{"id":2940,"date":"2009-10-09T17:39:45","date_gmt":"2009-10-09T22:39:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/?p=2940"},"modified":"2009-10-09T17:39:45","modified_gmt":"2009-10-09T22:39:45","slug":"the-transformation-by-terri-kraus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/?p=2940","title":{"rendered":"The Transformation by Terri Kraus"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>\"\"<\/a>It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour<\/a><\/strong><\/span> <\/strong> book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old…or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

You never know when I might play a wild card on you!<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Today’s Wild Card author is: <\/strong><\/div>\n
Terri Kraus <\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n

and the book:<\/span> <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Transformation<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

David C. Cook (2009)<\/p>\n

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:<\/span> <\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nAn award-winning interior designer, Terri Kraus comes to the Project Restoration series naturally, having survived the remodel, renovation, and restoration of three separate personal residences, along with those of her clients. The author\/coauthor (with husband, Jim) of eleven other novels, including The Renovation and The Renewal, Terri lives in Wheaton, Illinois, with her husband and son, Elliot.<\/p>\n

Visit the author’s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n

Product Details:<\/p>\n

List Price: $14.99
\nFormat: Paperback
\nNumber of Pages: 304
\nVendor: David C. Cook (2009)
\nISBN: 0781448670
\nISBN-13: 9780781448673<\/p>\n

AND NOW…THE FIRST CHAPTER:<\/span> <\/strong>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Transformation<\/p>\n

CHAPTER ONE<\/p>\n

Shadyside<\/p>\n

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania<\/p>\n

Early Spring, Present Day<\/p>\n

Oliver checked his watch. He squinted and positioned his wrist nearer to the glow of the truck\u2019s speedometer.<\/p>\n

5:45 a.m. Too early.<\/p>\n

Oliver knew it was much too early to be wandering around in a strange neighborhood, but heavy Pittsburgh traffic\u2014even the threat of heavy traffic\u2014gave him the willies. Leaving his home later in the morning meant heavy traffic, probably normal for everyone, but not normal for Oliver. Navigating his pickup through dense packs of automobiles was far removed from Oliver\u2019s comfort zone.<\/p>\n

Too early.<\/p>\n

He might risk the drive into Pittsburgh from Jeannette for a funeral or a wedding, or maybe a Steelers\u2019 football game (if someone gave him free tickets), but not much else. Why risk life, limb, and sanity?<\/p>\n

So today, Oliver had attempted to beat the traffic and the stress. He had gotten up at 4:30, not that much earlier than his normal get-up time, had picked up a cup of Dunkin\u2019 Donuts coffee at the store a mile from his house, and had driven in the shimmery dark down Route 30. Traffic was light as he entered the flickering fluorescent-lit Squirrel Hill tunnel. Then, following his GPS, which he\u2019d begun to rely on but did not always trust, he\u2019d crept along a baffling series of residential streets until he arrived at his destination. The voice from the GPS unit seemed more chipper than he remembered in announcing his successful journey.<\/p>\n

\u201cDestination ahead. You have reached your destination.\u201d<\/p>\n

He pulled to the curb, scanning for street signs.<\/p>\n

Cities have all sorts of laws about where you can and can\u2019t park and when, he remembered. And I\u2019m not about to get a ticket just giving someone a free estimate.<\/p>\n

He looked about again, turning sideways in the seat.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t just sit in the truck. That might look like I\u2019m\u2014what do they call it?\u2014casing the place. I am, sort of\u2014but not in that way.<\/p>\n

He got out of the truck, jogged down the block, back to the front of his truck, then halfway up the block.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo signs,\u201d he said softly. \u201cThat\u2019s odd. Should be some sort of parking sign.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oliver really disliked getting traffic tickets. He had received one speeding ticket in the last decade, but his parking violations occurred more frequently. Contractors sometimes had to double-park or park on sidewalks. He hated seeing a fluttering yellow slip, lying in wait with a bad day written all over it, snuggled under his windshield wiper.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt must be okay to park here then,\u201d he said out loud.<\/p>\n

He walked slowly back towards his truck, tapped at the passenger side window, and nearly pressed his face to the glass.<\/p>\n

\u201cCome on, Robert. Let\u2019s get started on the estimate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Robert lifted his head and shook himself awake, blinking. He had slept the entire trip. Not that the trip was that long, but he most often napped during any ride longer than ten minutes. He scrambled to his feet and stretched slowly and carefully.<\/p>\n

Robert was Oliver\u2019s dog. Most often Oliver and a fair number of his friends and coworkers would say \u201cRobert the Dog\u201d when speaking about Robert the Dog, as opposed to just \u201cRobert,\u201d because there were several other Roberts inhabiting Oliver\u2019s circle of friends. No one wanted to confuse man and dog\u2014least of all, Oliver. Oliver actually liked the sound of that three-word name and began to use \u201cRobert the Dog\u201d almost exclusively, except when they were alone, like this morning.<\/p>\n

Robert the Dog clambered down from the seat to the floor of the truck and jumped out to the curb, sniffing the air, the grass, the truck, and finally, Oliver\u2019s shoe. He might have been a pure-bred schnauzer but was the size of at least one and a half miniature schnauzers combined, though not as large as the giant variety, and his hair was mostly black. His head was almost the right schnauzer shape\u2014not perfect to the breed, but close\u2014so Oliver assumed a very small amount of some sort of nonschnauzer lineage had found its way into the good dog Robert.<\/p>\n

Ever since Oliver had rescued Robert from the pound as a puppy, the two had gone everywhere and done everything together, including evaluating a new project . . . a possible new project. In construction, Oliver found, nothing was certain until the contract was signed\u2014and even then, things could happen.<\/p>\n

Oliver did not have to worry about Robert the Dog taking off, running into traffic, or barking at the wrong time. Robert had never done any of those things and, more than likely, would not start demonstrating inappropriate behaviors this early on a still sunless Monday in Shadyside, just on the outskirts of Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n

Oliver looked at the address again. He had listened to the phone message carefully three times to get the return phone number, the exact name of the potential client, and the address of the potential job correct. Now he stood on South Aiken Street and looked east.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut this is a church,\u201d he said to Robert the Dog.<\/p>\n

Robert simply stared at the building, sniffing the cool morning air, as if he were not really interested<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean . . . it\u2019s a real church. I knew it was going to be a church, but not this kind of church.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Samantha Cohen had left her message five days ago, she had said her new acquisition, her latest renovation project, was a church building. She planned on transforming it, doing \u201cwonderful things\u201d with it. Oliver had imagined a small frame building, a church-like building that might be easily changed into a gallery or antique shop\u2014but not a heavy, old historic church-to-the-very-rafters sort of building.<\/p>\n

This is a real church\u2014and will always look like a real church.<\/p>\n

\u201cCan you meet me Monday morning?\u201d Miss Cohen had said, her voice deep and raspy, in a memorable, alluring, black-and-white Lauren-Bacall-movie sort of way. \u201cI really need to talk this project through. Alice and Frank Adams, my friends in Butler, just raved about your work. Said you were brilliant with their displays and cabinets and all types of furnishings. I need brilliant. I\u2019m willing to pay for brilliant. So Monday. Early. If you can make it. Leave me a return message. I\u2019ll get it, even if I don\u2019t call you back. I\u2019m a little OC when it comes to checking messages.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oliver had left a return message: \u201cEarly Monday. Sevenish? I might be there before seven just to look around the outside, if that\u2019s okay with you. I get up early.\u201d<\/p>\n

What he was now staring at in the early light, and what Robert was sniffing, was an historically significant church. No one could lay eyes on this building, even in the dark on a foggy night, and see anything other than a rock-solid church. This was a church with a capital C. It had massive stone arches; huge stained-glass windows that traversed the sides of the church; a rotunda that certainly must hold the altar. There was a covered entranceway (the port cochere, Oliver knew it was called) done in huge stone blocks and a high tower with a cross and carillon.<\/p>\n

Just standing there, thinking about remodeling the old structure into something other than a place of worship, gave Oliver a case of spiritual heebie-jeebies. \u201cThis is a church,\u201d he repeated again.<\/p>\n

He stood, wrapped in that early morning silence that occurs even in big cities, like the soft, fragile, and short-in-duration crease in the day between the dark and its dark noises and the early morning let\u2019s-get-the-commute-going sort of noises. Oliver wondered if he should just get back in his truck, pretend that he had never made the mistake of answering the phone message from Samantha Cohen, and move on to the next job.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll be tearing apart a church. God\u2019s house, where people have worshipped for what must be over a century.<\/p>\n

He wanted to sigh, but did not.<\/p>\n

My mother will die if she finds out.<\/p>\n

Oliver wondered, for just one split of a split second, if he could keep this job secret. Not that he liked keeping secrets from his mother, but sometimes parents could not be trusted to handle sensitive news.<\/p>\n

Or I could walk away and wait for the next job. That actually might be easier . . . safer . . . less stressful.<\/p>\n

Except he did not have a next job. He could wait, wait for the next big nonchurch job, but there was no guarantee another one would come quickly, and in these sorts of wobbly economic times, Oliver knew he could not be picky.<\/p>\n

And he was here; he\u2019d already endured the traffic. He would stay. He\u2019d do the estimate.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s something about this place. . . .<\/p>\n

Now his words were softer, perhaps because of the silence. \u201cA church . . . but, well, she did say it used to be a church.\u201d<\/p>\n

The holes in the stone fa\u00e7ade were still visible where a sign had once hung.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just a building now.\u201d He looked down at Robert the Dog. \u201cRight, Robert? It\u2019s not a church anymore. Right?\u201d<\/p>\n

Robert looked up, as if considering Oliver\u2019s options, sniffed again, and then sneezed in a very uncanine-like manner.<\/p>\n

\u00a92009 Cook Communications Ministries. The Transformation by Terri Kraus. Used with permission. May not be further reproduced. All rights reserved.<\/p><\/div>\n

MY REVIEW:<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Transformation<\/a> is a multi-dimensional book that is deeper than first glance would indicate. As the title suggests, the story is about the transformation of an unused church into a restaurant. But it is so much more than that – it is about changed lives.<\/p>\n

The principle character is Oliver, a building contractor who is also dedicated to serving God the best way he can. Although he has his doubts about the suitability of converting a place of worship into a secular business, he feels that he is supposed to do it.\u00a0 Along the way he encounters several people who become a part of his life, some who change it and some whose lives he influences. Meanwhile back at home, he has to deal with an overbearing mother, a jealous, conniving brother, and an old girlfriend who is doing everything she can to get Oliver to the alter.<\/p>\n

The Transformation<\/a> is an entertaining yet thought provoking read. I admired Oliver for sticking to his principles yet became frustrated that he wasn’t more assertive with his mother and Paula. I also enjoyed seeing the changes in Samantha as she was exposed to Oliver and some of the other characters. The Transformation<\/a> is a wonderful story about redemption and restoration that has a truly satisfying conclusion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-romance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2940"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2940"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2940\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2947,"href":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2940\/revisions\/2947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}