We have quite a lot of titles in our back list that have quietly slipped out of many people's consciousness - yes, even of our devoted readers. Yet many of them still pack a punch, and are as relevant today as ever they were. It's not only (or even primarily) the latest books that are the most significant. Here are a few of my favourites.
Unafraid of the Sacred Forest - Ronaldo Lidorio. The beauty of this book is the different take on Africa and the African mind from anything I have ever seen or read elsewhere. Brought up on the Jungle Doctor books of Paul White - excellent and eminently accessible books written by an Australian missionary doctor to Tanganyika (as it was then, now Tanzania) - you made friends with a number of African workers, and learned about the people who came into contact with Mvumi Hospital. But wonderful as it was to read about people coming to faith in Christ, there was only the haziest notion of what they had come from, or what their journey to faith was. Ronaldo's book portrays the life of Konkomba people and their religion, with its imperatives and hold on daily life. When Jesus comes into a life the sense of liberation is tangible, and your spirit lifts with the discovery of what that new life means for someone with that background. That also means that there are struggles with the establishment, family and tribe that have maintained the social structure of which their religion is a part. You come to realise the process that bringing the gospel into that context involves, and Unafraid of the Sacred Forest ends with the dedication of the New Testament in the local language, but the struggle continues as Ronaldo is attacked by a swarm of killer bees at that time. List price is £7.00 - for now.
The Visitor - Peter Pikkert. A short novel about an American missionary and a Kurd from south-east Turkey. The story revolves around the meeting of these two characters, which happens at the end of the book. Contact details in a book that the Kurd finds in a small library/bookshop leads to correspondence, and a somewhat awkward meeting in the context of a Muslim family with one member who is interested in meeting a Christian foreigner. But the missionary is also far from perfect, and ends in repentance for his inadequacies as a husband. This is a man's book. Just £1!
Straight from the Heart - ed Evan Davies & Stewart Dinnen. This sets out the core values of WEC in the format of an exposition supported by testimony. The layout is clear and attractive, something that sadly cannot be said of the cover. This is very much a WEC book, but well worth reading in its own right. A steal at £3.50.
Explore worldmissionbooks.com, and treat yourself to some winter reading from us.
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