cover image Imperfect Courage

Imperfect Courage

Jessica Honegger. WaterBrook, $26 (240p) ISBN 978-0-7352-9129-4

In Honegger’s welcoming debut, she details her meeting with Jalia Matovu, a Ugandan jewelry maker, and her circuitous path to becoming the founder of Noonday Collection, a company partners with artisans in 14 countries to produce handmade, fair-trade jewelry. While making plans to adopt a son from Rwanda, Honegger began selling artisan jewelry, and, through a friend who was working as a missionary in Uganda, met Jalia, who became Honegger’s first artisan partner. Honegger uses her journey to encourage others to step out of their comfort zones and work to help a world in need. In addition to recounting the story of beginning Noonday, she shares her battles with insecurity, self-criticism, and shame, and writes about how she had to learn to embrace vulnerability and replace her negative inner voice with compassion. Honegger discusses how her relationship with Jalia led her to more than 4,000 other artisans—an experience that proved to her how an entrepreneurial spirit can foster a “culture of collaboration” that will improve many lives. Honegger’s motivational book invites readers to find their “authentic selves as image bearers of God” by doing work to help others. (Aug.)