Jun. 10, 2009 - Two Must-Read Books
A while ago I mentioned the documentary A Walk To Beautiful. If you haven't seen it yet, do it soon. The doctor who started the fistula hospital featured in that movie has written a book called The Hospital By The River. It is a much more in-depth look at the work she and her husband did, as well as their personal histories, how they ended up in Ethiopia, how the hospital came to be, and more. What the documentary doesn't say is that Dr. Catherine Hamlin and her husband Reg went to Ethiopia as medical missionaries. Serious Christians, both from long, long lines of Christian missionaries. They felt God called them to Ethiopia, and to the work they did. Their committment and faithfulness and the compassion for the women they served flowed directly and abundantly from their relationship with God. These are people who stayed on in Ethiopia to serve those women even when there was a coup, then a civil war, and at one point bullets flying through their own windows. They mixed with royalty and the high class, and delivered the grandchildren of the Emporer Haille Sellassie, but they didn't lose their love for the common Ethiopian, or their Ethiopian "family" that they had aquired over the years. Dr. Hamlin still serves the women of Ethiopia, although her husband died some years ago.
On a completely different thread of reality, The Blood of Lambs is a memoir of former terrorist Kamal Saleem. As a boy in Beirut, he was recruited by jihadis. An easy target because of the pain and rejection he'd experienced in his childhood. He was trained as a "warrior", participated in battles and slaughters, lied his way into America with the intention of participating in terrorism here, and then through a chance accident was introduced to the love of Christ through people who he'd been taught all his life would hate him, cheat him, or hurt him. The jihadi met Jesus. He now lives in hiding, writes under a pseudonym, and trieds to warn America of the danger we face, risking his life and the life of his family in doing so. This is not a treatise against Islam, but a blunt documentation of a real threat. Saleem is equally blunt about the civil war in Lebanon and the participation of Christians in violence there. That helped shape his hatred of Christians, in fact, and fueled it until he met Christians who lived the Bible and demonstrated the love they were supposed to. Love triumphs in the end. But in the meantime, we must be aware of the world around us.
Comments
Jun. 11, 2009 - Untitled Comment
Posted by Nicole
Dr Hamlin is from Australia :) I haven't read her book yet but I have seen a few documentaries made on her. We gave money to her organisation this year because the last documentary I saw just made me howl and boo hoo the whole time!
Jun. 13, 2009 - Untitled Comment
Posted by cappuccinosmom
I forgot to mention that she's from Australia! Thanks for sharing her with the world. :) You will definitely enjoy the book.
