Shattered by Frank Pastore

Title: Shattered: Struck Down, But Not Destroyed

Author: Frank Pastore; Ellen Vaughn

Publishers: Tyndale House Publishers

Category: Christian/Autobiographical

ISBN: 978-1-58997-611-5

Shattered is an autobiography or a memoir of Frank Pastore, a former professional baseball pitcher for the Cincinnati Reds. Although it is a coming of age story, in so many ways it is also a great love story. A story of the enduring love between Frank and Gina, a story of how the love of baseball brought a sort of redemption and a greater love story of how the love of Christ can change the identity of a man.

Raised in an abusive home environment, Frank was the awkward geek-child in school. He suffered humiliation from his peers and neglect from his mother. Baseball was more than just a sport, it was the passion which gave him a sense of belonging and an identity. The identity was distorted, but not for long. Through a teacher, his intellect was awakened and his confidence grew. Baseball was a lifeline, bringing many good things to Frank’s life, including Gina.

The book traces Frank’s struggles as he attempts to play baseball and obtain an ivy league education. It details his struggles as a young man with a conflicting sense of self. It also takes us through his elopement with the 16 year old Gina in a way that is both touching and humorous.

With the same touching humour, he recounts getting into the Major Leagues and all that came with it. Frank and Gina were living the American Dream. However, like all dreams, it all ended one day. This book deals with how Frank handled the end of his Major League dreams and how God used that to draw him close. Frank who was an atheist, finally embraced God. But even that came with its own heart break. Putting back the broken pieces of his life took the healing hand of God and it came in a way that was totally unexpected.

Reading this memoir brought a lot of encouragement to me. It made me realise that despite our pig headedness, God still finds a way to work out his beautiful plans for our lives.

I had a bit of a problem with the almost-18 year old Frank kissing a 13 year old Gina; that was just wrong in my mind and it kept popping up as I read through the book. Nevertheless, theirs is a sweet love story.

Tyndale House provided me with a complimentary copy of this book and I enjoyed reading every aspect of it.

One In A Million by Priscilla Shirer

Title: “One in a Million”

Author: Priscilla Shirer

Publisher: B&H Publishing Group

Publisher website: www.bhpublishinggroup.com

Book website: www.goingbeyond.com

Category: Christian

Date of publication: March 2010

ISBN-13: 978-0-8054-6476-4

Summary

In her latest book, Priscilla Shirer explores the plight of the Israelites through the wilderness and encourages Christians to stop limiting their faith to hearing God’s promises on Sunday mornings. She challenges readers to actually listen and make a conscious effort to experience God’s miracles in their day-to-day life.

About the Author

Priscilla Shirer, the daughter of well-known author and pastor Dr. Tony Evans, currently resides in Dallas, Texas, with her husband and their three sons. One of today’s most popular Christian speakers, she appears regularly with Beth Moore and Kay Arthur at Deeper Still conferences. She holds a master’s degree in biblical studies from Dallas Theological Seminary.

My Thoughts

‘One in a Million’ by Priscilla Shirer explored the journey of the Israelites from Egypt to the crossing of the Jordan River and in the process, gave a parallel exploration of the Christian journey and the many phases encountered.

It takes the reader step by step, from the parting of the read sea, to the meeting with God at Mount Sinai right through to Kardesh-barnea which she termed the ‘Oasis of Complacency’, so named because it was an Oasis where the Israelited decided to camp and roam around even though it was so close to the Promised Land.

The book examines our heart condition as we go through life as Christians. Her writing was both honest and emotional and made me search my own heart and my motivation in walking with God. My relationship with God came under a lot of questioning and scrutiny.

If you find yourself getting to a false start, do not let it discourage you. Keep at it. I found that I almost gave up reading the book in the first few chapters; it dragged a bit. But I kept at it and soon, it became almost impossible to drop. Yet, ‘One in a Million’ is not fast food; it certainly isn’t a fare to be rushed. Many times after reading something particularly thought provoking, I had to drop the book and just ponder. To get the most of this book, you need to take it bite size.

I found myself very reluctant to get to the end of the book because it did feel like I was on a journey with Ms Shirer. Her style was so personalised and the use of personal examples from her own life spoke loudest.

I definitely plan on reading this book again and again. It is a spark of revival which starts deep within the heart of the reader.

If I am to rate this book, I will give it 5 stars *****

Disclaimer: This book was given to me free of charge by the Publicists. I was under no obligation to give a good review

Sleep, It Does A Family Good

Author: Dr. Archibald D. Hart

Publishers: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

This book was received free of charge from the Tyndale Blog Network. They requested a review in return for the book.

Sleep, It Does A Family Good by Dr. Archibald D. Hart takes readers on a voyage of discovery. It contains what you need to know about sleep; your sleep cycle and how sleep affects your family.

He started with a convincing argument on why the family needs sleep and went on to detail what sleep does for a person. He identified five stages of sleep and tied how important sleep was to the health of the body.

Sleep has its patterns and those patterns can quite easily be interfered with. One of such disruptions for instance, is jetlag. However, Dr. Hart mentioned six ways to restore the body’s clock and these are:

1. 1. Going to bed at the same time every night
   2. Getting out of bed at the same time every morning
   3. Exposing yourself to lots of daylight as early as possible
   4. Darkening your home environment one hour before daylight
   5. If you have to stay up late one night, get to bed earlier the next night
   6. If you know your sleep will be deprived ahead of time, such as when traveling, try sleeping some extra time ahead.

The chapter which caught my attention was chapter 8: Sleep and Your Marriage. In that chapter, the author stated that sleep could make or break a marriage. He said

“Sleep deprivation makes you cranky, irritable, angry and unhappy. How can you possibly communicate, listen or empathize? You become critical and judgmental, even depressed, and these all have an effect on the marital relationship.“

He went on to examine ways in which sleep deprivation could affect a marriage and proffered some solutions.

Another fascinating concept was that of the ‘Sleep Bank’. It turns out that just like the financial bank account, there also exists a sleep bank and that sleep bank can be overdrawn or in the red. He suggested ways of managing the sleep bank so as to avoid a sleep deficit.

If you have a newborn in the house, this book is definitely for you. It teaches practical ways of managing your sleep bank even with the seeming sleeplessness of the baby and tips for getting back to sleep.

The book is fast and easy to read, I could barely put mine down. It contains a lot of real life examples with step-by-step tips and guides on acquiring a better sleep life. One unique aspect of the book is the way the author approached his subject from a Godly angle. Although the spirituality was not blatant, the writing was clearly God-centered.

A lot of families in the US are losing sleep every day due to one sleep disorder or the other. This situation is not limited to the US alone but is common in most urban cities.

I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in a healthier life.

A Multi-Site Road Trip

Title: A Multi-Site Church Road Trip

Authors: Geoff Surrat, Greg Ligon & Warren Bird

Publishers: Zondervan, 1 edition (October 1, 2009)

I received the book, A Multi-Site Church Road Trip free from Zondervan and they asked for a review.

A Multi-Site Church Road Trip by Geoff Surrat, Greg Ligon and Warren Bird is a book which examines the journey towards the Multi-Site Church. It follows the route traveled by several Churches and focuses on what worked for them and what did not work.

The book explores several ways of evangelism or Church planting and takes the time to distinguish between a Church with multi sites and a Church of multi sites. This difference seems to be relevant in that it affects the whole structure of the Church. A good example was the New Hope Christian Fellowship in Honolulu, which opened different campuses on different Islands. Their approach was varied; some of the campuses achieved full independent status while others remained tied to the mother Church. In contrast was the Little Rock Bible Church, Arkansas, which had three campuses located in the same Church premises.

The point here was the flexibility of the Multi-Site model.

Different location realities where examined with a focus on what was actually feasible and what was not. The internet as a virtual campus was also explored.

It seems the main purpose of the Multi-Site Church is dual: (1) To positively affect communities and (2) To give room for new emerging leaders to grow.

I grew up an MK (Missionary Kid) so I must say that I appreciate this book; It brings the work of evangelism and Church planting along practical and doable lines. It is a step-by-step handbook with the benefit of other Churches’ experiences to guide a Church wanting to go multi-site.

It is easy to read and the style of writing flows seamlessly. The use of stories of other Churches keeps the book interesting and the pages turning. I recommend this book for Pastors, Church leaders, Missionaries and anyone who is interested in ways of getting the gospel of Christ out.

You can purchase the book from Amazon.com

Divine by Karen Kingsbury

Divine, awe inspiring and humbling.

I just finished reading the book, Divine by Karen Kingsbury (Tyndale Fiction, 2006). It was a fantastic read. A page turner from the first. It follows the lives of two young women, actually… it unravels the life of one amazing woman, Mary Madison, through the circumstance of the second.

Mary Madison, a modern day parallel to Mary magdalene of Bible times, is a woman who went through the most brutal and soul destroying abuse as a child and rose above it all to become one of the most powerful women in America.

Then again, Divine could also be seen as a story of one man’s undying love for a little girl as she clung to him, let him go, broke his heart and found him again. It is the story of how every single aspect of a person’s life, yes, even the brutal and negative ones, can be tenderly and masterfully woven in to a wonderful tapestry of victorious and vibrant living.

The whole novel was one of love and undeniable grace. By the time I was through, I was humbled by the magnitude and depth of the love of the Father. One part which brought this truth home was when Nigel, a Pastor at the mission where Mary Madison was sent to, demonstrated to Mary, the complete and utter non judgmental nature of God’s love. He told her to imagine He was Jesus, and he briefly narrated the shameful details of her past. . . then he asked her ‘what would Jesus do’ or something to that effect. With the shame weighing her down, Mary was sure Jesus would turn her away as too dirty. But then, Nigel, acting as Jesus, opened his arms wide and drew her into a love filled embrace – shame and all. That, he told her, was what Jesus would do.

That analogy broke me. That is the Jesus I love and want to know better. The Jesus who told the woman who had just narrowly escaped being stoned to death to go and sin no more. That same Jesus who met the Samaritan woman by the well and told her he knew she’d been through several husbands and the one she was living with, she wasn’t even married to. No condemnation. That is the message of this book.

It is a story for every one who has ever suffered abuse, oppression, rejection, loss of self esteem. . . you name it. For those who have contemplated suicide and others who have done more than contemplate. It introduces to us, a Christ who is loving, compassionate, and would go to any lengths for one of His.

Karen Kingsbury portrayed the divine nature of God’s love, of the man Jesus in an awe inspiring narrative, which left me completely humbled.

So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:1 NLT)

I Will Not Be Broken by Jerry White

About I Will Not Be Broken, a Book by Jerry White

From a leader of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning movement to ban landmines and founder of Survivor Corps comes an astoundingly effective guide to recreating a happy and fulfilling life after catastrophe strikes-a book that Bob and Lee Woodruff call “a road map for the individual and their family to re-enter the land of the living.” In I WILL NOT BE BROKEN, Jerry White reframes the question “why do bad things happen to good people?” and asks, given that bad things do happen, how do people absorb the blows and move through them?

Tragedy happens to everyone. Whether it’s the loss of a loved one, a painful divorce, or a serious injury, we all face unavoidable moments that divide our lives into “before” and “after.” These events take a heavy toll on everyone, but there are those who have muscled their way through tough times and emerged stronger, wiser-even grateful for their struggle. Jerry White is one such example. In 1984, he lost his leg-and almost his life-in a landmine accident, and has personally endured the pain of loss and the challenge of rebuilding.

As co-founder of Survivor Corps, White has connected with thousands of victims of tragedy, and in I WILL NOT BE BROKEN, he shares their collective wisdom, which he distills into an effective five-step program for turning tragedy into triumph:

• Face facts
• Choose life
• Reach out
• Get moving
• Give back

In their own words, his fellow survivors share their stories-a group that includes the well known like Lance Armstrong, Elie Wiesel, and the late Princess Diana, but also everyday people including soldiers and veterans of the military. With compassion, White takes readers through the process of not only enduring tragedy and victimhood, but going on to thrive.

About Jerry White

Jerry White is a global survivor activist who has dedicated his life to helping victims of violent conflict. While camping in Northern Israel in 1984, he stepped on a landmine, and he spent nearly six months in Israeli hospitals learning to walk on an artificial leg. Since then, he has become a recognized leader of the historic International Campaign to Ban Landmines (winner of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize), and a co-founder of Survivor Corps. He has testified before the US Congress and the United Nations and appeared in hundreds of media interviews and profiles.

Click this link to read the Intro & Chap 1 of I Will not Be Broken.

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