Books by Rev. Rebecca L. Holland
Amazon Author Page: Rev. Rebecca L. Holland
My new book Hope for the Broken: Using Writing to Find God’s Grace is now available from Touch Point Press! It is available in large print paperback or on Kindle!
About Hope for the Broken: Using Writing to Find God’s Grace
“He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted… to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning.” –Isaiah 61:1-3, NIV
Rebecca was no stranger to adversity. Marked as different from an early age by her visual disability and half-Filipino heritage, she tried her best to bury herself in the pages of a book. For years, she was able to find solace in stories, until an ill-fated battle with her own personal Goliath left her with a shattered heart and broken dreams.
Rebecca found herself at the darkest point in her life. All she knew was that she needed to finish school and find work so that she could continue to afford the expensive medicines that maintained what remained of her precious eyesight.
During the darkest point in her life, a miraculous encounter with God gave her a new hope and a new purpose. Rebecca accepted the call to ministry in the United Methodist Church, and since then, her life has never been the same.
By writing just fifteen minutes a day, you can find God’s comfort and spiritual healing for your own life!
Redeemed by the gift of God’s grace, Rebecca found her own “happy ending.” In this book, Rebecca helps the reader to use the art of writing to find that same sense of purpose. It includes:
-Instructions to help you create your own Writer’s Notebook
-Weekly Bible verses and prayers
-Daily writing prompts
-Exercises to help the reader connect to God
-Excerpts from Rebecca’s own spiritual journals and poems
God bound up the pieces of Rebecca’s heart and created something beautiful. Healing doesn’t always look like we expect. Journey with her as you find your own place in the biblical story and hope for your own life.
GET YOUR COPY ON AMAZON BY CLICKING HERE
Other Nonfiction Books
The United Methodist Church and Disability: Essays and Practical Tips for Churches, Clergy, and People with Disabilities
Image Description: The cover of the book shows silhouettes of people, including a person in a dress, a person in pants, and a person in a wheelchair, all holding hands against the backdrop of a sunrise. The tag line reads, “Sometimes it takes low vision to give the church new vision!”
Synopsis From the Back Cover of UMC & Disability:
Sometimes it takes low vision to give the church new vision!
Rebecca was no stranger to adversity. Born with bilateral congenital cataracts, Rebecca developed glaucoma at the age of four years old and experienced significant sight loss. When Rebecca was ordained as an elder in the Susquehanna Conference of the United Methodist Church, she promised herself that she would use her voice to lift up others who have also experienced hardship and adversity in their lives.
In October of 2018, Rebecca started a blog (BeckieWrites.com) and was deeply touched to discover that her voice resonated with many other people, especially other women of faith and people with disabilities. In this volume, Rebecca gathers the best of her writing as it relates to faith, disability, and the United Methodist Church.
This volume includes:
-A basic introduction to the theology of disability
-Advice for churches who would like to become more accessible
-Ideas for inclusive worship
-Practical tips for clergy and other professionals who are dealing with sight loss
-Relationship and career advice for people with disabilities
-Analysis of ways that a possible split in the United Methodist Church may impact clergy with disabilities
As a person of Filipino-American descent, Rebecca hopes to offer her diverse voice and unique world view to help her church find a way forward through this challenging time. It is also her hope to that the essays, ideas, and articles gathered together in this volume will inspire and empower other people with disabilities to follow their dreams.
About the Author:
Rebecca is proud to be a visually impaired writer and half-Filipino clergywoman. She is chair of the Disability Ministries Task Force of the Susquehanna Conference of the United Methodist Church and a graduate of Wesley Theological Seminary. She has been recognized as an emerging young leader by Path 1 Ministries.
Rebecca’s poems have been published in several small literary journals. In 2018, she published her first chapbook, Through My Good Eye: A Memoir in Verse. Her writing has also appeared in Hacking Christianity, United Methodist Insight, Keys for Kids, CAPTIVATING! Magazine, Bold Blind Beauty, and Sacramental Life, among others. She blogs about faith, books, and disability awareness at BeckieWrites.com.
Rebecca serves in full time pastoral ministry in the Susquehanna Conference of the United Methodist Church. She and her husband are the proud parents of one very large cat and one exceedingly sassy Chihuahua.
Click HERE to get your copy on Kindle or in large print paperback!
Poetry
Through My Good Eye: A Memoir in Verse
Genre: Chapbook
Now available in paperback from Amazon in Paperback or on Kindle!
From the back cover:
The world never expected much from Rebecca, but God had other plans.
Marked as different from an early age by her visual disability and her ethnic features, Rebecca was once told by a teacher in her small hometown that she would never go to college.
After enduring years of abuse, Rebecca almost gave up on herself; however, God had other plans. God gave Rebecca a new life and an unexpected new identity as a preacher in her beloved United Methodist Church.
Through My Good Eye: A Memoir in Verse , gives the reader a glimpse of the world the way the author sees it. This brief chapbook includes poems from her first five years in ministry as she worked toward ordination, fell in love with her congregation, and eventually found her own, “happily ever after.”
An earnest statement of faith in the midst of struggle, this collection invites you to take a look at the world from an entirely new perspective.
Novel
My debut novel, Cinnamon Rolls & Running Shoes!
Genre: Inspirational romance/ romantic comedy/ sweet romance
From the back cover:
Faith only wants Lance to notice her.
Faith has loved Lance from afar since high school, but Lance has never spared her so much as a second glance. Lance doesn’t date full figured women.
Alex has loved Faith since they were children– but will she ever see him as more than her nerdy best friend?
When Faith decides to lose weight by entering the Annual Lovely Marathon, she is certain that she will finally catch Lance’s eye. Alex, her asthmatic childhood best friend, reluctantly agrees to help; however, he fears that each mile Faith runs is taking her farther away from him.
Can Faith learn to love and appreciate herself the way she is? Will she ever learn to love herself the way God loves her?
Faith and Alex have never quite belonged in their idyllic small town of Lovely, Pennsylvania. Faith was always mocked for her full figure and Alex, who was adopted from the Philippines, has always felt different from his very white classmates.
Will Alex and Faith learn that in the end, you can’t run from love?
Charles Dickens, Herman Melville, and Alexandre Dumas were all published in serial form. I’m happy to say that now I am as well!
Cinnamon Rolls & Running Shoes!
Available Exclusively on Channillo!
Paperback coming soon
Read the first chapter for free on Channillo!
Other Works
Articles:
How Writing Helped Me to Explore My Filipino Heritage. (16 May 2019). Captivating Magazine.
“United We Stand, Divided We Fall: What Women, People of Color, and People with Disabilities Stand to Lose if the UMC Doesn’t Stand Together.” (8 April, 2019). Hacking Christianity.
“Remain: What Does the UMC Stand to Lose in a Split?” (8 April, 2019). Originally published in Hacking Christianity (see above). Reprinted in UM Insight with permission.
“Gender, Race, and Disability: The Aspects of Inclusion We Frequently Overlook.” (12 March 2019.) United Methodist Insight.
3 Career Lessons I Wish I Had Known Sooner. (March 2019: Issue No. 4). CAPTIVATING! Magazine.
7 Relationships for Inter-abled Couples and Couples with Disabilities. (February 2019: Issue No. 3). CAPTIVATING! Magazine.
4 Easy Steps All People, Including People with Disabilities, Can Take to Improve Heart Health. (February 2019: Issue No. 3). CAPTIVATING! Magazine
“An Open Letter to the United Methodist Church: From a Visually Impaired, Half-Filipino Clergywoman Who Loves You.” (31 January 2019). United Methodist Insight.
“Facing Sight Loss with Grace and Hope.” (22 January 2019). Stephanae McCoy (Ed.). Bold Blind Beauty.
“16 Easy Ways for Your Church of Organization Can Be More Accessible to People with Disabilities.” (January 2019: Issue No. 2). CAPTIVATING! Magazine.
“Voice Dream Reader: An App That Increases Accessibility for People with Print Disabilities.” (January 2019: Issue No. 2). CAPTIVATING! Magazine.
“Finding Success in a World Dominated by Men’s Voices.” (2018). Women Writers, Women’s Books.
“Prayer to Find the Way Forward,””Responsive Prayer for the Way Forward,” and “Litany for the Way Forward.” (2018). Praying Our Way Forward to General Conference: Prayer Resources. (21 December 2018). Connecting Ministries of the Susquehanna Conference of the United Methodist Church.
Poems & Microfiction
“SPAM Eater.” (7 May 2019). Issue 2. Neon Mariposa Magazine.
“What They Said When Io Ran,” (5 April 2019). Amethyst Review.
“Interview.” (21 March 2019) 50 Word Stories.
“My White Cane Is a Magic Wand.” (12 February 2019). The Drabble: Shortness of Breath.
“Prayer in Honor of the Feast of St. Luke (Poem).” (Fall 2018). The Font: Fostering Connections Connections Within the Order Of St. Luke. For more information about the Order of St. Luke, visit: http://saint-luke.net/
Guest Posts:
Interview. (March 2019). AmandaGene.com
“How My Natural Filipina Hair Became My Mark of Personal Identity.” (March 2019). FaithNTurtles.com
“My Favorite Christmas Song, “Come Thou Long Expected Jesus. “ (3 December 2018). Ai Love Music: Exploring New Music Together.
“Understanding Beliefs: The Christian.” (16 November 2018). The Mommy Lady.
Rev. Rebecca Writes 