Cindy Woodsmall

A marriage is tested in this Old Order Amish novel of longing for renewed love and a path for forgiveness from the best-selling author of Gathering the Threads. Old Order Amish wife and mother Jemima has put her marriage and family ahead of herself for years. She's set herself aside. Raising four children, she's followed all the rules and has been patient in looking forward to her time to chase a dream of her own. But when she finds out that her life savings for pursuing that dream is gone--and her husband, Roy, has been hiding a child with another woman--her entire world is shattered. Will she be able to listen to God and love Roy's child? With so much at stake, how can she and Roy fix their relationship before their lives come crashing down?

For fans of holiday romances and Amish life comes a new Christmas tale of surprising expectations and discovering miracles. Old Order Amish Ivy Zook is wrestling with her need to shed her community's ways so she can grow the business of her dreams: planning parties. As long as she's stuck living without modernization, she can barely get her business on its feet. But if she leaves too soon, she'd cause trouble for her sister, Holly, who is planning her wedding to Joshua Smucker. All of their plans become twice as complicated when an old car crashes into the storefront of Greene's Pharmacy, carrying a Swartzentruber (ultra-conservative sect) Amish man, Arlan, and his very ill sister. The Zooks take in Arlan and Madga, tending to the woman's illness and Arlan begins helping around the family farm. Ivy and Arlan are on different tracks, one wanting to leave her community and the other to return to his. But both young people are trying to discover what God has in store for their futures and what miracles might lie around the corner this Christmas season.

For fans of holiday romances and Amish life comes a new Christmas tale of surprising expectations and discovering miracles. Old Order Amish Ivy Zook is wrestling with her need to shed her community's ways so she can grow the business of her dreams: planning parties. As long as she's stuck living without modernization, she can barely get her business on its feet. But if she leaves too soon, she'd cause trouble for her sister, Holly, who is planning her wedding to Joshua Smucker. All of their plans become twice as complicated when an old car crashes into the storefront of Greene's Pharmacy, carrying a Swartzentruber (ultra-conservative sect) Amish man, Arlan, and his very ill sister. The Zooks take in Arlan and Madga, tending to the woman's illness and Arlan begins helping around the family farm. Ivy and Arlan are on different tracks, one wanting to leave her community and the other to return to his. But both young people are trying to discover what God has in store for their futures and what miracles might lie around the corner this Christmas season.

When an Old Order Amish woman takes a job at a small-town pharmacy struggling to survive in a world of "big box" stores, her motive is to help her Plain community. But the advent of the holiday season brings an unusual mystery to the surface--and possibly love. Twenty-four-year-old Holly Zook lives a unique life for a young Amish woman. Years ago, her bishop allowed her to continue her education and become the lead technician for Greene's Pharmacy, an old-timey drugstore that looks out for the Amish community--a group largely without secure healthcare plans. She knows she can't marry and hold onto her professional job. She's Amish, and she can only have one or the other, so she spurns love and works toward addressing treatable diseases--like the one that claimed her father's life. As long as Holly continues to avoid Joshua Smucker, the one man who draws her like a warm hearth in winter, she should be fine. When something unexpected threatens Greene's Pharmacy, Holly and Joshua must work together to unravel what's happened and find the "missing" patient before the Board of Pharmacy shuts them down. As the snows of December arrive, with Christmas in the air, will Holly succumb to the generous spirit of the season?

A New York Times best-selling author releases her first southern novel, a Steel Magnolias-meets-Sweet Home Alabama story set on St. Simons Island. After losing two loved ones in a devastating tornado and suffering a head injury, Tara Abbott flees to St. Simons Island, where her disorientation causes the lines between imagination and reality, past and present to blur. There she encounters island residents Julep Burnside, Luella Ward, Sue Beth Manning, and Dell Calhoun--The Glynn Girls--who have been friends since Bible camp, forty years earlier. When Julep's son Gavin identifies a troubled soul in need of help, can the Glynn Girls guide Tara back to herself?

Finally back in the Old Order Amish world she loves, Will Ariana's new perspectives draw her family closer together-- or completely rip them apart? After months away in the Englisch world, Ariana Brenneman is overjoyed to be in the Old Order Amish home where she was raised. Yet her excitement is mixed with an unexpected apprehension as she reconciles all she's learned from her biological parents with the uncompromising teachings of her Plain community. Although her childhood friend, ex-Amish Quill Schlabach, hopes to help her navigate her new role amongst her people, Ariana's Daed doesn't understand why his sweet daughter is suddenly questioning his authority. What will happen if she sows seeds of unrest and rebellion in the entire family? Meanwhile, Skylar Nash has finally found her place among the large Brenneman family, but Ariana's arrival threatens to unravel Skylar's new identity--and her sobriety. Both Ariana and Skylar must discover the true cords that bind a family and community together and grasp tight the One who holds their authentic identities close to His heart. Gathering the Threads is the third and final novel in The Amish of Summer Grove series.

This original Amish Christmas novella from best-selling author Cindy Woodsmall promises to warm the hearts of her many fans with its Old Order Amish ways, touching romance, realistic faith experiences, and holiday-season family drama. When Rose Kurtz first arrived in Joel Dienner's home four years ago, the Amish widower had been completely grief-stricken by the shocking loss of his wife during childbirth. At the recommendation of the bishop, Joel's father, Rose is asked to become his bride and take care of his two small children and newborn baby, nestled in the tiny Amish community of Forest Hill in the eastern Appalachian mountains, far from Rose's home. After four years as just housemates, Rose is wondering if Joel finally has opened his heart again--but she fears it isn't with her. She loves the children she has been raising with a mother's love, and she may care for Joel more deeply than he cares for her. But maybe, with a Christmas miracle, Joel could see his "angel" as she really is.

The Amish of Summer Grove series continues as Old Order Amish Ariana and troubled college student Skylar face the reality that nothing about their lives is what they thought to be true. The second book in the Amish of Summer Grove series explores the changes in the Brenneman family as Skylar joins them and Ariana navigates the foreign and undesirable Englischer world. Can she help the Nashes learn about the God she loves?

In this stirring Amish Christmas novella collection, beloved and best-selling Christian fiction authors join efforts to offer four heartwarming tales of love, faith, and the miracles that surround Christmas. On a wintry late November night in 1989, an Amish midwife delivers four babies to four mothers at an Amish birthing clinic. Almost twenty-five years later the three girls and one boy born that night are grown, and "Rebekah's babies", as they have been called, are scattered and facing an unusual Christmas that may just reunite these four strangers. Mourning Star: Eden Hochstetler is living in Sugarcreek, Ohio, working in a candy and fudge shop, dreaming of adventure and romance. When one of the shop's regular patrons mysteriously dies, Eden decides to investigate. In the Stars: Savilla Byler lives in North Star, Pennsylvania, helping midwife Rebekah Schlabach with her administrative needs. When three children hide in a building on the property Savvy rents, she's forced to enlist the help of her former beau to protect them. Guiding Star: Chase Wellington is a journalist who hopes to do a human interest story on "Rebekah's babies". He discovers that one of the four can't be found.His investigation leads him to Peaks, Iowa--and to Noelle McAllister, adopted by loving parents after being abandoned as an infant. Star of Grace: Andy Danner and his wife have relocated from North Star to a relatively new Amish settlement in Bayou Eelve, Louisiana. The eldest of 5 boys, Andy is sorely missed by his family and his youngest brother Sam takes on the task of bringing Andy home as a Christmas surprise.

Hope Crossing...where Ada's House stands as a haven for weary souls looking for kindness, faith, and second chances. The Hope of Refuge Two very different women are pulled by their strongest desires. Deborah Mast joined the Amish church and longs to marry her fiance, but he is changing. Cara Moore is forced to look into a life that was meant to be hers. Will Ada's House help them realize their hearts' desires or will it force them to accept what life has done to each of them? The Bridge of Peace Living out her passion for teaching, Lena Kauffman's work is suddenly interrupted by a series of pranks and accidents targeted toward her and her students. When tragedy strikes her dear friend Grey Graber's family on school property, the school board begins to blame her for the trouble. As grief and confusion take their toll on Grey and Lena's friendship, they are both forced to face a new reality that may offer the peace and love they each long for. The Harvest of Grace Fleeing a terrible mistake, Sylvia Fisher dedicates herself to saving the failing Blank farm. When prodigal son Aaron returns, he is surprised by this unusual farmhand who opposes all his plans.Will Aaron and Sylvia's unflinching efforts toward opposite futures mask the bigger picture-a path to forgiveness, grace, and the promise of love? This three-in-one collection includes the entirety of the best-selling Ada's House trilogy, now at a new low price!

As love restores Rhoda, a sudden tragedy is the test of faith she never saw coming...More settled in her heart than ever before, Rhoda Byler feels a newfound confidence living in the Old Order Amish settlement she helped establish in Orchard Bend, Maine. Though it has been almost a year since one brother left, Rhoda is happy to be working alongside the other brother as they tend and nurture the settlement's orchard. Time has helped to heal Rhoda's wounds, and she finds that even her unusual gift of profound intuition is less of a burden as she continues to seek God's wisdom and purpose for her life. But when an Englischer friend's grandchild is in extreme danger, can Rhoda's gift make a difference or will it simply be a catalyst to another season of doubt and misunderstanding? As she resolves to stay on course, suddenly a shocking tragedy challenges the young settlement like never before, threatening to uproot Rhoda's peace and the future of everything she holds dear.

The tornado that devastated Kings' Orchard pushed Rhoda, Samuel, and Jacob to make a new start in Maine. Are they strong enough to withstand the challenges of establishing an Amish community--and brave enough to face the secrets that move with them? On the eve of their departure to begin a new Old Order Amish community outside of Unity, Maine, Rhoda Byler is shocked to discover that choices made by her business partner and friend, Samuel King, have placed her and her unusual gifts directly into the path of her district's bishop and preachers. She is furious with Samuel and is fearful that the Kings will be influenced by the way her leaders see her, and not what they know to be true--that Rhoda's intuition is a gift from God. Jacob King won't be swayed by community speculation. He loves Rhoda, believes in her, and wants to build a future with her in Maine. But when the ghosts of his past come calling and require him to fulfill a great debt, can he shake their hold before it destroys what he has with Rhoda? Samuel has a secret of his own--one he'll go to great lengths to keep hidden, even if it means alienating those closest to him. Throwing himself into rehabilitating the once-abandoned orchard, Samuel turns to a surprising new ally. Book 2 of the Amish Vines and Orchards series asks: can the three faithfully follow God's leading and build a new home and orchard in Maine? Or will this new beginning lead to more ruin and heartbreak?

In a community where conformity flourishes, seeds of Rhoda's odd behavior were planted long ago. Can she cultivate her relationships with the same care and tenderness that she gives her beloved garden? Old Order Amish Rhoda Byler's unusual gift and her remarkable abilities to grow herbs and berries have caused many to think her odd. As rumors mount that Rhoda's "gift" is a detriment to the community, she chooses isolation, spending her time in her fruit garden and on her thriving canning business. Miles away in Harvest Mills, Samuel King struggles to keep his family's apple orchard profitable. As the eldest son, Samuel farms with his brothers, the irrepressible Jacob and brash Eli, while his longtime girlfriend Catherine remains hopeful that Samuel will marry her when he feels financially stable. Meanwhile, Samuel's younger sister Leah is testing all the boundaries during her rumschpringe, and finds herself far from home in Rhoda's garden after a night of partying gone badly. But Leah's poor choices serve as a bridge between Rhoda and the King family when a tragic mistake in the orchard leaves Samuel searching for solutions. Rhoda's expertise in canning could be the answer, but she struggles with guilt over the tragic death of her sister and doesn't trust herself outside her garden walls. As the lines between business, love, and family begin to blur, can Rhoda finally open up to a new life? And what effect will this odd, amazing woman have on the entire King family?

Reeling from an unexpected betrayal, can Sylvia find relief from the echoes of her past...or will they shape her future forever? Although Sylvia Fisher recognizes that most Old Order Amish women her age spend their hours managing a household and raising babies, she has just one focus-tending and nurturing the herd on her family's dairy farm. But when a dangerous connection with an old beau forces her to move far from home, she decides to concentrate on a new start and pour her energy into reviving another family's debt-ridden farm. After months in rehab, Aaron Blank returns home to sell his Daed's failing farm and move his parents into an easier lifestyle. Two things stand in his way: the father who stubbornly refuses to recognize that Aaron has changed and the determined new farmhand his parents love like a daughter. Her influence on Aaron's parents could ruin his plans to escape the burdens of farming and build a new life. Can Aaron and Sylvia find common ground? Or will their unflinching efforts toward opposite goals blur the bigger picture- a path to forgiveness, glimpses of grace, and the promise of love.

The following question correlate to Cindy Woodsmall's best-selling novel, The Bridge of Peace. Use them in a small group or for your own reflection about the many themes of the book. SPOILER ALERT! If you haven't read the novel yet, and want to retain the element of suprise as the story unfolds, we highly recommend that you do not read the reading guide questions.