MSI Press Blog

    Excerpt from  A Believer-in-Waiting  by Elizabeth Mahlou.  A Simple Grace It all began with prayer, but which prayer began it all I do not know. It may have been the grace I was coerced into saying five years ago. Or, it may have been the prayer of my sister Danielle five decades earlier. I used to think it was the former. Now, in reviewing the whole expanse of my life, I rather think it may have been the latter.   Danielle’s Prayer The “8-pack,” a moniker given to my seven younger siblings and me by my brother Rollie, suffered immense abuse during our childhood. My sister Katrina, in fact, never planned on growing up, certain that she would be killed by Ma before achieving adulthood. However amazing, we all did survive the extensive physical abuse (e.g., being stabbed, thrown into walls, kicked into unconsciousness, pulled down flights of stairs by the hair, and much more), emotional abuse (e.g., being negatively compared with each other, denigrated at every opportunity, and, in o

  Today's shared blog post comes from Elizabeth Mahlou, author of A Believer-in-Waiting's First Encounters with God and Blest Atheist :   My cooking is well known -- for how bad it is. In fact, the topic figured prominently in Doah's book,  Mommy Poisoned Our House Guest . My mother gave up on teaching me to cook years ago, saying that it was too expensive because I ruined so much of what I touched. My kids quickly learned that it was better to have Donnie do the cooking, and I could almost always get them to do whatever I asked by threatening to cook. There is, however, one thing I can cook well: ham. So, for this new year's New Year dinner, I made a ham. Now, we usually go out to dinner on special occasions since it really is only Donnie, Doah, and I. However, this year, it was rainy and cold and seemed perfect for a ham dinner and fire in the fireplace. Doah was not so certain, however. Right after that, he ran hollering to Donnie, "Come quick! Mom's cookin

  Excerpt from  A Believer-in-Waiting  by Elizabeth Mahlou.  To the Reader My first intent was to call this book Hierophany and Contemplation because that is how my life with God has unfolded. However, the more time I have spent writing this book, the clearer it has become that a simpler title would serve better. That is when I remembered the appellation given to me by friends in Jordan a few years ago: believer in waiting. They refused to accept my professions of atheism and chose instead to view me as a lost lamb whom God would scoop up sooner or later, which, indeed, God did. Along with scooping me up, God gave me the task of writing. Although I did not gunderstand what that task was to encompass, I did know that this writing was not to be more of the professional books I publish but rather writing for the glory of God and especially for those who might also be lost lambs, believers in waiting, souls chased by the Hound of Heaven, or whatever other label one might use. It is a