Books published by Stratton Press

God’s call to ministry is an invitation to partner with Him. From Vision to Reality reveals how to move in God’s timing to implement God’s plan. It identifies how a vision can also be a hindrance to our personal relationship with God. Using numerous biblical examples of leaders in both the Old and New Testament, the author discloses how God is involved in giving the vision and partnering with us in the accomplishment of His vision. There are helpful exercises and strategy worksheets at the end of each section. As we navigate each obstacle in fulfilling His vision, God can touch the world through you.ESTELLE GROSS CYRUS is founder and director of “RIGHT WAY” MINISTRIES INTERNATIONAL, Inc.  (RWMI) located in Baltimore, Maryland, and established in 1983. The ministry has taken Dr. Cyrus to Europe, Asia, Africa, South America, the Caribbean, Canada, and across the United States. She has also worked among Native American communities.Dr. Cyrus learned to unleash God’s power against great odds to found RWMI at a time when there was no support for an African American female in ministry. She was called by God to go into the world and make disciples. Dr. Cyrus desires believers to operate in the miraculous as they partner with God by faith.Dr. Cyrus graduated from Washington Bible College and Capital Bible Seminary (CBS). She was the first female to receive a master’s of theology degree from CBS. Dr. Cyrus is married to Dereck Cyrus. They have three grown children. When not traveling, she ministers at her home church, Grace Pointe Community Church of the Nazarene.

This book contains selections of poetry and prose from the work of an aging Midwestern man—looking back at people, events, sexual experiences, cultures, and the church that has formed him.The content draws on his childhood, family, World War I and II, and summers in Spain. The Villa in the Algarve, Portugal, teaching in Turkey, two gay poets, and his revisioning of the myths, history, rituals, and the incarnation of his Catholic faith as he lives and approaches his death. He embraces the gift of life and the wonder of consciousness.Written with vivid imagery and unusual events in free verse, this will give you a fresh vision, sometimes startling, always disclosing the intimacy and consciousness of personal life.Lawrence W. Manglitz was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, November 24, 1938. When he was a small boy, his parents moved to Bridgeman, then to Holland, Michigan. Despite the conservative nature of that community and his family church, his childhood was a time of great imagination and wanderings on his bike and adventures in Dunn’s woods. In his youth, his life became more complex as he became aware of his homosexuality. He didn’t publically come out until he was twenty-eight.In 1961, he graduated from Godben College. Later, he earned an MA from the University of Michigan and a PhD from Michigan State University. In 1961, he began teaching at Talas American School, near Kayseri and later at Tarsus College in Southern Turkey. Between 1961 and 1965, he traveled in the Middle East and in Southern Europe, spending his summers in Ibiza, Spain. Later, after returning to America, he visited Turkey, Spain, England, and the Czech Republic many times.After returning to America in 1965, he taught at South High School; in 1968, he taught at the community college until his retirement in 2002. During much of the time after his return, he was active in the Episcopal church. Presently, he lived in Michigan with his three cats: James, Cecilia, and Zachariah.He has published poetry in Matrix and The James White Review.

This collection of short stories introduces the mysterious and handsome Sebastian Cricket and his loyal lover and life partner, Justin. The unlikely pair seem to attract trouble and often find themselves in the most dangerous predicaments one might conjure. Sebastian is a man of action and few words, and his expeditions are told by Justin, a man of tender feelings, a sensitive and loyal reporter, and always on Sebastian’s side.Sebastian Cricket’s mission is simple: use the skills he learned as an elite special operations soldier to help those in distress, by any means necessary.From the “Snow Viper”The massive belching engine, an iron relic forged in a distant century, struggled to pull us up the steep mountainside. With each gasp and lurch, my stomach tied itself into knots, my heart pounded, and my clenched hands dripped with hot sticky sweat. The beast would have been more appropriate in a museum than perched on narrow-gauge tracks, but here we were, nevertheless. It was terrifying knowing we had scant purchase on the steep incline and could plummet to our deaths at any moment. The deafening grind of the train’s wheels as it rounded sharp mountainous curves, inching higher and higher through dense forest and across rocky cliffs, was such a terror I had rarely endured. Little did I realize even greater perils lay ahead.

REDBONE: The Misunderstood Light-Skinned Female is a book that explains the plight as well as the perceived privileges that accompany light-skinned females here in the United States. Because their skin color invokes many thoughts and emotions, they are both hated and adored at the same time.Fairly or unfairly, light-skinned females are associated with being gold diggers, materialistic, arrogant, and conceited. It explains where this "pedestal" reputation of light-skinned females originated as well as the role that the media has played in the perpetuation of this colorism dynamic.Redbone delves into this current trend of Black male celebrities choosing White, non-Black, and light-skinned females for marriage and dating while leaving the dark-skinned females behind and the impact that it has on the next generation. It also expounds on the hate that fair-skinned girls receive from dark-skinned girls and the motivation behind it. It discusses how in general Blacks really hate themselves and subconsciously want to be as close to White as possible, which has elevated the redbone to rock star status within the Black community.Redbone takes a critical look at the current beauty standard in Black America. Multiple surveys and interviews that were conducted paints an accurate portrayal of dating preferences in the twenty-first century.