Our Story
The ABH Story
Authenticity Book House represents a rising from the ashes—a ministry born out of life’s trials for God’s glory. He loves to take the pain and defeats of our lives to create something new.
ABH sprouted first in Howard Joslin’s mind. God refined its shape through the hardships both he and his wife Fran faced.
As a missionary kid Fran (Lockhart) Geiger Joslin sensed God calling her into missions. Similarly, Howard so yearned for a life in missions that, when proposing to his first wife Ann, he asked if she would live in a yurt in Mongolia.
As the years passed, Fran’s heart continued to beat for foreign missions, yet she found herself planted in Dallas, Texas. She remembers sitting at a red light in East Dallas when she blurted out, “Okay, Lord, if you want me to serve you in Dallas, I surrender.” She married her pastor’s son, Brian Geiger, in 1989. In 2008 Fran found herself widowed with three children at home…still in Dallas.
Howard confronted similar hardships on his journey. He moved his family to Dallas, TX, in 1997 to attend Dallas Seminary. After graduating, Howard suffered a heart attack, and weeks later Ann received a terminal cancer diagnosis. Howard faced widowhood with four children in 2008.
Two and a half years into widowhood, Howard and Fran met, married, and blended two families with a total of seven children.
So what of missions? Howard and Fran entered middle age confused by God’s plan of placing them “on the bench” for so many years. Yet out of Howard’s grief emerged Honest Wrestling, a book describing his personal confrontation with faith. Howard experienced frustration over the self-publishing process and started ABH to offer an easier solution.
Fran offered Howard sixteen hours per week of her time to grow the ministry. Before she knew it her business card carried the title of president! The mission the Lord so carefully prepared them for—through many detours—rose to life.
ABH established itself on three main pillars: to serve authors, translate resources, and fund missions. ABH received its official 501c3 non-profit status in 2016. Fran also attended a worldwide pastors’ conference in Bangkok, Thailand that year. The first night, her large books were taken from her table. Horrified and embarrassed that she couldn’t show her “wares,” she pulled three mini books out of her suitcase.
As Fran looked around at other ministries, she realized many of them showcased books as well. Almost audibly, she asked God why he would call ABH to do “what everyone else is doing.” Over the next few months, God made it clear that the bite-sized books left at the conference served as a foreshadowing of what God wanted ABH to do. The ABH team established a new tag line as a result: simplified pastoral training in bite-sized books.
Since then, one word in the tagline changed to include anyone who needs biblical training: simplified biblical training in bite-sized books.
The ministry moved from Texas to Iowa in 2019 due to extended family health needs. ABH celebrated its tenth anniversary in 2024 and continues to grow beyond our wildest dreams.
“God is in a hurry,” states Pastor James, ABH’s director of operations in Africa. The ministry keeps exploding as God gives new vision and answers our prayers for more authors, more staff, and pastors who need our books. Books remain the main ministry. Conferences enhance the use of the books, and agricultural training increases pastors’ income while allowing them to spend more time shepherding their flock.
New hope and excitement continue to rise from the ashes as the Lord blesses the mission of ABH.
ABH sprouted first in Howard Joslin’s mind. God refined its shape through the hardships both he and his wife Fran faced.
As a missionary kid Fran (Lockhart) Geiger Joslin sensed God calling her into missions. Similarly, Howard so yearned for a life in missions that, when proposing to his first wife Ann, he asked if she would live in a yurt in Mongolia.
As the years passed, Fran’s heart continued to beat for foreign missions, yet she found herself planted in Dallas, Texas. She remembers sitting at a red light in East Dallas when she blurted out, “Okay, Lord, if you want me to serve you in Dallas, I surrender.” She married her pastor’s son, Brian Geiger, in 1989. In 2008 Fran found herself widowed with three children at home…still in Dallas.
Howard confronted similar hardships on his journey. He moved his family to Dallas, TX, in 1997 to attend Dallas Seminary. After graduating, Howard suffered a heart attack, and weeks later Ann received a terminal cancer diagnosis. Howard faced widowhood with four children in 2008.
Two and a half years into widowhood, Howard and Fran met, married, and blended two families with a total of seven children.
So what of missions? Howard and Fran entered middle age confused by God’s plan of placing them “on the bench” for so many years. Yet out of Howard’s grief emerged Honest Wrestling, a book describing his personal confrontation with faith. Howard experienced frustration over the self-publishing process and started ABH to offer an easier solution.
Fran offered Howard sixteen hours per week of her time to grow the ministry. Before she knew it her business card carried the title of president! The mission the Lord so carefully prepared them for—through many detours—rose to life.
ABH established itself on three main pillars: to serve authors, translate resources, and fund missions. ABH received its official 501c3 non-profit status in 2016. Fran also attended a worldwide pastors’ conference in Bangkok, Thailand that year. The first night, her large books were taken from her table. Horrified and embarrassed that she couldn’t show her “wares,” she pulled three mini books out of her suitcase.
As Fran looked around at other ministries, she realized many of them showcased books as well. Almost audibly, she asked God why he would call ABH to do “what everyone else is doing.” Over the next few months, God made it clear that the bite-sized books left at the conference served as a foreshadowing of what God wanted ABH to do. The ABH team established a new tag line as a result: simplified pastoral training in bite-sized books.
Since then, one word in the tagline changed to include anyone who needs biblical training: simplified biblical training in bite-sized books.
The ministry moved from Texas to Iowa in 2019 due to extended family health needs. ABH celebrated its tenth anniversary in 2024 and continues to grow beyond our wildest dreams.
“God is in a hurry,” states Pastor James, ABH’s director of operations in Africa. The ministry keeps exploding as God gives new vision and answers our prayers for more authors, more staff, and pastors who need our books. Books remain the main ministry. Conferences enhance the use of the books, and agricultural training increases pastors’ income while allowing them to spend more time shepherding their flock.
New hope and excitement continue to rise from the ashes as the Lord blesses the mission of ABH.