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May 10
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New comment on Claire's review of
There Is No Me Without You: One Woman's Odyssey to Rescue Africa's Children
(see all 2 comments)
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Marci
gave
to:
There Is No Me Without You: One Woman's Odyssey to Rescue Africa's Children (Hardcover)
by Melissa Fay Greene
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recommended for: Anyone
read in April, 2008
Marci said:
"This book really taught me a lot both intellectually and personally. It taught me that I haven't the first clue about poverty, the orphan crisis, about Africa and about AIDS. The author writes in a journalistic style about a current day Ethiopian wo...more
This book really taught me a lot both intellectually and personally. It taught me that I haven't the first clue about poverty, the orphan crisis, about Africa and about AIDS. The author writes in a journalistic style about a current day Ethiopian woman who after the death of her husband and later her daughter decides to enter a life of hermitude. As she goes to say her good byes to a priest friend he asks her to take in a street girl and care for her. She reluctantly says yes. With in a few months she is "mother" to 8 children all orphaned by AIDS or poverty. With in a few years she is running 2 homes of 50 plus children, one for healthy children and one for children with AIDS or HIV. Her dedication to her children, her open compassion and unwillingness to turn any away are humbling and convicting. You are saying in your heart, "You can't take anymore!" in one thought and the next, "But you can't send them off with out help, with out hope!" in the next.
This true, but griping tale leads you from Ethiopia, America and into the hearts of those effected by AIDS. I had never had sympathy for those with AIDS until I saw the truth of how it effects people, children and families that love each other. It broke my heart with each chapter and child left to fend for themselves. More than that I have questioned how I could choose not to see sickness, poverty and the fatherless how Christ sees them. It has convicted me to the core and pointed out the complete sinfulness of this polished life I am blessed to live.
While reading this book my daughter got a very bad bout of the stomach flu. She got very dehydrated. We were fortunate to be able to take her 3 miles to an ER and have her receive several rounds of fluids and admitted for watchful care until her high fever went down. The whole time I held her and cried, thinking that some poor mother in Ethiopia or Asian or else where was with out that hope. She was hundreds of miles from even the most basic medical care, with out any money and even with out clean fluid to give her sweet baby. If I were her my baby would have died! I prayed all night for God to grant those women hope and what they needed, to save their babies as he was surely saving mine!
Now what do I do? That is the place I am at. How do I know this and do nothing? ...less
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Marci
gave
to:
The Children of Men (Paperback)
by P.D. James
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read in November, 2007, has a copy to sell/swap
Marci said:
"Um... not really sure what to say about this book. A few things come to mind. 1. This book isn't anything like the movie. Don't read it expecting anything to be the same, because it isn't other than the concept that there is world wide infertility ...more
Um... not really sure what to say about this book. A few things come to mind. 1. This book isn't anything like the movie. Don't read it expecting anything to be the same, because it isn't other than the concept that there is world wide infertility and a woman finds herself pregnant for the first time in 20+ years. 2. The author does a good job exploring the complete hopelessness that a world with out new life and children would have. She shows how this has effects globally, nationally and personally. It was interesting to reflect upon the joy and purpose that the simple aspect of children bring to the world. With out them we have no purpose or reason for continuation, learning and growing as a society. 3. I thought she could have developed a better, more meaningful plot. I felt unfulfilled and still questioning so much at the end. I was frustrated by the majority of the characters, especially Jillian and her sudo faith in God. She wasn't a convincing Christian, and I doubt the author's knowledge/experience in this area....less
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Marci
gave
to:
Receiving the Day: Christian Practices for Opening the Gift of Time (The Practices of Faith Series)
by Dorothy C. Bass
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recommended for: Christians
read in March, 2008
Marci said:
"I enjoyed this book, but I learned a lot about one thing it discusses: the Sabbath; what was it in Biblical times, why God gave it to us, why we are to keep it holy and unto the Lord, how it has changed in Christianity, and how it is still relevant t...more
I enjoyed this book, but I learned a lot about one thing it discusses: the Sabbath; what was it in Biblical times, why God gave it to us, why we are to keep it holy and unto the Lord, how it has changed in Christianity, and how it is still relevant today. It got me to thinking that I am not good at all at keeping the Sabbath, sure I go to church every Sunday, I worship and serve the Lord through out my week, but I do not keep a day set aside for rest (neither Saturday or Sunday). The author is quick to note that we don't need to feel burden by the Sabbath in rules and regulations, Jesus himself said, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath."
However, I feel like we tend to abuse this and don't allow ourselves to receive the full measure of blessing that a Sabbath's rest can have for us and more importantly what God intended for the Sabbath. Out of the Ten Commandments the longest most specific command is that of keeping the Sabbath. It tells us a few things: 1. to remember the Sabbath, 2. to keep it holy, 3. that we work 6 days, but the 7th is to be kept for the Lord, 4. no one in our house or in our employment is to work on the Sabbath, 5. that the Lord modeled the Sabbath in creation, 6. we are reminded again that the Lord blessed the Sabbath and made it holy. It also amazes me how seriously God takes this command in the old testament. Much of the reason the Lord sent Israel into bondage was because of their failure to keep this simple blessed command. In the book of Nehemiah he realized this and after re-building the walls and leaving for some time he returns to find work being done on the Sabbath this is his response, "I rebuked the nobles of Judah and said to them, "What is this wicked thing you are doing—desecrating the Sabbath day? Didn't your forefathers do the same things, so that our God brought all this calamity upon us and upon this city? Now you are stirring up more wrath against Israel by desecrating the Sabbath." (Neh. 13:17)
It got me to thinking that in many ways we aren't trained as children to keep the Sabbath, just like it had been in Israel for several generations. We don't know what a day of rest even looks like. Is it a day watching TV or playing sports all day? Is it worshiping the Lord and sitting in candle light twiddling our thumbs? This is a question that Judaism has pondered since well, probably before Nehemiah's time, but the general consensus is that any thing considered work isn't to be done for sundown of one day to sundown of the next day. Work is most commonly defined as commerce (any buying or selling), changing of the natural course of nature, and doing anything that is tiring of the mind or body. Somethings are actually encouraged on the Sabbath in Judaism tradition: light exercise (like walking), enjoy the fruit of the marriage bed :), games and fun as a family, fellowship with others, and worship of God. Still, the Sabbath isn't easy to keep.
Just today I tried to keep the Sabbath as a day of total rest, yet two things kept nagging at me, first all the work around me that needed to be done, and second that straying from my normal routine to rest isn't at all in my nature. I felt lazy or unproductive not being able to do my normal daily routine of work. One quote in the book, really struck me, "Show me a person that can't get their work done in six days and I will show you a person that can't get their work done in seven." It is true, it must be a priority and something that is intentionally set aside to the Lord. Also, the author noted that it is a common Jewish thought that the Sabbath is one of God's ways of reminding us to hand our burdens to the Lord; that the one day we cease to work the work of nature and of the Lord is taking our place. Fields still grow, rain still comes, the Lord never slumber or sleeps and in that we must place our trust and be humble enough to lay down the tools of our trade in faith of a God who works for us. What an encouraging promise!
The author closes her discussion on the Sabbath with these words, "Beyond the weekly refreshment it provides, this kind of time also nourishes an alternative vision of how things could be. It sows seeds of resistance to the unjust arrangements the deny freedom both to those who must work with out respite and to those who chose to do so. It lets us see that things could be otherwise than they are. Just as society challenges Sabbath, so Sabbath challenges society." I had never thought of the benefits that the Sabbath brings to all in our society. All are even some what effected by it, even if they don't fully observe it.
So, here is to another week of work, another Sabbath to enjoy and to practice resting in the fullness of the Lord's blessings and promises!...less
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Marci
gave
to:
Family Driven Faith: Doing What It Takes to Raise Sons and Daughters Who Walk with God (Hardcover)
by Voddie T. Baucham Jr.
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recommended for: parents and Christians.
read in December, 2008
Marci said:
"In this stage of our lives, with the exception of the Bible, this book has done more to promote growth and change in our live than any other book. Both my husband and I have read it at the same time and through it we have been able to understand how...more
In this stage of our lives, with the exception of the Bible, this book has done more to promote growth and change in our live than any other book. Both my husband and I have read it at the same time and through it we have been able to understand how to apply the words that God has toward parents and the plan he has for discipling and training our children in Him. I don't want to walk step by step of what the author teaches, but just to say that if you desire to have a family and children that is centered around the Lord and you know you need to learn how to teach your children about the Lord then this book is a wonderful place to start. Baucham is easy to read, practical and Biblical. He brings things back to the basics and shows you how the currently excepted model of teaching children about God (sunday school and youth group) is failing our children and is a far cry from the plan that God has clearly set up for us.
Since reading this book we as parents have learned how to be the leaders of our home, how to worship together as a family and how to go to the Lord on our children's behalfs. I had been struggling with a lack of joy in my daily life, but since we have started worshiping together my joy and excitement has returned and my attitude much improved when my days as a mommy are difficult because I go back to the songs we sing and the lessons we started our day with. I can't wait to see how we continue to grow as a family in the Lord!
Please read this book, you will walk away with a new (or old) out look on your role as a Christian parent! Expect your heart and life to be changed!!!...less
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Marci
gave
to:
Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality (Paperback)
by Donald Miller
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recommended for: Christians
read in April, 2008
Marci said:
"Interesting...thought provoking...makes me want to love others more and act out my faith in more tangible ways! He writes many things I am not sure I would hold up and hang on to as something that defines my faith. However, even in those things I thi...more
Interesting...thought provoking...makes me want to love others more and act out my faith in more tangible ways! He writes many things I am not sure I would hold up and hang on to as something that defines my faith. However, even in those things I think that he is more writing about his Christian journey and all of us have faults and short-sightedness in our own journeys. ...less
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Marci
gave
to:
Passionate Housewives Desperate for God (Paperback)
by Jennie Chancey and Stacy McDonald
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recommended for: Housewives
read in November, 2007
Marci said:
"I love being a housewive, but like most women (weather a worker at home or in the workforce) I often become disgruntled easily with my circumstances. I guess it is the mentality that the "grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.&q...more
I love being a housewive, but like most women (weather a worker at home or in the workforce) I often become disgruntled easily with my circumstances. I guess it is the mentality that the "grass is always greener on the other side of the fence." That said, this book is filled with a lot of hope, perspective and biblical wisdom on the most valuable role of mother and wife. The authors are two mothers of very large and conservative families, but what they said about God's view of the homemaker really encouraged me, with out pushing me to the edge of perfectionistic desperation that most books about being a wife do. I think the most important thing I gained from the book is sumed up in this quote by Martin Luther, "What you do in your house is worth as much as if you did it up in heaven for our Lord God. We should accustom ourselves to think of our position and work as sacred and well-pleasing to God, not on account of the position and work, but on account of the word and faith from which the obedience and the work flow." It is encouraging to view my daily duties as sacred offerings to the Lord... even kingdom impacting.
I often find myself getting disgruntled at the seeming futility of housework. The authors address this issue, that it is easy to get bogged down in the day to day of running a home to not see the bigger and brighter side of homemaking: that homemaking is a measurable job that a wife sees the direct benefit from her labors and that is truely one of the only jobs (unless you are a CEO) that one is fully in complete control over the management and outcome of ones own labor. This really helps me to be thankful that I am "chained to my stove" and not behind the desk serving someone else while I have to worry about who is caring for my children and my home that is still waiting to be managed on the side. I, in essence, am the CEO of my own little corperation. LOL! Over all, I really enjoyed this book and it helped me to see my role as a wife and mother in another light...perhaps how God sees me and my service at home....less
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March 05
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New comment on Kristen's review of
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan: A Novel
reply to this comment
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Marci
is currently reading:
Jesus Mean and Wild: The Unexpected Love of an Untamable God (Hardcover)
by Mark Galli
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Marci
gave
to:
In My Father's House (Paperback)
by Corrie Ten Boom
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read in February, 2008
Marci said:
"The story of Corrie Ten Boom's early years, prior to WWII. It was an interesting read on how she became the kind of woman capable of such bravery and perseverence. She told about the productive and industerous life she had in her early adult years l...more
The story of Corrie Ten Boom's early years, prior to WWII. It was an interesting read on how she became the kind of woman capable of such bravery and perseverence. She told about the productive and industerous life she had in her early adult years leading girl's clubs for her city and how her father, sister and her foster parented many children during WWI and after. What an amazing woman to seek to be like! ...less
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