From then to Now

by Fran Geiger Joslin

Authenticity Book House represents a rising from the ashes, a living corporation pulled from the hardness of life for the glory of God. The foundation of this statement sits on the reality that God loves to take the pain and defeats of our lives to create something new.

ABH began in the mind of my husband, Howard, and the continued shaping of ABH comes from our joint journeys and the battles the Lord continually lays before us. Let me start with the early years.

As a missionary kid I grew up convinced of the high calling of missions. Similarly, Howard so yearned for a life in missions that, when proposing to his first wife Ann, he asked if she would agree to live with him in a yurt in Mongolia. Apparently she said yes. They married in 1985.

As the years passed, my heart continued to beat for foreign missions, yet I found myself planted in Dallas, Texas. How could this lead to a missionary life? I remember sitting at a red light in East Dallas, when I finally surrendered. I realized the Lord placed me in this city with my family as my mission. My husband, Brian, and I served our children as each fought for their lives against asthma. In 1999, while the kids were still young, Brian received a dreaded diagnosis of brain cancer, leading to his own harrowing fight for life. Almost nine years later—July, 2008—I found myself widowed with three children at home…still in Dallas.

Howard’s journey saw similar hardships. In 2006 at the age of forty-four and twenty-one years into marriage, he earned a ThM degree from seminary—preparation for future ministry. Less than twenty-four hours later he suffered a heart attack. Less than a month after that, Ann received a terminal cancer diagnosis. In May, 2008, Howard himself faced widowhood with four children and this time, a battle for his faith.

The Lord joined our paths a couple of years into widowhood while deep in depression. Our desperate loneliness found refuge, relief, and rejuvenation in another compatible match. We married and blended two families with a total of seven children.

So what of missions? We entered middle age, confused by God’s plan of placing us “on the bench” for so many years. Yet, out of Howard’s grief emerged a book, Honest Wrestling, describing his personal confrontation with faith. The path to publication held great frustration and thus began the seed for the ministry of ABH. The Lord blessed Howard’s move from employee to independent consultant so he could nurture the ABH seed.

I agreed to join, offering him sixteen hours per week of my time. I quickly found myself pouring forty hours into ABH, and my business card suddenly carried the title of president! The mission the Lord so carefully prepared us for—through many detours—rose to life.

ABH established itself on three main pillars: to serve authors, translate resources, and fund missions. It sought to make the publishing process author-centric, allowing much needed stories and biblical insights to see the light of day. In our early years, translated materials travelled to East Africa and 20% of net royalties aided international pastors.

ABH received its official 501c3 non-profit status in 2016, simultaneously receiving an invitation to gain counsel from two Dallas businessmen with a heart for non-profit ministries. These men listened to our story and examined our two-year-old ministry seedling. Howard and I left with a great challenge designed to strengthen ABH’s roots—narrow the focus to rural pastors as the target audience, simplified writing, and bite sized books, but keeping a heart for those who suffer. A new tagline arose: simplified pastoral training in bite-sized books.

Since that time Howard and Fran moved to Iowa, unsure of what God would do with the ministry. We followed God’s leading to join up with another organization and then followed his leading two years later to go back on our own and focus fully on the mission given to us in 2016. One word in the tagline changed to include anyone who needs biblical training: simplified biblical training in bite-sized books.

It took us a couple of years to stabilize, and now we watch in awe as God explodes the ministry, answering our prayers for more authors, more staff, and pastors who need our books. As we enter the second quarter of 2024, we anticipate holding two events to showcase our ministry and raise funds. We are writing more books at a time than ever before. We also anticipate a trip to Tanzania in 2025 to hold a marriage conference for pastors and their wives. Our own pastor and his wife, along with another couple from our church may join us.

New hope and excitement continue to rise as the Lord blesses the mission of ABH.