Sunday Snippet: Out of the Black Shadows – A Give Away…

I know, I know I am always on about reading biographies and how important they are… well that being said it isn’t often that I read a book that is so extraordinary, so captivating, so challenging that I seek out a second copy just to give away to our readers. This book is such a book… the sort of book that you own, but it is never home. As soon as a friend returns it, you will lend it out to another one.

Out of the Black Shadows is the story of Stephen Lungu who was transformed from a street child, suffering in abject poverty in a township in Zimbabwe, and really how an intentional criminal act against a christian meeting became a turning point for him and began his life transformation to the life of a missionary, speaking to people all over the world and working for Africa Enterprise International.

This book is astonishing, firstly in the way that you just can not believe that someone’s life can be changed from literally groveling in the garbage for the next meal to a world renowned missionary. In this day and age, we like to think we are past the age of miracles, but the captivating story this book has to tell, will get you to re-adjust that idea!!!

This is one of those books that literally throws the “it is easy for you to say – you are a good sweet christian” argument right out of the water. As a young by he was abandoned boy his mother and sent to live with his aunt, who in turn rejected him. By four he had elected to live on the streets… I look at my four year old and it is heart-breaking. He ended up on the streets of a Zimbabwe township. The book tells of the fear and longing that he felt living on the street and how gangsterism was his relief. And all this in the first couple of chapters. This book will take you on an incredible ride as Stephen Lungu is transported from street urchin to gangster and then through an incredible event to being a christian, and a missionary and then he went on to become an evangelistic speaker around the world.

This was a great book for me to read, to remind me of where I come from. It was a great book for my teen boys to read – we lead such a privileged life… even though we live in a part of the world where we literally trip over poverty, we can be so busy looking at the “Jones’s” and noticing what we don’t have… that we forget the blessings that have been poured on us. It was great for all of us to read a book that was written, based in Africa… so many of our reads are Euro-centric, but we live in Africa, and always have, we have a heart for Africa and it was heartwarming to read from a book from a perspective that we are familiar with.

This GiveAway works in the usual way, just leave a quick comment and you have until the close of play on the 21 July 2012, to enter. I won’t respond to your comments as I do on our other posts because I don’t want to be included in our own giveaway.

Our GiveAways are open to everyone: If you have won a GiveAway before never fear – enter away. And all our GiveAways are World-Wide – so no excuse – leave a comment and enter away!!!