The book I picked up for my weekend was 'Give Me This Mountain' by Helen Roseveare. It turned out to be one of those books which keeps you reading into the small hours. It is the story of Dr Roseveare's mssionary years in the Belgian Congo. Actually much of the book is about her conversion and spiritual journey leading up to her going to the Congo. I appreciated her honesty of her own personality failings and the spiritual difficulties these led her into. She has much to teach about walking out a Christian life, particularly in the midst of the suffering and terror which she describes so matter-of-factly during the Simba rebellion of the 1960's. Her epilogue gives these three points as the main lessons she learnt through her trials: 1. Participation in His suffering is necessary to each one if we are to fulfil His will in this world.
2. The pre-eminence of His Son is essential that we may know in very truth His all-sufficiency at all times.
3. Praise through His sacrifice is possible even in the midst of danger and horror, as we rejoice in His working out His purposes.
I have just started reading her next book 'He gave us a Valley' -it could be another late night...!
Lorna
By the way, another fascinating missionary story also about the Belgian Congo is 'Missing, Believed Killed' by Margaret Hayes. She was a nurse who was captured during the Simba rebellion and miraculously escaped death during the massacre of her colleagues. I wonder if she knew Dr Roseveare?...yes, you can buy all these books from us!
6 comments:
Have you ever looked at 'Mission to the Headhunters' It is such a great missionary biography of the couple who prepared the way for Jim Eliott and his colleagues - and went out and found the bodies afterwards (Oh! and it has a really cool cover, too)
Yes we had that book in, but it didn't seem to sell well for some reason. It did indeed have a very stylish cover, which is a bit of a worry for those who try to sell books on the strength of them!
Jeremy
That's strange - it one of our best-selling titles!!! (yes, you guessed it's Ian Thompson) We sold 200 copies in the UK last year - which is not bad for a 20 year old title
Umm - I meant 2000 copies
Are you sure you are Ian, the General Manager of one of the UK's leading publishers of Christian Books?!
Jeremy ;-)
I loved "Mission to the Head Hunters". It was both gripping and moving, perhaps a little gory in one place. But over all the account of how the Lord used Frank and Marie Drown to reach warring jungle savages with the gospel was challenging and thrilling. Frank Drown very humbly gives his account of his family's many years out on the mission field and of lessons learnt. He and his family were very ordinary folks and yet God used them greatly. I thoroughly reccommend this book.
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