Author: Suzanne Housewright-Cook
Located in: Azle
Submitted: September 18, 2018
Tell us a little about yourself. 61 year old child advocate, retired after 17 years of teaching secondary English Language Arts, and Theatre Arts and post-secondary communications. In 2003, the Texas House of Representatives Sub Committee on House Bill 5 published three of my recommendations concerning a prenatal child's ability to experience pain and suffering long before to birth. In the following years my information went before the United States Supreme Court twice and twice I was able to build "Celebration of Life" Faires featuring over 150 life-affirming businesses and organizations and dozens of musical, puppetry, food kiosk and my mini-seminar, "Miracle You". I am honored as a "Woman of Distinction" by the Blue Bonnet Girl Scout Council", "Person of the Year" by the Bell County Judges Commission on Persons with Disabilities and "2009-2010 Teacher of the Year Nominee" in a 5-A school district in Temple, Texas. On April 28, 2011, I was left disabled after six months of health harming mistreatment in a school district that did the same to the teacher I replaced. I thought a new school less than a mile from my house would be a great place to finish off my last four years of teaching. Because of God's Promise in Romans 8:28 "For we know that God causes ALL THINGS to work for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purposes" it was a great place to finish off my career in public school.
What was your motivation behind this project? On October 21st, I will celebrate 37 years as a woman in vocational Christian ministry. Of course, all this happened around working in public school and helping people with significant disabilities. I am a person with life-long spiritual dreams. This one turned my life toward understanding why much of the church is dying. December 18, 2009, the LORD brought a man into my life who only nine months earlier had also had a dramatic spiritual dream about serious perils within the church. George had never seen the great lofty temple in his dream...but I had. A picture of it hung in my guest room - it one of my mother of adoption's favorites that I kept in her memory. When George and I compared our dreams, we realized the LORD gave us the SAME illustration - only mine was from a woman's perspective and George's was from a man's perspective. During our first few years as friends, George and I constantly marveled what we were learning about why the LORD created men and women to marry one another.
To that point three years after the LORD called me into ministry, He turned my heart to the study, writing and speaking on a prenatal child’s ability to experience pain and suffering long before birth. This led me to continue advocating for children from long before conception until long after eternal departure from this side of eternity. Of course, this advocate includes these children's parents, families and neighbors (that's everybody).
Four years ago, the LORD led a delicious lady named Mrs. Deirdre Doyle Tolhurst to invite me to review her wonderful book, "Dear Child of Mine". Wow what a powerful experience! I would LOVE to review "God's Feminist Movement: Redefining a Woman's Place from a Biblical Perspective".
What do you hope folks will gain from this project? I hope men and woman discover new delight in God's design for gender roles inside and outside of the marriage covenant. I hope Ms Picota's book is what I think it is; a fresh approach to a topic that must be viewed from "The Level Path of Jesus' Peace" not the wildly looping path of polarized conflict. I hope I am right in my hypothesis that Ms. Picota's book turns the eternal light of Truth into all the shadows people have unnecessarily constructed around gender and the church. I hope I get to read what looks like a good book! I hope one day soon George and I can recommend this book to the people we serve.
Who are your influences, sources of inspiration or favorite authors / artists? Both George and I are avid followers of C.S.Lewis and Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible. Currently we follow Messianic Jewish Apologist Dr. Michael Brown, Messianic Jewish Pastor and Rabbi Jonathan Cahn and Dr. Billy Graham and his family. As we explore Christianity in this century, we find Lt. Col. Ret. Dave Grossman, Joni Erickson Tada, and the Ethics and Religious Liberties Commission excellent Christian resources.
Personally GAS Ministries is heavily influenced by Suzanne’s best friend, Dr. Lucinda Harman who is the executive director of International Board of Functional Neurology and co-writer of Suzanne’s “Prenatal Child”, the performance, communications and technology leader who has also been a prayer partner with Suzanne for over twenty years, Dr. Diane Howard and Vonnie Kohn who is a strong biblical scholar and prophetic artist. She teaches women’s ministries and founded The National Association of Christian Prophetic Artists of which George and Suzanne are members.
Anything else you'd like readers / listeners to know: George nor I are not supposed to be here. Due to a TBI, Neurologist declare I should not able to walk without significant gate problems, graduate high school or live independently. They also predicted George would die months ago because of the brain injury he suffered in the Navy. Oncologists gave me a 20% chance of surviving stage three breast cancer of 2002. Publishers do not expect the public to read my book, “The Sisters of Eselgroth: A Parable for a Broken Nation” because it was written by a person with a significant brain injury and promoted by a person with a significant brain injury. Public School Administrators, the industries that shield them and the Veteran’s Administration Leadership believe they are safe to continue their epidemic-level health harming mistreatment upon veterans, school district employees, students, families and communities. They are certain George and I are pushed into humiliating poverty, obscurity and defeat. And along with all the people deceived and used by the LORD’s enemy…whom believes we are overtaken by his antics…. They are all mistaken.
