ABOUT THE AUTHOR Neriah G. Edwards-Boone is a retired elder in the United Methodist Church where she served for thirty years before retirement in 2012. Prior to retirement, she pastored in the Memphis and East Ohio annual conferences in a variety of settings. She has served small town, rural, urban, suburban, and cross-cultural appointments. She also served as associate program director for the East Ohio Conference Council on Ministries, resourcing local churches, and as district superintendent where she supervised local churches and pastors. Preaching and teaching are her passion. She has preached broadly across the United States. She has conducted workshops on racial ethnic concerns, stewardship, evangelism and congregational development. She is a writer of plays, inspirational stories, poetry and meditations. She is a graduate of Fayetteville State University, Fayetteville, North Carolina, and Duke Divinity School, Durham, North Carolina. Presently, she has a charge-conference membership at Piney Ridge United Methodist Church, Seagrove, North Carolina. There she serves as an adult Sunday school teacher, teaches Advent and Lenten Bible studies, and coordinates Vacation Bible School. She resides in rural Pittsboro, North Carolina, where she loves the quiet and all the beauty that nature brings.