New Book by Author Nancy Aguiar is a MUST-READ! (“Five Drops—Stories of Faith, Family and Fun)
Friends! I’ve got wonderful news for you about an equally wonderful new book.
Nancy Aguiar has recently released her debut book, Five Drops—Stories of Faith, Family and Fun. It’s available here in Louisville at the Living Word Bookstore in Southeast Christian Church (www.livingword.org ), or Carmichael’s (www.carmichaelsbookstore.com ) will order it for you, or you can get it from Amazon.
I’m blessed to call Nancy a dear friend and mentor. Yes, I can be objective and honestly say I thoroughly enjoyed reading her book. I could hear her telling the many beautiful stories she shares. This book would work perfectly read as a devotional, but my prediction is you’ll keep reading as one story makes you curious about the next one!
So what’s the meaning of the title? Five Drops…? Nancy shares it was her maternal grandmother, “Mammy”, who was born in Sweden, yet chased Nancy’s Grandfather, “Papa”, to the United States, marrying him and learning English.
As often as she could, Mammy would invite her Swedish friends over and serve them coffee and pastries. Nancy says, “They would chat for hours and find renewal and healing in friendship and laughter.”
Like many of us friends today meeting up at Starbucks, Nancy reveals, “Coffee was the key ingredient in each of those afternoons.” Mammy filled and refilled her friends’ cups until they would finally say, “Fem droppar” which translates: “five drops”…as in just a little more coffee in their cups while their afternoon was winding down.
Nancy said her family, now two and three generations from Mammy’s, still uses this phrase about whatever it is they’re having: coffee, water, juice, second helpings of dessert, etc. Can one say, “Fem droppar” when consuming chocolate??? (Maybe hot chocolate?)
Nancy reminds us Jesus is the Master storyteller. Since Jesus told stories so often, surely such a skill is important. Nancy’s Grandmother was not the only storyteller in her family. Both of her parents were and for that, she’s forever grateful.
Nancy warns us, “The fast-paced society of today is missing that special gift of time and the art of story. We must reclaim it. What my parents didn’t share with me orally is now gone…Telling and retelling stories to the next generations must be of greater importance…That’s why I wrote this book.”
We lucky readers get to read fifty-five stories by Nancy covering every topic you can imagine. She takes you right along with her, many times telling on herself while including an important lesson. She’s serious one minute and laugh-your-head-off-funny the next. She blissfully includes pertinent Scripture regarding many lessons for us all.
In “Ms. Polly”, she tells us, “Every day lived to the glory of God is a day well-lived.” In “Appalachia”, she says, “My takeaway that day was to be thankful for all we do have—all that has been given to us in the course of one day—and to value each person God places in our lives, even if they’re there for a few hours.”
In “Time for Prayer”, she concludes, “Until freedom is taken from us, we should be willing to pray whenever and wherever we can. Such a privilege I will never take for granted.”
A few chapters have Nancy taking us along on mission trips. On one of them, she “gets” to pull a person’s tooth and I am not pulling your leg! (Way to go, Nan. Had I accompanied you, you’d have been scraping me up off of the floor…)
In “Sumo and Sal”, we learn she was a witness in a real-live murder case. Imagine being scared to death, literally, in the paradise of all paradises, Hawaii? Good news is she has more praiseworthy stories from there where we all can rejoice. (Don’t miss “Jade Bracelets”.) Here’s a recent picture of Nancy and Ron in Hawaii:
Nancy also tells about some of the elderly women she cared for. That was one of her many careers where her giftedness shone like the light of Jesus. She took care of my own Mother, and wait for it: Preached Mother’s funeral!
It was the second book in The Redemption Series, Remember, by Karen Kingsbury and Gary Smalley that caused Nancy to consider caring for the elderly while they were in “Heaven’s Waiting Room”, as Karen called it. When our Book Club got to Skype with Karen, we had Nancy approach the camera to tell Karen how her book caused this new career to happen.
Suddenly, tears began falling down Karen’s cheeks, as did the rest of the attendees’ faces that night. Confirmation Nancy was right in the middle of the Lord’s will.
Besides being an author, Nancy’s also been a teacher at a local college, a Bible study teacher of numerous classes, a preacher (Seriously—she’s preached more than one funeral.), and is a linguist (She speaks several languages, having lived in Germany while in high school.) She’s currently working in the healthcare industry.
She and her husband, Ron, are about to celebrate their fortieth anniversary this year. They are blessed with two children, a son-in-law, and one grandson who’s the light of their life.
After proofreading this post, my dear husband just informed me I made the grave error of omitting the most fun fact about Nancy: She gives the best hugs any recipient could dream of. Those of you who’ve been on the receiving end are nodding. (He also just brought me “fem droppar” of some of his infamous coffee as I’ve consumed way more than one should have at 6:00 in the morning.)
More good news: Nancy’s the Speaker for a Ladies Breakfast, held at Pleasant Grove Baptist Church on May 20th, from 9:00-11:00 a.m. Please see below for more information if you’d like to hear her:
Go grab a copy of Nancy’s book for yourself and one for a friend (this makes a fabulous gift), Five Drops—Stories of Faith, Family, and Fun. Drinking a cup of coffee or tea while reading it will make it that much better.
God bless you, Nancy, for leaving such a beautiful legacy for your family and friends!
‘Til next time!