Spencerville Mother-Daughter Team Publishes New Devotional Book

A mother-daughter team from the Spencerville (Silver Spring, Md.) church recently published a weekly devotional book aimed at offering fresh spiritual insights into familiar Bible stories. 

Merle Poirier and her daughter, Ellen Musselman, initially got involved in the project during the pandemic when they started looking for a new creative ministry outlet. Musselman, who has two young children, observed that parents with small kids going through Sabbath School materials end up reading the same Bible stories repeatedly. The two realized there was an opportunity to develop companion adult Bible studies that could provide parents with meaningful devotional content. 

After further research, Poirier and Musselman partnered with “Starting with Jesus,” a ministry that helps children develop a relationship with Jesus by offering Sabbath School video lessons and weekly podcasts for Beginners to Juniors using the “My Bible First” curriculum. 

The project was initially launched in January 2022 as a weekly blog post. Poirier wrote the devotionals, and Musselman, a professional graphic designer, created the visual content. The two say their goal was to provide something fresh for busy adults about familiar Bible stories that they “hadn’t heard before.”

Their project exploded in popularity this fall with the launch of a weekly email newsletter, creating the demand for a devotional book. “Renew: Staying with Jesus” was published in early November and covers Bible stories chronologically from Creation to King Saul. The pair plans to develop two more books to cover the entire three-year “My Bible First” curriculum cycle.

Poirier says that even though the project originally aimed to provide devotional content for parents, because the book begins with Creation and goes through the Bible chronologically, it is relevant to anyone and can be used in a variety of ways. 

The two say they have been blessed through the experience of developing the devotionals and are amazed at how God has grown the project to reach people worldwide.