About The Author

A Note from Penni Elaine

I wrote The Keys during the darkest and most painful days of my life. It is a story that sprang from that place where most go at least once during their time here on Earth—that place where there are no easy answers, where the pain is inexplicable and where many people lose their faith completely, having come to believe that God is not good after all.
I love God. I have loved him since I was seventeen years old and he grabbed me off the trail I had forged for myself and placed me on the path of his love. Over my adult life I have sought to serve God with all my heart and I have done so—in a multitude of ways, including foster care, youth work, teaching in a multitude of venues and in every day friendship. I believed I knew him and understood what he expected of me.
However, my love for God and my desire to serve him did not prepare me for a horrible twist in my God given path. In a single day, my life as I knew it was ripped from me. I was unprepared for such a happening, and the ensuing months did not increase my coping skills. However, my loving God was at work in my soul and over that time began revealing himself to me in ways I had never seen. Truth came to me time and time again, and I found it to be a watershed that cleansed me of many lies I believed about God, myself and humanity.
In those dark days I often could do no more than drop to my knees, grab on to the hem of God’s sovereignty and cling to him for dear life. While I was there I found that I was not alone. I looked around and saw countless people, all seeking to survive their own hurts and to gain some spiritual understanding in the midst of their struggle. In discovering them, I found a group of people I could support and who would support me. One of the great truths I learned during that time is that mutual pain brings mutual acceptance. We loved each other. We cried together. We each prayed, sought and listened to God and we taught each other.
I still serve my God. Only now I call him my Lover. I know him in the most intimate places of my soul and I sense him and his overwhelming love each day, wooing me, tenderly touching me and walking by my side. He is my partner. He is my friend. He is my life. Now, I serve him because he loves me unconditionally, fervently, unreservedly and with the great fire of his heart. I cannot but respond to such a love.
In order to help people understand those things of God written in The Keys, as well as those principles yet to be written in novel form, several of us have begun to shape a fledgling ministry. We call it Fully Alive for it is our goal to help every person our Lover sends our way to understand that he is the source of understanding, of healing, of hope, of goodness and of life itself. God is there to give retreat and renewal to us. We do this by teaching. Truth comes first in words then in deeds. We seek to share words of truth and help with the deeds. You can take a look at the classes I personally teach by clicking on the ministry page.
As you read The Keys, know I have prayed for you. May God touch you as you read of his love, grace and immeasurable commitment to you. He is your Lover. He is your friend. He stands outside your cell, waiting for you. Use the keys and open the door –for on the other side is a love you never dreamed possible.