Walking the Nile by Levison Wood

Walking the Nile by Levison Wood ISBN-13: 9780802124494 Hardcover: 352 pages Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press Released: Jan. 5, 2016

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from NetGalley:
The Nile, one of the world’s great rivers, has long been an object of fascination and obsession. From Alexander the Great and Nero, to Victorian adventurers David Livingstone, John Hanning Speke, and Henry Morton Stanley, the river has seduced men and led them into wild adventures. English writer, photographer, and explorer Levison Wood is just the latest. His Walking the Nile is a captivating account of a remarkable and unparalleled Nile journey.

Starting in November 2013 in a forest in Rwanda, where a modest spring spouts a trickle of clear, cold water, Wood set forth on foot, aiming to become the first person to walk the entire length of the fabled river. He followed the Nile for nine months, over 4,000 miles, through six nations—Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, South Sudan, the Republic of Sudan, and Egypt—to the Mediterranean coast.

Like his predecessors, Wood camped in the wild, foraged for food, and trudged through rainforest, swamp, savannah, and desert, enduring life-threatening conditions at every turn. He traversed sandstorms, flash floods, minefields, and more, becoming a local celebrity in Uganda, where a popular rap song was written about him, and a potential enemy of the state in South Sudan, where he found himself caught in a civil war and detained by the secret police. As Wood walks on, often joined by local guides who help him to navigate foreign languages and customs, Walking the Nile maps out African history and contemporary life.


My Review:
Walking the Nile describes Levison Wood's journey of walking the length of the Nile from December 2013 to August 2014. We learn about the author's walk, past explorers who walked the Nile, the history of the countries he walks through (Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, South Sudan, Sudan, Egypt), and the people that he encountered along his walk.

In Rwanda, we see how the genocide impacted their society. In South Sudan, Lev brings the war vividly alive with his descriptions. We meet people like a man who runs an orphanage for children whose parents died of AIDs and a Coptic Christian that was severely beaten and left for dead simply for being a Christian. Of course, there were tales about wildlife encounters, a dangerous desert crossing, difficulties in finding porters, and other difficulties, sorrows, and joys of his travels.

The story flowed well and engaged my attention from start to finish. It's worth reading simply for the information about the people and cultures Lev encountered, but it's also a tale of adventure. I'd highly recommend this book.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


Excerpt: Read an excerpt using Google Preview.

A Dream So Big by Steve Peifer

A Dream So Big by Steve Peifer with Gregg Lewis ISBN-13: 9780310326090 Hardcover: 326 pages Publisher: Zondervan Released: March 19, 2013

Source: Review copy from the publisher through Booksneeze.com.

Book Description, Modified from Booksneeze:
Steve Peifer was a corporate manager who oversaw 9,000 computer software consultants in America. When Steve and his wife, Nancy, discovered they were pregnant with their third child, doctors told them that a chromosomal condition left their baby “incompatible with life.” The Peifers only spent 8 days with baby Stephen before he died.

Seeking to flee the pain, Steve and Nancy accepted a 12-month position as dorm parents for missionary kids at a Kenyan boarding school. This thrust them into a third-world setting where daily life was often defined by tragedy---drought, disease, poverty, hunger, and death. Their surroundings spoke to their hearts.

Steve wanted to end tears of hunger. Today, Steve helps provide daily lunches for over 20,000 Kenyan school children in thirty-five national public schools and maintains solar-powered computer labs at twenty rural African schools.


My Review:
A Dream So Big is a memoir by a missionary in Kenya. This is the story of why this family went to Africa on a short-term mission trip (which turned into a long-term one), about his work at the missionary school as a dorm parent, teacher, etc., about the differences between American and Kenyan cultures, and about their travels to various parts of Kenya. It describes how Steve's heart was touched by the sight of children faint and crying from hunger and how he started a program to provide free lunches (and, later, computer training centers) at nearby schools.

Kenya and its people are vividly described. Steve made me really care about the Kenya kids and missionary kids. The situation of the poor in Kenya really touched my heart. I wasn't aware things were so bad there or that that it costs so little to feed one child for a month. I'm glad Steve is providing a way for people to help the Kenya kids. I'd highly recommend this book to those who like stories about other cultures and/or missionary stories.

These quotes are a good summary of the heart of the book. From page 170: "I knew I couldn't do anything about world hunger. But surely, I thought, I can provide lunch for the kids in that one school. Not doing something would be making peace with the idea of hungry children--not starving, faceless children on the far side of the world but African neighbors who now looked so much like my own Katie and Ben."

And from page 322: "If [God] can use me, he can use anyone for his purposes. He can use even you. Wherever you are. Wherever you go. You don't need special talents, special training, or even a special calling to get your own story started. It's not that hard if you have eyes and ears. See the needs all around you. Hear the cries. Accept the gift of tears. And do whatever little thing he asks you to do, if only to feed a child lunch or to teach kids basic computer skills. I promise. Once you find his purpose for you, you too will discover a dream so big."


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


Excerpt: Read an excerpt using Google Preview.

A People Tall and Smooth by Judith Galblum Pex

A People Tall and Smooth: Stories of Escape from Sudan to Israel by Judith Galblum Pex ISBN-13: 978-0-98-189293-1 Trade Paperback: 220 pages Publisher: Cladach Publishing Released: April 15, 2011

Source: Review copy from the publisher.

Book Description from Back Cover:
"At that time gifts will be brought to the Lord Almighty [to Mount Zion] from a people tall and smooth-skinned." -Isaiah 18:7

The popular beach town of Eilat, at the southernmost tip of Israel, is visited daily by international tourists who want to visit the warm waters of the Red Sea. But when hundreds of tall, dark Africans show up to stay, curiosities are piqued. Where did they come from? Why are they in Eilat of all places? When a group of them enter The Shelter hostel run by John & Judy Pex, answers to these questions unfold.

These are the very real stories of how and why five refugees escaped the genocide in South Sudan and Darfur, made their way through Egypt and smuggled into Israel, the only country their Islamic government prohibits them to go. They fled across the border with nothing but the clothes on their backs. No food. No money. No papers. No possessions. Just thankful to be alive.


All of the author's proceeds from the sales of A People Tall and Smooth will go to projects for the Sudanese refugees.


Advance Praise for A People Tall and Smooth:

"Although much has been written about the Lost Boys of Sudan who resettled in large groups in the United States beginning in 2000, very little, if anything, has been written about the countless Sudanese who fled alone to neighboring countries. Judy Pex breaks the silence, unfolding the perilous journeys of Sudanese refugees. For many it was a choice that came at tremendous cost: imprisonment, separation from their children and spouses, hunger, brutal beatings and death. It's a story of resilience, determination and the choice for freedom--at all cost."
--Joan Hecht, award-winning author of The Journey of the Lost Boys


My Review:
A People Tall and Smooth "A People Tall and Smooth" is the combined autobiographies of 4 Christian Sudanese refugees from South Sudan, 1 Muslim Sudanese refugee from Darfur, and the Israeli author (who happens to be a Messianic Jew). The author explained how she ended up in Israel running The Shelter Hostel and how she and her husband first meet the Sudanese refugees.

After helping these refugees for a while, she asked several of the refugees to tell her their story for this book. (They spoke the story into a tape recorder, the author transcribed the material and edited the sometimes disjointed stories so that they were in chronological order, then she confirmed with the person that she'd written up their story correctly.) As the person tells his or her story, the author inserted some comments into the text (using another font so you could tell that the "speaker" had changed). These included her thoughts about how different their lives were from hers or brief stories about the other refugees that the main story reminded her about.

The stories were well-written and easily kept my attention. While the stories were vivid, they weren't graphic. I keep feeling that all Americans (and people from other 1st world countries) need to read stories like these so we can get a realistic perspective on our own lives. While the author did give an overview of the conflicts in Sudan, we mainly get an individual's personal view of the conflict and how it affected them. We also see the problems that refugees face after they survive the conflict and survive fleeing from it.

A black and white map showing the areas under discussion was included as well as some color photographs of the Sudanese refugees. Overall, I'd highly recommend this book.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


Excerpt from Chapter One
People from over one hundred nations intermingle in Israel. Besides Jews from Kazakhstan and Kansas, Burma and Belgrade, Calcutta, Congo and places in between, over a million tourists every year add to the mosaic. Include in the mixture two hundred thousand legal and illegal workers from countries such as China, Thailand, Philippines, Nepal and Ghana, and it’s clear that the average Israeli is used to seeing faces of all colors and shapes.

In 2007, however, a new group appeared on the scene whose appearance and status was unlike any other till this time. We began to notice men, women, children and babies on the streets in our town of Eilat who were exceptionally black and strikingly tall.

“Where do they come from and who are they?” My husband John and I asked ourselves. “What language do they speak?” Having managed The Shelter Hostel in Eilat on the Red Sea since 1984, we are used to interacting with diverse people groups and were eager to meet these new arrivals.

Our questions were answered when a tall, dark man walked through our front gate one morning. “I’m Gabriel, a refugee from Sudan,” he introduced himself in perfect English.

Read more from chapter one.

A Passion for the Impossible by Miriam Huffman Rockness

A Passion for the Impossible by Miriam Huffman Rockness Trade Paperback: 368 pages Publisher: Discovery House Publishers First Released: 1999

Source: Review copy from the publisher

Back Cover Description:
This is the story of the woman whose life of faith and devotion inspired the hymn "Turn Your Eyes upon Jesus." Although art critic John Ruskin enthusiastically proclaimed Lilias Trotter's potential as one of the best artists of the nineteenth century, her devotion to Christ compelled her to abandon the life of art, privilege, and leisure she could have enjoyed.

Without knowing the language and without sponsorship of any organization, Lilias left her London home of comfort for a modest dwelling in Algeria, where her love of literature and art became dynamic tools for evangelism, and where her compassionate heart captured the hearts of the people. For forty years, despite frail health and many obstacles, Lilias devoted herself to missionary service among the people of Algeria through her lifestyle of love and encouragement.


Review:
A Passion for the Impossible is a biography of Lilias Trotter (1853-1928) who did outreach work to women in England and then went to Algeria as a missionary. The book used primary sources as much as possible and often quoted diaries, journals, and letters written by Lilias and those who knew her.

I liked that the author showed how Lilias Trotter was influenced by the events and society of her day and how she influenced them. Thus, the reader also learns about D.L. Moody, the YWCA, John Ruskin, and others who touched her life.

The writing style was easy to understand and read, though a bit formal in tone (which matched the material). The book described the barriers Lilias Trotter faced and the methods she used to reach Muslims with the gospel. I especially liked Lilias' descriptions of Algeria (of both the setting and the culture).

There were several pages of black and white photos of Lilias Trotter with a few also showing her colleagues or the places she worked. There were charming sketches by Lilias at the bottom of many pages or at the ends of chapters. The black and white map of missionary stations in Algeria in 1924 wasn't easy to read or use. I would have enjoyed another map that clearly showed the places she visited on various trips.

I'd highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading about history or anyone who enjoys reading missionary biographies. In fact, if a person was only going to read one missionary biography, I think I'd recommend this one since it gives a broader view than just Lilias' work.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


Excerpt from Chapter Five
[From pages 67-68, which is the middle of the chapter:]

Lilias, revitalized by a deepened understanding of the Christian life and newly immersed into a life of service, soaked in this new experience. The confidence and boldness with which Moody preached, on this occasion as well as others, and the receptiveness of the people to his message, reinforced all the lessons she had learned in the past two years and demonstrated what God could do with one willing life. Where she was not specifically instructed by Moody, she was inspired by him. Four decades later, Lilias would challenge her coworkers in North Africa with a detailed account of Moody's compassionate address to five thousand men at a meeting expressly for "atheists, skeptics, and free thinkers of all shade." Moody himself maintained, "I know perfectly well that wherever I go and preach, there are many better preachers known and heard than I am; all that I can say about it is that the Lord uses me."

Moody's innovative methods alone would have provided Lilias with a study in strategy. He intuitively recognized the shift from the rural to an industrial-urban age, and he effectively adapted the tools of evangelism to reach a more sophisticated audience. Many of his techniques newly implemented in the United Kingdom--advanced organizational preparation, house-to-house visitation, avoidance of direct appeals for money, joint ministry with a song leader, and arrangement of a separate inquiry room--changed the very character of evangelism and introduced methods practiced to this day.

Moody, by example and by teaching, provided training for Lilas and many others in relating the life of faith to the unbeliever. He personally presided over the volunteers whom he trained to counsel the hundreds of people who flocked to the inquiry room at the conclusion of each service. "You must ply them with the Word of God," he insisted. "Work patiently until you see that they have grasped the truth and are resting on Christ alone for salvation. Don't be in a hurry; think, oh think what it means to win a soul for Christ and do not grudge time spent on one person."

While it is, of course, impossible to determine fully the direct influence of Dwight L. Moody on Lilias Trotter, it can be stated with certainty that many of the approaches and attitudes that marked Moody's work would be evident later in Lilias's ministry--first with women in London, and later with Arabs in the slums of Algiers, in nearby mountain villages, and in the desert oases of the Sahara. Innovative, thoughtful, and practical, she, like Moody, would pioneer new methods and materials while never compromising the essential message.


Read the first 36 pages.

Miracle at TenWek by Gregg Lewis

Miracle at TenWek: The Life of Dr. Ernie Steury by Gregg Lewis Trade Paperback: 312 pages Publisher: Discovery House Publishers First Released: 2007 Buy from Amazon

Source: review copy from publisher

Back Cover Description:
"Lord, I don't know what you want me to do. But whatever you can do with my life, here it is!" When Indiana farm boy Ernie Steury uttered this prayer at the close of a church service in 1948, he could never have imagined how God would use him to build one of the most successful medical mission facilities in the world. This compelling biography recounts Ernie's remarkable life and ministry as a medical missionary in Tenwek, Kenya.

Raised in America's heartland, Ernie studied to be a medical missionary at Asbury College and Indiana University School of Medicine and then answered the call to Tenwek in 1959, where he founded Tenwek Hospital and built it into what is widely recognized as one of the premier mission hospitals in the world.

Ernie's adventures in Kenya include pincher ants, an angry baboon, and witch doctors. Cultural superstitions about surgery and other common medical treatments such as blood transfusions; limited human and medical resources; and facilities that, for many years, were inadequate to meet the needs of the thousands who came for help--all were obstacles Ernie overcame as he healed bodies and sought to change lives through the ministry of the gospel.


Review:
This book is an interesting, engaging biography of Ernie Steury. The author is an excellent storyteller, vividly portraying Ernie Steury's life and personality through dramatic, amazing, and funny stories. The book does cover some of his childhood and early adulthood, but mainly focuses on how God used him in Kenya.

Much information is included about the local culture and the problems local customs created during medical treatment, like the superstitions about death, blood, and spirits and the practices of female circumcision and infanticide. However, the living conditions at the hospital weren't as primitive as in some missionary books.

Most of the surgery scenes are not highly graphic, but the few that are might make people queasy if they get queasy watching TV surgery scenes.

The book quotes letters and articles written by Dr. Steury to show the emotional stresses and ups and downs of missionary work. It also includes quotes from family, friends, and staff. I'd highly recommend this book to anyone interested in medical missions or in rural Kenya.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


Excerpt: Chapter One
Daktari! Daktari!

Dr. Ernie Steury smiled as he handed the day-old infant back to her mother before he looked up to see the messenger rushing across the maternity ward. The young Kenyan woman, one of the hospital's nursing assistants, kept calling as she came: "Daktari! Daktari!"

"What is it?" Ernie wanted to know.

"Come quickly!" She was breathing hard. "They need you...in out-patient...A boy...with an arrow wound...He is hurt....very bad, Mosonik (MOH'-SOH-NIK)."

"Then let's go!" Ernine responded, hurrying out of the maternity ward and across the Tenwek Hospital compound. Rushing into the outpatient clinic thirty seconds later, he found a missionary nurse checking the vital signs on a fifteen-year-old Kipsigis (KIP-SUH-GEEZ) boy. The patient was obviously in pain and going into shock. In the Kipsigis language, Ernie asked the boy's name.

"Kiprotich."

Then Ernie asked what had happened.

The young man's father, who had hitched a ride to the hospital for his son on the back of an old pickup truck, told a familiar story. Early that morning, his boy and some others in their village were taking the family cows out to graze for the day when they'd been ambushed by a band of Maasai warriors intent on stealing the cattle. The herders resisted, but futilely. The Maasai, who were better armed, also had the advantage of surprise and greater numbers. During the fight, Kiprotich was wounded.

Ernie had heard similar stories many times before. There were frequent raids and skirmishes over livestock all along the border of the Kipsigis and Maasai territories. The Maasai believed that the creator gave their tribe dominion over all cattle; thus, they considered every cow on earth to be rightfully Maasai property--a worldview neither accepted nor appreciated by neighboring tribes.

Even as he listened to the account of the early morning attack, Ernie began examining a deceptively small abdominal wound. He'd seen enough of those to know it was far worse than it looked on the outside.

When God Says Go by Lorry Lutz

When God Says Go by Lorry Lutz Trade Paperback: 236 pages Publisher: Discovery House Publishers First Released: 2002 Buy from Amazon

Source: review copy from publisher

Back Cover Description:
Eliza Davis-George, the daughter of slaves, grew up in racially segregated Texas, where she took to heart the stories she'd heard as a child in Sunday school. Empowered by her faith, this remarkable woman broke through barriers of sex, color, and status as she set out to bring the truth and hope of the Gospel to the people of western Africa.

In the jungles of Liberia, "Mother Eliza," as they called her, rescued little girls from marriages to old men and provided education for tribal people. She raised funds in the tottering economy of the Great Depression, and she single-handedly persuaded government leaders to donate land for her mission work. When her American supporters failed to send promised funds, she dug her own food out of the jungle soil. Nothing was too difficult, no obstacle too great, to keep her from telling the story of Jesus' love. In fact, she made her last journey into the jungles of Liberia when she was 95 years of age.

You will be moved and inspired by the fascinating story of this brave and tireless hero of the faith, who, during her 100 years on this earth, left her indelible, enduring mark on a people and a land.

On her 100th birthday, hundreds of Liberians paraded through the streets carrying banners that read: Mother Eliza George, Great Daughter of America, Great Descendant of Africa, Great Saint and Missionary Mother--Her Life was the Best Commentary of the Bible We Have Ever Read.


Review:
This book is a biography of an amazing black American woman who worked as a missionary in the jungles of Liberia from 1913 to 1972. The story briefly covers her parent's lives as slaves, her childhood, and her education. It also briefly describes the founding of Liberia and the history of Christianity there.

Most of the story details the many challenges Eliza Davis-George faced, the work she did in Liberia, and how her efforts helped the people of Liberia.

The biography initially jumps back and forth in time, which sometimes got me a little confused about where everyone (like her husband) was. It was a little slow in spots, but most of the story was vividly written, bringing life in the bush alive in my imagination.

The book doesn't hide her faults, yet it's still quite clear that Eliza George was truly an amazing woman. I'd recommend this book to anyone who likes amazing missionary stories and who is interested in Liberia (i.e. if this story sounds interesting to you, I think you'll enjoy it).


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


Excerpt: Chapter One
The surging surf pounded the Liberian coastline, tossing the rowboat like a piece of cork. The sea was often treacherous here. For centuries Kru tribesmen had bravely faced the ocean's fury in these time-proven vessels.

Hauling out the day's catch in their hand-sewn nets, two Kru fishermen prepared to beach the craft for the night. Here the jungle hugged the shore as closely as the ocean would permit, their village concealed where the surging tide and the steamy rain forest met. Darkness fell suddenly near the equator, and the tribesmen were eager to get home before night engulfed the trail.

The Kru chatted amicably over their catch when they spotted three figures moving along the shore--a rare sight along this desolate coast. As the strangers drew closer the men were startled to see a "civilized" woman accompanied by two boys. A safari helmet readily distinguished the woman from her tribal counterparts. Heavy boots protected her feet from the sun-baked sand, and she wore a dark print Western dress. In her right hand a long stick helped propel her forward.

Behind her trudged the barefoot teenagers, dressed only in tattered shorts, a canvas bag dangling from the shoulder of one of the boys. The receding tide washed over their scorched feet.

The men stopped to watch in amazement as the unlikely trio approached. Why were they so many miles from the nearest settlement? Such civilized people should be living with the Americo-Liberians--the freed American slaves who had colonized this land more than a hundred years earlier.

Another Man's War by Sam Childers

Another Man's War: The True Story of One Man's Battle to Save Children in the Sudan by Sam Childers Hardback: 223 pages Publisher: Thomas Nelson First Released: 2009 Author Website Orphanage Website Buy from Amazon

Source: review copy from publisher

Back Cover Description:
The rise of Sam Childers from violent, drug-addicted biker to a man willing to risk everything to rescue the orphans and child soldiers of Sudan

"All my life, from birth, it's been a fight. And it always seemed to be another man's war. I always seemed to be fighting for someone else. But it always came back to me. The Word says we're born into sin, and sin always comes back to war." -Sam Childers

Sam Childers has always been a fighter. Born to a violent father and a mother of great faith, his life was a contradiction. With an affinity for drugs and women, the angry young man grew into a drug-dealing biker. But that was then. Nowadays Sam--along with the cadre of Sudanese soldiers he employs--spends his time in the most dangerous parts of Sudan and Uganda rescuing the youngest victims of war, orphans and child-soldiers. His mission is simple: save the children, no matter the cost.


Review:
This memoir tells the story of Sam Childers and of the children of southern Sudan and northern Uganda. About half of the book describes Sam Childers' youth, including his years as a drug-using and -selling biker and how he left that life to become a Christian preacher called by God to minister in Africa.

The rest of the book describes his ministry in Sudan and Uganda: first driving a mobile medical clinic to areas without access to medical services and now building and protecting a compound where children left orphans by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) can grow up in safty. He describes what life is like in the areas the LRA (a rebel group led by Joseph Kony) terrorizes villagers, why children are kidnapped by the LRA, what happens to them when they are, and how they get free.

He briefly describes the recent history of Sudan and Uganda. He also describes God's protection and provision of his work there. He describes rescues, going into danger areas, and the fighting. He describes in detail the Village/orphanage and what they provide for the children who live there.

The book is interesting, well-written, and fast-paced. I would have liked to know more about how they help the children recover from what they've seen and experienced, though. For those who don't like gore and suffering, this book has few gory details. Personal accounts of what the children and villages suffer at the hands of the LRA are given briefly and with few details.

Sam Childers is outspoken about his Christian faith in the book and gives credit for a number of miracles (mainly of protection and provision) to God, but he says that a lot of non-Christians are interested in and supportive of his work. So this book might be interesting to non-Christians despite the Christian content. If you're someone who believes there's never any justification for using violence, then I doubt you'll like this book.

I'd recommend this book, especially to those who like incredible-but-true missionary stories, to soldiers who are Christians, and to those interested in what's being done to help the children in southern Sudan and northern Uganda.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


Excerpt: Chapter One
Death hides in the tall grass of Southern Sudan. What looks like empty landscape can explode in a heartbeat with rebels from the Lord's Resistance Army shooting, slashing, and burning their way through an unsuspecting village. Government officials and NGOs (nongovernmental organizations, like CARE, the United Nations, and the Red Cross) give these renegade soldiers a wide berth; they usually know where the trouble areas are and steer clear of them. Local residents, left to make it on their own, are constantly on edge, always afraid. There are no peaceful nights in the bush. None, that is, except in one place--a forty-acre island of safety and calm in the middle of a hellish, endless civil war. The Shekinah Fellowship Children's Village.

The struggle to keep it secure never stops.

Gunfire crackles here and there outside the perimeter fence day and night. Whenever I travel in the area, I expect to get ambushed. I've had my windshield and my side window shot out. I've had vehicles, including a food truck loaded with groceries for the orphanage, blown up by RPGs. The LRA will shoot at anything, but they're not used to anybody shooting back. They don't expect to be up against a truckload of soldiers with plenty of guns and ammo, which is what they get when they tangle with us on the road.

When I first started driving around in Southern Sudan, my soldiers and I got ambushed all the time. To any normal person that would be a bad thing, but I thought it was great.

As We Forgive by Catherine Claire Larson

As We Forgive by Catherine Claire Larson Trade Paperback: 284 pages Publisher: Zondervan First Released: 2009 Author Website Buy from Amazon

Source: review copy from publisher

Back Cover Description:
If you were told that a murderer was to be released into your neighborhood, how would you feel? But what if it weren't only one, but thousands?

Could there be a common roadmap to reconciliation? Could there be a shared future after unthinkable evil? If forgiveness is possible after the slaughter of nearly a million in a hundred days in Rwanda, then today, more than ever, we owe it to humanity to explore how one country is addressing perceptual, social-psychological, and spiritual dimensions to achieve a more lasting peace. If forgiveness is possible after genocide, then perhaps there is hope for the comparably smaller rifts that plague our relationships, our communities, and our nation.

Based on personal interviews and thorough research, As We Forgive returns to the boundary lines of genocide's wounds and traces the route of reconciliation in the lives of Rwandans--victims, widows, orphans, and perpetrators--whose past and future intersect. We find in these stories how suffering, memory, and identity set up roadblocks to forgiveness, while mediation, truth-telling, restitution, and interdependence creates bridges to healing.

As We Forgive explores the pain, the mystery, and the hope through seven compelling stories of those who have made this journey toward reconciliation. The result is a narrative that breathes with humanity and is as haunting as it is hopeful.


Review:
This book tells seven personal stories of experiences during the genocide, its aftermath, and how they came to forgiveness. These accounts are intense, vivid, and powerful. The people in these stories came from different areas and had different experiences, giving the reader a good idea of what happened during the genocide and afterward. The book is worth reading for these stories alone.

The narratives effectively show the struggle of how to forgive and gain peace. However, after each story, the author also comments on various methods of forgiveness and reconciliation and on restorative justice. To me, those comments felt distant and clinical in contrast to the intensely intimate view of pain and forgiveness given in the narrative. Except for one chart/argument given by the author in the first section (which I felt tried to make a complex subject too simplistic and neat), the information she gives is useful and relevant. This information is geared toward anyone, no matter their religion (or lack of one).

Though the author doesn't focus on Christian principles of forgiveness, the Rwandans described in these accounts are Christians or become Christians and this is what allows them to forgive.

The violence described during the genocide is not explicit or gory in detail, though it is still heart-rending at times. I'd recommend this powerful book to anyone struggling with forgiveness or who wants to know more about the Rwandan genocide and what's happening there now.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


Excerpt: Chapter One
Cadeaux's eyes laughed. A grin flickered across her face and settled into a slight smile as she went to fetch water. Leaning over the bucket, Cadeaux splashed water on her cheeks, not noticing the dark beauty shimmering back at her. With a block of soap, she scrubbed her neck, her arms, her legs, her feet, and finally her sandals while her slender shadow bowed beneath Rwanda's fierce August sun. At the age of twelve, she was on the cusp of womanhood, but still had the frame of a child and a sheen of innocence.

Her sandaled feet skimmed along the path as she returned home. Were it not for the vividness of the yellow jacaranda trees, the seamless blue skies, and Cadeaux's swishing lavender skirt, the road, the homes, and the roofs would have seemed a still life in sepia.

Back home, Cadeaux broke a deep silence with her soft footfalls and the creak of a door latch. Inside, her mother, Rosaria, had been going about her daily chores cloaked with an air of solemn dignity, wearing her sorrow like holy garments. A crushed hand hung like prayer breads loosely at her side.

Rosaria's eyes lit on Cadeaux as she flitted past. Somehow, the saturated air felt less stifling with her there. Rosaria breathed more freely. More than bread or wine or water, Cadeaux seemed to her mother a sacrament--a visible sign of inward grace. The name Rosaria gave her had this ripeness of meaning. Born in December of 1994, nine months and four days after horror's opening night, Cadeaux is her mother's consolation, her laughter, and her hope. Her name means "gift," because, as Rosaria will tell you, "She was the only gift I had left."

The Translator by Daoud Hari

The Translator by Daoud Hari Hardback: 204 pages Publisher: Random House First Released: 2008 Author Website Buy from Amazon

Source: Bought from Half.com

Back Cover Blurb:
I am the translator who has taken journalists into dangerous Darfur. It is my intention now to take you there in this book, if you have the courage to come with me.

The young life of Daoud Hari–his friends call him David–has been one of bravery and mesmerizing adventure. He is a living witness to the brutal genocide under way in Darfur.

The Translator is a suspenseful, harrowing, and deeply moving memoir of how one person has made a difference in the world–an on-the-ground account of one of the biggest stories of our time. Using his high school knowledge of languages as his weapon–while others around him were taking up arms–Daoud Hari has helped inform the world about Darfur.

Hari, a Zaghawa tribesman, grew up in a village in the Darfur region of Sudan. As a child he saw colorful weddings, raced his camels across the desert, and played games in the moonlight after his work was done. In 2003, this traditional life was shattered when helicopter gunships appeared over Darfur’s villages, followed by Sudanese-government-backed militia groups attacking on horseback, raping and murdering citizens and burning villages. Ancient hatreds and greed for natural resources had collided, and the conflagration spread.

Though Hari’s village was attacked and destroyed his family decimated and dispersed, he himself escaped. Roaming the battlefield deserts on camels, he and a group of his friends helped survivors find food, water, and the way to safety. When international aid groups and reporters arrived, Hari offered his services as a translator and guide. In doing so, he risked his life again and again, for the government of Sudan had outlawed journalists in the region, and death was the punishment for those who aided the “foreign spies.” And then, inevitably, his luck ran out and he was captured. . . .

The Translator tells the remarkable story of a man who came face-to-face with genocide– time and again risking his own life to fight injustice and save his people.

Review:
This memoir mainly focuses on the conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan. Daoud Hari not only speaks of his own life, work, and adventures but also tells many stories of those he met during his translation work. This helps put a human face to the news headlines.

Daoud Hari tells his story in a very simple but a profoundly moving way. This is not a "fun" book, but it is an eye-opener to the reasons behind the conflict and is a first-hand look at what is really occurring in this area.

The book is fast-paced and always interesting. I highly recommend this book.

Excerpt: Chapter One
I am sure you know how important it can be to get a good phone signal. We were speeding through the hot African desert in a scratched and muddy Land Cruiser that had been much whiter a week earlier. Our driver, a Darfur tribesman like me, was swerving through thorny acacia bushes, working the gears expertly in the deep sands of another and always another ravine, which we call a wadi, and sailing over the bumps in the land--there are no roads to speak of. In the backseat, a young news filmmaker from Britain, Philip Cox, was holding on as we bounced and as our supplies thumped and clanked and sloshed around. A veteran of these deserts, he was in good humor--even after a long week of dusty travel and so many emotionally difficult interviews. Survivors told us of villages surrounded at night by men with torches and machine guns, the killing of men, women, and children, the burning of people alive in the grass huts of Darfur. They told us of the rape and mutilation of young girls, of execution by machete of young men--sometimes eighty at a time in long lines.

You cannot be a human being and remain unmoved, yet if it is your job to get these stories out to the world, you keep going. So we did that.

I was Philip's translator and guide, and it was my job to keep us alive. Several times each hour I was calling military commanders from rebel groups or from the Chad National Army to ask if we should go this way or that way to avoid battles or other trouble.