Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Reading Material

Sorry if that last post was a trifle petulant. I was feeling lonely after seeing everyone on Saturday.

I'm currently reading In the Presence of My Enemies by Gracia Burnham. You may remember her as the New Tribes Missions worker who, along with her husband Martin, was abducted by the Abu Sayyaf (Muslim paramilitary group) in the Philippines in 2001.

This is a powerful book, and a should-read if not a must-read for Christians. It is increasing my faith and my confidence in a powerful God. To read of the trials they endured, the provision of God during their year of captivity, and their unwavering (except for one dark moment) faith, is encouraging and uplifting. It also confirms my belief that God is sovereign and purposes to do things in our lives that we may not appreciate at the time in order to stretch and grow us, and to reach others with the gospel. In their case, that even involved Martin losing his physical earthly life (but oh, what he gained!)

I haven't quite finished the book; I'll post a final review when I'm done.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

What's up?

I'm glad to hear your initial review of it. A friend of mine had seen the footage of that "one dark moment" most likely.

Hence said...

Sounds like something I want to read. Have you read Bruchko (sp?)?

Alice C. said...

I have not read Bruchko--what is that about? I am ignorant of it.
Another good one, of course, is "The Cost of Discipleship" by Dietrich Bonhoeffer (sp?) It's amazing stuff. "The Costly Call" by Emir Caner and Ed Pruitt is also a tremendous read.

Hence said...

It's a missionary story...Bruce Olsen (again, unsure of spelling) goes to...sheesh, I can't even remember what country....and his struggles there. I read it years and years ago so the only thing that I still remember is, he knew he was called, no one wanted to send him, so he set out alone, no support, backing, just went.