Beth Burgess

Hope Bearers

It's hard to miss the gentle grin of Beth Burgess, the encouraging, hopeful expression of this missionary that grew up and currently resides in Mobile, Alabama. You'll often see her walking the street of downtown Mobile just after Mass at the Cathedral. Generally, she's off to save the world again. 

Beth can sing and play the guitar, though it is not her focus. For Beth, it's writing. And it's not necessarily poetry or fiction or even history. No, Beth has been working for 10 years on a book called Hope Bearers. Hope Bearers is outreach for one of the hardest and most heated issues in American Culture: abortion. It's a topic that people have literally died for and spent billions of dollars on. The issue is one that makes many recoil and retreat. Beth does not. Neither does she take a hateful position. 

You will see her gentle eyes open wide when discussing abortion, wide with the importance of one vital factor: mercy. She wants no part of hate-speak, no part of judgmental attitudes toward women. No. Instead she wants to focus on saving souls, and picking those up who feel they have no way out.  And it is so dear to her heart that she has given up much. While her is challenging, she has no choice. It is a calling, a vocation, a requirement that she answer the call to service, answer the call to help those in that so very difficult position called crisis pregnancy. 

And that is where Hope Bearers comes in. It is a new focus, stepping outside of politics, outside of policy debate and theological discussion. It is a work of the heart, and it allows an individual to look into the eyes of the ailing woman. It answers the call of Christ to say to each hurting woman, "My child, you are loved. My child, lay against Me, know My mercy, know My healing." Though Beth has a strong pro-life position, it is not her position that moves her to work. It is the women in front of her, hurting from their past decision, or desperate in the decision they think they have to make. 

And this book, Hope Bearers, is a very important work for expressing what these women need. 

vivace will be the first place that Beth presents her work to a large audience. Her dream is to have it syndicated across the United States. We'd like to help her, and we hope you will too.