Finding a Hiding Place

In this brutally honest and unvarnished memoir, Silvernail speaks openly about her traumatic childhood as she seeks places to hide from a father struggling with alcohol use. The reader will be caught up in a young girl's feelings of disappointment as she shares about a distinctive culture of male hierarchy in society and in the church that made the behavior of alcohol use disorder acceptable. Silvernail tells about the effects of abuse, reaching into her adulthood in the form of poor self-esteem, nightmares, claustrophobia, and depression. However, the highs are there, too, as Silvernail weaves in memories of a courageous mother who creatively finds fun places to hide. She shares stories of a tablecloth tent under the cleft of a rock and a picnic in the cemetery. Silvernail writes to herself, "Stand strong against verbal abuse given by weak people. You are not who they say you are. Your real Father loves you." "Why would I want to go around the world and tell the world how much my Father loves them?" the six-year-old asked. "I'm not even sure my father loves me." After a mission teacher responded that she had a Heavenly Father who loved her, Silvernail answered a call to be a missionary. She spent thirty-one years in global missions in Guam, Dominican Republic, St. Croix, Eswatini, Trinidad and Tobago, the Philippines, and Papua New Guinea. She overcame verbal and emotional abuses to hold offices of academic dean, president of a Bible college, and vice president of a seminary. Silvernail has a passion for world travel. She enjoys writing and telling stories of her missionary and life experiences. She is devoted to letting others witness the changes in her life because of Christ. Silvernail is the mother of three, grandmother of six, and great-grandmother of two.