Recently Finished Books

This book was so SUPER! It started out slowly and I knew it was a stretch for Ross but I was banking on the excitement kicking in later and that was so true. This is definitely a missions book and the whole focus is on reaching people for Christ. Jim Elliot was a man sold out to serving his Savior. He and his wife worked as a team on the mission field. In fact, it was fun to read of the wives of these men that died. These wives were extraordinary. They had the same strength of faith as their husbands.

The kids were THRILLED to listen to how they reached out to the Auca Indians through gift drops and loud speakers. They LOVED it. We were all very sober to read of their deaths. Ross was sitting right next to me in a chair and he whispered in my ear at the end "I think I will see him in heaven." The story touched little Rossers and us all. Ross didn't say think as in "I wonder if" but as in "I'll get to see him up in heaven though". It was SOOO sweet and Ross's response touched me. His response was this makes me sad but I am going to encourage myself that I will get to see him someday in heaven.

This was a good book and had the kids attention from the beginning! David Livingstone was a man strong in faith and unwavering in his devotion to God and Africa. The kids really enjoyed the story of his life but they were NOT impressed with his fathering skills. He had children but he did not raise them. They were sent to Scotland to live for the most part and some of them hardly knew him. Ross noted that his daddy left but not for that long! That being said he and his wife, despite living apart for MANY MANY years were very much in love and devoted to each other. The death of his wife really drained some of the life out of him.

A little disappointment in the book was it started off with the importance of missions and turned into the story of his explorations. Gabriel wondered what happened to telling people about Jesus. I had thought the same thing. I didn't know enough about his life to know if the book just expected us to assume that teaching was going on during those years or if he switched gears more toward exploration? I don't know but it was a good book. He was a determined man with much faith.

Little Known Tales of California was a book that started out MUCH more interesting than it ended. By the end of the book I think we were all ready to be done with it. There was some stories that were interesting like The Lost Spanish Galleon, Pegleg Smith's Spanish Gold Mine, The California Presidios, The Rocking Stone, etc. If I read this in the future to Carson I would pick out only certain chapters that are worth the time reading. Not a whole lot of good examples in this book. There where a lot of money worshiping lawless people.

It's been a little while since the kids and I finished book 2 of Proverbs People. It is nice to be able to go through Proverbs according to topic. This book is basic and really just catagorizes the verses for you and asks usually one question per verse. It is simply done but is helpful.