Having risen from poverty to the halls of power, Barry C. Black has discovered that wealth and prestige do not offer immunity from difficulties—nor do they necessarily make it any easier when tough times do come.

Rather, suffering is universal and demands the same response regardless of circumstances or station, if someone is to find hope and meaning, he says in The Blessing of Adversity (978-1-414-326801-1, $14.99), released this month from Tyndale House Publishers.

Subtitled "Finding Your God-given Purpose in Life’s Troubles," Black’s book draws from his 30-plus years in ministry, including his duties since 2003 as the 62nd Chaplain of the United States Senate. He shares what he has learned serving as a counselor to the rich and powerful, as well as from his own impoverished childhood and military service.

"I’ve seen enough anguish to convince me that evil is real; sin is pervasive, and death is a regular and frequent intruder on humanity," he writes. "Yet in spite of the brokenness and suffering all around me, I believe that God can use our pain and enable us to benefit from affliction."

Black’s six-point road map through painful territory directs readers to guard their tongue, stay positive, be constant, grow up, follow God’s Word and control their doubts. He finds wisdom from the Scriptures, including the story of the Prodigal Son, Daniel and Nehemiah’s rebuilding of Jerusalem and in the words and actions of a wide-ranging cast, from Roman Catholic Archbishop Fulton Sheen and Martin Luther King to former Alabama Gov. George Wallace.

Black also quotes William Shakespeare, Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Coldplay and recalls stories from his own life. Among them his mother’s resilient faith despite the family’s being evicted for being unable to pay the rent, her determination in seeing her children enjoy good education and his remorse on being caught bullying. He also tells of listening as a child to recordings of then-Senate Chaplain Peter Marshall, reciting them for friends little realizing that one day he would hold the same office.

With boiled-down action steps such as "Live with praise," "Be tenacious" and "Refuse to rationalize" anchoring the lessons in each of 23 chapters, Black encourages Christians not to try to wiggle out of hardships but to trust God in the midst of them and look for the lessons and foundations He wants to lay for their future.

Failure can become "a teacher whose instruction will produce positive dividends for years" for those willing to learn even from self-inflicted difficulties, he says. "The knowledge that I am able to overcome something that would have beaten me in the past allows me to celebrate my troubles in victory."

Humility, generosity and confidence in God’s goodness are powerful antidotes to the poisons of self-reliance, self-centeredness and self-defeating doubt, Black maintains. Prayer and study are vital, too, he says, telling how when asked to deliver the eulogy for someone he does not know, he asks to see the deceased’s personal Bible because he can get to know them through what is written in it.

Black also offers glimpses into his service on Capitol Hill, including conversations with some leading decision-makers—who sometimes need help knowing what to do in their own lives. Great or small, every life has purpose, Black asserts.

To order, call Tyndale House at 800-323-9400 or visit www.tyndalebooksellers.com.

Abby Sunderland's solo seafaring crisis strengthened her faith in God

 Title: Unsinkable

 Author: Abby Sunderland and Lynn Vincent

 Publisher: Thomas Nelson

 Isbn:978-1-400-20308-6

 Price: $22.99

 Release date: April

 Quotable: "He came through for me. I was a strong Christian throughout my trip and came out an even stronger one in the end." —Sunderland

Motivated to become the youngest person to ever sail solo around the world non-stop, 16-year-old Abby Sunderland came close to fulfilling her dream. 

She and New York Times best-selling co-author Lynn Vincent tell of her 12,000-mile journey in Unsinkable: A Young Woman's Courageous Battle on the High Seas, releasing this month from Thomas Nelson.

Raised in sailing with her father a shipwright, Sunderland was "pretty confident" as a sailor, she said. "Taking on the world was a pretty big challenge, but one that I was pretty sure I was up for."

Aside from her upbringing and specialized training, she was inspired by her brother Zac Sunderland's sailing solo around the world, a 13-month quest that ended successfully in July 2009. 

While her brother took on the world by the equator route, Sunderland chose the southern ocean route, leaving from Marina Del Ray, Calif., and heading around Cape Horn through the Atlantic Ocean, then to Cape Town, South Africa, and out to the Indian Ocean—where her journey ended nearly 2,000 miles east of Madagascar. 

"When you're going along the equator, it's tougher navigation; there are pirates and things like that you have to worry about," she said. "When you're down South, it's freezing cold and you get some pretty gnarly storms down there and icebergs and things like that." 

The second of eight homeschooled children lost her battle with the sea four months into her voyage and just over halfway around the globe. "I was in the exact middle of the Indian Ocean," she said. "I was as far as you can get from any search and rescue place. I was hit by a rogue wave and my boat was rolled. I was dismasted and I lost pretty much all of my communication. I had no way to contact home and let anybody know what happened. So my boat was completely disabled and I had no way to tell anyone." 

After her boat—Wild Eyes—rolled, her parents, Laurence and Marianne Sunderland, withstood a great deal of criticism in the media, but the young sailor defended their decision to let her go on the trip.

"After I rolled, some of the criticism was just so off the wall and ungrounded," she said. "I really couldn't believe some of it. It was a little bit hard. My parents were coming under a lot of criticism for a decision that I had made. I felt pretty bad about it. I had gone out and told the world that I was going to do this because I wanted to." 

Sunderland wants to inspire other teens to think big about their lives and how they spend their time. "I think there is a lot of trouble with low expectations with teenagers," she said. "It would be nice to see more teenagers getting out and breaking the normal status of the teenager world. All they are expected to do is get good grades, take out the trash and that sort of thing."

But it's not only teens she wants to inspire to follow their dreams. "Some people would say my whole trip was a failure because I didn't reach my goal," she said. "But the way I look at it, at least I tried, and it's so much better that I gave it a shot and I am not saying, 'I wish I had taken that chance when I had it.' 

"I really just hope that through my story people see that you can follow your dreams. Things don't always work out, but it's good to go for it. Also see how amazing God was in my life, it's really a great story, I think."

After rolling her boat, she was "a little worried," she said. "I didn't think anyone would be able to get to me so far away from land." After sending in her position for rescue, it was two days before she was picked up by a fishing ship. Eventually she made it to Reunion Island, where she was reunited with her brother and a couple of her team members.

Sunderland found her faith strengthened and her life changed from the experience. "I don't think you can come through a trip like that without having changed in some way or another, although, being myself, I really am not the best person to ask about that," she said. "My faith definitely played a big role on the trip. 

"The morning after I rolled I was sitting on my chart desk, and I was starting to think a little bit too much about what was happening, so I prayed, and just seconds after I prayed, a huge plane flew over me. 

"It's said that at some point in any sailor's life, they are going to reach their limit and they're going to reach their breaking point and call on the Lord—and that was mine there. He came through for me. I'd been a strong Christian throughout my whole trip and came out an even stronger one in the end."

To order Unsinkable, call Thomas Nelson at 800-251-4000, or visit www.thomasnelson.com.

How would you describe your music?

I am a songwriter by nature. I also love all sorts of music. Every record I have written has been different. This current record I would call “intellectual pop.” 

How is this album different than your others?

I try to remain fresh and innovative and at the same time retain a deep sense of my faith. I really try hard to not make the same record over, and it is a hard line to walk because you gain fans on one sound you gave them, and the goal is to not lose them on the next one. I have found that if I don’t continue growing as an artist or even in my faith, my heart sort of dies, and I start to do it for the wrong reasons. I am extremely excited about this record. It is a bit more on the pop side of things, but it was where my heart was at when I wrote it.

This record for me is a redemption record. It is about the ups and downs of faith that I wrote going through an intensely broken season of my life. It is really aimed at getting closer to God and learning to lean on Him in hard times rather than run.  

What’s a favorite song or two of yours on the new album?

My personal favorites on this record are “Don’t Give Up” and “Closer.” 

I write music because God has placed a seeker’s heart within me. I still don’t understand why He uses me, but the stories I receive from fans blow my mind. The fact that God is moving and healing broken people and lives through music and words reminds me that what I do is important. I don’t understand it, but I will follow and continue to create music as long as God continues to inspire and drive my heart. Thanks for walking on this journey with me.

American Idol

Releasing to Christian retail March 5, Big Idea’s  traditional three days ahead of the general market, the 48-minute feature follows cable news reporter Marlee Meade as she tries to save an old theater with the “Up With Bunnies” show. 

But with a missing star and a conflicting church Easter service, the plan is thrown into question, providing an opportunity to present the message of the real meaning of Easter based on Mark 10:45. Additional family-friendly content includes silly songs, an audio commentary and profile of Doolittle, and a backstage pass feature with Larry the Cucumber on the VeggieTales Live! tour. 

“We hatched ‘Twas The Night Before Easter as a holiday surprise for families,” said Leslie Ferrell, general manager of Big Idea Entertainment. “This title follows the huge sales success our first Easter-themed release, An Easter Carol, and we couldn’t be more thrilled to deliver a new DVD timed to the holiday this year.”

Big Idea is promoting World Vision’s child-sponsorship program by including a video about the ministry on the DVD.

The new release will be promoted through a viral eGreeting Easter card campaign with American Greetings Interactive, as well as an “Easter Countdown” vignette program for radio outlets. Clips will be screened in-store at select Barnes & Noble, J.C. Penney, Chuck E. Cheese’s, Best Buy, Toys “R” Us, Wal-Mart and Target outlets. 

To order, call 800-876-WORD (9673).

Former semi-pro racer takes ‘leap of faith’ with sports-themed challenge

Scotty Curlee draws on experiences and friendships from his years as a semi-professional cyclist for his debut feature, The Potential Inside (8-52382-00301-4, $21.95).

He stars as as veteran cyclist Chris Carmik who, reeling from grief after a family tragedy, is given an opportunity he doesn’t want, to train a rookie cycling prodigy.

Releasing next month through his own Red Cloud Productions, the 96-minute drama that Curlee also wrote, directed and co-produced was shot on courses in Virginia and includes an appearance by Jeremiah Bishop, a 12-time member of the USA Cycling National Team and twice U.S. national champion.

“We wanted to bring authenticity and technically accurate depictions of cycling to the big screen,” said Curlee, who twice competed in the Olympics trials after moving to the U.S. from South Korea to purse his passion for cycling. “The only way we could do that was to bring the real people to the film.”

Though the film centers on cycling, “the cycle could be replaced with anything else,” he said. The movie’s message is “about the potential we have inside of us, in Christ, to reach our very best. ... That potential could be for working through marriage struggles or dealing with grief. For other people it might be reaching some potential physically.”

The Potential Inside has been “a leap of faith” for Curlee, who as a Liberty University graduate left a career in the pharmaceutical industry in 2007 to form his production company to produce films that are “socially responsible and have a positive impact on our communities.”

Promoted with the tag line “You never know what can be achieved until you’re pushed beyond your limits,” the film has earned the Dove Foundation’s highest, five-star rating. DVD extras include a personal greeting from Curlee and a director’s commentary in which he talks about the movie with soundtrack composer Jim Daneker, who plays keyboards for Michael W. Smith.

The Potential Inside is being distributed by Wesscott Marketing. To order, call 800-375-3702.

Nate Richards, manager of Dicksons Bible & Book Store in Highland Park, Mich., is proactively selling Bible software to his customers. He set up a computer in his store, put Bible software on it and personally shows his customers how to use it. His software sales have jumped from nothing to an average of 2%-3% of his overall sales.

“Software has become a significant category in my store,” Richards said. “You’d be amazed at how many people don’t know these time-saving tools are available.”

The market potential is there—eight out of 10 people who walk into your store have a PC or laptop computer. Regarding competition, Christian software is a category that only Christian retailers offer. There is no competition with Sam’s Club, Barnes & Noble or Wal-Mart in this category.