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We all deal with tragedies in our own way. Some use faith to cope, while others rely on their own inner strength.
Debra Lee Tucker and Heather Gilion have used a little of both but are quick to point out in their new books that faith in God is an important factor that should not be overlooked.
Tucker suffered near-fatal cardiac arrest two years ago last month and has used her book, “Rhythms of the Heart -- Embracing Life After Death,” to relate her story.
Gilion and her sister, Holly Snell, went through tragedies at the same time a decade ago when their husbands drowned in a river accident. Four years after the incident, Gilion began writing, “Dancing on My Ashes: Learning to Love the One Who Gives and Takes Away” with her sister serving as co-author.
Both Tucker and Gilion, who met at the church they were attending in Ozark, have made trips to the Carthage area for book signings, the most recent one coming last month.
Tucker, who is from Nixa, was stricklen with cardiac arrhythmia while at her job as a supervisor at Pregnancy Care Center in Springfield. The heart attack caused her to lose consciousness and fall while at the coffeemaker. In the process, she hit her head on the floor.
Her daughter, April, who also works at Pregnancy Care Center, called 911.The next two weeks in the intensive care unit at Cox South Hospital were traumatic, to say the least. Surgery had to be performed to stop bleeding to her brain, while the process of recovering from the heart attack also began.
In addition to dealing with the physical ordeal in the hospital, as well as recovery at home, Tucker uses her book to describe how her outlook has changed since the incident.
Before the attack, her walk with God was being shifted to the back burner because of her busy schedule, even though she was a Christian who had worked for Campus Crusade for Christ International.
Now she is refocused with a book that helps readers evaluate important things in life, seek God and not take one’s daily existence for granted.
“She tells the story about the lessons God taught her about a life out of rhythm--physically, emotionally, relationally and spiritually,” said her husband, Rick, who also works with Campus Crusade for Christ.
Just as Tucker had to deal with her wounds, Gilion and her sister were in much the same boat in coping with the loss of their husbands.
We all deal with tragedies in our own way. Some use faith to cope, while others rely on their own inner strength.
Debra Lee Tucker and Heather Gilion have used a little of both but are quick to point out in their new books that faith in God is an important factor that should not be overlooked.
Tucker suffered near-fatal cardiac arrest two years ago last month and has used her book, “Rhythms of the Heart -- Embracing Life After Death,” to relate her story.
Gilion and her sister, Holly Snell, went through tragedies at the same time a decade ago when their husbands drowned in a river accident. Four years after the incident, Gilion began writing, “Dancing on My Ashes: Learning to Love the One Who Gives and Takes Away” with her sister serving as co-author.
Both Tucker and Gilion, who met at the church they were attending in Ozark, have made trips to the Carthage area for book signings, the most recent one coming last month.
Tucker, who is from Nixa, was stricklen with cardiac arrhythmia while at her job as a supervisor at Pregnancy Care Center in Springfield. The heart attack caused her to lose consciousness and fall while at the coffeemaker. In the process, she hit her head on the floor.
Her daughter, April, who also works at Pregnancy Care Center, called 911.The next two weeks in the intensive care unit at Cox South Hospital were traumatic, to say the least. Surgery had to be performed to stop bleeding to her brain, while the process of recovering from the heart attack also began.
In addition to dealing with the physical ordeal in the hospital, as well as recovery at home, Tucker uses her book to describe how her outlook has changed since the incident.
Before the attack, her walk with God was being shifted to the back burner because of her busy schedule, even though she was a Christian who had worked for Campus Crusade for Christ International.
Now she is refocused with a book that helps readers evaluate important things in life, seek God and not take one’s daily existence for granted.
“She tells the story about the lessons God taught her about a life out of rhythm--physically, emotionally, relationally and spiritually,” said her husband, Rick, who also works with Campus Crusade for Christ.
Just as Tucker had to deal with her wounds, Gilion and her sister were in much the same boat in coping with the loss of their husbands.
Gilion, of Ozark, said the tragedy led her to a crossroad because it had been just eight months earlier that her father had died.
“I became a follower of Christ at a young age but after I lost my father, I got really angry at God,” she said. “I felt as though He had let me down and that He had made a BIG mistake by allowing him to die.”
Then, eight months later with the news arriving of her husband’s death, she said she was in disbelief.
“My world as I knew it came to ruins...in one moment,” she said. “I stood at my crossroad. I knew that I was about to make the biggest decision of my life. The very night I lost my husband I went to have it out with God.
“And it was there on a hillside that it was like I saw two paths before me. Would I run as hard and as fast as I possibly could away from God? Or would I run as hard and as fast as I could TO God?”
Gilion said that as difficult as it is to explain those circumstances, she sensed at that moment God’s deep love for her.
“I felt felt Him beckoning me to come, that He was hurting with me and that although I couldn’t understand why, I could trust Him. So I started running to Him, brokenhearted and all. And it’s been 11 years of intense healing.”
Just as both books reveal how God changed lives in the midst of tragedies, so do they offer faith-filled solutions to everyday problems with God at the center of it all.
“He truly does bind up the brokenhearted, and every day I am seeing that His promises are indeed true,” Gilion said. “There is joy in the morning. Tragic things happen, Pain, heartache and evil are all around us. But one of the beautiful things about God is He can use anything and bring beauty from it.”
