Home to Safe Harbor. Kate Welsh

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      “Maybe you could come and be our new mommy,” Gina said, tilting her head.

      Matt cringed. “Quiet, kitten. You can’t ask a stranger to be your mommy. I’m sorry,” he said to Justine as his five-year-old daughter ran off to play. “I didn’t see that one coming at all.”

      “Relax. I’m fairly positive you didn’t recruit her as a matchmaker,” Justine assured him. Then a teasing light entered her eyes. “So has Gina recruited any other good possibilities?”

      “I think maybe she just did,” he quipped, then nearly swallowed his tongue. Where had that come from? He’d just flirted with the new minister.

      He just couldn’t seem to think of her as Reverend Clemens. Since the moment he’d set his eyes on her, she’d been a beautiful woman he’d really wanted to meet and get to know. How to do that with a minister, however, would take a little thought.

      KATE WELSH

      is a two-time winner of Romance Writers of America’s coveted Golden Heart Award and a finalist for RWA’s RITA^® Award in 1999. Kate lives in Havertown, PA, with her husband of over thirty years. Kate has a married daughter. And with the marriage came a wonderful new son. Her happy home includes one remaining daughter, a Chespeake Bay retriever and a cat he wishes would be his friend.

      There are few crafts Kate hasn’t tried. Those ideas she can’t resist grace her home and those of her friends and family. But she refuses to discuss her addiction to do-it-yourself TV and all those lovely projects waiting on the back burner!

      As a child she often lost herself in creating make-believe worlds and happily-ever-after tales. Kate turned back to creating happy endings when her husband challenged her to write down the stories in her head. With Jesus so much a part of her life, Kate found it natural to incorporate Him into her writing. Her goal is to entertain her readers with wholesome stories of the love between two people the Lord has brought together and to teach His truth while she entertains.

      Home to Safe Harbor

      Kate Welsh

       www.millsandboon.co.uk

      MILLS & BOON

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      I am the light of the world. He who follows Me

       shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.

      —John 8:12

      For Miranda and Erica—

      Nothing is so precious as good health or the beauty

       that shines from within you, because God is within

       you. He will always see your beauty as long as you

       love Him. Keep up the good work. We all love you

       and are proud of you for how far you’ve come.

      Dear Reader,

      I hope you’ve enjoyed Home to Safe Harbor and all the other Safe Harbor books. When my editor asked if I was interested in joining the other wonderful authors slated to create Safe Harbor and the townsfolk, I jumped at the chance and the challenge.

      The added challenge of writing about a female in ministry certainly got my creative juices flowing, and I picked my theme of giving control of our lives over to God. Within hours I knew Justine would struggle with her role in the church and the difficulty many women in ministry still face. Then I mixed in an inner struggle with her most worldly desires and how they could fit with God’s plan for her just to make things interesting!

      Matthew came next. I decided he’d lost much in his lifetime but had many blessings, as well. I gave him a protector’s personality and a challenge in the form of a problem with one of his precious daughters. Parenthood is our most important and difficult responsibility in life. Our most rewarding, too. And Matt, being a hero, had to be a good father who was loathe to share his responsibility or the control of their lives or his to anyone—even God.

      It didn’t take long to know what silent specter could be shadowing one of his children undetected. Twice, anorexia has touched a child close to my family and twice, full of fear for their children, parents ventured forth seeking an answer and help. And as Matt and Justine learned, this is an insidious disease that manifests itself with symptoms that lead to one conclusion—dieting as the cause—while the problem is something more complex and difficult to solve.

      I would like to thank the Renfrew Center and its staff, whose invaluable help aided not only me in the writing of this book but a very special girl in her time of need. I urge anyone who sees the signs described in Home to Safe Harbor in any young person to visit www.renfrew.org or e-mail questions to [email protected]. Then find help.

      Philadelphia is blessed with the Renfrew Center on whose facility, principles and treatment plan I based the Mittler Center. Only, the personal story of the Mittler family was fiction. And above all, don’t forget to pray for your loved one to the Great Healer for whom no disease is too much.

      Love,

      Contents

      Chapter One

      Chapter Two

      Chapter Three

      Chapter Four

      Chapter Five

      Chapter Six

      Chapter Seven

      Chapter Eight

      Chapter Nine

      Chapter Ten

      Chapter Eleven

      Chapter Twelve

      Chapter Thirteen

      Chapter Fourteen

      Chapter Fifteen

      Chapter Sixteen

      Chapter Seventeen

      Chapter Eighteen

      Chapter One

      Reverend Justine Clemens stood frozen before the entire congregation of First Peninsula Church, managing to hold a smile in place through sheer determination. In her hands, she held the plaque she’d just accepted amid thunderous applause. Clearly, everyone thought she should be thrilled.

      They were certainly thrilled.

      But she was devastated.

      The sign on her new office door would not read “Reverend Justine Clemens—Assistant Pastor.” That’s what she’d thought Reverend Burns and the board meant when they’d asked her to stay on permanently to assist him. Instead the plaque she now held tightly clutched in her hands read “Reverend Justine Clemens—Women and Youth Pastor.”

      Once again she’d been relegated to a traditional role for women in the church.