7 by Jen Hatmaker-
I put this one first because it was by far my favorite book of the batch! I
wholeheartedly recommend it for all American women. A Texas pastor’s wife and
women’s minister takes a seven month challenge to draw closer to Jesus, focusing
on different parts of her life that our culture tends to become excessive in:
food, spending, clothes, etc. Jen
Hatmaker shares her heart in a convicting yet entertaining recount of these
seven months. This book was part of my inspiration for my forty day Facebook
fast.
Orphanology by Tony
Merida- So, I am pretty sure I will adopt if I ever have kids. This book
approached Adoption and Orphan Care as a biblical mandate, something that every follower of Jesus should be
involved in. This whole issue reminds me a lot of missions, where so many
Christians think that since they can’t go overseas then they can’t be a part of
the missions effort- but there are so many other things that need to be done,
right where you are! Same with adoption and orphan care. I also really
appreciated the point that Christians shouldn’t adopt primarily because they
want to be parents, but the primary base of the action is because God tells us
to- again there are many similarities to missions. Christians shouldn’t become
missionaries because they want to change the world (this obviously is a good
thing) but simply because the Bible tells us to. The other things are good,
great- but the obedience to God needs to be main motivation.
The Insanity of God
by Nik Ripken- This is written under a false name, by a veteran missionary who
has worked and lived in Somalia, and traveled the world over studying and
interviewing the persecuted church. He has many stories of suffering and of
hope. This is a convicting read, but I didn’t finish the book feeling bad about
life in general, the Kingdom of God is represented well in this book. The thing
I most remember about this book is a Chinese Christian who said that the
Chinese Church didn’t need prayer for their persecution to end, they just asked
for strength to get through the persecution. This book helped me realize my
Theology of Suffering is pretty shallow and needs some work still.
Letters from a Skeptic
by Gregory Boyd and Edward Boyd- Brittany and I read this one together; Gregory
Boyd is a professor of Apologetics at a Christian university, and his father is
an atheist at the beginning of the book, which is comprised of three years’ worth
of correspondence between father and son. Each letter is based on a different
doubt or question or reason Edward can’t accept Christianity, then the
following letter is Gregory’s response to the problem or question. I really
enjoyed it, and highly recommend it to anyone who is dialoguing with
non-believers (which should be all of us, right?)
No. 1 Woman’s
Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith- This was a fun novel, it is
written by a man who spent part of his life in Africa, but it is written from a
woman’s point of view. The story takes place in Botswana, but there are still
basic parts of African life that I can relate to. It is entertaining and well written;
I am borrowing the rest of the series to start soon.
Walking with the Poor
by Bryant L. Myers- Ugh……started it over a month ago and am still only halfway
through. It is kind of like reading a research paper, maybe he did as a thesis
or something? I don’t know if I can press on or not, it is so dry! We’ll see.
Otto of the Silver
Hand by Howard Pyle- I got this book as part of my effort to read more
fiction that wasn’t romance. I think it was written for children, but it was a
good story. It takes place in the Middle Ages in Germany. I may use the story
to tell to friends here in Konyanka as language practice.
Black by Ted
Dekkar- I have heard of these books since they came out, a lot of friends
really like them. I am enjoying this first of the Circle Trilogy as well. I don’t
really know how to label this book-sci-fi? Thriller? I don’t know, and I am not
going to go into an overview of the plot, partly because I am still working on
it! But it is a page turner (or button pusher, since I am reading it on my kindle).
