Making Sunday Special

In this insightful, encouraging, and delightful book, bestselling author Karen Mains challenges Christians to celebrate Sunday with a Sabbath heart—to make the Lord’s Day so special that its impact launches a weekly cycle of reflection and growing anticipation. Making Sunday Special will help you and your people restore the biblical “rhythm of the sacred” and then fall in love again and again with Jesus Christ, the Lord of the Sabbath.

God Hunt

Join award-winning author, Karen Mains, as she takes the journey to find the impact of God in the everyday. this eye-opening book offers deep insight into those seemingly ordinary moments when God intervenes in our lives with guidance, care and help.

Once you start the adventure you quickly realize that such moments happen more often than you think. You'll be drawn into deeper communion with God as you tune in to the many ways he answers prayer, shows evidence of His love, helps you do His work in the world and "works all things together for good."

The Key to an Open Heart

"Ourheart is a habitation," says karen Mains. "There is a mansion in our souls for which we need to take intimate responsibility." Unfortunately, because of sin, our hearts consist of "mean rooms, damp basements, narrow hallways, cramped spaces . . . The place God created to be open to the fresh wind of his Spirit, the dwelling he desires to occupy in order that it may be habitable to others, has become boarded. the windows are shuttered, the blinds drawn. Dust is accumulating. The doors have been padlocked."
What is the key that will unlock a wide veranda here, a turret spiraling there, or a whole new wing of rooms? The key that opens the door to the locked rooms of our hearts is forgiveness. And that is what this book is all about . . .

It is about rooting out painful memories, stored prejudices, petty self- loves, the junk of our attics and crawlways, and exposing them to the bright light and cool breezes of th Spirit. Here we begin the life- long process of sorting and cleaning out the house of the soul, scouring our conscious minds as well as our rich, subconcious selves—a task that is initiated, supported, and fulfilled by God's help.

Karen Mains suggests practical principles and true-life illustrations that help us understand and practice true forgiveness within ourselves, and in our corporate Body, the church.

Open Heart, Open Home

In Open Heart, Open Home (over 500,000 copies in print) award-winning Karen Mains steps far beyond how-to-entertain you hints to explore the deeper concepts of Christian hospitality-the Biblical way to use your home and an open heart to care for others like God wants us to. Countless pastors have recommended this classic resource as the meaningful example of how the Holy Spirit ministers to and through us to make other people feel truly welcome and deeply wanted. Perfect for any womens bible study group, especially when used in tandem with the Opening Our Hearts & Homes Bible Study. This new edition contains 54 helpful ways to make hospitality work whether you live on a country farm, in a house in the suburbs, or in an apartment in the city. Everyone in your bible study will appreciate the life-changing principles of this timeless classic.

Living, Loving, Leading

What's the spiritual temperature of your home?

"As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord," thundered Joshua centuries ago. We hear his words, applaud them, and long to follow in his footsteps. So why is it that thousands of us seem so disatisfied with the spiritual condition of our own homes?

Part of our problem, says David and Karen Mains, is that we're not sure what spiritual leadership looks like. We have problems fleshing it out because we can't see it.

Living, Loving, Leading, offers a tangible, "seeable" model for encouraging your family's spiritual development. Join David and Karen as they suggest some helpful, biblical ideas for raising the spiritual temperature of your home. Walk with them as they describe their own struggles and triumphs, and as they search for workable solutions to the crucial question, "How can we become the spiritual leaders of our family that God wants us to be?" Can you afford to wait any longer?

The Christmas Touch: Making Christlike Connections during the Holidays

God reached out in love to the world at Christmas. It would be good if we could learn to connect with people in a similar fashion. That's what this Advent series is all about - extending a Christlike "touch" so this holiday season others can experience Christ anew. This series lays out a course of action that will enhance your holiday experience through looking at six characters in the Christmas story. They will teach you how to make meaningful connections with God and others though December.

Friends and Strangers

Friends and Strangers chronicles the beginning of the journey into self-knowledge, a painful odyssey particular to the work of the middle years. This narrative focuses on the ages from 38-45. Each of us has hidden areas, lies we tell to ourselves that we don’t know we are telling. The work of the Holy Spirit is to continually bring us into truth. In this book I begin to look at truth through encounters with strangers, people I meet along the way, brought to me by God, who have rich gifts to give that shake my smug thinking. I am convinced that no encounter is casual, as each has the potential to move the ground beneath our feet, which is never as solid as we like to think.

Lonely No More

Lonely No More looks those lies finally in the eye and begins to deal with them honestly. "If my marriage is as perfect as I say it is, why am I so lonely?" "What are these dreams, these painful emotions, these attractions pointing to?" This book was extremely controversial in certain sections of ultra-conservative Christianity so I warn you, read it carefully. I stand behind every word, despite the controversy. It may even shake the ground beneath your feet. I will probably never write anything this well again. But I have certainly paid for the effort to be excellent, to be lovingly truthful, to want God. Covers age 45-52.

Any Help to Do God’s Work in the World

Have you ever gone on a God Hunt? A God Hunt begins when you teach yourself to look for God’s hand at work in the every day occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings: I recently flew home from a ten-day trip overseas with one week to put the final details together for an Advent Retreat of Silence for thirty-some women. So much needed to be done, and even though our staff was in a highly busy space themselves, they assisted me in putting the final touches on the Advent Retreat with willingness, without complaint, and with a spirit that brought great kindness and grace to my jet-lagging physiology.Someone on the staff designed name cards (someone else found leftover nametags). Another individual pulled a list of alphabetized names together, showing who had paid and who was rooming with whom. A check was totaled and funds transferred so I could pay the retreat center. Handouts were copied and collated. Flyers were designed to list coming events. Every time I turned around, another task was done. I went to the Advent Retreat with everything organized, no last-minute panic, and with an hour or two to compose myself before the participants arrived. And yes, we all experienced a powerful time together waiting on God for the healing power of silence.One of my tasks at Mainstay Ministries is to write or gather the ideas for our monthly fund appeal. Since I have been raising funds for nonprofit organizations since the age of 18, this frequently becomes a tiresome process for me. Some days I would give anything for someone to step into our organization, tap me on the shoulder and take this whole load off my back. If I were not so certain about God’s help to do His work in the world, I would give it up. But, so frequently, there is the right idea, and the right quote, and the right photograph just when I need it most. Thus, I am encouraged by the reality that this is a collaborative process, one in which I am not working all alone.Other tasks, particularly the teaching tasks, are different for me. When I am putting together a teaching ministry, God frequently uses anything and everything to teach me. While developing a teaching program that used the metaphor of dance to show how to “step in time to God’s sacred rhythms,” it seemed as though all my spiritual reading, the conversations I had with friends, and the films, books, and magazine articles from popular culture gave me examples of this concept.Even better, during this period of time I was the plenary speaker at a women’s conference where one of the workshops was being taught by a professor from a Christian college who was head of the dance minor. I attended, took copies of all her scriptural notes, and in a half-hour she had us all improvising worship dance. It was delightful!I needed help to do God’s work in this world. Help arrived. I spy God!

Annual Advent Retreat This December 2011

Few weeks from now, we will be celebrating Thanksgiving and Christmas. Today is the best time to reflect as we prepare ourselves to celebrate the most joyous season of the year, the season of giving and sharing.

We would like to invite you once again to participate on the Annual Advent Retreat of Silence this coming Dec. 1 to Dec. 2, 2011 which will be held at the Bishop Lane Retreat House, Rockford, IL. Sibyl Towner (author, Listen to Your Life) and I will be facilitating, and we look forward to entering into this time of corporate silence as a powerful way to begin the Advent Season. There are only 50 spaces available, and this retreat does fill up, so please let me know if you would like to attend. You can go to this link ==> http://www.breathingspaceorg.com/tiffany/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Advent-Retreat-Registration.pdf to register.

We look forward to seeing many of you again this year! Blessings on each of you this day. Wishing you a blissful Thanksgiving and Christmas this 2011.

Plant A Tree For Charity

Nowadays, green living has been a practice for most of us. Trees gives us shelter and beautifies Mother Earth. On Sept. 9-10, 2011, I will be holding a charity plant sale at my house in West Chicago. Proceeds will go toward defraying some of the above costs to underwrite the Global Bag Project. For more info, contact me at info@hungrysouls.org or leave a message on the office phone,630-293-4500. Any volunteer help the proceeding week or that weekend will be greatly appreciated.

Kingdom Tales

David & Karen Mains' Kingdom Tales consist of three volumes - Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration.

Each volume consists of twelve fantasy short stories, set in a city ruled by an evil Enchanter who has usurped the throne from the true King. The stories are all separate events often involving different characters, but are bound together as part of a larger story as the Enchanted City is rescued by the exiled King and becomes the Bright City, leading to a joyous conclusion as the people of Great Park and Bright City begin the Great Celebration at the conclusion of the Restoration.

The stories in the Kingdom Tales are heartwarming allegories of good and evil that draw the readers into the Kingdom through the open doors of whimsy and invention.

Face of Christ

Friends and Strangers written by Karen Mains contain true stories that make up milestones in the author's journey from isolation to community -- from haunting estrangement to a deeper, more vital connection with others. Karen Mains has discovered, that we grow into our real selves. And it is often those we meet in life's lonely places that show us the face of Christ.

Torschlusspanik: Gate-closing Panic

“It’s not so much a fear of diminishing opportunities that haunts me, as the fear of not finishing well. Of course, none of us knows the date or hour of our own demise, but I can’t think of anything more satisfactory than to rest my head, take a deep breath, and sigh, It is finished. How wonderful that would be.“

Read here as Karen Mains ponders on her torschlusspanik.

Note: torschlusspanik is a German word which means "the fear that time is running out."

Winner of the 1982 Christopher Award

The Fragile Curtain was written after author Karen Mains trips through barrios and refugee camps in Central America, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa in the late '70s to early '80s. In this deeply moving book, Karen Mains recounts her very personal journey through the crowded refugee camps of the world. She went to write about the pain and suffering of these people. Instead they showed her the meaning of her own life. The sacredness of family. The miracle of love. The hope of birth and death.

The Fragile Curtain went on to win the Christopher Award in 1982, an award that salutes media that "affirms the highest values of the human spirit."

Friends and Strangers by Karen Mains

Friends and Strangers is a collection of essays Karen Mains wrote when she first began to recognize the divine interplay that often occurred when meeting strangers. Some of the chapter titles include “The Loneliest Man I Ever Met,” “Guess Who Came to St. Patrick’s Day Dinner?”, “Writer Without Words,” and “A Comfortably Rumpled Advocate.”

Close Encounters of the Casual Kind

by Karen Mains

For my birthday last week, David and I used our Metro Regional Transportation Authority “Seniors Ride Free” passes to go into Chicago. Rumor has it that the state legislature is going to cancel this program since Illinois is facing one of the worst budget deficits among the 50 states so we are trying to employ these passes as much as possible before the hatchet falls.

Last spring, because of the fact that Riccardo Mutti was named the new artistic director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, my husband purchased a series of tickets, which are serving as our anniversary, Christmas, birthday, and Valentine’s Day gifts. We arrived at Ogilvie Station on January 19, where a bitter biting wind forced us to catch a taxi. Consequently, we had an hour to spend in the Art Institute (where the Chagall stained-glass windows have been cleaned and reinstalled) before our dinner reservation. At 6 p.m. we hustled across Michigan Avenue to have dinner at the Russian Tea Time Restaurant.

How to choose from Ukrainian Borscht, Eggplant/Zucchini Duet, Lamb Samsa or Pumpkin Vareniky? David leaned over to the woman eating alone at the table beside ours and asked, “Do you have anything on the menu you especially enjoy?” That was the beginning of an enchanting table conversation with this woman who had grown up on the South Side of Chicago, spent her career teaching at South Shore High School, resides now in retirement at the family home in Saugatauk, Michigan, but makes regular trips back into the city where she keeps a condo in her old neighborhood. Read full article at Hungry Souls.