BEThel resident Author’s

We are truly fortunate to have such an abundance of remarkable talent within our beloved place of worship. We joyfully share all of these wonderful and diverse gifts with our members and remain deeply grateful for the unique and valuable contributions each person brings to enrich our community. Our church regularly hosts thoughtful and engaging discussions about the books we both read and write, as well as meaningful conversations centered on the important events and pressing issues happening in society today. We warmly invite you to take some time to explore and learn more about our published church authors and their inspiring, impactful works.

After his first cross-country motorcycle trip, Joe Blair believed he had discovered his calling: he would travel; he would never cave in to convention; he would never settle down. Fifteen years later, he finds himself living in Iowa, working as an air-conditioning repairman and spending his free time cleaning gutters, taxiing his children, and contemplating marital infidelity. When the Iowa River floods, transforming the familiar streets of his small town into a terrible and beautiful sea, Joe begins to question the path that led him to this place.

We, Black Superwomen, have a long history of denying our mental health challenges. The status of Black women's mental health has always shown up in our physical reality and, currently, we are in another moment of awareness that seeks to clarify the health consequences and costs of the Black superwoman trope. Originally published in 1978, Michele Wallace brought to our attention the myth of the Black Superwoman highlighting our struggles and humanity.

Ryan and Richard are two, 5 year old boys, who first meet while playing in a sandbox at the neighborhood park. One black, the other white, they could have been life long friends but their parents, social attitudes and life’s incessant conflicts pit them on a collision course of hate and destruction. The story parallels their lives in three segments that cover every six years of their growth and development. Each explores what they have learned at various ages from their teachings and daily experiences. Based on the TEARS Trilogy novel series.

The presence of accomplished African American students performing in musical concerts, participating in visual art exhibitions, acting on stage, publishing literature, and competing on sports fields forced white students, instructors, and administrators to confront their undeniable intellect and talent. Unlike the work completed in traditional academic units, these students’ contributions to the university community were highly visible and burst beyond the walls of their individual units and primary spheres of experience to reach a much larger audience on campus and in the city and nation beyond the university’s boundaries.

By examining the quieter collisions between Iowa’s polite midwestern progressivism and African American students’ determined ambition, Invisible Hawkeyes focuses attention on both local stories and their national implications. By looking at the University of Iowa and a smaller midwestern college town like Iowa City, this collection reveals how fraught moments of interracial collaboration, meritocratic advancement, and institutional insensitivity deepen our understanding of America’s painful conversion into a diverse republic committed to racial equality.