Returning to Lumby in this seventh novel of the series, Pam Walker hesitantly assumes her new responsibilities as mayor of the rather quirky town of six thousand good-hearted but occasionally obstinate residents. As ominous letters from God begin to arrive at the doorstep of Montis Inn, Pam turns to her good friends, the monks of Saint Cross Abbey, for divine guidance, while they turn to her for a solution to their immediate challenge: to find a venue for an international wine festival that they have been delegated to host.
The answer to both may reside in a two-hundred-year-old abandoned church at the end of Main Street that will require more than a little blind faith and extra nails to make it worthy for a world-class competition of vineyards. While renovations get underway and past secrets begin to unfold, the church captures the imagination of a young sister from Saint Cross who struggles with the thought of how to best serve God, and the attention of Rom Keller, a renowned composer on hiatus in Lumby, as he prepares for Lumby's first Bach concert. Rom's wife, though, hopes to use his podium as her personal platform to share with the world her 18th century manuscript that gives a first-hand account of who actually wrote the scores to many of Bach's most famous pieces: his wife, Anna Magdalena.
When the town unexpectedly loses one of its most beloved friends and a moral compass for all, Pam and Mark Walker reexamine their lives and their relationships, while offering support to their closest friends Joshua and Brooke Turner. To help the town move on, Mark proceeds with his plans for the first annual Highland Games with hilarious results, while Joshua reaches deeper to find more meaning in his life and fulfill his mentor's advice.
The church doors finally open, and the town is awed by what they see inside. The wine festival becomes an event that would never be forgotten, although many say that was the sounds of Bach's illustrious music that was the pinnacle of the weekend. They might have thought differently had Magdalena's journal, and all of its copies, not been destroyed at the printers the night before.
Through it all, as the sun sets behind the Rockies, Lumby once again shows us how simple and wonderous small-town America really is.
The answer to both may reside in a two-hundred-year-old abandoned church at the end of Main Street that will require more than a little blind faith and extra nails to make it worthy for a world-class competition of vineyards. While renovations get underway and past secrets begin to unfold, the church captures the imagination of a young sister from Saint Cross who struggles with the thought of how to best serve God, and the attention of Rom Keller, a renowned composer on hiatus in Lumby, as he prepares for Lumby's first Bach concert. Rom's wife, though, hopes to use his podium as her personal platform to share with the world her 18th century manuscript that gives a first-hand account of who actually wrote the scores to many of Bach's most famous pieces: his wife, Anna Magdalena.
When the town unexpectedly loses one of its most beloved friends and a moral compass for all, Pam and Mark Walker reexamine their lives and their relationships, while offering support to their closest friends Joshua and Brooke Turner. To help the town move on, Mark proceeds with his plans for the first annual Highland Games with hilarious results, while Joshua reaches deeper to find more meaning in his life and fulfill his mentor's advice.
The church doors finally open, and the town is awed by what they see inside. The wine festival becomes an event that would never be forgotten, although many say that was the sounds of Bach's illustrious music that was the pinnacle of the weekend. They might have thought differently had Magdalena's journal, and all of its copies, not been destroyed at the printers the night before.
Through it all, as the sun sets behind the Rockies, Lumby once again shows us how simple and wonderous small-town America really is.
ONE
One never knows when God will choose to make an appearance, or, more specifically, to stand at one's very own doorstep, patiently biding His time to offer some much-needed divine intervention. However promising that may sound though, one never knows what He may ask for or expect in return.
And it was certainly never considered that He might simply drop in on the small town of Lumby, a hamlet of nearly six-thousand residents, safely wedged against the foothills of America's Rocky Mountains in our vast northwest, well protected from both unexpected and unnatural disruptions. But He did.
Knock, knock.
What most startled and equally disappointed Pam Walker was that the letter from God had no return address. In the upper left corner of the parchment envelope, there was no celestial township named, nor stamped crucifix, nor bush insignia - burning or otherwise. There were just three letters in heavily scripted black ink: GOD.
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