Illustrations and simple rhyming text show how the guiding hands of a family are always there to love and nurture a child, from birth to the first day of school.

These stories from Ethiopia show the power of God. Find out about the invisible evangelist, the two girls who prayed and other astonishing stories.

Adversity is not an optional item on life’s menu. We live in a fast and dangerous world. At some point, life won’t go as planned. You will face adversity. A proper response to adversity, on the other hand, is optional. Life can turn upside down faster than we want to acknowledge. From the time an avalanche fractured to the time I was violently crushed into a tree and buried was twelve seconds. In a mere twelve seconds, I went from hero to zero. I was always the type that grabbed hold of life with both hands and made the best of it. I was known as one of the best sets of hands behind the handlebars of a snowmobile. Then life slid out. The avalanche nearly took my life, and I came out of a lengthy coma and recovery with a hand I can’t use. By the hand of God and the amazing people in my life, I’ve never been without two hands. Check out the new unabridged audio version of Two Hands, narrated entirely by Matt with some special audio-only features. www.mattpotratz.com Also available on iTunes or Audible.

By using our hands to transform natural materials into objects of beauty and utility, we reconnect with our creativity, our environment, and back to ourselves. Includes how to make a handplane for bodysurfing.

In separate rhyming stories, two girls describe how they use their hands and feet.

Drawing on examples from modern world history, including resistance to the Nazis, the Civil Rights struggle in the USA, and recent protests by young people around gun violence, the authors offer a compelling introduction to the theory and practice of nonviolence.

When the Rileys move in next door, Lily and Ella become the best of friends. But Lily can't understand why her Dad doesn't like the Rileys. Why doesn't he want them to go over there? Why is he being so horrible and mean? Does something big have to happen to change his mind?

Both Hands Tied studies the working poor in the United States, focusing in particular on the relation between welfare and low-wage earnings among working mothers. Grounded in the experience of thirty-three women living in Milwaukee and Racine, Wisconsin, it tells the story of their struggle to balance child care and wage-earning in poorly paying and often state-funded jobs with inflexible schedules—and the moments when these jobs failed them and they turned to the state for additional aid. Jane L. Collins and Victoria Mayer here examine the situations of these women in light of the 1996 national Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act and other like-minded reforms—laws that ended the entitlement to welfare for those in need and provided an incentive for them to return to work. Arguing that this reform came at a time of gendered change in the labor force and profound shifts in the responsibilities of family, firms, and the state, Both Hands Tied provides a stark but poignant portrait of how welfare reform afflicted poor, single-parent families, ultimately eroding the participants’ economic rights and affecting their ability to care for themselves and their children.

"This collection of essays serves as a sourcebook of significant writings on the reception and use of the theology of the two kingdoms. The Lutheran teaching of the two kingdoms, in one way or another, touches on every article of faith from creation to eschatology. It is critical to vocation, as the Christian navigates life as a citizen of this world while simultaneously a citizen of the heavenly kingdom through faith in Christ Jesus. Without the distinction between the two kingdoms, faith is misplaced, and the neighbor is deprived of the love owed him or her. Pastors, church leaders, teachers, and theology students will find in these essays a respect for Luther's confession of God's two kingdoms and a desire to see it fruitfully utilized in addressing the issues we now encounter in the world"--