Best Selling Books by Susan Lynn

...Jesus led me to a place that I could only see by the light of His presence. It appeared to be an untamed garden surrounded by tall walls of crudely made charcoal bricks. A cold wind blew briskly, and I heard a sound of wailing. I recognized it as my own sobs and had flashbacks of memories of crying in showers and in a lonely bed. I wretchedly turned into Jesus'' chest, and He folded His arms around me. He sighed and I instantly felt a new strength within me rise up. I wanted to cry at the sight of this neglected lot, but I seemed to understand that this garden represented me somehow. "This place, My child, is your soul!" He said with a smile... Imagine, if you will, Jesus becoming real to you and He leads you into your troubled soul as a garden. He shows you the truth and lies rooted in the weeds of your fears, large stones of anger and bushes of rejection that have kept you from experiencing love of yourself and others, and Jesus Himself. And He wants you to be healed and delivered from the pain of your emotions of the past. Would you be willing? This is a true story of an emotionally wounded soul saved by Jesus who counsels and guides her with truth and wisdom from an unhealthy marriage. She spiritually comes alive as Jesus'' love awakens within her through a personal relationship with Him. She learns to understand that love forgives the love disabled. The heavenly Father makes an appearance informing her she must purpose to love in order to flourish, beginning with herself. Susan Lynn Brandt is the mother of three children, the master of cats, dogs, chickens and parakeets in Wisconsin. Email her at: [email protected]

Susan, reluctant and sullen, is forced to light Sabbath candles at her grandparent''s house. She then has to listen as her grandmother speaks to her of ancestors, including the courageous woman she is named for. Her interest in the people in the sepia pictures she''s shown blossoms. Gradually the lighting of Sabbath candles grows from a chore to a symbol of Sabbath, an honoring of her heritage. She carries this heritage with her through the tumultuous 1960s and a marriage that fails. Forgotten for a while, Susan finds it again after her mother''s death. Years later her teenage granddaughter, reluctant and sullen, will be forced to learn from Susan the heritage and tradition of her family.

An impediment to learning especially with students with special needs is conflict between students. Students within this setting tend to engage in aggressive verbal behavior with one another. The purpose of this research is to examine the effect of community building in replacing aggressive speech with prosocial speech. The research literature revealed that prosocial behavior is linked to academic achievement. Aggressive behavior is linked to high drop out rates in high school, low attendance and low grade point average. Research in cooperative learning indicates that it promotes achievement and prosocial behaviors. Participants for this study included 17 high school students assigned to a life science class. The researcher also served as teacher of record of this class. A mixed methods research approach was put in place, collecting both quantitative and qualitative data. This data included tallying the number of utterances of aggressive speech. Qualitative data included interviews with paraprofessionals as well as researcher observations of student interactions. Descriptive data were collected for a period of 9 months. The researcher implemented ten community building strategies as a part of the instructional design. Results indicated that student self esteem and student ownership in the student''s learning environment are effective in reducing aggressive speech and lead to less conflict oriented distraction during class time which allows for more meaningful instruction time.

This dissertation argues that makeup was crucial to the consolidation of a new type of identity at the beginning of the twentieth century. As attitudes about makeup changed from shock and disgust to acceptance of it as an unremarkable, everyday phenomenon, makeup did important work of suturing female identity into a consumer economy. The modern sense of self located identity on the surface of the body and in the accessories purchased for it rather than the older notion of character emerging from within the body in an essentialist fashion.

This thesis assesses the changing dynamics of covert action as an instrument of U.S. foreign policy. Four primary variables are researched in the context of the Cold War period and the emerging new world order. These variables include: (1) the broad characteristics of the international environment that guide relations between international aactors; (2) the primary U.S. foreign policy objectives as examined through presidential doctrines; (3) the acceptance of interventionism in both domestic and international domains, and; (4) moral considerations in the policymaking process of a democratic society. The study conclued that while the primary forces creating the impetus for the institutionalization of covert operations in U.S. foreign policy have disappeared with the collapse of the Soviet Union, the fundamental role of convert action itself has been little effected. The structural system supporting such action has, however, undergone significant changes which are outlined in the study. The U.S. administration has created new justifications for the existence of covert action in an effort to be compatible with its own definition of the new world order.

The problem addressed in this research was to understand the cultural schema(s) that are utilized in meaning-making as people identify and interpret life experiences related to call. The population studied is adult students in a Pentecostal/charismatic university in Los Angeles, California. This research utilizes a triangulation of methods approach (Tashakkori and Teddlie 1998) and draws from two theories in cognitive anthropology, cultural schema theory (D''Andrade 1987; Quinn 2005b; Strauss and Quinn 1997) and cultural consensus theory (Romney, Batchelder, and Weller 1987; Romney, Weller, and Batchelder 1986; Weller and Romney 1988). Data elicitation tools are based on strategies developed early in cognitive anthropology for the investigation of cognitive domains along with a vignette exercise. Data analysis took place in two stages with data functioning both as a context of discovery and a context of verification (D''Andrade 2005, 85). People in the research context demonstrate a cultural schema of call that includes four core items: God as caller, the individual as called, the role or task as calling, and knowing as the essential link. Once these four core items were present, a second level of common items was demonstrated; the common elements were confirmation, giftedness, time or duration, and experience. This cultural schema of call was utilized by the population in relation to additional schemas including pastor, leader, family, church, ministry, and work. Indications of underlying foundational cultural schemas were also present including self, success, and status. Findings of this research are discussed in terms of the implications for call as a process of meaning-making and the limitations of biblical/theological material for making sense of experiences related to call. Implications for leadership research and cognitive anthropology research are discussed along with suggestions for the leader formation practitioner''s engagement with cultural schemas.

Dependent variables were analyzed using repeated measures ANOVAs. A significant group x time interaction (F 17̣5 = 4.97, p u003c.05) resulted for the knowledge data. A main effect for time (F 17̣5 = 10.88, p u003c.001) was found for the attitudinal scale and a main effect for gender (F 17̣5 = 6.99, p u003c.01) was noted for interest. Students demonstrated knowledge deficits, held neutral views toward the elderly and were somewhat interested in working with older adults. Knowledge levels and attitudes did not differ between male and female students, however; females expressed higher levels of interest compared to males. The course produced significant but not acceptable changes in knowledge. No differences in attitudes or interest resulted from the intervention. Course modifications are needed to better prepare future clinicians.