This Week on Living Inspired: Karen Whiting and Bo Stern

This week on Living Inspired I’m excited to be chatting with Karen Whiting and Bo Stern. Karen Whiting, a freelance writer and author of fifteen nonfiction books, loves to let creativity splash onto the page as she writes. Karen’s books include the popular tween series God’s Girls (inspirational craft books) and her newest craft book, My Mini Dream Room (Legacy Press, 2012). Bo Stern writes in Beautiful Battlefields (NavPress, 2013), God uses our darkest moments to shape us into the people He wants us to be. “Though we would rather avoid battles and suffering, God does some of His most beautiful work through the hardest seasons in life. In fact, there are some things that can only be accomplished in us through battle.”

**Due to shipping costs, giveaways open to US only**

More about Karen Whiting: Karen Whiting, a freelance writer and author of fifteen nonfiction books, loves to let creativity splash onto the page as she writes. Karen’s books include the popular tween series God’s Girls (inspirational craft books) and her newest, a devotional, Stories of Faith and Courage From the Home Front: From the French and Indian War to the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. She served as a contributing writer for Focus on the Family’s parenting magazine for two years and writes a time management column for Enrichment Magazine. Her work has appeared in numerous publications, including Focus on the Family magazine, The Lookout, and Today’s Christian Woman. Karen formerly hosted Puppets on Parade, an educational television series. She speaks for women’s groups, retreats, schools, and mother-daughter events. Karen and her husband participated in Officers’ Christian Fellowship for nearly four decades, helping military families and academy students. Karen, a recent widow, enjoys her five children and eight grandchildren.

More about My Mini Dream Room: This book is about having fun by making little things. Why? Because the littlest action matters to God. In My Mini Dream Room dive right into these mini crafts and devotions to make furniture, curtains, baskets of flowers, pillows, teddy bears and other total amazing decorations. Let your creativity shine by making your very own dream room.

More about Bo Stern: Bo Stern knows the most beautiful things can come out of the hardest times. Her Goliath came in the form of her husband, Steve’s, terminal illness, a battle they are still fighting with the help of their four children, a veritable army of friends, and our extraordinary God. The Sterns make their home in Bend, OR, where Bo is a teaching pastor at Westside Church with a passion for making theology accessible, compelling and transformative. Both her position in the church and her personal battle have allowed Bo to minister to others as they are facing their own giants. She considers it to be a privilege to be able to provide a listening ear and a shoulder to cry on — being a part of another’s Army so that they don’t have to fight their battle alone. Bo and Steve also serve on the international board of Kings Kids Village, a home for AIDS-affected orphans in Nairobi, Kenya. They are also active in ALS advocacy — a disease Steve has been fighting since 2011.

More about Beautiful Battlefields: Where is God in the midst of this? You’ve probably heard that question or perhaps asked it yourself. In the battle for your joy, your marriage, your finances, your health, an emptiness creeps in. Where is the peace You promised, God? Bo Stern has been there—and is still there. Yet in studying the battles in Scripture, she came to a startling conclusion: God is using these fierce fights in our lives for an astonishing purpose.

“Bo Stern has written a book that will encourage, challenge, and inspire anyone facing battlefields of everyday life. Thoughtful and provoking, these pages just might be filled with the hope you need right now.”

~ Margaret Feinberg, author of Wonderstruck and Scouting the Divine

“In twenty-one years of women’s ministry, I have never met a woman as extraordinary as Bo Stern. She is the real deal and her words are anointed by God Himself. You will forever be changed by this book.”

~ Sheri Rose Shepherd, best-selling author, Bible life coach