Book Spotlight (and a Giveaway!): Carved in Ebony by Jasmine L. Holmes

Welcome to the Blog Blitz for Carved in Ebony by Jasmine L. Holmes, hosted by JustRead Publicity Tours! I am so excited about this book – keep reading for an excerpt!

CARVED IN EBONY
Author: Jasmine L. Holmes
Publisher: Bethany House Publishers
Release Date: November 2, 2021
Genre: Christian History / Biography

Through the lives of Elizabeth Freeman, Nannie Helen Burroughs, Amanda Berry Smith, Mamie Till, and others, author and speaker Jasmine Holmes shares the significant role that Black women have played in the formation of our faith–and are playing in our formation as modern-day women of faith.

As these historical figures take the stage with Holmes, you will be inspired by what the stories of these women can teach us about education, birth, privilege, and so much more. Carved in Ebony will take you past the predominately white, male contributions that seemingly dominate history books to discover how Black women have been some of the main figures in defining the landscape of American history and faith.

Come along on Jasmine’s journey and be encouraged by the powerful and persuasive Black women of our past so that you can help inspire a better, more inclusive future.

affiliate links used

While I was learning about Maria Fearing, I took a deep dive into the Black women who had served as missionaries throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Would there be ten names I had never heard of? Twenty? Fifty?

On one list alone, I found more than eighty.

More than eighty Black women who—from the height of chattel slavery to the birth of the Jim Crow south—undertook the incredible journey and responsibility of bringing the Gospel to foreign lands. While their own homeland saw them as less than human—less worthy of protection, less worthy of rights—they used what resources they had to bring the message of their citizenship in heaven.

Maria’s story was my gateway into countless other stories of Black female missionaries who spent their lives sharing the Gospel of Christ in distant lands. The Lord’s hand was on her story—on so many other stories.

And his hand was on my story, in all of the ways it intersected with Maria’s. His power shone all the more because of the limits mankind’s cruelty placed on her, his grace in her salvation shone all the more in her dogged pursuit of ministry in spite of her origins.

Even when it seems as though an entire country is blind to his commands, he still preserves a remnant for his glory. Even when an institution is as anti-Gospel as American chattel slavery, the Lord can preserve a heart and focus it on Gospel service.

Excerpt from Carved in Ebony by Jasmine L. Holmes provided by Bethany House Publishers, a division of Baker Publishing Group. Copyright Oct. 12, 2021. Used by permission.