Bøger udgivet af Black Lake Press

There are few voices alive today that can tell their story of World War II. Anthony Gianunzio is one of them. Portraying a time like none other in American history, his story-telling expresses a true ambiance of heart-warming (and wrenching) moments in the chaotic entirety of that war. Vignettes, profiles, documents, humor, and authentic dialogue make you feel a shipmate of this young gunner's mate on the frigate U.S.S. Machias on duty in the Pacific. And as he said, "Armed with a cloth-covered prayers, a romantic heart, and a philosopher's soul, I left youth and home behind to go to war. You come too."

Judge Owen Austin holds a secret. He has time for one more case, but does he want a case that could challenge his core beliefs and and compromise his hard earned reputation? Beautiful wealthy widow, Vicki Taylor, has a cause-revenge against the high school teacher she hold partially responsible for her fifteen-year-old daughter's suicide, but does she want a case that might reveal family secrets? Reservations cast aside, Judge Austin and two gifted trial lawyers explore life's greatest mysteries-are our core values learned or inbred? Is there a caring supernatural creator or are we merely the biological products of a disinterested nature?

Barbara Eisenhart seemed to be living the perfect American teenage life. As a popular, active eighteen-year-old entering her freshman year at Kent State University, she had a bright future ahead of her. In one night, that all changed when she made the decision to get in the car with her friend after they had been drinking alcohol. Barb's friend walked away with a crashed car and in trouble with parents and the law, but Barb would never walk again. Barb suffered a broken neck, leaving her paralyzed from the shoulders down. In Stop Wishing (for the Life You Don't Have), and Start Living (the Life You Do), Barb shares her remarkable story of hope and perseverance as she recovers from this one life-changing event. Barb's journey through hurt, pain, and fear leads to profound joy and contentment as she learns to live again.

NOTE: This is the small group, companion workbook for "Heard: The Power and Promise of Christian Prayer." It divides the material in "Heard" into six study sessions, each containing a mix of fill-in-the-blank and questions for individual reflection and group discussion. DESCRIPTION OF "HEARD: " God is waiting for his people to pray. But the contemporary Western Church is blighted by a prayer famine. It is plagued with dry eyes, few tears and no fire in the gut. Conversation with God ought to be a part of the natural rhythm of our lives, like eating or sleeping, yet we have neglected this most basic need. Our churches have kept us so busy with activities, carefully-crafted music presentations and non-offensive preaching that we are often too tired to pray, and impatient when we do. As a result, altars are vacant, church members come in and go out the same, the local culture remains unchanged. Dale Van Steenis calls us to recapture our energy and excitement, to catch our "second wind" in prayer. God still answers. He said he would. Whenever God's people have turned to him in prayer, they have been heard.

'Lost in the Pages' suggests that God does not have plans for our lives-he is telling stories. Like stories, our lives are full of conflicts and surprise plot twists. Like characters in a novel, none of us knows what is going to happen next, or why. We do not know whether we are on page three or three hundred. We are lost, not only on the pages of our little stories, but somewhere upon the pages of the Big Story that the Author is telling through the cosmos. If we are characters in a story God is telling, then how should we live? Lost in the Pages asks what it means to live as a character. How do we make sense of our lives? Why are they so hard, and joy so elusive? What does it mean to live in the present tense? Are we free to choose, or have our futures already been written? Can we talk to the Author? And how will our stories end? 'Lost in the Pages' is a call to hear the tale of the protagonist of all our tales: the Author-made-character who promises a never-ending story to those will believe it, and follow him.

A complete workbook for the youth baseball coach (for players ages 4-18). Featuring drills, practice plans, team management, and fun ideas to keep things sharp and fresh.

As Mark Twain said, "Golf is a good walk spoiled." Our careers would be great walks if they weren't spoiled by the same sort of mistakes we make on the course. If we could master our mistakes and develop our discipline, we could find more success in the game of golf and the art of business. Bob is a decent guy and a great businessman-but only an average golfer. He has a dream to play the famous Bethpage Black Course, scene of two recent U.S. Opens, and survive with his dignity intact. To keep from spoiling that famous walk, he brings along his mentor, Scott Seifferlein, who has played the Bethpage Black Course many times before as a coach and competitor. While showing Bob how to think his way around the course, Scott gives him crucial tips for overcoming common mistakes. Together, they realize how the same mistakes that can spoil a scorecard can spoil any business or career. In The Game of Golf & the Art of Business, Scott tells the story of how he kept Bob's big day on Bethpage Black from becoming a bust. He shares the most important tips and tactics that he has learned from coaching thousands of players over the years. Through Scott, we learn how these are also strategies for success in the marketplace. The Game of Golf & The Art Business sprinkles an entertaining story with keen insights and useful nuggets for succeeding at whatever you do, whether on or off the course.

God is waiting for his people to pray. But the contemporary Western Church is blighted by a prayer famine. It is plagued with dry eyes, few tears and no fire in the gut. Conversation with God ought to be a part of the natural rhythm of our lives, like eating or sleeping, yet we have neglected this most basic need. Our churches have kept us so busy with activities, carefully-crafted music presentations and non-offensive preaching that we are often too tired to pray, and impatient when we do. As a result, altars are vacant, church members come in and go out the same, the local culture remains unchanged. Dale Van Steenis calls us to recapture our energy and excitement, to catch our "second wind" in prayer. God still answers. He said he would. Whenever God's people have turned to him in prayer, they have been heard.

A book for curious minds that weaves together wonders in nature and Scripture, complementing answers from the physical world with answers Scripture provides for our spiritual growth. 'Wonders in our World' was written particularly for young people who are asking questions about the world around them as well as questions about meaning and purpose in life. The book weaves descriptions of natural phenomena together with Biblical insights in a way that shows the complementarity of both aspects of reality - the physical world and the spiritual world. It is organized around three basic questions: Who is God?; Who am I?; and How can I trust God? Each chapter includes suggestions for hands-on activities that help the lessons come alive. This book explores God's Two Books, the Book of Nature and the Book of Scripture, looking at reality from both perspectives.

Entrepreneurs are a special breed. Could you be one of them? Many dream of owning their own business and being their own boss. There's nothing stopping you from doing it except for you-but you're a big hurdle. Whether it happens, much less whether it succeeds, largely depends on you. Starting a successful business is not just a function of wanting it badly enough. The key ingredients for entrepreneurial success are particular character traits. This book is an attempt to describe twenty-six of them. If you've already started a business, use it to take inventory and make a plan to grow into what you've begun. If you're still deciding whether to launch into entrepreneurial life, let's see if you've got what it takes.

Plan covers strategic planning and scenario planning. Strategic planning provides an opportunity for a senior team to discuss and decide what they want their organization to accomplish. This book will introduce and practice a ten-step process, ten-great questions, that guides a senior team to learn what it would prefer to do. Scenario planning helps teams consider alternative futures and prepare a successful response plan no matter what the situation. The alternate views will help generate new insights about a company and its possible futures. Thinking this way helps prepare contributors to notice and consider emerging ideas before others even perceive any change. Scenario planning is an excellent complement and second step to effective strategic planning. This may even be the first time these two powerful planning methodologies have been presented together in the same book.

Investing for your retirement is a lot like planning a mission to Mars: it seems like it's impossibly far away, and there are all kinds of potential dangers and unknown threats. There's an abundance of misinformation about what your destination is like and the best way to get there. And once you arrive you have to figure out how to survive on nothing but the supplies you brought with you. So how are you going to future proof your investments? Mission planners Kelly Gilbert and Steve Kitchens will show you how to dodge the pitfalls and make a plan for an attainable and sustainable future.

Collaboration can be so much more than just assembling as a team to do work. Collaboration done well builds decisions better than anyone expected, supported enthusiastically by all of the team's members. Opinions are substantiated by data. Goals are developed and documented by the team. The team generates, considers, selects, and implements its own decisions. There is lots of conversation, lots of wall charts, lots of productive learning. Team performance improves, and improved team morale follows quickly. The Good Thinking Series of books can help you learn that you don't have to be captive to personal agendas or corporate dysfunction. We can understand why our meetings are frustrating, why our projects don't turn out like we expected, and why our goals are just beyond our grasp. We can understand why our teams seem to achieve less than the sum of the team members' abilities. We can recognize unhealthy expectations, ineffective thought patterns, and unproductive communication styles.

Idea generating skills are crucial to an organization's success. They are the stepping stones to decisions and support. Implemented well, the ideas are transformed into improved business performance. Considering that you cannot realize what you cannot imagine, your ability to realize improved ideas can differentiate you from your competitors. Considering that you cannot will yourself a new idea, your ability to purposefully imagine improved ideas on demand can differentiate you from your competitors.

Think or Sink is a cautionary tale about what can go wrong when people don't work together effectively, and a hopeful one about what they can accomplish when they do. Think or Sink sets a stage that may occur multiple times every day in companies and organizations around the world. The headquarters of a major corporation sends a request for proposal to three of its regional branch managers. The company has won a major contract, and one branch will get the new business, while the other two will be downsized. Each regional management team has six months to prepare a presentation that will determine the next chapter of their careers. The teams in Phoenix, Atlanta and Indianapolis illustrate that the quality of the ideas we generate, and the buy-in we build for those ideas, is rooted in the way we think and work together. Think or Sink provides an opportunity to consider, compare, and choose a leadership style very likely to help you achieve sustainable gains over the long term - a leadership style driven by good thinking. Dysfunction is an all-too-often used word to describe social and political speed bumps and road blocks in the workplace. It means a thing not functioning properly, or not functioning in a way that would achieve its purpose. Dysfunction in the work place is waste. Think or Sink presents structured, deliberate collaboration as the primary strategy to reduce/eliminate dysfunction. Collaboration can be so much more than just assembling as a team to do work. Think or Sink is intended to be a rallying cry for better collaborators, better leaders, and better employees. The goal of Think or Sink, and the rest of my Good Thinking series to be completed by early 2011, is to provide the approach and tools to help minimize the waste/dysfunction in workplaces. I am hoping Think or Sink will serve as a call to action for many employees and leaders who really want to improve their workplaces.

Some people always get job offers, they never get laid off during lean times and if they are self-employed they always have a full pipeline of clients. What's their secret? In his new book, In Demand: How to Get Hired, Develop a Career and Always be Successful, Bill Van Steenis offers practical advice about being a valuable player in the business world. He explores the personalities and practices of the workers and contractors that have their pick of jobs and projects. He shows how they understand and respond to the market for their work, and why they are always the most highly sought after people in the labor pool. Follow his sometimes tough, sometimes tender but always useful advice and become In Demand.

"Generation X" grew up with Star Wars, prepared to deal with the problems of a fantasy universe. They grew up during the longest period of economic growth in American history. When the first Star Wars movie came out the Dow Jones Industrial Average was around 900 points; when the last movie was released it was more than 10,000. Their parents' 401ks got fat and the little houses they had collected Star Wars toys in became worth ten times what mom and dad had paid for them. Now Gen Xers are in their thirties and forties and starting to run for Congress and to run major corporations. As the legions of Baby Boomers retire to live out their eternal "hipsterness" with megadoses of Viagra and iPod's full of classic rock, the Star Wars kids are going to take their turn leading America. Are they ready? Rob Stam rode the wave of the last two bubbles economies, with luxury houses, cars and toys before he was thirty years old. He lost it all in bankruptcy court and became a cautionary tale of easy times and easy credit. He learned the hard way that the values and way of life of his grandparents are timeless truths that made America great. In Almost Our Time he argues that Generation X is assuming leadership of a very different country than the one they grew up in. Even so, if the Star Wars generation will learn and apply classic American principles they can defeat the "Debt Star" and other real world problems and pass on a better nation to their children.

Facebook friends are not really friends, Twitter followers are not really followers, and you aren't really linked to anyone through LinkedIn. Too much of our business technology emphasizes the quantity of our business relationships, but not the quality. If our business relationship skills are bad, then all the networking techniques in the world only multiply our dysfunction, and we end up with lots of bad business relationships. The purpose of NetPlus Connections is to help you to become a valuable asset to everyone you meet and do business with. I want every one of your business connections to be glad they have you on their contact list, and consider you well-worth any time, money, or energy they spend on you. I want them to consider you so valuable that they introduce you to others, so their connections can have the benefit of knowing and working with you as well. The key to being this sort of valuable asset is simple: make everyone else's world bigger and better. Be a gateway to people, ideas, solutions, and opportunities. Deliver such value in everything you do for other people that you are more than worth everything you cost them. If you are worth more than you cost, you are a net asset. If you cost more than you are worth, then you are a net liability. Assets get protected and invested in, liabilities get dropped. Be worth more than what you cost, and you will have all the connections and business you can handle. This book will teach you how.