It is giveaway day!!!
Leah and Jan’s new book, Tasting Grace is going to be launched soon and I have a copy to give away! So, after reading the post today, if you comment, I will have a drawing at the end of the week and one winner will receive the book! Please include an e-mail address in your comment if you’d like to be entered in the drawing!
Following is an interview with Leah Adams and more information about the fabulous new book: Tasting Grace.
Leah, I may have readers who have not met you online. What would you like for my readers to know about you?
I am a North Georgia girl who loves Jesus—A LOT. I asked Jesus to come into my heart at the age of 15. Within a few years, I made some horrible moral choices that drew me away from Him. I spent the better part of my 20s walking far from Jesus, and God let me go my own way until I was sick of it. Then, just like the prodigal son’s father, God welcomed me back, and overwhelmed me with a desire for His Word and His presence. He made it clear that nothing I had done, no sin I had committed, changed how He felt about me. God loved me with a ridiculous love. He lavished grace on the heart of His daughter, and ultimately called me into ministry in 2007.
My passion is teaching God’s Word, and He allows me to do that through three avenues: speaking, writing, and mentoring. I have had the privilege of speaking to groups all across the United States. While my signature message is about the legacy we are leaving for the generations that come behind us, the ultimate message is always about the grace, love, acceptance, and mercy that can only be found in Jesus Christ. I love speaking to women of all ages, but my heartbeat is for women under 40 years of age. My hope is that the words God gives me encourage and challenge women to walk intimately with Jesus every single day they walk the dusty sod of earth. I want them to know that Jesus loves them more than they can imagine.
Another area of ministry that the Lord has assigned to my husband and me jointly is ministry to international students who are studying in the US. Over 750,000 students from other countries study in America every year, and the vast majority of them are never in an American home. What a missed opportunity for the church of Jesus Christ to show the love of Jesus to students who might, otherwise, never hear about Him! Greg and I regularly host international students in our home, and have developed close friendships with many of them. In fact, we have become ‘American parents’ to a delightful young woman from Australia. God brought Bree, Greg, and me together, and she is now very much a part of our family. We love her as if she were our own.
The mentoring portion of my ministry is where Tasting Grace was birthed and definitely dove-tails with the idea of legacy.
What occupies your free time? Hobbies, interests?
I love to read….Christian fiction and biographies are what can be found on my bookshelf, alongside lots of biblical commentaries, Bible translations, and cookbooks. I enjoy cooking, traveling, and spending time with family and friends.
What are some items on your bucket list?
I would love to visit Australia, Germany, Hawaii, Alaska, and the Grand Canyon. Speaking gigs in any of those places would make the trip that much sweeter! My husband is a golfer, and we would like to attend the Master’s golf tournament. I sponsor two girls in Tanzania and one in Columbia through Compassion International, and visiting them one day is definitely on the list. I would like to write another Bible study, or ten, if the Lord gives me the words. As I said, I love to cook, and attending a weekend Southern Living cooking school would be great fun. A return visit to a hummingbird haven where many different types of hummingbirds are together in one place is on the list. I’m amazed at those little fliers.
How did you develop an interest in writing and when did you begin writing seriously?
I have enjoyed writing and public speaking from my junior high school days. I always excelled in English, and term papers were never a drag for me. I know….I’m a geek.
My deep-end dive into writing came in 2002 when my Daddy was diagnosed with metastatic colon cancer. As he progressed through his chemo treatments, I would write a weekly email to family and friends who wanted to keep up with his progress. Each email would close with a few inspirational thoughts that usually included Scripture. After my Daddy graduated to heaven in late 2004, people began asking if I would write a weekly devotion and send it out via email. After a year or so of doing that, over 125 people were receiving each email, but unfortunately, my ISP was deleting the emails as spam. It was at that point that I made the jump to a blog format, where I now offer my writing.
When the Lord called me into ministry in late 2007, I needed something to speak about, and that something was the topic of legacy. For my first speaking engagement, I wrote a 15 minute message about the legacy we, as Christians, are leaving for the generations that come behind us. Eventually that message grew into an hour-long message, and ultimately became the foundation of my first Bible study, From the Trash Pile to the Treasure Chest: Creating a Godly Legacy, which was published in 2010, and will be re-published this year.
What is the back story behind Tasting Grace? What was the impetus for you to write this book?
In the spring of 2015, my friend and co-author, Jan Morton, posted pictures online of a ministry that she was doing in her South Georgia church. It was called Taste & See and was a mentoring in the kitchen ministry. My heart was so taken with what Jan was doing that I decided to try it for myself. I tossed out an invite on Facebook and had a handful of ladies take me up on the offer to come into my kitchen and learn to make homemade biscuits. The morning was a smashing success and led to more sessions with more ladies. I called my events Tasting Grace.
I began thinking about how Jan and I could share what we were doing with other women who wanted to mentor younger women. The Lord gave me the idea of writing a book that included every part of a Tasting Grace event. Thus Tasting Grace the book was birthed.
Share with us a bit about your book.
Tasting Grace is a book that offers women (and men) a complete how-to guide to hosting their own event. The book includes four weeks of Bible study that focuses on biblical mentoring. There are five days of Bible study in each week of the study that will take about 10-15 minutes each day to complete. Also in the book are recipes, devotionals, and tips from Jan and me on how to host a Tasting Grace kitchen event in the reader’s home or church.
Why should someone read Tasting Grace? What does it offer them personally?
Tasting Grace looks at mentoring from God’s perspective, and God had a fair amount to say about it, either directly or indirectly. Each Christian should be involved in mentoring someone who is younger in the faith, and each Christian should have a mentor in their life to speak godly wisdom to their heart. Tasting Grace offers the reader not only time in the Scripture, but also a complete guide to starting a mentoring in the kitchen ministry of their own, should the reader desire to do so.
For the reader who is not yet interested in hosting a Tasting Grace event, the Bible study and delicious recipes make the book a valuable tool for personal study and growth.
How can my readers find you? Blog? Social media?
I would love to meet your readers. They can find me at my website and blog at http://www.leahadams.org
I am also on several social media platforms:
When and where will Tasting Grace be available to the public?
It is available NOW through Amazon, Warner Press, Inc and other retailers. My co-author and I will be leading the Bible study portion of the study on the Tasting Grace Facebook page beginning September 19.
Tasting Grace has a page on the publisher’s website loaded with lots of info about the book and about Jan and me. The web address is tastinggrace.warnerpress.org.
What final thoughts would you like to share with my readers?
I want to encourage your readers to pray about mentoring someone who is younger in the faith. You do not have to be forty years old or sixty years old in order to mentor. If you are just a little bit farther along in your faith journey than another person, then you can be a mentor. There are sweet rewards for the mentor and the mentee in the mentoring relationship. I can think of no better way to mentor than in my kitchen. You, however, might mentor at work, on a hike, a shopping trip, or over coffee. The beauty of mentoring is that it can be done anywhere and has far-reaching effects. The only thing required to be a mentor is a heart that delights in sowing into the lives of others.
Hi Leah!!! Hi Lora!!! I didn't know that Tasting Grace was also a Bible Study on mentoring. And the recipes! I think it is such a cool concept.
Love and hugs to you both,
Adrienne
Hi Adrienne!!! I agree!!! You are precious. Love you too!
Thanks, Lora, for interviewing Leah. I've learned more about her!
I love the idea of Tasting Grace. It is something I plan to bring to our women's ministry leaders at my church. It's a wonderful concept.
Thanks for sharing at The Loft.
So delighted to read this interview with Leah! My church in TN has a mentoring in the kitchen ministry, too. They call it Secrets Savored. I think it's a brilliant way to mentor, and I think Leah and Jan's new book will be a wonderful resource for churches and individuals!
Lora, thank you for offering this interview and giveaway! You bless me so much.
Adrienne~~so good to see you here. Thank you for stopping in.
Jerralea~~I think you would adore a Tasting Grace ministry. I can tell that you are a women who would have so much wisdom to pour into other women. Let me know how it goes at your church.
Yvette~~I am crazy about the name of your church's mentoring ministry. Secrets Savored. How awesome!! Thank you for sharing with us.
Yes it is!!!
Secrets Savored – sounds delicious!
I am honored, my friend.