Thank you for making 2016 an impressive year!
2016-17 by Marek Uliasz (123rf.com)
Dear friends, prayer warriors, authors, readers and subscribers of JOYAlive.net. Thank you!
We give thanks to God always for all of you, remembering you in our prayers, unceasingly calling to mind your work of faith and labor of love and endurance in hope of our Lord Jesus Christ, before our God and Father (1 Thess 1:2-3)
Like Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, I give thanks to God always for all of you, remembering you in my prayers. I thank you for your support of JOYAlive.net, my speaking engagements and the sale of the Sharing Your Faith Story DVD and the new Catholic Mom Prayer Companion, containing four devotions I authored.
Many of you contributed your stories to JOYAlive.net this year. Fr. Bob Hilz faithfully provided his inspirational homilies for us each weekend. Margaret Rose Realy contributed her 6-part Lenten series with excerpts from Cultivating God’s Garden through Lent. Other authors included:
- Anon – The Will of God
- Connie Beckman – What’s this I hear?
- Darlene Bogle – Paraphrase of Romans 12 for writers
- John Cook – Christmas in Germany, 1944
- Minnie Louise Hawkins – God Knows
- Paul Mora – Little Acts of Mercy
- Kathy Walshe – Jesus at the Post Office
- Charlotte Ward – Lazarus and Confession
- Pat Gohn – Among Women podcast features Sharing Your Faith Story
Joy Stories
Another ten of you were featured in our Joy Stories. Your conversion and renewal stories encouraged many of our readers. Thank you all!
- Bill Alexander – Saved by Don Quixote
- Tima Borges – Church Teaching Changed Our Lives
- Neal Combs – God Bless the Unbroken Road
- Michael Fraley – A stable, consistent God for all time
- Allison Gingras – My Grace Trifecta
- Cyndi Lucky – My Restless Heart
- Lisa Nicholas – Embracing the Cross
- Diane Roe – Amazing Grace
- Ann Marie Walshe – Living Encounters
- Nancy Ward – What is your Galilee Moment
Book Reviews
We presented nine book reviews or interviews with authors:
- Cultivating God’s Garden – Interview with Margaret Rose Realy
- Find a Real Friend in Jesus: Ten Amazingly Easy Steps – Interview with Gary Zimak
- Intimate Graces: how practicing the works of mercy brings out the best in marriage. – Teresa Tomeo and Dominick Pastore
- Learning to Love with the Saints: A Spiritual Memoir by Jean Heimann’s
- Radiant Dawn; 5-minute prayers around the Advent Wreath – Lisa Hendey
- St Thomas Aquinas for Everyone: 30 Quick and Fun Lessons, Activities and Outdoor Adventures Based on the Summa Theologica by David Palmer
- The Catholic Mom’s Prayer Companion: a book of daily reflections by Lisa Hendey, Sarah Reinhard and a team of CatholicMom.com authors, including me. I wrote four devotions.)
- The Healing Power of a Fathers Blessing by Linda Schubert
- True Radiance: Finding Grace in the Second Half of Life by Lisa Mladinich
Shared in other publications
Many of these reviews were part of the 46 Joy Alive posts that appeared in other publications:
One in Contemplative Homeschool.com
Four in Catholic Spiritual Direction.com
17 in CatholicMom.com
12 in CatholicWritersGuild.com, a site, for which I wrote an additional 12 posts of committee reports, which were not posted on JOYAlive.net
12 in NewEvangelizers.com
When your story, review or interview is posted on JOYAlive.net, it usually makes the rounds of some well-read sites.
Impressive numbers
In total, together we averaged more than four posts per week, totally 227 this year. These went out to 120 JOYAlive.net subscribers, 600 Twitter followers, 3000 friends my Nancy Ward Facebook page and 149 friends of Nancy HC Ward, author. Let’s not forget almost 900 LinkedIn connections and 265 followers who viewed links to your stories on Google +.
Now you see why I am so grateful for this year for all your contributions and support. On behalf of all the people out there that you have inspired with your faithfulness, a big thank you!
I know that 2017 will be another good year for all of us! Please keep me in your prayers and don’t forget to keep your posts and comments coming! I collect stories of conversion, return to the Catholic Church, renewal, healings and miracles. Send me your faith story so you can tell the world about what God is doing in your life.
I’ll be remembering you in my prayers,
Nancy
