Who is this chick, anyway?

THE OFFICIAL BIO

Intro

Ah, you actually came looking for me. That’s kind of you. I appreciate that, especially if you are a literary agent or publisher in Christian works. Please contact me soon, as I have the first devotional book in a series (and it’s complete!) which I would love for your readers to read.

Well, I am not here.

I have risen—to attend to other things. I do have a life outside of writing and social media. Not much, but I do have one. Since you’re that curious, here are a few personal tidbits of Bio-level stuff that I don’t post in other places.

History bits and pieces

I’ve owned exactly one brand-new car, a Honda Civic EX. Got that new car syndrome over with earlier in life. Had it for over eleven years until I totaled it falling asleep at the wheel late one night. I’ve learned since to do my best not to drive too late in the evening. I finally got another Honda with a moon roof last year, but I missed having a moon roof for several years.

When I was a kid, I used to be a real bookworm. I’d sit on my bed with a pile of toast on a plate and a book I wanted to read. Then I’d spend my evenings, not hanging out with friends, doing sports, or doing a lot of after school activities, but reading. I’m a lot more social now, due to a missions trip decades ago when so much oxytocin passed between all of us in such close quarters that it changed me from being such a loner to more social creature now (thank You, Jesus!).

Also, I’ve come to realize in recent years that, ever since I got a dumb phone (not a “smart phone” but a dumb-down one since I waste too much time on it), I haven’t spent as much time reading as I used to. I still prefer to do my devotional readings from a real, live hard copy Bible, but I plan to read more real books this year. I like biographies and autobiographies, so maybe I’ll start with one about actress Betty White. She was a fun, mostly clean class act, and we will all miss her as we go through 2022 without her.

What I like and do when I’m not writing:

I enjoy working out. I sensed the Lord asking me to surrender my gym membership in January of 2018. Now I work out by watching videos to do weight training with various dumb bells, HIIT, cardio, and stretching, occasional hiking or line dancing, and walking.

One of my favorite snacks is cotton candy. It’s one of those foods I have adored since I was a child, and still continue to. In my old singles group, all us cotton candy aficionados would each buy a large cotton candy, eat off them, pass them around to the whole group of 30, eat off each others’, and repeat this scenario a couple more times throughout a baseball game. We love us some cotton candy.

If it wouldn’t have taken me so long to finance some banker’s baby’s college education, I would have added English as a second major instead of sociology. However, I didn’t want to remain a professional student. And I wanted a double degree—a BA and a BS—and not just a double major. Alas, at the time, no Bachelor of Science in English or technical writing existed. Or, at least, I hadn’t heard of one, and it didn’t exist at the institution I ended up graduating from.

More seriously, I am a professional social worker with an MSW who worked as a counselor and case manager for outpatient mental health services for over 18 years. I worked several more years in the university setting with students who have disabilities. I also worked in residential care treatment programs and psychiatric hospitals with troubled adults, children, and adolescents.

Ministry background:

Most recently, I served as a church counselor for women in crisis, planned and coordinated social and ministry activities for church singles groups, ministered as an altar prayer partner after church services, and prayed weekly for our church in one of our many weekly prayer teams. I have taken extensive course work in Biblical counseling. I completed a two-year certification in ministry by my previous church as well as a one-year certificate in worship. I have also:

taught a workshop at a Christian singles retreat;
created, edited and coordinated publicity and newsletters for church singles groups;
taught and wrote curriculum for children’s Sunday school;
led women’s home Bible studies and discipleship groups;
sang in several church choirs;
participated in several weekly prayer ministries;
created & directed choreography and designed costumes for children in a church-wide Christmas cantata; and
gone on several short-term missionary trips both overseas and to Mexico.

My ministry focus and experience includes Christian singles, self-care, total body sanctification, the preeminence of one’s identity in Christ (especially for Christian singles and Christian women in a secular work environment), the restoration of people to the original plan of our God and Creator, and spiritual warfare. My ultimate goal is to actually get paid to write, and to return overseas to minister as a social work missionary.

About my writing:

I was the initiator and author of Care for the Caregiver, a monthly inspirational email column designed specifically for social workers and other professional caregivers. For over 2 ½ years, I encouraged professional caregivers to attend to self-care by presenting a short article on one of many aspects of self-care, then researching and providing links to articles, videos, slide shows, and websites on these facets of self-care.

The burgeoning women’s online Bible study ministry, Living By Design, printed one of my articles and featured another in a Saturday Soul Food email. Ladies, if you ever felt the compulsion to compare who you are and what you have to what others have and who they are and felt discouraged, I hope you will read this article and get encouraged: https://livingbydesign.org/fight-comparison/

Most recently, an article about uncommon sources of creativity was published for the summer print edition of Just Between Us magazine. I also contributed articles for the God’s Vitamin C for the Soul series.

Connect with me on Twitter! https://www.twitter.com/GlendaGGordon

I have written several blog posts for Single Matters Magazine at http://www.singlematters.com/author/glenda-gordon/ .

I will make yet more changes to this page in the future to see if you are paying attention (last updated 01/05/2022). ha ha!