I remember when I first met Michelle DeRusha online. I stumbled upon her blog and she had been to the back waters (might be called something else, I don’t know) of Minnesota and I was reading about her adventures. Let’s see…she drives until the road ends, gets in a canoe and starts to paddle and finally stops at a place to spend the night….in a tent. I read her blog for a few days or weeks before I commented. I told her I thought she was really brave. She said, “it was just a couple of nights.” Sounded like eternity to me.
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| Michelle, Deidra & Me – Allume 2011 |
Fast forward a few months and I got to meet Michelle in person at the Allume Conference (then Relevant) in October of 2011. She was warm and engaging and she was a real writer. And she was the first person to call ME a writer.
I saw her in person again at the Jumping Tandem Retreat in April of 2013, then again this summer I had breakfast with her & Deidra Riggs when John and I were passing through their town.
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| Deidra, Me (& Leroy), Michelle |
Friends, let me tell you…Michelle DeRusha IS brave. And I don’t just mean canoeing and camping in the upper Midwest! She is brave enough to write when she is afraid. And that bravery has lead her to her newest book, which releases today.
I found this book to be both interesting and surprising. I wasn’t sure how one would write about this topic without writing a biography of each woman. But this book is not a biography of these women, it is a story of their faith journey, written in an engaging manner, sharing their story. Sharing their thoughts and ideas. At times I would think, “I’ve felt that way.” Michelle does a fantastic job of capturing some essence of the woman in the first paragraph of each chapter that made me want to continue reading about every one of them.
I cannot imagine the hours and hours of research Michelle had to do to birth this book. But I am so glad that she stuck to the task and did not quit! This book should be read by every Christian…man or woman. It made me appreciate my faith and the path traveled by the Christian women before me.
They were strong.
They were courageous.
They battled disease, loss of family and doubt.
They came out on the other side a stronger person. And I can learn a lot from all of them.
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I love these pictures of you 3 friends! Beautiful. Michelle seems very brave compared to my timid little soul too. 🙂 I look forward to reading this newest book. Thanks for sharing about it here, Mary.
Michelle IS brave, Lisa! I know you do a LOT of reading, I think you would like this book.
Sounds like a great read, Mary. Your past book reviews have been spot on, so I will have to give this one a look, too. Looking forward to it.
Great Kathleen! I hope you enjoy it.
Mary, you are awesome. I loved taking this little trip down memory lane – I kind of cracked up over our changing hairstyles! And yeah, just for the record, it's called the Boundary Waters of Minnesota — but frankly backwaters is more like it! 🙂
Truly, thank you for this lovely post, for supporting 50 Women (and Spiritual Misfit) and for being YOU.
P.S. I miss Leroy!
That's funny. I didn't think about the hairstyles! Thanks for including me in the launch group!
Sounds great, Mary! I checked out Michelle's page and entered the contest 🙂
Oh, Margie…this book was really good! I hope you enjoy it…and win the giveaway!
It is called "The Boundary Waters." My husband loves to go there, too.
It is so fun in this crazy blogging world when we get to meet each other. Next month I get to meet Jen Ferguson, Amy Sullivan and Amy Smith.
Would love to meet you and Michelle, too.
Fondly,
Glenda
I would love to meet you in person, Glenda!! Truly I would.
Thanks for letting me know the correct term for the boundary waters, I thought it was called something else, but I couldn't remember!