Showing results by narrator "Jason Vu" in All Categories

Twelve-year-old Enly Wu Lewis is determined to go to band camp and follow in the footsteps of his musician father, who died years ago. But his mom, a single parent working two jobs, is saving every penny for his older brother's college tuition. So Enly sets out to earn the money for camp on his own, by busking with an obscure instrument he can only kind of play. When someone drops a winning scratch-off lottery ticket into his tip box, Enly thinks it's the answer to his problems—but he'll have to overcome teenage thieves and his own family if he wants to achieve his dreams.

Critical Race Theory (CRT) has become a lightning rod in American politics and evangelical Christianity. This book offers a critical but constructive and sympathetic introduction to CRT written from a perspective rooted in Scripture and Christian theology. The authors take us beyond caricatures and misinformation to consider how CRT can be an analytical tool to help us understand persistent inequality and injustice—and to see how Christians and churches working for racial justice can engage CRT in faithful and constructive ways.

Seventeen-year-old Bucky Yi knows nothing about his birth country of South Korea or his bio-dad's disappearance; he can't even pronounce his Korean name correctly. Running through the woods of rural Washington State with a tire tied to his waist, his sights are set on one all-American goal: to become a college football player. So when a misadventure with his adoptive family leads the US government to deport him to South Korea, he's forced to navigate an entirely foreign version of his life.

More than 2,000 years ago, Aristotle said: "let there be a law that no deformed child shall live." This idea is alive and well today. During the past century, Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. argued that the United States can forcibly sterilize intellectually disabled women and philosopher Peter Singer argued for the right of parents to euthanize certain cognitively disabled infants. The Life Worth Living explores how and why such arguments persist by investigating the exclusion of and discrimination against disabled people across the history of Western moral philosophy.

Being a pastor is a complex and demanding role, especially for someone leading alone. The majority of pastors find themselves in this position, leading their smaller church with no additional professional assistance. The challenges are many, including loneliness, isolation, self-doubt, overwhelm, feelings of inadequacy, and a constant search for additional resources and volunteers. Where does a solo pastor turn for help and encouragement?

Marcie Hugo and Drake Soldado are unusual travel companions united by similar goals. A teenage girl and a man in his 30s. One is returning home to honor a promise; the other needs to find his daughters, whom he hasn’t seen since they were taken from him and sold as slaves. Marcie has promised her best friend and childhood sweetheart that she’ll return from Prime City with the lung transplant he desperately needs. Neither reunion will be easy, but first they have to reach Scala City and the Blind Spot. Miles of wasteland stand before them. And neither Marcie nor Drake know the way.

When Rentt senses something wrong with his familiar, Edel, he and Lorraine leave Hathara and return to the city of Maalt. They find the city in flames, swarming with thralls. Rentt finds Edel safe beneath the orphanage. Through his familiar, our hero learns that a single vampire may be the cause of all the chaos. Matters are complicated when Rentt runs into Gold-class adventurer and vampire hunter, Nive Maris . . . who still suspects Rentt may be a vampire! When they delve into the new dungeon, the group runs into another familiar face . . .

Now that they can travel by teleportation circle, Rentt and Lorraine visit Vistelya, the capital of the Kingdom of Yaaran. Lorraine uses magic to hide their identities, and Rentt checks out the guild headquarters. There, the duo gets involved with Augurey, an adventurer from Maalt. When Augurey clues in to their identities, he agrees to a magical contract to seal his lips. However, on the way to the temple of Hozei, the group comes across monsters attacking a carriage . . . with a surprising occupant! As if that isn't enough, the God of Contracts herself shows up to oversee the whole affair.

When Rentt Faina crosses paths with Nive Maris, he finds himself victim to a rain of Holy Fire! But rather than prove he's a vampire, it disproves it! Lorraine believes Rentt's divinity may have protected against the Holy Fire, and together they decide to make for Hathara, where Rentt obtained his divinity.