Whole Heart

Whole Heart Beats - February 2023

Life has become very international for us. Since the last update, we’ve been back and forth between the US and the UK several times, and moved (reluctantly) to a new flat in Oxford. Sally’s five-year visa was approved and she is now a Lay Mentor to women postgraduate students and other women and moms at Pusey House, a historic Anglican study and worship center in the heart of Oxford. She leads two Bible studies, and meets regularly with women for personal encouragement. She is there during the three Oxford terms, and back in CO between them.

Clay, as publisher of Whole Heart Press, continues to develop our “ministry in print.” We’ve recently added all our WH Press books to IngramSpark, which will enable our books for the first time to be purchased wholesale by bookstores and resellers through Ingram Book Distribution, the largest book distributor in the US. New books for our Storyformed Books imprint are in process. We’ve been championing and recommending illustrated storybooks for children for 20+ years, and hope to add our own to that storied history of imaginative literature. Of course, we are proud to have released new and refreshed versions of Sally’s classic books for mothers, Seasons of a Mother’s Heart and Your Mom Walk with God. More refreshed books are in the publishing queue.

We also continue to work with Christian royalty publishers. Sally’s third and last book for Bethany House Publishers, co-written for her by Clay during her her fall 2021 hip surgery and recovery, released in October. Giving Your Words is an exploration from our own experience of the lifegiving power of a verbal home for family faith formation. It is full of biblical encouragement and example for how to use your own words to shape your child’s life for Christ. But now Sally is working with Harvest House Publishers, and her first of three books with them is Teatime Discipleship — Sharing Faith One Cup at a Time. It is a lovely gift book filled with beautiful full-color photos from Sally’s life and home, and with her personal stories, Scriptures, prayers, recipes, and traditions encouraging women to pursue the beauty of a life of lifegiving hospitality over a shared cup. Teatime Discipleship releases on April 18.

Whole Heart Beats - May 2022

Time flies when you’re navigating pandemics, social change, elections, and moves forth and back between Colorado and Oxford in the UK. But, since last we posted in 2020, life goes on. We’ll try to do better posting updates going forward.

Since Sept of 2020, we’ve worked about half the year in Oxford with an evangelical Anglican church. If all goes as planned with a new visa, Sally will be starting a new ministry with a different Oxford church beginning fall of 2022. It is a classic church in the heart of Oxford with a rich history and a beautiful older building and worship facility. Although we had become friends with several of their staff, we didn’t ask them; they came to Sally completely unexpectedly to ask her to help them develop a ministry to reach out to women and moms in Oxford. God has given us a rare opportunity to use our messages and experience to start something new and needed in our ancestral homeland. We’ll keep you posted.

Clay, as publisher of Whole Heart Press, is giving our book publishing ministry a fresh start. We started Whole Heart as a publishing ministry, so he’s going back to our roots as a “ministry in print.” We’re excited to finally have Seasons of a Mother’s Heart back in print, as well as a refreshed version of Your Mom Walk with God. We’ve also updated and released Own Your Life Experience, a companion study guide by Sally and Joy for Sally’s book Own Your Life. More refresh-ments of our best books are on the way but, even more exciting, new original books will be coming soon. We’re especially chuffed (Britspeak) about new books for our Storyformed Books imprint. We’ve been championing and recommending illustrated storybooks for children for 20+ years and now we’ll finally begin putting our imprimatur on that imprint. Stay tuned. Much more to come.

Welcome to the New WholeHeart.org!

This is a year of transitions for Whole Heart Ministries (see our Year-End Letter), so it seemed like a good time to give WholeHeart.org a much-needed upgrade, update, and makeover. We are, in fact, giving all of our ministry websites the same upgrade. We're moving them all from the venerable WordPress platform, to the new-generation Squarespace platform. Not because we need to, but because Squarespace does the kinds of websites we do better, easier, and, well, cooler. SallyClarkson.com was our first conversion, and now WholeHeart.org is the latest. It's all part of our "pivot" after 22 years of ministry to be sure we will continue to reach and minister to Christian parents in the decade ahead.

Click around the new site and let us know what you think. We'll be reviving the Whole Heart Blog now to keep you up to date on Whole Heart Ministries news, alert you to new books and events, and share excerpts from our books and blogs to encourage you as a Christian parent. Be sure to subscribe to the site so you can receive our blog posts in your email inbox. Thanks for being here.