Author Jenny Powell MD

Bio

I cannot remember when I transitioned from being read to, sitting on Mom or Dad’s lap, to reading by myself, but I know it was by age four, tagging along with my mother to the library and getting frustrated at the librarian who wouldn’t let me read outside my age range. I never dreamed of being a physician; the only thing I ever wanted to do was read and write my stories.

Because Watergate happened when I was in middle school, my heroes became Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the journalists who broke the story. By my sophomore year in high school, I had my future all planned: I would go to journalism school. My family even planned a vacation around visiting the campus of the University of Missouri and the School of Journalism there. I enrolled at the University of Illinois with a Pre-Journalism/Classics major, determined to make it into Mizzou’s journalism school as a junior.

But God had other ideas.

Midway into the first semester, He let me know I was not being true to His call. So, I did not reenroll after two semesters. Instead, I married, had children, and lived life. Until I was thirty when God called me to be a physician, something far beyond what I had ever dreamed. So, I reenrolled at the U of I, this time as a science major, graduated with a bachelor’s degree at age 34, attended U of I College of Medicine graduating at age 38, and completed residency three years later.

Now, after twenty years as a family physician, I have written a manuscript. My patients need not worry; I’m not quitting my day (and night) job. But there are stories that need to be told, and the Lord has said, write them. Thanks for sticking around for this leg of the journey with me as I cautiously enter the world of writing fiction.

Speaking Schedule

Wednesday, September 18
4:30-6:30 pm
Driftwood 2 Spa & Salon/Smiley Aesthetics
106 W Rt 54
Camdenton, MO

Take the Sea

Hope, a married mother of two in her mid-thirties, has settled into a comfortable life in her Midwestern town. When she accepts the challenge of leading an adult Sunday School class, her research drags up memories she thought were long repressed. Will her marriage and friendships survive her struggles in coping with her childhood trauma, and will she find the faith to overcome her greatest fears?

Thirty-two-year-old Anglican priest, John Wesley, headed toward the colony of Georgia in 1735 with high hopes of evangelizing to the natives of America. During a horrific storm in the Atlantic Ocean, he trembles in fear for his life but watches in wonder at a group of men, women, and children singing hymns and calmly praying. Wesley had always believed he was saved as a child to have an impact on the world, but his mortality became evident as the waters poured onto the deck of their ship. What is this kind of faith, he wondered, and why doesn’t he have it?

The stories of Hope and John Wesley mingle as they question their faith and face their fears, providing us with hope that we might be able to do the same.

First century Jerusalem faced a myriad of problems.

The delicate dance in the midst of Roman occupation is rudely interrupted by the emergence of an ever-growing sect of messiah advocates. An arrogant lawyer, working for the highest court in Judaism, instigates an ambitious campaign to put an end to the troublemakers. Spurred by his success in Jerusalem, he relentlessly pursues his prey, until he faces a surprising foe.

Spanning much of the Roman Empire, chased, beaten, and berated, the story of Saul of Tarsus is one of loss, rejection, and brokenness. But through his experiences and relationships, we find hope in the midst of despair and are given a vision of how the refiner’s fire can make even the chiefest of sinners a suitable tool for glory.

But For These Chains

Was the Apostle Paul a misogynist?

Born, raised, and fully emersed in the male-dominated culture of the strictest sect of Judaism, Saul of Tarsus grows from persecuting women, to misunderstanding women, to being rescued by women, to frustrating women, to commissioning women, and, finally, to partnering with women.

Through his experiences as he follows the bidding of Christ Jesus, he develops beyond his limited vision of the role of women, not only in his life but in the development of the early church. Through the grace of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit, the Apostle to the Gentiles empowered women to be full participants in the body and to develop their leadership skills through his example.

This fictionalized account of Paul’s journey with Christ highlights this aspect of his ministry, taking us on a tour of the Roman empire in the first century AD and bringing us closer to the source of our joy and hope.

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