Finding Home: A Memoir

by Jewel Showalter

This book takes you almost everywhere. To Hippo Hole where large beasts snort and babies dive off their mothers' backs and to the floor of a hostel during a military coup while bombs fall from the sky and machine guns rattle outside. You'll eat injera in Ethiopia, ugali in Kenya, lahmacun in Turkey, peaches in Virginia, and Lebanon baloney in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. You'll beat trees with broom sticks until green and black olives rain down on you. And you'll be evicted from a country. As you read, you'll feel strangeness wash over you, again and again. And with Jewel, you'll share the aching for home that lives in all of us. Finding Home will help you understand not only its author, but also yourself and your longing for a place to belong.

316 pages, Paperback

Published November 19, 2025

Reviews

[Melody Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

“It is my prayer that you too will see the light of God in every bush, every face, every experience-that you will pause, take off your shoes, and be changed.”

I feel changed after reading this book. Richard and Jewel’s commitment to building the body of Christ worldwide is beautiful and convicting. Jewel shared vulnerably and I found myself relating in so many, many ways and encouraged by seeing her intimate relationship with God carry her.

[Hannah Voth · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful and interesting telling of a life well lived for Christ! I tend to believe that good books make you think. Simply by sharing her own life’s story, with all its challenges and miracles, this book inspires you to reflect on your own life without having an air of condemnation. I think I cried 3 different times. I also admire Jewel’s willingness to honestly include what she viewed as some of her own shortcomings throughout her life. She doesn’t dwell there though and so clearly relates how Christ pulled her through any despair.

A real life example of The Gospel Comes With a House Key

[Charles Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finding Home is like fine wine, even though my faith tradition (Southern Baptist) wouldn’t and Jewel’s (Mennonite) probably wouldn’t approve of using this expression to explain the book. However, I find it an excellent segue to the book; like fine wine, it gets better and better, the longer it goes. So, it is with Jewel Showalter’s book. I struggled with the first section, as it seemed like I was reading my own grandmother’s memoir, not that she was a missionary. But keep on reading. In part two, where she meets the love of her life, Richard, I could see myself in “I said yes and knew immediately that this time I was all in. We never ran out of things to talk about.” Our lives are dissimilar in many ways, but alike in many others. Then towards the end of the book, she mentions Mobile, Alabama, my hometown because within walking distance of my Baptist Church was one of their churches. Our paths had crossed in ways I didn’t expect. Our struggles often came from trying to find a place to fit in, a home. I’ve lived many places (10 locations), she has lived many more. In the end she concludes: Home is the people we touch and who touch us. I found Jewel's and her husband’s story to be a living testament of loving God through loving your neighbor.

[Ted Huffman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jewel Showalter’s wonderfully honest memoir tells the story of a multi-generational commitment to faith and mission. The maturity that emerges throughout her life is a product not only of her faith and experience, but also of her parents and their forebears. The result is a story that appeals not only to her close family and friends, but to a much wider community of people who care deeply about sharing the good news of Jesus. This book will be a joy for church book clubs and mission groups.

[Roger Voth · Rating 5 out of 5]

The weaving together of the thoughts and feelings from throughout her life give such a feeling of wholeness. The repeated theme of allowing God to expand her borders challenges me to be open and available for God’s working in and around me.