Christy Huddleston left home at 19 to teach school in the Smokey Mountains. There she came to know and love the wild mountain people with their fierce pride, their dark superstitions, their terrible poverty, their yearning for beauty and truth. Christy found her faith severely challenged in these primitive surroundings; and, confronted with two young men of unique strength and needs, she found her own growing yearnings challenged by love.

That Cutter Gap is right rough country. Watch yourself out there. . .The train taking nineteen-year-old teacher Christy Huddleston from her home in Asheville, North Carolina, might as well be transporting her to another world. The Smoky Mountain community of Cutter Gap feels suspended in time, trapped by poverty, superstitions, and century-old traditions.But as Christy struggles to find acceptance in her new home, some see her--and her one-room school--as a...

Catherine Marshall’s story reveals the heartbreak and hope of foster parenting. Thirty-eight and newly married, Catherine yearned to be a mother and adoption seemed a viable option. The county’s Foster-Adopt Program was affordable, so she and her new husband were confident they could adopt and parent two siblings. But nothing was as it seemed. The birth parents used intimidation and the court system to sabotage the adoption. The social services agency wavered in its support. Even the child...

"Hey, boy—" she began, and then her heart turned cold as stone. Prince was gone! Even in the twilight gloom, she could tell that he was nowhere in the pasture.Young Ruby Mae Morrison and the mission's black stallion vanish in a furious storm and Christy is determined to find them. As Christy desperately searches for Ruby Mae in the cold, blinding rain, she runs headlong into three angry moonshiners bent on revenge against anyone who might try to stop their illegal ...

Will the dam hold?Julie Wallace has always wanted to write. Trying to escape the Great Depression, Julie's father buys the Alderton Sentinel, a small-town newspaper in flood-prone Alderton, Pennsylvania, and moves his family there. As flash floods ominously increase, Julie's investigative reporting uncovers secrets that could endanger the entire community.Julie, the newspaper, and her family are thrown into a perilous standoff with the owners of the steel m...

She could just make out the glimmer of a knife, poised high over the open piano. "No!" she cried, and as the knife came down, she grabbed for the intruder's arm with all her might.Headstrong and independent, Christy is determined to change the lives of the children in Cutter Gap. Apparently, Christy has angered someone enough to cause a string of mysterious pranks. Miss Alice warns Christy to be careful as the pranks become more threatening.What will Christ...

"We ain't sayin' we're better, Miz Christy. But the whole truth is, we are different now. Can't help it."When Ruby Mae, Bessie, and Clara discover gold in Dead Man's Creek, they form an exclusive group calling themselves "The Princess Club."Christy watches in dismay as the girls, and soon the whole town, are torn apart by greed and envy.Will Christy find a way to heal the bitter divisions caused by a handful of gold?Based on Catherine Marsha...

Red-gold flames licked at the stars. The air grew acrid with the smell of burning wood. . . Before long, they could hear the sound of desperate shouts.Bob Allen and many of the residents of Cutter Gap are upset because a black family moves into the Cove and their three children attend the Mission school. As tensions rise and threatening incidents escalate, Christy's concern for the safety of her new students deepens.When Christy discovers a surprising link ...

When Christy travels alone to a nearby mountain, she vows to discover the truth behind the terrifying legend of a strange mountain creature. But what she finds seems worse than anything she could ever have imagined!

"Marry me, Christy," David whispered. Christy should be thrilled when David, the handsome minister, proposes marriage. So why do thoughts of Doctor Neil MacNeill keep popping into her head? Before she can answer David, Christy is blinded in a terrible riding accident, and all her dreams are threatened.

Employing a social justice framework, this book provides educational leaders and practitioners with tools and strategies for grappling with the political fray of education politics. The framework offers ways to critique, challenge, and alter social, cultural, and political patterns in organizations and systems that perpetuate inequities. The authors focus on the processes through which educational politics is enacted, illustrating how inequitable power relations are embedded in our democra...

Why Am I Here?This question, if we are honest, often comes from a restless, nagging feeling that you should be getting more out of life or putting more into it.The search for something more—something beyond your own self—begins when your spirit cries out for It Maker and refuses to be satisfied with anything less. At that point, how do you go about finding God? How does an ordinary person gain intimacy with Him for a lifetime of meaning and significance?...