Caught in a swirling vortex?

The first chapter of Stand at the Cross Roads begins with this question,  "In resolving our issues, are we doomed to repeat them over and over, to relive the same situation until we finally get it right?"    What are your thoughts on this subject?

Available Now

The book I wrote, Stand at the Cross Roads, came out a few weeks ago, but so many people are still asking me when it will be available that I  guess I'm not doing this "social networking thing" right.  Not a big surprise for anyone that know me very well!!!!    Anyway you can order it from  your preferred on-line retailer - Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iUniverse.com, etc... in softcover, hardcover or as an ebook.  It can also be ordered from your local bookseller using the ISBN# 978-1-4620-2426-1. 


I have been humbled beyond belief by the wonderful reception that the book has received from so many of you.  Thank you for your feedback, your warm affirmations and for sharing this testimony to God's goodness with your friends.   


I pray that this open and honest look at my life and walk with Christ will be received in the spirit intended - a  testament to what God can do through the most unlikely of people. 


Wish me luck with getting the word out in spite of my technological limitations and cut me some slack when, not if, I get it wrong!!!!

Book Launch!

It's been a long haul, my friends, but, praise God, the book Stand at the Cross Roads  is finally available.  Below is the Press Release that will be going out shortly.  In the meantime, you can order it from your local bookseller, your preferred on-line retailer or iUniverse.com. It is also available as an ebook.  

It is my ardent prayer that this testimony to God's grace and empowerment will encourage anyone standing at a crossroads in search of hope and a future.  

**FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE**

EDITORS: For review copies or interview requests, contact:

Marketing Services

Tel: 800-288-4677

Fax: 812-961-3133

Email: promotions@iuniverse.com

(When requesting a review copy, please provide a street address.)

Autobiography Reveals Unlikely Woman’s Call to Action

Faith leads her to risk everything in pursuit of her vision

CALDWELL, Texas –Hilda Hellums Baker’s new autobiography, written with Chris Rogers, Stand at the Cross Roads: A True Story of an Imperfect Woman, an Uncertain Future, and a Mission That Would Change Lives Forever (published by iUniverse), is the story of a woman that you wouldn’t expect to have much to offer the world, much less the Christian community. Plagued by a series of painful divorces, financial setbacks and the struggles of single motherhood she had reached the end of her rope.

   

One sultry morning, at a retreat in south Texas, Hilda Baker sensed a voice whose message ignited a passion in her and catapulted her from cosmopolitan Houston to Chriesman, Texas – population seventy – and then into a remote, rugged wilderness. Arriving with little more than a U-Haul trailer crammed with her worldly belongings, and with her sixteen-year-old daughter in tow, she began the task God had entrusted her to complete.

This courageously honest, fast paced, hard-to-put down book takes you along on Baker’s gripping true-life adventure and shares the many insights she gained as she worked to carve a sanctuary out of a dense forest. Despite the hardships, or maybe because of them, she was transformed in the process.

Through her perseverance, strength of will and unwavering faith, the Cross Roads Retreat has become a place of transformation for countless others and a testament to what God can do through the most unlikely of people.

About the Author

In addition to being the founder, volunteer director and chairman of the board of Cross Roads Retreat, Hilda Hellums Baker also shares her passion for spiritual formation as a founding member of Area 3:16, a church started in her adopted hometown of Caldwell, Texas. Hilda is also active in the Brazos Valley Emmaus Community, a program for spiritual renewal and the development of Christian leaders.

PRINTING NOW!

It's been 5 months since my last post, and I said on the Stand at the Cross Roads Facebook page, I have been stymied at every turn in getting this book published. My frustration with the  "process" took a huge toll on my frame of mind.  There were daily problems, errors, mis-communications, and corrections, ad nauseam and, quite frankly, I  got just as tired of writing negative updates, as you must have gotten reading them.

 On top of that, for the last few months, while battling with the publisher, I have also been writhing in self-doubt about what my friends and family might think about me, and the things about me, that I shared so openly in this story.  Although the test readers, including several family members,  overwhelming supported the book, I was still unsettled.  

However, God has used this time to further assure me, through my Christian friends and family, that it truly is His will for me to share my story.  My story?  No, His story.  This story is about God keeping the promise He made in 2 Corinthians 12:8-9  where Christ says"... “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”  This story is about how God prefers to use weakness, weak and broken people,  to accomplish His will and how He went about doing that through me.

Monday, I realized that I had to get out of God's way and quit stalling and fixing the Stand at the Cross Roads manuscript, so, I took a deep breath and sent it to the printer.  In spite of me, it won't be long now before God will be able to use His story to reveal once again His faithfulness and continuing pursuit of real and personal relationships with His people.  All glory to God!

Moving On

The rejection from CrossBooks really knocked my knees out from under me, but, thanks to the encouragement and support many of you sent my way, I'm back on my feet and moving on!

I never heard back from CrossBooks or LifeWay - so, I finally contacted them.  Apparently, Dr. Drake never received the manuscript from his own people and now doesn't have time to review it.  

No worries, as my mom used to say.  I am now lined up with another publisher, materials are all submitted and hopefully in eight to twelve weeks we should have a book and an e-book.  Praise God!

Still waiting ... and researching other resources!

No word yet from LifeWay's CrossBooks.  If no positive response, or no response at all,  by next Monday, I'm ready to move forward with another self-publisher.  Please pray for me to recognize God's will for this book!

Reconsidering....

Dr. Stephen D. Drake, D. Min., Director, Corporate Relations, President of the LifeWay Bible Society has agreed to personally read the entire manuscript and offer his thoughts, and I have agreed to consider them.

In the meantime I will continue to research other Print On Demand providers.   Please continue to pray that God opens the right door, to the right place, at the right time for this testimony to break free of the obstacles that have delayed it's publication.

Self-Publishing Rejection!?

Well, I can't even pay to have the book published.  I received an email from CrossBooks, a division of LifeWay,  this morning informing me that my manuscript did not pass their "Theological Review".  Apparently, my  history of divorce is not acceptable.


My reply,  "I will send my manuscript to a publisher who is more in touch with God's grace and redemptive power, which is what the book is about,  and is a much more  important and life changing message than submission in marriage."


Heck of a note, huh, can't even get a Christian self-publisher to take the book.  The evil one is truly pulling out all the stops, but I will not give up.  

I'm Ba-a-a-a-ack!

I have been so-o out of touch for so-o long.  As many of you know, George, Pat's dad, moved in with us last March.  Having him with us was truly a blessing and he was the focus of our lives for the following eight months. He passed away the day before Thanksgiving.   Travel to Missouri to take George home, catching up and the holidays consumed December and January.  But, I'm ba-a-a-a-ack now and I have news!

I finally listened to what God has been trying to tell me through many of you for months on end.  Last Monday I took action and signed with CrossBooks to self-publish Stand at the Cross Roads.  CrossBooks is affiliated with LifeWay and B&H Publishing.  The book will available for purchase online through Amazon, Barnes & Noble and LifeWay, plus their sales reps and I will promote it to other bookstores and venues.   There will also be an eBook version that will be available for purchase and download through Kindle, Apple iBooks, Barnes & Noble Reader and every other source of that type.  I am excited about the whole process.

Thank each of you for your support and encouragement, but it's not over yet!  Please pray for the Holy Spirit to move mightily through the good folks at CrossBooks, LifeWay and B&H Publishing in their effort to take this story of God's glory public.

Watch for updates here as Stand at the Cross Roads moves through the self-publishing process!

Blessings and thanks!