love, as you too begin to ..THROW DOWN YOUR STONES.