Read Ye Now
End of the Spear
Steve Saint
Saltriver, 2005
ISBN 0-84-236439-0
Amazon Link
I picked up this book at random when my mother was in bed recovering from hip surgery. I didn’t think much beyond, “This looks like something she would like.” I was a little taken aback then by how thrilled she was and how she knew all about the story even though she’d never heard of this book and how she spoke about Elisabeth Elliott as if she were relating memories of a lifelong personal friend. Well, okay, I’d heard about Elisabeth Elliott, and I’d heard about a group of martyred missionaries somewhere in South America some years before I was born. But what I didn’t know was how absorbed my mother was in their story or how closely or personally affected by their story she felt.
After hearing my parents tell about what it was like to hear the news of the deaths of these missionaries, I was not at all surprised that they ate up End of the Spear like it was the last piece of chocolate cake before submitting to a long, harsh winter of low sugar, low fat dieting. They were enthused by this book. They recommended it to everyone who walked through the door. They read passages from it to each other and to anyone who would listen. I suspect my father even called at least one missionary in Central America to tell him about the book.
What surprised me was that I felt the same way about the book. My father is on two mission boards. He is supposed to be excited by missionary books. I don’t have to be. I loved this book purely because it is as engaging and absorbing as it is inspiring.
End of the Spear is a Christian memoir with a Christian message, but you don’t have to be of any particular faith to enjoy it. It’s just a good book, Christian or not. Steve Saint tells the story of taking his wife and children to the jungles of Ecuador to live with the very people who had murdered his father with such depth of descriptive detail and cultural insight that by the end of the story you too will love the Waodani people. If you are a person who believes in God, this book will make you remember why. If you are not, even you will be enthralled and awed by the sheer force of nature the love and faith in this story are.
Steve Saint
Saltriver, 2005
ISBN 0-84-236439-0
Amazon Link
I picked up this book at random when my mother was in bed recovering from hip surgery. I didn’t think much beyond, “This looks like something she would like.” I was a little taken aback then by how thrilled she was and how she knew all about the story even though she’d never heard of this book and how she spoke about Elisabeth Elliott as if she were relating memories of a lifelong personal friend. Well, okay, I’d heard about Elisabeth Elliott, and I’d heard about a group of martyred missionaries somewhere in South America some years before I was born. But what I didn’t know was how absorbed my mother was in their story or how closely or personally affected by their story she felt.
After hearing my parents tell about what it was like to hear the news of the deaths of these missionaries, I was not at all surprised that they ate up End of the Spear like it was the last piece of chocolate cake before submitting to a long, harsh winter of low sugar, low fat dieting. They were enthused by this book. They recommended it to everyone who walked through the door. They read passages from it to each other and to anyone who would listen. I suspect my father even called at least one missionary in Central America to tell him about the book.
What surprised me was that I felt the same way about the book. My father is on two mission boards. He is supposed to be excited by missionary books. I don’t have to be. I loved this book purely because it is as engaging and absorbing as it is inspiring.
End of the Spear is a Christian memoir with a Christian message, but you don’t have to be of any particular faith to enjoy it. It’s just a good book, Christian or not. Steve Saint tells the story of taking his wife and children to the jungles of Ecuador to live with the very people who had murdered his father with such depth of descriptive detail and cultural insight that by the end of the story you too will love the Waodani people. If you are a person who believes in God, this book will make you remember why. If you are not, even you will be enthralled and awed by the sheer force of nature the love and faith in this story are.
posted by Sharon Gerald | 7:07 PM
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