World-renowned cardiologist Race Stiner did the unthinkable – he quit.

What else is a man supposed to do when God clearly shows him his life's calling is no longer healing physical hearts, but spiritual?

It would have been easy to tell God no, and to ignore the call back to a tiny town in the Ozarks to begin a ministry in a small church that was about to close its doors. But at fifty-three, Race walked away from his prestigious and successful career and agreed to follow the Lord – under one condition. He told God He wanted a wife to labor alongside of him.

Penny Liston had spent more than two and a half decades delivering other ladies' babies. Despite the fervent desire of her heart, two failed marriages, and years of infertility treatments, she'd never had any of her own.

Slowing down and moving to the small town in the Ozarks might have been the best decision of her life. Answering the ad in the paper for a female companion to help start a church, the only requirement being that she was good with children, might have been the craziest.

Books in the Cowboy Mountain Christmas series: