It’s been awhile since I’ve blogged here at BethJones.net so I thought I’d share about what’s new. One of the most exciting things is that I just graduated from Robyn Dystra’s 8-week Christian Speakers Bootcamp. The best part was having access to Robyn live on a weekly Zoom meeting, where she shared the wealth of her years of experience speaking and answered our questions about speaking.
This is my digital certificate from the class, and Robyn is mailing all of us a paper certificate, too. Isn’t it cool?!
Second, Robyn assigned a speech coach to everyone in the training. Mine was Lisa Betz, an award-winning novelist. She was great and helped me to greatly improve and polish my Cinderella signature talk.
We also got a practice and prayer partner, to help us practice our “elevator pitch” (what you say when you meet someone new and he or she says, “What do you do?”). Our speech coach worked with us on this, too. Here’s mine:
“I’m Beth Jones, an International Speaker and Author of 30 books. I believe we should dream BIG because we serve a BIG GOD! I help women to step out of fear into faith in Jesus Christ, by sharing my story and the Bible about how much God loves us and the freedom we have in Jesus.”
What do you think?
If you’re an event planner or know someone who is who needs a speaker for their women’s conference, event, or workshop, please contact me here.
If you have never heard me share my story, you can read it in my memoir, Promises in the Dark: One Woman’s Search for Authentic Love, available at Amazon here.
This past week I attended CJ and Shelley Hitz’s Kingdom Writers Productivity Conference. It is their 8th Kingdom Writers Conference, and once again it was great. The speakers were amazing. I loved Courtnaye Richard’s session, An Inside Look at the Life of a Productive Writer. One thing she said that impacted me was, “It’s not going to happen until you start moving.” Amen!
The other thing that God has done is the miracle with Marmalade, the male orange tabby rescue cat. I was so scared that he and Nichodemus, the other male, Maine Coone-tabby mix cat that I had been feeding here at our house since spring 2023, would freeze to death with the winter ice storm that hit the Kansas City, Missouri area in January 2024. I knew that I had to get them both inside to be safe!
With God’s help and tuna fish, I was able to entice both of them into our house and keep them in our separate bathrooms to stay warm and safe. I wanted to keep both of them but couldn’t keep Marmalade due to his FIV+ test result (a contagious cat virus); I have a pet female cat, Natalya (and I’m keeping Nichodemus, who tested negative for it and cat leukemia, FLV).
Many cats who test positive for FIV live long, healthy, happy lives, but I didn’t want to take the risk of Natalya and Nichodemus possibly getting FIV from Marmalade, in case either got into a bad fight with him. Cats can only catch it from an FIV+ cat from sexual contact or a deep wound, not from casual contact such as sharing food and water bowls, using the same litter box, or being in close proximity.
You can watch the video about Marmalade’s miracle (a new, safe, loving home in St. Louis, Missouri) by clicking here. My heart aches with him gone now. I really miss him, but I thank God for this huge miracle answered prayer for him! His foster mom Mary seems like a wonderful, loving “cat” person. She has let me know how he’s doing and sent me a few pictures of him!
He is doing well with Mary and her Maine Coone-mix, male cat Toop. She says he likes to stay close to them both and after he watches people awhile who visit them, he is friendly to them. While he and Toop have had a couple of spats, for the most part they are friends. Marmalade and he sleep close together on her sofa and bed! To me, this is totally God! Praise Jesus!
Before Ray and I drove half-way to meet Mary to give her Marmalade, he would jump into my lap after eating for me to pet him. He would just pur, so happy. I miss my little sweet friend!
My cat Natalya and Nichodemus also love to be petted. Nichodemus is out of the downstairs bathroom now that he’s neutered, had his 2 shots, and tested negative for FIV and FLV, and he is exploring the upstairs more. Natalya still hisses at him sometimes, but they are getting used to each other and thank God, they’ve never fought. My prayer is that they become best friends! Here is a pic of Nichodemus close to Natalya in our front entry room – so cute! He wants to be her friend!
I told Ray that I’m going to write a new book about Marmalade –and the other stray cats I’ve fed and helped to find a safe, new place for this past year. I want to put Marmalade’s picture on the cover. Ray said that he saw that one coming, LOL. When I asked why, he said I always write books about topics that are important to me. This is true! Stay tuned for it.
You can find the books that I’ve written at my Amazon Author Page.
The temps are warmer now and the tree in our yard is blooming – the promise of spring. I encourage you to get outside, enjoy the sunshine and Vitamin D!
What is new in your world now?
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