Trafford Publishing: From Hagar to Rachel

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From Hagar to Rachel

by Andrea Eden Palmer

395 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #02-1054; ISBN 1-55395-339-8; US$30.50, C$34.95, EUR25.00, £17.50

From Hagar to Rachel is a psychological, semi-autobiographical journey that portrays how the author, Dr. Rachel Andrea Palmer metamorphosed over the course of her life from the bound and unhappy Hagar to the beloved Rachel. In it are the keys that all women can similarly use to free themselves and to begin their own personal journey to becoming the beautiful women that God has decreed them to be. From Hagar to Rachel is powerful, touching and refreshing, a book that will make you laugh and cry and will surely live on in your spirit.

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About the Book      About the Author      Sample Excerpts      Catalogue Info

About the Book

     From Hagar to Rachel, is the vehicle that the author Dr Rachel Andrea Palmer has chosen to use to describe how she evolved over the course of her life from the bound and unhappy Hagar to Rachel the beloved. While it draws upon portions of her life, with the setting changing from the lush Caribbean scenery of her native country Trinidad to the metropolitan area of New York, it is still much more of a psychological journey than an autobiographical book.
     From Hagar to Rachel is deeply spiritual, powerful and moving. In it Dr Palmer seeks to show how through developing an intimate relationship with God she was able to overcome her childhood pain, the sorrow of divorce, the bewilderment of being physically afflicted from birth and despite all the suffering and hardship develop into the beautiful, gracious and brilliant woman that she is.
     Dr Palmer conjures up the images of her life so vividly that the readers will find themselves laughing at times, crying at others as they vicariously participate in her experiences. She takes the readers with her on the journey, showing clearly how the touch of the Master's hand and His love transformed, empowered and beautified her. This book will similarly touch each and every reader.

About the Author

Born January 14th 1948, named Andrea Eden Palmer and given the name Rachel by the Word of Prophecy in 1995.
Andrea Eden Palmer was educated in Trinidad from age four (4) to seventeen (17) at Providence Intermediate School and Holy Name Convent. She achieved General Certificate of Education (GCE), which was obtained by passing examinations set by the University of Cambridge in London. She excelled in Literature. Educational progress was halted at this time due to the need to earn money.
Andrea married at nineteen (19) and was a first-time mother at twenty.
Before migrating to the United States of America (USA), Andrea taught in the Infant Department of Nelson Street Boys' Roman Catholic School for four (4) years.
On arriving in the USA, Andrea worked as a Girl Friday for two companies, but was eventually employed by the New York Telephone Company for twenty-six years.
At first, her only ambition was to see her husband succeed and become an electrical engineer; that had been their purpose for migrating, but as that dream died Andrea sought to climb the corporate ladder of success, as opportunities presented themselves. Those early seventies were the days when on the job training made a college education optional. Andrea was trained to be a computer programmer and eventually given the title of Programmer Analyst. The salary was good so that there was no real financial hardship when she became a divorcee and single mother of two (2) boys.
However, by the mid-eighties, more and younger people graduated from the institutes of higher education and entered into employment. A college education became a pre-requisite for further promotion and success. Andrea decided to apply to the College for Social Services. As a manager in the company, Andrea was obligated to participate in many technical, people-management, and personal improvement courses. She discovered that she enjoyed and did well in such courses as 'Managing Conflict, Investment in Excellence, Business Meeting Skills', rather than in technical computer courses. Consequently, she had come to the conclusion that she had no desire or even aptitude to advance in that field and that her heart was directed towards people rather than machines.
Although she did very well in the college entrance examination and was accepted, Andrea's absolute dislike of winter, the fact that her present job assignment necessitated that she did some traveling, as well as be on twenty-four hour call, and her real lack of need, were the factors that decided her against pursuing a career in social services. She felt rather gratified just to know that if she wanted to, she could go to college.
But Andrea did go to school.
In 1979, Andrea accepted the Lord Jesus as her Lord and Savior. 1981-1983, she studied at Emmanuel Bible Training Institute, an affiliate of Kenneth Hagin's Outreach Bible Training Institute, where she discovered that she loved the Word of God. During this time her Pastor recognized the call of God on her life and began to encourage her to minister that which she learned to the people. It was at this time that Dean Philip Gordon laid hands on her and prayed for her to receive the gift and anointing of Teaching. It was also at this time that she became involved in Street Evangelism, encouraged by Evangelist Richards and Spitz.
July 1983, Andrea organized a day of seminars. Using the Bible school second-year students, and the course that they had studied, they ministered to their friends. It was a resounding success. She had put herself last on the program. She did not teach, but preached an evangelist message entitled, "The Triumph of Jesus."
In September 1983, Emanuel Bible Training Institute found itself short of a teacher, and by God's design asked Andrea to fill in until a real and recognized teacher could be hired. Andrea, to the amazement of all, taught the Word of God with such clarity and wisdom, that it was obvious to all that God had gifted her even as Dean Philip Gordon had prayed.
For the next six (6) years, Andrea continued to work, evangelize, teach, and allow herself to be used whenever opportunity presented itself. She truly lost interest in job promotion and the company lost interest in promoting her. Her lifestyle no longer included corporate parties, where most net-working occurred. In 1989, bored, miserable, and spiritually dry, due to stagnation and lack of the excitement that characterized her first decade as a Christian, Andrea entered Mount Olive Bible Institute, an affiliate of The Theological Seminary of Vann Nuys, California, as a first year student. It soon became evident that her previous studies had qualified her to enter the Bachelor's program. It was an accelerated one-year course of study, besides that, the President of the school, Doctor R. Austin, encouraged Andrea to take the certificate Course in The Psychology of Christian Counseling.
Andrea had found a treasure. She began to apply the knowledge which she gained to her own life, and to cry out to the Lord for the grace and wisdom to make the changes that would repair the damage to her own psyche. She began to understand the causes of low self-esteem, its detrimental and destructive power. She began to write a series of questions that would assist in diagnosing this most prevalent psychological disease, from which so many emotional ills are derived. Andrea graduated with much more than a bachelor's degree in Theology. She also graduated with a certificate in The Psychology of Christian Counseling, and the honor of being valedictorian.
That summer, Doctor Austin asked her to teach a seminar on spiritual Warfare. The result of her study was an extensive work that she generously shared with fellow ministers and plans to re-write for publication. She is in the habit of sharing all work derived form Bible study, because she does not consider it her exclusive possession. It belongs to those who can profit from her gift. In 1991, Andrea was asked to teach at Mount Olive Bible Institute. During the next few years, she taught the Bible 1 course, the bachelor degree course and the Psychology of Christian Counseling.
There were many pastors in her classes who were quite impressed with the ease and clarity of her teaching style. Pastors Lloyd George of Evangelical Outreach in Brooklyn, N.Y. and Vaden Grant of Praise Gates of Brooklyn, N.Y. invited her to teach several seminars at their churches. When she retired form secular work in 1996, Pastor Lloyd George commissioned her to prepare and teach a leadership seminar both at his church and at several churches in Trinidad, West Indies, with which he was affiliated.
In 1994, Andrea began traveling to St. Kitts to attend a yearly convention with her Pastor. There she was asked to teach her seminars on Spiritual Warfare and Leadership. At her own home church, Pentecostal Circle Tabernacle, Andrea was recognized as an excellent teacher whose focus was on personal healing and self-improvement through the knowledge and understanding of the human psyche and the power of the Word of God.
In 1998-1999, in recognition of the call to leave the assembly where she was known and travel to places where she was unknown, Andrea returned to Mount Olive Bible Institute as a student to obtain her Master of Theology and Doctorate Degree in The Psychology of Christian Counseling.

Sample Excerpts

-1- The Truth Shall Make You Free.

     I began writing this book early in 1999. It was my hope to have completed it by the end of that year. However, God knew that I needed to experience and learn more of his love before I could realize my own true value. So, although I had many facts written and knew in my mind how I wanted "Keys" to turn out, I was unable to meet my own dead line.
     On December 26th, 1999 I was struck down and almost died from a ruptured aneurysm. Jesus touched and healed me. I am a miracle. For two years I was unable to return to my book, but it was during that time that my value appreciated in my own estimation. My life became precious; my purpose became extremely important; and the words, "Not by might, not by power, but by the Spirit of the LORD", became an experiential reality.
     My life became precious to me, because by sparing my life, God declared that I was precious to Him. The importance of my purpose was heightened because God had given me a second opportunity to live and therefore it must be for His purpose. The words, "His Strength is made perfect in weakness," which I had believed, had become my reality because I no longer had the vibrant physical strength and sharp intellect, to confidently approach any task. Whatever I do is by His Spirit for His Honor and Glory.
     I had not planned to write From Hagar To Rachel. However, as I returned to Keys in January 2002, this is how the Lord led me. God is amazing. In writing my journey I have discovered some lost keys that have brought me greater understanding of my previous self-defeating actions. I realize that only God who truly knows us can determine when the work is completed and that we must continually submit ourselves to him, so that He who has begun a good work in us will continue to perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.
     Hopefully you will read From Hagar to Rachel, before you get Keys to Unlock and Realize Your True Value, and having done those exercises, that you will continue to discover God's Truth About God and You.
     The Questionnaire in The Workbook was first prepared in miniature form as a guideline for a seminar on Self Esteem, entitled, The Truth Shall Make You Free. It was an impromptu assignment with a group of sixteen women, and I had no idea how it would turn out.
     There were five sessions. During the first two sessions the search for honest answers unearthed layers of pain, shame, fear, guilt and anger. The third session addressed the subject of subjective, objective, and pathological guilt, which brought great sadness and depression. The fourth session dealt with forgiveness, being forgiven and forgiving, and the letting go of past abuses and guilt. After two days of intense heart-searching and emotional upheaval, the atmosphere at the retreat was heavy with exposed pain, grief, and gloom. It was awful and I did not know what to do.
     That night my sleep was troubled. What could I say that would relieve the thick darkness that weighed the people down. I felt like a surgeon who had exposed an in-operable malignant cancer and had no hope to offer the patient. Early next morning, I awoke and said to the Lord, "I cannot leave the people the way they are, what shall I say to them." This is what the Lord spoke quietly to my spirit.
     "Tell them that I am sorry that they had to go through the pain that has afflicted their lives. Tell them that it wasn't my plan and I am sorry. Tell them that I have a good plan for each life and that despite all the setbacks of their experiences, I have not changed my plan. I never have a plan 'B'. My plan 'A' is still in effect. In my omniscience I factored in all the circumstances of their lives and they can still walk into my plan. It is a good plan. "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Then shall you call upon me, and you shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And you shall seek me, and find me, when you shall search for me with all your heart." " Jeremiah. 29:11-13.
     He showed me how his plans for Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and David did not change. Despite Abraham's initial lack of faith and subsequent fathering of Ishmael, Isaac was conceived as promised, in the womb of Sarah, Abraham's post-menopausal childless wife. Despite Jacob's characteristic deception and the harvest of deception, which he reaped, Jacob became Israel, the father of the Jewish nation. Despite Joseph being sold, enslaved, and imprisoned, he still became the Prime Minister of Egypt and Savior of the Jewish race. Despite Moses' crime of murder and subsequent forty years of obscurity, Moses became the deliverer of Israel, and the greatest prophet of God. Despite the abuse that David suffered so unjustly at the hands of Saul, David still became the greatest king Israel ever had.
     When I told the women what the Lord had said, a miracle happened. They received the word whole-heartedly. It was as if the sun suddenly appeared in all its strength and dismissed all the gloom. That the Lord was sorry for what they had gone through amazed and gladdened them. That He hadn't changed His good plan was the encouragement that they needed. Chains were broken, shame was dispelled, and they began to share their hopes and future plans with joyful expectation that the good things that they dared to dream and envision, could and would come to past. The truth had set them free to love, to work, to serve, to fulfill God's purpose.
     Since then I have gained much insight and the little questionnaire has developed into Keys to Unlock and Realize Your True Value. It is my sincere desire that you who read my story From Hagar to Rachel will be encouraged and seek to discover God's Plan A for your lives. Be Blessed. Andrea Eden Rachel Palmer

Catalogue Information