The Transforming Power of Story: How Telling Your Story Brings Hope to Others and Healing to Yourself

by Elaine Leong Eng, David B. Biebel

Overview

This book demonstrates, through multiple true life stories, how sharing one's story, especially in a group setting, can bring hope to listeners and healing to the one who shares. As Christians believe that "history" is "His story," we also believe that the smaller personal stories of our lives contribute to the larger story of God's grace and healing power throughout history and beyond. Designed for group use, individuals facing difficulties will find this book greatly encouraging. Any reader will find it inspirational.

Praise For The Transforming Power Of Story:

"Dr. Elaine Eng is a remarkable woman with an incredible story and personal ministry. She has been an inspiration tome for as long as I have known her. Her book will inspire you, bring tears of joy to your eyes, and longing to your heart, and reinforce your love for our wonderful Savior. Dr. Eng is a living, walking testimony to God's grace and power through human frailty. Her life and her stories show poignantly how He can use any circumstance for His glory."

-Diane Passno, Sr. Vice President, Focus on the Family

"It was a 'not to put down' book and every minute I could find free, I read it. People of all walks of life and persuasions of faith will find their own stories come alive in those of the contributors." -Mary Jane Jewell, RN

"The Transforming Power of Story not only talks about why our stories are so important to share, but it also demonstrates this fact through each story recounted in this book. Through the exercises at the end of each chapter, this ground-breaking book gives opportunity for each reader to reflect on his or her life story in ways that give the just-read story practical application in the reader's life. A great job. A great read. A potentially life changing book." -Ruth E. Van Reken, author

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781939267429
Publisher:	Healthy Life Press
Publication date:	01/22/2013
Pages:	214
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Elaine Leong Eng, MD, is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychi¬atric Association. She is a graduate of Princeton University and the Al¬bert Einstein College of Medicine. She is currently Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Weill ¬Cornell Medical College and teaches at the Alliance Theological Seminary's Graduate School of Counseling. Trained in the Lay Ministry Program of Concordia College, Dr. Eng integrates faith, medical, and psychological is¬sues to provide mental health education to many audiences. Avenues for this include international and domestic travel for speaking engagements and writing, in the context of which she often brings hope to her listeners through sharing her own experience with the disability of blindness. She is a long time member of the Christian Medical & Dental Associations, and a frequent speaker in that venue. She also serves on the faculty of CMDA's Continuing Medical & Dental Education international program for missionary doctors. She is a member of Focus on the Family's physicians advisory council.

Her book "Martha, Martha": How Christians Worry is a text on anxiety disorders and the church community. Her second book is entitled A Christian Approach to Overcoming Disability: A Doctor's Story. This is her third book.

Table of Contents

Foreword 9

Prologue 11

Introduction: Telling Your Story 13

1 Blessed and Stressed Transitions Elaine Eng, MD [Blindness] 17

2 A Soft Blanket Ronda Knuth [Stillbirth / Miscarriage] 31

3 When God & Cancer Meet Lynn Eib [Cancer] 43

4 Foxhole Buddies Anonymous [Pornography] 55

5 Joy in the Mourning Linda Gill, MSN, LPC [Multiple Losses] 63

6 Narratives for Life Peggy Hartshorn, PhD [Crisis Pregnancy 77

7 Shannon, Gone Too Soon Sue Foster, MA, LMFT [Suicide] 95

8 And He Will Give You Rest Lisa Copen [Chronic Illness] 105

9 A Widows Grief & Consolation Dee Brestin [Loss of a Spouse] 121

10 Medicine and Narratives [Doctors' Stories Then and Now] 129

11 Christian Womanhood [Issues & Opportunities of Women] 145

12 The Transforming Story: The Gospel for the World 157

13 From Pain to Joy David B. Biebel, DMin [Loss of a Child] 167

Conclusion: How to use this book: Creating a "Tell Your Story" Forum 185

About the Authors/Contributors 195

Appendix - Organizations 199

Resources from Healthy Life Press 202

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

I opened the door of my cabin in the beautiful Brakenhurst Conference Center, north of Nairobi, and there she was—the same sightless lady I had seen the year before in a similar setting in Thailand. What is she talking about to each of these doctors and nurses who take her by the arm and lead her through the garden paths? She’s there to teach classes to these hundreds of doctors and nurses, but all day long she seems to be walking and talking. Or is it listening?

Now you can take Doctor Elaine Eng by the arm and hear not only the moving stories she has been hearing, but her own riveting story of transformation. You may find healing or strength—as the need may be—as she and others (ten of her friends) share heart and soul in the major crises of life. She waits at your door to share The Transforming Power of Story.

- Robertson McQuilkin; President Emeritus, Columbia International University

Eng and Biebel have privilege their readers to hear directly from survivors. The storytellers are ones who painfully looked for and found who they could trust to transform the chaos of the wounded soul to become a dependable guidepost of encouragement and healing. This book includes menus for practical applications

allowing any of us to create help for others from our own lessons of loss.

- Marvin Jewell, MD, Christian Medical and Dental Education Commission