Why do we like to read?
I know, it’s a pretty basic question for a group of super-readers like us. But if you were to throw out an answer, I imagine it would be a combination of these reasons: it’s relaxing. It’s peaceful. It’s entertaining. It lets me travel to places I may not make it to in person. It allows me to live new adventures.
All valid reasons and I’m sure you could come up with more. But isn’t it cool when stories accomplish more than entertainment? Before I began my career writing inspirational romance, I wrote stories that didn’t include a faith element. The main reason I moved to writing Christian contemporary romance is because I wanted my stories to be memorable long after turning the last page. I wanted my stories to make a difference, to help people. Because each of my books contains a faith message as well as a journey to find love, they are my testimony of God’s love to the world. His message is shared with the readers of my love stories.
Taking it a step further, I also love when fiction books help bring light to a certain cause or charity through the storyline. In my book Roadtrip to Redemption, Leslie Malone faces an empty summer. Her husband divorces her, her job as a teacher is on summer break and her daughter accepts a fashion internship far away in Paris. What an empty, miserable, lonely summer, right?
Wrong! Leslie decides to jump in the car and take a roadtrip with no destination in mind. Along the way, she prays for God’s guidance and asks Him to use her to 
help others that she finds along her path. It makes for a very adventurous trip! She meets Evelyn, who leads the knitting ministry group at her church. Their project is to knit a dozen blankets and a dozen preemie baby caps and deliver them to Levine’s Children’s Hospital in Charlotte, North Carolina every month. While writing the book, I didn’t know that I’d feature this real-life hospital in my story, but as I was researching the route Leslie would take on her trip, I knew that her encounter with Evelyn and the knitters would take place right about there. With a simple Google search I discovered that Levine’s is a big presence in that community, and so the storyline of the knitters creating for the babies took shape. From there, it grew. A friend of mine, Diana Atkinson, an avid knitter, had opened her own online store, Heartfelt Creative, where she features knitted goods and original patterns for knitters. I asked her to create a pattern for the preemie caps which I included in the back of the book for readers to use.
About two months after the book’s launch, I ran a special promotion. For a week, I partnered with Levine’s Children’s Hospital to promote the book, both on my end and theirs, and all proceeds that came in from sales for that week, I donated to their hospital preemie ward. It was a fun project, a heartwarming one. We raised a little money for the babies, we sold a few more books and it left us all with a great feeling in our hearts.
In my book Sanctuary, Nora Ramsey inherits a dilapidated southern plantation home in the Lowcountry of South Carolina from her beloved aunt. A high-powered Philadelphia attorney who for a number of reasons, decides to push the Reset button on her crazy busy life, Nora settles into a new, slow-paced routine of savoring God’s beauty of the ocean and the marsh, and renovating her aunt’s treasure to its former majesty. After some soul-searching she decides that she can use her long business experience to mentor young women who need a “leg up” into the professional world. Helping other women gain their education, write their resume and prepare for interviews in business would be something she’d be good at and would enjoy spending her days doing.
Once my story started evolving, I recognized that I could once again use my fiction for a mission to help others. After some research, I discovered the nonprofit, Dress For Success, a global organization with local affiliates all over the US. Dress for Success provides professional attire for low-income women, to help support their job-search and interview process. Buoyed by the success of my previous promotion partnering with Levine’s, I contacted Dress For Success and ran a similar one-week special event.
Other InspyRomance authors have incorporated real-life charitable organizations in their books with the intent to help others. In Raindrops on Radishes, author Valerie Comer’s characters help out at Blessings Under the Bridge, a program in Spokane, Washington, that serves dinners to the homeless. She contacted the coordinators of the real program, and they were delighted with the mention.
In A Pinch of Promise, author Elizabeth Maddrey writes about a fictional mission that she modeled after the Central Union Mission in Washington DC. She donates a portion of the proceeds from that series to support the mission.
Author Deb Kastner donated a portion of royalties from The Cowgirl’s Christmas Gift to real-life animal rescue Happy Haven Farm and Sanctuary, which among other things takes in animals that can’t be adopted back out. They recently had a pig with a bag of food dumped on their front porch…guess the owners’ potbellied pig grew up!
Author Stephanie Martin auctioned off rights to a character in her book A Date for Daisy. She included a one-page info sheet about the auction and the organization it supported at the end of the book. It went to Project Hope, which is a Christian ministry in Southwest Missouri that does local and international mission work. What a fun event!
It shouldn’t surprise us that Christian authors have come up with creative ways to include a mission in our fiction. Do you have any others to add? Have you read books recently that included an element of helping others in need?
If you would like further information on any of the charitable organizations mentioned in this blog post, here you go!
Happy Haven Farm and Sanctuary
**Heartwarming, life-changing Christian fiction.** An award-winning author, Laurie is living her dream life at the beach, writing novels. Laurie writes beachy inspirational romance that takes place in the South Carolina Low Country. She retired from the big day job and now focuses on writing full time. Strolls on the sand, soaking up the sun and riding the waves can be considered the best kind of research.
I love the inclusion of these missions.
I wonder what happened to the pig.
:) Hope the pig found a good home!
Love the idea of missions in our books! Great ideas.
Thanks Christina!
I love the idea of missions in books!! One I know of, and would be interesting to see in a book, is the Canaveral Port Ministry. There are ministries like it all over the world, trying to reach seafarers for Christ. When cruise ships are running, there are many that sail out of Port Canaveral. The crew members do NOT eat the same food the passengers do, they have limited contact with family for up to 6 months at a time. The Canaveral Port ministry provides transportation to places like Walmart, they provide free meals, phone cards, phones, computers, Bibles, tracts, etc., to meet the needs of the crew. There are also cargo ships that come into the port. During this time of Covid, many of the crew aren’t allowed to leave the ship. The ones working and volunteering at the ministry will go food shopping, visit the ships with phones so they can call family, and many times take Bibles to them in their own language. They try to meet their present needs along with their spiritual needs.
Thank you for sharing. It opens my mind to other avenues for me to think about. God bless you.
Oh Trudy, thanks for sharing this! I’ve never heard of this type of ministry or even knew it existed! Having been on a few cruises, I’ve become acquainted with the hardworking crew members, and always feel a little sorry for their need to be away from their families for weeks or even months at a time. I’m so glad there are Christians that help them with the necessities of life away from home!
Thank you so much Debra! God bless you too!
Laurie, Alana Terry has 5 Christian novels set in North Korean from which half to sometimes all proceeds going to Liberty In North Korea. She has also had many readers come back and tell her these books have inspired them to consistently pray for persecuted believers. She is very conscientious to make sure her books have a clear Christian message in them. She also has the habit of tackling hot button topics and showing how people can have Christ help them work through their experiences or even accept Christ because of what they are walking through.
Thats so great! I love the idea of writer incorporating real charities into their books and then partnering to raise money for them.
Yes! Thanks for mentioning Alana! I love her Christian romantic suspense books and I admire her so much as an author. I was aware of her passion for helping Korean refugees. Perfect example!
Yes, it’s such a great partnership with winners on all sides!
One learns so much by reading true Christian fiction! I so appreciate all our Inspy authors and others, who write to bring glory to God, growth in their readers, and also open up charitable pursuits.
Yes, it is so important to think ‘Mission’ wherever and whenever we come in contact with people. Right now, online seems to be the safest way we can do it. I admire the many missionaries who stayed where they were working even when governments were calling people to come home due to Covid. Their work took priority. Work where you are placed.
Thank you Margaret, what a kind thing to say! Believe me when I say, it’s our pleasure!
Sandra, you bring up a part of the COVID shutdown population I hadn’t even considered: missionaries in foreign countries. Brave and faithful. So true.
This is so very nice and so very generous of the authors doing this, God Bless all of you authors who do this. These books sound like very good reads and the covers are Beautiful. Thank you for sharing about these books and about the organizations . Have a Great week and stay safe.
Thank you so much Alicia! Appreciate your kind words!
What an ingenious idea to use missions in your books. Blessings
Dani Pettrey sometimes has a mission in connection to her books.
Donating hair to the cancer patients!
Thank you Lucy!
Oh yes! I read one of her books last year, in fact, the book that won a big award from American Christian Fiction Writers.
Great idea! That would be a great mission to include in the storyline.
If I remember right, Love Inspired had a series that was set around a boys ranch (Lone Star Cowboy League). It was a place for troubled young boys to have a safe place to live, learn a trade and turn their lives around. I’m pretty sure it’s based off of a real place.
That’s about the only books I can come up with that deals with helping others in need. I’m sure I’ve read others, though! :-)
That sounds like a great place. I wonder if I can volunteer? :)