Providence (35 page)

This is my last book. My life isn’t about putting words on paper, as noble a pursuit as that may be. My life is about serving God, loving Jenny with all my heart, and caring for those two boys.

I sat with Raymond Mac for a while at the reception.

“That’s a good girl you got yourself, Jack. You gonna treat her right this time?”

“Yes, sir.”

“You gonna do her right or you gonna do her wrong like you done last time?”

“No, sir, she’s my girl.”

“That’s good, you learning.” He laughed, an old man’s laugh. “You’re doing all right, son. You’re doing all right.”

… a little more …

When a delightful concert comes to an end,
the orchestra might offer an encore.
When a fine meal comes to an end,
it’s always nice to savor a bit of dessert.
When a great story comes to an end,
we think you may want to linger.

And so, we offer ...

AfterWords—
just a little something more after you
have finished a David C Cook novel.
We invite you to stay awhile in the story.

Thanks for reading!

Turn the page for ...

• Discussion Guide

• Laborers of the Orchard

• Resources

• Author Interview

• Top 10 Soundtrack for My Novel

Discussion Guide

I hope you’ve enjoyed spending time in the world of
Providence
with Jack, Jenny, Erin, Mitchell, and the rest of the characters. Want to go deeper? Get together with a friend or a group of friends and discuss the themes in the book. I’ve tailored a few questions for different groups of readers (singles, college students, and book clubs in general) just to get things rolling.

And for all you book club members out there—if you can save a virtual seat for me, I’d be honored to join your discussion. As my time and schedule allow, I’m making myself available to show up via telephone and answer any questions you have about the book, or just to poke my head in to let you know how glad I am that you chose
Providence
as one of your stops along your reading journey.

Contact me via e-mail or visit my Web site so we can find out if our schedules match. And if you’re not in a book club, stop by anyway. I’d love to hear what you thought about
Providence
.

Chris Coppernoll

[email protected]

www.providencebook.com

Questions for Singles

1. In what ways did you identify with Jack’s struggle with singleness? What were some of the positive ways Jack dealt with being single? How could he have faced it differently?

2. Jack met someone he loved deeply, but couldn’t spend his life with. Can you relate to Jack’s disappointment? What is the most difficult aspect of having loved someone you cannot be with? What lessons have you learned from this experience that might help you in future relationships?

3. In His mysterious way, God worked Jack and Jenny’s love relationship together. What role did their beliefs, actions, and faithfulness play in what God was able to do in their lives?

4. When Jack acted by faith, agreeing with God’s Spirit to write his memoir, his life began to dramatically change. Have you ever experienced this sort of dramatic change? How can our faith and acting on the prompting of God’s spirit impact our relational life?

5. There was one special love in Jack’s life and there were two in Jenny’s. How did Jack come to receive the love of his life? How did Jenny come to receive her loves? What were the differences in how they came to receive their loves?

6. Jack’s love for Jenny brings to mind the concept of a special, unique life partner, a soul mate. What are your thoughts on soul mates? Do they exist? How do your thoughts on this concept impact the way you pursue love? How do they fit in with your understanding of God’s role in relationships?

7. What did Jack find most attractive about Jenny when he first met her? What was most attractive to him when they were reunited?

8. What attracted Jenny to Jack early in the story? What helped her decide to reunite with him after so many years apart?

9. What missteps did Jack and Jenny make in college? What common missteps did they manage to avoid?

10. Do you think Jack and Jenny will make it as a married couple? If so, why? What qualities do each of them possess that will help strengthen their marriage and relationship?

Questions for College Students

1. Early in the story Jack believes that leaving home for college will be a major catalyst for positive change in his life. What expectations did you put on your first year of college?

2. The Campus Missions Office in Providence was committed to serving one distinct, local group of people in need. What impact might your college have on your community if you made a similar commitment? What are the areas of greatest need in your community? In what ways are students already making a difference?

3. College is a time for discovery, which usually includes making mistakes. What missteps did Jack make while he was a college student? What missteps did Jenny make? In what ways can you relate to Jack or Jenny?

4. Although she faced challenges, Jenny was a successful college student at Providence. What personal qualities did she have that helped forge that success?

5. What purpose or meaning did Jack, Jenny, Erin, and Mitchell find during their college years? What purpose are you discovering? What is most surprising about what you’re discovering?

6. In what ways can you relate to the Campus Mission Office’s commitment to the poor? Are there similar organizations at your school? If not, what would it take to organize one?

7. What role, if any, did serendipity play in Jack and Jenny’s story? In Erin and Mitch’s story? What role did God’s providence play?

8. Jack Clayton experienced extraordinary fame and success through his work. What was your first reaction to reading about his success? Were you jealous? Envious? How important is fame and success to you? What does that look like to you?

9. What about this story inspires you? How might you begin to make a difference in your community?

10. Which of Jack’s sins caused others the most pain? Which blessing later in his life brought others to a richer life and deeper walk with God?

Questions for Book Clubs

1. How would you classify the story told in
Providence
? Is it primarily a love story, an inspirational tale of God’s love for us, or a book about serving others? Explain your answer.

2. Some of the main themes of
Providence
include reconciliation, acting on faith even when it’s difficult, serving the needy, and the consequences of good and evil actions. Which of the main themes impacted you most? Why? What other themes did you discover?

3. There’s a leitmotif of mystery surrounding the story where events seem to happen outside the direct actions of the characters, but rather because of God’s invisible hand of “providence.” Have you ever experienced something similar? How do you know when God is directly involved in your story and when it’s just coincidence?

4. What descriptive detail in
Providence
intrigued and appealed to you most?

5. What stood out to you about the characters of Jenny, Erin, Nancy Arcone, Mrs. Hernandez, and Angela? What did they have in common? What made each of them a strong personality?

6. What is your favorite scene or “moment” in the story? What was your emotional response to that scene? What makes this your favorite?

7. Which story line did you relate to most, the current time story line or the college-age story line? Why?

8. What character did you most relate to and why?

9. In what specific ways was God a character in this story? Where did you see evidence of His presence? Where do you see Him in your own story?

10. Does
Providence
inspire you to make a difference in the world around you? If so, how? What will you do?

Laborers of the Orchard

Laborers of the Orchard
is a key element in Jack Clayton’s story, but only a few details are offered about the contents of the book. Are you curious to know more? Well, even though he sold 18 million of these, the fact that it was something I made up means finding a copy is … um … difficult. But nothing is impossible in the world of fiction, and, after some digging, I was able to unearth a couple pages from that fictional best seller so you can see what all the excitement was about.

Excerpt from
Laborers of the Orchard

It’s a warm and sunny Friday afternoon in Providence, Indiana. Summer has brought with her a colorful campus in full bloom with tulips and hibiscus. It’s quieter than usual with over half the student population already gone home for a season. Our core of student volunteers has dwindled to around thirty-five, but we’re bonding into a tight-knit crew.

Earlier today, Peter drove CMO’s pickup truck to Broader Street, to Mrs. Williams’s house. He’s got a two-person crew with him—James Pinter and Bethany Jewell. They’ll prep the site for a wheelchair ramp, and six other students will join them on Saturday to build it.

We learned about Mrs. Williams when her daughter, Kendra, contacted CMO. They had tried to make do once Mrs. Williams’s MS got so bad that she had no choice but to slip into a wheelchair-bound existence. Kendra called to ask if there was a better way to get her mom in and out of the house. She’d told us how much her mother loved to sit in the front yard under the oak tree and tell stories to the neighbor children. But getting her in and out every day had become a burden too great for Kendra to handle.

When we came by to see what could be done, we noticed a couple of rotting boards resting across the stairs. I walked up them, noting the bowing and the unsettling sound of cracking wood.

“Yes, there is a better way,” we told Kendra. “There is something we can do to help.”

She smiled then. Thankful.

As if we needed any more prompting, just then a flock of smiling children ran up to Mrs. Williams who was sitting under the oak tree, knitting. She carefully set the scarf-in-progress on the grass as the children raced toward her, each of them hoping to get the seat of privilege for an impromptu story time. She gathered a little boy into her lap.

“They take turns,” Kendra told Peter. “Mom remembers whose turn it is.”

Earlier this week, it was Mrs. Williams’s turn. The first crew came and widened a doorway to make it easier for her to go in and out. The old door had been falling off its hinges. The new door swung open with ease.