Sweet, Sweet Spirit

Rebecca Price Janney does a fabulous job making history come alive once again. In this story her heroine becomes enthralled with presidential candidate Robert Kennedy and sees him as the only hope for the nation. She is disillusioned by his unexpected assassination, but she finds hope in a movement that’s sweeping the nation. Highly recommended.

Sweet, Sweet Spirit Endorsements:

When revival broke out at Asbury College 50 years ago, the impact traveled throughout the nation and even abroad. Experience the event through Melanie McKnight, leading character in Sweet, Sweet Spirit, a captivating, fact-based fiction work by Rebecca Price Janney. Budding journalist Melanie, 17, struggles with the loss of her cherished mother and feels distanced from her father (an acclaimed journalist). Coupled with national crises (tragic deaths of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy), a weight of hopelessness settles on her young shoulders. Invited to the Asbury campus by a student (her special friend, Jack), perhaps she’ll find healing and direction. A sweet spirit flavors this story!

Dianne Barker, speaker, radio host, and author I Don’t Chase the Garbage Truck Down the Street in My Bathrobe Anymore!

Rebecca Price Janney has provided a way for readers to experience the tumultuous times of the 1960s and then the beautiful outpouring of God’s Spirit on a small Christian college campus in Wilmore, Kentucky. I have heard many stories about the Revival and the ripple of changes that took place. I love “seeing” it through Melanie McKnight’s eyes – the curiousity, the apprehension, the fear, the freedom, and finally, her joy. While this revival happened 50 years ago, the impact of this visitation still affects us today. To God be the Glory.

Lisa Falin Harper
Director of Alumni Relations, Asbury University

For those of us old enough to remember the actual events, Rebecca Price Janney’s newest novel Sweet Sweet Spirit triggers a flood of memories.  The assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy, coupled with Vietnam protests, Woodstock and the sexual revolution caused many of us to feel that the very foundations of civilization were being shaken.  And then, an unexplainable revival at a small liberal arts college in rural Kentucky!  Sweet Sweet Spirit brings the reality of those years back into sharp focus.  Melanie McKnight’s journey 50 years ago is far more than a nostalgic trip down memory lane.  Her pilgrimage from despair to hope and from doubt to faith has the capacity to inspire and encourage you and me, as we seek to make sense out of the chaotic vanity of our modern world.

Stan Key
The Francis Asbury Society, President

Sweet Sweet Spirit brought back many memories from fifty years ago. I recommend this book for anyone who needs to remember that the Lord has done great and mighty works, or anyone who needs Hope to believe for the future of revived hearts.

Tim Philpot
Family court judge, trial lawyer, former state senator, author, and president of CBMC International

1968 was a tough year for our country: The Tet offensive. Assassinations of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy. Race riots. Anti-war demonstrations. Violence at the Democratic National Convention.  College campuses in turmoil. Asbury College, a small college in Kentucky, was in turmoil, too, of a spiritual nature. Bickering and ill-will had supplanted Christian love and brotherhood.. . Little did we know . . .the Spirit of God would take over a simple chapel and ignite a spiritual revival of extraordinary magnitude.

In remarkably true-to-life fashion, Rebecca Price Janney tells the story of Melanie McKnight, an aspiring young journalist with an ambivalent attitude toward religion. In the early chapters we learn that Melanie adores Bobby Kennedy and yearns for a closer relationship with her father. In that beginning she may be a fictional character, but as the momentum builds toward the closing chapters she could be any one of us who was there and had the very real and personal experience of coming face-to-face with the Holy Spirit. Sweet, Sweet Spirit is an inspiring rendition of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Homer Pointer
1970 Asbury Collegian editor; retired Navy JAG , assistant general FBI counsel, counsel to the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, part-time law professor

Fifty years ago, the campus of Asbury College (now University) and the lives of an entire community were changed when God showed up in a chapel service. The ripple effect traveled across the nation and even today is spoken of as a pivot point in many lives.  Rebecca Price Janney has done an excellent job of telling the story in a fresh way by helping us to understand the current events the students in America were facing in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s.

Carolyn Ridley
Asbury University Advancement Team, former Alumni Director

This story was a beautiful stroll into the past, through the intrigue of Bobby Kennedy’s presidential run and the horror of his assassination, with nostalgic songs, Beetle cars and Beatles music, culminating in the breath-taking awe of God’s presence at Asbury College and the revival that happened there. I love how Janney brings history to life and makes readers feel as if they, too, are living the pages of history and experiencing God’s work through real and fictional characters. I’m so glad I had the opportunity to walk with Melanie, the main character, through the events of the late ’60’s and early ’70’s in America and see that world through her eyes, and so see God a little clearer.

Marlo Schalesky
Award-winning author of Women of the Bible Speak Out

Rebecca Price Janney does a fabulous job making history come alive once again. In this story her heroine becomes enthralled with presidential candidate Robert Kennedy and sees him as the only hope for the nation. She is disillusioned by his unexpected assassination, but she finds hope in a movement that’s sweeping the nation. Highly recommended.

Cynthia L Simmons
Author, Speaker, Coach, Heart of the Matter Radio Host

Out of the tragic brokenness and racial tension that symbolizes America in the 1960s, the unlikely “Sweet Spirit” of renewal transforms lives. Dr. Janney has delivered a captivating romantic tale of Melanie and Jack, two souls caught in the crossfire and upheaval of the times—two souls forever touched by the loving hand of Almighty God!

Rick Steele
Publishing house editor, owner, Rick Steele Editorial Services