It is rare that I preorder books or get them new, but when I heard of this one, I knew I had to get it. Even so, I walked into this book mostly blind, unsure of what to expect, but hopeful. Katie Schuermann hasn’t steered me wrong yet, and her writing always brings me delight. The same was true for this unique book. She paints such beautiful word pictures of the places she has her readers visit, and in reading this one, I could see the grove and the people that inhabited it. I was so swept away in the opening picture that I read it twice over to enjoy it again. But it was not only the beautiful prose that I fell in love with but also the unique set-up of the book and the stories it contains. The Saint of Whistle Grove is a collection of stories glancing in on moments from different generations of this little settlement and how their lives, hopes, dreams, and failures shaped this church, even after death.

While this little church has since shut her doors, she still stands watch over a little cemetery full of the stories of the people who wait in sleep. The saints she introduces to the reader in the story are, in some way, just as alive now as they were then because they are a part of who we are and what we are a part of: the Church. They guided us in the past and walk ahead of us to where we are going. The Saints of Whistle Grove are the stories of people we have known, people we have been, and people we will meet again. As in her other books, Katie Schuermann blends in her writing the harmony and heartache that is in the Church, never seen so strongly in life as in death. Each of these short stories, picking up at different points in time, are part of a whole narrative for the characters in Whistle Grove and many churches today. But they are told long after most have been laid to rest. I laughed with these people and cried with them. And like the saints there, I wait in hope with them. I notice more closely now the stories of the members of my own church, knowing there is more there than what meets the eye. And I look in hope at every cemetery I pass, even those with their little churches that have long since closed, knowing that there too are more I will meet one day.

I struggled each time I had to put this book down. Katie Schuermann tells stories that are so real you feel as though you are there with the people in them. I will need to read their stories again and again, not only because I loved visiting with them, but also so I can remember the truths they still teach. As Rev. Oliphant wrote in the opening note, the Church is more than a present moment. We should and must learn from those who walked before us. For despite the changes we see in our own circumstances, we are part of the communion of saints, and their hope and our still stands before us. So stop, wait a while, and visit with these people brought to life by Katie Schuermann. You will be glad that you did.

Blessings to you and yours,

~Madelyn Rose Craig