Kate Welsh - Home to Safe Harbor

Matt cringed. “Quiet, kitten. You can’t ask a stranger to be your mommy. I’m sorry,” he said to Justine as his five-year-old daughter ran off to play. “I didn’t see that one coming at all.”

“Relax. I’m fairly positive you didn’t recruit her as a matchmaker,” Justine assured him. Then a teasing light entered her eyes. “So has Gina recruited any other good possibilities?”

“I think maybe she just did,” he quipped, then nearly swallowed his tongue. Where had that come from? He’d just flirted with the new minister.

He just couldn’t seem to think of her as Reverend Clemens. Since the moment he’d set his eyes on her, she’d been a beautiful woman he’d really wanted to meet and get to know. How to do that with a minister, however, would take a little thought.

is a two-time winner of Romance Writers of America’s coveted Golden Heart Award and a finalist for RWA’s RITA ®Award in 1999. Kate lives in Havertown, PA, with her husband of over thirty years. Kate has a married daughter. And with the marriage came a wonderful new son. Her happy home includes one remaining daughter, a Chespeake Bay retriever and a cat he wishes would be his friend.

There are few crafts Kate hasn’t tried. Those ideas she can’t resist grace her home and those of her friends and family. But she refuses to discuss her addiction to do-it-yourself TV and all those lovely projects waiting on the back burner!

As a child she often lost herself in creating make-believe worlds and happily-ever-after tales. Kate turned back to creating happy endings when her husband challenged her to write down the stories in her head. With Jesus so much a part of her life, Kate found it natural to incorporate Him into her writing. Her goal is to entertain her readers with wholesome stories of the love between two people the Lord has brought together and to teach His truth while she entertains.

www.millsandboon.co.uk

I am the light of the world. He who follows Me

shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.

—John 8:12

For Miranda and Erica—

Nothing is so precious as good health or the beauty

that shines from within you, because God is within

you. He will always see your beauty as long as you

love Him. Keep up the good work. We all love you

and are proud of you for how far you’ve come.

Dear Reader,

I hope you’ve enjoyed Home to Safe Harbor and all the other Safe Harbor books. When my editor asked if I was interested in joining the other wonderful authors slated to create Safe Harbor and the townsfolk, I jumped at the chance and the challenge.

The added challenge of writing about a female in ministry certainly got my creative juices flowing, and I picked my theme of giving control of our lives over to God. Within hours I knew Justine would struggle with her role in the church and the difficulty many women in ministry still face. Then I mixed in an inner struggle with her most worldly desires and how they could fit with God’s plan for her just to make things interesting!

Matthew came next. I decided he’d lost much in his lifetime but had many blessings, as well. I gave him a protector’s personality and a challenge in the form of a problem with one of his precious daughters. Parenthood is our most important and difficult responsibility in life. Our most rewarding, too. And Matt, being a hero, had to be a good father who was loathe to share his responsibility or the control of their lives or his to anyone—even God.

It didn’t take long to know what silent specter could be shadowing one of his children undetected. Twice, anorexia has touched a child close to my family and twice, full of fear for their children, parents ventured forth seeking an answer and help. And as Matt and Justine learned, this is an insidious disease that manifests itself with symptoms that lead to one conclusion—dieting as the cause—while the problem is something more complex and difficult to solve.

I would like to thank the Renfrew Center and its staff, whose invaluable help aided not only me in the writing of this book but a very special girl in her time of need. I urge anyone who sees the signs described in Home to Safe Harbor in any young person to visit www.renfrew.org or e-mail questions to inquiries@renfew.org. Then find help.

Philadelphia is blessed with the Renfrew Center on whose facility, principles and treatment plan I based the Mittler Center. Only, the personal story of the Mittler family was fiction. And above all, don’t forget to pray for your loved one to the Great Healer for whom no disease is too much.

Love,

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Reverend Justine Clemens stood frozen before the entire congregation of First Peninsula Church, managing to hold a smile in place through sheer determination. In her hands, she held the plaque she’d just accepted amid thunderous applause. Clearly, everyone thought she should be thrilled.

They were certainly thrilled.

But she was devastated.

The sign on her new office door would not read “Reverend Justine Clemens—Assistant Pastor.” That’s what she’d thought Reverend Burns and the board meant when they’d asked her to stay on permanently to assist him. Instead the plaque she now held tightly clutched in her hands read “Reverend Justine Clemens—Women and Youth Pastor.”

Once again she’d been relegated to a traditional role for women in the church. Once again she was on the road to having no one and nothing to call her own.

When Reverend Burns retired—and at seventy, how far off could that be?—she’d thought these people would be her flock. That they would look to her for guidance. Be her family. How could she have so completely misunderstood this position? Had it been wishful thinking? Self delusion?

The corners of the brass plaque bit into her hands and she managed to relax her trembling grip just a little. But, as she did, she also had to blink back the tears that threatened to give her away. Reverend Burns had just handed her what he clearly thought of as first prize, but she knew it to be the honorable mention it was.

He stood next to her at the front of the church, smiling and looking more like a man of sixty these days. When she’d visited him following his first knee surgery last March he’d looked all of his seventy years plus a few.

“There’s been a lot of speculation that I’m ready for long days fishing or even quieter days reading my worn and ragged Bible,” Reverend Thomas Burns told his congregation, that precious book held lovingly in his hand. “Well, I’m here to tell you I’ve never felt younger.” He smiled fondly down from the top step of the altar and used his other hand to pat his rapidly thinning girth. “It’s a miracle what new knees and exercise will do for a body.” He chuckled. “Mine, anyway.”

At a sudden clearing of Dr. Robert Maguire’s throat, scattered chuckles echoed through the sanctuary. Reverend Burns blushed a bit. “I know. I know,” he said pointing at the doctor. “You’ve been telling me this for years. And you were right. To be honest with all of you, I had considered retiring. During my enforced downtime, though, I found out rather quickly that I’d go loopy if I did. And I don’t think the Lord would be happy with a man in his prime hanging up his robes.” Reverend Burns moved closer to Justine, placing his hand on her shoulder. “Well, now, enough about me. Back to the reason I asked the board to hire Reverend Clemens in this new capacity. For a long time I’ve been feeling out of touch with some of you. So when I noticed how well Justine was able to relate to the younger women and teens, it seemed best for everyone to bring her on board permanently as pastor to the women and youth of First Peninsula Church.