Heavens Shine Above New Beginnings 1839. The North Carolina Cherokees are settling into their new home in Indian Territory and Britt Claiborne and Cherokee Rose are settling into married life. Britt, a quarter Cherokee Indian, is released from the United States army and joins the Cherokee Police Force where his position takes him into fearsome and heart-gripping dangers. They raise two children with much love and delight. They also lean on God through the trials of their day--including the death of the popular Cherokee Chief Sequoyah, who had translated the Bible into their language. Follow the historical events that punctuate their lives until 1889, when President Harrison announces that whites are free to enter Indian Territory, now known by the Indians as "home." "Together, they overcame tragedy. " "At long last they've made a home filled with love. " "But all that may be about to change... " Cherokee Rose and Britt Claiborne know the meaning of survival. They endured the Trail of Tears, watching as friends and family fell along the way, facing down brutal opposition to their growing love. But that's all in the past. Now married, content in a home they've built themselves, Britt and Cherokee Rose plan a future of home and family. And though Britt's work as a law officer in Indian Territory takes him away from home for days at a time, Cherokee Rose tries not to worry. She knows he will always come back to her and their children. Then, the unthinkable. A group of Indians break out of jail, bent on revenge against the one who imprisoned them: Britt. Cherokee Rose prays day and night for her husband's safety as he goes after the renegades...prayers that seem to go unanswered. For word comes back that there's been an ambush--and Britt is missing. Presumed dead. Can Cherokee Rose find the faith to go on, to trust God with her family and future...even in the face of her worst nightmare? Set against the backdrop of the Oklahoma Land Rush, follow this wilderness family as they face the trials and hardships, joys and triumphs of faith in the face of danger and adversity. {INSERT ENDORSEMENTS TO COME} Story Behind the Book Long captivated with the study of American history, Al and JoAnna Lacy eagerly researched the time in the 1800s when five American Indian tribes were forced by the U.S. government to make a one-thousand-mile journey to Indian Territory (now the state of Oklahoma). The tribes were the Cherokee, the Chickasaw, the Choctaw, the Creek, and the Seminole. Repeatedly forced to surrender their lands, the people of the Cherokee Nation, as well as those of the other four tribes, were hoping to find in Indian Territory "a place to call home."