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

[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

[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.