As a semi-crazed book lover who gets euphoric over stacks of beautifully shelved rows of word filled pages, I was immediately drawn to my friend Anne’s Book Carnival.
Write about a book that changed your life.
I knew immediately which book I would pick. It has truly changed my life and helped shape who I am, even down to the direction and vision for portions of this blog.
I was sixteen, bitter and angry at my parents for moving us to what I considered the 2nd circle of hell, the first being church functions. I wanted nothing to do with Christians and church. I had been hurt too much. We had moved from Albuquerque to Hawaii and while most would think it a dream, I resented everything about being pulled away from my friends and life during the middle of my junior year in high school.
I spent high school in total rebellion against God. I was angry and bitter, and could not fathom a loving God allowing so much hurt into my life. My rational mind never doubted that God existed but I interpreted everything I had grown up with in the church to reveal a mean judging God awaiting my next mistake so he could crush me. To me, he was a power hungry being that was full of himself all the while being impotent to help alleviate any actual pain or suffering.
He was a remote, cruel master and I wanted nothing to do with him. But I don’t always get what I want.
God brought about repentance in my heart but I still struggled with the nagging questions of His goodness.
I found hope and comfort about the goodness of God in an unlikely place, a book about suffering and martyrdom.
A Distant Grief: The Real Story Behind the Martyrdom of Christians in Uganda
This book does not tone it down and make it pretty. The causes for suffering remain and are not explained away in neat sound bites. But the joy that can only come from God shines through. God doesn’t always eliminate the evil and injustice in the world. But we know we are not made for this world and our hope and actions remain.
Kefa’s own humanity is seen in his struggles yet we also see a man who was obedient and faithful. What is seen throughout this story is how God shows up, in the midst of the worst kinds of evil. In the midst of pain and suffering beyond my imaginations.
This story was not an intellectual response to suffering and evil in the world but a telling of God’s presence in Uganda. I didn’t want to read someone’s philosophical comeback to why he allows the horrific and brutal and wrong. I wanted to see His hand move and know that He is not only powerful but compassionate.
Along the way, there are insights into poverty, giving, and missions but they don’t hold the preachy tones that some books on these subjects tend towards.
I lay in my bed sobbing through the chapters as God worked in me. I had made the commitment to follow Christ but I still had so much hurt and confusion. This book made me realize the power of prayer, the power of a body, the power of my own brokenness, and my heart for missions. For the first time, I wanted to lose my life, not out of despair or depression but out of hope.
My heart for Africa was birthed by the words of this book and although I have never stepped foot on African soil, my heart stirs at the mention. I believe I will minister there whether it’s through the ministries I champion from this computer screen, the kids I sponsor, or the crossing of oceans to call it my home.
My heart resonates with it and it all started here in the pages of this book that changed my life.
If you love books and are looking for some great ones to add to your reading list be sure to check out the link above to see which books have affected others. I have hundreds, from picture books to fiction to autobiographies and I’m looking forward to sharing them here with you on an ongoing basis.
Because I love this book so much, I am offering a chance to win a free copy to one of my readers.
To enter a chance to win, simply like my Facebook page and then come back and enter a comment saying you did. Entries will close on Friday at midnight PST and a winner will be announced on Saturday. Good luck.
This giveaway is now closed.
I also linked up with
I already liked your facebook page. I would love to read this book.
maggie S. recently posted..Trying to be Super Proud in the Middle of All This Tired.
Thanks Maggie. It’s a heavy book but it’s filled with so much light. From the looks of it, you have a great chance at winning.
Alia, I love this story of how you found the right book at the right time. Or maybe it found you–that happens too! I’ve never even heard of A Distant Grief but I’m adding it to my list right now! (Or–hint hint–I already like your fb page!)
Anne @ Modern Mrs Darcy recently posted..Welcome to The Book That Changed My Life Carnival!
Anne, Thanks so much for this great Carnival. Love it. And yes, the odds are forever in your favor.
Liked you on FB! I am impressed you were so touched by that book as a teenager. When I was a teenager I can’t imagine having ever read anything so “important”. I was too into myself!
Kelly J Youngblood recently posted..The Challenge of Jesus to be A New Kind of Christian
Thanks Kelly. Yes, I was always afflicted with too much depth. lol. It’s been both a blessing and a curse. I’m never content but I’m learning. Thanks for coming over from Anne’s carnival. Isn’t it great to get so many book ideas?
That is so awesome how this story impacted you and changed you!
I like you on fb!
I would love reading this book.
deborah recently posted..Lessons From The Blue Castle
Thanks Deborah. I’m looking forward to reading the Blue Castle. Her other books had a huge impact on my love of story and character in my early years. So many good books, so little time.
I need this book, I’m too self focused lately. And, of course I like your page!
I need to write you a note….I’ve been thinking of you ……
Cammie. How are you, dear one? It’s great to hear from you. It was out of print for a number of years and so hard to get a hold of but now it’s back in print and there is a sequel book that I’m going to read that follows up on the story told there years after the fact. Thinking of you every time I see yummy food posted on Facebook.
I’d love to hear more from you and life on the dairy.
Like you on facebook. We love books around here! Thanks for sharing your favorites.
Thanks for stopping by Jennifer, from one book lover to another.
Sounds powerful. How like our amazing God to use a story of tremendous suffering to highlight His amazing goodness!
Deb Weaver recently posted..Confession to Community
Yes, God does have a way of using the the things of this world that make no sense to show His glory and goodness. It is definitely a powerful book.
That’s funny, because as I think I’ve told you, it was the first Christian book I read as a new believer too, 13 years ago. I’m not sure why that one, but I think it was because I so wanted to go to missions and, that it was on our bookshelf, I choose it. It was also one of the most impacting books I’ve read in my Christian walk too.
It stirred my heart for missions even more, it made real the magnitude of God’s sovereign power, amazing grace and mercy, and limitless love. It helped teach me the importance and power of forgiveness and made Ephesians 6:12 vividly real! People, no matter how cruel, are not our enemy, it is the powers behind those things that are. To see how God uses those who are being brutally persecuted, who then choose to forgive the persecutors, and then see God save and transform those people, was the most powerful thing that has stuck with me!
I truly believe it was something God used to set a strong and firm foundation of who He is that has never left. I’ve wrestled and struggled with pain and suffering and injustice. But to read stories of how God reaches into the depth of outer darkness to save those He loves and the testimonies of how He chooses to glorify His name through the suffering, and to hear of the miracles that He is doing among the darkest places sends chills through my whole body as I dwell on just how BIG God actually is!
Books like that, although, heavy and sometimes hard to even wrap your mind around, are some of the most powerful, inspiring, heart changing tools because they testify of God’s greatness and get us out of our own little bubble for a brief moment. And if we let them stay and sink in and take root, they will change our lives.
Maybe that’s why we are so like-minded in those things. Life shaping books and a shared bookshelf.
I have the sequel and am going to read it as soon as I get past the pile on my nightstand. You can borrow it next.
I liked your Facebook page!
This sounds like an amazing book. If I don’t win, I’ll just have to check it out from our library! I, too, am a bibliophile whose favorite place to go is to a bookstore or the library.
Elizabeth, looks like the odds are pretty good for winning right now. I just wanted to be able to bless someone with this book because it truly opened my eyes to so much as a new Christian. It made me count the cost of truly following Christ from the very beginning. Or at least acknowledge that to walk with Christ means so much more than a token prayer and an alter call. It’s such an amazing testament to God’s goodness in the midst of the worst kind of evil. Hope you get to read it soon, I’d love to hear your thoughts on it.
Alia, I already love your blog, so it was a no-brainer to “like” your FB page, so I did just that. This book sounds powerful. It sounds like one of those dangerous books that, if you let it in, you’ll be different. I like those, too.
Amy Tilson recently posted..Scavenger Hunt
Thanks Amy. You’re sweet. Yes, this book changed the way I thought about a lot of things and I was such a new Christian so it really stuck with me. I’m glad to be able to share it.
I love that you found this book as a teenager. My dad moved us at the 3rd quarter of my junior year. I would have been okay in Hawaii…instead, I ended up in Ohio! I hated it and also turned rebel. Funny how that works…Anyway, I’d love to read this book. It sounds like one everyone should have.
Deanna, it is great. I’ll announce a winner tomorrow.
Alia, this looks like a wonderful and life-impacting book! Can’t wait to check it out.
Sarah recently posted..when you don’t know what to say
Yes, it was out of print for awhile and I’m so glad it is back. Truly an amazing read and it gives a lot of insight into many current things going on in Uganda.
Alia, I think we must be sisters of the heart! “Semi crazed book lover” describes me and I would love to read ‘A Distant Grief’. I am reading a book to my boys right now about a servant in Uganda, so this fits in !
Like you FB page!! and thanks for the chance to win!
Awesome Shelly, what book are you reading to your boys? I always love new suggestions. I’ll announce the winner tomorrow. Good luck.
Alia, We are reading our way through “Kisses from Katie” by Katie Davis. She is a 23 year old young woman who visited Uganda her senior year of high school and felt God’s call on her life. She founded Amazima ministries to meet the needs of orphans and vulnerable children. She has now adopted 14 daughters and her ministry sends over 600 children a year school and feeds them. I read it first and then started reading to my boys (9 and 11) and they LOVE it! They are so inspired by her story.
Shelly, I’ve read that! Amazing story and Amizama is one of the ministries that I have on my missions page. Love that! I haven’t read it to my kids but I have an 11 and 7 year old and I bet they’d love it as well. We’ve read a lot of books about different missionaries etc. but a modern day one might be really cool for them. Great idea!
Alia, My boys were captivated by the pictures on the cover when they saw me reading it. They can handle about a chapter a day and it has been a wonderful journey! Enjoy it with your kids!
This book really impacted my life as well. There are several books that God has used to change my trajectory and shape my worldview, this is one of those. I still have our old copy, but now it is taped up to hold it together. I remember loaning it to Summer & Zane who have lived in Uganda for years serving there. Since they read this before they left I thought it might scare them, but it only inspired them all the more to go and “meet him outside the camp.”
“Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.”
(Hebrews 13:13-14 ESV)