Jaime L. Hathaway, a U.S. missionary currently stationed in Japan, who hails from Hilton Head Island, South Carolina and Kathleen L. Macias, a California author and speaker from Homeland, California, were named the grand prize winners of the 2003 Obadiah Press Writers' Contest in late January.

On January 29, 2004, the two winners were notified that they were selected from among nearly 150 entries received from all over the U.S. and even abroad to take the two top honors in the contest for their individual essays. The contest, which is sponsored by Obadiah Press (www.obadiahpress.com), a Christian publishing house located in Merrill, Wisconsin, will award both Hathaway and Macias a cash prize and the honor of having their winning stories published in a new book entitled Hope Lives On to be published by the press in 2005.

"We received a lot of wonderful entries into this year's contest, and it was quite a challenge to read them all in the 30-day timeframe we promised the entrants, but I had a great opportunity to read some wonderfully uplifting and inspirational stories of hope," says Tina L. Miller, Editor in Chief at Obadiah Press. "All of the top 50 winning entries will be featured in a new book called Hope Lives On which will be released in 2005, and the winners are already getting very excited about being published!"

Miller says Macias' essay, "Unless You Come as a Child," was a poignant story of the author's father and the struggles through a difficult life that left him with a hardened heart. But hope didn't leave him that way. In the end, hope prevailed. "And that is just the kind of story we were looking for," Miller says.

"Hathaway's story is an intimate letter to God exploring His promises of hope and her challenge in accepting and believing them as she struggles in her humanity," she says. "This was another incredibly human and very touching story."

In addition to Hathaway and Macias, nearly 50 other writers received Honorable Mention for their essays and stories of hope, and all 50 top stories will be published in the anthology volume. The book is tentatively scheduled for release in early 2005.

For more information on how you can enter this year’s writing contest, go to www.obadiahpress.com/contest_writers.htm or send a SASE to Obadiah Press Christian Writers' Contest, 607 N. Cleveland Street, Merrill, WI 54452.